The Ditchley cousinhood, Venetia Stanley and another interwar restoration project

Posted by & filed under Venetia Stanley.

An idea to develop the potential historical links between gardens associated with three great granddaughters of the Victorian doyenne  and garden maker of Ditchley Park, Henrietta, Viscountess Dillon (d.1862): Venetia Stanley (later Lady Montagu) (1887-1948), Lady (Clementine) Churchill (later Baroness Spencer-Churchill) (1885-1977), and Lady (Mary) Trevelyan (1881-1966) mentioned in my 2019 lecture ‘Ditchley and Cliveden, a case of relative values?’ rapidly came unstuck on further exploration.

Venetia Stanley’s contribution to her cousin, Clementine Churchill’s garden at Chartwell is well known. What I’d hoped to find was a link to Mary Trevelyan (née Bell), creator of a lesser known but attractive garden at Wallington, Northumberland. Unfortunately, Mary doesn’t appear in Stefan Buczacki’s thorough and engaging 2016 biography of Venetia, My Darling Mr Asquith, The extraordinary life and times of Venetia Stanley. Nevertheless it would be interesting to learn more about the garden Venetia made with input from Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944), at Breccles Hall, near Thetford, because it was almost contemporaneous with Reggie Cooper’s early projects. It too entailed introducing a modern garden to an ancient house (Breccles however was in much better condition than Reggie’s purchases). They also had a mutual friend in Lady Cynthia Asquith (1887-1960).

While pursuing this link with Lutyens I recently discovered that he made some alterations at 96 Cheyne Walk for Reggie’s mother, Lady Cooper, in 1918. The commission is included in the list of Lutyens’s works included in the catalogue to the 1981 exhibition Lutyens, The work of the English Architect Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944).

Researching the houses and gardens of Reggie Cooper

Posted by & filed under Reggie Cooper.

With the acceptance of my article, ‘Reggie Cooper (1885-1965), restorer of houses and makers of gardens’ for publication by the journal Garden History, my ‘Quest for Reggie Cooper’ draws to an end. It has been fascinating. Especially rewarding were avenues suggested by the generosity of others sharing information with me. With their help it was possible to reconnect Reggie to places with which he was once closely associated (and sometime vice versa) whether it be First World War battles or country houses, reinstating the links eroded by the passage of time.

One of the highlights of the Reggie quest was the long postponed visit to Lawrence Johnston (1871-1958)’s Serre de la Madone in Menton which finally took place in May this year. It requires some imagination to place two of his oldest friends, Norah Lindsay (1873-1948) and Reggie, in the old farmhouse which Johnston extended, or the sub tropical gardens. Neither person is mentioned in the property’s storyboards or website (but then nor are his more illustrious friends like the American author Edith Wharton (1862-1937), another garden enthusiast).

Johnston bought Serre de la Madone in 1924, gradually developing it over the years by purchasing various farm plots in the Gorbio Valley. After his death the property passed through several owners, finally ending in a state of neglect.

Rescued in 1990 and listed as an Historic Monument for its ‘historical, landscape and cultural interest’, it is the property of the Conservatoire du Littoral. The city of Menton manages the site with the Association de Sauvegarde des Jardins d’Exception du Mentonnais.

The steep site is host to five thousand rare plants from across the globe and three national collections. However there are clearly maintenance issues due, presumably, to budget constraints. Promising new initiatives in a conservation and education programme include planting lemon trees on the three lower terraces, reviving the historic cultivation of citrus (sponsoring individual trees is invited: up to one hundred are through the scheme). Fourteen other terraces are earmarked for agricultural production. Participation in the preservation programme is encouraged.

Finding where, in 1930, Reggie sketched, at Lindsay’s instigation, the site’s development, was unachievable because the drawing doesn’t survive. But it was still a joy to see Serre de la Madone: to try and recapture it as it was in its heyday; to speculate whether Reggie’s Cothay Manor pool design had influenced that of the swimming pool, and to make comparisons with Johnston’s Gloucestershire garden, Hidcote.

South side of the house, courtyard in foreground ©Helen Langley, 2025

South side of the house, courtyard in foreground ©Helen Langley, 2025

Reggie Cooper (1885-1965)

Posted by & filed under Reggie Cooper.

