Description
by Alison M. Benton
An evocation of a bygone age in a family firm and garden history, this book traces the development of one family’s nursery firm from its smallest Victorian beginnings on the Surrey/Sussex borders to its preeminence nationwide in both the nursery world and garden design and landscaping by the early 20th century.
Written by one of the family, whose childhood was spent on Cheals Nurseries at Lowfield Heath, it offers a glimpse into the firm’s rise to horticultural excellence, and the men who made the firm.
The book focuses on the partnership of family directors and local staff on the Nurseries and in old Crawley and its surrounding villages, underpinned by the values of Ifield Quaker Meeting, in the days before the arrival of Crawley New Town to one side and Crawley New Town to the other. It describes just a few of the many gardens Cheals created over seventy-five years.
“Cbeals was a very important nursery, in the history of both topiary and of garden design … this book on Cheals is a most desirable publication and a significant contribution to the garden history of the 19th and 20th centuries. “
Dr Brent Elliott, Librarian, Royal Horticultural Society.
“I am sure this book will make a valuable contribution to the history of Quaker businesses, and to the understanding of their values. “
Adrian Cadbury, Solihull.
317 pages dozens of photographs, plans, advertisements and family trees
