Boston Flora

Tag: Maud Grieve

  • Tuesday, October 11, 5:00 am – British Spa Landscapes: A Lost Garden at Dorton Spa, Buckinghamshire, Online

    The story of the Spa at Dorton and its subsequent disappearance into the realms of the forgotten or the unknown is perhaps one of the saddest in spa history. The Chalybeate spa which opened in 1833 was the brainchild of Charles Ricketts. He had become the owner of the Dorton Estate upon his marriage into the Aubrey family. The existence of the spring had been known since the late medieval period; it was Ricketts who had the water analyzed, improved the access and employed James Hakewill, architect, to design the pump room. Dorton Spa was never going to compete with the likes of Cheltenham or Leamington, being situated in a wood in the rural vale of Aylesbury, and plans were scaled back, the pump room and lodge/ refreshment room being the only buildings, both now gone. However, a boating lake was created, and some planting installed, including an avenue to the entrance of the grounds. This October 11 lecture, presented by The Gardens Trust, is part of a five part series on British Spa Landscapes. The presenter is Claire de Carle.

    Claire de Carle is a garden historian, with a keen interest in horticulture, art and social history and she is the chair and a trustee of Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust which is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2022. She was instrumental in the establishment of the Trust’s Research & Recording project in 2013 which has produced reports on around 100 locally important historic gardens. She enjoys researching and writing about little known historic landscape gardens and more recently she has set up two other projects: Artists and their Gardens and Public Parks in Buckinghamshire. She lectures to local groups about Buckinghamshire gardens and Maud Grieve, the herbalist who was the subject of her MA dissertation. Claire lives in Oakley a small village on the Bucks/Oxon border, in her spare time she works on her garden that she and her husband have created over the last seven years.www.bucksgardenstrust.org.uk

    A ticket is for this individual session costs £5, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions, or you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 5 sessions at a cost of £20 via the link here. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

  • Tuesday, May 17, 5:00 am – Forgotten Women Gardeners: Maud Grieve, Online

    Maud Grieve was born in London in 1858. She spent her early married life in India, on their return at the end of the 19th century the couple built a house, The Whin’s in Chalfont St Peter where Maud established a beautiful garden. At the outbreak of World War One she transformed her garden into a herb farm to meet the urgent need for medicinal plants by the pharmaceutical industry. She was also involved in setting up the ‘Herb Growing Association’. She supplied plants and seeds and pamphlets on their cultivation and established a training school for women and ex-servicemen from the colonies. In 1918 she let out her drying shed to the war artists Paul and John Nash where they accomplished some of their finest war commissions. Maud is probably best remembered for her book The Modern Herbal, which was published in 1931, is still relevant today.

    Claire de Carle is the chair and a trustee of Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust which is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2022. She was instrumental in the establishment of the Trust’s Research & Recording project in 2013 which has produced reports on around 100 locally important historic gardens. She enjoys researching and writing about little known historic landscape gardens and more recently she has set up two other projects: Artists and their Gardens and Public Parks in Buckinghamshire. She lectures to local groups about Buckinghamshire gardens and Maud Grieve, the herbalist who was the subject of her MA dissertation. Claire lives in Oakley a small village on the Bucks/Oxon border, in her spare time she works on her garden that she and her husband have created over the last seven years.

    This Gardens Trust lecture takes place May 17 at 5 am Eastern, but a recorded link will be sent to watch over the following week. Register HERE

    The Whin’s