Hidden away in East Yorkshire is an attractive garden which has become a gallery, as JOHN WHEATCROFT discovers.

MANY of us dream about how we might spend our time after retirement. German teacher Paul Priestley-Leach acted on his fantasy by creating a gallery of sculptures and ceramics in the garden of his home in East Yorkshire.

He says: "I joked about the idea of having my own gallery and sitting around in a hammock with a glass of wine in my hand. After I took early retirement, friends said to me 'where's this gallery?' and I decided it was time I did something about it."

Now Paul is holding his fourth annual summer exhibition at the Jack in the Bush Gallery in the garden of his home in Manor Road, Swanland, North Ferriby. There's a growing interest in garden design and he believes that sculptures and ceramic pieces come into their own in an outdoor setting, whether to complement surroundings or introduce an element of surprise or humour.

To his delight, artists did not take much persuading to display their work.

He says: "I had a nice garden which was very suitable. I knew some artists so I approached them and found that people who produce work to be displayed outdoors were very pleased to be able to display it in the right setting. I was staggered by how ready they were to offer their work for exhibition."

Paul and his wife Margrit travel around the country to see artists and, partly through word of mouth and - in the current jargon - 'networking', the annual summer exhibition has grown. This year they are displaying work by 16 artists, many with a national reputation. Several have exhibited with them before and they try to introduce a few new names into each exhibition.

Pieces range from the figurative to the abstract, from masks, pots and bird baths to stone and wood carvings; many artists are willing to accept individual commissions. The exhibition should appeal to anyone with an interest in art or garden design, and you don't have to be the Lord of the Manor to display ceramics or stoneware.

Paul, whose own house is a 1960s' property, says: "There's been a common perception that sculpture only belongs in large gardens, but even the smallest backyard can be enlivened by your own chosen work of art."

Jack in the Bush is an alternative name for a green man, the leaf-clad figure who appears in sculptures and is associated in European folklore with spring festivals.

If you're heading east for a day out, perhaps to Beverley or Hornsea, the Jack in the Bush gallery is well worth a look and Swanland itself, eight miles from Hull, is an attractive village with its own duck pond.

Fact file

The Jack in the Bush gallery in a garden summer exhibition is open from 11am-6pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays until the end of August and other times by appointment (01482 633530). Entry is free. To get there follow the signs to North Ferriby and then Swanland off the A63, before the Humber Bridge.