If you have Neighbour from Bucks or elsewhere in your family tree, you ought to be very green fingered. A large number of them worked as gardeners both domestic and market. The subject of our list today is Marlow's William Neighbour, head gardener at both Court Garden and Harleyford (Medmenham) in the 1860s and early 1870s.
There were more than one William Neighbour in Marlow at the time. The subject of our post is William, born 1834, the son of John Neighbour the gardener living at Potlands/West Street. William is the brother of Alfred Edmund Neighbour, inn keeper who featured in a post here .
Young William (and at least three of his brothers) would follow in his father's footsteps. He grew up in an area of Marlow populated by domestic and market gardeners and their staff. His dad worked for a time as the head gardener of the nearby Remnantz estate in West Street, which occupied around 12 acres including a meadow. Young boys wanting to start in the trade usually did so by the age of 14, if not before. It's possible that William had a position under his father at Remnantz but it seems more usual for the sons of head gardeners (or garden foreman as they were sometimes known) to get their basic training in a different garden. It was an era where the heads of a large team did not need to get their hands quite literally dirty but the most junior member "the boy" most certainly did. Washing out the clay plant pots between uses, filling the water "pots" (water cans), damping down the glass house floors, and the endless sifting and mixing of compost to strict recipes were a few of their tasks. Although some gardeners moved up into a higher position within the team on the estate they started out on, most seem to move on when they are ready for a new level of responsibility. In his leisure hours we know that William the boy liked to go "bird nesting" around Bovingdon Green and Chisbridge. This means collecting birds eggs and nests, then a common hobby and a legal one at the time. We know this as William happened to mention it when describing his familiarity with certain Clayton owned areas of land during an 1885 court case relating to the removal of hedging and fences in which he was purely a witness. You never know from which unlikely source the personal nuggets about an old Marlovian may come!
Wherever William started out, by the time he was 27 he was working as a gardener at Court Garden in Marlow. The grounds of this are now Higginson Park and Court Garden Leisure centre. He may or may not have assumed the head position straight away, but he certainly had this role by 1863. He was accompanied by wife Emma and their little daughter. William's employer Frederick William Berger was at this time president of the Great Marlow Horticultural Society - an organisation that has had many incarnations. As such the 1864 Horticultural Society show was held within the then private riverside grounds of Court Garden. Berger opened up his gardens as a whole to the curious (or at least those able to pay the entry fee!) Did host gardener William enter any of the classes? Absolutely, and he came away with a few prizes too.
Berger seemed to spare no expense with his garden. His pride and joy was the magnificent 75ft long "orchard house" and it was William that was credited with making it a horticultural marvel within the trade. An orchard house is a glass house that is designed to house fruit trees, usually dwarf cultivars. The climate can be more carefully managed, as can pests in an enclosed environment. This allowed the trees to produce fruit earlier in the season safe from the damage frost might bring to their blossoms, and ripen earlier too. Berger was the one to erect the building at Court Garden, to his own design. Sadly no trace of it remains. 13 ft high at the apex, and 30 foot wide, it housed 144 dwarf trees - mainly apples, peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries and plums - plus traditional greenhouse borders used to grow things such as lettuce and other "saladings". The trees were planted in 13-16" pots to restrict their roots and therefore their growth. This mean they were technically always under stress and needed very careful feeding and watering. William developed this system to a fine art and managed to get the sort of crops expected from full size trees from his dwarf ones. Not to mention some pretty impressive fruit - apples 1lb in weight for example. The downside was that William said the orchard house took at least an hour to water every morning and in the summer would need top up watering. And the gardeners still had the other greenhouses to attend too! Nevertheless William's fruit growing skill meant that representatives of the national horticultural societies and journals (there was a LOT of Victorian garden newspapers) came to see the orchard house and the "very intelligent" Mr Neighbour. He also experimented with growing miniature versions of cabbages and cauliflowers. And flowers were not neglected. William bagged prizes for petunias, roses and asters locally to name but a few. .
The market for celebrated head gardeners was a competitive one and he was poached by the nearby Sir William Clayton of Harleyford in 1866. The Harleyford estate was a step up in size compared to Court Garden. Clayton was also interested in his new head gardener entering and winning horticultural shows both local and in London. But he was also interested in technology and so around the time William arrived, a telegraph system was installed around the estate. This allowed Clayton to communicate with his gardeners, the coach man, lodge keepers and gamekeeper from his study. There were 6 circuits in all, with three miles of underground copper wires "laid by plow". An extension to the system was described as imminent in 1867. William was also responsible for maintaining the hedges and the management of trees at Harleyford. As the foreman of the garden team, he had a lot of responsibility. He still found time to exhibit at the Royal Botanic garden in 1872 where his azaleas were regarded as the star attraction bar none.
William remained at Harleyford until 1874. I have not traced him to another garden at this point. But by 1881 he had moved out of our area to set up as a market gardener at Grange House, Top Locks, Southall. (1891 Norwood, 1901 Manor Farm, Southall) This was a common path for gardens to take moving from domestic service to running their own market garden, nursery or seed merchants. There were other Neighbours working in similar fields in the general area and it was a location full of market gardens and nursery grounds. At the time of the 1891 census, the half brother of William, 25 year old John is staying there. Occupation? Market gardeners assistant of course!
There is a sadder end to Williams usual tale of success. In 1906 the Ealing Gazette and other papers carried adverts for an auction of all of his commercial equipment plus household effects due to the fact William was "in distress of rent" and had other debts. They really did sell off everything from the carpets and kitchen utensils to the night commodes and bed linen. The commercial part included two market carts, a manure cart, a cob, a number of rabbits, and the crops from 12 acres of orchard as well as some vegetables and flowers, mainly carnations. The following year William died. I am sure his passing was mourned by many lovers of fine fruit and flowers.
Related posts:
People of Potland's - about the area of Marlow William grew up in and his dad John: here
Where your gardener ancestor worked: here
Scandal involving a previous gardener at Court Garden: here
General posts about every day life in old Great Marlow: here
To find every mention of an individual or family here see the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. It currently lists 4,300+ individuals about whom we have some info on the blog.