Orchards, Guildford, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

The site of Orchards, then heathy woodland with fields to the north about 1.2km north-east of Munstead Wood (see description of this site elsewhere in the Register), was purchased in early 1897 by Mr and Mrs (later Sir William and Lady) Chance, he being a successful QC with a deep-rooted desire to live in the country in a self-sufficient and gently philanthropic way, and she being a cousin of Lytton Strachey, a talented sculptress, and a believer in the Arts and Crafts Movement. The architect Halsey Ricardo had been commissioned to design a house, his brief including a north light for Julia's studio and a sunny aspect for William's writing room but his design did not meet with their aproval. Walking to the site from Godalming station, the Chances saw 'a house [Munstead Wood] nearing completion, and on the top of a ladder a portly figure giving directions to some workmen. The house was a revelation of unimagined beauty and charm' (Julia Chance, quoted in Brown 1982). Miss Jekyll (1843-1932) encouraged them to change architects and employ Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944), which they did. During its three-year gestation, in a workshop set aside for him at Munstead Wood, Lutyens 'used up yards of tracing paper' (Festing 1994). Lutyens' brief was to design a house like Munstead Wood but larger and a little grander and conditioned by its site, in the same tradition of Surrey picturesque, the result being, according to Christopher Husssey, 'a symphony of local materials, conducted by an artist, for artists' (quoted in Festing 1994).

Miss Jekyll was a strong influence not only on the basic use of the site for its light and views but also on the layout of the garden. Her first signed full-length article in Country Life in 1901 was on the building of Orchards. The site remains (1999) in private ownership.