The garden at Rockcliffe, Gloucestershire
The home of Simon and Emma Keswick
LAST winter, we had -12˚ of frost for three weeks,’ remembers Emma Keswick, walking out onto the south-facing terrace at Rockcliffe in the Cotswolds, where she and her husband, Simon, have been living on and off since 1981. ‘We are 600ft above sea level here and it does get very cold. Although we wrap things in winter, we lost a lot last year.’
‘It feels as if this is how things must always have been’
Rockcliffe is one of the most beautiful gardens in the Cotswolds, whatever time of year one sees it. From the broad Yorkstone terrace, an immaculate avenue of beech obelisks—positioned slightly closer together at the far end to make the view seem longer—reaches across the perfectly striped lawn to the field beyond the ha-ha where Cotswold sheep graze.