Totley Hall Rock Garden
Totley Hall rock garden
We are extremely grateful to Mrs. Annie Charlesworth for sending us six glass transparencies of the rock gardens at Totley Hall taken, we believe, in the early years following the Great War.
The transparencies belonged to Miss Mary Milner who was the only daughter of William Alfred (Billy) Milner and his wife Beatrice Ronksley, and granddaughter of William Aldam Milner. Mary never married and Mrs. Charlesworth became Executor to her will as a result of a long standing friendship between the two families. The transparencies were rediscovered recently when Mrs. Charlesworth was turning out drawers during the lockdown.
We have rather crudely re-photographed the transparencies using a tablet computer as a lightbox. The photographs have not been enhanced except for a little sharpening. Colours in glass transparencies are said to fade very badly over time but we think you will agree that the colours in these photographs are still bright and cheerful. graph
From the photograph below, it appears that the rock garden was in front of the hall, towards what is now the corner of Totley Hall Lane and Totley Hall Croft. The awning covering a seated area is similar to that in a postcard in our collection by Robert Sneath.
William Aldam Milner was a keen gardener and horticulturalist and President of the Dore, Totley and Holmesfield Agricultural and Horticultural Society. Under his care, Totley Hall gardens became a well known beauty spot that attracted many hundreds of visitors from Sheffield on open days. The rock gardens had became a popular feature before the turn of the century with their masses of purple and crimson aubretias clinging to the rocks. With the assistance of his knowledgeable head gardener, Thomas William Birkinshaw, William assembled an impressive collection of plants including several specimens from the Himalayas and the Alpine edelweiss (Leontopodium nivale) which he found difficult to grow because of Derbyshire's wet winters.
William was known especially for his love of daffodils, over 250 varieties of which were grown at Totley Hall. By 1896 William had raised a pale dwarf form suitable for his rock garden which he named W.P. Milner after his father William Pashley Milner (1806-1898). Early flowering, it grows to 6 inches (15 cms) in height. The solitary flowers have pale yellow-cream outer perianth segments and near-white trumpets. It proved to be a sensation and is still highly popular and can be purchased from the Royal Horticultural Society Plant Shop and elsewhere.
September 2020
