Museum

Gertrude Jekyll ~ Old West

Loan Box

Contents:

1. and Old West Surrey ...... p 1 - 2

2. Notes on the objects in the box ...... p 3 - 5

3. Places to visit ...... p 6 - 7

1. Gertrude Jekyll and Old West Surrey

Gertrude Jekyll (pronounced to rhyme with treacle) was born in 1843 in London but

moved to Bramley at the age of five. The youngest daughter in a wealthy family, she

was educated at home, developing a great love of west Surrey and a fascination with its

landscape, architecture and people. As a young woman, Gertrude Jekyll trained as an

artist and she moved in intellectual and artistic circles. Her family left Bramley to live

in Berkshire, but on the death of her father, Gertrude and her mother returned to west

Surrey, to Munstead. Here Gertrude Jekyll developed the garden which was to become

so well known and commissioned a young architect, , to build Munstead

Wood. She had a long and successful career as a garden designer and author. She died

at Munstead in 1932 and her grave stone in churchyard, designed by Sir

Edwin Lutyens, is engraved “artist, gardener, craftswoman”.

In 1904 Gertrude Jekyll published a fascinating study of the local area, called “Old

West Surrey”. It was the result of years of research, much of it ahead of its time,

including interviews with older residents, records of dialect words and local sayings and

the collection and detailed investigation of a wide range of objects. The book is very

well illustrated with photographs taken by Miss Jekyll herself (she had a dark room to

develop the photographs at ).

Old West Surrey begins with Gertrude Jekyll’s motivation for writing the book:

1

“So many and so great have been the changes within the last half-century that I have thought it desirable to note, while it may yet be done, what I can remember of the ways and lives and habitations of the older people of the working class of the country I have lived in almost continuously ever since I was a young child.”

It is a highly readable book, though naturally written for adults. Children might particularly enjoy p 180 – 183, where Gertrude Jekyll copies out an autobiography written by an elderly friend: “it was all written in capital letters with a dot carefully put between each word. For all its odd childishness there was something about it that seemed to give so pleasant an idea of the simple happiness and contentment of rural life in the early nineteenth century”. Gertrude Jekyll describes samplers (p95 – 99) the work children did on the farms (p184), their behaviour and games (p184) and how they were dressed (p 199 – 200). Chapter 18 is all about smugglers.

This loan box contains a copy of Old West Surrey, a copy of the Shire book about

Gertrude Jekyll, a booklet “Lutyens in Waverley” and a selection of objects similar to those featured in Old West Surrey.

PLEASE HANDLE THE OBJECTS WITH CARE – THEY ARE ALL

MUSEUM PIECES AND OF GREAT HISTORICAL VALUE – THANK YOU

2

2. Notes on the objects in the Box

The Mousetrap ~ “Home made mouse traps were in general use”

Gertrude Jekyll illustrates three different hand made mouse traps on p56 of Old West

Surrey. You might also like to look at her pictures of, and notes on, a rick-settle

(p21) and a granary (p29), both raised on pillars with “rat-proof caps of stone or

oak” and the granary with a hole in the door for the cat.

OBJECT OLD WEST SURREY PAGE REFERENCE Mouse trap p 56

Lighting ~ “Procuring and maintaining artificial light”

Gertrude Jekyll, writing in 1904, says “In these days of cheap matches and lamps for

mineral oil, one can hardly realise the troubles and difficulties in the way of procuring

and maintaining artificial light for the long dark mornings and evenings of nearly half

the year, that prevailed among the cottage folk not a hundred years ago.”

People who lived in the town of Godalming had had gas lights since 1830 and electric

light briefly in 1881 and then from 1902. However Miss Jekyll was writing about

people who lived in the surrounding villages and in the countryside, who did not have

access to the same services (in some cases until after the Second World War).

Nowadays all we have to do is flick a switch!

Gertrude Jekyll describes the process of making rush-lights, quoting the 90 year old

lady she had interviewed who remembered her mother preparing the rushes. She

describes how to use a flint and steel to “strike a light” and reports what an elderly

friend has told her about what makes the best tinder. You can see from the wear on

the steel in this box how much use it has had.

Please don’t use this flint and tinder to try to get a spark! These are museum objects

and will not survive this without damage. The little clockwork toy in the loan box

demonstrates the principle – steel points rub against the silica coated sand paper and

strike sparks. The toy will run around the floor if wound up and let go, or you can

hold it by the handle and let it spin around. A cigarette lighter works in the same

way.

3

Note the slider on the side of the kitchen candlestick, so that every last piece of the candle can be used.

OBJECT OLD WEST SURREY PAGE REFERENCE Rush light and candle holder p80 - 85 Tinder box (containing flint, steel, damper and p85 – 86 tinder) “Strike a light” toy Candle stick p88 – 91 Snuffers and tray p91

Leather harvest bottle ~ “The mower’s drinks were many and his wholesome drink was much”

Gertrude Jekyll describes how the mowers bringing in the harvest began work at daylight and had five meal breaks. By Gertrude Jekyll’s time, their beer or cider was carried in wooden harvest barrels but she also describes and illustrates the earlier leather harvest bottles, like the one in this box, which dated back to Tudor or

Jacobean days. She explains that some of these have survived because they were subsequently used to hold cart grease so that the leather became saturated with grease and wood tar. To turn the leather bottles into grease holders, a square was cut out of one side, and this has been done to the example in the box.

