W.H. Gaze & Sons Ltd. of Kingston on Thames and C.J.V. Foster: garden design plans and photographs

The archive consists of plans and photographs of gardens designed and created by W.H. Gaze & Sons Ltd, including black and white photographs of the Gazeway, Kingston on Thames, Chelsea Flower Show gardens and other gardens created by the company. C.J.V. Foster worked as a draftsman and land surveyor at W.H. Gaze & Sons Ltd and many plans in the archive bear his initials. The plans and photographs illustrate contemporary fashions in garden design, both hard and soft landscaping, and some plans are executed in watercolour.

Cyril John Vine Foster

Cyril John Vine Foster (1907-1978) was born on 28 May 1907 to John Foster and Ruth Arnold. They lived at Derryheen, Hookheath Road, Woking, where John Foster was head gardener for owner Colonel Alexander John Maunsell MacLaughlin, who also owned a tea plantation in Assam. Derryheen is probably where Cyril Foster learned his gardening skills and developed his life-long passion for plants.

Cyril Foster left school at 15 and was employed at W.H. Gaze of Kingston. He gained a Certificate in in Land Surveying from Surrey County Council. His work at Gaze's included creating garden design plans. In 1939 Foster was living with his parents at Derryheen Cottage, Hook Heath, his occupation recorded as 'land surveyor travelling'.

During the Second World War Foster worked for Dowsetts, a family firm of civil engineers, and was involved in building the RAF Spanhoe airstrip in Rutland, which opened in 1943. He married Winifred Annie Barker on 1 Mar 1941 in Bisley, Surrey, at which time his occupation was given as engineer surveyor. Their daughter Diana was born on 29 March 1943 and he later introduced her to trees, wildflowers and garden plants, teaching her their Latin names. Foster (who was known as George at work) stayed with Dowsetts for many years. He was loyal to his company and diligent in the tasks for which he was responsible. Most of the week was spent away from home managing various projects, particularly during the Mablethorpe floods of 1953. During the late 1950s and the 1960s he was manager of a quarry supplying iron ore to the large steel works of Richard Thomas and Baldwin at Corby in Northamptonshire. This was a far cry from garden design but he put a great deal of effort into land restoration when quarrying finished, and the land was incorporated into a large National Nature Reserve of woodland and Site of Special Scientific Interest called the Bedford Purlieus. During this period there was little time for gardening and Winifred, who enjoyed vegetable growing, took responsibility for the garden.

Foster retired in 1968 and took up gardening once again when the couple bought their first home in 1971, a bungalow near Glastonbury in Somerset. In his retirement he created a garden in his own meticulous style with a wide variety of plants, including his pride and joy, a Cryptomeria japonica in the centre of the lawn. He frequented two nearby nurseries, buying roses from Scotts at Merriot and irises and peonies from Kelways. He created a rose garden of tea and floribunda roses at the front entrance set off by a newly planted beech hedge which, despite its length, was carefully cut by hand every August.

Cyril Foster of Up a Long, High Street, Butleigh, Glastonbury, Somerset, died on 7 May 1978. Throughout his life he remained very proud of the garden design plans he created at Gaze's. Despite many house moves they were always kept safely in an oak settle the couple gave to each other as a wedding gift. The plans are now preserved in perpetuity in the Lindley Library collections.

Source: Cyril Foster's daughter Diana Redfern; online birth, marriage and death records, 1939 National Identity Register and British Newspaper Archives.

W.H. Gaze & Sons

W.H. Gaze & Sons, building contractors, was founded in 1879 by William Henry Gaze (1853-1934). The City Directory for 1887 has an entry for W.H. Gaze, 14 Union Street, Kingston-on-Thames, building contractors, 'plans and drawings furnished for proposed alterations, special attention given to all sanitary work'.

