Historic Arts and Crafts Garden in Essex Protected
The Garden of Great Ruffins in Wickham Bishops, Essex, has been protected by registration at Grade II and added to the National Heritage List for England.
The garden was created in 1903 by Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo, a nationally renowned architect, as part of plans for his family home.
A rare and important suburban Arts and Crafts landscape, Great Ruffins is the only known surviving example of a garden designed by Mackmurdo.
Harmonious living
Mackmurdo designed the landscape to demonstrate his social beliefs about harmonious living. With dramatic views, the garden descends through formal areas near the Grade II* listed house to more rustic woodland walks, and on to open countryside.
From the tower of Great Ruffins house, commanding views can be seen across the garden and wider landscape.
The protection of the garden at Grade II recognises its exceptional design qualities and the near-complete survival of its original layout, including features such as a terrace, a series of garden rooms, sunken rockery, cedar avenue and bowling green, surrounded by clipped yew hedges.
An unfilled ambition
Arthur and his wife Eliza never lived at Great Ruffins due to financial difficulties and by 1920 he had sold the house and moved to a cottage (Mackmurdo’s) which he had built on nearby Goat Lane.
Arts and Crafts gardens like Great Ruffins have had a great influence on British garden design. The Arts and Crafts movement emphasised harmony between buildings and landscapes, principles that continue to inspire designers and gardeners today. The protection of Great Ruffins Garden means that it will continue to be seen and enjoyed in the Essex landscape it was designed to complement, for generations to come.
A. H. Mackmurdo (1851 to 1942)
A. H. Mackmurdo was an influential designer, artist and architect within the Arts and Crafts movement. He co-founded the Century Guild of Artists in 1882 alongside Herbert Horne. Mackmurdo was a social reformer and was particularly interested in the social problems of rural areas, becoming the founding secretary of the Rural Community Council for Essex in 1929. In April 1926 Mackmurdo’s book ‘The Human Hive: Its Life and Law’ was published. In it, he pleaded for living wages and pensions fixed by the State, and for replacing a monetary system based on gold by a system founded on food vouchers.
- Great Ruffins is privately owned and not generally open to the public. The gardens are opened for special events in the summer.
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