Rodmarton Manor

Over the 20 years that it took to build the house many people were involved in building, woodwork, metalwork, needlework, painting, gardening, all done to a very high standard. Most of the furniture was made specially for the house, either in the Rodmarton workshops, or made by Sidney Barnsley, Edward Barnsley or Peter Waals. Some furniture was bought after the house was built but all pieces are directly or indirectly attributable to the original craftsmen or people who had connections with them such as Harry Davoll, Owen Scrubey, Oliver Morel.

The garden was designed by Ernest Barnsley and work commenced, under the direction of Margaret Biddulph and her head gardener William Scrubey as the house was being built. The garden was designed to comprise a series of outdoor rooms, or separate areas each with its own character. There are walls and there are hedges of holly, box, beech and yew. These form the "walls" of the rooms.

The original garden consisted of borders, lawns, topiary, two kitchen gardens, three tennis courts as well as the older trees that were on the site and new plantings principally of Lime, Hornbeam, Birch, Portuguese Laurel and Irish Yew. Anthony and Mary Biddulph moved to the Manor in 1955 and in the years that followed much new planting was done and the garden became very well known.

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