Author Archives: The Garden History Blog

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Night Soil and other euphemisms…

We generally  think of the Victorians as very proper and respectable,  when even the  the legs of the piano were covered up,  and no risqué or unpleasant subjects were ever raised in polite society. So  it was a bit of a shock to … Continue reading

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Harry Wheatcroft : the red rose grower

My father was very fond of roses and so I well remember the  flamboyant whiskery figure of Harry Wheatcroft from my childhood. He was everywhere in the press, radio and television, selling and promoting roses, especially new colourful hybrid tea cultivars, … Continue reading

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Standen: a down to earth house and garden

2015 marks one hundred years since the death of Philip Webb (1831-1915), the architect of Standen and one of the leading architects of his age. Sometimes the match between architect and client is made in heaven, and sometimes in hell.  Webb, … Continue reading

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United by flowers ….but then divided by love!

I’ve been doing some research over the past few years into the gardening interests of the aristocratic Hatton family  in the early modern period.   They were prominent royalists and had extensive estates in Northamptonshire  around Kirby Hall. One of things … Continue reading

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The Great Geranium Robbery… part 2…and other plant thefts

This post is a continuation of last week’s, and is the  second half of the account of the trial of Charles Fairfield  in 1795 on charges of the theft of rare plants from Daniel Grimwood’s nursery in Kensington…. and then I’ve also  taken … Continue reading

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