CRAFT, CHALK AND COLLABORATION: A CONVERSATION WITH STEVE JEFFERIES

As garden designers, we often speak about working with the land — shaping, responding, listening. But the landscapes we create are also shaped by the people who help bring them to life. Collaborations with skilled craftspeople are central to our work, especially those who bring a deep understanding of traditional materials and ways of building.

Towards the end of last year, we hosted a talk with Steve Jefferies, founder of Lime Heritage Builders. Steve has spent over 40 years working with chalk cob and lime, much of it in the Wiltshire countryside where he grew up and learned his craft from his father. His work is rooted in place, guided by a quiet respect for old methods and the natural behaviour of materials.

Chalk cob — a soft, subtle material with deep ties to the local geology — requires a particular kind of patience and knowledge. Steve spoke to us not just about technique, but about rhythm and relationship: with time, with weather, with soil. His buildings don’t impose themselves on the landscape, but settle into it, gradually and gracefully.

It was a privilege to share space and conversation with someone whose approach so closely echoes our own: attentive, grounded, and led by the character of the materials themselves.

We're always grateful for these moments of exchange.