2022
The Great Dixter Journal
ISSN 2398-2667
The Great Dixter Journal 2022
REZA KHALESI
In some ways it is interesting to be faced with adversity. The pandemic has made us slow down and made us really observe the garden and take stock of where we are and where we are going. Some areas had a more hands-off approach which brings its own charm but can create problems later, as thugs can get out of hand. It was interesting for me to see how we could be freer with parts of the garden, whilst still maintaining and keeping on top of invasive plants that easily squeeze out their weaker neighbours. The multi-layer and multi-seeded corners at Great Dixter are for me some of the best parts of this garden. They are dynamic, yet settled and just happen rather than being planned; we as gardeners observe, tweak and help these areas on their way. As I took the time and really looked (something Christo was so good at) these areas have come to the fore of my thinking. I don’t want to change these parts of Dixter but instead encourage more. Gardens can be over-gardened – observation and intention are required in equal measure. This is part of the magic of Dixter. Fergus Garrett
Fergus in his Zoom HQ during the pandemic.
FOREWORD
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by Anna Pavord
Winter was the season when I most often used to stay at Dixter. Partly it was because my own garden was less demanding then, but mostly it was because winter’s long afternoon shadows and its dusk so suited the house and garden. Yew topiary swam out of winter fog and flickering light in the Parlour window ahead spoke of the huge log fire inside. There was less urgency to get on with the day in winter and I especially loved breakfast time, coming down the wide Lutyens stairs to the little room alongside the kitchen. The dining room was small, compared with the rest of the rooms at Dixter and it was cosy in there, first thing in the morning. Christopher sat at the head of the table and I always dropped a kiss on the top of his head before crossing over to make toast from his home-made bread. Fergus would come in with the post and Christopher, who was a terrific letter writer, would read out bits from correspondents he’d met on his lecture tours. There was a wonderful begonia on the windowledge there, which Christopher had been given by Beth Chatto. I have it too, one of the many quiet connections that daily remind me of this exceptional friend and mentor.
“Christo loved begonia because they are so varied – it was his Desert Island plant”. Fergus Garrett, who styled this image of dif ferent species and cultivars of Begonias at Dixter.
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From top left: Jane Wigan, Andrew Chipchase, Fergus Garrett, Perr y Rodriguez, Ben Jones, Jack McCoy, Michael Wachter, Ruth Tyson, Ben Robbins, Coralie Thomas, Shaun Blower, Sarah Hudson, Jess Orr, Eloise Gayer, Carol Joughin, Bill Ludgrove, Michael Morphy, Sophie Cook, Alice Rodriquez, Colin Stewart, Hayden Bosher, Alex Scott-Tonge, Daniel Carlson Ellie Machell, Dean Charlton, Linda Jones, Lewis Bosher, Rachel Deacon, John Sharratt, Agnes Ladjevardi.
CONTENTS
2.
Foreword Anna Pavord
6.
Flipping through the pages of my notebook Agnes Ladjevardi
10. Essay on how to be less reactionary Sophie Cook 16. Our family life at Dixter Mary Anna Shephard 22.
Photo essay Howard Sooley
34.
Second world war at Dixter Roy Brigden
52. Cut flowers at Dixter Eloise Gayer 56. Being taught pathology by Oliver Cromwell Geoffrey Robb 58. The winter garden is a changeable thing Colin Stewart 64. My year at Dixter Ellie Machell
SARAH SEYMOUR
66. Hidden treasures in the house Shelly Swain It is impossible to capture ever yone involved at Dixter at any one time so here is a winter snapshot of those on site taken at 3pm on 10th Februar y 2022
68. Learning from the masters Rowland Lacey 70. Centenary Friends 72. Richard Adams at Great Dixter 76. Dixter in 2021 Carol Joughin 80. The Great Dixter Charitable Trust annual report 2020-2021
FLIPPING THROUGH THE PAGES OF MY NOTEBOOKS
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by Agnes Ladjevardi, UK Christopher Lloyd Scholar Flipping through the pages of my notebooks, memories of the garden jump out at me. After a year working at Great Dixter as the UK Christopher Lloyd Scholar, and living on site, I know the garden differently now. I cannot return to my first encounter with it, and I can’t relive the emotion it brought me. The closest I can come to recovering the freshness is by going through these pages. They’ll take me right to day four, or day sixty, with that banana, that failed Digitalis combination, with that bulb and with that old tractor. Here are a few entries for me to indulge once more in that special feeling.
DAY 8: 18TH DECEMBER ‘20 We’re busy f illing terracotta pots with bulbs.
We’re huddled over the pile of old soil mix, surrounded by pots of various sizes. We tr y to match the pot to what we plant in it. Low and wide for the smaller Muscari, tall and narrow for the larger Narcissus. It’s satisfying to f inish of f by spreading the grit on top of the pots like fresh concrete.
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DAY 4: 14TH DECEMBER ‘20 I’m introduced to the idea of low and high density planting, to feeling out the right number of plants a space can take, to putting bamboo canes around things to make them clearer, to thinking of early spring bedding combinations on the Long Border.
DAY 9: 9TH JANUARY ‘21
It’s time to put the bananas to bed. We create temporar y tipi homes for the Exotic Garden’s tallest residents. They are f illed with our meadow’s hay or cut fern fronds. Once they’re all protected, the garden takes on a muted quality I enjoy.
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DAY 95: 14TH MAY ‘21
I f inally get to see what the fuss with Beth’s Poppy is. It is a beautiful thing, with the softest but most vibrant pink. We grew the little plants over winter, hard to believe they’ve become so strong. The wind blew the petals of f quickly. It left all those slender stalks swaying in the aftermath. I bought some seeds to scatter where I end up going after Dixter.
DAY 194: 2ND NOVEMBER ‘21
I have cut my f irst full topiar y piece today. It took me a while to get the hang of it. The hedges are not regular which helps hide my mistakes. I no longer feel intimidated by hedge trimmers or by topiaries hedges. I see them now as they duck and dive through the garden like great big friendly mammoths.
DAY 38: 17TH FEBRUARY ‘21 The great f ig that runs along the Barn
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wall is bare except for a few f igs at the tips of branches. It’s a sunny cold day. From the top of our ladders Peter and I debate how we can tie in the new shoots, and which branches need to be pruned. I’m struggling to keep my ladder balanced without crushing the emerging crocus. I keep climbing up and down as I always seem to have a key tool missing. ■
SOPHIE COOK
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AN ESSAY ON HOW TO BE LESS REACTIONARY
by Sophie Cook, Assistant Nurser y Manager
Great Dixter has always been a place that has pushed the envelope in design and plant use. I feel lucky that I have been able to continue this ethos into my approach to pest and disease management in the nursery, being given the freedom and time to try out various, nonchemical methods. One of the most effective and simplest actions to keep pests and diseases down in the glasshouse is good ventilation. Open all the windows and keep the door open as much as you can. If it feels stuffy then that’s a perfect breeding ground for bacteria, fungus, red spider mite, aphids, and whatever else. My glasshouse in the nursery is kept at a high of 5˚C in the cooler months, but I often
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The horticultural approach of recent times to pests and diseases has been a reactionary one; if there is slug damage, then sprinkle some slug pellets; if there are aphids, spray them with a bug killer; mice – put out some traps. Of course, all the above have been identified by the big companies to be ways of making more money by greenwashing with less toxic products; organic slug pellets, SB plant invigorator, rodent catch and release traps. But why don’t we step back, and consider how we can live alongside other creatures, then perhaps we could grow the plants we want to while also creating food and habitat for non-human beings.
THE SECOND MOST EFFECTIVE PRACTICE TO KEEP PESTS AND DISEASES DOWN IS TIME... EVERY MORNING I SPEND SOME TIME, LESS THAN HALF AN HOUR, LOOKING OVER THE PLANTS TO CHECK FOR ANY SIGNS OF
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PEST DAMAGE.
prefer to keep it slightly cooler rather than close all the windows overnight. The plants aren’t growing too much over the winter, so as long as it is kept frost free then the plants will happily sit there patiently waiting for spring, when they will shoot up with the warmer temperatures and longer days. Keeping everything open also means you get welcome visitors; I have a small frog and a shrew for the slugs, and parasitic wasps will start laying eggs in aphids as early as February. In my first winter at Dixter I didn’t ventilate as much and I had a real problem with botrytis fungus on the foliage of plants; this winter I haven’t seen any botrytis. View your glasshouse as an extension of the garden ecosystem, rather than a separate room into which you enter. In thinking of it as an extension of the ecosystem, you invite in all sorts of useful predators. The second most effective practice to keep pests and diseases down is time. I have become very familiar with the plants in the glasshouse over the winter, and every morning I spend some time, less than half an hour, looking over the plants to check for any signs of pest damage. In this way, you can address the problem before it gets too big, and respond to it with respectively less drastic actions. Red spider mite is the most persistent pest I find in my glasshouse. They can hide in the brickwork so they are almost impossible to eradicate. When I see the classic yellow mottling of the leaves, I will put the plant outside in a spot where there is a bit of a draught for a few nights, letting the cooler night-time temperatures knock back the population on the plant. This won’t completely kill them, but it will allow the plant to recover sufficiently to put on
healthy new growth. I use this technique for most pests or diseases – leaf hopper, aphids, botrytis. You’ll need to check the night time temperatures to make sure they don’t go below freezing, and that the wind isn’t too strong.
I have tried using raw wool as a physical barrier to the more tasty plants I grow. It certainly does work if you stick to certain criteria; the wool is a physical barrier so it needs to be a complete barrier around the base of the plant or pot; ensure that there aren’t any ‘bridges’ of overhanging plants so that the slugs can get across, and check for slugs before you apply; the wool does seem to lose its efficacy over time due to watering or rain, so will need to be replaced periodically. I tend to use wool as a deterrent alongside the other methods.
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I have a resident frog and shrew that keep the slugs down in my glasshouse, and I never use any chemical poison to kill the slugs for this reason. I have also watched many slugs slowly dying from being poisoned in other parts of the nursery and it is awful to witness. I do still get slug damage, but I employ two methods to deal with this; one is taking time to check for slugs, and the other is to grow slightly more than I need to account for losses. When I see slug damage on a potted plant on my morning check, I will look underneath the pot and will often find the perpetrator asleep tucked away in the bottom of the pot. It then gets tossed away outside (much like ‘Mr Mead and His Garden’) where the population of various predators is much higher. I also try to grow in a way where I make room for the other creatures around me, instead of eradicating them. I simply grow slightly more plants to account for losses and I like to think of this as an offering to the ecosystem you’re trying to invite into the glasshouse.
ANOTHER APPROACH I HAVE TO THE GLASSHOUSE ENVIRONMENT IS TO NOT USE IT AS A STORAGE SPACE, BUT A GROWING ON SPACE. I MOVE PLANTS ON AS SOON AS THEY ARE ROOTED, AND WILL NEVER LEAVE ANYTHING
Another approach I have to the glasshouse environment is to not use it as a storage space, but a growing on space. I move plants on as soon as they are rooted, and will never leave anything inside without good reason. I find this one of the most effective ways of preventing pests and diseases from taking hold. This method was taught to me by Miranda Kramer who runs de Hessenhof with Hans in the Netherlands, as I was amazed at how pest free their propagation spaces were.
INSIDE WITHOUT
It is only in the winter that I will keep plants in the glasshouse for longer than a few weeks; I will bring in the tender stock plants and tender small plants in late autumn until the threat of frost has passed. I minimise the potential pest population by cutting back these plants in the autumn and probably another time in mid-winter. I leave just enough leaf for them to keep photosynthesising over the winter. The boundless vigour of spring will ensure that the plants put on lots of growth when the weather warms and they can be moved outside. Many ‘traditional’ gardeners and gardening organisations will encourage you to undertake a spring clean of your glasshouse, using chemicals in an attempt to control your pest and disease population. I did this when I first started at the nursery and now regret it. By doing this clean, you will also kill any beneficial predators of pests and unbalance any semblance of ecosystem within the glasshouse. I find newly mummified aphids as early as February, showing that the parasitic wasps are already active. If I were to clean
SOPHIE COOK
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GOOD REASON.
out the glasshouse, I would devastate their population, as well as lose the resident frog and shrew for the slugs.
I have seen how good these methods work in my glasshouse; the air seems fresher, there are very little pests and diseases, and I have still made as many plants as needed for the nursery to sell. In our annual inspection by DEFRA last year, the inspector commented on how few pests there were and couldn’t even find whitefly. But don’t let me tell you what to do. One of the hardest traditions I had to face in the horticultural industry is the culture of doing something because ‘it’s always been done that way’. There is absolutely no sense in this, and often refers to horticultural practises that have been adopted since the biochemical and agricultural ‘revolution’ after the world wars in the twentieth century. I say question everything you’re doing, question what I’ve written here, and make your own discoveries in your own gardens. ■
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It is also important to realise that a use of chemicals to control pests creates a culture of relying on these inputs. These chemicals are produced by large companies making money from destroying our ecosystems. If you kill the pests, you kill the predators’ food supply, starving the predators out of the ecosystem. It is well documented that the chemical approach can also result in a boom in a pest population, as the predators who would usually contain the pest population have been killed, and pests tend to have a higher reproduction rate than predators, recovering their population more rapidly. Companies will also often sell us notions of an organic dream, for example organic slug pellets, where you kill the slug population but nothing else. This is too much of a silver bullet to be true. The British Hedgehog Society advises against using any kind of pellets, and instead suggests cultural and physical slug controls.
