Hawthorne Cottage

Hawthorne Cottage is a smallholding in Grindon in the Staffordshire Moorlands. The project involved the construction of a manège to allow all year round schooling.

The area was levelled and a network of perforated land drains installed. A geotextile membrane filters out any fine particulates percolating down through the free draining aggregate layer above. A further membrane separates the drainage layer from the surface dressing. A variety of materials can be used for the top layer, including coarse sand or bark chips. In this case recycled chipped rubber is used as a durable, low maintenance alternative.