Researching and writing about Reggie Cooper has been an absorbing task over the last few years, not least during the pandemic. Impossible to visit archives in person, online resources and emails allowed it to chug along. And then, later, the joy of being able to visit sources and sites in person (West Horsley Place, in Surrey, home to Reggie’s mother between 1921 and 1931; Hidcote Manor in Gloucestershire and Houghton Hall in Norfolk, were particularly memorable). After several redrafts and some agonising over which of the many images to use as illustrations, the article has been submitted for publication.

The Blue Plaque scheme and Honor Balfour’s former London home

Posted by & filed under Honor Balfour.

Last year I submitted Honor Balfour (1912-2001)’s former London home in Kensington for the award of a Blue Plaque to commemorate her many years there. It’s a long process with several stages of evaluation so it may be some while before the decision is made. I knew from my conversations with Honor what the drawing room had looked like but it was not until 2022 that I saw the exterior of the house. It faces a private square but in June 2022 it was open under London Open Gardens weekend. The planting, and possibly the design, will have changed since Honor lived in the crescent but it was great to get a sense of the view and the green space she would have enjoyed, a possible antidote to a very busy life.

Update:

Honor Balfour’s former home in Royal Crescent, Kensington is another house with historical connections. From here, this pioneering print and broadcast journalist (see previous posts for an introduction to her life) would set off to Broadcasting House to appear on current affairs programmes or to Bush House, then home to the BBC’s External Services. Sometimes she travelled to the television studios at Lime Grove. In an era when a woman commenting on current affairs was a great rarity, Honor was highly regarded.

At home she hosted dinner parties drawn from her wide circle of friends, many from the worlds of politics and the media. Today people walking past are unaware of these interesting years in the history of the house and are likely to remain so for the time being because the nomination was unsuccessful.

Tyntesfield Orangery revisited

Posted by & filed under History of Orangeries, Tyntesfield Orangery.

The now fully restored neo-classical orangery at Tyntesfield, Wraxall in Somerset is a joy to see, and a very different sight to the one I saw in 2006 when I wrote about it for my Architectural Association dissertation on historic orangeries. Then in a parlous state: weeds sprouting from interior walls; protective roofing; decayed stonework supported by scaffolding

Portico

A view of one of the portico capitals. © Helen Langley, 2006.

Commissioned by Antony Gibbs (1841-1907), designed by the now largely-overlooked Arts and Crafts architect and designer, Walter Cave (1863-1939), with youthful exuberance, if perhaps insufficient technical experience to foresee subsequent problems. Tyntesfield was Cave’s first garden, and his third commission from Gibbs who had interests in Devon, Cave’s home county. Gibbs’ two Devon projects, one of which included the monument in Ottery St Mary to mark Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, are mentioned in a article by Judith Patrick published by the Devon Gardens Trust here.

The Tyntesfield scheme was sited in the re-modelled kitchen garden of 1890-1910 and within walking distance from the house, using the then new stone-flagged path. A destination for family and visitors as they circuited the gardens and grounds. An allusion, perhaps, to eighteenth century notions of entertainment.

The 1897 orangery graces the Jubilee Garden its name again referencing Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. The complex comprises the Lady Garden (now known as the Lady Wraxall’s garden); loggia, cutting garden, head gardener’s office; rooms for tools and potting, storing apples, and the boiler (the distance of which from the orangery was once thought to have contributed to the latter’s original problems); walled kitchen garden and range of glasshouses. Nearby is a bothy, also by Cave.

From the outset the site was intended to be ‘on display’ – a formalised productive garden with an ornamental role. Large oranges, oleanders and camellias were cultivated in the orangery which also served as an occasional reception room. (The galvanised steel window frames are twentieth century). After the Second World War it became a greenhouse. Back in the early 2000s this Grade 11* building’s future was far from secure; it seemed on the point of collapse. Tyntesfield’s acquisition by the National Trust in 2002 was a game changer. It ushered in plans for restoring the estate. The orangery which had been placed Historic England’s Buildings at Risk list in 2008 was finally rescued in an imaginative collaborative programme with funding by the HLF and the Commercial Education Trust. The latter funded a three-year training course with students from the Architectural Stone Conservation course at City of Bath College. Nimbus Conservation Ltd were the principal contractors.

