Norah Lindsay
Encyclopedia
Norah Lindsay (26 April 1873–1948) was a socialite
garden designer
who between the World wars became a major influence on garden design and planting in the United Kingdom
and on the Continent
.
of Ootacamund
, India
into an Anglo-Irish
upper class
military
family, the niece of the 6th Earl of Mayo, the Governor-General and Viceroy of India
. At the age of 22 she married the brother of Violet Lindsay Manners, Sir Harry Lindsay and went to live at her wedding gift, Sutton Courtenay
Manor, Oxfordshire
, actually an assemblage of charming and picturesque houses and cottages, fine barns and stables, where she developed her skills as a gardener. Influenced by Gertrude Jekyll
she created the noted garden at the house, with an inspired kind of untidiness that influenced her lifelong friend Vita Sackville-West
's love of self-seeded surprise effects within a formal structure at Sissinghurst
and that may be detected today in the garden style of Rosemary Verey
. The writings of Gertrude Jekyll and the early champion of wild gardens William Robinson
, she had no formal botanical training, but a highly-developed 'garden sense' that was in part the inheritance of her class. In 1924 after the collapse of her marriage and facing financial ruin she embarked on a career as a garden designer. Lindsay spent her entire life socialising with the upper echelons of society this led to many commissions from a client base which included royalty, English nobility and American expatriates.
Nancy Lancaster
, the founder of the firm carried on by Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler, employed her at Ditchley Park
and Kelmarsh Hall
, and at the dozens of other country-house gardens she worked on, from Port Lympne, Kent, to Chirk Castle
in North Wales
. Lindsay collaborated with Christopher Hussey
in two Country Life
articles that illustrated Sutton Courtenay in its final, mature phase.
Nancy Lindsay (1896–1973) was the only daughter of Norah and Harry Lindsay and was greatly influenced by her mother's love of gardening. She formed a bond with her mother's good friend Maj. Lawrence 'Johnny' Johnston
, the creator of Hidcote
, that was based upon their common interest in plant collecting
. After his death in 1953 Johnston left his French garden Serre de la Madone
to Lindsay. She left a selection of her writings, paintings and plants to Oxford University. A small commemorative fund was established after her death to enable women to accompany plant-hunting expeditions led from the University. The legacy from her career is the many plants which bear her name which includes Dianthus
Nancy Lindsay.
Listed below are a sample of gardens Lindsay influenced, advised, consulted and worked on
National Trust
gardens;
Commercial and private gardens in the UK;
Overseas;
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
garden designer
Garden designer
The term garden designer can refer either to an amateur or a professional who designs the plan and features of gardens. Amateurs design their gardens for their own properties. Professionals, with experienced skills, design gardens that benefit clients...
who between the World wars became a major influence on garden design and planting in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and on the Continent
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
.
Biography
Norah Mary Madeline Bourke was born at the hill stationHill station
A hill station is a town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The term was used mostly in colonial Asia , but also in Africa , for towns founded by European colonial rulers as refuges from the summer heat, up where temperatures are cooler...
of Ootacamund
Ootacamund
Ootacamund , is a town, a municipality and the district capital of the Nilgiris district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Ootacamund is a popular hill station located in the Nilgiri Hills...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
into an Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...
upper class
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
family, the niece of the 6th Earl of Mayo, the Governor-General and Viceroy of India
Governor-General of India
The Governor-General of India was the head of the British administration in India, and later, after Indian independence, the representative of the monarch and de facto head of state. The office was created in 1773, with the title of Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William...
. At the age of 22 she married the brother of Violet Lindsay Manners, Sir Harry Lindsay and went to live at her wedding gift, Sutton Courtenay
Sutton Courtenay
Sutton Courtenay is a village and civil parish on the River Thames south of Abingdon and northwest of Didcot. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire.-Today:...
Manor, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, actually an assemblage of charming and picturesque houses and cottages, fine barns and stables, where she developed her skills as a gardener. Influenced by Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll was an influential British garden designer, writer, and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the USA and contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines.-Early life:...
she created the noted garden at the house, with an inspired kind of untidiness that influenced her lifelong friend Vita Sackville-West
Vita Sackville-West
The Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson, CH , best known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author, poet and gardener. She won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927 and 1933...
