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Thomas Mawson
1861-1933 Thomas
Hayton Mawson was born in Scorton,
Lancashire
into an impoverished family.
These family circumstances forced the young Thomas to leave
school at the age of twelve to earn his living.
He started his career working for his uncle in Lancaster who
was in the building trade but also had a very keen interest in
gardening.
On the death of
his father Thomas moved to
London
with his mother where he went into employment in
the nursery trade. In due
course he moved to Windermere in the
Lake District
, where with his two brothers, he set up a nursery
business called Lakeland Nurseries.
This venture proved to be extremely successful & so
provided Thomas with the means to be able to concentrate on garden
design.
His design practice
prospered due to a wealthy clientele brought to the area by the
railways network & also to his obvious talent for design which
blended architecture & planting.Thomas’s prolific &
successful career included commissions on Graythwaite Hall, Langdale
Chase, Holehird, Brockhole & Holker Hall.
He also designed the formal garden at Rydal Hall in 1909.
In 1901, Thomas published two comprehensive works called ‘The Art
and Craft of Garden Making’ which is now regarded as the foundation
of modern landscape architecture.
They were reprinted five times by 1926 and it is these books
which reveal Thomas’s inspiration & gave a name to the style of
work achieved by Edwin Lutyens & Gertrude Jeykll.
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Thomas’s reputation grew with numerous commissions throughout
Britain
, although he still found time for local work such
as An Cala, and also Europe
& Canada. He designed
the ‘
Palace
of
Peace
’ gardens at the Hague in1908 after winning a
competition. He was also
involved in the development of the
Smokey
Mountains
National Park
in
America
.
Thomas developed an interest in town planning & public parks and
in 1923 became president of the Town & Planning Institute.
In 1929 he also became the first president of the
Institute
of
Landscape Architects
which had just been formed.
He was involved in many projects, one of them being
Saffron
Hill
Cemetery
,
Leicester
.
By the mid 1920’s Thomas’s eldest son Edward Prentice Mawson, was
assuming control of his father’s business (Thomas Mawson &
Sons of Lancaster & Windermere) due to Thomas suffering
increasingly from Parkinson’s Disease.
Thomas Mawson was a prolific & influential designer, a gentle man,
a devout Christian all his life who in his writings, stressed the
importance of gardens to the enrichment of the lives of all mankind.
Thomas died in November 1933 at Applegarth, Lancaster and is buried in
Bowness
Cemetery
.
Some more gardens : The
Hill Garden,
Stanley
Park
, Rivington Cottage, Duffryn, Kearnsey Abbey.
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For more famous Garden
Designers - click here |
| Sarah
Topp is a garden designer based in Wiltshire. She studied garden
design at Merrist Wood College, Surrey and can be contacted via her
website www.toppdesigns.co.uk |
