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What was once a sloping field is now abeautiful formal orchard... a natural dipin the land lent itself to a pond, fed froma well across a nearby fieldWildlife pond fed by a natural spring with an out-flowfeeding the ancient well by the outer gate pillars.Pleached hornbeam above the orchardborder in front of a woodland area of old lime trees, wherean unusual summerhouse draws the eye.The shape and timbers make it look quite un-English inmany ways. It had a thatched roof in Cynthia’s grandfather’sday, when it stood in his garden for tea parties and for thechildren to play house in. Cynthia’s passion for gardeningcomes from her grandfather, so she was thrilled when thespinster aunt who remained in the house after his deathsuggested she might like to have it.It was just the start of the unravelling of a piece ofhistory that became more intriguing with each revelation.Grandfather had bought the summerhouse at an agriculturalshow in 1934 and the family had always assumed it to benew. But when Cynthia and John’s son, Mark, spotted asimilar summerhouse at the Chelsea Flower Show and hada conversation about it, the discovery was made that theRamsdens’ summerhouse was in fact made at the turnof the last century by Henry & Julius Caesar of Knutsford.The buildings were produced for King Edward VII,who presented them as a thank-you present to hostesses whohad pleased him at weekend house parties. ‘Can you imaginethe gentry going round each others’ houses to see who hadgot one?’ Cynthia speculates in delight.Planted bronze foliaged Lysimachia in solid blocks atintervals breaks up the variegated border by the wall. Theflourishing magnolia tree in this part of the garden is 25years old, and space has run out for the commemorative OldEnglish fruit trees for the grandchildren – mulberry, walnutand medlar for the first three girls and fig trees for the firsttwo boys. The last four grandchildren have trees in theorchard instead.You can peer down through a grille to marvel at the deepshaft of the original well, the only water supply when thefamily came here 50 years ago. It was piped to the houseand ‘made a wonderful cup of tea,’ Cynthia remembers.The Fanshawe coat of arms has been put on a set ofimposing gates, with the family’s permission and to theirgreat pleasure. They open on to a delightful gravel walk,which Cynthia admits has been ‘all kinds of things. It wasfull of those big show dahlias when we bought it.‘I didn’t like them – they irked me, they didn’t go withthe property at all. I put in any old roses and then I decidedon a colour scheme,’ she says. ‘This is blue and gold:golden standards, blue clematis between the climbing roses... And alchemilla mollis – gorgeous, but gets everywhere –blue catmint in the front and agapanthus in between...’Her gentle enthusiasm is unbounded.The topiary in this part of the garden is very much inkeeping with the age of the property. Mark, their eldest sondesigned and made the water feature that cascades down ahigh wall in summer, to celebrate the marriage, 16 years agoof his youngest sister, Anna. ‘We are a great family forcommemorating things, and this is all his own work. It hasweathered beautifully and is very pretty in action,’ Cynthiaobserves. Clumps of poppies have self-seeded among aborder of ferns and hostas by the house, and have beenretained for their splash of colour.The borders in front of the house are historic, containingplants known to have been grown in this country in the1600s. Convolvulus had invaded one and the whole borderwas to be removed, ‘starting at 8am on Monday morning.’To mark their 50 years, John and Cynthia will create a newborder here, by a fountain known affectionately as ‘Cynth’spissing nymph’.What was once a sloping field is now a beautiful formalorchard, planted with Old English varieties of apples, pears,plums and damsons and neatly edged with box andlavender. A hornbeam hedge, a very Tudor concept, was putin two years ago, and a natural dip in the land lent itself to awildlife pond, fed from a well across the nearby field. Theoverflow runs out of the pond and under the drive into theoriginal well in the garden. ‘When this is mature, inOld English top fruit varieties in the new orchard