Town Place

About Town Place

Although a few elements existed in 1990, much of the structure and most of the planting has been put in since then. The garden and orchard cover about 3¼ acres (1.3 ha) and originally consisted of a very large expanse of lawn with a few planted beds, plus a shrubbery and the sunken rose garden. The present design still has a large central lawn but there are now a number of distinct areas or gardens that surround it. These areas are described in turn below.

East Lawn – defined by the building of the sandstone wall in early 2000. The wall climbers by the entrance include Solanum jasminoides ‘Album’, Solanum crispum ‘Glasnevin’, Clematis ‘Etoile Violette’ and Cytisus battandieri (Pineapple broom). The rose is ‘Golden Showers’.

The Short Border – a pair of mixed borders with a blue-yellow colour scheme.

West End – Originally a rose garden it has been replanted as a ‘White Garden’ with an extended flowering season. The pergola that surrounds the rose garden has the following ramblers: Rosa ‘Albertine’, Rosa ‘Chaplin’s Pink’ and Rosa ‘American Pillar’.

The Long Border – a pair of herbaceous beds with a combined length of about 45 metres (150 feet) backed with a tapestry hedge. The colour scheme of the borders has purple as its key and flowering is mostly in July and August.

Orchard – replanted since the 1987 hurricane. It is carpeted with daffodils in the spring. Specimen trees include Cercis ‘Forest Pansy’, Liriodendron tulipifera (Tulip Tree) and Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’ (Wedding-cake tree).

Chequers – Beds of aromatic plants surround a Chess Board. Passionflowers grow over the barn. Statues represent the Seven Liberal Arts.

The Circus – was previously the shrubbery and was cleared and replanted in 2005/6. The new design includes shrubs, a small tree Ulmus minor ‘Dampieri Aurea’, grasses, and yew topiary inspired by the sculptures of Henry Moore.

English Rose Garden – redesigned in 2022/3. The beds contain more than 200 roses. A plan is in the summerhouse. The pergolas are planted with Rosa ‘Falstaff’, Rosa ‘Lady Sylvia’, Rosa ‘Mme. Butterfly’, Rosa ‘Ophelia’ and Rosa ‘Mary Delany’.

The Spring Garden – This is an area beyond the English Rose Garden.

Potager – sited on the left of the hornbeam walk, it was started in 1995 and has a mixture of vegetables and flowers for cutting. The metal arches carry sweet peas and runner beans. There are two dahlia beds.

New Territories – incorporated into the garden in 2001. The principal feature is a hornbeam allée in the shape of a Romanesque church, Toune Priory. At the east end is a Gleditsia triacanthos ‘Sunburst’. The adjoining cloisters have a centrally placed Acer palmatum Atropurpureum. There is a border, ‘Priors Bank’, that has a mixture of grasses and late flowering perennials.

The Dell – was once a large farm pond. It features an 800 year old hollow oak. The fishpond has been rebuilt using knapped flints. In 2018 the banks of the Dell were cleared and replanted.

Herb Garden – was started in 1992. There are four main beds containing a mixture of herbs and cottage garden plants. In addition there are two smaller beds on either side of a Camomile path. The roses on the central arch are Rosa ‘Mme. Alfred Carriere’.

Secret Garden – the location of which is secret.

The earliest reference to Town Place is in a Court Roll for 1531 although references to an earlier farm or settlement, Toune (from the Old English word tun), go back to 1288. The present house was built in stages between 1550 and 1650 and was ‘modernised’ in the 1920s.

Additional Media Coverage
Previously featured in Country Living (December 2021) and Country Life (May 2023).

Refreshments
No teas but visitors are welcome to bring their tea/picnic and consume it in the garden.

No dogs.
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Sorry, no dogs allowed, and no refreshments available. Picnics welcome.