South Garden – Hazel Coppice

 I cannot be certain how the boulders that are lying all over the far corner of this small piece of land came to be here, but my best guess is that they were removed from the fields above with the help of mules, (we found a mule shoe) so that the fields could be ploughed when food was desperately short after the Napoleonic Wars. Most of our land is shown as arable on the Tithe Map of 1841.

Every year this area beautifies itself, first with grasses and then with ferns. We added mist but then squirrels ate the pipes… But it is also our very own treat because we have planted various spring flowers just for our own pleasure before we open the garden. Our daily walk up here is a joy.