Custodians of Hope
LONDON
Church Gardens, Harefield
The McHugh Family
The walled gardens built to serve the original Harefield Place are among the oldest surviving structures of their kind in the UK. Yet when Patrick and Kay McHugh took on the three-acre site in 1995, its features were obscured by years of neglect.
“It’s a miracle we even came across the place!” exclaims Kay. “The first manor house was demolished 200 years ago and everything had become so overgrown and derelict that by the 1990s, few people knew the walled garden was here. The walls date back to the 16th and early 17th centuries and enclose three different areas, including one of just a few surviving renaissance pleasure gardens in the county, along with a unique arcaded wall that has 33 man-sized alcoves.”
The McHughs moved into the former coach house on the site in 1998 after spending two and a half years working on
