East Ruston Old Vicarage
The House & Garden
We bought East Ruston Old Vicarage in 1973.
It had been empty for the previous two years
and there was no garden here at all, just tufted
grass three feet tall. At this time although
coming from Norfolk we were both in
London during the week to enable us to earn
our livings. Each Friday evening we undertook
the arduous journey from central London to
East Ruston, returning to London the
following Sunday evening or at the latest very
early Monday morning. This we did for many
years, but it allowed us the delight to be able
to start gardening and this we did with great
enthusiasm on an area of some two acres.
Over the years, starting in 1989, we
have had the opportunity to purchase some
of the former glebe land that had originally
surrounded the Vicarage, plus a bit more. This
meant that shortly after the mid 1980’s when
we came to live here permanently we could
commence gardening on a larger scale.
However at that time it was not our intention
to make a larger and larger garden. When it
began, the sub-division of our land was
influenced by a black and white slide that
somebody kindly gave us. It was taken in the
1960’s during the winter and clearly showed
the former small field boundaries on the
ground, where 24 fields had been converted
into a single 101 acre field. It occurred to us
then that because of the modern farming
methods a huge amount of wildlife habitat
had been lost. Hedges, ditches, banks and ponds
had all been swept away and so, armed with
the ordnance survey map from the 1880’s, we
decided to put back some of this valuable shelter.
And so began the life of the garden that
we enjoy today although at this time our idea
was to create somewhere for us to walk our
dogs without using the local farmer’s fields.
How things have changed. Gradually the
original garden that we had created within
the confines of our two acres was moved out
into the newer land and areas such as the long
borders were scaled up to become larger and we
hope more interesting. It is important to note
that the garden here is an oasis in a prairie
landscape where farmers have made bigger
fields for bigger yields. Within the garden there
is a microclimate that allows us to grow many
plants that might be tender in all but a few
sheltered spots. This we have achieved by the
planting of shelter belts mainly of Monterey
Pine, Italian Alders and Eucalyptus. This and the
fact that most of the gardens within the whole
are relatively small in area helps to keep our
main enemy, the wind, above head height.
Another factor that helps the garden is its
maritime influence. The University of East Anglia
department of climatology published charts of
weather statistics over the last fifty years.
One chart shows clearly that on the eastern
coast of Norfolk and Suffolk to within three
miles of the sea we experience the same mean
amount of frost as Devon and Cornwall, although
bending down in a stiff wind in the coldness that
is January it does not always feel so!
Over the years the garden and grounds
have grown further and now total 32 acres.
We promise that that is the end of the growth in
area, however it will continue to, we hope,
become more ‘finely tuned’. Each winter we
endeavour to create new or to improve
existing areas and as all of you know, a garden
never stands still, it moves on, after all it is a
living breathing being.
We hope that you enjoy your visit to our
garden, and we know that it is unique whether
you like it or not. Sometimes, when both the
light and the temperature are right we wonder
where in the world we are. Could it be the
Mediterranean, the Southern Hemisphere or
somewhere such as South Africa. No, it is East
Ruston Old Vicarage within one and a half
miles of the North Sea or German Ocean and
it is our own special creation. The result, as it
says on the terracotta gate Consilio et Labore,
by counsel and by labour, or by discussion and
hard work from us, to give pleasure which we
enjoy sharing with others.
NEXT