HISTORY
THE GLYNDE SCHOOL
for Lady Gardeners A century ago, the prospect of middle-class women gardening was unconventional, but in the village of Glynde a quiet revolution was taking place, as Lindsey Tydeman from The Keep explains
T
he year is 1916, and Britain has been at war for two years. The ladies in this photograph (ref LUS/1/1/5/6) obviously feel as though they are contributing to the war effort, but the viewer could be forgiven for wondering how, exactly? The clues are in the trowel, forks, broom and spade. They are the students of Viscountess Frances Wolseley’s College for Lady Gardeners in the village of Glynde, near Lewes, and in 1916 the quasimilitary uniform was very much part of the job.
Viscountess Frances Wolseley, with George Funnel and John Levett (right), two men from the local lime pits, 1901 (ref LUS/1/1/5/2)
Frances Wolseley (18721936) was never a suffragette but neither did she pine for a husband and children. The gardening bug had taken hold in 1901, when her mother employed a female gardener and two students to work at ‘Farmhouse’, the house which the family were renting in Glynde after her father’s retirement from the army. Frances began supervising their work, and, a year later, issued the prospectus for the ‘The Glynde School for Lady Gardeners’. It was a bold step. The concept of a middle-class woman not only designing
January 2022 | SUSSEX LIVING 97
Jan 22 The Keep.indd 97
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