Behind the tall stone walls that border the Holt Road, Kingston Road, and Mill Lane lies one of Bradford on Avon’s hidden gems - the gardens and grounds of The Hall. Whilst The Hall itself looks out over these walls (as do the enormous Redwoods planted by Stephen Moulton in the latter part of 19th century), much of the garden is difficult to view from any vantage point.
The photograph shows Moulton’s team of staff in the 1890s - the men would have worked in the garden and the women in the house. With time, the staff numbers were greatly reduced, and in later years, the garden has been maintained solely through the efforts of our part-time Estate Manager.
One may ask how this is possible, and part of the answer lies in Alex Moulton’s great skill in reducing things down to their fundamental properties or qualities. “A garden”, he stated, “is green shapes and gravel”. And so, it came to be. Flourishes and flamboyance were greatly reduced, although some concessions were made - including a border of Catmint on the West Lawn for Toby to play in.
