A stately English manor and Star Wars may not seem to have much in common, bu that changed when two former set builders bought Caisson House, the 1815 headquarters of Somerset Coal Canal Company. For Phil and Amanda Honey, the move from London to this valley south of Bath marked a return to their bucolic roots. “I grew up a 10-minute walk away. I used to play on these grounds,” Phil says.
He and Amanda, a farm girl and professional garden designer who joined her husband’s company creating greenery sets for TV and film (including Star Wars), were eager to raise their kids close to nature and get their own hands back in real dirt. The couple was drawn to the property’s 40 acres of brambled gardens and sloping lawns.
Reinstating the original water features was top priority. “The whole history of Caisson is centered around the canal. It struck us as sad not to have water,” Amanda says. She designed an oblong pond by the entrance, replacing a “soulless car park,” she says, and brought the garden right up to the front door, with climbing roses and vines scrambling up the facade. “It feels magical being snuggled by the greenery and fragrance, and seeing the pond reflection from the bedroom window,” she adds.
A double helix–shaped rill, or water channel, runs into a lower pond where barges once waited for the locks. Meadows with wild orchids are left unmown during the summer, in keeping with the Honeys’ organic, sustainable gardening approach.
“It’s quirky and unconventional,” Amanda says of the landscape. “I love a romantic garden that’s a bit crumbly and not too perfect.” Phil cheers on the weeds. “They’re just plants in the wrong place,” he says. “I love that combination of gardening and wildness.”
A formal walled garden transitions into meadows and woodland beyond, but in early spring, all eyes are on the display of antique tulips in deep autumnal hues of magenta, orange, and inky plum. Forget-me-nots sprinkle in an airy flourish, while an English yew topiary and flowering crabapples add height and structure.
Intentionally spaced rectangular stepping stones slow the pace along this pathway between garden rooms, where an herbaceous border of white foxglove, lady’s mantle, and hostas spill out in a lush but not unruly spirit.
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