Rethinking the Country House Garden: creation and consumption, 1750-1850

Brown, Helen (2023) Rethinking the Country House Garden: creation and consumption, 1750-1850. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

This thesis re-evaluates the field of garden history and demonstrates that there is great potential to apply a different kind of analysis to gardens to produce new conclusions about historic landscapes. Existing literature on gardens traditionally focuses on masters of design and aesthetics and often concentrates on the most famous properties, landowners, and designers. Rarely have garden historians explored the practicalities of building and owning a country house garden, where the labour and materials were sourced from, or the experiences of those who worked there. Further, the experiences of garden visitors and the ways gardens were consumed by them are widely under-represented. Drawing on the historiographies of country houses and of consumption, this thesis reframes designed landscapes as sites of consumption and spaces of human experience. It changes the way we look at gardens by re-integrating them within social and economic networks from the local to the international and viewing them as spaces to be enjoyed and used by the people that entered them. The analysis of this thesis utilises two case study properties: Audley End, Essex and Belsay Hall, Northumberland between 1750 and 1850. It draws on a large and varied body of archival material, including account books and receipted bills, diaries, travel journals, and letters to create new conclusions about how gardens functioned day-to-day, across the seasons, and over many years. The project highlights the economic and material inputs to gardens, the contributions of working people from members of the garden and outdoor staff of country houses as well as their commercial counterparts in nursery and designing firms. Further, it illuminates how gardens functioned and were continuously maintained after the designs were implemented. Gardens were expensive to own and maintain but what were they then used for? This thesis examines the culture of garden visiting and the actvities available to different garden users. It also explores how being in a garden was an embodied experience and unique to each person and each experience. Gardens stimulated all the senses, and this perspective breathes new life and movement into historic gardens that are traditionally championed for their visual qualities. This project is a Collaborative Doctoral Award with English Heritage.