Generation gain

As entrances to gardens go, the way in to Parsonage Oasts, in Yalding, Kent, is one of the more memorable. Before you can proceed down the drive, it’s not unusual to have to wait to cross the canal in front of the property while a lifting bridge is raised for boats to pass underneath. ‘It’s a bit like having a drawbridge at the end of the garden,’ jokes Jennifer Raikes, who has lived here with her husband Edward for 52 years.

The Raikes first moved to the redbrick and timber-clad oast house on the banks of the river Medway in the late 1960s, to look after Edward’s grandmother, Gladys, in her old age. Gladys herself had