Hackfall, North Yorkshire

The completion in Spring 2008 of a schedule of works to restore the Grade I listed woodland gardens at Hackfall to their original splendour is the culmination of almost six years work for our team of landscape architects, landscape historians, ecologists and hydrologists.

Hackfall was a major tourist attraction in the late 18th and 19th centuries, the woodland setting providing the perfect background for the series of paths and vistas that lead to numerous romantic follies and breath-taking water features throughout the wooded valley.

However, by the early years of the 20th century, Hackfall lay forgotten, and most of the mature trees were felled. The woodland gradually re-grew, and fortunately many ancient woodland species survived, but ponds, weirs, follies and paths had become badly damaged.

Our team set about restoring William Aislabie's romantic vision, revealing once more his dramatic vistas, carefully restoring follies to their structurally sound but ruinous state, reinstating paths on their original lines and bringing back to life long lost springs, cascades and weirs. Our current work sees us restoring Fountain Pond and its beautiful water jet, gravity-fed from the valley side.

Our work at Hackfall won us the inaugural 2008 RIBA ⁄ Landscape Institute White Rose Landscape Award.