YORKSHIRE craftsmen have helped create an oasis of tranquillity in the middle of London.

Visitors to the Chelsea Flower Show are being transported to a Yorkshire cottage garden overlooking a bridge and a waterfall. The stunning entry is the work of nine-times gold medal winner Julian Dowle commissioned by regional development agency Yorkshire Forward.

Called "Yorkshire - Alive with Opportunity" it has been in the planning since July last year and is made up of 29 trees, 200 woodland ferns, 14 climbers and 700 cottage plants and roses.

Twenty-six yards of Yorkshire paving flagstones have been used in the construction of the path and five lorry-loads of stone and roofing tiles have gone into building the beck and the barn.

Mr Dowle said: "There is a lot of emphasis on landscaping and using native trees and wild flowers native to Yorkshire, together with a stunning garden of cottage plants in a 12 by15 metres display."

The garden has been set in the limestone country of the Yorkshire Dales at the edge of a village.

The landscape is enlivened by a spring and waterfall filling the beck.

Yorkshire craftsmen have built dry stone walling in the garden and on the bridge to celebrate a tradition that goes back hundreds of years.