John Haverfield
John Haverfield (1744–1820) was an English gardener and landscape architect.[1][2]
Early life
[edit]He was born at Haverfield House on Kew Green, the son of John Haverfield (1694–1784) and Ann Drew. His father, a surveyor at Twickenham, was Head Gardener at Kew to Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales, and superintendent of the Royal Gardens at Richmond Lodge. Haverfield was trained as a gardener and from 1762 was his father's assistant.
Career
[edit]When his father died in 1784 John took over his father's position at Kew Gardens, but only for two years, by which time he had developed his own landscape gardening business.[3][4]
In 1769 he met Augusta's nephew, Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, who was the same age, who took him to Gotha. There, near the castle, he laid out a garden based on the ideas of Lancelot Capability Brown, which is one of the first English landscape gardens on the continent.[5] In 1790 John designed the landscape for Chiselhampton House.[6]
He was also involved in other garden projects and played a key role in the construction of Walsingham Abbey Park, Walsingham, from 1804 to 1816. John remodelled the gardens at Pitzhanger Manor for Sir John Soane, creating a curving ‘serpentine’ lane, a rustic bridge, and a plantation. He also worked on Tyringham House in Buckinghamshire which Soane had designed. Haverfield also visited other Soane schemes: Hinton Saint George (1796), Bentley Priory (1798), Ramsey Abbey (1804), Moggerhanger House (1809 & 1810).[6]
Personal life
[edit]
In 1773 he married married Elizabeth Tunstall (1756–1819), daughter of Robert Tunstall (d 1762); the Tunstall family came from Brentford and her father had built the first wooden Kew Bridge in 1758-1759.[7] Their children were
- Elizabeth Ann Haverfield (1776–1817). Her portrait was painted by Thomas Gainsborough, when she was aged about eight or nine years old; it is now in The Wallace Collection.[8][3]
- John Haverfield (1780–1830) who became a Justice of the Peace, Lieutenant Colonel and Quarter Master General.[9]
- Mary Isabella Haverfield (1782–1852)
- Robert Tunstall Haverfield (1783–1839) a captain in the Royal Navy.[10]
- Rev Thomas Tunstall Haverfield (1787–1866), who was curate at St Anne's Church, Kew (1812–1818), Chaplain to Queen Charlotte (d 1818), and Rector of Goddington.[11]
Haverfield retired in 1795. He died in April 1820 and was buried at St Anne's Church, Kew, on 25 April 1820, in the family tomb.[12]
Works
[edit]Gotha Palace Park (from 1769)
Stradsett Hall
Walpole Park, Pitshanger Manor, Ealing.[13][6]
Abbey Park, Walsingham.[14]
Tyringham Hall (1795, 1799).[15][16]
References
[edit]- ^ "John Haverfield". Parks & Gardens.
- ^ Desmond, Ray (1994). Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists. Taylor & Francis and The Natural History Museum, London. p. 326 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b Holman, Mish J (8 July 2022). "'Miss Haverfield': Gainsborough at Kew".
- ^ Haverfield, T Tunstall (29 November 1862). "Notes on Kew and Kew Gardens". The Leisure hour : a family journal of instruction and recreation (570): 767–768 – via ProQuest.
- ^ "Gotha Ducal Park". Gotha Ducal Park.
- ^ a b c Couch, Sarah (2015). "The Conservation of the Pitzhanger Manor Landscape" (PDF). The London Gardener. 19: 84–101 – via The London Gardener.
- ^ Cooke, Nicholas; Phillpotts, Christopher (2007). "EXCAVATIONS AT KEW BRIDGE HOUSE, KEW BRIDGE ROAD, BRENTFORD, 2007" (PDF). Wessex Archaeology.
- ^ "Miss Elizabeth Haverfield". The Wallace Collection.
- ^ "Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries". Morning Post. 3 September 1830 – via British Library Newspapers.
- ^ "Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries". Exeter and Plymouth Gazette. 12 October 1839. p. 2 – via British Library Newspapers.
- ^ "Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries". Belfast News-Letter. 9 May 1866 – via British Library Newspapers.
- ^ Whittingham, Selby (November 2009). "Haverfield". Brentford High Street Project.
- ^ "About Walpole Park". Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery.
- ^ "Walled Garden at Abbey Park, Walsingham". Norfolk Heritage Explorer.
- ^ "Design for the grounds by John Haverfield (1)". Sir John Soane's Museum Collection Online.
- ^ "John Haverfield of Kew, TYRINGHAM HOUSE (Bucks), Designs for Peach house & stove for vines, 1795: (15-16) Plans & sections". Sir John Soane's Museum Collection Online.