The Old Rectory

About The Old Rectory

The Old Rectory, as befits its name, is situated immediately below the church and is built of the same soft Hornton ironstone. Part of the house is medieval and the rest, the larger part, vernacular Georgian. The church forms a pleasing backdrop, both at the front and the back of the house.

The soil here is mixed – loam at the front but unyielding Warwickshire clay at the back. The overall plot is about two acres and, with the exception of some mature trees, has been planted entirely by the present owner from 1983 onwards. The garden has been open for over thirty years.

The garden expresses a distinctive style and set of interests:

• Enthusiasm – for plants, objects and high standards.
• Artefacts and curios, which are everywhere and particularly just behind the house. Some are antique, most not. There is wood, iron and several other materials, obtained from many different sources, including the most humble. This playful whimsy helps to define the garden and delight the visitor.
• Small standard trees, which are abundant, both in pots and borders. They have been carefully managed over the years, starting in some cases as unpretentious supermarket plants.
• A passion for colour, and a feel for it too. Scaevola, an annual from Australia produces pink and blue flowers through into October. It is less well-known than it should be.
• Pots, of which there are 109 at the last count. They come in various shapes and sizes, including the fashionable tin baths. Watering takes time. The arrangement of different plants in the containers is artful.
• Careful maintenance. The shrubs in particular are formidably well pruned and presented. This is not a low maintenance garden.

In front of the house is a terrace with decorative metal railings. The view here takes in a large lawn and a few mature trees – the Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica), an Atlas cedar and a large Beech immediately next to the church. At the side and top of the lawn are mature shrubs, dense but not too dense. Mahonia aquifolium flowers prominently in spring. On the terrace itself are two other Cryptomeria standards in large acanthus pots.

At the back is a walled seating area paved with millstone. This is the focal point for summer colour and for curios. Five metal alliums flowering in a bed nearby are delicate and effective in all seasons. Some of the artefacts have an ecclesiastical feel, befitting the origins of the building. Standards abound, including the feathery Salix integra from China.

Steps rise up quite steeply to two lawns, the upper one bigger, and then to a small wood which runs to a point. A mature walnut has a somewhat menacing effect when out of leaf. Think bats, pantomime, and Harry Potter. Squirrels always get the nuts.

A large blue Colorado spruce (Picea pungens) occupies a central position. On the side Acer japonica emerges delicately into leaf. The left-hand lawn is topped by a border of well-managed shrubs, with primroses at their base. The shrubs include holly in various forms, mostly without prickles, Spiraea and Lonicera ‘Baggesen’s Gold’.

On the right-hand side there is an alternative and gentler ascent to a pool with a fountain. The water is dyed blue and black to hide the pipework but also produce an interesting colour effect when the fountain is in operation. Above this is another lawn and then a paddock where alpacas graze contentedly, adding a woolly pastoral touch. There is a series of maples at the top. They include the silver maple (Acer saccharinum), three paper bark maple (Acer griseum), the box elder (Acer negundo), a variegated Norway maple and a Japanese maple (Acer palmatum). Other good plants include a small Ginkgo biloba, several small Mahonia, and Prunus flowering a brilliant spring white. And there are ferns everywhere.

Here is a highly personal garden imbued with joie de vivre.