Andy ❤️⬆️％🇺🇦

@andymoorhouse.bsky.social

🎶 The road is long, we carry on, try to have fun in the meantime 🎶 Music, books, beer, cats, messing around on my bike.

@andymoorhouse.bsky.social

A real treat to go there Westy, such an evocative place. It’s only open on Fridays and only till the end of October I think. Maybe one for the spring, I know I’ll be returning! Hope all good with you two 😊🍻

@andymoorhouse.bsky.social

Yesterday’s visit to The Italian Garden at Great Ambrook, near Ipplepen, #Devon. What a beautiful place, in the middle of nowhere, a place created for discreet entertainment in the early 20th century. Since 2020 it is being lovingly restored by volunteers. Absolutely worth the effort to find it!

The carriage drive entrance to the garden, pale stone, gravel, shrubs and flowers. From the very evocative information leaflet: "The Italian Garden at Great Ambrook is a unique historic garden with a fascinating story to tell. It was created by Arthur Smith Graham - a wealthy gay man - as a place where he could entertain close friends in privacy, at a time when homosexuality was illegal. The original 4-acre garden, completed in 1912, had many unique architectural features and designed vistas, taking advantage of the dramatic possibilities of the sloping terrain and rolling Devon landscape. It was a magical space! After Arthur's death in 1928 the garden fell into decay but some original plantings remain, now magnificent mature trees. Imagine the intrigue of being invited by Arthur to a party in a secluded Devon valley. An Italianate garden designed to fit in with the Devonshire countryside. A secret garden surrounded by four metre walls in part. A garden where you could be yourself and enjoy the company of male friends without retribution. Arthur's guests would have arrived in carriages from Great Ambrook house by way of the Carriage Drive. New entrance gates have been installed, and inside on the left is one of three irrigation tanks - beautifully restored - with a medicinal garden and olive trees nearby. The restored hothouse, a base for volunteers, forms one side of the old walled orchard. The stone wall, which collapsed many years ago, was reinstated to conceal new holiday accommodation set within. Carriages would pass through the restored gates at the end of the drive, sweeping up behind the northern garden walls (with views towards Haytor), to a drop off point and entrance near the summerhouse." The Dell, “originally a mudstone quarry for making bricks. In Arthur's garden it became a Mediterranean ravine, taking guests back to days of a ‘grand tour' and the great gardens of Florence and warmer lands.” Ferns, shrubs and flowers, footpaths and stone steps.The stone swimming pool with columns, steps and a stone seated area. “… you come to the swimming pool, sun bathing area and stone bench. South facing, with views over their host's farmland, guests would delight in what we would now call 'wild swimming’, enjoying the best of the sunshine. We remind ourselves that at this time in history for gay men, it was not always easy to party so freely. This area feels relaxed and private yet open to the landscape beyond."The stone steps leading down from a plunge pool toward the tennis courts, with sheltered seating in alcoves for spectators. Trees abound. “To manage a change in levels, an octagonal plunge pool is set cleverly in the roof of a tennis pavilion! The pool is fed from the summerhouse reservoir via the rills that flow down alongside pathways. Steps lead down to what was once a grass court. There are covered alcoves for guests to watch the game. Without the trees there would have been commanding views. The curved seat is Ipplepen marble.”
Older posts