The C19th Garden part 4

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A 6-part online lecture series, our 4th on Victorian Gardens once a week on Thursdays @ 10 am starting 3 Nov. Tickets £30 or £5 each

Ask most people to describe the greatest days of British garden history and they’ll probably end up talking about the grand gardens of Edwardian England where lots of staff worked on maintaining huge flower borders, vast kitchen gardens and seemingly endless shrubberies. In other words the sort of garden that has been labelled the Golden Age of gardening in Britain. Is that a realistic view? By the late C19th Britain had moved from being a rural to an urban nation. Cities expanded but nostalgia for the countryside was widespread, while new suburbs developed a culture of their own. Technology and mechanisation continued to change life, usually but not always for the better, but there were also constant calls to return to traditional methods, which were reflected in gardens. While nurseries filled our gardens with huge numbers of new plants from round the world, at the same time there was greater interest in wild flowers and natural planting. This affected garden styles and designs, and everything became possible - from imitation exotic Japanese gardens to reimagined Tudorbethan parterres and blowsy labour-intensive herbaceous borders. At the same time interest in horticulture spread right across the social scale as seed companies enabled anyone with a little space and a few spare pennies to take up gardening for themselves. So while it’s true that in many ways this truly was a Golden Age it’s also true that it contained within it the seeds of its own destruction as we’ll see in our next series on gardening between the two world wars which starts in January.This ticket is for the entire course of 6 sessions. or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £5 via the links below.Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us), and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week.Due to a recent Apple decision to charge a 30% fee for paid online events unfortunately you may no longer be able to purchase this ticket from the Eventbrite iOS app. Please use a web browser on desktop or mobile to purchase or follow the link <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/checkout-external?eid=445595426917" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">here.</a>.﻿....

<a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-c19th-garden-part-4-painting-the-gardens-of-the-golden-age-tickets-446249392947" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Week 1. 3 November: Painting the Gardens of the Golden Age.</a> First in a series of 6 online lectures, £5 each or all 6 for £30.<a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-c19th-garden-part-4-exploring-the-arts-and-crafts-garden-at-standen-tickets-446277607337" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Week 2. 10 November: Exploring the Arts and Crafts garden: Philip Webb at Standen</a> . Second in a series of 6 online lectures, £5 each or all 6 for £30.<a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-c19th-garden-part-4-the-talented-miss-jekyll-1843-1932-tickets-446302261077" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Week 3. 17 November: The Talented Miss Jekyll (1843-1932)</a>. Third in a series of 6 online lectures, £5 each or all 6 for £30.<a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-c19th-garden-pt-4ethel-webb-and-the-japanese-garden-at-newstead-abbey-tickets-446323474527" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Week 4. 24 November: Ethel Webb and the Japanese Garden at Newstead Abbey</a>. Fourth in a series of 6 online lectures, £5 each or all 6 for £30.<a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-c19th-garden-part-4-nurseries-and-seedsmen-tickets-446326333077" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Week 5. 1 December: Nurseries and Seedsmen.</a> Fifth in a series of 6 online lectures, £5 each or all 6 for £30.<a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-c19th-garden-part-4-where-the-suburbs-meet-utopia-tickets-446332391197" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Week 6. 8 December: Where the Suburbs meet Utopia.</a> Last in a series of 6 online lectures, £5 each or all 6 for £30..…..

Week 1. 3 November: Painting the Gardens of the Golden Age with David MarshThe first talk in the series will look those artists who created the impression that the period leading up to the Great War was the Golden Age of British gardening. As we have seen in previous lectures gardens were never a major subject for artists until the mid-C19th but then they takes centre stage. This is partly because of a growing interest in gardening and partly because art was now becoming more commercialised. Many garden artists worked in watercolour, a much more affordable medium for the growing number of middle class collectors. There were more artists societies, more commercial galleries and exhibitions of living artists work and more opportunities for their work to be used in colour in books, magazines and prints.In the last series we saw the work of artists like Myles Birkett Foster and Frederic Walker who painted prettified and idealised versions of the gardens of the rural poor, but from the 1880s onwards they were joined on the gallery wall by those of artists like George Elkgood and Arthur Rowe who preferred the gardens of the rural rich whose country house estates combined nostalgia for old-fashioned gardens with historical revivalism in architecture. Their paintings were romantic in style, lush and soft in colour and light and its gardens of the Golden Age are their creation. …..

