Stone and Roses: Asthall Manor in the Cotswolds
If you’ve ever wondered what people mean by “pleasure garden” (when any considered garden is surely a place for pleasure), a visit to Asthall Manor in Oxfordshire, an hour and a half from London, will lay such questions to rest.
Photography by Britt Willoughby Dyer for Gardenista.
She hired the more-is-more duo Isabel and Julian Bannerman in the early years, and now every wall is draped in a hundred-plus varieties of rose, with many more delights in the wider garden.
Asthall Manor in the Windrush Valley, England, the most honeyed part of the Cotswolds.
Jason Mulligan’s Sea Sweeper, carved from Ancaster weatherbed, occupies the croquet lawn.
In fact, it’s sometimes improved by touch.”
A view of the manor from the churchyard involves tumbling roses and, every other year, sculpture.
“I mean, you don’t want sculpture around every corner for the rest of your life but actually, for one glorious, blooming, over-the-top exhibition, it’s wonderful that there is a sculpture around every corner.”
In the orchard, sculptures by Kim Francis (left) and Ana Ruiz-Agüi (right) emerge from the long grass, as well as cherry trees.
A well-placed piece by Régis Chaperon embellishes the swimming pool vegetation. The garden has enough variety to create different settings for series of pieces; it is highly structured but with a looseness that allows the sculpture to breathe.
Mel Fraser’s marble forms occupy the upper lawns and cloisters, while her alabaster pieces are backlit by tall windows in the ballroom, as well as in the 12th-century church.