Letters relate to the development of Mrs Barnes Brand's garden at Woodhouse Copse, Holmbury St Mary, Surrey
Amy Barnes Brand (9 Mar 1890-1974) was the daughter of the playwright Brandon Thomas and his wife Marguerite Blanch Leverson. Using the name Amy Brandon-Thomas she went on the stage in 1907, and subsequently had a successful acting career spanning more than 20 years, principally in London theatres, but also in films. In July 1914 she married William Deane Barnes Brown (1885-1945), a railway engineer, who changed his name by deed poll to William Deane Barnes Brand at the end of 1920. In 1926 the architect Oliver Hill designed and built Woodhouse Copse in Holmbury St Mary, Surrey, to which the Barnes Brands moved. Amy Barnes Brand was an enthusiastic gardener. Oliver Hill also designed the garden at Woodhouse Copse, constructing terraces, stone walls and steps, and introduced the couple to Gertrude Jekyll, who drew up plans for the flowerbeds and supplied the plants from her nursery at Munstead Wood, Surrey
Source: Wikipedia; 'The Garden', July 1975, pp.311-312; Ancestry