Tag: Pulham bridge

1889 – ‘Piggots Manor’, Letchmore Heath, Hertfordshire

SM 47 – Apr 15

Mr George Villies purchased ‘Piggots Manor’ in 1884, demolished the small house, and constructed the mock-Tudor building that still stands in its place.   George Harrison, the ‘Quiet Beatle’, purchased it in 1973, and presented it as a gift to ISKCON – the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. [i]   They renamed the property ‘Bhaktivedanta Manor’, after the Society’s founder, and it continues to serve as the Society’s Headquarters in Britain. Continue reading “1889 – ‘Piggots Manor’, Letchmore Heath, Hertfordshire” →

1880 – St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin

SM 29 – Oct 13

James Pulham and Son only worked on a small number of sites outside mainland Britain, and only four of these were in Eire – St Anne’s, Clonart; Mount Coote, Limerick; Glenart Castle, Co Wicklow, and St Stephen’s Green, in Dublin, which is the best preserved, and the subject of this article.  Continue reading “1880 – St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin” →

1873-80 – Park Hill, Streatham, London

SM 14 – Jul 12

‘Park Hill Mansion’ was one of several very large properties situated on Streatham Common North, in southeast London.   They were once the homes and estates of some very wealthy people – providing, as they did, a commanding view over Streatham, and to the heights of Wimbledon and the Surrey Hills beyond. Continue reading “1873-80 – Park Hill, Streatham, London” →

1891-94 – Gisselfeld, Denmark

SM 12 – May 12

The first indication that Pulhams may have worked in Europe was contained in a book by Annie Christensen, and reviewed by Peter Hayden.[i]   She recorded that the firm may have been involved in the construction of a bridge and some rockwork in the grounds of Gisselfeld Castle, in Denmark, and that the likely date was c.1894.   Continue reading “1891-94 – Gisselfeld, Denmark” →

1871 – High Leigh, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire

SM 08 – Jan 12

High Leigh, on the outskirts of Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, is only just over a mile from the Pulham Manufactory in Broxbourne.   The owner was Robert Barclay, a member of the famous banking dynasty.   Over the generations, his ancestors had married into a number of other banking families, and Robert was responsible for merging twenty banks into Barclay and Company Ltd. [i]   He would almost certainly have known James 2 personally, because his family had been leading members of the Quaker fraternity for many years – as, I am sure, were the Pulhams – and they probably attended the same Friends Meeting House in Hoddesdon. Continue reading “1871 – High Leigh, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire” →

1909 – Ardross Castle, Alness, Ross-shire

SM 07 – Dec 11

James Pulham and Son did not create very many gardens in Scotland, but one in which they were involved was right up in the north-east – at Ardross Castle, in Alness, Ross-shire.   At the beginning of the 20th century, Ardross Castle was the summer retreat of Charles Dyson Perrins, Director of the family firm of Lee and Perrins, makers of the famous Worcestershire Sauce.   Perrins’ main home was in Malvern, Worcestershire, where he engaged James 3 to landscape his gardens c1901-05 – see ‘Site of the Month’ #28 for September 2013 – with one of its most striking features being a Pulhamite-lined tunnel – complete with a liberal scattering of ‘stalactites’ – that ran beneath a road that separated two parts of the garden.   Continue reading “1909 – Ardross Castle, Alness, Ross-shire” →

1871 – Titsey Place, Oxted, Surrey

SM 06 – Nov 11

Granville W.G. Leveson Gower – an amateur historian, archaeologist and antiquarian – inherited ‘Titsey Place’, near Oxted, Surrey, during the late 19th century, and laid out the framework of the gardens, ‘joining the lakes together, and giving the lakes more of a “naturalistic” shape.’ [i]   The lakes are fed from a chalybeate spring that bubbles up from under a rock in the middle of the gardens, and flows through a stream into the top lake, and then tumbles over a waterfall, under a stone bridge, and into the lower lake.  Continue reading “1871 – Titsey Place, Oxted, Surrey” →

1898-99 – Sunningdale Park, Ascot, Berkshire

SM 03 – Aug 11

Sunningdale Park is situated in what once used to be part of Windsor Great Park, and still contains a Spanish Chestnut tree – with a girth in excess of twenty feet! – that dates back to the time of Henry VIII.   James Wyatt built the first house at Sunningdale in 1785, and, over the years, this was rebuilt and enlarged by its successive owners until Major William James Joicey – of the Northern mining family – bought it in 1890. Continue reading “1898-99 – Sunningdale Park, Ascot, Berkshire” →