Week 2. 10 November: Exploring the Arts and Crafts garden: Philip Webb at Standen with Caroline IkinThe Arts and Crafts was an ethos rather than a style, and it is therefore difficult to define in simple terms. Taking the example of Standen in West Sussex, a garden created in harmony with Philip Webb’s designs for the house, this lecture will examine how the Arts and Crafts was manifest in gardens, both in planting and in design, and will look at the work of amateur gardeners as well as professionals. The relationship between gardens, architecture and interior design will be explored through the lens of the remarkably complete example at Standen. The influence of key figures such as William Morris, John Sedding and Thomas Mawson will be assessed, as well as their legacy in the twentieth century in the work of designers such as Gertrude Jekyll and Nora Lindsay.…..

Week 3. 17 November: The Talented Miss Jekyll (1843-1932) with Cherrill SandsNow known mainly as a garden designer and plantswoman, Gertrude Jekyll combined creativity and mastery of many crafts. She was described as a ‘pioneer spirit’. Jekyll trained at the School of Art in South Kensington, where she showed talent in painting, metalwork and embroidery. As a true Arts and Crafts practitioner, she studied and mastered every craft thoroughly.In 1884 she acquired 15 acres of land in Munstead, Surrey where she would build her home and used the garden as a trial ground, experimenting, extending her knowledge of plants and breeding her own improved varieties. The plant nursery followed, from which she was able to supply plants for her clients.Jekyll was a keen photographer and wrote many books and articles for Country Life and other gardening magazines. She was involved with some 400 garden commissions for clients in America, Europe and the UK. Her legacy continues to this day.…..

Week 4. 24 November: Ethel Webb and the Japanese Garden at Newstead Abbey with Philip E Jones and Graham HardmanEthel Mary Webb, daughter of wealthy landowner William Frederick Webb, was born at Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire, in 1862. She was reputedly one of the best amateur gardeners in England at the end of the 19th century.In 1892 she visited Yokohama in Japan with her father William and her sister Geraldine, as part of a world tour. The visit fired Ethel’s interest in Japanese art and gardens and inspired her to create a Japanese garden at Newstead Abbey. This talk follows the achievements of one Victorian lady at a time when tackling even the toughest practical jobs was becoming an acceptable activity for upper class women.I﻿mage: Japanese Garden, Newstead Abbey with tea house, 1909. © Nottingham City Museums and Gallery…..

Week 5. 1 December: Nurseries and Seedsmen with David MarshMuch of the driving force behind the development of gardens during this period was due to the success and enterprise of Britains nurseries and seedsmen. They led the way in scouring the globe for new plants for British gardens and greenhouses, introducing them in to commercial production and encouraging the spread. of gardening through cheap and reliable seeds. Companies like Carters, Suttons and Veitches transformed British horticulture in just a few generations, becoming internationally important businesses. But they were not alone. There were dozens of others, smaller in scale, but no less important in impact, taking advantage of improved rail networks, cheap postage and printing, as well as increased leisure time. This talk will tell their story, primarily through the example of Carters Seeds, which was the largest in Britain and later one of the largest in the world. …..

