June 2018

The 10 year project that has seen the 18th century Ha-Ha completely rebuilt is finally finished! Admittedly, it shouldn’t have taken 10 years but there is the small matter of an Estate to run that comprises another 200 properties to look after.

A Ha-Ha is an ingenious piece of engineering that gives the viewer of the garden the illusion of an unbroken, continuous rolling lawn, whilst providing boundaries for grazing livestock.

Each bay measures 12 metres long and there are 18 bays. Over time the bays have been carefully deconstructed, numbered, excavated and rebuilt as the sandstone blocks were carefully repositioned and finished with the original decorative ornate wrought iron balustrade.

It is said that a-ha derived its name from the success of the optical illusion it created from a distance on viewers of the garden: the hitherto concealed ditch and wall would ‘surprise the eye coming near it, and make one cry, “Ah! Ah!”’

Mark, the longest serving member of the team, has worked on the project from start to finish and was pleased to see the final piece being re-laid on Thursday 13th June 2019 - another great piece of stone masonry done and another piece of history created