Rodmarton Manor, near Tetbury in the Cotswolds, is a classic of the English Arts and Crafts movement, constructed from a warm grey limestone quarried nearby it seems to grow out of the ground it stands on, just as the garden seems an organic extension of the house. Commissioned in 1909 by Claud and Margaret Biddulph it embodies key principles of the Arts and Crafts movement: use of local materials, traditional crafts and vernacular styles.
At the back of the house evergreens and local stone create a series of interlocking spaces: a wide terrace divided into simple outdoor rooms by tall yew hedges, some with finials clipped into decorative shapes; a tiny winter garden dominated by a cluster of pollarded limes, their bare winter knuckles clothed in summer with a mass of felty leaves; a topiary garden where alternating domes and tall stacks of clipped box face each other across a path of circular stepping stones. The evergreen forms of shaggy Portugese laurels and Irish yews nearby provide a delicious contrast with the smooth, hand cut topiary.
In late summer the double herbaceous borders are heavy with magenta poppies, silvery eryngiums and tall delphiniums.
