Winterbourne Botanic Garden is a heritage site and

botanic garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family a ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

, England. It is owned by the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

. The house was built as a family home for the Nettlefold family in 1904. The garden is a rare surviving example of an early 20th-century high status suburban "villa" garden,Birmingham Mail 16 July 2015
Birmingham town planner the man behind Winterbourne House inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement. The house and garden are open to the public all year round. The house features rooms displayed in

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

style, and temporary exhibitions. The site also has a tea room, gift shop, second-hand bookshop and printing press. Winterbourne offers a regular programme of craft and print workshops, talks and events. The Winterbourne Centre for Horticulture offers RHS accredited courses and supports horticultural traineeships. Winterbourne is open daily for a small charge, with hours varying between summer and winter. Staff and students at the University of Birmingham are entitled to free entry. It is a member of the

Historic Houses Association Historic Houses (formerly, and still for legal purposes, known as the Historic Houses Association or HHA) is a not-for-profit organisation that represents more than 1,650 privately owned historic country houses, castles and gardens throughout th ...

and

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

Partner Garden.

History

John Sutton Nettlefold and his wife Margaret (née Chamberlain) commissioned Winterbourne in 1903 as a family home. They engaged local architect Joseph Lancaster Ball to design and build the house, which was finished in 1904. The house was built from red brick in an Arts and Crafts style. The garden was largely designed by Margaret Nettlefold, who was heavily influenced by the garden designer Gertrude Jekyll. Winterbourne House, Edgbaston

In 1917, John moved away because of ill health, and two years later Margaret sold Winterbourne to the Wheelock family. The Wheelocks stayed at Winterbourne with their nine children until 1925, when local businessman John Nicolson bought the house. Nicolson was a passionate gardener and introduced several new features to the garden. The

inherited the house and garden from John Nicolson on his death in 1944. The house was then used as a hall of residence for female undergraduates. The garden was adopted as the university's botanic garden, and was used as a research garden for the Department of Botany. In the 1960s the house became the home of the university's Extramural Department, later renamed the School of Continuing Studies. By the 1990s it was being used for teaching and office space. In 2010, the newly restored house and garden were opened to the public as a heritage site. Winterbourne now welcomes around 70,000 visitors each year. It became an Arts Council accredited museum in 2017.

The house

Winterbourne House features many typical Arts and Crafts elements. The main rooms are south-facing and open off a wide hallway. Large windows maximise the available light. Mediaeval influences can be seen in the internal plasterwork, designed by local craftsman George Bankart, and the window furniture supplied by

Henry Hope & Sons Ltd Henry Hope & Sons Ltd were a major manufacturer of metal components, including steel and metal windows, roofing, gearing and decorative metal ironmongery (such as door furniture and lettering) based in Smethwick, West Midlands, UK. Founded in 18 ...

. The drawing room opens on to a wide terrace which links the house and garden. Most of the original features, including fireplaces and plasterwork, have remained intact, enabling the house to be effectively restored to something close to its original form. The rooms have been decorated in Arts and Crafts style using

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

design wallpapers and period furniture. At the end of the hallway is a full-length portrait of Margaret Nettlefold by

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

follower John Byam Liston Shaw, showing Margaret entering the house from the terrace. Visitors can explore the drawing room and study on the ground floor, and the nursery, two family bedrooms, the dressing room and the nurse's bedroom on the first floor. The kitchen and scullery are accessible from the garden. Winterbourne also mounts themed exhibitions in dedicated exhibition spaces. The Nettlefold family's industrial connections, particularly with Guest, Keen and Nettlefold (GKN), are reflected in the displays.

The garden

Winterbourne's seven-acre garden is Grade-II listed. Original Arts & Crafts features include the raised terrace, the broad curved stone steps leading to the lawn, the walled garden with its wavy 'crinkle-crankle' wall, the deep borders and the tunnel-shaped nut walk. The lean-to glasshouse in the walled garden is also original, as is the

pleached Pleaching or plashing is a technique of interweaving living and dead branches through a hedge creating a fence, hedge or lattices. Trees are planted in lines, and the branches are woven together to strengthen and fill any weak spots until the hedg ...

lime walk (recently replanted). The garden was embellished in the 1930s with a pergola and a Japanese bridge and tea house. The glasshouses contain collections of orchids, alpines, carnivorous plants and cacti. Other highlights are the sunken rock garden, the geographical beds, the woodland walk and the collection of ''Anthemis'', accredited with the

National Plant Collection The National Plant Collection scheme is the main conservation vehicle whereby the Plant Heritage charity (formerly the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens) can accomplish its mission: to conserve, grow, propagate, docume ...

scheme. Visitors to Winterbourne also enjoy access to Edgbaston Pool, a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The planting follows Arts and Crafts principles, with colour-themed borders influenced by Gertrude Jekyll. Winterbourne originally incorporated a small farm; the dairy house and coach house now serve as the gift shop and second-hand bookshop. The history of the garden is explored in a permanent exhibition in a former stable.

The Winterbourne Press

Winterbourne has a working collection of historic

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

es, dating from the early 19th century to the mid-20th century. These rare presses are regularly operated by skilled volunteers and the press is open daily. File:Winterbourne corridor 2016.jpg, Entrance corridor File:Winterbourne room 2016.jpg, Drawing room File:Winterbourne office 2016.jpg, Study File:Winterbourne main bedroom 2016.jpg, Main bedroom File:Winterbourne bedroom 2016.jpg, Single bedroom File:Winterbourne nursery 2016.jpg, Nursery

References

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