No, I’m not referring to myself.

Yes – we have a ruined cottage in the garden. Here: at 21 on the plan.

 

I have to add a note about the origin of the Plan. When I wrote The Bad Tempered Gardener – must have been in 2010, I needed a plan of the garden for the book. I asked for help on Twitter (remember Twitter?!) and Elizabeth Buckley popped up and offered to do one for us. And then indeed she did and it’s beautiful and we are so very grateful. Libby has long since retired but remains a great friend.

The Ruin 

When we came it was totally buried in bramble and ivy, and there was only the ground floor left of the one up, one down cottage. It had trees growing out of it. Here is one view of it in 1991.

 

The Land Use Valuation Office Survey 1910-1915 shows that the cottage at that time is in the hands of local solicitors, so was presumably unoccupied then and subsequently. When we bought Veddw House that part of the land wasn’t included and we had to wait for ten years to register our ownership under the law of adverse possession (squatter’s rights).

Eventually it captured Charles’s imagination and he got to work.

 

And I discovered that the easy bit of removing a tree is the cutting it down bit. Then you have to cut it all up and, piece by piece, bit by bit, haul it away somewhere. To join the firewood pile.

Then Charles set to work on clearing the foliage away and doing a partial rebuild.

 
The Ruin begining to be exposed. It seems we tried the naff statue in the Coppice before we gave up and gave it away.
 

Eventually there was a big moment when the original doorstep and path to the cottage was exposed:

 
Magic!

And Charles rebuilt a large part of the north wall:

 

 

 

Until

 

It was up to his head – and shaped.

This curve appears all over the garden – in hedges, this wall and a seat. We intend it to to echo the low curves of the Monmouthshire landscape. This is the other side of this wall, after we had it rendered – the shadows through the trees make wonderful patterns in the spring.

 

We chose this colour – a terracotta – after we realised that, unlikely as it seems, this is the colour of our soil. I’m happy to report that after years of care and mulch the soil in the garden is now dark brown, but when the field opposite is ploughed the colour of the wall of the Ruin is echoed in the ploughed soil.

If it looks paler in the photo it is because it hasn’t rained for ages. There are fire warnings out. Drought.

 

In the process of clearing the site Charles discovered many bottles and bits:

 

Have garden visitors, they’ll have a smashing time….

 

But no treasure.

It was exciting to uncover a little platform, across the path from the cottage, which we understand was where the copper (large metal pot, probably made of cast iron) would have been placed, over a fire, to wash their clothes in. And maybe boil puddings. Outside the cottage. Here it is – the fire would have been in that gully. There was charcoal still in there.

 

The Ordnance Survey Map shows there was a well. (W)

Ordnance Survey Map 1886

 

 

We’ve come to the conclusion that it was capped off with a big boulder, too big even for us to shift:

 

And the other sweet thing in relation to the cottage is the huge swathes of periwinkle. Someone in that cottage, once, a long time ago, treated themselves to a pot of periwinkle.

 

And it took Veddw to its heart

It’s all over that.

 
Charles added a seat in the Ruin, of course:
 

And then I added a message, which I imagine is commonly misunderstood:

 

And the wood burner, which the chimney sweep condemned, lives here too. Near where their chimney was.

Charles

As I read these posts -and this one in particular since I pretty well rebuilt the ruin single handedly – I find myself shaking my head at the sheer about of (hard) labour that we have put into the garden. But is was hugely satisfying bringing the ruin to life again and so exciting to find the original stone floor and doorstep.

Pointing walls (especially not very well made ones) makes such a difference to the appearance of a wall and for that we hired someone in. And also for that lovely rendered inside wall too, which I tried and failed to do to the standard we wanted. And from the ruin is one of the best views in the garden.

 
 

Anne:

Next time, the Grasses Parterre –

Germaine Greer:

When, at Veddw in Monmouthshire, Wareham replants the lines of vanished hedgerows with box and fills the enclosed spaces with grasses and hardy perennials, she is linking the land-use of the past with the aesthetic of the lordly parterre. ………