We were asked to revive the Dutch garden at Graythwaite Hall which is a Thomas Mawson garden. His design practice prospered due to a wealthy clientele brought to the area by the railways network & also to his obvious talent for design which blended architecture & planting. Thomas’s prolific & successful career included commissions on Graythwaite Hall, Langdale Chase, Holehird, Brockhole Dyffryn Garden Holker Hall. He also designed the formal garden at Rydal Hall in 1909.
We were priveleged to be asked to restore the garden after box blight destroyed the entire structure of the garden as shown in the pictures.
Being left with a skeleton of a structure, it was certainly a task, we were left with pictures dated from the early 1900’s, google maps satellite 10 years dated and over time, the central pieces of topiary and minimal stonework had slipped, making measuring of the 28 beds to fit to the initial measurements a tricky task.
The restoration was to include the original shape of the garden and all the beds but Myles Sandys the then owner of Graythwaite (since Edwards his son) decided on a different style, which was raised beds in stone edging and to be planted with heather rather than box hedging borders. As you can imagine, stone borders are a little less manipulative to mistakes than a box hedge but the result was fantastic and a visit to Graythwaite’s open gardens will prove.