Grange-over-Sands is an Edwardian resort town built up a limestone hillside looking out over Morecambe Bay, and its gardens are unlike anywhere else we work. Steeply terraced, sheltered, and with a mild coastal microclimate that lets people grow things here that would not survive ten miles inland.
Terraces, and the walls holding them up
The characteristic Grange garden is a series of narrow terraces stepping up behind the house, held by limestone retaining walls that in many cases are well over a century old. A great deal of our work in the town is repairing and rebuilding those walls — and doing it properly means dealing with what is behind them as well as what you can see.
Old retaining walls fail for one of two reasons: the drainage behind them has silted up, so water pressure is pushing them out, or the foundation has moved. Rebuilding the face without fixing either just resets the clock. We dig behind, put in a drainage layer and a proper outlet, and rebuild so the wall is not fighting the hillside.
The microclimate is a real asset
Sheltered by the fells behind and warmed by the bay in front, Grange is noticeably milder than the rest of our patch. Planting schemes here can be considerably more adventurous than we would risk in Staveley or Sedbergh — and it would be a shame not to take advantage of that. Where a garden has that shelter, we plan the planting around it.
The trade-off is salt-laden wind on the more exposed plots facing the bay, which scorches anything not chosen for it. Shelter planting on the seaward side comes first.
Access and limestone
Steep, narrow drives and gardens accessible only by steps are common, so a lot of material here moves by barrow, and we price on what the site actually allows. Underneath it all is limestone, often shallow — good news for foundations, less good news when a post hole or a drainage run meets rock at 300mm. We check with trial holes before quoting anything that involves digging depth.
What we do in Grange-over-Sands
Recent work nearby
Every job below was done by us. If you want to see something closer to Grange-over-Sands specifically, ring and ask — we can usually point you at something similar within a few miles.
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