Lost & FOUND

Looking across the lake at The Grange in Chalgrove, Oxfordshire, to a tapestry of late-summer colour, it’s hard to believe that this beautiful garden almost didn’t happen. A little over 12 years ago, its creators, Vicky and Peter Farren, were planning to move to Cambridgeshire. Although they scarcely had time for their one-acre garden in North London, Vicky had a hankering for something larger and more interesting beyond the suburbs. Of the many sets of property particulars that dropped through the letterbox, one caught Vicky’s attention. “The Grange looked intriguing,” she recalls “but it was in Oxfordshire not Cambridgeshire, so I put it straight in the bin.”

A few days later, one of their daughters needed