Steep Learning Curves

Banks Fee, Longborough, Gloucestershire The home of Mr and Mrs Hugh Sloane Spectacular views set off varied formal elements, from pleached hornbeams to a large kitchen-garden, in this serene Cotswold garden, finds Non Morris.

- Non Morris

FROM the sheltered entrance courtyard at Banks Fee—a broad 18thcentury Cotswold-stone house set above Gloucestershire parkland— the visitor is welcomed by immaculate stretches of pleached hornbeam and clipped yew and charmed by pairs of plump lollipops of Quercus ilex that have been encouraged to grow into each other. The eye is then drawn from the velvet squares of lawn and the contrastingly shaggy rosemary to tantalising glimpses of the rolling countryside that brought Kate and Hugh Sloane to Gloucestershire from Sussex 16 years ago.

‘We had done it before—made a garden from nothing—in our first house,’ explains Mrs Sloane as she reveals the courtyard garden, designed by Arne Maynard as a series of shallow terraces that links the front of the house to the handsome Victorian stables.

‘Our Sussex garden was one of Arne’s first projects. The whole process was a big learning curve for us all, but the result that emerged was wonderful.’ After a while, however, there was a feeling that Gatwick ‘was getting closer and closer’ and the family started to hunt for a more secluded place to live.

‘When we arrived at Banks Fee in 2002, the garden was derelict: everything had been grassed over during the Second World War, the dry-stone walls had gone and the front garden was a concrete turning circle.’

The now-celebrated Mr Maynard was called on again to help. ‘One of Arne’s first ideas was to offer a glimpse of the view to draw you in rather than revealing everything at once.’