Artist Marion Taylor spent two years living at Reddish House in the 1970s, as her then husband Stephen worked as Cecil Beaton’s Head Gardener. Here she shares her memories of her time spent in Beaton’s garden:
Myself and my husband Stephen Taylor and our baby daughter, Louise, lived in one of the picture perfect thatched cottages in the Reddish House garden for about two years prior to Beaton’s death in 1980.
Stephen took over the position of Head Gardener after the retirement of Mr Smallpiece, who had worked in the Reddish garden for many years. There was also occasional extra help from a young lad and an older man who lived with his wife who always reminded me of Mrs Tiggywinkle – her husband was often to be seen, after dark, tending his field of Mangold Wurzels wearing a flat cap with a torch strapped on it to light the way for his hoeing.
The garden at Reddish was beautiful, a vast lawn with sweeping grassy slopes. The majority of the flowers in the garden were white, Beaton’s favourite flower colour, he preferred only white roses, Iceberg roses amongst others. He eagerly awaited the arrival of the first snowdrops and aconites in the spring, these grew in abundance on the lawn and especially around the stone bench where he liked to sit.
Cecil Beaton – who we referred to at Reddish as just ‘ Sir’ loved the house to be filled with perfumed flowers . The Garden Room at Reddish was a small room halfway along the hall, this was filled with wicker flower baskets, secateurs and flower jugs and vases, I recall many a happy time arranging small posies for his study and bedroom.
The Winter Garden was furnished with blue and white chinoiserie china plant stands, wicker chairs and replica Charles Rennie Mackintosh curved seats which were from one of his theatre productions. Daturas, stephanotis, geraniums and plumbago grew abundantly in the space, the perfume was intense. In the middle of the garden room was an ornamental pond which Cecil Beaton and his secretary , Eileen Hose , had drained as they were concerned for our baby Louise who had just stated crawling.
Cecil Beaton requested that I took over the duty of being his chamber maid to look after his room and more importantly keep the small bedside flowers replenished – he thought he could trust this to me. As Louise was still a small baby she would accompany me and whist I was busy ‘Sir’ would entertain her in his study, he would smile at her antics, sit her on his lap and feed her very expensive chocolate. I would occasionally return home to our cottage with a grizzly baby with a sore tummy.
In pride of place on the desk in his study was Greta’s Rose, a framed, faded dried bloom that Greta Garbo had kissed and given to him at a party. One of the most beautiful paintings on his bedroom wall was of Ashcombe, Cecil Beaton’s previous home near Tollard Royal, a few miles away. His four poster bed was covered with a beautiful wolf fur rug.
I was also entrusted to hand wash and iron Beaton’s silk scarves, all were returned to him beautifully laundered – apart from one which my daughter Louise thought would look better with the addition of some red felt tip pen.
Grant, the chauffeur was employed to drive the Rolls Royce amongst other duties. Beaton loved taking his ‘little family’ out for a drive at the weekend, we would be driven along the Chalke valley, calling in on his friends, amongst them Anthony Eden’s widow, Clarissa Avon and Lady Ann Tree and others. He loved to show Stephen their gardens and plan future planting for Reddish. Stephen and Sir would spend hours together choosing plants from seed catalogues , marking each choice in pencil as they turned the pages.
On our trips out we would often stop in Sixpenny Handley at the butchers to buy meat for his and our Sunday lunch. These jaunts were always happy, full of chat, one memorable occasion ‘Sir’ asked Grant to slow down beside a bungalow where the proud owner was tending his rows of regimented tulips , he wound down his window and pronounced, “how ghastly”, rewound the window and asked Grant to drive on. As many of the roses and other plants in Beaton’s own garden grew with gay abandon up and around apple trees , this reaction was both amusing and understandable.
Watching the visitors walking in the garden and passed our cottage was also an exciting past time, it was great to see who we could recognise – musician Georgie Fame, artist Patrick Proctor and broadcaster Roy Plomley to name but a few.
Most mornings if the weather was fine, Beaton would take a walk in the garden. By this time he had suffered a stroke and was walking with a stick but he continued to enjoy a walk in the garden. He would call out for our daughter Louise when he was outside our cottage, together they would toddle up the lawn, Louise was not yet walking very well and would pill herself up on his walking stick – I watched nervously from the cottage doorway. Together they would proceed up the garden to pick flowers and enjoy each others company, they were often accompanied by Timothy, Cecil Beaton’s beloved white cat.
It was a very special time with many happy memories. Towards the end of our time at Reddish I was expecting our second daughter, Beaton was very happy for us and was looking forward to the new arrival – a new addition to the Reddish family.
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