© Allan Pollok-Morris
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Wiltshire garden

The house was originally a row of cottages, amalgamated over the years to form one picturesque straggle along the village street. It faces south down to the river Avon, and diagonally across the site lies the Stonehenge Avenue, supposedly the route along which the stones were dragged from the river to where they now stand, two miles to the west.

The heart of the place is undoubtedly the walled garden, with the swimming pool - all twenty two metres of it,- set right in the middle. It is the main event of the garden. The new walls are made from zinc, and most of the paving is silvery timber. The planting is silvery, pale and grass. The effect is particularly beautiful in the middle of winter.

The garden planting is formed into a series of long, bar-shaped beds, so that from the air, the plan looks rather like a wall of bricks, with grass paths forming the joints. When you descend to garden level, the grass paths become less apparent and it seems as though you are in an almost random meadow.

Down at the river, a number of pools and little rivulets have been created to make a wonderful maze-like area of watery wandering. It has become a haven for both people and wildlife.