The South Lawn
Aerial photographs have confirmed that the moat originally extended across this lawn, completely encircling the house. However, this section appears to have been filled in at an early stage. Certainly by 1781 Addison shows the remnants of a formal parterre in this area, which may be the ‘Garden Courts’ and ‘Squares’ referred to in Wiswall’s accounts at the beginning of the eighteenth century.

J. Suker’s view of 1865 (Blue Drawing Room) shows this lawn outlined by a path, which has recently been reinstated, and with flower-beds on the far side. Whilst the lawn will remain open, for occasional events, the south border is being replanted with flowering shrubs in the Victorian taste, such as lilacs, spiraeas, viburnums and mop-headed hydrangeas. A young Atlantic cedar has been planted in a focal position immediately opposite the sandstone gateway from the house. Behind it a grassy path meanders down to the Bund.

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The Rose Garden
Situated immediately outside the Great Parlour, it is likely that this area has always formed a small private garden since the sandstone porch was added in 1612. The present layout was reinstated in 1984 after the major building repairs and was based on old photographs of c.1900 A series of rectangular and L-shaped beds displays alternate plantings of ‘Little White Pet’ and ‘The Fairy’, with height provided by standard roses of the same cultivars.

The whole area is surrounded on two sides by modern shrub roses, such as ‘Golden Wings’, ‘Fritz Nobis’, ‘Saga’, ‘Pearl Drift’ and ‘Anna Zinkeisen’. The pastel salmon pink floribunda ‘Liverpool Echo’ is planted in the borders directly above the moat (that newspaper having sponsored the replanting of this Rose Garden). The strongly scented white ‘Margaret Merril’ is well situated by the path from the house.

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The Moat Borders
These borders were designed by Graham Stuart Thomas in the 1970s to complement the pink sandstone base of the old house. A background of dark foliage is provided by Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’, Berberis and Corylus maxima ‘Purpurea’. In the foreground are bold groups of hemerocallis astilbes, paeonies, crinums and sidalcea. To recreate the Victorian spirit, when the house was heavily shrouded in evergreens, ivy has been planted on the two chimneystacks, but this will be monitored to ensure that damage is not caused to the timber structure.

The Moat Border in the Victorian style
The formal rectangle of the west moat, part of Richard Watt V’s refurbishment of the 1850s is overhung by a rather older evergreen holm oak. Open air concerts or plays are occasionally held here in the summer.

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The North Lawn
The typical Victorian evergreen borders are sheltered by clumps of Corsican pine with occasional double red hawthorns and yellow-flowered laburnums in-between for late spring colour. The tall hybrid hollies, clipped in the traditional manner, are also a feature. Dramatic change in foliage is provided by groups of yuccas and pampas grass. Gradual replanting will be undertaken in these borders to replace the Rhododendron ponticum.

In the lawn itself are naturalised areas of heather, indicating an extremely acid soil, and perhaps representing a relic of the original heathland on the site of Stockton's Wood nearby.

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The Stream Garden
This recently replanted area is approached via the sandstone tunnel in the dell on the west side of the North Lawn. The whole site formed a long pond until it was drained in the mid-19th century, and it is now being restored with a planting scheme in the colourful taste of that period. Deciduous and evergreen azaleas and hybrid rhododendrons are interplanted with deciduous flowering shrubs such as amelanchier, philadelphus Spiraea, corylopsis and viburnums. Ferns, rodgersias and other damp-loving plants are being established by the water’s edge.

The upper walk of the Stream Garden, which has been planted to create a dark yew tunnel leads on to the west drive, at the end of which there used to stand a black and white lodge, a pair to that at the north entrance. Both these lodges were built in 1868 during Frederick Leyland’s tenancy.