Gardeners 1650-1850

by Val Bott on 01/08/2010 · 0 Comments

presenting the inventive nursery gardeners of Brentford, Chiswick and nearby Middlesex Parishes, 1650-1850

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A Community of Gardeners, a talk on 12 October 2021, 6.30pm

by Val Bott on 03/10/2021 · 0 Comments

I shall be talking about some of the innovative Georgian nursery gardening families who worked in what is now West London on 12 October 2021. Though I have spoken about these gardeners before, this presentation will include some new material. This online talk is part of the Gunnersbury Park talks programme and you can book […]

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The Blinde Family of Barnes

by Val Bott on 24/02/2021 · 0 Comments

When a researcher approached the Barnes & Mortlake History Society seeking information on a family of Barnes gardeners named Blinde or Blind I was asked whether I could help. The inquirer was following up a mention of a Mr Joseph Blinde, gardener at Barnes, in the first edition of Philip Miller’s Gardeners’ Dictionary (1731). Blinde […]

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Brown & Greening

by Val Bott on 23/11/2020 · 0 Comments

For Capability Brown’s 300th anniversary I was invited to speak at a conference at Hampton Court. My role was to reveal the Greenings who worked in the decades before Brown, often in a similar style, and whose landscapes had often been obliterated, wholly or in part, by later owners who commissioned Brown. I rather enjoyed […]

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Isleworth wheelbarrows

by Val Bott on 05/11/2020 · 0 Comments

This story has grown out of another historian’s research, and confirms my view that sharing discoveries really matters because it enables others to build upon them and reveal more. Working under the wing of the London Parks & Gardens Trust, Susan Darling  wrote a short and intriguing piece about Mrs Wood the Isleworth wheeler or […]

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