Subscribe to trusted local news
If you are accessing this story via Facebook but you are a subscriber then you will be unable to access the story. Facebook wants you to stay and read in the app and your login details are not shared with Facebook. If you experience problems with accessing the news but have subscribed, please contact subscriptions@thestrayferret.co.uk. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
- Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
20
Aug
TV gardener Geoffrey Smith’s daughter releases book on the early days of Harlow Carr
The daughter of TV gardener Geoffrey Smith has written a book about growing up at Harlow Carr in the early years of the gardens.
Geoffrey, who for decades was one of the most famous gardeners in the country, played a major role developing Harlow Carr in the 1950s and 1960s, before the Royal Horticultural Society acquired it.
Caroline Smith was born in a tied cottage on the site in 1958 and for the next 16 years the infant gardens and woodland became her playground.
She watched the transformation from muddy bog land with no car park and entry fee to one of the finest gardens in the country, which now attracts more than 500,000 annual visitors.
My Childhood Back Garden describes the changes.
As the book recalls: “Visitors walked through the gates daily no matter what construction was taking place, meaning they had a much more realistic, educational experience of how a garden comes into being through its undressed state.”
Caroline with dad Geoffrey and mum Marjorie Smith. Pic: Caroline Smith
A magical upbringing
Caroline told the Stray Ferret the story of the early years had never been told.
She said:
The reason for writing the book is to remember all those remarkable people who did so much to create Harlow Carr and whose names have been lost in the midst of time.
My dad is well known but lots of other people grafted to create it. For example, there were two Ukrainian refugees who were the backbone of the garden, who mended machines, built the stone packhorse bridge… their contribution should be recognised.
Harlow Carr was as an experiment to see if southern plants could be grown in the colder northern climate, in clay soil that was often flooded.
Caroline recalls:
“There was a lot of heavy labour, digging old ditches, lifting stones… there was massive construction work, such as moving the stones from Beckwithshaw Moor, which now line the beck.”
But as a child, it was a magical place. She recalls: “It was fabulous. Imagine having 70 acres as your own playground. We roamed far and wide.”
Lifting stone from Beckwithshaw in 1959. Pic: Caroline Smith
Abrupt departure
The idyllic upbringing ended abruptly in 1974 when the Northern Horticultural Society, the charity that owned Harlow Carr, entered talks to build a link road between Pudsey and Dishforth that would have passed near the gardens, and open a 30-bed motel alongside the Harrogate Arms.
Geoffrey, who first appeared on TV in 1954 at the age of 26 when he starred alongside Percy Thrower on Gardening Club, a forerunner to Gardeners’ World, fiercely opposed the plans — which were later shelved — and resigned.
Caroline says:
Dad would have stayed had it not been for this calamitous effort to ruin the countryside. He was first and foremost a countryman and conservationist. He spent two years battling it and being silenced. But it turned out to be a good move for him. He needed the freedom.
After leaving, Geoffrey went on to present Gardeners’ World and appear frequently on Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time. He also presented his own BBC series, including Geoffrey Smith's World of Flowers and Mr Smith's Flower Garden, and forged a career as an author and public speaker.
Following his death in 2009, a plaque was installed in his memory near the Friendship Bridge at Harlow Carr. It is inscribed with one of his favourite sayings:
The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden,
Than anywhere else on earth.
Caroline, who now lives in lower Nidderdale, says the still-familiar woodlands are her favourite part of Harlow Carr these days.
She will be signing copies of her book at Harlow Carr between 1pm and 3pm on Saturday (August 22). Copies can be ordered via Yorkstone Publishing here.
Caroline Smith with her book.
10 Facts about Harlow Carr
Here are some of the snippets about the early years of Harlow Carr contained in Caroline Smith’s book.
1 In 1946 a group of Lancastrians wanted to create a Wisley of the north, where plants could be tested in harsher conditions and a shorter growing season. Mrs Lane-Fox offered land at Bramham Park but W V Bishop, the parks superintendent at Harrogate Corporation, the forerunner to Harrogate Borough Council, negotiated the lease of a 30-acre site at Harlow Carr in 1948
2 Colonel Charles Gray was appointed chairman and honorary director in 1947 and the Northern Horticultural Society, a newly founded charity set up to run the site, took possession of the land as tenants.
3 Geoffrey Smith joined the gardening staff aged 25 in 1953. Leaving his pregnant wife Marjorie at home in Barnard Castle, he cycled 50 miles down the A1 to live in digs in Harlow Hill. It was effectively a demotion from his last job at a research garden in Cornwall, but he wanted to be closer to his family.
4 A year later, following the death of Colonel Charles Grey, the garden’s first chairman and director, Geoffrey was promoted to head gardener / superintendent — a position he held until his departure in 1974.
5 The Smith family moved to a Yorkshire stone-built bungalow on the site in 1950. Caroline Smith was born there in 1958.
Geoffrey Smith during construction of the tarn at Harlow Carr in 1965. Pic: Caroline Smith
6 In 1959, the gardens attracted 50,000 visitors for the first time, even though it still didn’t have a car park. Vehicles parked on Crag Lane until a parking area was created in 1960. An entrance fee for the gardens was introduced in 1962.
7 The doric columns, which once stood outside the Royal Hall and had been in storage for 20-plus years, were installed in the early 1960s as part of a trend for garden follies. They remain at Harlow Carr.
8 Geoffrey Smith frequently appeared on TV during his time at Harlow Carr and in 1967 published his first book, Easy Plants for Difficult Places.
9 A hailstorm in July 1968 severely damaged the garden during peak season. Nevertheless the gardens made a profit for the first time in 1968, when income exceeded expenditure by £489. Refreshments for visitors were introduced in 1969. In 1971, life memberships were set at £45.
10 The Smiths moved out in 1974 amid acrimony over plans to build a link road between Pudsey and Dishforth near the gardens and open a 30-bed motel alongside the Harrogate Arms. A Harlow Carr Defence Society was formed to oppose the move.
1