>MerielGJones at 10:43, 23 January 2021

2021-01-23T10:43:39Z

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{{short description|Landscape architect}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Brenda Colvin
|image =
|caption =
|birth_name = Brenda Gwyneth Stewart Colvin
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1897|6|8|df=yes}}
|birth_place = [[Shimla|Simla]], [[British India]]
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1981|1|27|1897|6|8|df=yes}}
|death_place = [[Witney]], [[Oxfordshire]], England
|other_names =
|known_for =
|occupation = [[landscape architect]]
|nationality = United Kingdom
}}
'''Brenda Colvin''' [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]] (1897–1981) was a British [[landscape architect]], author of standard works in the field and a force behind its professionalisation. She was part of the [[Colvin family]], which had long ties to the [[British Raj]].

==Biography==
Colvin was born in India where her father, Sir Elliot Graham Colvin, was a senior administrator in [[Kashmir]] and [[Rajputana]]. (His father, [[John Russell Colvin]] (1807 – 1857), was lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces during the [[Indian Mutiny]], at the height of which he died.)

Colvin received her training in [[garden design]] from [[Madeline Agar]] at [[Swanley Horticultural College]]<ref>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/46400?docPos=4 Brenda Colvin at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]</ref> (now [[Hadlow College]], which continues to teach [[University of Greenwich]] courses in the subject). Agar and Colvin worked together on [[Wimbledon Common]].<ref>[http://www.gardenvisit.com/garden/wimbledon_common Garden Visits page]</ref> Colvin set up her own practice in 1922; not until 1969 was she joined by [[Hal Moggridge]] as partner; the firm continues under their joint names.<ref>[http://www.colmog.co.uk/people/#brenda_colvin Colvin & Moggridge page]</ref>

Colvin co-founded the Institute of Landscape Architects in 1929 (later the [[Landscape Institute]]), and became its president in 1951.<ref>[http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/people-and-places/womens-history/registered-parks-gardens/brenda-colvin/ English Heritage page]</ref> She wrote ''Land and Landscape'' (1947, revised 1970). Colvin shared an office with [[Sylvia Crowe]], later also president of the ILA (1957–1959).

Colvin designed many gardens, e.g. with the socialite [[Norah Lindsay]] at [[Sutton Courtenay#Manor houses and rectory|the Manor House in Sutton Courtenay]], and at [[Burwarton]].<ref>[http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/people-and-places/womens-history/registered-parks-gardens/brenda-colvin/ English Heritage page]</ref> She also worked on industrial landscaping, e.g. around power stations, and the [[University of East Anglia]]. One of her most historically significant garden designs still remains at [[Aberystwyth University]] which is now listed,<ref>http://orapweb.rcahms.gov.uk/coflein//C/CPG164.pdf</ref> the listing states "''The landscaping of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth campuses, particularly the earlier Penglais campus, is of exceptional historic interest as one of the most important modern landscaping schemes in Wales...One section of the Penglais campus was designed by the well known landscape architect Brenda Colvin and is one of the very few of her schemes to have survived. A number of women have played a key role in the development and planting of the whole site.''"

Her own garden was at Filkins in the [[Cotswolds]] in [[Gloucestershire]], now the office of Colvin and Moggridge. Sometimes the company opens it via the [[National Gardens Scheme]].

==Partial list of listed gardens==
*Steeple Manor, [[Steeple, Dorset]] (1924, GII)<ref name=NHLEStp>{{NHLE|num=1400620|desc=Steeple Manor|access-date=6 December 2017|mode=cs2}}</ref>
*[[Sutton Courtenay Manor]], [[Sutton Courtenay]], Oxfordshire (1948-51, c.1960 GII)<ref>{{NHLE|num=1001107|desc=Sutton Courtenay|access-date=7 December 2017|mode=cs2}}</ref>
*Morgans Junior School, Hertford, Hertfordshire (1948-49, GII*)<ref name=NHLEMor>{{NHLE|num=1119734|desc=Morgans Junior School|access-date=6 December 2017|mode=cs2}}</ref>
*[[Salisbury Crematorium]], Salisbury, Wiltshire (1956-58, GII)<ref>{{NHLE|num=1410977|desc=Salisbury Crematorium|access-date=6 December 2017|mode=cs2}}</ref>

== Written work ==
* ''Trees for Town and Country'', written with Jacqueline Tyrwhitt. London : [[Lund Humphries]], 1947.
* ''Land and Landscape''. London: [[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]], 1948.
* ''Wonder in a World''. London: The [[Cygnet Press]], 1977.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Gibson, Trish. ''Brenda Colvin: A Career in Landscape''

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colvin, Brenda}}
[[Category:1897 births]]
[[Category:1981 deaths]]
[[Category:Colvin family|Brenda]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:English horticulturists]]
[[Category:English gardeners]]
[[Category:English landscape architects]]
[[Category:English garden writers]]

Brenda Colvin - Revision history

>MerielGJones at 10:43, 23 January 2021