The secret garden
Our first impression of the house is it peeking through the foliage, a secret haven for the Terrys in the centre of York.
The arts and crafts influence is even visible from the first gaze of the garden. The house cuts across the line of the driveway creating our introduction to the asymmetric patterns echoed throughout the garden.
The unique shape of the chestnut trees lining the entrance was achieved through Pollarding –a pruning system promoting a dense head of foliage and branches, much like the ones that can now be seen at Goddards.
As you approach the house and look down across the orchard, the iconic clock tower at Terry’s chocolate works can be seen over what is now the County Stand at York Racecourse, linking the Terry home to the heart of the Terry chocolate empire.
Garden rooms
The gardens are divided into rooms in yet another feature of its Arts and Crafts style. The idea behind the rooms was that of a continuation of the house extending beyond the walls and into the garden. The outdoor rooms similarly to those in the house each perform a separate function - there are several such rooms including a bowling green, tennis lawn, terrace and rockery. If you stand on the terrace and look down on the garden you can see how hedges and shrubs provide the structure to these so called rooms.
The herbaceous border running across the back of the house is certainly one of the most spectacular rooms of the garden, coming alive with Delphiniums, Sedums and brightly coloured Rudbeckia blooms in late summer.
The bowling green and tennis lawn were very much used by the Terry family and their guests. It was always a garden to be lived in as well as looked at from the comfort of the terrace. The Terry children were known for racing up and down the gardens on their bikes, speeding down the hill and attempting to get back up to the top in one go!
The terrace anchors the house to the garden. You realise the house sits higher than the gardens which slope away. This allowed the Terrys to look down on their once bountiful rose garden and now allows you to appreciate the garden as Dillistone intended - as a landscape masterpiece.