A detailed account of the project is available here.

On the day of our visit in May 2024 the orangery was a glorious sight; the scent of the citrus trees delicious.

Orangery

A view across the cutting garden. © Helen Langley, 2024

Many years ago, when writing about political houses and gardens, I was given access to two of Cave’s later schemes, both in Oxfordshire; The ‘neo-William and Mary’ Wharf (then divided into two properties) in Sutton Courtenay and the exterior and gardens of the Tudor style Ewelme Manor. c.1910. The Wharf was of particular interest because it had been commissioned in 1912 by the Prime Minister’s wife, Margot Asquith, later Countess of Oxford and Asquith (1864-1945), in the forlorn hope of improving the amount of quiet time spent with her husband (sadly for her it’s where Asquith wrote many of his love letters to Venetia Stanley, later Montagu (1887-1948). The detailing at Tyntesfield, especially the Lady Garden, loggia and the head gardener’s office, is reminiscent of both Ewelme’s and High Walls in Headington Oxford, c. 1912.

The BBC at 100 Symposium

Posted by & filed under Lectures, Seminars & Events.

Helen has been invited to attend The BBC at 100 Symposium, to be held from 13 to 15 September 2022 in Bradford at the National Science and Media Museum and online. As a member of the session on Politics and Current Affairs, she will be speaking about the contributions of Honor Balfour (1912-2001) and Stephen Bonarjee (1912- 2003) - a wonderful opportunity to draw their careers to the attention of a wide audience.

Broadcasting House: detail from 2018 image

Helen’s latest projects include preparing to attend The BBC at 100 Symposium as a member of the session on Politics and Current Affairs where she will be speaking about the contributions of Honor Balfour (1912-2001) and Stephen Bonarjee (1912- 2003).

The Symposium is being held from 13 to 15 September 2022 in Bradford at the National Science and Media Museum and online.

The invitation to speak brings a wonderful opportunity to draw the careers of Honor Balfour and Stephen Bonarjeeto the attention of a wide audience and hopefully encourage researchers to explore further the careers of these two innovatory figures.

A visit to Royal Crescent – the London home of Honor Balfour

Posted by & filed under Honor Balfour.

Years ago Honor Balfour described to me the décor of her London home in Royal Crescent, Kensington, acquired in the early post-war years long before the area became fashionable. So it was great when the London Gardens Trust Open Squares weekend in June brought the chance to visit Royal Crescent’s square.

Years ago Honor Balfour described to me the décor of her London home in Royal Crescent, Kensington, acquired in the early post-war years long before the area became fashionable. Sometimes I have visualized Honor at the peak of her broadcasting career, in the 1950s and 1960s, setting out to appear on one of her radio or television programmes, so it was great when, in June, the London Gardens Trust Open Squares weekend brought the chance to visit Royal Crescent’s square. It’s now somewhat changed since Honor’s day, but in the years before she rented a weekend cottage in the Cotswolds it must have been a welcome green space.

Reginald (Reggie) Cooper (1865-1965): Closing stages of research reveal new insights

Posted by & filed under Projects, Reggie Cooper.

The search of archival resources for information about Reggie Cooper is coming to a close. Several sources consulted since last year have provided some fascinating insights into his personality, and his design of the orangery for Sir Philip Sassoon (1885-1939).

The search of archival resources for information about Reggie Cooper is coming to a close. Several sources consulted since last year have provided some fascinating insights into his personality, and his design of the orangery for Sir Philip Sassoon (1885-1939).

