(click on the image to zoom-in)
Stoke Priory is a small manor house in Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk, standing upon
a rise in the landscape surrounded by the River Box.
It received much alteration during the last century, and its principal front
is an irregular and eccentric mix of Tudor windows and gables, some
Georgian features and Jacobethan detailing. A new loggia constructed from columns
with Corinthian capitals is attached to the house at the end of the terrace on the
south front. A walled garden containing handsome box-edged beds is flanked on one
side by a recently restored Victorian glass-house with a central pediment. A statue
of Mercury stands in the centre. A vista through delicate iron gates leads the eyes
to a lawn walk - passing a raised bed system potager. Several ponds on
various levels feed into one another, eventually reaching the main pond at the bottom
of the lawn in front of the house, from which a view of the Chinese Tea House, with
its golden dragons can be seen.
The project is to create a map-like garden painting of the site, incorporating
various vignettes and cartouches showing vistas and garden structures.



