Patio design in Harlow Hill

The hill above Otley Road

The hill rises as Otley Road climbs west out of Harrogate, and the gardens behind the stone villas fall away from the back door. That fall is where our team starts, because a single paved plane on a dropping lawn would tilt the table and throw rain at the wall. Older houses on the ridge are local sandstone, and the side roads hold later family houses that still feel the gradient. Northward the ground drops towards Oak Beck and Harlow Carr; north-west, the houses thin towards Killinghall. We treat the garden as split levels: a terrace at the doors, a flight that makes the drop deliberate, and a lower lawn that still has a use. Flights and landings are set out in the guide to steps on Harrogate slopes.

Gritstone under the western ridge

The stone under this hill is Millstone Grit, the coarse Carboniferous sandstone of western Harrogate, already in the villa walls. The British Geological Survey names a Harlow Hill Sandstone in the local succession, and the coarser Almscliff Grit crops out in the Harlow Carr valley where the beck has cut the beds. Mudstone and siltstone lie between them, and glacial till, a stony clay, fills the hollows, so one plot meets firm rock while the next holds water. We read the geology viewer, then judge the hole. Soft topsoil comes out, a sheet goes down on clay, and crushed rock is firmed in thin lifts. Each slab sits on mortar under the whole of its underside, the plane falls away from the house, and air bricks stay clear so the base of the wall can dry.

A terrace on the falling lawn

A usable patio on this hill is a terrace cut into the slope, held on the downhill side by a low edge, with the lawn a step or two below. The sitting area stays near the doors, and the garden steps down: one wide step on a mild plot, or a longer flight with a landing where the ground drops towards the beck or across the width. Treads in the terrace stone make the flight part of the paving. A second seat, where the evening light lasts, can sit on the lower level and be reached by block paving, which also suits a bay by a shed because setts follow a curve. The main floor is natural stone against a villa, or porcelain where a later house and wide doors want an even joint.

Rain on the ridge and the beck below

Rain on a falling plot needs a route before the slabs go down. The terrace falls gently to a border, a lawn or a channel, still level enough for a chair, and a kerb on the uphill side stops a higher lawn shedding across the sitting area. Till in the hollows holds water longer than the grit on the crest, so a garden in a dip may need an outlet. The flood map for planning is the check when a long plot runs towards Oak Beck, whose valley has low ground of its own while the houses on the ridge sit above it. For most of the hill the task is surface water, and we note where a path has already sunk. What you see in wet weather, with the postcode on the quote form, is a useful start.

Council checks on a western garden

Harlow Hill stands above the town-centre conservation areas around the Stray. Many side streets are ordinary residential plots, though a villa can be listed, so we read the Planning Data conservation area map before the stone is chosen. A patio close to existing ground in a private back garden is the case we ask North Yorkshire Council to confirm. If the finished surface would stand more than about 300 millimetres above the lower ground, that is the height at which the council expects a planning application, and cutting the terrace into the slope keeps the figure comfortable. Between the front wall and the road, a new hard surface past a small area is expected to let rain through or to shed it to a border. From this ridge to the villages on our areas page, we read the slope, choose a surface that sits with the house, and then lay.

More places near Harlow Hill

• Patio design in Killinghall: North-west: family houses and farms on the road towards Ripon.
• Patio design in Knaresborough: East, beyond the town: the market town on the Nidd gorge.

Surfaces for gardens on the hill: yorkstone & sandstone, porcelain paving, block paved patios.

The full list of areas: All areas.

Patio FAQs for Harlow Hill

Sources: Planning Portal: patios; BGS Geology Viewer; Flood map for planning; Planning Data: conservation areas.