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Top, 3 rascals on the Drive. Above, Sunday lunch in the Cottage garden: roast pork from Rigby’s Farm. Right, the f inal baby at the Cottage. Below right, posing at the edge of Tom’s ornamental pool. Far right, Tom “babysitting” Josephine.
OUR FAMILY LIFE AT DIXTER
When my husband Tom came home after his interview for Head Gardener at Great Dixter he was very enthusiastic: an exceptional garden with a charismatic ‘boss’ with whom it would be a privilege to work, a great house and plenty of garden space for us to live in and wonderful views down the valley to Bodiam Castle. He knew I would be persuaded by the prospect of living in a medieval landscape where you could almost hear the jingle of harness and the thud of hooves as the knights rode down the rutted lane beside our house.
So we left our 2 room slate quarrier’s cottage on the island of Seil in Argyll and the charming garden of An Cala with its magnolias, skunk cabbage and stunning vista of the open Atlantic and headed S.E. in 1978. The three boys aged 1, 3 and 5 were most interested in the idea of having stairs in the new house and the possibility of getting a television! They had nearly eight years of playing in the Dixter gardens and roaming through the landscape with their Action Men. Being little children they could travel along the tunnel made by the two rows of yew trees that make up the iconic Yew Hedges – a secret highway. Tom followed this pattern of planting when he later laid out the Yew ‘bones’ of his design in the Victorian vegetable garden at Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye – a reminder of Dixter and all that he learned there. We were warmly welcomed by everyone at the gardens and Christopher felt confident enough in us to rush off to visit someone, leaving us with his two dogs!
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Memories of Tom Shephard (1949-2020), Head Gardener at Great Dixter from 1978 to 1986 by Mar y Anna Shephard
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Albert Croft, one of the older gardeners, became a great ally of Tom’s. He would present us with massive beetroots from his own garden nearby. He sowed and planted bio-dynamically without ever having heard the term and was very fond of the children – his comment was “They do grow like runner beans”. Tom and I were very honoured to be invited to accompany him on a ‘badder’ (badger) watching expedition down in 4 Acre Shaw – the wood that stretches down to a little stream with trout in it beyond our house. Albert knew all the ages of the badger family in this sett, not just by sight but also by their snufflings and chitterings. We were not allowed to talk or move once we were established on a fallen tree – a wonderful experience. Albert was a lovely man. Christopher valued the sanctuary that the woods provided and would not allow the local hunt to enter them, so sometimes you would hear the horn sounding in the distance but they never came near although we did take the children to the local pub to experience the pageantry of a ‘Meet’. Of course the local foxes thrived and we were woken one night by the ghastly row of terrified hens screeching from the hen house in
Top, a frosty morning in the Nurser y. Above, Summertime – me and Jasmine the goat.
our garden. Tom rushed out wearing nothing but a pair of wellies... too late the fox had run amok. These same hens had previously gone walkabout and found their way to the Long Border. It was of Christopher’s tolerance and kindness towards the family that he remained remarkably calm over this invasion. Perhaps he was reminded of the hurly-burly of family life when he was a child.
THEY HAD NEARLY EIGHT YEARS OF PLAYING IN THE DIXTER GARDENS AND ROAMING THROUGH THE LANDSCAPE WITH THEIR ACTION MEN. BEING LITTLE
Tom introduced me to the giant Mulberry Tree with its delicious fruits that stained the Lutyens steps deep red; also to the Medlars growing by the Horse pond and how the fruits had to ‘bletted’ before they were good to eat – so very old English. Tom spent a great deal of time in the Nursery cossetting the Clematis (Christopher’s speciality at the time), unravelling their roving tentacles and expounding their various virtues to the many visitors who bought them. One morning he came back to our house and said “Come and look”. We rushed out and beheld a thick covering of red sand on the flat surfaces of the cold frames in the Nursery – strange to be able to
CHILDREN THEY COULD TRAVEL ALONG THE TUNNEL MADE BY THE TWO ROWS OF YEW TREES THAT MAKE UP THE ICONIC YEW HEDGES – A SECRET HIGHWAY.
handle the far Sahara blown into your backyard. There was always something interesting going on in the gardens; clipping the Topiary, deciding where to plant some gem that a plant-collecting friend had presented to Christopher. There was once an awfulness when a small tree brought back from China was inadvertently ‘strimmed’ to death by one of the gardeners, but Christopher was philosophical about it. One year he decided to exhibit a piece of turf from the orchard at the Chelsea Flower Show. The Orchard in late spring/early summer is a fairyland of exquisite flowers and grasses and a choice chunk was carefully dug out, taken to the show and eventually tucked neatly back into the Orchard again. It must have captivated hundreds of people at Chelsea by its delicate beauty.
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As well as plants and food, Christopher and Tom shared a passion for music – Tom having studied the clarinet in Budapest – and we were very excited to be replacements for Christopher’s party to Glyndebourne when two of his friends couldn’t make it – so good of him to think of us. It was an idyllic expedition – so elegant – the house and garden, the picnic, the music. We were so close to the stage you could see the tiny pearls embroidering Cinarentola’s dress!
THE BOYS WERE INTRIGUED BY THE TRAIN ROOM IN THE ATTIC WHERE A HUGE TABLE SUPPORTED A COMPLEX WEB OF RAILWAY LINES, STATIONS, FIELDS,
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The buildings at Great Dixter are such an integral part of the gardens embracing them with their mellow wood, tile and brick and inspiring so many different types of planting. I was given the job of dead heading in the old Rose garden – such a scented peaceful place. Tom was not so enamoured by the mono-planting of roses and much preferred them incorporated into mixed beds, heavily influenced by Christopher I suspect. One year the thatch on the barn was replaced and it was fascinating to watch the Norfolk reeds being bunched and ‘woven’ together – more sophisticated and long-lasting than the humble rush thatching of the Highlands. There was a wonderful knife grinder in the barn where you wound a handle like using an old mangle and held the knife blade against the revolving stone. Tom used it to get a fearsome edge on his Opinnel – all the better for taking cuttings. The abandoned Oasthouse was a place of dusty silence and the lingering sleepy smell of hops. There was a pile of very long hessian sacks into which the hops were packed when they had been dried on the rack above the kiln – such lovely brickwork tapering up into
VILLAGES ETC. IT MUST HAVE BEEN GREAT FUN FOR EDWIN AND JULIET, QUENTIN LLOYD’S CHILDREN WHO LIVED AT LITTLE DIXTER ACROSS THE FIELD FROM THE BIG HOUSE.
the cone of the tower; and of course we loved the house itself. Tom had his daily consultation with Christopher – the rest of us were taken on special visits by Olivia, Christopher’s niece who befriended us and had lived with her parents in the cottage where we now lived. We found a little cardboard box right at the back of one of the cupboards containing hair ribbons – a relic of Olivia’s childhood there – so moving. I loved the Solar best with its tiny ‘spying’ window and the kitchen where there was always some culinary project in process. Strangely Christopher couldn’t abide rosemary and wouldn’t have it in the house. The boys were very intrigued by the train room in the attic where a huge table supported a complex web of railway lines, stations, fields, villages etc. It must have been great fun for Edwin and Juliet, Quentin Lloyd’s children who lived at Little Dixter across the field from the Big House.
As Tom had predicted, we were very happy at Great Dixter and made some brilliant friends especially Hatty Cole and family who suggested I write this saga. We also added 2 more children to the family….. Christopher’s comment on each occasion being “Not ANOTHER baby”! ■
Back row: Seb Cole, Tom Shephard ; Henr y Shephard. Middle row: Hatty and Beatrice Cole, Francis and Mar y Anna Shephard, Ruby Cole, Helen Vale (friend). Front row: Sam Shephard Edward Shephard
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So we had charming neighbours, not forgetting Jo who worked on the farm, his dear wife Audrey and their son who used to scoop up our little Francis and bring him home on the combine harvester when he had been exploring – discovering a harvest mouse’s nest or a swarm of bees hanging from a tree.
PHOTO ESSAY by Howard Sooley
Derek Jarman writes ‘Paradise haunts gardens, and some gardens are paradises. Mine is one of them.’ I think, as Derek did, that Great Dixter is another of those. ‘Other paradises: Christopher Lloyd's Great Dixter up the road. Gardens that deny paradise: ... (where) not one plant seems to touch its neighbour…. You won't f ind this in Great Dixter; it's shaggy. If a garden isn't shaggy, forget it.’
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I first visited the garden with Derek in 1991 at the invitation of Christopher Lloyd, after a trip he and Beth Chatto had made to Prospect Cottage earlier that summer. Over the next few years we became frequent visitors to the garden (and nursery), as we wound our way down the East Sussex, Kentish border along a daisy chain of nurseries and hop fields stretching from London to Dungeness. A couple of years later Christopher Lloyd asked me if I wanted to make some photographs for a book he was writing, ’The Gardener Cook’, and so began a long period of frequent visits and growing friendships. Throughout all my visits I never felt like I’d seen the same thing twice, a moment was never repeated. Every visit let me look deeper into the garden,
see things I’d never seen before. I began to realise I wasn't looking at a garden, I was inside a living garden, moving with it through time, seeing it change and evolve from the inside, it is an incredible privilege. There is a magic to this place, it is at once welcoming and open. The more you enquire the more it will reveal. It is ever changing and evolving, moments aren’t preserved, they don’t freeze or stagnate. Perhaps it is the mission of the garden and those who garden it to share and inspire. I have learnt so much about gardening here, about caring for a place. It is where I have done most of my thinking about what a garden is, learning to see what is in front of me, not just to see surface. Photography has helped me to look into and to inquire, helped me articulate what I see, so I can share it with others. Because of the land, the people that have gardened here, their ethos and their dedication, I think this is a truly special place.
GREAT DIXTER & THE SECOND WORLD WAR
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Roy Brigden
DAISY In mid July 1939, six weeks before War was declared, Daisy Lloyd left England with two of her sons, Quentin and Christopher, for a month’s holiday in Switzerland. Soldier son Patrick warned her from India of the dangers, instructed her to keep listening to the BBC and if a crisis boils up to ‘scram’. On 9th August, 58 year old Daisy wrote to her daughter Letitia from the villa at Lake Silvaplana that she had spent 8 hours walking up and down a 2,700 metre mountain that day. They were back at Dixter on the 17th August after a three day train journey, ready to crack on with harvesting and preserving the garden’s abundance of produce. Another month further on and Daisy would be contemplating the daunting task of making black out curtains for the whole house.
THE YOUNG LLOYDS Throughout the War, Great Dixter, with Daisy at its heart, was the family headquarters and the place of refuge for its various members whenever an opportunity presented. Oliver, the oldest surviving son, was 28 in 1939 and, apart from considering joining the navy at one point, spent the War working as a hospital pathologist, firstly at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford and then at specialist hospital laboratories in Epsom and Sutton. Patrick was a career soldier who had enlisted with the Royal Artillery straight from school in 1931. Having returned from the India posting in September 1939, he was dispatched to France with the British Expeditionary Force and evacuated from Dunkirk in May 1940. In July, while his gun squadron was on invasion watch in Essex, Captain Lloyd conducted Right, the f irst batch of evacuee boys, September 1939. Left, Daisy Lloyd in Februar y 1942, with Bunch
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a drill for the benefit of the King who was carrying out an inspection and who asked him ‘all sorts of questions’. After that, he went on to become part of a newly formed airborne branch of the Royal Artillery. He subsequently fought in north Africa, Sicily and southern Italy before, now at the rank of major, a bout of illness brought him back to England. The third brother, Quentin, suffered from rheumatoid arthritis – a condition that also affected Patrick and to a lesser extent Christopher – which ruled him out of military service. He worked for his uncle Robin in the Lloyd printing business for a while but when that didn’t work out he spent the War at Dixter, helping with the house and estate, and being heavily involved with the local Air Raid Wardens Service.
