'A Veritable Eden'. The Manchester Botanic Garden: A History

by Ann Brooks

Overview

The Manchester Botanical and Horticultural Society was founded in 1827 to allow members the opportunity to study botany and horticulture and to create an ambience "not unlike a fashionable resort". Today the Garden is all but forgotten and only the former entrance gates and a street name remain. This book, illustrated with many contemporary engravings and postcards, charts the history of the Garden; its international reputation in horticultural developments and many floral triumphs; its recurrent financial crises and ultimate degeneration into a venue for dog shows and conversion to a doomed amusement park.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781905119370
Publisher:	Windgather Press
Publication date:	05/04/2011
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.50(d)

Table of Contents

1. Manchester, 1822

2. Gardening in Manchester 1790–1887

3. A Botanic Garden for Manchester

4. The Membership ‘Individuals of the highest respectability’

5. Creating the Garden

6. The Glasshouses ‘Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too.’

7. Staffing the Garden

8. ‘It is not a church, not a palazzo, not a chateau’ 1839–1854

9. ‘Art Triumphed over Nature’ 1857

10. ‘… The Darkness Before the Dawn’ 1858–1865

11. ‘The Genius Behind the Machine’ 1865–1887

12. ‘Our Poverty and not our Will Consented’ 1889–1894

13. Struggling On 1895–1907

14. Conclusion

Appendix 1. Occupational Analysis of the membership

Appendix 2. The Herbarium of the Manchester Botanical and Horticultural Society

Editorial Reviews

Excellently researched and clearly written by Ann Brooks, it is a story worth telling, and an important book for future generations who might wonder about that rather splendid entrance.'

Gardens and People - Bella D'Arcy

... a great reference for those interested in Manchester and its history or the development of Botanic Gardens more generally.'

thinkinGardens - Carl Legge

Heavily illustrated with maps, period photographs, as well as postcards, this is an excellent case study for examination by professionals and public leaders.'

Chicago Botanic Garden, 2011 - Marilyn K. Alaimo