The Gardens of the British Working Class / Margaret Willes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Willes, Margaret, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gardens--Great Britain--History.

Gardens.

Gardening--Great Britain--History.

Gardening.

Working class--Dwellings--Great Britain--History.

Working class.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (437 p.)

Place of Publication:

New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This magnificently illustrated people's history celebrates the extraordinary feats of cultivation by the working class in Britain, even if the land they toiled, planted, and loved was not their own. Spanning more than four centuries, from the earliest records of the laboring classes in the country to today, Margaret Willes's research unearths lush gardens nurtured outside rough workers' cottages and horticultural miracles performed in blackened yards, and reveals the ingenious, sometimes devious, methods employed by determined, obsessive, and eccentric workers to make their drab surroundings bloom. She also explores the stories of the great philanthropic industrialists who provided gardens for their workforces, the fashionable rich stealing the gardening ideas of the poor, alehouse syndicates and fierce rivalries between vegetable growers, flower-fanciers cultivating exotic blooms on their city windowsills, and the rich lore handed down from gardener to gardener through generations. This is a sumptuous record of the myriad ways in which the popular cultivation of plants, vegetables, and flowers has played-and continues to play-an integral role in everyday British life.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1. Finer Points of Husbandry

Chapter 2. Vital Remedies

Chapter 3. Working Gardeners

Chapter 4. A Passion for Flowers

Chapter 5. Two Nations

Chapter 6. Hard Times

Chapter 7. Climbing the Wall

Chapter 8. Sources of Inspiration

Chapter 9. The Spirit of Competition

Chapter 10. Revolutions in Taste

Chapter 11. Digging for Victory in Peace and War

Chapter 12. Homes and Gardens

Chapter 13. Ancient and Modern

Chapter 14. A Nation of Gardeners

Epilogue

Appendix

Notes

Select Bibliography

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

0-300-20625-9

OCLC:

871452669