Designers

Designers

Ernest Barnsley

ERNEST BARNSLEY

Ernest Barnsley(1863-1926), was a former architectural pupil in London of John Dando Sedding (1838-91), second master of The Art Workers’ Guild, formed in 1884 to promote ‘the Unity of all Aesthetic Arts’, and to establish a return to honest simplicity in design. Although Sedding died in 1891 his influence on Barnsley, both during his lifetime and afterwards, through his writing, must have been significant:

‘Because the old gardens are what they are - beautiful yesterday, beautiful today and beautiful always - we do well to turn to them, not to copy their exact lines, nor to limit ourselves to the range of their ornament and effects, but to glean hints for our garden-enterprise today, to drink of their spirit, to gain impulsion from them. As often as not, the forgotten field proves the richest of pastures.’

Norman Jewson

Norman Jewson (1884-1975) was an architect of the Edwardian era, one of a group of architects who made their homes in the Cotswold village of Sapperton. (The original three architects of the ‘Sapperton Group’ were Ernest Barnsley, his brother Sidney Barnsley, and Ernest Gimson, and these three together led the Cotswold Arts and Crafts movement, carrying on the ideals of William Morris). Jewson came from a family of established timber merchants in Norwich, and after studying at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, took articles with the architectural practice of Herbert Ibberson in London. Ibberson had worked in the same office as Ernest Gimson, Ernest Barnsley and Alfred Powell under J.D. Sedding.

Harold Peto

Harold Peto (1854-1933) was one of the leading garden designers of the Edwardian era. He became interested in garden design after a successful career as an architect, and was commissioned to build a number of gardens in England and the South of France.The Edwardian era, looking back, has assumed the character of a belle époque, a summer of golden afternoons in the years between the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, and the outbreak of the First World War. It is associated in garden terms with the country house, surrounded by architectural topiary, terraces and steps.