's love of self-seeded surprise effects within a formal structure at Sissinghurst
Sissinghurst Castle Garden
The garden at Sissinghurst Castle in the Weald of Kent, near Cranbrook, Goudhurst and Tenterden, is owned and maintained by the National Trust. It is among the most famous gardens in England.-History:...
and that may be detected today in the garden style of Rosemary Verey
Rosemary Verey
Rosemary Verey, OBE, VMH was an internationally known English garden designer, lecturer and prolific garden writer who designed the famous garden at Barnsley House, near Cirencester....
. The writings of Gertrude Jekyll and the early champion of wild gardens William Robinson
William Robinson (gardener)
William Robinson was an Irish practical gardener and journalist whose ideas about wild gardening spurred the movement that evolved into the English cottage garden, a parallel to the search for honest simplicity and vernacular style of the British Arts and Crafts movement...
, she had no formal botanical training, but a highly-developed 'garden sense' that was in part the inheritance of her class. In 1924 after the collapse of her marriage and facing financial ruin she embarked on a career as a garden designer. Lindsay spent her entire life socialising with the upper echelons of society this led to many commissions from a client base which included royalty, English nobility and American expatriates.
Nancy Lancaster
Nancy Lancaster
Nancy Lancaster was a 20th-century tastemaker and the owner of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, an influential British decorating firm that codified what is known as the English country-house look.-Biography:...
, the founder of the firm carried on by Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler, employed her at Ditchley Park
Ditchley
Ditchley is a country house and estate about northeast of Charlbury in Oxfordshire.-Archaeology:There are remains of a Roman villa on the Ditchley Park estate at Watts Wells, less than southeast of the house...
and Kelmarsh Hall
Kelmarsh Hall
Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire, England is an elegant, 18th century country house about south of Market Harborough and miles north of Northampton....
, and at the dozens of other country-house gardens she worked on, from Port Lympne, Kent, to Chirk Castle
Chirk Castle
Chirk Castle is a castle located at Chirk, Wrexham, Wales.The castle was built in 1295 by Roger Mortimer de Chirk, uncle of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March as part of King Edward I's chain of fortresses across the north of Wales. It guards the entrance to the Ceiriog Valley...
in North Wales
North Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...
. Lindsay collaborated with Christopher Hussey
Christopher Hussey
Christopher Edward Clive Hussey was one of the chief authorities on British domestic architecture of the generation that also included Dorothy Stroud and Sir John Summerson.- Career :...
in two Country Life
Country Life (magazine)
Country Life is a British weekly magazine, based in London at 110 Southwark Street, and owned by IPC Media, a Time Warner subsidiary.- Topics :The magazine covers the pleasures and joys of rural life, as well as the concerns of rural people...
articles that illustrated Sutton Courtenay in its final, mature phase.
Nancy Lindsay (1896–1973) was the only daughter of Norah and Harry Lindsay and was greatly influenced by her mother's love of gardening. She formed a bond with her mother's good friend Maj. Lawrence 'Johnny' Johnston
Lawrence Johnston
Major Lawrence Waterbury Johnston was a British soldier and garden creator.- Early years & military career :Johnston was born in Paris, France, into a family of wealthy American East Coast stockbrokers from Baltimore. He went to England to study at Trinity College, Cambridge. Soon after his...
, the creator of Hidcote
Hidcote Manor Garden
Hidcote Manor Garden is a garden located on the outskirts of the small village of Hidcote Bartrim, near Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, England and owned by the National Trust....
, that was based upon their common interest in plant collecting
Plant collecting
Plant collecting involves procuring live or dried plant specimens, for the purposes of research, cultivation or as a hobby.-Collection of live specimens:...
. After his death in 1953 Johnston left his French garden Serre de la Madone
Jardin Serre de la Madone
The Jardin Serre de la Madone , often simply known as the Serre de la Madone , is a garden notable for its design and rare plantings. It is located at 74, Route de Gorbio, Menton, Alpes-Maritimes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France. It is open to the public during the warm months of the year...
to Lindsay. She left a selection of her writings, paintings and plants to Oxford University. A small commemorative fund was established after her death to enable women to accompany plant-hunting expeditions led from the University. The legacy from her career is the many plants which bear her name which includes Dianthus
Dianthus
Dianthus is a genus of about 300 species of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae, native mainly to Europe and Asia, with a few species extending south to north Africa, and one species in arctic North America. Common names include carnation , pink and sweet William Dianthus is a genus of...
