We hurried to The Laskett because we had been told that Sir Roy Strong had to leave the garden he and his wife had created, for another appointment. There he was at the gate, greeting us all warmly. This celebrated man, former Director of the National Portrait Gallery and the V & A Museum, told us how he and his late wife, Julia Oman Trevelyan, the stage, opera and ballet designer, had created the garden from a bare field when they arrived in Herefordshire in 1974, and as he put it, “penniless and in poverty”. But the desire to create their own artistic legacy became an over-riding passion for them both in the creation and execution of this garden.

The party then explored the myriad of little ‘rooms’, inspired by Hidcote Garden. Around every corner there was a surprise. Statues, follies, elaborate painted stone benches, columns, the Shakespeare Monument built from prize money Sir Roy won in 1980, a sundial from his friend Cecil Beaton, a pinnacle from All Souls College, even a large deer and an elaborate metal bridge were all here to surprise us. But there was also a wonderful rose garden, a pleached lime avenue, an orchard of apple trees, a kitchen garden, knot garden, fountains, topiary and parterres.


We perhaps will always remember Sir Roy’s words though, “Remember flowers in a garden are a sign of failure.” There were flowers here, many of them and it certainly didn’t seem to us to be a sign of failure, but of a triumph of ingenuity and flare.

We then drove through quiet Herefordshire lanes to the privately owned Kentchurch Court, near Pontrilas. Here, we were greeted warmly by the owner, Mrs. Jan Lucas-Scudamore, whose husband’s family have owned the stately home for over 1,000 years.


Without any fuss, all 53 of us were seated in the magnificent dining room for lunch. Six well trained waitresses produced endless plates of chicken tarragon in a cream sauce, served with fresh vegetables from their own garden. It was quite delicious. This was followed by home made shortbread, strawberries and fresh coffee. Portraits of Scudamores and Lucases stared down at us as we ate off the fine dining tables. We felt privileged to be there.

Subsequently, a fascinating hour was spent by Jan and her guide as they showed us the house and recounted us stories of the family, the estate, the triumphs and disasters that have befallen them over their history. The house is lucky enough to have been in Jan and her children’s hands for the last 30 years, as she has worked so hard to pay for the massive overheads in maintaining the estate.

We saw the weed-free kitchen garden, big enough to feed an army. There were well-trained apple trees, their branches bowing to the ground. We strolled into a walled garden containing broad sweeps of lawn, surrounded on all sides by superb herbaceous borders. Tall hollyhocks and delphiniums, lupins and roses, campanulas and geraniums, hostas and hemerocallis – were all spread before us, delighting our eyes and senses with their scents and beauty.

As we left Kentchurch, we marvelled at the house and its garden, we wondered at how one woman has made all this possible. As we waved farewell, we saw the fallow deer looking down upon us from the high hill above the Court as they continued their lives, as their predecessors have done for 1,000 years.

It had been a good day and perhaps I can now understand why the day had been so eagerly anticipated.