Basic HTML Version
10
City & Village Tours: 0845 812 5000 info@cityandvillagetours.com
Beth Chatto & The Ha’Penny Pier
Beth Chatto OBE has been described as
‘undoubtedly the most influential British
gardener of the last half-century.’
Mrs. Chatto’s gardening and writing uses
ecological principles developed from her late
husband Andrew Chatto's lifelong research
into the origin of garden plants. It may sound
obvious to us now because it has become
very familiar but the couple pioneered the
concept of choosing plants for specific areas
according to their natural habitat.
Influenced by the limitations and challenges
presented by an ambitious project to turn part
of her husband’s fruit farm into a garden this
pragmatic approach of “the right plant for the
right place” formed the subject matter for her
earliest books called quite simply The Dry
Garden, The Damp Garden, The Gravel
Garden and The Shade Garden.
Beth Chatto is now 89 and still spends a part
of each day in her garden. This remarkable
lady won ten consecutive gold medals at the
Chelsea Flower Show but is reluctant to
describe herself as a garden designer instead
she has often explained in interviews that she
simply puts the plants in the appropriate places
and not just the nearest available space.
“I have always said that we as people wouldn’t
want to be thrust into the nearest job.”
Our day trip Beth Chatto & The Ha’Penny Pier
begins in the charming and tiny port of
Manningtree and follows the picturesque River
Stour to Old Harwich which retains a seafaring
atmosphere. We stop for lunch in Old Harwich
where you can picnic on the grassy lawns that
look out over the river, choose a pub or
perhaps settle for a crab sandwich on the pier.
I saw my favourite ever sign here -
“Freshly Caught Crab Sandwiches”.
It still makes me chuckle years later.
If you’ve never been there before Old Harwich
is quite a find, far more attractive than its
workaday neighbour Harwich proper.
Old Harwich is an absolute gem, a mix of
photogenic and quirky buildings laid out on a
street plan untouched since mediaeval times
and with the added twist and turn of “dog leg”
streets to protect the locals from being slapped
in the face by the winter winds straight off the