St Godwald's Retreat
An RHS Malvern Spring Festival Show Garden 2025
Designed and built by F.B & Sons for Primrose Hospice & Family Support Centre
About the Designer
Marc Harbourne-Bessant
Marc Harbourne-Bessant, designer of St Godwald’s Retreat, a director at F.B. & Sons, a company built on family values, craftsmanship, and a deep respect for the environment. With a passion for creating gardens that tell a story, Marc’s designs focus on sustainability, traditional skills, and materials that carry history within them.
The inspiration behind St Godwald’s Retreat is deeply personal. Marc has experienced first-hand the incredible care and support that hospices provide—his father was a hospice service user, and through that journey, Marc saw the vital role these spaces play for patients and their families.
A hospice is more than a place of care; it is a space for comfort, dignity, and reflection. Designing this garden for Primrose Hospice is Marc’s way of giving back, creating a lasting sanctuary for others who need that same support.
Marc has chosen to honour the past in both theme and construction, using ancient crafting techniques and reclaimed materials to shape the garden. The wattle and daub gazebo, hand-built with lime-hemp render, reflects time-honoured building methods that still hold relevance today. Every piece of stone in the garden is reclaimed, reducing the environmental footprint while giving new life to materials with their own stories to tell. Even the pathways, formed with crushed whelk shells—a fishing by-product—demonstrate how sustainable choices can shape a thoughtful, environmentally conscious design.
For Marc, St Godwald’s Retreat is more than a show garden; it’s a tribute—to his father, to the work of hospices, and to the enduring value of traditional skills and sustainable craftsmanship. After RHS Malvern, the garden’s relocation to Primrose Hospice will ensure that its purpose continues, offering peace and reflection to those who need it most.
