A Rite Of Passage - The Garden Of Radcot House, Oxfordshire

Twenty years ago, the Stainers knew nothing about gardening, but that did not put them off trying to bring order to the wilderness they inherited. George Plumptre applauds the results

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THE creation of the Radcot House garden by its owners Robin and Jeanne Stainer exemplifies how, for so many people, garden-making is a voyage of education, discovery and adventure. Twenty years ago, the Stainers bought the characterful Oxfordshire house, which dates from 1649 and is reminiscent of its distinguished near-neighbor, Kelmscott.

The gabled house had become hemmed in on two sides by overgrown beech and yew trees and untidy mixed woodland of mainly larches, which had grown uncontrolled for decades. Indeed, to call the surroundings a garden would have been overstating things, such was the advanced state of decay.

‘I was a city girl from Chicago, working in finance. I had no idea,’ says Mrs. Stainer, who freely admits her previous lack of gardening knowledge. However, two decades later, she’s reeling off plant names and explaining how different species were chosen for specific places and associations.

She highlights one strength they brought to the creation of their garden: ‘Robin has an unfailing eye for design and structure.’ This is revealed in what have become two or three of the garden’s signature features.

I love the story of the house’s origin. Towards the end of the Civil War, in one of the last sieges of the conflict, 100 Royalists took refuge in what was then a medieval tower. They were besieged by Parliamentarians, one of whom fired a grenade so accurately into the top of the tower that it fell to the armoury in the basement and destroyed the whole structure. The present house is its replacement.