OBJECT OLD WEST SURREY PAGE REFERENCE Leather harvest bottle p146 – 150

Steel-yard ~ “Every farm had its steel-yard, the usual appliance for weighing”

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS OBJECT, WITH A HEAVY WEIGHT AND

SHARP POINTS TO THE HOOKS. USE IT WITH CARE, PERHAPS JUST TO DEMONSTRATE, AND

NEVER WITHOUT CLOSE SUPERVISION. I have included it because of the opportunities it offers for weighing and measuring and because it is a reminder that farming has always been a business as well as a way of life.

Gertrude Jekyll gives a clear description of how the steel-yard was used.

4

a. Suspend the yard by the single hook above the pointer (shaped like a club in a

pack of cards). The steel-yard is intended to weigh heavy items and is no

light weight itself – you will need a strong suspension point.

Originally there were two of these hooks, one over each pointer, enabling the

steel-yard to be used both ways up, accommodating a wider range of

weights, however this example has lost one of these hooks so can only be used

one way up.

b. Attach the item to be weighed to the double hooks (Gertrude Jekyll shows a

sack of potatoes, suspended by the rope tying up the neck)

c. Attach the weight to the small hook on the bar. The bar has a scale marked

on it (though it is hard to see under the rust)

OBJECT OLD WEST SURREY PAGE REFERENCE Steel-yard and detachable weight p155 – 156

5

3. Places to visit:

Godalming Museum: to see paintings by Gertrude Jekyll and examples of her

craftwork. The museum garden follows Gertrude Jekyll’s design for a border in a

garden in Bramley. You can also see the banner for the Godalming Branch of the

National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, designed by Miss Jekyll who was Vice

President of the branch. Memorabilia on display includes Gertrude Jekyll’s gardening

boots and her garden fork. You can also see examples of the work of her friends and

contemporaries, Mary Watts and Helen Allingham. Examples of many of the types of

object illustrated in Old West Surrey (from a wooden grave board to a man trap) are

on display.

The museum’s local studies library (open afternoons only) houses Gertrude Jekyll’s

original planting notebooks, copies of many of her garden designs, and a wide range of

books by and about her.

Entry: free

Open: Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm (4 pm in winter)

Contact: 01483 426 510 or [email protected]

Oakhurst Cottage: a National Trust property in Hambledon which is an example of the

kind of home Gertrude Jekyll describes in Old West Surrey

Entry: £2.50 - £3.00 (child), £5.00 - £6.00 (adult) (2016 prices)

Open: April – Oct. Pre-booking is essential, due to the small size of the cottage.

Contact: 01483 208936 or [email protected]

Guildford Museum: which houses Miss Jekyll’s collection, which she donated to the

Surrey Archaeological Society in 1907.

2019 note: Guildford Museum is undergoing redevelopment – so contact them before

visiting to check the collection Is on display

Entry: Free Open: Mondays to Saturdays, 11am - 5pm. Last entry 4.45pm. Contact: 01483 444751 or [email protected].

6

Busbridge Churchyard: to see Gertrude Jekyll’s grave, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens

Munstead Wood: Lutyens in Waverley p6-7 gives a plan of Munstead Wood and the surrounding area and suggests a route for a short walk. Munstead Wood itself is a private house but the owner takes a great interest in its heritage and with gardener

Annabel Watts, has restored much of Gertrude Jekyll’s garden. Guided tours of the garden can be arranged.

Entry: £10

Open: by arrangement

Contact: [email protected]

Godalming High Street: chapter 16 of Old West Surrey (p222 – 233) describes

Godalming as Gertrude Jekyll remembered it as a child and as she knew it in 1904.

Miss Jekyll had an enlightened view of heritage, believing that “the possession of beautiful old houses, and of buildings not perhaps beautiful, but of distinct architectural interest, is an important asset, even from a commercial point of view, of such a town as Godalming” (OWS p226). She supported campaigns, led by her friend and colleague, Arts and Crafts architect Hugh Thackeray Turner, to save the

Pepperpot (Godalming’s Old Town Hall) and Eashing Bridge. It is interesting to compare her description and photographs of the High Street with how it appears today. A tour of the High Street can be arranged through Godalming Museum

Phillips Memorial Cloister and Park: Gertrude Jekyll was a prominent member of the committee to create a memorial to local hero Jack Phillips, the chief wireless operator on the Titanic. The committee commissioned Hugh Thackaray Turner to create a memorial cloister, inspired by the architecture of West Surrey farm buildings, and Miss

Jekyll designed the planting and laid out the surrounding grounds. In 2012, Waverley

Borough Council restored the memorial with funding from the National Lottery and the Arts and Crafts Society of West Surrey published a book of essays describing its history and significance, edited by Sarah Sullivan (you can buy this in the museum shop or read it in the local studies library). In the museum you can see film of the opening of the memorial in 1914 (and just about make out Miss Jekyll among the dignitaries at the ceremony).

7