History Hub Listings Archive - The Gardens Trust

History Hub

Exploring Garden History

Discover the people, places, styles and stories that have shaped our historic landscapes. The History Hub brings together resources from across the Gardens Trust to help you explore centuries of garden design, from visionary designers to iconic sites and enduring traditions.

Apollo and the Muses on Mount Helicon. Claude Lorrain, 1680.

Places / Topics

Manchester’s green revolution: how Victorian parks helped build a modern city

How Victorian parks helped build a modern city

One of the city’s most enduring innovations has been quietly shaping lives for almost two centuries.

Articles

People

Percy Cane

Few people today have heard of garden designer Percy Cane. Yet at the height of his career in the 1950s, Country Life said he was as much in demand as Capability Brown had ever been.

People

Elsie Wagg

The Hermitage was Elsie Wagg’s much-loved Sussex home, but her garden inspired something much bigger. In 1926, she came up with an idea that would open hundreds of gardens across England and Wales

People

Mary Somerset and the Cultivation of Botanical Knowledge

In the late 17th century, Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort, described gardening as her “innocent diversion”, yet this apparently genteel pastime became an ambitious enterprise of cultivation, collecting and botanical investigation.

Topics

Origins of the National Garden Scheme

In 1927, something rather unusual was happening in gardens across England and Wales. Private gardens, normally hidden behind gates and walls, were opening their doors to the public – all in aid of nursing charities.

People

Margery Fish

Without any previous experience of gardening, Margery Fish made one of the most celebrated informal gardens of the mid-20th century and used her writing skills to share what she had learnt in the process

Places

Cecil Pinsent and his Gardens in Tuscany

Eleonora Tonon takes us on a tour of Cecil Pinsent’s famous 20th Century gardens in Tuscany, from their inspiration to their creation.

People

Cecil Pinsent

Cecil Pinsent trained in London before settling in Florence, where he created symmetrical, geometrically ordered Tuscan gardens for the vibrant local Anglo-American expatriate community.

Styles / Topics

A History of Italian Influence on English Gardens

English gardens have been deeply intertwined with Italian design since Roman antiquity, evolving through Tudor symmetry, classical 18th-century revivalism, and Victorian geometric formalism.

Places

East Lambrook Manor Gardens

When she created East Lambrook Manor Garden, from a farmyard and a rubbish heap, Marjorie Fish developed a new cottage garden style that had a huge influence on garden owners of the time and is still relevant today

Places

Upton Grey Manor Gardens

The Edwardian gardens at Upton Grey Manor House in Hampshire display the talent and artistry of the garden designer Gertrude Jekyll and remain a delight to wander round and explore

People / Topics

The Forgotten Hands Behind Britain’s Historic Gardens

Beyond the celebrated designers and grand estates are the gardeners whose daily work shaped the landscapes we continue to admire

Topics

The Royal Jersey Agricultural & Horticultural Society Archive

The Society has produced an Annual Report since 1833 and these invaluable records are now available online

Topics

The Importance of Setting

A park or garden is more than a single focal point like a fountain, their true charm lies in the full sensory experience of a place including distant views, soothing sounds, and crisp, fresh air.

Places / Topics

Manchester’s green revolution: how Victorian parks helped build a modern city

One of the city’s most enduring innovations has been quietly shaping lives for almost two centuries.

Garden Historians

John Harris

Landscape Design Consultant John Harris describes his career helping to design and maintain designed landscapes