Malcolm and Carol Skinner moved to Eastgrove Cottage in Sankyns Green from Birmingham in 1975. The cottage is a half-timbered “yeoman farmhouse” dating back to the 17^th century and has a 3 acre garden. Malcolm and Carol set about making the quintessential English cottage garden – one that Patrick Taylor in his book “The Gardens of Britain and Ireland” described as “the definitive and irresistible cottage garden”. He went on to say that “If you do not know what a cottage garden should look like, this is a good place to learn…..it is flawlessly kept and full of lively planting and cunning design,”

In 1970, the Skinner family used to make a two-and-a-half-hour hour trek on bus and foot from Birmingham to have Sunday lunch at their remote half-timbered country cottage in the Worcestershire countryside they had first seen in a Birmingham Post advertisement. Malcolm Skinner was then a Birmingham hotelier and it was a pot of honey that brought them to Eastgrove Cottage. “We were visiting gardens with Carol’s parents and we happened to be passing near this garden. We saw a little notice saying ‘Honey for Sale’ and so we had a big pot of honey and that changed our life a little.”

By 1975 it had become their permanent home rather than a weekend retreat. Over the next 30 years, they turned the garden into one which ranked as one of the best cottage gardens in England. The Skinners also fashioned a mini-arboretum which they called “The Glade” to blend the garden into the surrounding rural landscape. The garden was opened to the public and developed an international reputation. The garden was not merely very attractive – it was designed to be productive with an orchard and chicken house. The Skinners used to run a nursery from the garden. They grew about 20,000 plants a year from their own stock selling a range of 1200 different varieties of herbaceous perennials to the 4000 visitors who came each year. Visitors could also also sample Malcolm Skinner’s famous loganberry ice cream with its pleasantly sharp sorbet taste!

Marina Duffell of the Worcestershire Black Pear Gardening Society wrote that “ you could buy almost any plant you had seen in the extensive garden. For the price of your purchase you always received, gratis, from Malcolm or Carol a brief history of your chosen plant and invaluable advice on its cultivation, not to mention an enjoyable discussion on any and every aspect of gardening”. She went on to say that “The reasons for my attachment to Eastgrove lay not only in the obvious enthusiasm and dedication of its proprietors. Their aesthetic appreciation of their lovingly-restored house was the pivotal point from which they developed the surrounding garden, always with an eye to the views from every angle. The sensitive and always-accurate assessment of colour-blending, variation of foliage, texture and non-plant decoration provided both peace and drama throughout. The “homely” touches of hens in an orchard, with cyclamen-sprinkled grassy areas lent yet another dimension, as did the sympathetic blending of the garden borders with the greenness of the countryside beyond.”
The garden even has two brick built privies – as it was, once upon a time – two cottages. In our recording, Malcolm and Carol tell the story about the origins of the cottage, its residents and the growth in the success of the garden in attracting both professional and amateur gardeners from around the world.

In 2007, Eastgrove Cottage Garden was named in the book “1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die” by Rae Spencer-Jones and Elizabeth Scholtz. Discussing Eastgrove, the authors said it was “full of horticultural riches” and that £the different areas are carefully colour-coordinated to reinforce a series of distinctive atmospheres.” But, by 2010, advancing years and ill health forced Malcolm and Carol to phase the buiness down and, in their words, to “shut the garden gate” but today they still spend hours in the garden refashioning it to make it easier to manage in later life

The cottages were part of the Witley Court Estate and this page from 1920 Sale catalogue at that time describes them as Nos 4 & 5 Sankyns Green.

Whilst renovating the cottage, Malcolm & Carol Skinner discovered very old shoes bricked up within the old  old baking oven, and describe the discovery in this recording .  This document describes the practice which occurred during the 16th to 18th centuries.

The recording below describes how the couple came to Eastgrove Cottage and developed the gardens of many years.

Filename: Skinner_MalcolmCarol_20141007_2_2_A.mp3  (27 mins : 11 secs)