[00:00:00] His father, mother and grandfathers. His father's career as a gardener, working at Bawdsey Manor for the Quilter family, at Kings Walden Bury, and at Horwood House in Buckinghamshire for the Denny family
[00:02:00] The creation of the garden at Horwood House before the First World War including parkland, ha ha, etang, sweeping lawns and specimen trees
[00:03:32] The walled kitchen garden at Horwood House with greenhouses (carnation house, propagating house, melon and cucumber house) built by Skinner Borden Company and potting shed where his father's office was situated. Vegetable and fruit crops and ornamental plants grown in the kitchen garden including corn salad, cultivated dandelions, endive and salsify. The use of manure as fertiliser
[00:07:32] Fruit trees in the kitchen garden including peach, nectarine, cherry, apple, pear and plum trees
[00:08.26] Creation of the rock garden
[00:08:56] Attending Little Horwood School. His only ambition to be a head gardener at a large private estate. Leaving school at 14 and starting work in the greenhouse at Horwood House
[00:10:50] His father growing award winning plants for Chelsea Flower Show. Growing tomatoes, cucumber and melons in the greenhouse. The forcing house. Mushroom beds filled with manure
[00:14:44] Crop rotation in the kitchen garden. The garden supplying all fruit and vegetables for entertaining at the manor house. A large orchard in front of head gardener's bungalow. His experience at Horwood House enabling him to identify apple and pear varieties in future life. An apple store in the old coach house
[00:18:49] A fruit cage containing raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants and loganberries. The extension of the garden through woodland to create a water garden including a pond, bog land and shrubbery, planted with hardy primula, japonica, astilbe, iris and peonies
[00:22:20] Horwood House eventually becoming a school. The low wages compensated for by the provision of a house and food. Names of staff at Horwood House. A sense of community there
[00:24:56] His two brothers starting work in the garden at the same time he started but subsequently leaving. His eldest brother and two sisters working in the house. Weekly dances. Horwood House a happy place
[00:26:26] Trapping and shooting wildlife. Learning to shoot rabbit at the age of 12
[00:29:29] Wine-making with his mother. Socialising with house staff
[00:31:12] Buying a bicycle on hire purchase. His father forbidding him to buy a motorbike. Smoking his father's pipe behind his back and feeling ill. His lifelong cigarette and pipe smoking habits
[00:35:20] Clothing. Gardening clothes comprising long corduroy trousers, a gardener's apron or bib and heavy boots
[00:36:46] His father's attempt to serve in the First World War and his rejection on medical grounds
[00:37:10] Recollections of the First World War. Seeing zeppelin airships and German aircraft over the estate
[00:37:50] His father serving as head gardener at Horwood House 1907-1939
[00:39:10] His father writing to C.H. Cook to request a job for his son as improver at the Royal Garden at Windsor
[00:40:05] Joining the Royal Garden at Windsor in 1939 with a staff of over 60 gardeners. Sharing the bothy with 15 other gardeners. Buying sugar, bread, butter and jam from the foreman. Meat and vegetables provided by the estate
[00:40:41] Facilities in the bothy. Working hours being 6.30am to 5.30pm and 6.30am to 1.30pm on Saturdays. Doing his own cleaning and cooking at weekends
[00:42:39] Working under a very strict foreman, Waltham, in the cucumber, melon, strawberry houses and fruit ranges
[00:43:52] The requirement for ripe crops to be available when the royal family moved from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle for Easter and for Queen Mary's birthday on 26 May
[00:45:30] The orchard house containing peaches, nectarines, cherries, plums, apples and pears. Teasing out the roots of the potted fruits to replace the compost, making his fingers raw. Using the liquid from the horse, pig and poultry manure heap to feed fruit plants. Watering the fruits using water fed from the River Thames. The magnificent quality fruit
[00:48:00] The presence of Argentinian ants throughout Windsor estate. Treating ants on the vines with soft soap, warm water and paraffin
[00:53:52] Courting the head gardener's daughter, Con [Constance Cook], who later became his wife. Walking back from Windsor parish church together on Sunday evenings. Staying out late and being locked out of the Windsor estate. Having to climb over the fence
[00:55:00] Head gardener C.H. Cook a very strict man and a gentleman in his own right. His work attire a black jacket, pin stripe trousers and bowler hat
[00:55:31] Growing anthuriums in the plant house. Queen Mary, King George and other guests visiting the plant houses frequently
[00:57:00] The art of growing fruit under glass
[00:57:15] Checking glasshouse temperatures every night. Checking watering and ventilation on Sundays when on duty
[00:58:31] Packing up grapes, figs and apricots in tissue paper and wood wool in special boxes for dispatch to other royal palaces
[01:01:10] Mr Cook being a strict time keeper, watching what time the men stopped work and calling them back to complete an unfinished job
[01:02:20] Names of the 18 people living in the bothy. His promotion from improver to journeyman gardener. Earning 35 shillings a week by the time he left Windsor
[01:02:56] The different duties of an improver and a journeyman gardener. Frogmore gardens, slopes and castle gardens staff
[01:03:38] Queen Mary's preference for a pale colour palette for planting
[01:04:30] Moving from fruit to [ornamental] plant areas after two years. Orchids, chrysanthemums and carnations cared for by specialists
[01:04:54] The main show house containing Bougainvillea and Lagerstroemia indica. The requirement for plants to be in full flower in time for the Ascot Races. The show houses of hydrangea and beyond that a 100 yard long fuchsia corridor and a greenhouse referred to as 'The big lounge'
