Abbey Yard
Glastonbury Abbey, England
At Glastonbury Abbey, we created a new focus for the site entrance, taking inspiration from what had been hidden over the years as well as the surrounding Somerset landscape. As a Scheduled Ancient Monument with Grade I and II listed buildings, this is the most sensitive project we have worked on. Any excavations below 300mm deep required an archaeologist to supervise, so we had to reduce excavations as much as possible.
We wanted to celebrate St. Patrick’s Chapel to make it the entrance focal point, highlighting the old north wall. We also sought to make a tranquil garden around the chapel, with a domestic scale reflecting the character of the historic alms house that used to be on the site. This garden was defined along the line of the lost 14th–15th century wall.
Status
Work In Progress
Client
Architect
Structure & Civil Engineer
Integral Engineering Design
Quantity Surveyor
Synergy Consulting and Property Consulants
Main Contractor
Qube Construction
Landscape Contractor
Walmsley Shaw
Response to Site
Understanding the genius loci for the project was difficult as the 1990s development had obscured much of its specialness. It was not until we walked around with John Allan, the Abbey’s Archaeologist, that we understood there was a story hiding beneath the surface. We started exploring what could be removed in order to reveal the key elements.
The whole landscape is designed to retain, infiltrate and slowly release surface water from the roofs and the paved areas. Water is stored under the paving within the subbase and also within the rain gardens that line the entrance, framing the view to St Patrick’s Chapel. This solution is an important element of the landscape as the Somerset Levels – a few hundred metres away – regularly flood in winter, causing serious issues.
Materials in Use
Materiality was a key focus of this project, so we sourced local stone and used the local vernacular style of laying it. Pennant was chosen as it’s the traditional sandstone for paths in the south-west of England. We also reused the Lias from the removed buildings and walls to fray the edges of the pennant paving, tying into the existing paving to reduce the amount of new materials and to avoid crisp definite edges which would not have matched the Glastonbury character. A local stone chipping was used as a mulch for the rain gardens and to help blur the edges between paving and planting.
Plants in Use
Rain gardens line either side of the entrance, helping to focus views of the newly revealed St Patrick’s Chapel. The rain gardens contain sun-loving plants on the south-facing side and shade-loving grasses and groundcover on the north-facing side. We used Hydrangea quercifolia and Mahonia eurybracteata subsp. ganpinensis ‘Soft Caress’ as the key structure plants.
The planting in front of St Patrick’s Chapel gable end has clipped pin cushion Taxus baccata with Bistorta, Salvia and Veronicastrum spires emerging. The planting around the café has been designed to support the ecology, providing food and habitat for invertebrates with old tree trunks from the Abbey grounds used as an informal hibernaculum.
Enhancing Habitats
The Abbey is home to nine different bat species, some of which are very rare with as few as 1,000 individuals left in the UK. Working closely with an ecologist, our planting design supported the bats with nectar-rich planting to provide food and habitat for invertebrates all year round. A hazel fence was installed along the north wall to provide a dark passage for the bats.
