An awfully jolly garden adventure
Above: Above: The Long Border at Old Thatch, which once belonged to Enid Blyton.
Above: The woodland walk provides plenty of opportunities for adventure.
One of the first things Jacky Hawthorne, garden designer and owner of Old Thatch, asks me is whether I was a fan of the Secret Seven or the Famous Five.
This might seem an odd question, but Jacky’s life is inextricably linked with the best-loved author of these children’s books, Enid Blyton. The creator of such characters as the tomboy Georgina, who preferred to be called George, and of Noddy, lived in Old Thatch in the ’20s and ’30s.
Elements from Blyton’s time still remain – a well, a newt pond the writer dug herself – now occasional home to a pair of ducks – a yew hedge, and a thatched lychgate which now charms visitors, as it charmed the author when she first saw it.
All around the garden there are twists and turns and secret dells that create wonderful places to hide, or simply while away the hours unnoticed. You can just imagine George and her gang roaming through the shrubs and clumps of trees, looking for adventures in the delightful two-acre acre plot that promises a wonderful surprise around every corner.
Indeed, Old Thatch itself dates back to the 17th century and was a beer house with rooms and stabling. It had already provided a legacy of stories long before Miss Blyton took up residence. The highwayman Dick Turpin is reputed to have often used the place as a hideaway. There are even tales of a ghost horse.
Jacky and her husband David bought the property, parts of which date from the 17th century, in 1994.The previous owners had become too elderly to care for the garden. As Jacky puts it: “It was a mess. My father nearly backed his car into the pond because it was all overgrown.”
The garden was left alone for a few years until Jacky decided to swap her teaching career for selling plants, for which she has a ‘passion’. That sparked an interest in garden design, so she did a college course, gaining clients before she had finished it.
Jacky and David then cleared the garden in stages, opening it to the public in 2003.
Visitors enter via the formal garden, where straight edges of box in beds. either side of the path to the front door. surround ‘lollipop’ trees of holly and Viburnum, and contrast with the loose lines of Sarcococca, a shrub that displays beautiful scented white flowers.
On the other side of the house is the cottage garden. Sadly lashings of ginger beer aren’t on offer, but you can enjoy home-made cakes and teas on the flagstoned area outside the tearoom – usually Jacky’s kitchen. It is actually a converted stable where Dick Turpin slept and kept his faithful horse Bess. Surrounding you are the curved lines of roses climbing an arbour, quince and quintessentially English flowers such as foxgloves, day lilies, mallow and mock orange.
Down the woodland walk of ivy-covered trees and ferns and through a gap in the beech hedge you are confronted with three giant pencils – wooden sculptures which Jacky installed to add humour. Below them is a scribble-shaped bed which will probably be filled with white tobacco plants this year.
Beside this is the water garden, which visitors find the most soothing area. Sitting on a rustic bench, watching water cascade over the edge of a fountain surrounded by beds of beautiful white Zantedeschia aethiopica ‘Crowborough’ it’s easy to see why.
Passing through the shade garden with its silver birches, lime trees and firs, we reach Mr Aplin’s garden, named after a gardener who befriended Jacky when she sold plants at Cookham market. The plants are mainly orange, interspersed with cream and blue.
Next to this is an area of work in progress, the Lane garden and brook. Unlike gardeners who fence off unfinished areas, Jacky hopes visitors will help her decide what to do there – as they did with the Pencil garden.
In fact, you could say that, just like Miss Blyton, she’s looking for an exciting ending to her tale.
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