BEATRIX HAVERGAL
(1901– 1980)
Waterperry Horticultural School and the pursuit of excellence
Two factors are crucial for the success of an English flower garden: horticultural know-how and expert care. Only if you have spent decades caring for and developing labour-intensive gardens, accumulating knowledge and expertise in tried-and–tested methods, do you know when and what to do in the garden. Experienced gardeners are rare and it comes as no surprise that such experts are highly sought after. This is not a new phenomenon, but one that Beatrix Havergal sought to address nearly a century ago.
Due to a growing desire among the middle classes at the end of the nineteenth century to surround themselves with impressive, flower-filled gardens, to serve their own fresh fruit and vegetables at table, and to enjoy a perfect English lawn for tennis and croquet, the gardening business experienced a boom. The demand for gardeners was high and even young women from respectable families were becoming interested in the profession. Special schools, such as Swanley Horticultural College in Kent, or Viscountess Wolseley’s College of Gardening in Glynde, East Sussex, were established to train ‘lady gardeners’. Graduating students were either employed as senior gardeners in the numerous country houses or ran their own establishments as the lady of the house.
ESTABLISHING THE SCHOOL
Although Beatrix Havergal (1901–80) is regarded as one of the key figures of the English garden movement, she is no longer particularly well known in contemporary gardening circles. She pursued her dream of becoming a gardener and trained at Thatcham Fruit and Flower Farm near Newbury, Berkshire. After a two-year apprenticeship she found a position nearby at Downe House girls’ school, where she met Avice Sanders who was then the school’s housekeeper. Together they longed to create a training school specifically for female gardeners and – despite a shortage of capital at the outset – they succeeded in turning their idea into reality. They knew full well that they would have to start from modest beginnings.
In 1927 the two women rented the Gardener’s Cottage, with adjoining garden, from Pusey House in Oxfordshire. It was here that they established their first school, with just two pupils. They intended to provide a practical apprenticeship for young women, to teach them all aspects of garden and vegetable cultivation from the ground up. Home-economy subjects, which were Avice Sanders’ area of expertise, were also offered so that students would gain detailed knowledge ranging from sowing seeds and tending plants right through to harvesting and preparing or storing the produce. The women’s income was derived from the girls’ school fees and from selling vegetables, fruit, cut flowers and young plants. The venture was a success: their training methods met with acclaim and their produce sold well. After just a few years, and despite limited finances, Beatrix Havergal and Avice Sanders began looking for a new and bigger site for their school, one that would provide better accommodation for their students and a larger area to cultivate.
Enclosed by a dense yew hedge, the Formal Garden reflects various periods of history. The plant composition, including box, berberis, dahlias and asters, is both original and enchanting.
In Waterperry, not far from Oxford, they found the ideal location. The house, which dated back to the twelfth century and had been renovated at the beginning of the nineteenth, was spacious enough to house both dormitories and classrooms. The walled garden, planted with fruit trees, was surrounded by a herbaceous border. A tributary of the River Thames flowed along the edge of the property, ensuring fertile soil. At the end of August 1932, the two women moved into their splendid new home along with six pupils, three members of staff and their dog, James. The move from Gardener’s Cottage to this manor house was a giant leap. From the income they gained from selling tomatoes, grapes, other fruit and vegetables, as well as bedding, herbaceous plants and cut flowers, they were able to buy furniture, equipment, wheelbarrows and even a car – much of which came from auctions. Magdalen College in Oxford, as the owner of Waterperry, had, with wise foresight and possibly as a gesture of goodwill towards these young entrepreneurs, fixed a staggered rent for a period of sixteen years: £150 for the first three years, progressively rising to £500 after the sixth year.
CAMARADERIE
Three students who had completed their three-year course before the move decided to stay and help out at the new school. In her book Waterperry: A Dream Fulfilled, Ursula Maddy comments that this says a good deal about the affection and sense of camaraderie among the teaching staff. Such was the scale of the project that every bit of help was needed: not only did a large number of plants have to be relocated from Pusey but the new cultivation areas, the house itself and also the surrounding buildings had to be tackled. With the exception of their first years at Waterperry, when, of necessity, the net had to be cast further afield, pupils were recruited mainly from well-off, upper-class families. Waterperry School of Horticulture was, to some extent, a gardening-style finishing school where young women could usefully bridge the time between leaving school and being presented in society. In line with the school’s aim of training ‘lady gardeners’, the young women were expected to wear a uniform. This consisted of brown knee breeches, a coordinated overall and thick woollen stockings, plus a brown felt hat for outings or the morning visit to church. Although the knee breeches were replaced by overalls after the Second World War, the distinctive and thoroughly practical uniform did not change.
