Tucked away in the quiet village of Caerwent, not far from Chepstow, in Monmouthshire, is the Dewstow Golf Club, owned and run by the Harris family, who used to farm this land. At one time, the house and estate belonged to a rich, but rather eccentric recluse named Henry Oakley. He bought it in 1893, and lived there until his death in 1940, after which the property passed through various hands until it was eventually broken up into 'parcels' during the 1950s.
Most of these parcels were sold individually as houses and smallholdings, but the main bulk of the estate was made up of Dewstow Farm and Dewstow House - with the portion on which stood Dewstow House being rather like a slice in the 'cake' of Dewstow Farm. The farm was purchased by W E Harris and Son, while Dewstow House was sold separately. The Harris family continued to farm the land until 1987, when they decided to diversify, and 'take a swing' at the golf industry. The Dewstow Golf Club opened its doors in August 1988, and has expanded progressively since that time. Meanwhile, Dewstow House came back onto the market in 2000, and was purchased by the Harrises, with the result that the whole estate is now back together again, almost in its entirety, for the first time in sixty years.
But all this is simply background history. What really matters is that, when Elwyn Harris, and his two sons, Mark and John, started to examine their new property in greater detail, they noticed something rather strange in the garden and grounds. There were pieces of rock projecting from parts of the soil - some close to the house, and some further away, down the slope towards the road. This was intriguing, and they decided to look further. They very carefully began moving the soil away, and, as they did so, more rocks were uncovered. And the more soil they moved, the more rocks they found - so what was going on? Was it a natural fault in the ground strata, or had they stumbled across some major archaeological discovery?
In fact, it was neither of these, because they then noticed that some of the rocks had their corners chipped off, and, beneath the natural-looking surface, there appeared to be bricks! They were artificial! They were Pulhamite. Thankfully, the Harrises decided to proceed with great care and caution, and eventually uncovered not just a very large surface rock garden, complete with streams, cascades and pools, but a labyrinth of underground tunnels, caves, grottoes, ferneries and follies!
This garden is something very special and unique, and we must be grateful to its new owners for its restoration, which they hope to complete sometime during 2004. Here is the Lion Grotto, with walls and columns covered in tufa, and a profusion of planting pockets.
No comments:
Post a Comment