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Please do come take a look and hopefully you’ll be interested enough to join. Also, any ideas for posts and/or feedback most appreciated.

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A previously unrecorded scheme by James Pulham & Son has recently come to light on the estate of Craigengillan, near Dalmellington in East Ayrshire, formerly home of the McAdam family of ‘tarmacadam’ fame. Confirmation of its date and authenticity comes from the diary of one time Pulham employee Fred Rickett, whose diary records three separate visits to Craigengillan, spread over several years. What Rickett refers to as a ‘rock and water garden’ for Mrs. McAdam occupied him on three separate occasions between 1910 and 1915.

The diary was discovered by Claude Hitching, whose eagerly awaited book on The Pulham Legacy is now due to be published in the New Year.

Owner Mark Gibson shows some of the Pulham rockwork recently unearthed at Craigengillan. Photo by the author

Owner of Craigengillan Mark Gibson has now begun the gradual process of unearthing the scheme, which includes a mixture of natural and artificial stonework. The garden having become almost entirely obscured by several decades accumulation of soil, leaf litter and vegetation, its large extent is only now becoming apparent as work progresses. It is hoped that, in time, the rock garden will be fully revealed, and the water supply to the cascades and pools will be restored once more.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded funding of £12.4m to six parks in London, Felixstowe, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Merseyside and Dunbarton. HLF and the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) have also jointly awarded £3.5m to two further parks in Godalming, Surrey and Nottingham. All parks can now begin major redevelopment work, with opportunities for volunteering and training tied into most awards

Walpole Park, Ealing, London: grant of £2.4m

Pitzhanger House, at the heart of Walpole Park. By courtesy of the Trustees of the Sir John Soane Museum

Walpole Park’s gardens and lawns are the backdrop to the Grade I listed Pitzhanger Manor (above). Sitting in the heart of Ealing town centre, the park has a number of historic features including a Grade II* listed rustic bridge, a Portland stone bench and a lodge building. The park was opened to the public in 1901. HLF’s grant will help restore the park to its original beauty and improve its visitor facilities. The park will undergo major conservation to recreate the Regency planting and reinstate the kitchen garden.

Other awards were made to:

Raphael Park, Romford, Essex: £1.7m;

Felixstowe Seafront Gardens, Suffolk: £2.1m; Exhibition Park, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: £2.4m; Victoria Park, St. Helens, Merseyside: £3m;

Dalmuir Park, Dunbartonshire: £859,600.

Also joint HLF/BIG funding of £3.5m to: Nottingham Forest Recreation Ground: £3.2m &

Phillips Memorial Park, Godalming, Surrey: £335,000

Initial Lottery support and development funding totalling £725,427 has also been awarded to the following 10 parks across the UK: Boultham Park, Lincoln; West Hackney Recreation Ground, London; Alexandra Road Park, Camden, London; Plashet Park, Newham, London; Wharton Park, Durham; Castle Vale Park and Coronation Park, Berwick-upon-Tweed; Moor Park, Preston; Westgate Gardens, Canterbury; Lightwoods Park, Sandwell; Belleisle Park, South Ayrshire.

For more information

On 8 July there was a sale of ‘Old Master Sculpture’ at Sotheby’s where the last two Saxon deities from Stowe were catalogued at £200–300,000. They didn’t sell (or aren’t recorded as being sold on the Sotheby’s website) and their fate remains unknown. Originally part of Sir Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham’s famous 18th century gardens at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, Woden and Seatern are the last two of Rysbrack’s great Saxon deities remaining in private hands.

Commissioned in the late 1720s the gods represent the days of the week, Wednesday and Saturday, and epitomised the height of 18th century antiquarianism in the gardens at Stowe. Rysbrack used the finest Portland stone, which has retained much intricate detail, and the heroic figures have developed a timeless mystery, enhanced by the picturesque weathering of nearly 300 years.

The detail of carving on these original sculptures is noticeably finer than that of the replicas now in place at Stowe, though they do give the effect. Surely the point of returning sculpture to any garden, where they have been lost as a result of theft or sale is to make the experience of visiting them more fulfilling. Many garden statues were themselves replicas of earlier exemplars (though the Deities appear to be one-offs), often made in different materials so it’s not unreasonable that replicas are used, as long as they look right.

Woden and Seatern are the last two of Rysbrack’s great Saxon deities remaining in private hands. By courtesy of Sotheby's auctioneers.

