This historic manor garden continues to evolve, while upholding the spirit of its creator – the author, artist and needlewoman Lucy M Boston
WORDS MATTHEW BIGGS PHOTOGRAPHS ANNA OMIOTEK-TOTT
Lucy M Boston, the late author, painter and patchwork creator, first saw the Manor at Hemingford Grey while punting with her brother.
One of the two oldest inhabited dwellings in Britain, dating from the 12th century, it is Norman with Tudor and Georgian modifications and is moated on three sides. Lucy thought it ‘tranquil and unloved in its field beside the river’ and the memory never left her. It became so etched in her mind that 24 years later when a friend mentioned there was a house for sale in the village, she assumed it was the Manor. Taking a taxi from Cambridge, she knocked on the door; the owners were shocked – they had only discussed selling over breakfast.
Lucy, best known for the Green Knowe children’s books, bought the house on 31 May 1939, gardening from just after the Second World War until she died aged 97, on 25 May 1990. Inspired by childhood visits to Levens Hall in Cumbria, Lucy planted eight yews either side of a path down to the river. Topiary balls metamorphosed into cones, then pairs of orbs, crowns and the dove of peace from the old sceptre, with pieces of yew tied in to create the correct shapes for the coronation of Elizabeth II. “I think of them as coronation women,” says Diana Boston, Lucy’s daughter-in-law and the current custodian. “With their dowager humps and bunions, they appear to be busy looking round each other to see what’s happening up at the house. They look particularly beautiful in the snow.”
With the help of her gardener, Lucy dug three long, rectangular borders, and when the garden flooded in 1947, she imported clay to raise the beds, though the lorries often became stuck in the waterlogged ground. Later flooding washed the clay deep into the subsoil, rendering her determined efforts futile. “Lucy just wanted to grow her favourite plants, mainly iris and old roses, as she loved fragrance. If a plant disliked the conditions or looked out of place, she would move it,” says Diana.
Lucy became friends with rosarian Graham Stuart Thomas, who often visited the garden and sent her the best irises and old roses from Sunningdale Nurseries, mainly ramblers, bourbons and damasks. “At one time there were about 15
