If you were born in Britain, I expect privet hedges were very much part of your childhood. The garden design shown on p. 284 of Behind the Privet Hedge (Reaktion Books, Ltd, London, 2024) by Michael Gilson could be my father’s, with its cherry tree, apple trees, roses, delphiniums, phlox and dahlias – and the inevitable privet hedges on every side. The design was Richard Sudell’s and appeared in the Practical Home Gardening Illustrated (1949).
This fascinating biography tells the story of Richard Sudell (1892–1968), an almost forgotten founder of the British Institute of Landscape Architects (ILA) in 1929, and tireless advocate for the home garden, particularly in suburbia. Its account of the development of the gardening culture in Britain also sheds light on the politics of the years between the two world wars and the battle for a more egalitarian society.
Gilson is an award-winning editor and journalist, and Associate Fellow of the School of Media, Arts and Humanities, University of Sussex. Setting the scene, he travels to St Margaret’s Church Hall to see where one hundred years before, the Roehampton Estate Tenants’ Association (RETA) held its annual general meeting. The President of both RETA and the Roehampton Estate Garden Society (REGS) was Richard Sudell. REGS, formed in 1922, had gone through some financial difficulties, but by 1924, Sudell reported on the overall progress:
Who among us cannot recall the grim struggle of the early days of our tenancy among the wilds of this, our garden suburb. The ring of spade on brick, concrete and tin-can did reverberate across the road during the mellow evenings of early autumn of 1921…the net result was in front a jungle, in rear a howling wilderness, inside a very fed up and disillusioned householder. (Sudell’s editorial, Roehampton Estate Gazette, December 1924).
The residents of Roehampton were part of post-First World War social change in Britain. On Armistice Day, 11 November 1918, the Prime Minister, Lloyd George, promised that his government would ‘make Britain a fit country for heroes to live in’. This included developing garden cities. Roehampton was one of these – and how fortunate for the city to have the inspirational Sudell, a resident since 1921, involved in their community. Under his guiding hand, productive and beautiful gardens emerged from the rubble.
Born in a Quaker family near Preston in Lancashire, England, in 1892, Sudell left school aged 14 to become an apprentice gardener in Ashton-on-Ribble, Preston. For six years he worked for a wealthy mill owner and, in his spare time, studied at the Harris Institute in Preston, receiving Board of Education certifications in botany, chemistry and geology. From 1912 to 1914 he worked for a garden-contracting firm in Lancashire. He then relocated to London, having been appointed as a gardener at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Then war broke out and in 1916 the Military Service Act enforced conscription. Sudell registered as a conscientious objector, seeking sanctuary at Woodbrooke College, Birmingham, the Society of Friends’ study centre. It was there that he was arrested by police and taken away to face a tribunal – his next destination was Winson Green prison where he served one year’s hard labour. After this initial sentence, he served three more sentences because he continued defying the authorities, such was his faith and fundamental belief in socialism. As a conscientious objector, he was not alone – approximately 16,000 British men were on record as ‘conchies’ during the First World War.
But with so many men killed and so many badly wounded men were returning to Britain there was little sympathy in the general population for ‘conchies’. At the outbreak of the war, my father’s two older brothers enlisted (17 and 19 respectively) with the East Lancashire Regiment. Both were gassed. It was during this war that the Germans released clouds of poisonous chlorine, on the first occasion at Ypres in April 1915. My uncles weren’t killed but their health was so severely damaged that they both died in their forties.
At home, terrible poverty and starvation was stoking a groundswell for social change. After his first year’s imprisonment, Sudell started to work with the Vacant Land Cultivation Society (VLCS) to turn unused land into allotments for the poor. He was ideally suited to assist, taking on the role as an assistant superintendent, organising meetings of the allotment holders and giving all the horticultural advice required. His battles continued, however, as the authorities required him to reside at a Work Centre, in his eyes virtually another prison. He appealed to be allowed to live freely and continue his work with the VLCS, but the Home Office refused to let him. That was when he was imprisoned a second time and subsequently a third.
Eventually released from prison, Sudell continued his VLCS work on new allotment sites around London. By 1919 he had established his own practice as a horticultural consultant. His personal life was complex: two marriages, children and the revelation after his death by Ida, his second wife, that he was a homosexual. Sudell was the author of numerous books on gardening, including Landscape Gardening, published in 1933. From 1934 to 1939 he edited the ILA’s journal Landscape and Garden. He also served, among other positions, as editor of the garden section of the Daily Herald newspaper and as garden editor for Ideal Home magazine. He died in Kuwait on 18 November 1968 while seeking new work. A man of his time.
Available in Australia at: https://newsouthbooks.com.au/books/behind-the-privet-hedge/