Top, Major Patrick Lloyd of the Royal Artiller y at Dixter, May 1943. Above, Letitia and Quentin Lloyd at Dixter in July 1942
Letitia, the only daughter, was training as a nurse at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge in 1939. On the 17th September, she wrote of having to deal with a young airman, ‘fatally battered to bits by the propeller of his plane, while winding it up’. After qualifying, she went on to train as a midwife in Edinburgh and spent the rest of the War working in hospitals in Oxford and Surrey. Christopher, the youngest, went up to Kings College Cambridge in the autumn of 1939 to study French and German, and be a member of the Officers’ Training
Daisy kept everyone in the loop with the constant round of writing and receiving letters, and pulled out the stops when they were able to come back and stay. Both Patrick and Christopher regularly sent her their washing, whether from college rooms or from military bases around the country. Cleverly packaged amongst the clean laundry in the returning box would often be a cake, a pie or a consignment of fruit. There were frequent requests from all for items of clothing to be patched up, darned or otherwise repaired – obsessively so in the case of Oliver, notwithstanding his marriage in 1942. Even Letitia, the independent young woman often trying to break free from motherly ties, had no qualms about sending down her bathing dress in June 1942 for Daisy to deal with the 36 moth holes it sported. Daisy, for her part, fielded whatever came her way in good spirit. The price she exacted was a close interest in all her childrens’ lives. THE WIDER CIRCLE Beyond the immediate family, there was another network revolving around Dixter, and around Daisy, that was
important in these wartime years. She had been a frequent visitor to Germany since her childhood and some of these German friends and their contacts had since sought sanctuary in England. There were the Hirsches, for example, originally from Frankfurt, who came over in the mid-1930s and initially stayed at Dixter before settling in Cambridge, where old and young alike became part of the extended family. There were others like the Neuraths, Friedrich and Winifred, an Austrian doctor and his English wife, who arrived in England at the beginning of the War and Daisy helped them find their feet at a difficult time when they were having to report to the police as aliens. A frequent correspondent was Muriel Goldstein, an English Jewess married to a Berliner, who sourced needlework and clothing materials for Daisy in London, in return for some welcome delicacies from Dixter. Pre-War, Daisy had worked with the Domestic Bureau of the Central Office of Refugees to take on girls from Europe to help in the house. In September 1939 she reported that: I have three refugees under my roof at the moment, and a fourth who is in London on holiday. We took the cook (Czech) and the two little maids (German) over to Rye on Monday to register with the police, and dear old Inspector Wickens was so kind and gentle with them, they were quite
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Corps. He also joined the College’s fire watch squad and in the holidays put in time with the Northiam Home Guard. He was called up in November 1941, with his studies incomplete, to join the Field Training Regiment of the Royal Artillery.
touched – he even allowed me to take care of their cameras for them, instead of impounding them himself.
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She also participated in another pre-War scheme that offered holidays in the country to child refugees. One of those who came to stay at Great Dixter was Karl Leyser, from a German Jewish shoe manufacturing family, who Daisy virtually adopted as another son. Leyser went on to university but his studies were interrupted by a period of internment before he was allowed to serve in the military. After the War he went back into academic life, ultimately becoming Professor of Medieval History at Oxford University, and all the while maintaining his friendships with the Lloyds. There were the two elderly cousins, Horace and Mary Field, who alternated during the War between Rye and Devon, and their two adopted grandchildren, Quentin and John Edwards, who reached military age in the 1940s and who looked on Dixter as a second home. There were friends from afar like Sylvia Ross of Maine, a Dixter garden visitor when in England, who would periodically send Daisy a ham or similar via the high class Dublin grocers Leverett & Frye. There were special friends like Averil Colby from Bristol who would come and stay with Daisy, wartime travel restrictions notwithstanding,
for intense embroidery, quilting and patchwork sessions. Through her subsequent books, she would later become internationally known in these fields. They all wrote regularly and extensively to Dixter, where their letters remain, and received back from Daisy full updates, packed with detail and humour, in that exquisitely tiny and unmistakeable handwriting. THE EVACUEES Daisy was always very keen that the house be put to good use in wartime, just as in the First War when it had served as a hospital. The first opportunity came straightaway in early September 1939, when billets were required for schoolchildren evacuated out of London, and almost immediately ten boys arrived from the New Cross area. The Great Hall was turned into a dormitory, with Quentin designing and making individual cupboard units for each bed, and two schoolmasters were assigned the Parlour. There was much coming and going to begin with and some of this party was soon moved
It was clearly going to be very hard work so the network was called upon for help. Karl Leyser’s sister, Dorothee, put some time in, as did
Left, Evacuee boys and two teachers making beds in the Great Hall, September 1939. Top, Certif icate of Royal thanks for Daisy’s work with the evacuees. Above, Christo and Smart the gardener examining a bomb crater at Dixter, August 1940.
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on to the Kipling house, Batemans. A new batch was in place by the end of the month, but this time with no accompanying teachers, which put an immediate strain on the already under strength staff resources in the house. At first, Daisy was excited by the challenge: I told the boys I could bath 2 of them that evening before going to bed - & they all fell upon me like a pack of puppies shouting “Me! Miss! Do let it be me Miss! – it nearly made me cr y – some of these poor babies hadn’t had a bath for 8 weeks! So of course I just pulled up my socks & tubbed the lot, it took me from 7.30 to 8.45…I washed their hair with my precious Roget & Gallet’s Carnation & they were simply thrilled when they heard it came from France. When I’d f inished the 8th, my poor bath had such a high water mark, I had to call in expert assistance, & it took Kläre 20 min to scrub it clean! The baby of the party is Raymond Sully, aged 7. He gets food all over his face, & I had to make him wash again after breakfast as his cheeks were plastered with plum jam!
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Berta Eschelbacher’s daughter, who was waiting to begin a nurse training course, and Muriel Goldstein lined up a new German cook. The boys themselves were not all the little angels they might have seemed at first. In response to one parent concerned about their son’s welfare, Daisy wrote in November: With regard to Leonard’s physical condition this need not give you the slightest uneasiness. It is true that when he f irst came he had lice in his head but I had him shaved & we ver y quickly got rid of them. I bath and weigh the boys myself once a week, & L is in excellent condition. He put on one pound in weight last week & has a remarkably healthy appetite. What is really a matter of grave concern to all of us who are in authority is the ver y bad moral ef fect on the rest of the community. He is naughtier than I could have thought possible & ought, I am sure, to be under ver y much stricter control than he is here, if he is to turn out a good & useful citizen.
THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN Great Dixter experienced the full reality of War over the summer of 1940. It was included within the official Defence Area so anyone, even family members, had to have written police permission to enter from outside. Christopher was already back from Cambridge and he and Daisy took to sleeping in a tent in the garden in the warm weather. Women and children having been advised to move away from Hastings and Rye, Daisy offered to accommodate Mrs Hewett, the wife of her friendly bank manager in Rye, should it become necessary. From the security of his strongroom as the battle raged overhead, Mr Hewett would write chatty notes to Daisy on the back of official bank letters. In August, a bomb exploded in one of the fields across from Great Dixter and caused further consternation for a while as it was thought another had landed but not gone off.
In the event, the whole evacuee episode was over for Great Dixter almost as soon as it had begun. This was the period of the ‘phoney war’ when hostilities on the home front were few so the boys had gone by the end of the year. The danger became very real with the London blitz of 1940, but evacuees would not return to this part of East Sussex because it was now an active war zone and in effect on the front line.
Quentin meanwhile was fully engaged with the ARP. An old Lloyd car was converted into a makeshift ambulance and the local wardens used the Great Hall at Dixter as their HQ and maintained telephone contact with observer posts around the district. Whilst they sat by the phone for long hours in turn, Daisy taught them needlework. Quentin made up a device, dubbed a bombograph which worked on a plumb line principle fixed within a frame, to measure the shockwaves
THE LOCAL WARDENS USED THE GREAT HALL AT DIXTER AS THEIR CONTACT WITH OBSERVER POSTS AROUND THE DISTRICT. WHILST THEY SAT BY THE PHONE FOR LONG HOURS IN TURN, DAISY TAUGHT THEM NEEDLEWORK.
caused by a bombardment. It is still in the cellar at Dixter today. Daisy’s own words can best capture those extraordinary times. On 16 August she wrote to Patrick: We had a terrif ic lot of air raids yesterday – Q was on duty most of the day, &, I am ashamed to say, thoroughly enjoyed it! Someone met him on the road, bicycling like mad & tooting on his little whistle & looking tremendously gay & debonair – They all love him in the village, & I must say he is a ver y useful member of society in spite of his cussedness. About 6 o’c an aeroplane zoomed over the orchard (from the pig sties towards Higham) so low, I was afraid it would crash. Q says it was lower still when it passed him at the Crown & Thistle (where a lot of them were putting out a f ire), & Betteridge f inally got word over the phone that it had managed to land safely between Beckley & Udimore. It was one of ours – engine trouble – but it got away later. Many people thought it was a German & were awfully scared. On September 11th, seamlessly linking the seasonal chores of the garden with what was happening overhead, Daisy wrote to Patrick again: The other morning there was a ver y f ierce dogf ight going on
overhead. Christo & I were in the garden squeezing mulberr y juice out of a jelly bag – there came an awful roar and we thought a plane was coming down on the house. It was a Spitf ire that broke in half in the air – one half crashed in Cavix (the top end that belonged to the Skipwiths – nearly opposite our Chapel Field), & the other in Whitbread Lane, & the pilot fell out only a hundred feet up, & came down unharmed, except for a few glass splinters in his face. Ever yone up here thought their house was going to be hit. There has been another shemozzle this afternoon – plenty of machine gunning – Christo, Diana, Florence & I were bottling pears in the pantr y – and the noise overhead was terrif ic. Quentin has just come in having had a ver y exciting time. He went down to the Crown & Thistle after lunch to tinker about with the ambulance, as it has no ‘black-out curtains’ and Qn is devising some little wooden shutters – Then came the air raid warning and masses of aeroplanes buzzing about, & he saw one crash – a Spitf ire, just behind Watts Hill, & he went of f in Mr Ashworth’s car, Miss Masters driving the ambulance behind them! And they collected the pilot who had been carried into a cottage next to Ashworth’s house, & took him in the ambulance over to the R.A.M.C. Field Ambulance at Newenden – and would you believe it, not a single doctor was there! So they had to leave the poor fellow to the tender mercies of the orderlies …… The German bomber that our gardeners saw, crashed just by the S-bend going to Staplecross – the pilot
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HQ AND MAINTAINED TELEPHONE
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On 30th October, almost the last day of the Battle of Britain, Flying Officer Hilary Edridge was shot down over Great Dixter and his spitfire crashed in a field close to the house. Badly injured, he was quickly removed to hospital in Northiam where he died later that day, with Quentin at his bedside. Shortly afterwards, Daisy wrote a touching letter of condolence to the parents, Ray Edridge and his wife, setting out what had happened in the aftermath of the crash. The correspondence continued and after the War he came over to visit Daisy and see the spot where his son had come to grief. WAR TIME LIFE There were other ways in which Daisy and Great Dixter contributed to the war effort. From the end of 1940, for example, the house was home to part of the insect collections of the Natural History Top left, Recipients of the 22 rabbits that Daisy gave away around the village on Christmas Eve 1940. Far left, World War Two gas mask at Great Dixter. Left, November 1941, hauling bracken for livestock bedding. Christo in the cart with Bunch. Above left, Letter from the Keeper of Entomology thanking Daisy for temporarily housing part of the Natural Histor y Museum’s collections, March 1942.
Museum in London. Having suffered damage from air raids, the Museum was seeking to disperse its collections. Captain Wilkinson, the Museum’s wasp specialist, had local connections to Northiam and arranged with Daisy for the various cabinets of specimens to be housed in the Parlour where he continued to work on them. The arrangement lasted until the spring of 1942 when Wilkinson, having been called up as a naval reservist, perished as his ship went down and the Museum subsequently decided to take back the collection. Producing more food from the garden and estate was of course very important. In May 1941, Daisy reported that she was growing over 700 sunflowers, so that their seed could be fed to the chickens, and that more of the land had been ploughed up for potatoes and peas. In early August, a whole week was spent in picking and shelling peas, and sterilising them in a pressure cooker before they were bottled. While Christo was waiting to hear about his call-up, in September he and Quentin made 126 lbs of jam in a day for the WI Preserving Centre. Daisy proudly wrote to Pat: Xr is indefatigable in picking & bottling fruit. This morning he brought in a ½ bushel basket of Codlings (delicious cookers but they won’t keep), & we spent the entire morning peeling & slicing them, & to keep them from turning brown we dipped them in a bowl of salt water, & then he packed the slices ver y neatly in kilner jars & sterilized them – 14 2lb jars! The store
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was killed but the crew of three are safe – the militar y took charge of them. Q says a third plane was down but he knows no details.
cupboard looks as if we were preparing for a siege. Tomorrow it will be more damsons, though hundreds of pounds of them have already been preser ved.
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In October, a local communal canning operation was re-located to Dixter from nearby Tufton Place. While the volunteers ran the machine in the pantry, Daisy wrote the labels for the cans. The Ministry of Agriculture sent over an Inspector of Preserves, Mrs Boreham, to test the Dixter jam and according to Daisy: She was so pleased with the Dixter brand that she wanted me to sell it to Fortnum & Mason, as she said it would be such a feather in the cap of the W.I.’s!....I said that while I was sensible of the compliment I felt I must keep this season’s jam for our own village, but next year, if we had a good fruit crop, I might be able to make enough for both. Right and below, Margaret Balfour in 1942, Dixter Land Army Girl, and with the jersey cows in 1943.
