The English Rococo Garden £7.99

Michael Symes

978 0 7478 0625 7 (SGH 5) approx 88 pp, colour and b/w ills. 

Delightful, eccentric, capricious, bizarre – these are some of the adjectives that describe an intriguing branch of the eighteenth-century English garden. This book relates the components of the rococo garden to movements in art, architecture, sculpture and porcelain which had developed in Britain and in Europe. It was an expression of a period in time, following baroque and neo-Palladian and looking ahead to romanticism in its freedom from strict rules. Most of the enchanting scenes depicted in Thomas Robins’s watercolours have disappeared, but there are many garden buildings from the period that survive. The styles which overlap with rococo – Gothic, chinoiseries, rustic – are considered, as is the use of flowers, rocks and shells. The principal designers are also featured, including Sanderson Miller and Thomas Wright.

Michael Symes is a garden historian whose interest developed from literature to real gardens, particularly those of the eighteenth century. Other titles for Shire by this author:

The English Rose Garden £4.50
£1.99 *special price until 31.1.08

Michael Gibson

978 0 7478 0442 0 (Album 375) 40 pages, 46 colour and 31 b/w ills

This book is the story of English rose gardens and how they, the roses that grow in them and the way in which they are looked after have changed over the years. The concept of the garden devoted entirely to roses is throught of as essentially English, and greatly treasured as such, but it actually originated in France in the nineteenth century. However, the idea found its most enthusiastic following in England, at first in the gardens of the rich, but it gradually became more widespread.

An amateur but knowledgeable rose grower, Michael Gibson has been on the Council of the Royal National Rose Society since 1974 and was President for the years 1985-6. He is also Vice President of the Society's Historic Roses Group and edited their journal for eight years. Other titles for Shire by this author are:

Discovering The Folklore of Plants £5.99

Margaret Baker

978 0 7478 0178 8 (Db 74) 168 pp, 107 b/w ills. 

To primitive man the whisper and movement of leaves and the silent unfolding of flowers were proofs of life and power, and their regeneration was a promise of nature’s continuity. Cures, magic, divination and portents were all connected with the rich variety of available plant life, especially in verdant Britain. Some of these beliefs were astonishingly long-lasting and, even if in altered or faded form, have survived the sophistications of modern life, as this book sets out to show.

Follies £5.99

Jeffery W. Whitelaw

978 0 7478 0624 0 (Album 93) 64 pp, colour and b/w ills. 

In this book Jeffery W. Whitelaw defines what a folly is and shows that these architectural curiosities are to be found all over England. Many follies were built in the eighteenth century when great landowners, after their Grand Tour of Europe, returned to their estates with visions of putting up romantic ruins to satisfy a yearning for the past. At the same time many of these great estates were being landscaped in the contemporary fashion and the landscape architects were able to crown their grand designs with some sort of eyecatcher for the mansion — a folly, in fact — ‘to give a livelier consequence to the landscape’. The history of follies is traced, from the first prospect tower, through the golden era of the first half of the eighteenth century and up to the Second World War. The numerous illustrations demonstrate the enormous variety of follies that can still be found throughout England.

Now retired from publishing, Jeffery Whitelaw devotes his time to photography.

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Fountains and Water Features £5.99

Rosalind Hopwood

978 0 7478 0607 3 (Album 435) 64 pp, 105 colour, 9 b/w ills. 

Fountains are as old as civilisation. They originated in the simple provision of an essential element – water – in arid places and they evolved into manifestations of capricious delight and extravagant displays of wealth and power. Fountain development in Great Britain was strongly influenced by travellers returning from Europe during and after the Renaissance. Later, the English landscape designers established a more naturalistic trend in garden design. This book describes the development of fountains and water features in Britain and illustrates many different aspects of it, from mythical allusion, through private pleasure gardens to contemporary civic display. There is also an extensive list of fountains and water features that are open to the public.


Rosalind Hopwood is an art historian with a special interest in fountains and water features. Her PhD thesis on The Origins of the Renaissance Figure Fountain involved extensive travel in Europe and traced the history of water features and the development of hydraulic technology. She has lectured on art and garden history and is a member of the Fountain Society and the Garden History Society.

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Garden Sculpture £5.99

Michael Symes

978 0 7478 0320 1 (Shire Garden History 8) 96 pp, 30 colour, 40 b/w ills. 

Garden sculpture is an aspect of garden history that has not received a great deal of attention, particularly in Britain, and yet its impact in a garden can be considerable, adding an extra dimension and creating a fascination of its own. In this book the history of sculpture in British gardens is traced from Tudor times to the present day, showing the strong influence of Italy, both classical and Renaissance, and France. Materials and techniques are discussed and the use of different materials at different times according to fashion, commercial requirements or technological advances is indicated, and changes in taste and style are charted.

A Glossary of Garden History £9.99
New edition - now available

Michael Symes

978 0 7478 0646 2 (Shire Garden History 6) about 144 pp, colour and b/w ills. 

