English Courtyard Association

Ruth Elwood has worked with English Courtyard Association and their architect’s, Sidell Gibson Partnership, for almost 15 years during previous employment and since setting up ELD in 1999. The original concept for ECA developments was based on the traditional courtyard plan of almshouses, with the relationship of the buildings to the space around them of great importance. Ruth has worked on 12 out of 36 sites across the country to provide outstanding courtyard designs.

Responsibilities included site appraisals, landscape and visual impact assessments, concept design, detailed planting design, Japanese Knotweed eradication, tree surveys, and obtaining planning approval for sites comprising high specification retired housing developments.

Many ECA developments are located within areas of green belt, attractive, designated landscapes or have trees to be preserved. ELD regularly have additional planning policy requirements to fulfill as part of satisfying conditions to obtain planning approval.

Sites completed by ELD include:
Phase 2: Dunchurch near Rugby
Phase 2: Christ’s Hospital School in West Sussex
Shottery Hall near Stratford Upon Avon
Storrington in Sussex
Elton near Peterborough
Dallington Pond, Northamptonshire

Sites completed during previous employment include:
Phase 1: Christ’s Hospital School in West Sussex
Phase 1: Dunchurch near Rugby
Goodworth Clatford near Andover, Hampshire
Girton in Cambridgeshire
Marlborough in Wiltshire
Aldeborough in Suffolk

Christ’s Hospital, Horsham, West Sussex (left/above)

The Phase 1 area of English Courtyard’s Bluecoat Pond development at Christ’s Hospital, pictured left, won the ‘What House’, Best Landscape Award, during Ruth’s period of previous employment.

Phase 2 of the development, pictured top left, was designed by ELD and completed in 2004. The image illustrates a typical English Courtyard scheme, with mature plants and highly floristic, mixed borders that provide year round interest for residents.