A gardener's tour of England

I have already warned Tom that when we get home we are digging up the front yard and putting in something like this.

I hope we can also fit in a pitch where I can hone my croquet skills.

Our last days in England were spent mostly in the Cotswolds, an impossibly beautiful part of the world. We made the best of some fine weather and checked out some splendid English gardens, making sure the places we visted served cream tea. 

The Arts and Crafts movement

I had heard this expression before, probably on the Antiques Roadshow channel (I am prone to exaggeration but I swear there is a channel on UK TV that is 24 hour Antiques Roadshow.  Well certainly every time I turned the TV on Fiona Bruce was strutting about being all jolly hockey sticks). In my ignorance my idea of arts and crafts was limited to the Playdoh fun I have with Siena and Jack when minding them. I now know that the Arts and Crafts movement was started by William Morris in the late 19 century.  Morris was bringing up a young family in London as was concerned about the dirty, bustling city and he moved them to Gloucestershire to live a quieter life which eschewed modernity. For Melbourne readers think of the Reeds at Hiede - and yes the Morris household also had its own ménage a trois - what is it with these artistic types. Morris was a textile designer, amongst his other many artistic pursuits, and an early socialist. He promoted the return to hand crafts and away from the machine production of materials that had become common since the development of machines processing in northern England. In short, an early hippy! 

I now know what Edna Walling was on about with her walled gardens and climbing roses.

In stark contrast to the Arts and Craft movement our trip also took in the industrial revolution cities of Manchester, Coventry and Bristol. I have commented in an earlier post on my appreciation of the works of Charles Dickins and visiting the various museums in these 19th century industrial cities puts the horrendous life of the working classes into crisp perspective.