Tuesday 5 July – A partnership between the Normandy Tourist Board and Hastings & 1066 Country has produced an award winning garden at this year's RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Yesterday, Monday 4 July, Le Clos d'Hastings Medieval Garden was awarded the bronze medal in the World Garden category.

Normandy and Hastings & 1066 Country share more than just William the Conqueror, and both sides of the Channel have a strong tradition of gardening. Le Clos d'Hastings Medieval Garden marks the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, famously depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry and celebrates the natural synergies between England and Normandy.

Designed and created by Normandy natives Stéphane Marie, gardener and TV presenter of the highly popular French television show, Silence, ça pousse, and Alexandre Thomas of the Agapanthe Garden near Rouen, the idea behind Le Clos d'Hastings Medieval Garden was to re-create a centuries-old landscape: hedges traditionally planted with bushes and low trees, which were trained to form a fence of interwoven branches. These hedgerows were also planted with larger trees to create a linear forest that typifies Normandy's so called bocage landscapes.

Le Clos d'Hastings Medieval Garden evokes ancestral meadows, with barley growing alongside flax (the plant that provided the material on which the Bayeux Tapestry was embroidered), daisies and meadow flowers. It also features a densely planted area designed like a Baroque tapestry and plants from across the globe that the English and Normans have enjoyed exchanging for centuries.

Upon receiving the bronze medal, designer Stéphane Marie said: “I am very pleased and touched to be awarded the bronze medal for a World Garden. The RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Shower is a very prestigious event in the gardening calendar and it is truly an honour for me and Alexandre to be here this year. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with the Normandy Tourist Board and Hastings & 1066 Country on this exciting project.”

Step back in time this week with the Normandy Tourist Board and Hastings & 1066 Country and celebrate the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings on stand HC/718 at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, which runs from Tuesday 5 July to Sunday 10 July.

-ENDS-

Find out more about parks and gardens in Normandy and Hastings & 1066 Country here:

www.normandy-tourism.org/gardens | www.visit1066country.com/gardens

Join us to commemorate the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings in this exciting year:

www.medieval-normandy.co.uk | www.visit1066country.com/950  

For more information on the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2016, click here.

For more information, please contact:

Fran Lambert, Press Officer for the Normandy Tourist Board

Tel: +44 (0)20 7061 6637

Email: fran.lambert@atout-france.fr

Twitter: @NormandyPRUK