What, if any, are the differences between a belvedere, a gazebo, a pavilion and a summerhouse? How does one distinguish between an allée and an alley, and when does an allée become an avenue? What particular characteristics mark an Islamic garden or a Japanese one? What are a gazon coupé, a millarium and a crinkle-crankle wall?

This alphabetical glossary explains and illustrates such terms so that readers of garden literature and visitors to gardens may appreciate more fully what they are reading about or seeing. A final chapter outlines the work of leading British garden designers from John Evelyn to Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe.

Discovering Herbs £5.99

Kay N. Sanecki

978 0 7478 0590 8, (Db 89) 136 pages, 69 colour illustrations.

Since the early 1970s herbs have been recognised as part of our cultural heritage and many are now familiar garden plants. Others of ancient cultivation are now collectors’ items in the authentic herb garden. In this book the author includes a wide range of such plants, discussing their background, care and cultivation, their properties and propagation. Medicinal plants, pot herbs, culinary delights, household sweeteners, dye plants and those with fragrance are all included. This is a book for both beginner and enthusiast.

Kay N. Sanecki is an established horticultural writer, working especially on fragrant plants, herbs and garden history. Her formal training was in horticulture and she has worked for the Royal Horticultural Society and in horticultural publishing for many years. Other titles for Shire by this author:

Tim Buxbaum

978 0 7478 0150 4 (Album 278) 32 pp, 52 ills. 

Icehouses were designed to store ice in bulk for summertime use in the days before refrigeration. This book examines icehouses in Britain, where they were built in increasing numbers from the early seventeenth century, initially to provide chilled refreshment for the wealthy. By the mid nineteenth century most country estates would have had one. Their design improved as scientific knowledge increased and, although the majority of icehouses remained plain, some exuberant structures were built. Commercial icehouses were erected to serve confectioners, grocers and the fishing industry, for which huge quantities of ice were imported from North America and Norway.

Tim Buxbaum is a chartered architect in private practice in Suffolk, where he lives with his wife Ruth and two sons. Much of his professional work is conservation-orientated, but he also designs new buildings. This Album stems from his interest in garden architecture. Other titles for Shire by this author are:

Japanese Gardens in Britain £4.50
£1.99 *special price until 31.1.08

Amanda Herries

978 0 7478 0500 7 (Album 387) 40 pp, about 70 colour and 10 b/w ills.  

Important Japanese gardens have been created in Europe and America since the 1860s. In Japan gardens were being created as early as the sixth century, and descriptions reached the West by the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This book describes the Japanese garden styles that have intrigued and stimulated the West for so many years and the discovery of some of the plants that have now become immensely popular in Western gardens. It traces the history of Japanese garden-making in the United Kingdom and illustrates some of the gardens that still survive.

In 1988 the author went to live in Tokyo, Japan, with her family. While in Japan, she wrote extensively on Japanese culture and art collections. In 1995 she returned with her family to Britain, bringing a Japanese tea-house to feature in a new garden in Scotland. She now lectures on a number of English and Anglo-Japanese subjects, including gardens.

Mazes and Labyrinths £5.99

Adrian Fisher

978 0 7478 0561 8, (Album 418) about 48 pages, colour illustrations.

Mazes and labyrinths in various forms have been a preoccupation of mankind for thousands of years. Maze designs have been carved on rocks, laid as mosaics and stone pavements, cut into turf, planted with bushes, and carved out of seasonal crops. This book traces the history of mazes worldwide from the earliest known examples, and then describes those which have been created in Britain’s gardens, parks and landscape. Britain’s diversity in forms of maze and labyrinth construction is unparalleled anywhere in the world.

Adrian Fisher is internationally recognised as the world’s leading maze designer and has created more than 400 mazes worldwide. He designed the world’s first-ever cornfield maize maze, and has set five Guinness World Records.

Old Garden Tools £3.50

978 0 85263 869 9 (Album 41) 32 pp, 45 ills.

Some of the oldest implements in the world are those that have been used for land cultivation. Many garden tools are universal in use, like the rake, scythe, slasher, spade and saw, and much estate management of the past, before mechanisation, was dependant upon them.

Kay N. Sanecki was a founder committee member of the Garden History Society and is now one of its Vice presidents. A Fellow of the Institute of Horticulture, she is the author of several books on various aspects of garden history, herbs and fragrant plants. Other titles for Shire by this author are:

Joseph Paxton £4.50

John Anthony

978 0 85263 208 6 (LL 21) 48 pp, 30 ills. 

