There’s a wicked wind from the west but that isn’t bothering anyone in the garden of the Russell-Cotes Museum where they are protected from the onslaught by a giant holm-oak hedge.

And anyway, they’re all about the East up at East Cliff Hall.

Had I noticed, asks visitor services manager, Miranda Prescot, the way the hedge is clipped in a bumpy, rounded pattern?

“It’s a Japanese cloud effect,” she says, describing how it takes a team of professional snippers a couple of days each time.

The oriental influence is all around, with a series of ponds, waterfall beds and a sturdy red Japanese bridge, as well as the more usual Victorian accoutrements of rose-walks, a fountain, a fish pond and a grotto. They were the brainchild of the energetic Sir Merton and Annie Russell-Cotes, but after their family home became a museum the scheme fell victim to gentle and cash-induced neglect.

“Merton and Annie had a whole team of gardeners; we just have our wonderful volunteers,” says Miranda, gratefully.

The volunteers began after the museum took the chance offered by the building of its new wing to get a historical garden consultant to devise a plan to restore the grounds to their former splendour.

“This is very much putting it back to how they would recognise it,” says Miranda.

Certainly Merton and Annie would be amazed at the size to which the single holm oak they planted to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VII has grown. And they’d be surprised that the tiny yews they no doubt cooed over on the terrace became so unruly they had to be felled. Even that was not the end of them, as Miranda explains.

“Each year in heavy rain you’d get this dip as you walked down the steps,” she says.

“It seemed OK but suddenly a large hole appeared so we dug it out and discovered what we thought was part of the back-fill for the terrace until we looked at some old pictures and realised it was a root.”

Now, to mark its position as part of the garden’s story it is displayed on the waterfall flower beds which themselves were covered in bamboo until the volunteers got going.

Sue Sampson, who has retired from her job in finance, is one of these horticultural heroes and explains how they literally ‘rolled up the bamboo like a carpet’.

“It was covering the hard-landscaping,” she says, pointing to the giant, ironstone rock bed which cascades from the building’s right hand corner into the centre of the space.

“We knew there was something underneath it but we weren’t sure what.” Now they’re planning to enhance the feature by planting more yellow sedum in the bed to draw the eye down.

Most of the garden’s ironstone came from the Purbecks and the clinker and old tiles for the grotto came from Brownsea, says Miranda. Many of the plants, however, were raised by the volunteers themselves.

Sue is full of praise for the Cherry Tree nursery where they keep a bed filled with plants ‘on the point of death’.

“For a small donation they let us have 120 ailing lavenders so I took them home and brought them on myself before bringing them back here,” she says, indicating the flourishing plants besides the new path.

It’s a rare dedication but, she says, the little band could easily accommodate more and they would love new helpers. She’s also trying to find a company to sponsor the long bed against the yew hedge they share with the Royal Bath Hotel. Miranda’s dream is to have the garden licensed for weddings so it can generate its own income.

“You know that story The Secret Garden?” she asks.

“For us who work here it’s been a bit like that; the idea of peeling it back, layer by later. We’d love more people to share and care for it with us because it really is a huge asset to the town.”

  • Volunteers and sponsors can contact the Russell-Cotes on 01202 451800