Inaugural Lecture, 24th January 2009

About seventy members and guests attended the Trust’s inaugural lecture given by Ben Viljoen on Humphry Repton and his work in Berkshire. The lecture was held in the Purley Manorial Barn and wine and light refreshments ensured a festive atmosphere for the event..Ben began by explainng  the history of the barn, the interior of which had been portrayed by Cecil Alden when the barn was used as a Remount Centre during the First World War. This picture is now in the Imperial war Museum.

Ben pointed out that Purley on Thames was a most appropriate location for the inaugural lecture as two of the great eighteenth century landscapists were associated with Purley: Charles Bridgeman who had drawn up a plan for Purley Hall and Humphry Repton who had prepared a Red Book for Purley Magna (also known as Purley Park). The barn was a particulalry suitable venue for a talk on Repton as it featured in one of Repton’s Red Books.

Ben explained that Repton often presented his proposals to client in books bound in red morocco leather. These books became known as the Repton Red Books although many of the earlier ones were in fact bound in brown calf. To illustrate his proposals, Repton included water coloured scenes with flaps that could be lifted to show the ‘before’ and ‘after’ views.

Having dealt with the early career of Repton, Ben then turned to the Berkshire properties with Reptonian connections. Bear Hill and Chilton Lodge only appear as engravings in Peacock’s Polite Repository, an almanac published annually with engravings of properties associated with Repton.  Holme Park, now the Blue Coat School in Sonning, was the subject of a Red Book commissioned by Richard Palmer in 1793. The other two Red Books that Repton did for Berkshire are Sunning Hill, commissioned by the banker, James Sibbald in 1790 and the Purley Red Book commissioned by Anthony Morris Storer in 1793 for Purley Magna, his newly-acquired Thames side property.

A common theme in both the Sunning Hill and Purley Red Books was the location of the house. In the case of Purley, Repton tried to persuade Storer to build his new house next to the old manor house house by the side of Thames and at Sunning Hill, Repton put forward arguments to relocate the main residence to a site with better views. In both cases his advice was ignored but one of his proposals for a lake at Sunning was carried out and in Purley the plans for the layout of farm buildings were implemented.

Other Berkshire properties that both appear in Peacock’s Polite Repository and are mentioned in books published by Repton or in his posthumously-published autobiographical memoir are: Maiden Early, Woodley Lodge, The Queens’ Lodge and Holly Grove (both in Windsor), Worfield Grove and St Leonard’s Hill.

In summing up the importance of Repton, Ben pointed out that unlike his predecessors, Repton had to marshal carefully-crafted arguments to persuade his money-conscious clients to carry out his recommendations and his Red Books with their ‘before’ and ‘after’ illustrations are a valuable resource that enable us to imagine gardens that no longer exist.