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English gardener and landscape architect From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Haverfield (1744–1820) was an English gardener and landscape architect.[1][2]
He was born at Haverfield House on Kew Green, the son of John Haverfield (1694–1784) and Ann Drew. His father, a surveyor at Twickenham, was Head Gardener at Kew to Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales, and superintendent of the Royal Gardens at Richmond Lodge. Haverfield was trained as a gardener and from 1762 was his father's assistant.
When his father died in 1784 John took over his father's position at Kew Gardens, but only for a few years, by which time he had developed his own landscape gardening business.[3][4] In July 1794 the Kew kitchen garden was closed and John resigned. In September he was placed on a Bounty List with a £250pa pension.[5]
In 1769 he met Augusta's nephew, Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, who was the same age, who took him to Gotha. There, near the castle, he laid out a garden based on the ideas of Lancelot Capability Brown, which is one of the first English landscape gardens on the continent.[6] In 1790 John designed the landscape for Chiselhampton House.[7]
He was also involved in other garden projects and played a key role in the construction of Walsingham Abbey Park, Walsingham, from 1804 to 1816. John remodelled the gardens at Pitzhanger Manor for Sir John Soane, creating a curving ‘serpentine’ lane, a rustic bridge, and a plantation. He also worked on Tyringham House in Buckinghamshire which Soane had designed. Haverfield also visited other Soane schemes: Hinton Saint George (1796), Bentley Priory (1798), Ramsey Abbey (1804), Moggerhanger House (1809 & 1810).[7]
In 1783 Haverfield and Robert Tunstall (c 1759–1833), his brother-in-law, applied and obtained an Act of Parliament to rebuild Kew Bridge in stone to replace the wooden bridge.[8]
In 1773 he married married Elizabeth Tunstall (1756–1819), daughter of Robert Tunstall (d 1762). The Tunstall family came from Brentford and had operated a horse-ferry since 1659.[9] Her father had built the first wooden Kew Bridge in 1758-1759.[10] Their children were
Haverfield retired in 1795. He died in April 1820 and was buried at St Anne's Church, Kew, on 25 April 1820, in the family tomb.[16]
Gotha Palace Park (from 1769).[6]
Walpole Park, Pitshanger Manor, Ealing.[18][7]
Abbey Park, Walsingham.[19]
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