It was the same the following summer, 1942, with Daisy peppering her letters with precise references to the hard labour of preserving: bottling 79 pints of greengages in one afternoon, for example, and contemplating a long night on the red gages too. On 20th August, she was helping the canners with 1cwt of czar plums to the accompaniment of the background sounds of War: I turned the handle for the sealing of the cans, & wrote 70 labels….We are having a lively time in the air just now, with masses of planes of all sorts roaring & droning overhead. We knew all about it on Wed I can tell you! The house rattled & shook with gunf ire & Quentin saw those 4-engined American monsters for the f irst time. I grieve so for the ones that don’t return. In January 1942, a Land Girl was taken on to assist with the outside work. This was Margaret Balfour, who conveniently lived next door with her parents at Higham. Top of the list of duties was looking after the two house cows, Colette and Sibling, who were in new accommodation next to the oast. At full flow, each cow produced a couple of gallons a day and Daisy soon found early morning butter-making, starting at 5am, added to her routine. Later on there were experiments with cheesemaking. Surplus milk, and
anything else for that matter, she would walk round the village and distribute to friends and those most in need.
a pot of honey and of damson jam, ‘and two terrific sprigs of holly – I have never seen so many berries!’
When Daisy went over to Sutton in December 1944 to see Oliver perform in his hospital’s concert, she took as gifts on the train with her: a fowl and a dozen eggs, 2 pints of milk, 1 pint of cream, 2½ lbs of butter, lots of apples,
At the end of the War in the summer of 1945, German prisoners, working under the direction of the Ministry of Supply, carried out major forestry works on the Dixter estate. Weights Wood was coppiced and large areas of Dyneshill
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Left, recipe for savour y meat roll. This was the Food Ministr y’s ‘Dish of the Week’ for 4 May 1942, broadcast by the BBC on its wartime food economy radio programme ‘Kitchen Front’, and copied out by Daisy.
Wood, Dixter Wood and Limes Shaw were cut. Patrick, who was impressed with the quality of the prisoners’ work, went round ahead of them inscribing a capital ‘L’ into the trunks of the oak and ash trees he wanted to remain intact.
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MILITARY ACTIVITIES There was a substantial army presence in and around Northiam during the War, initially for the purposes of repelling the threatened German invasion, and then to build up and prepare for the allied invasion of France. Inevitably, this impinged upon life at Great Dixter and would be mentioned in Daisy’s letters. To Patrick, in August 1941 she wrote: We are in the midst of a terrif ic invasion practice. Northiam fell to the enemy on Wednesday. They f ire guns of f so close, it makes me jump, & yesterday funny little aeroplanes were hedge-hopping over the house all day. In May the following year, the facilities of the house were mobilised for the benefit of the soldiers of the Cheshire Regiment, which was some comfort as it had already been decided that they were going to be on the losing side in the forthcoming exercise: Here we are in the middle of manoeuvres, & yesterday surpassed ourselves by providing baths for 31 men! The Sergeant opened the ball at 8.0am & there was a fairly continuous Right, fragment from a V1 flying bomb at Great Dixter
stream until past 10 at night! Boyce was stoker in chief & never let the heat down. When the of f icers heard what had been happening, they sent a special message to me through Smart asking if they might come today!.........then at 6 o’c Captain Rawson turned up & wallowed for half an hour! I said I thought it was rotten luck having it decided beforehand which side was to win (I had this from Q. who says the “enemy” are Canadians & it is already settled that they are to come out on top – but our men don’t know this). Captain Rawson agreed but said that it would never do in this case to beat their opponents “as they wouldn’t like it & would probably write home & complain.” D-day in June 1944 brought at least the beginning of the end of the military pressure in the area. Quentin put up a map of France in the Solar so that the allied progress from the Normandy beaches could be charted. Studying it, Christo is reported to have exclaimed “Why, they must have landed almost exactly where I found the lizard-orchid in June ’39!” Also from June, there was
THERE WAS AN AWFUL ‘CRUMP’ JUST NOW & THE HOUSE SHOOK ... SAY 2 OF OUR SPITFIRES HAVE JUST BROUGHT DOWN ONE OF THE ‘TOYS’ DOWN IN THE VALLEY! WHEN THEY PASS OVERHEAD IT SOUNDS JUST LIKE GIANTS RIPPING CALICO!
a new menace overhead in the form of the V1 flying bomb, or doodlebug, many of which were brought down over Kent and Sussex before they could reach their intended destination of London. There are fragments of a doodlebug in the collection at Dixter today. On the 17th, Daisy wrote to ‘Dodo’, her friend Mrs Stuart Rose: There was an awful ‘crump’ just now & the house shook – a minute or two later Florence came in beaming to say 2 of our Spitf ires have just brought down one of the ‘toys’ down in the valley! When they pass overhead it sounds just like giants ripping calico! Eleven days later, Daisy and Christo, who had been home on leave, were sitting on the train in Robertsbridge station when: Christo was watching a spitf ire chasing one of these doodlebugs. He leaned out of the window to see the kill (we discovered this morning that it landed in Poppinghole Lane) which was about a mile away, and was actually blown backwards into the compartment by the blast! THE PEACE The record at Great Dixter says very little about the end of the War in May 1945 and how it was celebrated locally.
Almost nothing from Daisy survives from these months, partly because Patrick was at home on extended sick leave and Christo was in transit from Africa to India. These two, more than their siblings, were assiduous about keeping Daisy’s letters and returning them to Dixter. There is a letter from Letitia to Daisy, writing from Oxford a few days after VJ Day in August 1945, where, war weariness being common, she sounds a little jaded that the end had finally come: VJ night was celebrated in a rather haphazard way by all & sundr y in Oxford. I wasn’t particularly keen to “do” the town on that night but as others here were, I didn’t put up any sticks. We trailed around watching ever yone else trailing around watching ever yone else etc etc!! Squibs were let of f in a rather startling manner – there was some dancing in St Giles Street to a loud speaker in a van, & sundr y bonf ires were lit. Magdalene College was flood-lit, & looked lovely – really worth seeing. Rather like a piece of stage-drop scener y. Soldier Christo Christopher’s introduction to army life was not a great success. After his call up in November 1941, he was sent initially to a Potential Officer Training Squad with the Royal Artillery Field Regiment at Bulford camp near Salisbury, and then in January 1942 to an Officer Training Unit at Catterick in Yorkshire. Here, not being of the warrior type, he failed to impress his superiors and
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FLORENCE CAME IN BEAMING TO
“IF THE COUNTRY’S CRYING NEED WAS FOR SCIENTISTS FOR
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had a fairly miserable time of it. When in March he wrote to Daisy that “I’ve been f illed with a most disagreeable feeling of futility and failure these last few days”, she passed this on to Patrick with the comment that “No one is going to make a hater out of Christo. It’s a pity they tr y to make them all conform to the same pattern – there is so much good in that boy, if only they had the sense to see it”. A few days later Patrick, who loved the army life, was passing through Catterick and spent some time walking with Christo over the weekend and giving him a pep talk. Later, he confided to Daisy: Between ourselves, I don’t think he’ll make the grade either. It is not his fault. He has not in his make-up enough ginger & drive, nor is he particularly interested in his job. Therefore he cannot do it well. If the countr y’s cr ying need was for scientists for botanical research work, he would be near the top of the tree, whereas I would only be good for washing the test tubes. As it is, soldiers are wanted. The job interests and suits me, but not him. Shortly afterwards Christo, now a lance corporal, was posted to the Infantry Training Centre at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. He learned how to survive the deadening routine, the constant hanging about, the annoying comrades and the general discomforts of the military. He did so by getting away whenever he could. The Abbey Gardens in Bury St Edmunds became a favourite place where he would go and sit in the spring sunshine and write long
BOTANICAL RESEARCH WORK, HE WOULD BE NEAR THE TOP OF THE TREE, WHEREAS I WOULD ONLY BE GOOD FOR WASHING THE TEST TUBES. AS IT IS, SOLDIERS ARE WANTED. THE JOB INTERESTS AND SUITS ME, BUT NOT HIM”.
letters back to Daisy. They had been working in the grounds of a country house so on 1 May he wrote: The job in which I was involved on Wednesday and Thursday was the digging of trenches. My hands got quite blistered. The trenches were being dug so as to spoil a ver y pretty bit of garden with daf fodils & tulips planted in grass and also a nice collection of shrubs and small trees……I had a chat with the gardener of the place yesterday. He tends with loving care 3 ver y beautiful grass tennis courts, used by of f icers and I rather shocked him by saying that I would rather have dug them up for trenches than the ground we were digging. He frequented an antique shop in the town and would pass the time chatting with its elderly owner, John Forster. An eighteenth century gate leg table, much admired by Christo, subsequently found its way to Dixter with some help from Daisy and Patrick. He found another friend at an improvised library for soldiers in the Athenaeum. This was Mrs Eva Greene, a former mayor and widowed member of one of the town’s grand families, who took Christo under her wing, showed him around,
In late June 1942, Christo was reassigned back to the Training Regiment of the Royal Artillery in Devizes before being allowed home the following month on 28 days Agricultural Leave to assist with the outdoor work at Dixter. After that, Gunner Lloyd was posted to Haydon Bridge in Northumberland where he became involved with land surveying as an adjunct to the work of the artillery. The role suited him and he found himself amongst like-minded and educated individuals he could relate to and trust – one such was Roger Highfield, the Oxford historian, who became a frequent companion on long country walks and a lifelong friend. After completing a couple of courses at the Royal Artillery’s School of Survey in Larkhill, Wiltshire, Lance Bombardier
Lloyd passed out as Surveyor First Class in May 1943. Then it was back to field exercises from various postings around the country, including Northumberland, Yorkshire, Sussex and Norfolk. The survey team, with Christo at the wheel of one of the heavy trucks, would be dispatched into the surrounding countryside for several days at a time, giving him plenty of opportunity to study in depth the local flora and fauna and report back to Daisy in his letters. One morning in September, they were on Salisbury Plain, the guns were moving around and he was having to work fast: At one station where I had to take obser vations, I was right out on the open downland, and the mushrooms were growing all round me more thickly than I ever imagined they could. There were thousands of them of ever y age and size but the pity of it was that I was in a tearing hurr y. However, I rushed around with a canvas bucket & picked about 5lbs into it in less than 5 minutes. However unsoldierly Christo might have been in many ways, one surprising feature was that he was a dead shot with a rifle. Time and again, when called upon to do a stint at the range, he would come out on top, much to his own and others amusement. In September 1943, he wrote to Daisy from Uckfield: The whole of R.H.Q. & some other oddments including the Signals section went rifle shooting the day before yesterday. Before starting ever yone agreed to subscribe a
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and invited him back for motherly home comforts: Yesterday evening I went to Mrs Greene’s house armed with a towel and sponge bag. She seemed ver y pleased to see me and I had a lovely hot bath – most refreshing. She, poor woman, was suf fering from lumbago, but took it ver y cheer fully, she seems indeed, to be a ver y cheer fully disposed and even tempered woman. Moreover she is ver y easy to chat to and has a considerable sense of humour. She asked me if I would stay to dinner, so I did, and ver y nice it was. I mentioned the dif f iculties of shaving without a mirror to her, and she immediately produced one from her handbag and insisted on my borrowing it.
penny to the winner, whoever that should be. It came as a complete surprise to me at the end to f ind that I was quite easily the winner! I won over 2/- worth of pennies. If they wear a hole in my pocket, may I leave it to you to mend?
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And to show it wasn’t a fluke, in September 1944 he wrote from Wickham Market: On Thursday last week, RHQ & LAD all went out to a rifle range some miles away to f ire for classif ication. There must have been some 80 or 90 of us in all. I got top score with 79 points out of 85. Next highest was 74. The first overseas posting came in April 1945 and was to the East African Artillery at Athi River Depot, outside of Nairobi in Kenya. Here the routine continued much as before except the training expeditions took place amid rather more exotic wildlife and there were many new flowers to describe and seeds to gather for the letters home. Then in August, this element of the East Africa Force was moved on to India to become part of the South East Asia Command. They were based at Ranchi, a provincial capital in north east India about 200 miles from Kolkata. By the time they arrived, however, Japan had already surrendered and the War was over. Army life meandered on nonetheless but with more emphasis now on ‘rehabilitation’ training to prepare for the return to civvy street. Christo, presaging the importance of
writing to his later life, took up courses in touch typing and shorthand. There was more opportunity now for travel and relaxation so in November 1945, Christo used his leave to go off and stay with his brother Oliver, who had recently taken up a medical research post in Kasauli in the Himalayan foothills. Contemplating his future, he instructed Daisy to tell his tutor that he would not be returning to Cambridge as he saw no point in continuing his studies in French and German. He also emphatically rejected an approach from his uncle Robin about taking up a role in the Nathaniel Lloyd & Co printing business. The slow journey of demobilisation back to England, via Africa, began in the spring of 1946. While kicking his heels and collecting seeds in Kabale, Uganda, he wrote to Daisy: There’s a charming little bitch dachshund playing about quite close to me. She’s only 6 months old & full of engaging ways. I wish she were mine; not that I’m particularly in love with the breed, but I think that one can fall in love with an individual of any breed of dog. She’s biting the hips of f a rose bush now – not a bad employment to train one’s dog to. By now he had decided that plants and gardening were to be his life, so on his return to Dixter in the summer he enrolled on a degree course in decorative horticulture at Wye College. ■
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Top, Army driver authorisation card for Lance Bombardier Lloyd, 1944. Above, Christmas Day 1945, with the 306 Field Regiment of the East Africa Artiller y, now based at Ranchi, India, as part of the South East Asia Command. Christo is top right. Right, heading home. Christo (far left) on board ship in Mombasa harbour, Kenya, May 1946
ELOISE GAYER
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Below, late summer arrangements by Ruth Borun Scholar Colin Stewart for a conference in the House. Opposite, autumn arrangement by Ellie Machell for the selling table in the Nurser y.
