We have a long association with this woodland house. It is one of only three houses designed by Hal Moggridge soon after starting his partnership with Brenda Colvin in 1969. Hal first trained as an architect, before pursuing his real passion – landscape design.

The modernist house is built in a glade in the woodland and projects out over sloping ground with the main living room on the first floor enjoying wonderful woodland views.  The house was Grade II listed by English Heritage in 2009, the listing describing it as: “a clean-cut, sharp piece of design that makes the most of good materials and careful craftsmanship, yet retains a warmth and humanity typical of the architect’s work in other areas of design”.

Mark Darwent and Eleanor Hall will work on the project. Mark knows the site intimately having been a tenant of the Goodhearts in a cottage on the estate for several years early on in his career at Colvin & Moggridge.

Cherkley Landscape

Cherkley Court is the former country residence of Lord Beaverbrook, an influential press magnate and political broker with close connections to Winston Churchill, who spent so much time at Cherkley that he was given his own room. In April 2011 Longshot Limited acquired the estate.

Colvin & Moggridge advised the present Lord Beaverbrook in the early 1990s and we were thrilled to be invited back by the new owners to form part of the professional team that will turn this 380 acre estate into a world-class hotel, health club & spa, cookery school and golf course.

The existing landscape has been identified as an Area of Great Landscape Value (AGLV) and is part of the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and our primary contribution has been to ensure the sensitive integration of formal golf features. The landscape’s outstanding natural features are a gift, as internationally renowned Golf Course designer David McLay Kidd explains: “Cherkley requires less change to the existing topography than any course I have designed and as a result it will undoubtedly become one of the UK’s greats. Top courses need a landscape that provides variety, without needing to be sculpted into something unnatural. We have too many manicured, vast open courses. These are great for the beginner, but real golf needs to be a challenge and this requires space and making the best of what God has given you to work with.”

Longshot expects Cherkley to become one of the UK’s leading golf courses and established figures from the golfing world have already declared their support.

The planning application is expected to go to committee in April this year.

Cherkley Public Exhibition

Demolition of the former fisheries and removal of the existing house will provide significant opportunities for the ecological enhancement of large areas of the site. We have teamed up with local ecologist Jonathan Cox to create a varied landscape of coastal grassland, acid grassland and wetland and enclosed scrub habitat – all typical of the coastal fringe landscape. This will provide continuity with a neighbouring marsh to the west and a diverse habitat linked to the wooded areas eastwards of the site.

Foreshore Sketch

Elevations

Our design of the site will also:

• provide a framework of mainly native trees, typical of local coastal woodlands, to enhance the general setting of the replacement house and boathouse and bolster the coastal pines with new trees as ‘understudies’;
• retain a coastal grassland character against the foreshore and encourage typical coastal plants;
• retain the stunning views from the site to the Solent and Hurst Castle;
• recess the built structures into landscape framework setting of the site and shelter the house and gardens from wind;
• enhance the surroundings of the new house with gardens for the owner’s enjoyment and a sheltered walled garden for cut flowers, fruit and vegetable production.

Located at the foot of the Tramuntana mountains the house, gardens and orchard form a complex that dates back to the Arab era of Mallorca. Alfabia was the residence of the Moorish governor of the Balearic Islands and although the house has been much altered over the centuries, the gardens retain strong Moorish characteristics.

Today they are in mild disrepair, though some restoration is taking place, and horticultural interest is limited, but they have a powerfully romantic atmosphere: raised pergola walks with arching jets of water to catch the unwary visitor; rills and pools (though much of the water was not running at the time of our visit) shaded by palms; wonderfully serpentine ancient wisteria; steps and balconies, sculpture and fountains; and the whole garden commands orchards of citrus and olive. The sheep that graze these orchards, with their tinkling bells, created the perfect setting for our lunch of local bread and cheese.

The Pistoia region of Tuscany contains over 1000 nurseries, with some growers specialising in just a single plant species and form.  Forays around the valley lead to a wonderful selection of field and containerised stock, much of which is specially clipped or prepared and tailored to fit our wide range of individually designed landscapes.

Recent finds have included majestic Holm Oak cones, elegant Blue Cedar, dazzling Parrotia ‘Vanessa’ and the finest clipped Yew spirals.

Holm Oak

Blue Cedar

Parrotia 'Vanessa'

Yew Spiral

Palma, with its rich historic and modern design detail, proved a fertile territory for our usual challenges to staff to sketch and photograph ‘the spirit of the place’.

