Enid Blyton's old garden - The Thatch

Old Thatch is a 17th century thatched home - too impressive to be called a "cottage" - on the banks of the Thames, about 40 kms west of London in Coldmoorholme Lane, Bourne End, Buckinghamshire. It is a perfect setting to inspire a writer with a vivid imagination, which is one reason children's author Enid Blyton penned many of her most memorable stories here. Old Thatch was Enid Blyton's home from 1929 to 1938, and where her two daughters, Gillian and Imogen, were born.

As Blyton related in "The Story of My Life", Old Thatch appealed to her because it was "exactly like a house in a fairy-tale of long ago." It appeared in many of her books when the story called for a cottage or an inn. She had a strong sense that her time in the home was just a snippet of its long, fascinating history.

"It had once been a cosy little inn called the Rose and Crown, and many people had been happy there," Blyton wrote. "For that reason I used to think the house had a lovely feel to it -- friendly, happy, welcoming. It had an old well with a bucket to wind up and down, it had hidden treasure that nobody could ever find, and it even had a 'ghost'."

The highly coveted star puts Old Thatch in the top seven percent of gardens open to the public in the British Isles and Ireland, another good reason for visiting it aside from the Blyton connection.

The garden is inspiring in a very old English kind of way. www.elspethbriscoe.com

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Tags: blyton, briscoe, design, elspeth, enid, More…garden
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