Background to submission:
PARK END THATCH Hard Landscaping by Susan Young.
Recorded in the Doomsday Book and with a history of medieval iron ore smelting, Stevington has a rich history of biodiversity in its natural environment as recorded in the book ‘Stevington The Natural History of A Bedfordshire Parish’.
Park End Thatch was purchased by Susan and her husband in 2001. In the 1600s there was a barn on a 6 acre ‘close’, it’s now a partial thatched property on 0.6 acre plot with remnants of orchard.
The site has a ground rock of Jurassic Limestone and soils Kellaways Sand Member and Kellaways Clay Member, top soil of pH neutral, of slow draining brown clay loam with sand particles in places and a perched water table with aspect tilted to the north.
An elderly Taxus baccata, more recent Jugulans regina and Cercis siliquastrum attract a variety of birds and with a wide range of shrubs, hardy perennials and wild flowers, the garden supports a rich population of insects and small mammals.
Following ground floor extensions converting the L shaped thatched cottage into a T shape, we cut into the sloping ground at the rear to create a larger patio and a path around the building. This necessitated soil retaining walls capable of holding the pressure of the rain soaked mass of hillside behind which drains through the site towards Fox Brook and the River Great Ouse a few hundred yards to the north and east.
The design and build proceeded in 4 stages.
First stage: The original part of the 2 up, 2 down cottage garden had a well which was restored from having a sheet of iron over the well hole and an area of weedy rough field stone between this and the cottage door. There is now a low dry stone wall and a well wall of limestone from Weston Underwood Quarry with bespoke galvanized steel mechanism by George James and Sons Blacksmiths. A patio of the cleaned original fieldstone now laid with on a bed of mortar and edged with cut down tiles from the reroofing of the garage. A remnant of limestone edging from the distant past was retained next to the ancient Buxus sepmervirens hedge and a narrow path of granite setts through planting is echoed beside the well.
The gravel sideway around the house to the back terrace was improved with landscape fabric, new pea shingle and concrete stepping stone slabs recycled from the former greenhouse area.
To enable a new power cable to the extensions to be buried, the old greenhouse was demolished and an area for a new greenhouse base was built with retaining walls and steps of engineering bricks to match the below DPC brickwork of the garage. The floor of the greenhouse was designed using Marshalls porcelain paving Symphony Elements and Symphony Botanic with a central Aco gully to drain. A Belfast sink was installed with mains water and overhead lighting.
Second stage: the back patio, originally a mix of concrete slabs and pieces of large fieldstone, I wanted to echo the limestone bedrock beneath. The area was enlarged using Sanditon, Purbeck Stone from Stoneworld laid coursed, to take a dining table to seat 8, a bbq and planted containers. The retaining wall built to the builder’s engineer’s specification using Newton blocks on a concrete foundation, was next clad with limestone from Weston Underwood Quarry as a dry stone wall by Tim Mason, Mason’s Walling who also built the steps. A wide path was designed alongside the new garden room to take benches and pots of Agapanthus, it drains into a narrow rain garden with twin raised micro pools beside steps to lawn, powered by submerged pump in reservoir water system to blade by Brit Ponds.
Third stage: To turn what was originally a cart track to the barn in 1805, into a wide path from the cottage down to the garage and forecourt entrance. We used granite cobble setts to echo the forecourt, made a low graduating wall in limestone to deal with the level change and found materials on site left from an old retaining wall of clay bricks along the sideway. I designed new borders beside the cottage to have edging with roof tiles on their edge (as in the well garden) and on the opposite side of the path laid the large pieces of fieldstone from the back patio. These collect tiny pools of water after rain and provide a habitat for the common newts and beetles.
Fourth stage: First a step to a small paved area outside my studio doors using remnants of Sanditon and tiles on edge. To deal with sloping ground down to the garage I designed a low blue engineering brick wall to edge the wide path where we included pea shingle on a gravel rings base for security and then more granite setts to the garage where ACO gullies were installed to take excess surface water away from the different falls and on into the existing drainage system. Finished with an original cast iron grill and ACO Heelguard Grate iron grills elsewhere.
Permeable sub base and permeable joints were used everywhere except in the well area. There is only field stone foundation on that side of the old cottage and the water table is high. We did not want any seepage of water up through the new patio as had happened previously.
There are galvanized water collection tanks waiting to be installed around the greenhouse and one beside the cottage. There is soft landscaping to get underway between my studio and the greenhouse. We have begun a wildlife pond in the large front garden where we have an established wildflower mini meadow and a tall hawthorn hedge where birds nest and shelter.
The whole garden is teeming with wildlife, including stag beetles, frog and toad. The garden maintenance allows many areas to be left alone for much of the year. We compost as much as possible by shredding garden waste and use 11 compost bins which are turned occasionally and emptied every 2 years with the resulting live material being used to improve soil and mulch borders. Many honeysuckles attract moths and these attract bats. The planting is all about wildlife, to maintain its existing population and ideally increase biodiversity here.
All the hard landscaping is designed by Susan and all contractors were supervised on site by her during the build stages.
A full list of the materials used can be provided on request.
Susan Young.