Away from the main garden, a shaded path lined with azaleas and camelias leads down to the secluded Water Garden, neglected for the past 70 years and now being recreated by Simon and Krysia, the current owners, together with visionary landscape gardener Steve Hyde. Multiple water sources - including a medieval Holy Well – flow into a lily pond from which a stream cascades down into the meadow to join the river. Paths lead here and there, and in the Dell an ancient Celtic cross stands below a grotto. Last year, after seeing an old photograph featuring a heart-shaped flight of stone steps, Simon and Krysia dug down through layers of soil and leaf-mold to find the steps lying underneath. Further discoveries surely await. 

Down in the meadow, Lavethan’s giant plane tree is reputed to have the widest girth in the South West, and some of the magnificent oaks have featured in the National Portrait Gallery in a photographic artwork by Tacita Dean. The panoramic view across the valley, looking over the Waterloo river and Lavethan Wood, is magical in every season.