Norney Wood, Elstead Road

Norney Wood is known for its Arts and Crafts garden, created for Richard and Jean Thompson in 2010 and developed and maintained by them until they moved in 202z.

The garden is designed as a formal structured arrangement of spaces, with a strong axial line running north-south through the site as a spine to unite the two main garden areas. The ‘thunder house’, inspired by a passage in Gertrude Jekyll’s writings, is the heart of the garden and marks the junction of the upper and lower gardens. From here a view back to the house across the formal lawn, with its exuberant planted borders, is contrasted with a view into the lower garden beyond. Here a large rectangular pool flanked by simple green lawns and contained by low yew hedges creates a calm and tranquil space, settled into the natural woodland surround.

The Thompsons regularly opened the garden to the public under the National Gardens Scheme. There are a lot more photos of it here