The company’s first major contract in Kingston-on-Thames was for St Luke’s Church, vicarage and school in 1886-1887. The company was incorporated in 1910 and by this time all five sons of W.H. Gaze were employed by the firm which had moved into larger premises at Kingston Hall Road and Victoria Works, Victoria Street, Kingston.

Over the years the company expanded to employ electricians, decorators, furniture makers and garden craftsmen. They exhibited at Chelsea Flower Show between 1923 and 1934, and their first rock garden was shown at Chelsea in 1923. The company patented the Gaze 'all-weather, non-attention hard tennis courts'.

In 1924 W.H. Gaze & Sons Ltd opened a showroom and London office at 10 Conduit Street, Mayfair, London, and their head office was at 19-23 High Street, Kingston-on-Thames. The company bought and renovated a large Victorian house in Portsmouth Road, Surbiton, to create a show house and gardens, renamed the Gazeway, where specimen gardens and nurseries, tennis courts and a miniature golf course were installed.

Adverts between 1926 and 1930 offer the following: 'We will gladly arrange a car for your visit to see a fine old Victorian house, modernised, renovated and decorated to show fresh ideas in furnishing, colour treatment, labour saving and comfort'. 'We specialise in the design of Old English, Dutch, Italian, Japanese and American rock, wall and water gardens, the building of pergolas and treillage [trellis]. We have every facility for the carrying out of all classes of estate work and improvements. We are the sole makers of the Gaze All-Weather hard lawn tennis courts, which permit all the year round play'. 'We invite you to inspect our model gardens and nurseries at the Gazeway'.

William Henry Gaze died in 1934, and at the time of his death the firm employed over a thousand people. In 1943 the company was contracted to the Admiralty to build landing barges and water ambulances for the D-Day landings. Over 900 vessels were built in improvised boatyards in Kingston Hall Road and Thames Ditton.

The company's accounts were last submitted in 2002, and the company was considered dormant as at March 2020.

Source: Online birth and death records; city and trade directories; British Newspaper Archive; 'The Book of Kingston' by Shaan Butters.

As many were undated, plans were arranged alphabetically by place name given on the plan, thus grouping jobs together, and chronologically within each of the place groupings; plans relating to unidentified places were listed at the end of the series. Photographs were arranged chronologically by job where possible and within each section, grouped by similar markings on the verso of the photographs.

GAZ/1 Plans

GAZ/2 Personal papers of C.J.V. Foster

GAZ/P Photographs

Partially open for consultation at Wisley Library. Some items are closed to public access until conservation has been carried out, due to being fragile and unfit for production, as stated in the relevant catalogue record. Readers are required to wear protective gloves when consulting objects or photographic material. It is essential to check opening hours and make an appointment. Readers are asked to take care due to the fragile nature of the original material.

Donated by Diana Redfern in Nov 2019 and Nov 2021.

The catalogue is available online via the Lindley Library archive catalogue and the Archives Hub.

Catalogued by Liz Taylor, RHS archivist, in May 2023, with documentation and packaging assistance given by Mara Uzzel and Lorna McGregor, RHS Lindley Library volunteers.

Cyril Foster worked for W.H. Gaze & Sons of Kingston in the 1930s and drew up garden plans for them. Over the course of many house moves and prior to donation, these were kept in an oak settle the couple gave to each other as a wedding gift.

Held at the Lindley Library:

For sundries catalogues of W.H. Gaze relating to garden design and garden ornaments, 1920s and undated, and to garden furniture and tennis courts, 1950s-1960s, see the Nursery Catalogues collection.

Held elsewhere:

Invoice books of Gaze's Building Co, c.1908-1930, are held at Kingston History Centre, reference KX32. Records of W.H. Gaze & Sons, Ltd., relating to the laying out of Royston Park Recreation Area, 1937, are held at London Borough of Sutton Archives and Local Studies Library, reference LG5/13/50. Winifred Foster's [Cyril Foster's wife] wedding dress is held at the National Needlework Archive.