The Arts & Crafts Movement, which was inspired by William Morris, gave gardens a new definition as a harmonious component of the house rather than a separate entity. Gardens were often designed in collaboration with architects such as Sir Edwin Lutyens and garden designers like Gertrude Jekyll. They are not meant as an end in themselves but were conceived as outdoor rooms married to the house.
Key characteristics include simple structuring and romantic, medieval-inspired imagery derived from old English manor house gardens. Nothing about them is ostentatious, contrived or foreign.
Designers used local materials and traditions, hedged enclosures, artistic flower borders, whimsical topiary trees, small hand-built structures, sundials, armillary spheres, and other traditional ornaments.
Some of the key designers are Gertrude Jekyll, Edwin Lutyens, Baillie Scott, Robert Lorimer, Thomas Mawson,…