RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival

World Gardens

Normandy and 1066 Country Medieval Garden

Awards

  • Bronze medal winner
Designed by:
Stéphane Marie, Alexandre Thomas

This garden celebrates the strong links forged between England and Normandy this year on the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings of 1066, famously depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry.

The garden is a re-creation of a centuries-old landscape common to Normandy and parts of England. A pleached hedge made of willow wicker serves to separate the garden into two distinct sections. The first evokes ancestral meadows on both sides of the Channel in which barley grows alongside flax, marguerites and mixed meadow flowers. In the second part is a densely planted area designed like a Baroque tapestry, featuring plants from across the globe that the English and Normans, with their shared passion for gardening and botany, have enjoyed exchanging for centuries.