CUT FLOWERS AT DIXTER
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by Eloise Gayer, the Chanticleer US Christopher Lloyd Scholar
Since I began gardening, I’ve discovered a shared interest in flower arranging among many coworkers, both in the US and the UK. At Chanticleer, the garden in Pennsylvania that generously sponsors my scholarship, we have a designated Cutting Garden which is designed to flourish with frequent cutbacks. This garden supplies as many as ten sizable arrangements per week to all the visitor bathrooms, the ticket kiosk, and several rooms in the house during tours. For gardeners, flower arranging is a wonderful exercise in form, color, and texture combination, and has certainly helped me improve my design sensibilities. It is a wonderful and relevant hobby for any gardener.
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Agnes Ladjevardi in the Long Shed with her arrangement.
Nevertheless, we students are sometimes asked to make arrangement for talks and events being held at Great Dixter. This year, the scholars made several large arrangements for the funeral of Prue Crawshay-Williams, the ‘grand dame’ of Dixter house guides. To create these arrangements, we pull from the nursery stock beds containing plants grown specifically for propagation. Some of these stocks plants are in their own separate beds, but some are integrated into the formal display. We must therefore take care to respect the garden and its displays whenever we harvest flowers for arrangements. ■
ELOISE GAYER
In his writing, Christopher Lloyd would often discuss the quality of a plant as a cut flower and the pleasure they bring to one’s home particularly in the winter months. Of course, Christo was at liberty to cut anything he pleased from his own garden, and when I have a garden of my own I will do the same. But for students at Great Dixter today, any flower damaged or removed from the display is lamented and to be avoided at all costs.
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A handcart of flower arrangements for Prue Crawshay-Williams’ funeral in Northiam church.
A MEMORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL LLOYD by Geof frey Robb
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Oliver, the second son of Nathaniel and Daisy Lloyd, trained as a doctor and his special interest was in academic pathology. He became Reader in Pathology at the University of Bristol, which is where I was a student from 1955 – 1960. I had the privilege to be taught by him. My overall memory was of a kind man, enthusiastic about his subject and keen to impart his enthusiasm and his knowledge to his students. I remember assisting him in post mortem examinations. Whereas most pathologists would just take a cursory look at the outside of the small bowel as pathology there was unusual, Oliver insisted that we dissect out all the mesentery and then open both the small and large intestine – all twentytwo feet of it! – to look for abnormality. Dissecting the mesentery was quite a challenging procedure and he would explain graphically that we should wield the 12 – inch-long autopsy knife like the bow of a violin in order to achieve this.
This was the procedure during the week, but Saturday mornings were different. Then, a cursory look was all that was required because on Saturdays he went caving in the Mendip Hills, often getting soaked and I believe on one occasion getting stuck. However he always reappeared on Mondays, perhaps looking rather tired but otherwise none the worse for his weekend adventures deep inside the Mendips. The other memory is that he was known for never wearing socks! He was invited on one occasion to be Guest of Honour for Dinner at our Hall of Residence, then a black-tie affair. We were all agog, as students would be, to see whether he would wear socks when he wore a dinner jacket. He did, on that one occasion! Our overall memory was that of a lovely man, exemplary in both practicing and teaching his craft. ■
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There are few photographs of a grown-up Oliver in the Great Dixter archive. In this photograph, taken on the wedding day in 1961 of his brother Quentin to Pam Wise, he is standing far left. From left, Oliver, Olivia, Christopher, Daisy, Quentin, Pam, Leonard Wise, May Wise, Pam’s sister Judy and her husband Chris Bishop
THE WINTER GARDEN IS A CHANGEABLE THING
by Colin Stewart, Ruth Borun Scholar
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The winter garden is a changeable thing, by turns lucid and inscrutable. On a cold bright day, wobbly yew hedges are crisp in the low sun, like ice cream melted and refrozen. Skeleton cardoons have halos, each tiny spine backlit. A distant golden cypress, unnoticed all year, is picked out and brought to the fore; a poplar becomes a tracery in brass. Soggy oak leaves piled in a ditch are distinct Matisse cutouts, rimed in white. The topiary lawn, its meadow close-cropped, lives up to its name again. An astelia concludes the long border with a chilly, categorical clarity, each spear of a leaf suddenly as intentional as a Tamara de Lempicka fabric fold. But down in the nursery there’s a ferny film of verglas on the coldframes, now frosted bathroom windows for the modesty of the prone seedlings within. Beds yet to be tidied are abstract forests of bleached beige, beautiful but unintelligible. And even as the snowdrops push through this, daphnes and hellebores already in full bloom, it’s completely impossible to imagine a Dixter summer’s obscene profusion without having seen it in the flesh. Nowhere’s more bewildering than the old rose garden, the bananas ritually shrouded in their cold weather garb. While the tenderest plants are huddled in glasshouses, the few remaining roses sprawl naked and thorny among the palms and contorted larches; things seem to be reaching out to catch you. I loved JG Ballard as a teenager, how he
The Peacock Garden with giant fennel seedheads
Melianthus major in the corner of the Barn Garden
Work in progress on a stock bed
Low sun on yew hedges
I STUMBLED ONTO THE SCENE LAST JANUARY, TO GARDENERS WORKING THROUGH THE STOCK BEDS WITH MESMERISING, MYSTIFYING PRECISION. IT WAS LIKE AN ELABORATE DANCE, EACH DANCER MOVING BETWEEN SCAFFOLDING BOARDS AND BAMBOO CANES, NEVER PUTTING A FOOT WRONG.
The aster stock bed from the Kitchen Drive, awaiting its winter clear-up
made strange things happen in suburbia to bring out its inherent strangeness, and in this space, with its conifers and phormiums lifted from any number of pedestrian front gardens, I think of home counties commuterland engulfed in vegetation and invaded by vultures, though the backdrop here is real Tudor, not 1930s mock. THE METHOD BEHIND THE HIGH SEASON’S GLORIOUS DISORDER, IS FOR ME ONE OF THE GARDEN’S DEFINING
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FEATURES.
I stumbled onto the scene last January, to gardeners working through the stock beds with mesmerising, mystifying precision. It was like an elaborate dance, each dancer moving between scaffolding boards and bamboo canes, never putting a foot wrong. Even in pouring rain, when troupes elsewhere might beat a retreat to the potting shed, the dance continued unabated, aided by scrapers, grit and waterproof dungarees. My first task, on my own in an informal quarantine, was editing the kitchen drive, training myself to see not a mass of weeds in gravel but the dandelions, oxeye daisies and forget-me-nots that would embroider the picture come spring. What a joy to be in a garden where so-called weeds are not only left, but moved a few inches for greater effect. A year ago, I understood the theory, but it felt abstract. Having seen the borders through every season, peak after peak, the work has a new meaning. I can visualise the difference small decisions made now will make to the picture months down the line. The elegance of these systems of control, the method behind the high season’s glorious disorder, is for me one of the garden’s defining features. In the high garden, labels are visible, Sharpie capitals on pale wood. Here’s Anaphalis yedoensis, there’s Symphyotrichum ‘Harrington’s Pink’, and a reassuring foot of no-man’s land in between them. Bamboo canes make frames around hibernating perennials, a pleasingly spare graphic pattern against fresh black mulch, the angles in sharp contrast to the coming summer’s abundance. ■
The old Rose Garden.
CAROL JOUGHIN
CAROL JOUGHIN
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THE TRAINEESHIP AT GREAT DIXTER NURSERY
by Ellie Machell
A typical day will always include chit chat and discussion about particular plants, ‘How would we prop that?’, ‘Would this come true from seed?’, ‘Could we take root cuttings of that?’ and on and on. Often, the answer is,’Let’s try it’, ‘Give it a go’, ‘Let’s look it up’. Curiosity and experimentation is encouraged and has led to happy and productive people. It’s a great place to come to every day and I haven’t even mentioned the garden yet! I carried a map with me for the first four months or so because the garden is a maze, with names like, The Cat Garden, Vietnam, The Blue Garden. A map and a notebook, at all times. I’m amazed I haven’t yet tripped and fallen as I’ve hurried along behind the others on one of our garden walkabouts, scribbling notes about a plant we need to keep an eye on for its seed, or another we might need cuttings from. The walkabouts are invaluable, as are
the weekly plant idents (which staff are encouraged to also attend!); it’s easy to miss what’s happening in the wider garden. It is, after all, the source of almost everything we propagate and sell in the nursery. I can’t help feeling kinship with my hunter-gatherer ancestors as I wind my way up paths, searching out a particular plant, making sure I’ve identified it correctly, and then carefully take cuttings, gather up seed, or root about for roots. It’s immensely satisfying too, when you begin to notice cuttings that you’ve made put down roots and new growth! Seeds germinating that you’ve sown. Potting up plants that you knew when they were tiny fragile things that needed everything closely monitored, from light to heat and moisture. It’s true that the process of growing plants is incredibly captivating; once you’ve done it with success, you’re compelled to do more. I changed careers to be here, moved my life down here; which is a risky thing to do. But because of the traineeship I have an affordable place to live, and the best commute of my working life (5 minutes door to nursery door). Through being at Great Dixter I’ve met amazing plants people, growers, designers and landscapers, conservationists, writers and film makers. Being here opens up the world of horticulture and shows you everything that’s possible. The risk paid off, and I couldn’t be happier. ■
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‘There’s no such thing as a stupid question’. We’re often told this, especially when beginning a new job, but how many of us truly experience the feeling of being supported to ask whatever we want to? I’m 7 months in to my traineeship at Dixter nursery and the over riding impression I have is of a place where this is encouraged, where learning comes first; not just for me as a student, but for staff too.
HIDDEN TREASURES IN THE HOUSE by Shelly Swain, conser vationalist in the House
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We are lucky to have so many fascinating artefacts in the house at Great Dixter for the visitors to see as they stroll around the house in the summer months; but occasionally I stumble across something wonderful tucked away at the back of a drawer, or hidden in a pot on a high shelf, as I’m working through the house during the closed season. Here are some of my favourites this winter. One day when I was working in the kitchen, Ben Robbins, our wonderful handyman, came in to check on a leaking tap. As we were chatting, he suddenly said, “Have you seen this, Shelly?” He reached up to the shelf above the old range cooker and lifted down a small pewter tankard, inside of which was a label with old fashioned handwriting which read ‘18th
Century Pewter Measure 1 gill.’ Then I turned the label over and on the other side was a small, sepia, printed business card that read “Mrs D. Lloyd. Northiam 7” – Dixter’s original telephone number. It made me smile to think of Daisy answering the phone by saying ‘Northiam 7.’ She certainly wouldn’t have had much trouble remembering the number! On another day when I was working in the Pantry, I found a pile of pet food receipts dating back to 6th April 1950. Quentin Lloyd was placing regular orders to Edgar L. Stonham & Co Agricultural Merchants based in Rye, for chicken mash and pellets for the chickens, as well as Spillers shapes and Winalot meal for the dogs. Quentin’s receipts go right through to 1957 when Christopher takes over placing the orders for ‘Dog Meat’ from W.J. Crouch butchers for the beloved Dixter Dachshunds. The receipts are all pierced through the centre by a beautifully twisted piece of, what looks like, Nathaniel’s bespoke metal work. We certainly knew that the Lloyds loved their dogs…we now know that the dogs loved their fresh dog meat.
WHEN CHRISTO HEARD SOMEONE APPROACHING, HE WOULD RUN TO THE DRAWER AND PUT ON THE FALSE NOSE AND GLASSES AND SIT FACING THE FIRE SO HE COULD TURN ROUND ONCE HIS VISITORS WERE IN THE ROOM
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My third hidden treasure has to be the roll of old Bronco toilet paper that I found in the drawer of the Spanish Chest on the Ground Floor Landing. In fact, the whole drawer was a feast for the eyes, as it was full of items for a picnic: a pretty ‘Picnic Set’ full of dessert papers; paper plates and spoons; a packet of ice cream requisites; beautiful paper lace doily placemats; an old shoehorn…perfect for slipping off your shoes and enjoying a cream tea; and of course, the absolutely necessary Bronco toilet roll - just in case nature calls!
My final and favourite hidden treasure must be the plastic Groucho Marx style false nose and glasses that Christopher kept in the Serpentine chest of drawers in the Solar. Fergus tells me that when Christo heard someone approaching, he would run to the drawer and put on the false nose and glasses and then sit facing the fire so he could turn round once his visitors were in the room, for the full effect of the eyebrows and moustache waving up and down no doubt to the great amusement of his guests. Christopher taught us so many things about gardening, cooking, literature and writing but perhaps one of the most important lessons we could learn from him is not to take ourselves too seriously and always keep a little sense of mischief and fun! ■
I first heard Fergus speak at a lecture for The University of Oxford Botanic Garden and found him fascinating to listen to. I knew immediately that I wanted to explore the world of Great Dixter, so I signed up to The Art and Craft of Garden Design led by Annie Guilfoyle followed by The Art and Craft of Gardening led by Fergus Garret and Edward Flint.
