Archive

Gardener, nurserywoman, and author Beth Chatto (1923 – 2018) travelled widely with her husband Andrew to study plants in their natural habitats. Beth created a garden at her home in Elmstead Market, near Colchester, Essex, and became famous for her ‘right plant, right place’ philosophy. She later began the Unusual Plants nursery, and was regularly awarded medals for her displays at RHS Flower Shows.

Beth’s archive is filled with information about the ecological approach to planting she developed at her gardens in Essex.

Author and landscape designer Russell Page (1906 – 1985) worked in partnership with fellow designer Geoffrey Jellicoe on various projects, including Regent’s Park in London, and Leeds Castle in Kent. Page later worked independently on international projects, including the PepsiCo headquarters in New York. His book The Education of a Gardener is still held in high regard.

Comprising project plans and his writing, Page’s archive documents the work of one of the greatest ever garden designers.

A successful and prolific garden designer, who also wrote and lectured extensively on gardening. Many well-known figures turned to her for garden design expertise, and in turn she became a well-known figure herself. Various television appearances including a programme entitled Gardens Of The World that she presented with Audrey Hepburn.

The Penelope Hobhouse collection includes a wide range of her projects and commissions, comprising plans, notes, correspondence, and photographs.

Joy Larkcom is a vegetable grower and writer, who writes about different vegetable growing techniques and encouraging the use and enjoyment of different vegetables. This research included a year-long van trip across Europe with her young family. She also collected for seed banks, working towards the survival of unique varieties.

The Joy Larkcom collection includes research and writing notes, as well as photographs, and some of the seed catalogues and other ephemera she collected during her career.

Dominic Cole is a landscape architect with a successful design firm, having worked on the groundbreaking Eden Project, as well as Manchester Cathedral, Box Hill, and Hampstead Heath amongst many others.

The Dominic Cole collection includes designs for the Eden Project, Prospect Park, Homeward Public Park and Garrel Burn Walkway, comprising the plans themselves and associated administrative material and correspondence.

Marney Hall was an expert in both plants and butterflies, and her approach to gardening reflected this – with an emphasis on wildflowers and wildlife. Her ecological gardening resulted in regular gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show. Marney also worked on a variety of private and public gardens around Cambridgeshire where she was based, including the private garden of Stephen Hawking.

The Marney Hall collection primarily comprises design and project files for her gardens, which include plans, correspondence, publicity materials, and photographs. There is additional material relating to her wildlife work, such as articles, lectures, and project records.

Geoffrey Jellicoe was a garden and landscape designer, an architect, and a town planner known for his distinctive designs. Deeply inspired by classic design and especially Italian renaissance gardens, but equally by modern and abstract art, the resulting gardens sat not in-between the two, but in both at once.

The Geoffrey Jellicoe collection includes design drawings related to some of his famous projects, including Shute House, Hartwell House, Moody Historical Gardens, and the Turin Civic Sports Park.

Landscape architect Janet Jack worked on a variety of pioneering projects during her career, including the UK Channel Tunnel terminal and the Barbican. She is best known for Alexandra Road Park, which sits at the heart of the Alexandra Road Estate in Camden. Both the estate and the park went on to become grade II* listed. Jack created the Landscape Architecture division at Building Design Partnership, becoming the first woman partner at the firm.

The Janet Jack collection specifically relates to Alexandra Road Park, containing plans and planting schemes, as well as a small collection of photographs of the park.

Elphick & Son Ltd. was formed in 1823 when George Elphick (1804-1881) sold his farm and started a barge operating service, moving chalk down the River Ouse in East Sussex. George’s family home at 18 Cliffe High Street, Lewes, was set up as an office, and doubled as a shop selling farming supplies and seeds. By the 1880s, competition from the railways caused the barge business to close, but the Elphick & Son Ltd shop remained. Gradually expanding from farm supplies and seeds into garden and pet supplies, at its height the company had five branches.

It was passed down through the paternal line from George to Samuel Elphick (1838-1894), then to Samuel Elphick (1879-1940), then to Cyril Elphick (1909-?), and finally to Anthony Elphick (1937-), who ran the business until it closed in 2003.

The archive contains materials relating to the family-run seed company Elphick & Sons Ltd. (1823-2003), including advertising materials, packaging materials, photographs, and catalogues. It also includes publications by other garden companies such as Suttons Seeds and Thompson and Morgan.

Historian Jen Kavanagh was employed by the Garden Museum to conduct oral history interviews with participants from the Caribbean diaspora, as part of the Caribbean Garden Heritage Project (5 July 2021 – 4 August 2021), which was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The archive contains:
CGHP/1: 15 oral history recordings created for the Garden Museum’s 2021 Caribbean Garden Heritage Project (CGHP).

CGHP/2: An audio recording created for the 2024  ‘Growing Stories for Different Climates’ project. The recording includes extracts from some of the CGHP interviews.