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Garden Museum acquires the archives of the great Victorian landscape architect William Andrews Nesfield
12 Dec 2024
Archives Revealed funding to catalogue the Nesfield Archive
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Design for Erskine House
We are delighted to announce that we have received Archives Revealed funding to catalogue the Nesfield archive, starting this month. The archive of the Nesfield firm – run first by William Nesfield, and later his son Markham – contains a variety of his garden designs. showcasing formal parterres and statuary, grand fountains, but also his more delicate touch for perfecting a vista – heavily influenced by his time spent capturing the British countryside in watercolour. A large variety of these sketches, studies, and paintings appear in the archive as well, alongside other business materials, diaries, maps, and family records.
Witley Court
When the obituaries came in for William Nesfield in 1881, the influential William Robinson talked of the “utterly unsatisfactory character of [Nesfield’s] style of gardening”, successful only in “preventing vegetation growing or being arranged in any graceful or natural way”. Yet for a significant part of the Victorian era, anybody who was anybody wanted a Nesfield garden. Hundreds of commissions across the country at the grandest homes conceivable, as far south as Tregothnan and all the way up to Dunrobin Castle in the Highlands. He worked at the royal parks. He nearly worked at Buckingham Palace.
Once catalogued, the archive will be available for anyone interested in viewing it, opening the Nesfield’s important work back up for all to appreciate. A small display at the museum already offers visitors a glimpse into what it contains. We are truly grateful to our funders for making it happen.
The Archives Revealed programme is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Pilgrim Trust, the Wolfson Foundation and The National Archives.
Garden Museum acquires the archives of the great Victorian landscape architect William Andrews Nesfield