Week 6. 8 December: Where the Suburbs meet Utopia with Twigs WayBetween 1801 and 1901 the population of England and Wales rose from 8.9 million to 32.6 million, with the majority pouring into the expanding urban fringes. Gardens flourished in the new suburbs, allowing aspiring homeowners to demonstrate their fortunes and their taste. As James Shirley Hibberd declared ‘He who lays out his garden in accordance with correct principles of taste, may find it as much amusement, and as genuine a solace from the cark and care of life, as if it were a domain of thousands of acres’. Gardening periodicals provided everything from over-sized hedge cutters to (mini) hothouses for suburban homeowners anxious to create individual utopias in identical spaces. Women and children joined the movement to create paradise in Pooter-land. As the century progressed, colourful annual bedding and newly introduced conifers gave opportunity for differentiating the fashionable from the outmoded, the comfortably-off from the merely aspiring, and the morally upright from the delinquent.Image: Front garden, early 20th century. © Garden Museum Ref 2000-327…..

Graham Hardman is Honorary Vice-President, Japanese Garden Society. He has been a freelance garden designer for over 20 years, with a special interest in Japanese gardens. He has co-designed and managed construction of several Japanese gardens in public spaces and has been awarded a gold and two silver medals for show gardens at the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show. In 2015 the Japanese Government awarded Graham the ‘Order of the Rising Sun with Gold Rays and Rosette’ for services in furthering awareness of Japanese culture in the UK through Japanese gardens..….. Dr Caroline Ikin is a Curator at the National Trust, with a portfolio including the gardens at Standen and Nymans. She has previously worked for the Gardens Trust and is a writer specialising in C19 art, architecture and gardens. Caroline is author of The Victorian Garden (Bloomsbury, 2012), The Victorian Gardener (Bloomsbury, 2014), The Kitchen Garden (Amberley, 2017), and is currently working on a new survey of Victorian gardens to be published by Bloomsbury and the National Trust. She regularly contributes book and exhibition reviews to various publications, while her PhD thesis examined the designed landscape created by John Ruskin at Brantwood..….. Philip Jones is a garden historian, former librarian and lecturer in local and family history. He is Midland regional secretary of The Japanese Garden Society and currently researching the Victorian and Edwardian gardens at Newstead Abbey. His publications include Great Nottinghamshire Gardens (Nottinghamshire County Council, 2002) and Lost Houses of Nottinghamshire (Nottinghamshire County Council, 2006)..…..After a career as a head teacher in Inner London, Dr David Marsh took very early retirement (the best thing he ever did) and returned to education on his own account. He was awarded a PhD in 2005 and now lectures about garden history anywhere that will listen to him. Recently appointed an honorary Senior Research Fellow by the University of Buckingham, he is a trustee of the Gardens Trust and chairs their Education Committee. He oversees their on-line programme and writes a weekly garden history blog which you can find at <a href="https://thegardenstrust.blog/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://thegardenstrust.blog.</a>…..Cherrill Sands is a garden historian with an MA in the Conservation of Gardens, Landscapes &amp; Parks from the Architectural Association, London. She is the Historical Consultant for Painshill in Surrey and is currently acting curator of the archives. Cherrill is a former Chair of Surrey Gardens Trust and is on the Research and Recording team. As a freelance speaker Cherrill presents talks throughout the UK and abroad on garden history and theatre..…..Twigs Way is a garden historian, writer and researcher. Twigs is fascinated by the past and intrigued by the role of flowers, gardens and landscape in art and culture of all kinds. Her talks and books reflect that endless curiosity with themes of symbolism and meaning, class and gender, art and literature . . and her desire to follow unknown paths towards the unexpected. From gnomes in Neasden to hollyhocks from the Holy Land every plant has a tale to tell, every garden a past. Twigs’ history of the Chrysanthemum in art and culture was published by Reaktion in 2020. She is currently working on the history of the daffodil and also researching the life of Viscountess Frances Wolseley. Twigs’ best-selling book is Gardening for Rabbits but you may prefer her Suburban Gardens published by Amberley in their Britain’s Heritage series..…..

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A Loudon Celebration - In Conversation on the Loudons

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The C19th Garden part 4

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The C19th Garden part 4

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