Ashley Farm, near Presteigne in the Welsh Marches, is a remarkable looking building. Situated in the northwest corner of Herefordshire in an area of steep wooded hills, ancient earthworks and orchards, the timber and stone house dates from 1580, with 17th century additions, and was a working farmhouse until the 1950s. Now, thanks to the hard work and vision of owners Roger and Jackie Pietroni and designer Simon Dorrell it is set in an equally remarkable garden, a formal arrangement of spaces divided by yew and hornbeam hedges and pleached limes, suited to a house largely built when formality and symmetry were the fashion.