Rodmarton Manor - Cotswolds

 August 5th

Lunch at the lamb inn

lunch takes too long

rainy day. 

solidago

field of phalcea californica

metal clip for greenhouse plates

flowers in the kitchen garden

yews planted on the diagonal

peacock topiary graveyard 

birch in the outer kitchen garden

stone buttress 

lichen on birch tree bark

topiary and troughs 

yew urns

Book  English Topiary Gardens -

This is the quintessential Arts and Crafts house and garden, designed by Ernest Barnsley for Claud Biddulph, and furnished entirely by the community of artist-craftsmen he established with the Gimson brothers at nearby Sapperton.   Barnsley built Rodmarton from 1909 to 1926 and furnished from materials on the estate.  His ambition was to link the house and garden by using the same style and materials and also harmonize with the greater landscape of the Marlborough Downs. 

From the house the garden is more formal and ordered and gradually becomes more wild as you walk away from the house.   Barnsley was one of the first to create the series of rooms that link the house out to the downs.  

Barnsley had trained with the architect J. D. Sedding and was associated with Reginald Blomfield; his layout for the garden reflected the ideals of these two men. Peacocks and fanciful finials, and 'other shapes the yew wanted to make' adorn the tall hedges that section the south front terrace into intimate seating areas. Only by walking out of these enclosures to the edge of the terrace can one discover the distant view of the Vale of White Horse. At the same time, the hedges provide a shelter belt for the winter-flowering and tender subjects that clothe the south-facing walls of the house.