Horticultural writer and cottage gardener, Margery Fish, created an iconic garden at East Lambrook Manor, Somerset. Here we display some images from 1960s and 1970s from the Lindley Library archive
With husband Walter Fish, whom she married in 1933, horticultural writer and gardener Margery bought East Lambrook Manor in 1937. Up until then, Margery and Walter had lived in London; she had worked as the secretary to newspaper magnate Lord Northcliffe, and latterly as secretary to Walter, who was Editor of the Daily Mail, before they married.
It was to escape the looming Second World War and inevitable chaos of central London that took them to Somerset, where Margery worked her two acres of land continuously until her death in 1969.
Although a novice at gardening, Margery redeveloped the garden at East Lambrook using an informal ‘cottage garden’ style, and with Walter, they restored the house and built terraces and an orchard area. The books she wrote, including We Made a Garden (1957), popularised her style of planting.
Today, the garden is regularly open to the public and continues to inspire English cottage gardening enthusiasts the world over. Although now more mature, the garden is still essentially as Mrs Fish originally created it. It was given Grade 1 status by English Heritage in 1992.
All images courtesy of the RHS Lindley Library, London.
