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The entrance porch showing the Lion’s head of the Fellowes family- who built the original school in 1848
‘Old School Garden’ is both a description of my own garden and a hint to the style and character of garden that I particularly enjoy (and probably also my traditional approach to gardening!:
The country garden with a mix of architectural features and planting typical of the ‘Arts and Crafts’ movement and epitomised in the gardens of Sir Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll around the turn of the 19th/20th centuries is the style for me.
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An older view of the Terrace Lawn and surrounding borders with me having an autumn clear up- courtesy of Google Street View!
Old School Garden is about 2/3 acre and is made up of :
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The Entrance with trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, lawns and seasonal bedding. It features a white border and rose tunnel.
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The Terrace with brick raised beds, topiary box bushes, and feature plants in various pots and containers.
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The Terrace lawn – a rectangular area of grass surrounded by mixed shrubs/ herbaceous and other planted borders, backed by an informal hedge of different shrubs.
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The Woodland Lawn which is a more organically- shaped grass area (used for Croquet when weather allows!) surrounded by a range of mixed borders and backed by a number of native trees underplanted with woodland edge plants and woodland walk.
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The Pond Garden which was completed in 2016, featuring a sunken pond surrounded by yorkstone flags and stepping stones, with a range of pond and bog plants, flint and tile water feature melding into a rock garden, an old seat covered by a rose and clematis swag arbour and backed by a bank of black and red themed plants..with a hint of the orient too!
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The Orchard with a number of apple and plum trees, a woodland border featuring a range of shade loving shrubs, perennials and bulbs.
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The Kitchen Garden – this has a formal layout, enclosed with trellises and with gravel paths dividing up a number of raised beds containing bush and cane fruit, asparagus, rhubarb and beds for seasonal vegetable growing as well as a glasshouse, cold frames and arbour.
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The Courtyard – the old enclosed play area of the School is now paved, centred on an occasional metal table and chairs and featuring a number of planters with a range of Hostas, Clematis and other seasonal interest.
Old School Garden 
You’ve inspired me to “attempt” to dial back the planting in my own garden. As the old adage says “Less is more”, and is certainly something I should work on.
Thanks! Good luck!
Hello there, my nanny was an unmarried mother in 1929/30 and I can’t seem to find out much about her time there, in fact until recently we didn’t know she was there at all. I will be paying a visit soon and I would love to know more about the home. Could you help please? Many thanks Diane Fuller
I live to garden! ☺
Wow Nigel, I just found you this is very cool. My first gardens were vegie types w/ canning. I ended up borrowing property of seniors and others that could not care for their city yards. We shared experiences and fruit of the labor. It is a great way to start and collaborate with those who have the wisdom of the ages.
Hi Tony, thanks for the comment. You sound like an enthusiastic gardener!
Beautiful house and garden Nigel. I am just starting off my first ever vegetable garden (sadly in a rented house, but I hope to have my own garden in a year or so!) and really enjoying the process, but need all the help I can get! Updates on what to do each month in the kitchen garden would be super helpful!
Thank you for your inspiration!
Hi Anna
Thanks for your comments and good luck in the garden! I do a monthly ‘top ten tips’ on the first of the month which covers a range of gardening types and tasks, so you might find that helpful- also try Garden Organic as they have lots of useful advioce 🙂
Thank you Nigel! I will look out for your top tips and check out Garden Organic too!
You have an interesting and what I think of as an old school garden .iwas a teacher for thirty years and an old school where I taught for the last nine years looked just like this tended by the school lady caretaker who lived in part of the building.
Sadly when it was put up for sale a few years ago it had been neglected. Perhaps new owners have now established a new garden. Would be nice to think it has been re-established or restored.s
Hi- thanks for your thoughtful comments. It would be interesting to see how your old school garden looks today:)