Joseph Paxton is best known as the designer of the Crystal Palace, built to house the Great Exhibition held in Hyde Park in 1851, and the later Crystal Palace at Sydenham which survived until burnt down in 1936. But he had many more achievements to his credit in the course of an incredibly varied career. Born in humble circumstances, he became head gardener to the sixth Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth at the age of 23 and rapidly became not only the leading horticulturist of the day but also the trusted confidant of the Duke. His experiments in the design of glasshouses were to lead to the greatest glasshouse of all in Hyde Park. He wrote extensively, took a leading part in founding a national daily newspaper, was prominent in promoting railways, designed a number of public parks and was the architect of a large number of conventional buildings. He was MP for Coventry for eleven years, organised a civilian works corps to help the army in the Crimea and concerned himself with the sewerage and traffic problems of London.

The late John Anthony first became interested in Paxton when living within a few miles of Chatsworth, scene of so many of Paxton’s activities. Other Shire titles by this author:

Public Parks £5.99

Hazel Conway

978 0 7478 0332 4 (Shire Garden History 9) 96 pp, 30 colour and 25 b/w ills. 

Every town in Britain has its public parks, gardens and recreation grounds and these form an important part of many people's lives. The design and development of public parks has been as important to garden history as the great eighteenth-century landscape parks and indeed of far broader social significance. This history of public parks traces their development, identifies the influences that lay behind their design and considers the reasons for our changing attitudes to parks. It looks at the features that give each park its individual character, the landscape, the trees, the lakes, the lodges, shelters, bandstands and palm houses, the statues and the planting, and it considers the role of parks in cities today and in the future.

Hazel Conway is an architectural and landscape historian with a particular interest in public parks. She is a member of the Parks Advisory Panel of the Heritage Lottery Fund, is on the Advisory Panel of the Open Spaces Society and is Parks and Gardens Advisor for the Victorian Society.

Regency Gardens £5.99

Mavis Batey

978 0 7478 0289 1 (Shire Garden History 7) 96 pp, 37 colour and 42 b/w ills. 

Regency architecture and gardening inherited the stylish elegance of the eighteenth century but added a lively touch, consistent with the mood of a new century and a high-spirited monarch in waiting. The new gardening style was essentially ornamental with sinuous flowering shrubberies, trellis and climbing plants, shrub and flower beds on the lawn, ornate garden seats and other features which went well with the light playfulness of Regency architecture with its striped canopies, verandahs, ornamental ironwork and balconies.

Mavis Batey has done much to establish garden history as a valid historical subject through her lectures and writing. She has been a pioneer in the conservation of historic parks and gardens and was Honorary Secretary of the Garden History Society from 1971 to 1985 and subsequently President.

Shell Houses and Grottoes £4.50

978 0 7478 0522 9 (Album 398) 40 pp, 93 colour and 6 b/w ills.

The artificial grotto has a long and intriguing history in architecture and garden design. The earliest grottoes in ancient Greece were pagan shrines dedicated to water nymphs. During the Roman empire these evolved into formal temples to water gods and in the sixteenth century grottoes were revived by Renaissance architects to lend an authentic air to neo-classical villas. This book describes the origins of the grotto in Renaissance Italy, its heyday in eighteenth-century England, its decline in the nineteenth century and its return to favour in the late twentieth century. Over 250 surviving grottoes are listed by the English Heritage National Monuments Record, in varying states of repair, and there are more to be discovered. This book contains a comprehensive gazetteer of grottoes and shell houses that the public can visit.

Hazelle Jackson is a social history graduate with a life-long interest in subterranean dwellings and man-made caves. She has travelled to the remoter parts of the British Isles to seek out and record the history of shell houses and grottoes.

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Sundials £5.99

Christopher St J. H. Daniel

978 0 7478 0558 8, (Album 176) about 48 pages, colour and b/w illustrations.

For over 1000 years sundials have played an important role in regulating the daily life of mankind throughout Europe and the British Isles. Indeed the study of the art of constructing sundials, or the ‘Art of Dialling’, was a part of every scholar’s education. Only with the coming of modern communications and the extreme accuracy of timekeeping equipment has the sundial been eclipsed as a scientific instrument and ceased to provide a useful service. This book describes and illustrates each particular class of dial likely to be found on buildings, in churchyards, public squares, private gardens and remote countryside locations.

Christopher Daniel has been a sundial designer since 1986 and is chairman of the British Sundial Society.

Walled Kitchen Gardens £5.99

*New colour edition*

Susan Campbell

978 0 7478 0657 8, (Album 339) 56 pages, 79 colour and 10 b/w illustrations.

Walled kitchen gardens were found in the grounds of most large country houses in Britain and Ireland. They were designed to provide a continual supply of fruit, flowers and vegetables. With the aid of heated glasshouses, there would be out-of-season delicacies such as strawberries for Christmas, exotic tropical fruits, figs and grapes. The remains of these gardens can still be seen, some converted to other uses, some simply abandoned; a few have been restored to their previous productiveness. This book examines the history of these old kitchen gardens in the light of what might be seen there today.

Susan Campbell is a writer and illustrator. She has researched the history of kitchen gardening for many years, visiting over three hundred gardens.