[01:10:09] Working under Norman Hale, the plant house foreman. Telling an 'unprintable' humorous story about Norman and Archie Starks, son of the head keeper at Eaton Hall
[01:11:16] Hobday the orchid grower, Pascoe the carnation grower, Jeffries the chrysanthemum grower, Dickson the kitchen garden foreman, Palmer the fruit foreman and Hubbard the vegetable garden foreman
[01:11:53] The foremen rarely moving on. Young gardeners having to leave to progress
[01:12:07] The Royal Court visiting for Easter or Ascot. The foreman decorating Buckingham Palace and Windsor Palace dining rooms with flowers, assisted by the journeyman gardeners
[01:14:32] Decorating the Royal Pavilion at Ascot with roses early in the morning before breakfast, followed by free time for the rest of the day
[01:16.50] Watching the races in the staff area on top of the Royal Stand and betting on a winner
[01:19:02] Varieties of plants grown for successive flowering throughout the year in the corridors and plant houses
[01:20:35] Growing Gardenia to place on the breakfast table every morning for King George V to put in his buttonhole
[01:21:23] Going for an interview at J. Pierpoint Morgan's estate in Watford but turning down the job as private service was on the decline. Ambitious journeyman gardeners realising that public parks offered the best opportunities
[01:22:30] Getting a job with City of Leeds Parks Department where he remained for two and a half years. The shock of moving to an industrial area. The move proving a good experience. The head gardener, Wilmshurst
[01:24:14] Creating bedding schemes in front of Temple Newsam, a water garden, kitchen garden with pergola, and herbaceous borders. Growing vegetables in grassed areas, plants in fruit houses with geraniums trained up the walls, and fuchsia, hydrangea and cyclamen
[01:25:15] In 1936 or 1937 deciding to move to Derby. Working for two years as a journeyman gardener under head gardener John Maxfield, the finest head gardener he ever worked for
[01:29:29] Marrying his wife Con in 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War. Moving into a rented house in Derby and furnishing it from his savings
[01:31:05] Being placed in charge of food production during the war, and excused from active service due to his role. Encouraging the 'Dig for Victory' campaign
[01:31:45] Becoming a special constable during the war
[01:31:59] Con winning money on the Littlewoods football pools. Buying their first car with the money
[01:34:32] At Derby Parks Department progressing from journeyman gardener to foreman, general foreman and finally assistant parks superintendent under T.S. Wells
[01:34:45] At the end of the war, looking to improve himself. No prospects at Derby Parks Department
[01:37:14] Attending evening classes at Leeds University, taking postal courses and passing the RHS General Examination
[01:38:34] At Derby Technical College taking the National Diploma in Horticulture (NDH) and Diploma in the Institute of Parks Administration. Later becoming a lecturer in horticulture there
[01:39:05] Applying without success for jobs in Portsmouth and Leamington Spa
[01:40:30] Applying for a job at Shrewsbury as parks superintendent in 1946
[01:42:20] His childhood memories of poaching. His mother making sparrow, blackbird or rook pies and roasting stuffed rabbits to eke out a living
[01:45:15] Following the hunt as a child, earning sixpence to open the gate for the huntsmen
[01:47:05] His teachers Mr and Mrs Davies. Helping the headmaster in his garden in the evenings after school. Being taught gardening skills by his father and teacher
[01:48:06] Singing in the choir at Little Horwood Church, becoming a boy scout while at school and a Sunday School teacher after leaving school
[01:48:18] After the death of his father, his mother's appointment as housekeeper at Horwood House. Horwood House later becoming a school
[01:51:36] Using secateurs instead of a knife at home for pruning, when permitted
[01:53:00] Moving to Quarry Park, Shrewsbury, after the war
[01:53:56] His first tasks there cultivating and re-seeding the quarry, cutting down the dangerous lime tree avenues and re-planting further apart
[01:56:20] In 1940 starting the 'Town of Flowers' competition for local business premises with cups awarded, judged by his father-in-law Charles Cook and Roland Smith from Weston under Lizard
[01:57:20] Doing an interview on the 'Town of Flowers' competition for BBC radio programme 'Round and About' with David Martin
[01:58:05] Meeting Godfrey Baseley and being invited to join the 'Beyond the Backdoor' live radio programme, launching his radio career
[02:00:45] Recording outdoor radio broadcasts with experts at different locations
[02:01:21] The radio programme's name changing to 'In Your Garden', broadcast weekly until 1951
[02:01:48] Visiting Berlin, Germany, at the request of Shropshire Horticultural Society, his first experience of flying. Chairman E.P. Everest's plans to establish an English garden, Tiergarten, sponsored by the Society, at a site close to the Brandenburg Gate
[02:03:20] Asking exhibitors at Shrewsbury Flower Show to contribute plants for the new English garden in Berlin. The donations including roses, herbaceous plants, shrubs, grass seed and bulbs. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II donating rhododendrons, shrubs, azalea, hydrangea, primroses, astilbe and waterside plants from the Savile Garden
[02:07:46] The first Shrewsbury Flower Show after the war being held in Quarry Park in 1947, attended by 120,000 people over two days
[02:09:25] Being appointed honorary horticultural advisor to Shropshire Horticultural Society until 1975, when he was appointed chairman
[02:10:06] His father, a keen beekeeper, producing jars of honey. His mother making jam and bottled fruit and vegetables for use at the house. A self-sufficient household
Physical description: The physical audio recording comprises 1 open reel tape
This item was digitised in 2015 by Essex Record Office. Digitisation specification: the audio was scanned to a resolution of 24bit and 96kHz. It was delivered in uncompressed wav format and MP3 access copies at 128kbps. Audios on sides A and B of the tape were combined in May 2023