LEARNING FROM THE MASTERS
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by Rowland and Sophie Lacey
Most of what I know as a hard and soft landscape contractor is self-taught through research, collaboration and practical application, rather than formal training, so I wanted to fill gaps in my knowledge. After more than 20 years successfully running a landscape gardening business, I’m now growing it into a full-service consultancy where all aspects of building a garden come together in one place to make the process smoother for our clients. Having now had the chance to explore gardens from all angles, I’m even more certain there’s a conversation to be had at the intersection between design and implementation. It’s my experience that landscape contractors, plantspeople and garden designers have a huge amount to learn from each other, but that sometimes our worlds and ways of doing things are very different. Holistic thinking and good communication are the keys to the successful translation of drawings and abstract concepts into construction, and these courses have helped me find solutions to some of these challenges. At the same time, I’ve been able to satisfy my
curiosity about the design process and about current ideas on ecology, land management and gardens of the future. Great Dixter leads the way in bringing design and practical gardening together, to talk about all aspects. Nothing is off-limits and a there’s a sense of exploration, growth and discovery at every turn. You learn by watching and doing. It really is a masterclass learning from the true masters here.
NOTHING IS OFF-LIMITS AND A THERE’S A SENSE OF EXPLORATION, GROWTH AND DISCOVERY AT EVERY TURN. YOU LEARN BY
The courses are well structured, with every detail carefully considered. There are visits to key gardens and always something wonderful to take home from the garden centre.
WATCHING AND DOING.
For me, it’s been like stepping into an extraordinary patchwork of history, people, knowledge and innovation. Plus, the food is amazing – everything is fresh and seasonal. There’s a unique spirit of place at Great Dixter and I feel honoured to have been part of it. I would highly recommend these courses to anyone wanting to further their learning. ■ www.rowlandscapes.com
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Much of the magic here is in the place itself as it changes through the seasons. There’s also a tangible sense of being part of a Great Dixter family – not just in the house and garden, but in the sort of people it attracts and the network it has across the world. Along with its colourful history and a certain legacy of English eccentricity, courtesy of Christopher Lloyd.
CENTENARY FRIENDS
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Christopher Lloyd was born in 1921 and one of the celebrations in 2021 was the formation of Centenar y Friends of Great Dixter. These ten-year Friendships were obtained, or given as presents, for a minimum donation of £1,000 to the Great Dixter Charitable Trust. To the following 53 Centenar y Friends the Trust extends a warm and heart-felt thank you.
Kate Adams Dr Dinah Badcock Virginia and Andrew Best Andrew Best Margaret and Kenneth Bird Marian Boswall Dr Nigel Bowles Charlie and Arabella Bridge Dr James Cavanagh Jo Williamson and Nick Chitty Dr Adrian Cooper Doris, Leonard and Nicolaas De Causmaecker Cyndy Cromwell
Cristina and Chips Emslie Catherine Fewlass Ann Finlayson Helen Hazelwood Jean Lebrecht Ashley Luke John Lunn Sarah Macpherson Greg Moga Dr Michael Monaghan Penelope Moore Dr Don Nichols Henrietta Norman Sarah Norris
Debra Todd Charlie Twite Dr Riet van Bremen Dr Rev Andrew Walker Dirk Wiemer Sarah and Matthew Wilkinson Jane Winch John Wotton Dr Linde Wotton Christine Youngman Timothy Youngman
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James O’Connell Susanne Osmond Linda Parker Gail Pinder Jo Sams Jane Segar Anthony Shamash Lorna Shearin Janet Sleep Cathy Smith Eizabeth Smith Marian St Clair Linda Stewart Margery Thomas
RICHARD ADAMS AT GREAT DIXTER
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Richard Adams lives and works in Rye; he took inspiration from the House and Gardens of Great Dixter to produce these paintings which were displayed in, and sold from, the Great Hall over the summer of 2021.
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THE TOPIARISTS 300mm x 700mm
WELCOME SPRING 600mm x 400mm
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THE LONG SLEEP 200mm x 200mm
MRS WINTER 400mm x 600mm
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A SLICE OF COMPOST 200mm x 250mm
SPRING SNOW 250mm x 200mm
GREAT DIXTER IN 2021
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The second year of working around the pandemic. The year that was to celebrate one hundred years since Christopher Lloyd’s birth began with a Lockdown in England as Covid numbers continued to rise. Once again ways of working had to change and travel was restricted. The Centenary Friends scheme was launched - for one year only. This offered a tenyear Friend’s membership which allowed up to six people to visit and the opportunity for a small gathering to enjoy the garden after hours. Two new books were published in February to mark the anniversary: A Lifetime of Seasons: The Best of Christopher Lloyd and Great Dixter Then and Now. On Tuesday 2nd March Fergus gave a zoom talk to Friends to mark the anniversary of Christopher’s birth. The open garden weekends in February and March continued but this time with timed tickets and only for “people taking local exercise”. Attendance at onsite courses and workshops were affected, zoom lectures continued to be offered with
by Carol Joughin
tremendous take up and a wide international audience. Over 4000 people attended zoom lectures in 2021. Ecologists continued to visit and monitor the garden and wider estate. Bee populations were counted, the Dixter ponds were included in an audit of local ponds – comparing Victorian maps to the current day. New species were recorded in the garden - Terana caerulea (Cobalt Crust) was discovered below a clematis by UK Christopher Lloyd Scholar, Agnes Ladjevadi. A first for the whole of Sussex. Despite the restrictions many improvements were taking place behind the scenes, thanks to the generosity of the Heritage Lottery Fund and Government funding through the DCMS. Additional benches and tables appeared across the estate, a viewing platform was built in the field above Four Acre Shaw to allow glimpses into the woodland and a peaceful place for visitors to linger. Improvements were made to the lavatories and to the Friends Room in the White Barn. Ditches
AS APRIL BLEW IN THE VISITORS RETURNED TO THE GARDEN. THE WEATHER WAS NOT KIND AND AS THE JET STREAM DROPPED TO THE SOUTH, WINDS FROM THE NORTH MEANT THAT ONLY THE BRAVE COULD MANAGE A PICNIC AT DIXTER.
The scholars and trainees continued to learn the Dixter methods. Because of the pandemic the usual one-year term for scholars was disrupted, with some leaving early and some staying longer. Once again work experience and volunteering young gardeners were not able to come or stay at Dixter; their energy, interest and enthusiasm, as well the forging of international relationships, were missed. The Spring Plant Fair was set up and
then cancelled due to the need to ensure social distancing. Ironically, the weather was beautiful that weekend. As April blew in the visitors returned (along with timed tickets) to the Garden. The weather was not kind and as the Jet Stream dropped to the south, winds from the north meant that only the brave could manage a picnic at Dixter. Summer arrived. The House reopened to visitors in May. Timed tickets and shorter time slots became the norm.
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CAROL JOUGHIN
were dug to allow water to be diverted to a tank in the Farm where a new area was built for the storage of stock plants. Less visible changes included the introduction of EPOS, an electronic point of sale system for the Nursery and Shop and a range of IT equipment to allow staff to work from home when required.
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The Sixth Christopher Lloyd Lecture, postponed from 2020, was given by our Patron, Anna Pavord, in June to a limited number of people. The Friends of Great Dixter continued to visit and support the place. The Summer Friend’s Event was so oversubscribed that another was arranged for September. July saw the first ever Dixter Summer Plant Fair. Again with timed tickets and less than kind weather, but enjoyed by all. By the end of September all the meadows were cut to the bone and huge bags of strewings were collected; some of these were exchanged for donations to Dixter. As the work on the meadows was finished the work on the hedges began. The rhythm of life at Dixter is essentially unchanged and that is part of what draws people to the place. The 20th Great Dixter Plant Fair went ahead in October and was held without timed tickets as regulations were relaxed. This was followed by the first Symposium since the pandemic began. Despite restrictions Dixter was able to welcome visitors to the garden and carry on with much of its work in the local community. Fergus was a part of a group instigating a programme for
better management of roadside verges within Rother. He also led “The Green Garden Team” which secured funding to start the process of turning Hastings into a Green Garden Town with biodiverse planting, sustainable urban drainage systems, verges and
THE MEADOWS WERE CUT TO THE BONE AND HUGE BAGS OF STREWINGS WERE COLLECTED; SOME OF THESE WERE EXCHANGED FOR DONATIONS TO DIXTER.
green spaces managed for biodiversity, community gardens and meeting places. The team secured funding for the first stage of the project which involves greening up the town centre. Great Dixter also made contact with the refugee Buddy Project in Hastings to see if we can collaborate and assist them in any way. This engagement will continue in 2022. Great Dixter wants to play its part in urban greening and urban ecology and has continued its contact with people working in this field. Dixter’s scholars offered their help to the local hospital to produce planting and maintenance plans for new courtyard gardens. Fergus was also invited to the presentation of awards for the Royal Parks Apprenticeship Scheme and looks forward to building on this relationship in the future. In the House Dixter continued to make its rich archive available to others. In October the Trust became an official member of Business Declares and the fast-growing network of organisations who acknowledge the
climate and ecological emergency and work to address the many issues that we all face. This will enable Dixter to review its efforts to become more sustainable alongside people who are able to provide support and to share the work that has been undertaken around biodiversity with an increasingly wider audience. The Christmas Fair took place at the end of November with large numbers of visitors and varied and talented stallholders. As always, staff and volunteers rallied to ensure mulled apple juice was enjoyed in the House and the traffic flow was managed despite difficult weather conditions. As the year drew to a close a new variance of Covid became a cause for concern. Visitor numbers have certainly been affected this year 41,879 compared to 51,024 in 2019, but a definite improvement from the figures in 2020 when there were only 19,119 visitors. A number of courses have had to be cancelled or rescheduled. Once again we end the year immensely grateful for the support we have received from Friends and from grants which have allowed us to continue to care for this place and to teach, share and welcome others to Dixter. ■
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BY THE END OF SEPTEMBER ALL
CHAIRMAN’S REVIEW OF THE YEAR (year end 31st March 2021)
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GREAT DIXTER CHARITABLE TRUST 2021 TRUST BOARD Chair Geoffrey Dyer Rosemary Alexander Rosie Atkins Thomas C Cooper Olivia Eller John French (Treasurer) Pascale Garbe Charles Hind Gyr King John Massey Kemal Mehdi Henrietta Norman John Wotton Trust Secretar y Carol Joughin CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Fergus Garrett
The Great Dixter Charitable Trust (“GDCT”) has completed another year of ownership and management of the Great Dixter Estate and its operations.
OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES The GDCT was created to ensure the conservation of the Great Dixter Estate and public access to the House and Gardens as developed and maintained by the family of Christopher Lloyd for almost 100 years. The GDCT will ensure that Great Dixter remains open to visitors, that the House and Gardens are conserved and kept in good order fitting with their character and significance, that the horticultural ethos of Christopher Lloyd is sustained and celebrated in all its dynamism and biodiversity and that Great Dixter represents a “mecca” for training and education. The Trustees have complied with the duty in section 4 of the 2006 Act, having due regard to the Charity Commissions guidance on public benefit.