WEEKEND FINERY
At weekends, the atmosphere at Waterperry was probably close to that of a well-run country house. Pupils and staff alike, including Beatrix Havergal, dressed for dinner every Saturday in long evening gowns. However, the horticultural training remained paramount, even if it involved heavy, physical work and spartan living conditions. Despite her rather strict appearance, Beatrix Havergal was a gifted and hands-on teacher who managed to motivate and inspire her pupils. She offered a training course that covered the theoretical as well as practical aspects of gardening. The 1937 school brochure outlined the establishment’s goals and curriculum, and provides an insight into the school’s guiding principles. The intention was not only to turn out first-class lady gardeners but also to equip them with the ability to lead a team of staff. The brochure pointed out that constructing and maintaining a small garden requires as much skill and knowledge as a large garden created generations ago. A Waterperry training enabled girls to enter the gardening profession whether as part-time gardeners, market gardeners or landscape gardeners.
Two sides of the hedge: the space reserved for the stock plants needed to supply the plant centre
The decorative herb beds featuring two types of sage.
ALL-ROUND EDUCATION
In addition to the vocational studies it offered, the school also fostered other interests since Beatrix Havergal, who was herself musically gifted, believed that an educated girl should be capable of a good deal more than gardening – she strove for an all-round education, something which even now is often neglected. Waterperry students had the advantage of being close to the University of Oxford, where they could pursue their intellectual and artistic interests. Moments of free time at Waterperry were often spent in an idyllic way, enjoying picnics in the meadows or bathing in the river.
The curriculum was designed to increase the girls’ knowledge year by year. The first year taught students the basic skills of gardening; by the end of the second year, they sat a Royal Horticultural Society exam; then in the third year they could specialize in a specific area. Guest speakers helped provide the girls with a comprehensive knowledge of plants and design. Students were also encouraged to develop a nose for business, to which end they were expected each week to sell Waterperry produce from a stall in Oxford’s indoor market. The school even exhibited at Chelsea Flower Show in London. To this day, people enthuse about the strawberries cultivated in the glasshouses under the direction of former pupil Joan Stokes and which, over a period of sixteen years, won fifteen Chelsea gold medals.
The island beds at Waterperry were created in 1964 by Miss Havergal from plans devised by Alan Bloom. Asters, ornamental grasses and trees blend to form a well-balanced picture.
WATERPERRY’S INFLUENCE
Of all the gardening schools for women, Waterperry probably had the greatest and most lasting influence on English gardens. During the forty-four years from the time it was established until it was taken over in 1971 by the School of Economic Science, it turned out a large number of professionally qualified lady gardeners who were much in demand and were often quickly snapped up to work in England’s great gardens. Two former students, Pamela Schwerdt and Sibylle Kreutzberger, were hired in the 1960s by Vita Sackville-West and played a substantial role in the development of Sissinghurst (see here). While still at Waterperry they were already known for their lightness of touch, their outstanding knowledge of plants and their willingness to try out new ideas – such as using tobacco plants to add variety and interest to the staple border mixes. Like another notable student, Valerie Finnis (1924–2006), they made the leap from pupil to teacher and contributed to Waterperry’s success by introducing pupils to the wonderful world of gardening. Finnis (the girls were always addressed by their surname) worked at Waterperry for twenty-eight years, developing the alpine garden and documenting school life. Armed with a Rolleiflex camera given to her by Wilhelm Schacht, one of the groundbreaking gardeners at Munich’s Botanical Garden and himself a passionate photographer, she recorded the world around her. Valerie Finnis consequently became one of the best-known and widely acclaimed garden photographers in the country. Her portraits of plants and of important figures within the world of gardening are contained in Ursula Buchan’s book Garden People: Valerie Finnis & the Golden Age of Gardening.
A number of the school’s last graduates are still working within their chosen profession, employed in some of England’s most important gardens and held in high esteem for their extensive gardening knowledge. Beatrix Havergal died in 1980 but her goals live on as an important legacy to the gardening world. Former student Mary Spiller, who returned to the school in 1962 and is now over eighty years old, continues to work untiringly at Waterperry Gardens, upholding Beatrix Havergal’s working methods and philosophy.
VISITING TODAY
Waterperry Gardens do not figure among England’s most famous gardens, even though they are informative, beautiful and varied, and well worth a visit. The walled garden has been converted into an extremely well-stocked plant centre which sells, as it has always done, a range of plants grown on site. The herbaceous border along the outer edge of the longer wall are still magnificent and a fitting focal point. The 60-m/200-ft bed was originally divided into smaller sections and allocated to students so they could cultivate their art and skills. Their task was to create a bed in which plants would bloom continuously from spring to autumn – a considerable challenge, as many amateur gardeners will appreciate. It was only during the 1960s that this bed, which is around 3.5m/11ft deep, was unified and redeveloped into a splendid herbaceous border.
