The main gardens of Manor Hall were laid out in a symmetrical fashion by Dr Hiatt Cowles Baker (1864-1934), a Pro Chancellor of the University in 1934, a fact commemorated by an ornamental bird bath in the centre of the main lawn.
His expeditions abroad to collect seeds and plants from places as far apart as the Himalayas and China were shown, until its recent demise, by an oriental pear tree planted from one of these seeds. The oldest of the cherry trees and the two magnificent tulip trees date from his planting.
The garden in front of Manor House was rejuvenated in the 1980s when a long brick terrace, formerly housing outside lavatories, and areas of building rubble were removed. The wall dividing the garden from Sinclair House dates from 1802.
The theme of the garden is based on the trees which might have been found there in the eighteenth century: a medlar, sweet chestnut, wild cherry, walnut, mulberry, ornamental pear, crab apple, quince and assorted flowering cherry trees.