STRATEGIC REPORT: ACHIEVEMENT AND PERFORMANCE As the fiscal year 2019/20 drew to a close the Covid-19 pandemic had taken hold. The House and Gardens at Great Dixter were forced to close just as they were about to open to the public. The implications were, and are, dramatic. Extensive alternative operating plans were implemented, including the adoption of extensive government furloughing arrangements for staff. It has been an unprecedented year at Great Dixter. We welcomed only 20,164 visitors to the House and Gardens, a decrease in 30,861 from the previous year. The Spring Plant Fair, which usually marks
from furlough, improve our capacity in term of IT, pay some essential bills, ensure essential repairs were undertaken and adapt some of the site to allow visitors to be safely distanced in the future. This round of funding had to be spent by the end of March 2021. One of the casualties this year has been the Loggia. We have not been able to offer our visitors refreshments. The Loggia and surrounding seating area do not allow social distancing. This is something we will rectify for the next season. In September the Great Dixter Art Auction took place, on-line. Thanks to the tremendous generosity of the artists and makers and the people who placed bids, the auction generated over £30,000 for Dixter. In October the Autumn Plant Fair took place - socially distanced, with timed tickets and no talks from the Nurseries. Still a joyful weekend and we were happy to welcome some new nurseries along-side our regular friends. The Christmas Fair in a similarly adapted style went ahead in December. This year we have been humbled by the generosity and kindness shown to us by our many Friends and donors. The Lockdown Fund which was our 2020 appeal brought in excess of £122,000 . An additional £20,000 was donated to support our work with biodiversity which has continued as restrictions have eased. We ended December with Covid numbers on the rise and the prospect of once again having to furlough staff and reduce numbers on-site. March 2, 2021 marked 100 years since Christopher Lloyd was born. This was a year we had hoped to mark in a big way. However 2020 has taught us much in terms of flexibility, working differently and being grateful for what we have. ■
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the return of visitors to Great Dixter, was set up and then cancelled. All educational days and symposia were postponed. The Christopher Lloyd Lecture to be given in June by our Patron Anna Pavord – cancelled. Many staff were furloughed with just a few left to continue essential work. A core team of students remained on site. All our volunteers could no longer be allowed to work along-side our staff. Dixter became a very quiet place. Different ways of working emerged. The Nursery remained open for mail order and the staff undertook an efficient production line to fill orders. Five of the six remaining staff from the Garden went down to help in the Nursery leaving one in the Garden with Fergus. Plants from Dixter were sent down to the local hospital as a gift for essential workers. Zoom entered our world, allowing meetings to be conducted virtually and critically. Fergus began a large programme of zoom lectures which went out all around the world and brought in some essential income. In May 2020 the Nursery was able to reopen to visitors with pre-booked tickets. With the reduction of government restriction, the garden re-opened under strict controls on June 9 and visitors returned to the Garden, again with pre-booked tickets. A one-way system was introduced to ensure social distancing. Sadly the House was not able to receive visitors and all our guides have remained on furlough throughout the year. Despite the efforts in the Nursery and the income generated from the zoom lectures, the decrease of income from visitors and courses was a big loss for Dixter. Thankfully the Heritage Lottery Emergency Fund and funding from the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage came to our rescue and allowed us to return many staff
THE GREAT DIXTER CHARITABLE TRUST STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES
(REGISTERED NUMBER 07181964)
(INCORPORATING AN INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 ST MARCH 2021 Unrestricted funds £
Total 2021 £
Total 2020 £
32,669
585,676
392,526
239,336
173,495 239,336
415,403 154,929
52
472,624 323 238,866
809,180 1,772
272,057
1,710,320
18,935
445,185 34,405
18,935
479,590
117,870 41,021
123,307 912,392 11,518
147,530 855,581 14,698
1,348,981
177,826
1,526,807
1,749,442
89,282
94,231
183,513
24,368
RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS Total funds brought forward
3,402,736
4,938,331
8,341,067
8,316,699
TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD
3,492,018
5,032,562
8,524,580
8,341,067
INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM Donations and legacies
553,007
Charitable activities Admissions income Projects
173,495
Other trading activities Investment income Other income
472,624 271 238,866
TOTAL
1,438,263
EXPENDITURE ON Raising funds Other trading activities 426,250 Raising donations and legacies 34,405 460,655 Charitable activities Projects 5,437 Charitable activities 871,371 Governance 11,518 TOTAL NET INCOME (EXPENDITURE)
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Restricted funds £
1,773,810
702,657 28,976 731,633
AT 31ST MARCH 2021
2021 £
2020 £
416,479 6,903,603
406,380 6,872,283
CURRENT ASSETS Stocks Debtors: amounts falling due within one year Cash at bank and in hand
7,320,082
7,278,663
114,916 34,127 1,318,118
160,790 33,367 951,384
CREDITORS Amounts falling due within one year
1,467,161
1,145,541
(262,663)
(83,137)
NET CURRENT ASSETS
1,204,498
1,062,404
TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES
8,524,580
8,341,067
NET ASSETS
8,524,580
8,341,067
FUNDS Unrestricted funds Restricted funds
3,492,018 5,032,562
3,402,736 4.938,331
TOTAL FUNDS
8,524,580
8,341,067
FIXED ASSETS Tangible assets Heritage assets
This is a summary of information extracted from the annual accounts on behalf of the trustees. These summarised accounts may not contain sufficient information to allow for a complete understanding of the financial affairs of the charity. For further information, the full annual accounts and the auditors’ report should be consulted. Copies of these can be obtained from Great Dixter, Northiam, Rye, East Sussex, TN31 6PH. The annual accounts were approved by the trustees on 2nd July 2021.
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STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION
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THE CHRISTOPHER LLOYD BURSARY The Bursary was set up to give people the opportunity to have life-changing experiences in the world of horticulture and it comes from the industry who cares. The following nurseries who come to Dixter Plant Fairs give 10% of their takings towards it. Aberconwy Nursery Beth Chatto Gardens Black Stem Nursery Cally Gardens Copton Ash Cotswold Garden Flowers Dyson’s Nurseries Edulis Nursery Fleur de Lys Conservatory Plants John M French Julian Reed King John’s Nursery The Laurels Nursery Madrona Nursery Monksilver Nursery No Name Nursery Old Court Nursery Pelham Plants Phoenix Perennial Pineview Plants Plantbase Rapkyns Rotherview Special Plants Usual & Unusual Wildegoose Nursery
SPONSORS FOR SCHOLARS Trainee Gardener February 2021 to February 2022: JACK MCCOY sponsored by Frank and Linda Smith in USA Ruth Borun Scholar 2020 to 2022: COLIN STEWART from Glasgow, Scotland, sponsored by The Anna & Harry Borun Foundation USA The Chanticleer US Christopher Lloyd Scholar 2020 to 2021: ELOISE GAYER sponsored by The Chanticleer Foundation, USA UK Christopher Lloyd Scholar September 2020 to May 2022: AGNES LADJEVARDI
sponsored by The Phyllida and Glenn Earle Trust; Annette and John Hampshire; Catherine and Bernard Soguel Nursery Trainee from September 2021 to 2022: ELLIE MACHELL sponsored by Tim Brotzman, Kathy Taphouse and an anonymous donor THE STUDENT GARDENERS’ PROGRAMME has received support from the following: James Mayor; Julie Coley; Charlotte and Donald Molesworth; Eleanor Cochrane,
JACK MCCOY
ELLIE MACHELL
COLIN STEWART
AGNES LADJEVARDI
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CREDIT?
ELOISE GAYER
THE JOURNAL ENABLES GREAT DIXTER TO RECORD THE NAMES OF THE PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS WHO HAVE GIVEN TO THE TRUST IN THE PAST YEAR. COLLECTIVELY THEY HAVE MEANT THAT DESPITE THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF THE PAST TWO YEARS THE TRUST CONTINUES TO BE A PLACE VIBRANT WITH PLANTS AND PEOPLE. A DEBT OF GRATITUDE IS DUE TO ALL THE FOLLOWING:
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TRUSTS AND MAJOR DONORS Lund Trust, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin Woolbeding Trust Chanticleer, Wayne PA, USA Harry H and Anna Borun Trust Anne Henricks Bass Foundation Linda and Frank Smith Jeremy and Elizabeth Hosking Patrick Bates Eleanor Briggs Michael Monaghan Catherine Dreyfus Soguel and Bernard Soguel Marjorie Rosen John and Linde Wotton Dr Marla Angermeier Amy and Andy Burnes Linda Cobb Kyle Landt Kirsten Prichard-Jones Donna Raftery and Vince Inconiglios James Mayor Glenn and Heather Hilliard Eliot Wadsworth Ian and Madeleine Hooper Sid Jones Barleycorn Trust Rougham Estate Farms Hank and June du Pont Smith Tanner Trust Taurus Foundation Northiam Horticultural Society Variegated Plant Group of the HPS
The Culture Recovery Fund Heritage Covid Emergency Fund Amanda Abbitt Bridget Adam Richard Adams George Agnew Sigrid Aiken Anne Ainsley Claire Aitken Aziza Allard Rosemary Alexander Sandra Alexander Ann Allen Elizabeth Allen Margaux Allfrey Terrie Andrews Dr Marla Angermeier Robert Appleyard Rowena Ardern Gavin Arendt Gabrielle Argent Jennifer Ashby Frances Ashlin Gerti Ashton Paula Atkins Carol Atkinson Marylyn Bacon Dr Dinah Badcock Hugh Bailey Jane Bailey Elizabeth Baker Jane Baker Josine Bakker Rosie Balcomb Alex Balfour Brian Banks Roy Barker Benjamin Barnard Peter and Lesley Barrett Simon Basey Grace Bates Dr Patrick Bates Yvonne Bates Simon Beal Michael Beanland Patricia Beattie Dee Beecroft Sarah Beeson John and Sue Beeston Lara Behr Christine Bell Ruth Bell Sussie Bell Linda Belton Nick Benefield Andrew and Laura Benns David Benson Tim and Diane Bentley Virginia and Andrew Best Peter Bevacqua and Stephen King Max Bichunsky Kenneth and Margaret Bird Susan Birthwright Shona Bishop Thomas Blackie Kim Blake Tony Blasi Claudia Blunden Andrew Boddington Michelle Bolt Marian Boswall Paul Boucher Alison Bovill Barbara Bovington Ed Bowen Dr Nigel Bowles Winifred Boyd Fiona Bradley Colin Brazier Tricia Brett Arabella and Charlie Bridge Eleanor Briggs Jill Briggs Josine Britcher Linda Brockas Andrew Brodrick Elizabeth Brook Barbara Brooks Linda Brooks Carolyn Brown Clare Brown Prof Martin
Alan Easterby Diane Eccles Anne-Marie Edgell David Edwards Susan Elford Jennie Elfstrom Dr Roger Elias Olivia Eller Mark Ellingham Anne Ellis Prof Katharine Ellis Mike Emms David England Gita Estersohn Lesley Etherton Douglas Evans Val Evans Anny Evason Dr Michael and Madeleine Eve Catherine Farr Elizabeth FaureWalker Alice Favell Kenyon Aloysius Fekete Elaine Fenson Norman Ferguson Linda Findley Anne Finlayson Jane Fitch Ann Fitsell Corina Fletcher Buckwell Victoria Fletcher Joanne Foakes Nigel and Lorraine Ford Antony For wood Timothy Fosberry Dr John Foster Lucinda Fouch Fiona Fox Gaye Fox Thomas Har vey Fox Lesley Francis Andrew Franklin Tara Franklin Ronald Freeman Liz Freemont Nicola Freshwater Michael Freyone Barbara Frost Helen Fuggle Linda and Don Fuller Dr Barbara Fulton Clive Galbraith Caroline Garland Keith Garnish Karina Garrick Fiona Gault Julia Gavriel Katherine George Brian and Sue Giddings John Gilbert and Simon Bartlett Dr Barry Giles Sarah Giles Siobhan Godfrey-Cass Debbie Goldsmith Lisa Goodsell Michael Gordon Frances Gorringe Claire Goslett Stephen Graddick Catherine Graham Pria Graves Susan Gray Anthony Green Maureen Green Shelagh Green Judy Greenwell Veronica Greenwood Sally Gregson Richard Grieve Catherine Grif f iths Susan Grimsdale Linda Guest Gloria Gunn Birgit Gunz Cally Guy John Gwynne and Mikel Folcarelli Annabelle Haberkorn Alex Hacking Lisa Haggqvist Carol Hagland Dorothy Halfhide Joanna Hamilton Su Hamlet Charlotte Hamlin Trish Hamlin Amanda Hammond Annette and John Hampshire Kennon Hampton Alan Handyside Diana Hare Kathleen Hargreaves Stuart and Linda Harland Dr James and Sarah Harmer The Hon Geraldine Harmsworth Lyn Harris Susannah Harris Lorraine Harrison Penelope Harrison Susannah Harrison Richard Har vey Sue Hatt Moira Hatton Bernard Hawes Fran Haywood Stephen Hazell-Smith Michael Heap Emily Heard Jeska Hearne Nancy Heckler
