National Trust
The Courts Garden
Nestled in the heart of the village of Holt, The Courts Garden is a listed historic garden owned and run by The National Trust. The Orchard Room near the arboretum houses an exhibition designed and built by Sarner about The Courts Garden exploring its fascinating history, its previous owners and the cloth mill that once stood here. The exhibition adds a new level of engagement for the visitors through personal stories, large graphics panels and hands-on interactive displays.
Location
Wiltshire, UKServices
Concept Design & Visualisation - Scheme & Detailed Design - Technical Design - Set and Staging Design - Interactives - Graphics - Lighting - Theming - Art Direction - Installation Supervision - Construction & Installation - Upgrades and ExtensionsAwards
TripAdvisor - Travellers’ ChoiceLinks
Client's brief
The Courts Garden is a hidden gem, an oasis for those in the know, and yet research showed that visitors did not necessarily understand its story or form as deep an emotional connection as the National Trust would have liked. Sarner was therefore chosen to design, produce and install an exhibition to address these issues.
As the garden evolves through the seasons, the exhibit needed to be updatable and have elements dedicated to helping visitors look for specific seasonal highlights.
Our Solution
The exhibition enables visitors to explore the fascinating history of the garden, including learning about previous owners and the cloth mill that once stood here. Sarner themed the exhibition to look like the interior of a garden shed so that it stayed sympathetic to its setting and added a dynamism to the content.
Alongside information printed on the walls, visitors are encouraged to explore the room for additional discovery points. By looking at the tea cup on the work bench visitors find out about when the Queen came to tea in the garden. When reading about the cloth that was once produced on the site, visitors could feel a sample. Turning the steam powered mill, information about the industrial past of the site is revealed.