It was planted in the classic manner, with a triangular cross-section formed by placing low plants at the front and higher species at the back. Among Waterperry’s other outstanding features are its fruit trees. The long avenue of espaliered apples, leading towards an orchard and the open countryside, demonstrates how it is possible to achieve the greatest possible yield of fruit from a small area while still allowing for aesthetics. Comprising over sixty varieties, the apple orchards remain very much a commercial concern and also help reinforce the rural nature of the site.
PLANTING PLANS
Beatrix Havergal was never short of ideas and was always finding ways to showcase the new plants on sale in the plant centre, or planning how to integrate new herbaceous beds into the garden. Because she had so little time to design areas herself, she sought the advice of Alan Bloom, a well-known and much-acclaimed nurseryman. Island beds, which could be admired from all sides, seemed to her the perfect addition to the garden so, following an exchange of correspondence and lengthy discussions, Alan Bloom produced a set of planting plans that were carried out in 1964. The island beds remain to this day an exemplary composition.
The Long Walk, flanked by double mixed borders, crosses the apple avenue and leads towards a group of rectangular beds that contain the stock plants for propagation. Even though not planted to a particular design, the blocks of different species give this area a wonderful rhythm. The nursery beds also form a living catalogue of plants, enabling gardeners and visitors to compare different types of cranesbill (Geranium), iris, catmint (Nepeta) and many other herbaceous plants. Beyond these open beds in one direction lies the Waterlily Canal, a peaceful, contemplative area graced with a Tanya Russell sculpture of Miranda from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. In the opposite direction, dense, high, yew hedging conceals one of the newer and most charming parts of the garden. It has only one point of entry and would attract little attention from without were it not for the cascade of wisteria that appears to beckon the visitor. Designed in 1986 by Mary Spiller and Bernard Saunders, this Formal Garden incorporates a knot garden and is bordered by a wisteria arch covered with white and lilac cultivars (Wisteria floribunda ‘Alba’ and W. floribunda ‘Multijuga’/ syn. ‘Macrobotrys’). Another enclosed garden, also surrounded by high hedges, was created in 1991 to replace the old rose beds that dated back to Beatrix Havergal’s day. The new Mary Rose Garden is a work in progress, continually being improved and augmented. It contains a wealth of ground-covering roses, shrub and species roses, as well as climbers and ramblers growing up and over beautiful oak pergolas, obelisks and posts.
The long herbaceous border is a suitably glorious focal point for the garden and represents the pinnacle of gardening achievement.
PLANT COMPOSITION
Even the smaller garden areas, such as the long, semi-shady border by the entrance to the gardens, demonstrate a masterly approach to plant composition. Framed by the overhanging branches of a Judas tree (Cercis siliquastrum) and set off by the striking dark hues of a purple-leaved hazel (Corylus maxima ‘Purpurea’), the beds lining both sides of the path are filled with a wide variety of ground-covering plants. Here foliage and texture are just as important as the floral display.
Beatrix Havergal (second from right) and her students, in their distinctive Waterperry uniforms.
To have had the opportunity to train in such a place, learn about the full spectrum of garden plants, and even design one’s own area, must have been an experience without equal. Full-time gardening courses are no longer offered at Waterperry but the principles on which Beatrix Havergal (supported by the calm yet energetic Avice Sanders) founded the gardens are still alive. Standing on the bridge and looking across to the magnificent herbaceous border, you can understand why students and teachers alike felt so passionate about this place and so enjoyed their time here. The whole site, comprising over 3 hectares/7 acres, with an additional 24 hectares/59 acres of agricultural land, was like a vast gardening playground situated in the middle of some of England’s most beautiful countryside.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
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Comprehensive theoretical as well as practical training underpinned the Waterperry gardening ethos. |
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Beatrix Havergal believed that many techniques in fruit growing were also applicable to the ornamental garden. If you were able to prune fruit trees and bushes properly, particularly blackcurrants, then you could equally well cut back ornamental shrubs and roses to ensure optimum flowering. |
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Spring and autumn are the main seasons for gardening work. Good preparation and thorough clearing of the area before planting are crucial to a garden’s success. |
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Accurately assess an individual’s strengths and allocate the work accordingly. |
SIGNATURE PLANTS
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Lupins such as ‘Chandelier’, ‘The Governor’ or ‘The Chatelaine’. |
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Delphiniums such as ‘Walton Gemstone’, ‘Foxhill Nina’ or ‘Summerfield Oberon’. |
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Aster novae-angliae ‘Andenken an Alma Pötschke’ and varieties of Aster novi-belgii such as ‘Waterperry’, ‘White Ladies’ or ‘Marie Ballard’. |
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Varieties of sneezeweed (Helenium) and mullein (Verbascum). |