Thomas Mawson - Extraordinary Gardens and Landscapes


T. H. Mawson (1861-1933) was a British garden designer, landscape architect, and town planner.   On the 5th May 2021 we celebrated the 160th anniversary of his birth.    

Early in his working life, Thomas  Hayton Mawson moved to Windermere to set up a nursery business following a keen interest in gardening.   Lakeland Nurseries was a venture with his two brothers to explore garden design.

During his illustrious career he created some wonderful gardens in the Lake District and Cumbria.   The design practice prospered.   Wealthy clients, who came to the area when the railway network began its development 1847, bought into the idea of blending their gardens with the landscape.

The gardens designed in Cumbria included those at Graythwaite Hall, Langdale Chase (now a hotel), Holehird, Brockhole, Holker Hall and Rydal Hall.


Thomas Hayton Mawson

Thomas Mawson published "The Art and Craft of Garden Making" in 1900 and four further editions up to and including 1926.   They are now regarded as the foundation of modern landscape architecture.     His reputation grew with many commissions throughout the world including the Peace gardens at the Hague in 1908 and the development of the Smokey Mountains National Park in the U.S.A.  

He developed an interest in town planning and public parks and became president of the Town and Planning Institute in 1923.    Thomas Mawson also became the first president of the Institute of Landscape Architects.

Notable designs included Calgary Town Plan, Stanley Park's Lost Lagoon and Coal Harbour in Vancouver, the University of Saskatchewan Campus, Niagara Falls Victoria Park, (all in Canada), and the city plan for Athens, Greece.   However, he still found time to design in the U.K. examples Barrow Park in Cumbria, Weston Super Mare, Somerset and in my home town Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.

This year, the 40th anniversary of the Society of Garden Designers (SGD), is a cause for celebration.   Much has changed since Thomas Mawson designed his first garden in 1896, Graythwaite Hall Gardens, near Hawkshead, Cumbria.

Today we have a preference for lifestyle gardens.    Locally sourced natural materials are being used for hard landscaping.    Wildflowers, perennials and grasses are the basic ingredients of most designer's repertoire - the classics such as roses, dahlias and lavender have never gone out of fashion and shrubs still have a place.

Would Thomas Mawson have approved of today's designs?   I believe he would.   He had a talent for blending architecture, garden design and planting so creating a multinational enterprise in the area.     

To read more about this extraordinary man Janet Weymark published a comprehensive biography in 2009 "Thomas Mawson - Life, Gardens and Landscapes".

Thomas Mawson died on the 4th November 1933 and is buried in Bowness on Windermere Cemetery in Glebe Road, Bowness on Windermere, Cumbria.  

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