Chief among these are the papers of the architect Oliver Hill (1887-1968) in the RIBA’s collection at the V&A Museum. Hill had been commissioned by Reggie’s mother, Lady Cooper, to remodel 1 Upper Terrace, Hampstead. Reggie’s letters and postcards (some adorned with drawings) to his old friend, Christopher Hussey (1889-1970), Country Life’s architectural editor, who lived at Scotney Castle in Kent (archive held by the National Trust; copies very kindly provided by the House and Collections Manager) and, the most recently consulted, the archive of Sir Philip Sassoon relating to Trent Park. This small but wonderful archive, held at Houghton Hall, Norfolk and very kindly made available by Lord Cholmondeley, Sassoon’s great nephew, provided crucial details about how Reggie came to design the orangery and enabled me to understand more fully how this delightful building sat within the gardens and wider landscape.

In other cases it was a case of ruling out some archives as sources. Fostered by reading Allyson Hayward’s biography of Norah Lindsay (1873-1948), an old friend of Cooper’s, hopes were high that the Whitbread archive at Southill Park might be useful (Lindsay was Madeline Whitbread’s sister) but the archivist couldn’t find anything.

At the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS)’s Lindley Library, the absence of Reggie’s name in the society’s list of members and list of library users confirmed my view that he was more of an architect and designer manqué, content to follow the tastes of Johnston and Lindsay in his garden schemes. But I may be proved wrong. Access has yet to be granted to the archive of Lawrence Johnston (1871-1958) at Hidcote, held by the National Trust.

Reginald (Reggie) Cooper: Continuing the Quest

Posted by & filed under Projects, Reggie Cooper.

With archives presently closed because of the pandemic, resuming research into the career of the restorer of ancient houses and maker of gardens rose to the top of my list of projects because much of it could be conducted from my desk. Reggie Cooper first caught my attention in 2006; in between other projects I continued my ‘quest for Reggie’, returning to it full time in the summer of 2020 after completing the article on Honor Balfour.

Cold Ashton Manor, near Chippenham, Reggie Cooper’s second renovation project. Photographed October 2020.

With archives presently closed because of the pandemic, resuming research into the career of the restorer of ancient houses and maker of gardens rose to the top of my list of projects because much of it could be conducted from my desk. Reggie Cooper first caught my attention in 2006 as the amateur architect of the delightful neo-classical orangery for the politician Sir Philip Sassoon (1888-1939) at Trent Park. In between other projects I continued my ‘quest for Reggie’, returning to it full time in the summer of 2020 after completing the article on Honor Balfour.

Using internet and printed sources and boosted by access to family material, correspondence with those with stories to share or working on related topics, and information generously shared by June Davey, historian at West Horsley Place, in Surrey (which Reggie’s mother, Lady (Marion) Cooper owned between 1921 to 1931) I’ve revised my lists of the houses in which Reggie lived and those he knew through his friendships with other enthusiastic restorers of dilapidated old houses. There’s still more research to do, once the archives at the Royal Institute of Architecture (RIBA) and the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) reopen to researchers but a more comprehensive narrative of his life is emerging.

Dame Irene Ward: Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum Exhibition Contribution

Posted by & filed under Irene Ward, Projects.

Women MPs elected in the 1959 General Election. Image reproduced with the permission of Parliamentary Archives, PUD/8/32. http://www.parliament.uk/archives

A (very minor) contributor to an exhibition at the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock. Scheduled for Spring 2020 the opening was postponed by the pandemic until October 2020 but shortly afterwards new national lockdown restrictions were introduced.

The invitation to contribute information arose from my past work on Dame Irene Ward. The campaign by Dame Irene (later Baroness Ward of North Tyneside, 1895-1980) for the release of Special Operations Executive (SOE) files and the commissioning of an official history of the organisation began in the mid1950s when she was Conservative MP for Tynemouth. It was partly inspired by the refusal to allow access to SOE files while researching her history of the First Aid  Nursing Yeomanry, F.A.N.Y Invicta (1955) which includes a chapter on members who became agents in ‘The Org’: SOE.

As a lifelong campaigner against injustice (most recently for equal pay for women, culminating in the 1954 Act), she was driven to champion those whose exploits remained buried in closed files; overshadowed by films about famous agents; memoirs by the former head of SOE’s French section, Colonel Maurice Buckmaster (1902-1992) among others, and speculative histories. A study by the historian M R D Foot was eventually published in 1966. Her contribution to the commissioning may not have been as great as she believed but it was not inconsiderable.