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and Dr Sue Brown Richard Brown Roy Brown Susan J Brown Gioia Browne Ian Brownhill Claire Bruce Mary Bruce Jane Br yder Philip Buckle Peter Bullock Ian Buckley Cathy Burczak Mary and George Burton Amy and Andy Burnes Emma Burrill Br yan and Philippa Burrough Allen Bush Penny Bushe Ethel Butler Adrian Butler-Manuel Valerie Butt Paddy Byrne Cecilia Byrne-Schmidt Stephen Campbell John Cammegh Dr Paul Camic Ronald Carless Janie Carruthers Jo Carter Peter Carter John Case Sheila Cather Dr James Cavanagh Peter Chadwick Debbie Chalet Angela Chambers Fiona Chapman Irene Chapman Rosie Chard Dr Marilyn Charlesworth Carol Chater Carole Child Jill Christison Lord Anthony Clarke Amy Clarkson Frances Claydon Frankie Cleary Anne Clifton-Holt Judy Cligman Chris Coady Linda Cobb Stephen and Eleanor Cochrane Suzanne Coffin Brian Cole Dawn Cole Sally Cole Julie Coley Greg Collett R Collisson Lorna Collopy Judith Colquhoun Roland Comet Nancy Connell Amanda Connolly Tom Connolly Dr A J Conway David Cook Patricia Cooke Sonia Coode-Adams Danny Coope Anthony Cooper and Andrea Maiolla Dr Adrian and Samantha Cooper Mary Cooper Thomas Cooper Ian Corcoran Gar y Coppins Claire Cornelius Peter and Victoria Costain Catherine Cox Kate Cox Christine Cozic Cynthia Cromwell Ashley Crosthwaite Tessa Crowe Jan Crozier David and Hazel Cruickshank Colin Curl Susan Curston for Doris Chase † Dr Ann Daly Charlotte Davies Pauline E Davies Vivienne Davies † Lynn Davis Paul Dawdr y Janet Dawes Anthony Dawson Christine Dawson John and Christine Deacon Jan De Causmaecker Amicia de Moubray Alex Denman Caroline desAscoyne Tina Devereux Alana Diamond Stephen Dickens Alex Diebel Monique Dix John Dixon Pip Dodd Victoria Dodds Stephanie Donaldson Eilis O Donnell Ian Donovan David Dowell Tommy Doyle Susan Drews Sue Duff Rachel Duf f ield Susan Dulley Brenda Dunn Nelia Dunbar Jacqueline Dyche Geoffrey Dyer Dr Simon Dyer
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Colin Hely-Hutchinson Carol Henderson Monica Henriquez Michal Hes James Hess and Robert Herald Wendy Hewlett Glenn & Heather Hilliard Nicola Hilliard Jo Hillier Jill Hitchcock Fred and Carol Hochberg Judith Hogg Dr Brian Holdstock Fiona Holland Grif f and Sally Holliday Louise Holliday Janet Hollins Frank Holloway Sylvia Holmes Sir Anthony and Lady Fiona Hooper Ian and Madeline Hooper Catherine Horwood Barwise Jeremy and Elizabeth Hosking Phil Hoyte Ellie Hughes Michael Hughes Martin Hulbert John Hull Dee Hur ford Judy Hutchings Christopher and Robin Hutt John Iberson Elaine Jackson Derek and Jo James Annie James Honor James Tina James Kath Jatter Jacqui and Bill Jef fers Helen Jempson Sue Johns Angus Johnson Jane Johnson Janet Johnson Jennifer Johnson Jane Jones Nicola Jones Sheila Jones Sid Jones William Jones Julia Joslin Caroline Judge Lara Jukes Rita Kandela Jill Kaye Lady Mary Keen Tim Kendell and Flo Whitaker Peter and Lesley Kennedy Julia Kerr Helen Keys Susan Keyte Jane Kilpatrick Janette King Philippa Kinsey Hugh Kirby Lee Kirk Rita Kirk Larissa Knepper Teresa Knight Julian Knott Ulrike Kreidt-Schanzenbach Judith Kramer Lawrence & Lauren Kurland Zarrina Kurtz Richard Kyne Rosemary LaidlawWaller Keith Laker Steve Lambert Kathy Lamoon Kyle Landt Mark Lane Kathryn Langridge Jeanne Lapsker Sheena Lavery Sean Lavin Tam Lawson Stephen Leach Clare Leahy Fiona Leathers Jeanne Lebrecht James Lee Rod Leeds Kathleen Leighton Margaret Leighton Rebecca Lemonius Lady Arabella Lennox-Boyd Richard Levett Brittany Levinson Graham Lewis Cheryl Lewy Frank Li Dick and Beth Lilley Rosemar y Lindsay Jane Livesey Pam Lloyd Graham LloydBrunt Lady Margaret Lockett Nancy Lowe Julian Luckett and Judith O’Connor Ashley Luke Monique Luker John Lunn Lucy Macdiarmid Kate MacGarry Sue MacGregor Monika Machon Liz Mackenzie Patricia Macmullan Liz MacPhail Sarah Macpherson Jess Maddock Hilary Magee
Shirley Maile Andrea Maiolla Charles Maisey Prof Anthony Mallet Alison Mallett Sophie Mancais Yvonne Mansergh Barbara Marceau Troy Marden Trevor Marlow Jim Marshall and Sarah Cook Dr Yvonne Marshall Nancy Marten David Martin Godfrey Martin Sue Martin Anne Masef ield Harriet Mason Mari Mason Peter Masters Luke Mather Charlotte Mathey Marcia and Patrick Mattingly Hugh Maxwell James Mayor Mary McBride Quentin McCabe John McCutchan Dani McDonald Paul McDonald Dr Doug McEachern J Hugh McFadden Harriet McGill Linda and Gary McHam Kathleen McHenr y Sam McKnight Angela McLaughlin Stephanie McMahon Chris McNaughton Kemal and Nicola Mehdi Gordon Melvin Barty Meredith-Hardy Beverley Merr yf ield Gary Mewis John Middleton Lynden Miller Michael Miller Ralph Miller Patricia Millett Virginia Millington Jacky Mills Colin Moat Greg Moga Charlotte Molesworth Dr Michael Monaghan David Moncrieff Sharon Moncur Katherine Moore Liz Moore Valerie Moore Wendy Moore Anne Moore-Bick Diana Morgan Lauris Morgan Griffiths Jane Morris Chrissie Morse Fiona Mortimore Judith Mosely Christine Moulder Jennifer Mountford Jenny Mowatt Amanda Mozley Christine Muddiman Julia Muggenburg Hilar y Mundella Gill Murdoch Tim Murray Michael Naris Liz Nash Robin Navrozov Charles Neal Nicole Newmark Alan Newnham Dr Don Nichols R John Nicholls Stella Nicholls Rev Howard Norton Lucie Nottingham Ann Novotny Hugh Nye David O’Brien Andrew O’Brien James O’Connell Lynnette O’Halloran Mitsue Ohsawa Tessa Oldaker Simon Oliphant Mark O’Neill Alex Orski Susanne Osmond Mrs Alex Oxborough Colin Page Emma Page Landy Palmer Simon Palmer Anthony Parker Frank Parker Linda Parker Pennie Parker Rhoda Parry Laline Paull Philippa and Michael Pearson Christine Peck Elizabeth Penn John Perkins Ann Perkowski Beverley Perks Selina Perry Susan Phyall Sheila Pickersgill-Devenish Gail and Richard Pinder
Maggie Smith Melvin Smith Isobel Snar y Marion Spain Nigel Spalding and Anthony Wilson David Spence Lynnette Spon-Smith Margaret Springbett Marian St Clair Andrew St John Colin Steadman Jane Steen Valerie and Peter Stephens Kate Steven
Lynda Stevens Elizabeth Stevenson Jean Stock Sally Stockwell Caroline Stone Susan Stoodley Susan Stradling Justine Stringer Jonathan Strong Robert Stuart Sally Stutchbur y Janet Sullivan Sue Sully Jonathan Sunley Rosemar y Swainson Geraldine Sweeney Nancy Lee Sweet Jane Swift Nicola Talbot Kathy Taphouse Ian Taphouse Liz Tapper Brian and Mar y Tattersf ield Vivienne Taylor-Gee Andrew Templeton Rodger Terrell Mike Thirlwall Deborah Thomas Jake Thomas Diana Thompson Kevin Thompson Norman Thompson Susan Thompson Sally Thorne Mar y Thorp Jean Tilby Rosanna Timothy Graham Tippen Amanda Tipples Hilary Todd Sophie Tollemache Claire Tolliday Martha Doer Toppin Judith Torrance Colin and Laura Towns Pi Townsend Lesley Turner Sarah Turner Abigail Tyler Yvonne Underhill Deborah Upton Kathryn van Howe Louise Vannier Vija Vilcins Michael Voice Eliot Wadsworth Carolyn Waite Ray and Margaret Waite Dr Martyn and Angela Wake Lady Bridget Wakehurst Dr Jenifer Wakelyn Rev Dr Andrew Walker Angela Walker Peter Walker Keith Wallis Deborah Walsh Carol Ward Debbie Ward Sarah Warren David Warrick Sally Watson Nigel Watts Catherine Weaver Amanda Webb Gillian Webb-Wilson Chuck and Louise Weed Julie Weiss Nigel Wellard Cleve West Deborah Weston Jane Wheeler Christina Whincup Clare White Susan Whitehead Shirley Wiggs Deborah Wilcock Patricia Wilkie Samantha Wilkins Helen Williams Irene Williams Marilyn Williams Patricia Williams Tim Williams Victoria Williams Dr Jim Williamson Andrew Willson Peter Wilson Sarah Wilson Elizabeth Winant Clare Winchester Linda Windebank Lorraine Wise Diane Wiseman Julia Wolage Richard Wolfe Elizabeth Wood Valerie Woollven Stephan Work John and Dr Linde Wotton Carol Wright Jane Wright Stephanie Wright Elizabeth and Peter Wylie Patti Yates Mark Yearsley Alan Young Andrew Young Emma Youngman Christine and Timothy Youngman Kim Zanes and others who wish to remain anonymous. ■
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Michael Pitcher Roger Platts Jeremy Pletts Sylvia Pocock Lynnette Pomfret Christopher Pope Sarah Pope Joanna Pope Phillip Potter Dr Max Powling Ruth Preston Kirsten Prichard-Jones Gary and Jane Priddis Alejandro Prigollini Karin Proudfoot Ruth Purchase Tim Radford Donna Rafter y and Vince Inconiglios Amanda Rainger Christine Rampling Chris Ramsden Gar y Randall Leonara Rankin Elspeth Rankin Andrew and Sarah Ratcliffe Cleo Raulerson Philip Ray Chris Redknap Roseann Rea Julian Reed Robyn Reeves Dr Florian Reiche Alice Reilly Anne Reilly Alison Rendle Dr Philip Renshaw Cindy Reriti Patricia Rex Angharad Rhys Dr.s Patrick and Margaret Rice-Oxley Anne-Marie Richards Giles Richardson Valerie Richardson Barbara Rich Mark Riches Pauline Ridley Jane Rimmington Simon Rivers Dereck and Hazel Roalfe Dr Geof frey Robb Heather Robertson Marianne Robertson Eleanor Robins Barbara Paul Robinson Charlie Robinson Richard and Martine Robinson Gillian Roder Alexandra Rose-Dutch Marjorie Rosen Celia Rosenbaum Sheila Rosewell Libby Rothwell William Rowe Lynda Rowlinson Philippa Royston Ingunn Ruf fles Nadine Rulliere James Russ Annabel Rutman Rachel Rutty Shirley Sabin Kathleen Sabo Jo Sams Martin Sarbicki David Sargent Clare Saunders Erin Schanen Anthony Schilling Naomi Schillinger Sue Schlesinger Karena Schuessler Ellen Schumann Tom and Carol Schollar Alex Scott-Tonge Paul Seaborne Julia Sebline Barbara Segall Jane Segar Flick Seton Lorna Shearin Nick Shiren Jean Sidwell Paul Simpson Richard Simpson and Claire Blezard Shelley Sishton Anna Sixsmith Victoria Skeet John and Christine Sladden Jim Sloane Martin Small Elliott Smedley Hilar y Anne Smith Anne Smith Anne P Smith Cathy Smith Celine Smith
BEQUESTS & LEGACIES
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Mrs Christine G Duncan who died on 11th May 2018 left a substantial bequest to the Great Dixter Charitable Trust. She must have known Great Dixter because in the archive there is a note that she sent a £100 cheque on 6th March 2006 from her home in the High Street, Kirkcudbright, The Stewartry. This was a time when Great Dixter needed to be saved and now again when funds are low because of Covid her gift is particularly appreciated. Her family, through their solicitor, has sent us the following short resume of her life: Christine (Kirsty) McFarlane was born in May 1935, the second of what would be a family of f ive children. Her education began at Glasgow High School for Girls , mainly during the war years, a time of stress and deprivation for all. She showed an early aptitude for art, and went on to Glasgow School of Art, from which she graduated with a diploma in embroider y and weaving. This was followed by teacher training at Jordanhill College, after which she began her teaching career, with posts at schools at Wishaw and Lesmahagow in the early 1960s. Next came her f irst lecturing post at Craigie College in Ayrshire, followed by an appointment to the new Hamilton College when it opened in 1970. After retiring from teaching she moved to Lanark in
the late 1970s, and opened her own galler y with her younger sister Margaret (Mij). Along the way she met and married another artist, Leslie Duncan, and in 1989 they moved to Balfunning, near Dr ymen, where she set up her loom. During the following years she developed this into a full weaving studio and was prolif ic in the creation of f ine weaving and embroider y whilst also managing a period as Artist in Residence at Paisley Museum. Shortly before the Millennium , she moved with husband Leslie and younger sister Mij to their new house in Kirkcudbright, where all three continued to produce f ine work in their various crafts. Since both Kirsty and Mij were both enthusiastic and experienced gardeners, the f ine garden which came with their new home allowed them to fully indulge themselves in what was to become their greatest passion. Their years in Kirkcudbright were happy ones, but years take their toll, and Leslie died in 2008, followed by Mij in 2014. Kirsty felt their loss ver y keenly, but was determined to continue living in her beloved Kirkcudbright, which she did with the support of good friends and neighbours until her death. Her artistic talents aside, her two sur viving brothers will always remember her fondly as the big sister that they could always run to for f irst aid and comfort from the slings and arrows of outrageous childhood. ■
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A reduction colour lino cut by Dean Charlton depicting the Great Dixter Nurser y where gardeners and nurser y meet to f ill their watering cans.
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The paths of the Great Dixter garden were laid out either side of the First World War, in 1911 and 1920, with hundreds of York stone paving slabs. These were brought in second hand from London where the introduction of motor vehicles and trams had begun to change the way streets were sur faced.
Produced by Linda Jones & Carol Joughin Designed by Helen Bratby Printed by Pureprint
Great Dixter Charitable Trust Northiam, TN31 6PH
www.greatdixter.co.uk 01797 254048