The speaker for this month was Mr D. Cheston talking about Waddeston Mansion and gardens. He painted a nostalgic picture of life in a victorian garden between 1860 and 1922 where many people were employed to manage the vast estate, there being no mechanical machinery to do much of the work in those days.

The  land was purchased by Ferdenand Rothschild in the 1860s and with the building of Waddeston house the estate was bought in to existence. The mansion was built in the french style and stayed in the  Rothschilds family until 1957 when the National Trust took it over.

Mr Johnson was the head gardener having spent sixty years with the family and forty five of them at Waddeston. The family had a number of other houses in Europe and staff may have had a chance to work abroad for the same employer. Mr Cheston took us on a tour of the garden with the aid of slides of postcards dating back to this era.

The first position for a budding gardener was to be employed as an 'improver' where boys of twelve to fourteen years of age were given the job of watering plants. As there was no piped water this was a full time job and was not just a matter of carrying cans of water back and forwards, some of the more delicate flowers required wetting with small hand sprays at regular intervals throughout the day in hot weather. The enthusiastic improver then moved on to potting up. Our speaker, who worked there for two years remembered having to pot up seven hundred and fifty cyclamen plants in a day to be sent to Covent Garden for sale.

Like gardens today, compost was the secret to a good garden and the head gardener had  a pocket book of recipes that he had accumulated over the years for various situations and plants; Mr Cheston remembers the various items being added to the compost after the book had been consulted. The particular mixture would likely be something like six barrow loads of loam dug up from the fields, six loads of leaf mould, and some grit or silver sand, this was mixed with a small amount of fertiliser. It was used to pot up seedlings and other items to ensured good healthy plants.

The foreman had several staff under him until, eventually he  became 'Head Gardener'; this was the highest position and he was in charge of all the staff.

We were shown pictures of raised beds which were a feature of Waddeston, the beds were gently domed and planted to give a better display when in flower. These beds were a feature of the gardens fronting the mansion. 

The aviary contained parrots and was sited in the middle of a bed of flowers, the flowers had to be the same colour as the birds. There was also a Rockery Garden, and a Chestnut  Avenue. The two acres of greenhouses contained orchids, lilies, and many exotic species of plants. The fruit houses contained grapes, figs and peaches. The estate also had a dutch garden, an herbaceous border, a kitchen garden, and a rose garden.

Mr Cheston was thanked by the Chairman for his very interesting  talk which must have left many members eager to visit Waddeston house and garden.

Keith Pearce gave out 'chitted' potatoes  for the potato competition in the Autumn show. 

A visit is planned to Nymans on June 10^th. The plant sale is on the 20^th May at 10 am at the URC Hall. The next meeting is on 8^th May when Jill Fry from Thursley will give a talk on 'Flowers of the Chalk Downs'.  The meetings start at 7.45 pm and new members are welcome.