The River Stour is a 47-mile river in East Anglia, flowing from Cambridgeshire through Suffolk and Essex to the sea at Harwich. It forms much of the boundary between Suffolk and Essex, and it has been an important part of this landscape for centuries.
I spend a lot of time walking along it. Not once in a while: hundreds of times.
A river that is never static
It’s where I go to clear my head. Most of my best ideas don’t come from sitting at a desk. They come while walking the same paths, over and over again. What I like about the Stour is that it’s never static.
The river edges shift through the seasons: wet margins in winter, wildflowers and long grasses in summer. Reeds, hedgerows, trees, open water and muddy edges make lots of small habitats sitting right next to each other, all doing different jobs. The more often you walk it, the more you notice.
Spring brings movement and growth. Summer feels fuller and more energetic. Autumn slows things down. Winter strips everything back to structure.
What I take into my work
That cycle has a big influence on how I design gardens. I’m always thinking about:
- How spaces change through the year
- How planting supports wildlife, not just looks good
- How a place settles rather than shouts
- How small details add up over time
The Stour has been shaping this landscape for centuries. It powered mills, fed villages and inspired artists like John Constable. But for me, it’s less about history and more about use. It’s a working landscape: lived in, walked through and changed by weather, people and time.
Design doesn’t need to be loud. It needs to make sense and it needs to work. Ideally, it should give people the same feeling I get from those walks: a bit more space to think.
That’s where most of my inspiration comes from.
Filed under Place stories on 26 January 2026
