Chapter 1

As well as his work at ‘Pilbeck’ in Anglia and ‘Chagwell Norton’ in Somerset, Odham MacGuinness spent many years creating his own personal gardens, firstly at ‘Shardeloes’ (described by Hessey as being ‘a tinker’s Chine, full of noodlings and places to indulge in opiates and the like’), and later at ‘Buckthorney’ where he lived with his second wife Anna-Maria.

The gardens at Shardeloes dispensed with many of the  conventions of the day; gone were the lakes of trout and sweeping vistas of manicured lawn, in their place a modest pond spanned by a sloping bridge and shingled paths edged with river smoothed borders. Hidden in one of the remote corners of the estate, a wooden chalet nestled beneath two magnificent Ash trees, peering over an expanse of water which was home to a rich and varied collection of frogs from all over the Borough.

The beauty of Shardeloes, as was only to be expected with a garden that broke with so many traditions, did not sit well with all. Incapable Jones in his Gardeners Quarterly referred to it harshly as ‘a right old mess, I wouldn’t be seen urinating in it’s water if you paid me’ . Although seemingly unconcerned by the vehemence his work produced in others, Odham MacGuinness was clearly stung by such comments and resolved that his next creation would silence his critics once and for all. He began drawing up plans for what was to become his finest seventeen minutes: ‘Buckthorney. ‘