Category: Reviews
The Rock Garden
Rock Landscapes: The Pulham Legacy
Claude Hitching, with photography by Jenny Lilly
300 pages, many colour and black & white photographs
ISBN 978-1-87067-376-1 – Antique Collectors’ Club Ltd £35
This lavishly produced book is the result of Claude Hitching’s researching the work of hrs great-grandfather, William Hitching; William’s brother, George, and William’s three sons – Arthur, Frederick and John – who all worked as ’rock builders’ for the firm of James Pulham & Son, the eminent Victorian and Edwardian landscape gardeners. Continue reading “The Rock Garden”
The Alpine Gardener – September 2012
The Master Builders of Britain’s Rock Gardens
Rock Landscapes: The Pulham Legacy
Rock Gardens, Grottoes, Ferneries, Follies, Fountains and Garden Ornaments
Garden Art Press, 2012
ISBN 978 – 1 – 87067 – 376 – 1
Price £35.00
J.R.Pulham, Secretary to the Committee of the Alpine Garden Society at the end of World War Two, was the last of a dynasty of four James Pulhams who, in turn, led a company manufacturing garden ornaments and constructing rock gardens, water features and ferneries. Continue reading “The Alpine Gardener – September 2012”
The Local Historian – May 2013
Rock Landscapes: The Pulham Legacy
Rock Gardens, Grottoes, Ferneries, Follies, Fountains and Garden Ornaments. Claude Hitching, with photography by Jenny Lilly (Garden Art Press 2012 – 320pp – ISBN 978-1-87067-376-1) £35
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This excessively illustrated book (there are 450 colour and 340 black and white photographs) is the culmination of over ten years of research, inspired by the author’s family connections with the Pulhams and their remarkable creations in artificial and natural rockwork. When he retired, Claude Hitching, originally a Management Accountant, started to research his own family, beginning with his grandfather, Frederick Hitching. Continue reading “The Local Historian – May 2013”
Devon Gardens Trust – Spring Newsletter 2013: No 89
Rock Landscapes: the Pulham Legacy
by Claude Hitching, Published by Garden Art Press – 312pp – £35
This book is a wonderful example of how family history can expand into garden history. When Claude Hitching set out to discover more about his grandfather, he found that four more relatives had worked at some time for the firm of James Pulham and Son, which itself spanned four generations from the turn of the nineteenth century. Claude has enthusiastically pursued Pulham artefacts and sites, which revealed many fascinating personal stories as well. Continue reading “Devon Gardens Trust – Spring Newsletter 2013: No 89”
The Garden – February 2013
Rock Landscapes: The Pulham Legacy
Claude Hitching
320 pages, 2012 – Garden Art Press, ISBN 9781870673761 – RRP £35 Continue reading “The Garden – February 2013”
London Landscapes – Autumn / Winter 2012
Rock Landscapes: The Pulham Legacy
Claude Hitching
Published by Garden Art Press, for the Antique Collectors Club, Suffolk 2012 – (RRP 235) ISBN 978-1 -87067-376-1
During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, as new plants flooded into the UK from around the world, rockeries, and decorative rockwork gained in popularity. Many were built on a grandiose scale to display rare and unusual alpine and mountain plants, both in private gardens and later in public parks. A large rockery might have mini-ravines, grottoes, waterfalls and even purpose-built caves. Continue reading “London Landscapes – Autumn / Winter 2012”
Trafodion – Welsh HGT – November 2012
Rock Landscapes: The Pulham Legacy
Rock Gardens, Grottoes, Ferneries, Follies, Fountains and Garden Ornaments
Claude Hirching, with photography by Jenny Lilly
Garden Arr Press, 2012, £35, (£28 if ordered online from wwwanriquecollecrorsclub.com/ uk), 320pp, ISBN 978-1-870673-76-l
Claude Hitching°s article ‘James Pulham in \Wales’ which appeared in the first issue of Trafodion, anticipated the publication of this ‘big book’, large in format and lavishly illustrated. The author’s interest in the Pulhams sprang from his researches into his own family history, and the discovery that his grandfather, Frederick Hitching, had worked for the Pulham family firm for over half a century. The present publication is the culmination of decades of intensive, patient and evidently enjoyable research by Claude Hitching, and is both an impressive ‘business history’ and an appropriate tribute to his grandfather. Continue reading “Trafodion – Welsh HGT – November 2012”
Garden History Journal – Autumn 2012
Review by Brent Elliott of
Rock Landscapes: The Pulham Legacy
in the Garden History Journal – Winter 2012 (pp.308-310)
Claude Hitching, Rock Landscapes: The Pulham Legacy (Woodbridge: Garden Art Press, 2012), 320 pp., illus. in colour and black-and-white, £35.00 (hbk). ISBN 9-781870-673761 Continue reading “Garden History Journal – Autumn 2012”
The Times – Register, 24th November 2012
The Beatles Fan Club Magazine ’45 – Summer 2012
Hertfordshire Countryside – August 2012
Garden Design Journal – August 2012
Shekkei – Summer 2012
Hertfordshire Life – August 2012
F T Weekend Review – 14 July 12
Sham rock
By Robin Lane Fox
The tale of the Pulhams, a self-made family renowned for its fake stone, is not over yet
©Jenny Lilly
The boathouse and ‘The Nest’ at Sandringham, part of a series of Pulham rockscapes rediscovered in the late 1980s
Across four generations a self-made family dominated the solid features in the gardens of Britain’s new rich. The story is inspiring and has only been known so far in outline. Now, much more of it has become clear, from Las Vegas to the country seat of England’s Rothschilds. More is surely out there, waiting to be added. The tale of the Pulhams is not over yet. Continue reading “F T Weekend Review – 14 July 12”
The Pulham Legacy 