Mike Ibbotson, Palacio de Almudaina, Palma

Hal Moggridge, Port Soller, Palma

And the winner of our photography competition was Sue Goodman, Es Baluard Museu, Palma

Weather conditions ranged from bright sun and blue skies to a torrential thunderstorm. The early morning mists brought out the islands magic – a landscape whose blend of maritime and urban beauty, fertile plains, dramatic mountain and seacliff scenery seduced us all.

Memorable landscapes included views to the Cathedral of Santa Maria across the Port of Palma and from Castle Bellver above, the Soller Valley, and the coastline from Deia and Port Soller to the Sa Calobra Ravine.

The Soller Valley, Palma

Palma Port

The imposing Norman Shaw mansion

At the heart of Alderbrook Park was an imposing mansion. It was the estate’s principal raison d’être and was the central focus, both within the park and from longer landscape views. Tragically the house was demolished in 1970 and replaced by an inappropriately small house, completely out of scale with its parkland setting and unfitting with the historic landscape and its attendant original buildings.

The current house

Model of the new house by Pringle Richards Sharratt Architects

In 2009 Colvin & Moggridge were appointed as the landscape design specialists to work alongside architects Pringle Richards Sharratt, as well as a number of other carefully chosen experts. This design-team worked together on a proposal to replace the current house with one that would return the estate to its former glory.

Masterplan for restoration and improvement of the 1930s designed formal gardens around the house

This would involve, not only rebuilding the mansion house, but also restoring and improving the landscaped gardens around the new house to, once again, create a coherent and dramatic new setting. The new landscaping will also incorporate other parts of the original estate, now fallen into dilapidation – the walled kitchen gardens and glasshouses, for example.

Despite the Planning Officer’s recommendation to refuse the application, Councillors unanimously voted to grant consent for the new house and garden development. Success was in part due to two years of patient design development and attentive consultation with interested parties, but mainly attributable to innovative design, the use of ground-breaking techniques and the exceptionally high standards of the design team. This success reflects the talents of all involved in the project and is a great example of the kind of collaborative co-creation that we enjoy so much as a practice.

Norman Shaw’s original house was in its day “modern” and so the new house will be a modern idiom of today. Sustainability forms the heart of the design proposals for the new house and landscape. So strong are the credentials of the project that an education centre is planned, which will give local school children a rare opportunity to experience “sustainability” for themselves.

The granting of Planning Permission secures significant investment in the estate and safeguards this historic parkland for future generations.

Many of our clients hold art in situ in existing landscapes, settings that we have improved to benefit the individual pieces or composite works, but outdoor sculpture is frequently sought by clients who wish to choose and place new pieces of art and garden ornament.

Naturally we follow the auction sales and commercial collections held by long-established experts such as Summers Place/Sotheby’s and Architectural Heritage, but we also like to keep up to date with new works by contemporary artists.

Noteworthy finds this summer have ranged from the exquisitely carved sculptures in Italian and Portuguese marbles, and Iranian onyx exhibited by Paul Vanstone at Chelsea in May…

…to the multitude of exciting works viewed during the practice visit to Fresh Air 2011 at Quenington in Gloucestershire. This year Fresh Air showcased outdoor sculpture by over 100 artists working in a myriad of materials, from metal to cloth.

We’ll be posting images of our favourite outdoor sculptures as we find them. Sign up to receive our latest news.

Trish Gibson provides some well-deserved publicity in her meticulously researched, beautifully illustrated and captivating new book.  She uses previously unpublished materials to chart Brenda’s pioneering career and leaves the reader in no doubt of her legacy, which continues to live on and influence landscape architecture to this day.

Reviews:

A fascinating read. Brenda was an inspiration, and a link between the past and the future of gardening.  English Garden

Gibson has written the perfect book about Colvin, collecting information and illustrations that bring her life and work to life, and showing sensitivity and understanding towards her as a person. Publisher Frances Lincoln has scored another hit with a book that may change perceptions as subtly but surely as a belt of newly planted trees.  Country Life

Carefully researched and copiously illustrated, ‘A Career in Landscape’ fills an important gap in landscape history and leaves one eager to learn more, surely the sign of a really successful biography.  BBC Gardens Illustrated

Listen to Trish Gibson talk about Brenda Colvin on BBC4′s Woman’s Hour

Buy this book on Amazon