2. Front Lawn and The Great Storm by Bryan Hewitt

Narrator: The stone garden was first created in the 1920s. Local lads - who were known as Bowles Boys - collected the round stones that decorate the bed. They loaded them on to wheelbarrows at nearby Maiden’s Brook, and trundled them back here.

A limestone column was placed here to add height and a bit of sculptural variety to the bed. To compliment the column, Bowles had the fossilised Araucaria,or Monkey Puzzle tree positioned beside it. The tree is ancient. It dates from the Cretaceous Period – around 250 million years ago. It is believed it was discovered in the early nineteen hundreds, when they were excavating the King George V Reservoir. Whatever its origins, it is certainly the oldest tree in the garden.

The carved stone water trough came from an old blacksmith’s forge in Forty Hill. For many years it served as the block riders used to dismount when they came to have their horses’ hooves shod. Bowles brought the trough here in the 1930s, after his brother, Sir Henry, closed the forge down.

The stone garden suffered badly during the great storm of 1987.

Bryan Hewitt:

…the huge old cedar tree that was in the middle of the stone bed … was well over a hundred feet tall and when it came down the roots knocked over the petrified tree, and it also knocked over, sadly, the old well boring … that came from Whitewebbs Pumping Station, dating back to about 1897 when they created the pumping station there. That got knocked over and that simply smashed. Being limestone I suppose it didn’t really have a chance....

… there was a vast poplar tree; it was a black poplar in the wild garden… and …that came down in the storm …There was a yew tree near the pond … quite a large one that came down. Another tree that got sent flying was the kalopanax tree, which was also on the drive; that was a good specimen. Fortunately a nut must have been swept up and that germinated and you can see that in the wild garden to this day. …