The sculptures are being sold by the Aspinall Foundation. Of the others, two (Mona & Friga) are now in the Buckinghamshire County Museum, Aylesbury, and two in the V&A (Thuner and Sunna), the seated statue of Thuner remains to be replicated. Tew has finished up at Anglesey Abbey, another National Trust property.

Any offers?

Tim Richardson writes:

I have written this course as an ideal introduction to English garden history. It provides an overview of five centuries of development, from Baroque formalism through the naturalistic landscape style, right up to contemporary cutting-edge planting style.

The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner called the landscape garden Britain’s major contribution to the visual arts, and this course aims to explore why and how that came to be so. Beginning in the mid 17th century, when grand gardens were laid out in formal style, the course traces the development of garden style across five centuries. There is special emphasis on the early-18th-century landscape garden, as perhaps the high point, when politics, art, science, philosophy and gardening intersected in an unprecedented way. Later in the century Lancelot Brown made the style his own, creating a landscape monopoly across Britain, before Humphry Repton brought back an element of formality in the Regency period.

The 19th century witnessed the apogee of the head gardener and the creation of the first public parks, while new plant introductions from China and elsewhere provided new impetus to horticulture. The 20th century was one of the richest periods in English garden history and will be fully explored here. Gertrude Jekyll pioneered the colour-themed herbaceous border and her partnership with architect Edwin Lutyens created what is often seen as the perfect stylistic union between house and garden. The story is brought right up to date with modules on 20th-century planting theory and contemporary art or sculpture gardens such as Little Sparta.

Formed of ten modules, it is strongly recommended that you try to find a little time each week to engage in the online conversations (at times that are convenient to you), as the forums are an integral, and very rewarding, part of the course and the online learning experience.

For more information:

www.conted.ox.ac.uk/V200-48#Abstract

if you have any questions about this course, please email

During the visit by members of the GHS to Knighton Wood in Woodford on 7 July, it was suggested that the 40-acre woodland had been planted by a ‘skilled craftsman’ in the picturesque style; with grouping of native trees planted on mounds. The name of William Barron was proposed and further research also indicates that it could be Barron. The making of the garden dates from 1863, and still has significant plantings of rhododendrons, Highclere holly and bamboos, together with a Pulham Rock Bank. There are no family records existing that could identify the ‘skilled craftsman’ and there appear to be no records for William Barron and Son of the Elvaston Nurseries in Borrowash.

Sara Tenneson addresses GHS & LPGT members at Knighton Wood, on what had till then been a very damp visit. Photo by Robert Peel

Does anyone have any information about William Barron and Son working in the South East, ie London, Essex, or other South Eastern counties in the period from 1863 to the late 1880s?

Contact Sara Tenneson: 020 8505 8558

Following a small fire in the Library’s main stack room, on 22 July, the RHS Lindley Library, London, is closed to visitors. All our historical and art collections are safe, but we are organising for our research material to be cleaned by specialist conservators and it is likely to be some months before we get back to business as normal. Until this work is completed none of London’s collection material is accessible.

Whilst specialist cleaning of the collections is underway, the following services will be in place:

• Limited enquiry service. Email: library@rhs.org.uk

• Image Request Service for commercial or research image requests: www.rhsimages.co.uk until further notice

• Lindley Library Wisley and the other Garden Libraries remain open as usual. Contact us on: 01483 212 428

We apologise for the inconvenience this disruption to our services will cause to all of our regular users.

Overhead view of the Water Gardens after opening, showing relation to town centre

Following the successful GHS/HGT Jellicoe Water Gardens Study Day on 9 April this year, a park friends group for the Water Gardens in Hemel Hempstead is in the process of being formed. The Water Gardens were designed by Geoffrey Jellicoe as an integral part of his master plan for Hemel Hempstead New Town and were placed on English Heritage’s Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in 2010 as one of the very important post war urban landscapes. This opportunity to play an important part in the future of the Water Garden’s is seeking people interested in ensuring that the park is repaired to its former glory and restored as one of the best loved treasures of the town. It is hoped that the Friends Group will work with Dacorum Borough Council who own and manage the gardens to support a lottery funding bid and shape the future development of the site.

Susan Jellicoe photographed the site during construction and on completion

A similar view of the elegant bridges in the Water Gardens today (March 2011)

If you are interested in joining a Friends Group please telephone Kate Harwood, Hertfordshire Gardens Trust: 01442 841119, or email

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