Keepers Cottage
Our brief was to upgrade the existing garden of this grade 2 listed thatched cottage and to provide a master plan that included a swimming pool. There was a very awkward slope across the entire site so we created a series of terraces with retaining walls with the swimming pool featuring at the lowest level. The effect was to create a pool that is hidden within the landscape, surrounded to the east by existing woodland and on all other sides by bold planting in the new perennial style. When you swim here you are truly cradled by Nature.
Topiary in the form of box head hornbeams and clipped hornbeam domes form a framework to the planting, echoing the tightly clipped form of the thatchwork to the house and mediating between architecture and woodland. Flint was chosen for facing treatment to the retaining walls as this material features strongly within the local area, matched with limestone copings and steps. Clay pavers around the house sensitively complete a palette of hard materials with low impact to the natural apperance of the site.