Exactly 110 years ago one of the most unsavoury events in horticultural history reached its climax at the Chelsea Flower Show, 1914 – or to be more precise, outside the show. Ellen Willmott didn’t have anything to do with the actual spat, so how come she found herself at the epicentre of the Unpleasantness at…
Category: Features
Ellen’s summer houses #2: Miss Willmott and Mr Napoleon
There is an intriguing legend that while on holiday in the Alps, a 19 year-old Ellen Willmott bought, on the spot, a Swiss shepherd’s hut from St Bernard Pass / Bourg St Pierre because someone told her Napoleon Bonaparte stayed in it one night during his famous Alp-crossing exercise. The story continues that she had…
Dust to Dust
There should have been so much to enjoy today. I was celebrating – the paperback of Miss Willmott’s Ghosts, published exactly a year after the hardback came out. I had arranged to meet three dear friends who had helped me so much with the book – the support, practical help, expertise, wisdom and just bottom-line…
Through the Oval Window: Ellen’s Summer Houses #1
Today I’m starting the first in an occasional series on Ellen Willmott’s (many) summer houses. By far the majority of them were in her main garden at Warley Place, which boasted at least eight, but that’s not counting the gazebos her sister Rose had at Warley Lea and Ellen also had a couple of cabins…
The Dark Side of the Wall
There are some parts of Warley that have always been a mystery. This is mainly because of the way they’ve been represented (or not) in maps, photographs and even The Kip, despite their being – in theory at least – right in the middle of the pleasure garden. That doesn’t mean that they will stay…
Miss Willmott's Ghosts 