Charlemagne had good relations with the Anglo Saxons of England and the Carolingian influence was felt in Britain.  The scholar Alcuin of York became his chief adviser.  When in later years Alcuin was given the abbey of St Martin at Tours, it became a great centre of learning, with many English scholars living there and also travelling back and forth to England.

During this period the monastic system was rapidly expanding and shortly after Charlemagne’s death in 814 a plan, (a copy of which is kept in St Gall, Switzerland), was drawn of an ideal monastery. It shows three gardens, one for medicinal herbs, a kitchen garden and another as an ornamental orchard, which is also the monks’ cemetery.

At about this time Walafrid Strabo wrote his Latin poem “Hortulus” which describes how he tames his nettles with a mattock, builds raised beds, using planks, fills them with earth and manure, and finally rakes the soil to a fine tilth a fine tilth.  He goes on to describe some of the plants that he grew in his garden.

In England, during the Later Saxon period, place names in the south suggest vineyards.  Gardens specifically set aside for growing herbs were known from Thorny and Ely, but no plans survive.

The Norman Conquest had a major impact on the transformation of gardens in England; The Domesday Book mentions 38 vineyards, which may have resulted because prisoners, brought into Britain  as many of William’s military aristocracy had been in close contact with Normans who had been in Southern Italy and Sicily.

Later, during the Crusades, the tough northern knights passed through Byzantium and Arabia where they saw, and were amazed by the opulence of the eastern pleasure grounds.

Within these carefully designed gardens was a lush growth of unknown exotic plants, set against the extravagant use of water for pools with fountains and rills which flowed away, to reappear elsewhere.

On their return, the battle-weary crusaders began to emulate what they had seen.  Within castles, turf seats and raised flowerbeds were built. Many songs of the Troubadours refer to lovers meeting privately in enclosed gardens, away from the bustle and prying eyes in the Great Hall.

Rose arbors of woven wood were built to allow the ladies to exercise and yet maintain their much-prized pale complexion.  Lawns within these gardens were often kept short with scything or planted with flowers, mirroring the meadows outside the confines of the enclosing walls. A fountain or a basin of water was an essential item in the garden, many fountains appear to have been very elaborately carved and gilded with gold.

Albertus Magnus writing in the 13th century stated that such gardens are “not of great utility of fruitfulness, but are designed for pleasure”.