A garden full of memories

HOME to the same family for generations, the five acres of gardens at Croft Hall, Darlington, hold a special place in the hearts of Kate and Trevor Chaytor-Norris. The Queen Annefronted manor house has its origins in the 1400s and has been in Kate’s family for 600 years.

Kate feels lucky to have grown up here, having moved to the hall as a child with her parents.

“My great aunt and uncle were childless, so dad inherited and we moved in when I was two years old,” says Kate. Later the hall was going to be passed on to her older brother, but he didn’t relish the prospect. “It just wasn’t his thing. He’s a free spirit and now lives in Peru with his family, so when I got engaged to Trevor, dad offered it to me and I feel really blessed to have it.”

Owner Kate Chaytor-Norris

Raising their three children in the same home that Kate was brought up in has been particularly special. “We have a rope hanging from one of the trees at the end of the garden in the same spot that I used swing from when I was little.” And having played in the gardens herself as a small girl, Kate knows all the best nooks for building dens and hideouts.

It gives her an advantage if the kids ever try to smuggle themselves away outside as she knows just where to look.

It’s a garden brimming with memories – a favourite tree is the willow which was planted when Kate and Trevor’s eldest was born.

Kate describes her approach to gardening as quite functional. She likes things to have a purpose and among the pleasures the garden brings is the ability to be self-sufficient for at least part of the year. “I’m passionate about growing my own fruit and vegetables, especially because of my work as a nutritional therapist,” she says. “I spend most of my time working in the fruit and veg patch. It is such a joy to be able to feed my family from the garden.”

Gardener Robin King has nurtured the grounds for more than 20 years and dedicates four days a week to maintaining it all. “At the beginning of the year, I realised that I just wasn’t finding the time to be as involved as I would like, so I arranged to spend a day once a fortnight with Robin helping him with whatever he happened to be working on,” says Kate.

Host to a variety of wild flowers is a natural area which leads the eye to where the lawn blends into the horses’ paddock. The ha-ha that separates the lawn from the grazing area is set quite low and hidden from view by a slight bank keeping the view open. It gives the impression that the horses can meander right up to the house and Kate can wave across the grass to them while she is digging over the beds.

The garden design was set out about 100 years ago and among its original features is a striking stone temple. It was starting to deteriorate a few years back, so a roof was added to weather-proof the structure and keep out the damp. Another addition under Kate’s watch are the topiary arches that run the length of the main lawn. “We put the metal framework in about 15 years ago and it’s taken that long to grow the topiary right over the top – we are nearly there, but not quite.”

With Kate’s passion for cooking and homegrown produce, an expansion of the fruit and veg plot was inevitable. The berries do very well each year – strawberries, raspberries and redcurrants among other varieties; and fruit trees include plums, pears and there are more apples in the orchard than you can shake a stick at.

“We’ve just replanted the blackcurrant plot,” says Kate. “They’re very happy here and always grow huge. The hazelnut trees produce well too, but the squirrels always get there before us.”

One of the biggest challenges is harvesting and storing the abundance of produce each year. “It’s a major operation,” says Kate. “We need as much help as we can get, not just with the picking, but eating it all as well. We give lots of it away and I store what I can. I’ve still got berries in the freezer from last year’s crop.”

Consequently, the family munch their way through a vast amount of vegetables. Kate loves experimenting with recipes and adding flavour with all sorts of herbs from the kitchen garden which was established by her mother in the 1980s. “I’m always trying out healthy recipes. I experiment on my children – they can be quite suspicious of me at meal times. I love to cook and am a real foodie.”

Set close to the house is a beautiful Italianate parterre put in by Kate’s father. The adjoining patio area makes a perfect space for an alfresco family dinner and catches the last rays of sun in the evening.

“The garden is ever-changing and beautiful throughout the year,” says Kate. “But this is one of my favourite months because everything is bursting with life and there’s still hope that we will see summer.”

• Croft Hall garden will be open to the public on Sunday, May 25, from 2pm to 5pm. Admission is £4 and free for children. Home-made teas will be available. Address: Croft Hall, Croft-on-Tees, DL2 2TB
• For more information on the National Gardens Scheme visit ngs.org.uk