The Old Rectory, Yorkshire
About This Project
Yorkshire meets Provence in the garden of a former rectory.
The clients both work long hours. They asked us to create a garden which made them feel like they’d been transported on holiday at the end of their working day.
The existing site slopes from the property to a river, with no comfortable places for enjoying the natural beauty of the space. Primary access to the property is through a courtyard, with an awkward arrangement of materials and new walling.
In these house-bound times, we were more than happy to pour all of our own longing for sunshine and European travels into their new garden.
The new design marries a formal Provencal layout – featuring terraces, a parterre, reworked courtyard, a dining ‘room’ under rooftop mulberries, and walkways punctuated by hedging and topiary – with a relaxed planting scheme typical of an English country garden.
So, we replaced hornbeam columns for cypress trees; silver willow-leaved pears for olives, and tumbling wild roses for oleander..
A swimming pool and loggia on the lower terrace look back to the house, or down the garden to an improved orchard and woodland path to the river.
Images show the design, progressing from the courtyard down the Iris Walk to the parterre. Then we step down to the dining terrace, pool area and loggia, before progressing into the orchard.
An animation of the scheme can be viewed HERE