Nancy Lindsay.
Gardens
National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
gardens;
- Blickling HallBlickling HallBlickling Hall is a stately home in the village of Blickling north of Aylsham in Norfolk, England, that has been in the care of the National Trust since 1940.-History:...
- Chirk CastleChirk CastleChirk Castle is a castle located at Chirk, Wrexham, Wales.The castle was built in 1295 by Roger Mortimer de Chirk, uncle of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March as part of King Edward I's chain of fortresses across the north of Wales. It guards the entrance to the Ceiriog Valley...
- ClivedenClivedenCliveden is an Italianate mansion and estate at Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England. Set on banks above the River Thames, its grounds slope down to the river. The site has been home to an Earl, two Dukes, a Prince of Wales and the Viscounts Astor....
- Hidcote Manor
- Mottisfont AbbeyMottisfont AbbeyMottisfont Abbey is a historical abbey and country estate in England. Sheltered in the valley of the River Test, the property is now operated by the National Trust. About 200,000 people visit each year...
Commercial and private gardens in the UK;
- Cliveden HotelClivedenCliveden is an Italianate mansion and estate at Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England. Set on banks above the River Thames, its grounds slope down to the river. The site has been home to an Earl, two Dukes, a Prince of Wales and the Viscounts Astor....
- Ditchley ParkDitchleyDitchley is a country house and estate about northeast of Charlbury in Oxfordshire.-Archaeology:There are remains of a Roman villa on the Ditchley Park estate at Watts Wells, less than southeast of the house...
- Faringdon CastleFaringdon CastleFaringdon Castle was a Norman castle standing just outside the market town of Faringdon in the English county of Berkshire , some 17 km to the north-east of Swindon ....
- Fort BelvedereFort Belvedere, SurreyFort Belvedere is a country house on Shrubs Hill in Windsor Great Park, England, very near Sunningdale, Berkshire, but actually over the border in the borough of Runnymede in Surrey. It is a former royal residence - from 1750 to 1976 - and is most famous for being the home of King Edward VIII. It...
- Gleneagles HotelGleneagles HotelThe Gleneagles Hotel is a luxury hotel near Auchterarder, Perth and Kinross, Scotland.- History :The hotel was built by the former Caledonian Railway Company and opened in 1924, originally with its own railway station...
- Godmersham ParkGodmershamGodmersham is a village and civil parish in the Ashford District of Kent, England. The village is located on the Great Stour river where it cuts through the North Downs...
- Kelmarsh HallKelmarsh HallKelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire, England is an elegant, 18th century country house about south of Market Harborough and miles north of Northampton....
- Mells ManorMells ManorMells Manor at Mells, Somerset, England was built in the 16th century for Edward Horner, altered in the 17th century, partially demolished around 1780, and restored by Sir Edwin Lutyens in the 20th century...
- Port Lympne
- Rhodes HouseRhodes HouseRhodes House is part of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on the south of South Parks Road in central Oxford, and was built in memory of Cecil Rhodes, an alumnus of the university and a major benefactor.- History :...
- Trent ParkTrent ParkTrent Park is a country park, formerly the grounds of a mansion house which currently forms the Trent Park campus of Middlesex University in the north of London, United Kingdom...
Overseas;
- Bled CastleBled CastleBled Castle is a medieval castle built on a precipice above the city of Bled in Slovenia, overlooking Lake Bled. According to written sources, it is the oldest Slovenian castle and is currently one of the most visited tourist attractions in Slovenia....
- Brdo Castle
- Serre de la Madone
- Villa MadamaVilla MadamaVilla Madama is situated half way up the slope of Monte Mario Which faces directly north-east and because the hill is curved the part which looks towards Rome faces south and the opposite faces north-west...
External links
- Norah Lindsay information
- National Portrait Gallery, London Portraits of Norah Lindsay
- Country Life October 11, 2007 pp118–121. "Gardener to the great and good" Allyson Hayward traces the remarkable life of Norah Lindsay
- List of commissions
- Famous People linked with Sutton Courtenay - Norah Bourke Lindsay - Lived from 1904