“Life in the Gardeners’ Bothy” is a social history of gardening in English landed estates from 1920s to the outbreak of World War Two. This period saw shifts in social structures, with the rise of the working class and the decline of the aristocracy. Arthur Hooper was a garden on many of these estates, beginning his career at the age of 14 as an unpaid apprentice gardener’s boy, and ending his career in the coveted position of head gardener. Over the course of his career, he worked for many eminent personages:
- Sir Cecil Chubb. Best known for donating Stonehenge to the nation, a property that he acquired as Lot 15 at an auction for a mere £6,600. He acquired it on a whim as a present for his wife. He wanted to prevent the stones from being acquired by someone overseas. Owner of Bemerton Lodge, a small country estate near Salisbury, Wiltshire.
- Washington Merritt Grant Singer. American born heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. Owner of Norman Court, a country estate in Hampshire of about 3,000 acres.
- Sir Felix Schuster. Born in the Free City of Frankfurt, his family moved to England when he was 15. A wealthy banker and Liberal MP. Owner of Verdley Place, a 67-acre property in West Sussex.
- Sir Jeremiah Coleman. Developed Colman’s Mustard into an international concern. Owner of Gatton Park, a country estate in Surrey of about 1,000 acres.
In the early days of his career, a garden would have employed 20 to 30 or more gardeners . Gatton Park, for example, employed 35 gardeners, of which six gardeners alone were required to grow and cross orchids, Sir Jermiah’s particular hobby. And to Hooper’s surprise, one of the gardeners was a woman! Gardeners would be allocated to work maintaining the pleasure grounds, the kitchen gardens, and multiple glasshouses. These latter were heated by one or more boilers; one of the gardener’s duties would be to keep the boilers running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, adjusting ventilators as needed to maintain the temperature and within carefully prescribed limits depending on what was being grown there. Hooper lists the following glasshouses at Norman Court:
- Two peach houses
- Four vineries
- Four plant houses
- A rose house
- A house for tender vegetable seedlings
- An underground forcing room for rhubarb, sea kale, endive, and chicory
- Two cucumber houses
- Three melon houses
- Twp carnation houses
- A fernery
- A stove house for tropical plants
- A chrysanthemum house
- A tomato house
- A camelia house
There was a strict hierarchy amongst gardeners. Boys were at the bottom followed by paid journeymen assigned various ranks: 1st journeyman at the top, followed 2nd , 3rd, and 4th, depending on the size of the garden. Above them would be foremen assigned to oversee the work of several men, followed by a general foreman or manager, and above him the almighty head gardener. He alone interacted with the Lord of the Manor and his Lady, to direct the workings of the gardens. Foremen and above would be expected to be married and live on tied houses on the estate. Journeymen, however, had to remain unmarried and were housed in basic accommodation, called the gardener’s bothy. A gardener’s rank dictated the dress code. A first journeymen was required to wear a collar and tie and wear a blue apron. He could only remove his jacket if the weather was hot, and always be ready to put it back on if the lady or squire came his way. Lesser journeymen wore green aprons.
This was an age when workers were expected to remain subservient to their masters and to acknowledge them by touching their caps if they passed by. Hooper’s spirit comes through however in an interchange with the Sir Simon Schuster’s daughter when he found it necessary to assert some dignity.
I was working in the vinery when I heard Miss Schuster calling me. I came down some steps, walked to the door and out to where she was standing. “When I call you,” she said, “you will not keep me waiting, you will run to me as quickly as possible.” I stood quite still a little away from her. I think I did this because I was to some extent taken aback. Then I said, “Madam, nature doesn’t run, and we who work with nature must keep in step with our natural master.”
Hooper goes into great detail describing the bothys that he lived in. Some were better than others, but shared the same basic setup of a living room with table and chairs, a dresser for crockery and utensils, and large cast iron stove, used for cooking and heating water. A local woman, referred to as the bothy “Mom” was employed by the Head Gardener to do the cooking, mending, and laundry during the week. Bothy boys were also given an allowance of coal and lamp oil, but had to pay for food out of their own wages. Depending on the garden, however, they could sometimes supplement it with produce from the garden. Life in the bothy was equally regimented, with a rotating roster of who would be “on the wheel” for cooking and maintain the glasshouse boilers at the weekend.
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 was felt in England as well. Hooper describe how men were abruptly laid off and wages cut. Completion for places at gardens became tight. Hooper’s gardening knowledge and references, however, served him well. His skill as a cricketer though was the deciding factor in his getting a position at Gatton Park; Sir Jeremiah was a keen cricketer!
Hooper eventually landed his coveted position of Head Gardener at Hookstile House in Surrey, a small estate of just 21 acres, employing just three staff. The position was cut short, however, by the outbreak of the Second World War, when the owner, Mr. Horner[1] and his wife closed the house and left to live on his other estate in Devon. Hooper was given notice and returned to work with his father, who at this time had been given charge of several gardens at a psychiatric hospital in Salisbury. As a producer of food, his position was classified as a reserved occupation so he would not be called up, and moreover could not change occupations.
Hooper wrote a second book “After the Gardeners’ Bothy” in 2004, at which time he would have been 96. His date of death remains unrecorded.
[1] Hooper gives the owner’s name as Horler, but property records give it as Horner, I suspect that some other names may be incorrect in the latter part of the book as I have been unable to independently confirm them.