Annie's Arboretum

Annie's Arboretum in 1910

Annie's Arboretum was an arboretum in Batheaston near the English city of Bath . It was located at Eagle House , a refuge for suffragettes , and was built by suffragettes between 1909 and 1912. It was named after Annie Kenney (1879-1953), a well-known suffragette and co-founder of the militant women's rights organization Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). In the 1960s it was destroyed all but one tree when a housing estate was built.

History of origin

Col. Linley Blathwayt, self-portrait (1911)

Eagle House , around 1890

In the small town of Batheaston a few kilometers east of Bath, an estate called Eagle House not only served as a regular meeting place for the women of the WSPU, but also developed into an important refuge and retreat for the suffragettes from 1909 onwards.

Owner of the estate, which included a large estate, was Colonel Linley Blathwayt (1839-1919). His wife Emily Blathwayt (1852–1940) was a leading figure in the WSPU, to which their daughter Mary (1879–1961) also belonged. The entire Blathwayt family was progressive and supported the struggle for women's suffrage . Linley Blathwayt had a summer house built on the property especially for those suffragettes who had just been released from prison, where they could recover from weeks or months in prison, hunger strikes and force-feeding. Eagle House was therefore also known as Suffragette's Rest or Suffragette's Retreat .

Linley Blathwayt also provided the suffragettes with a meadow plot of land on the slope next to Eagle House, where a small, tree-lined park was to be created as a place of recreation and commemoration of their courageous efforts. As a name for the new arboretum, Blathwayt chose not the name of his daughter, but named it after the suffragette Annie Kenney, who was good friends with the family and went in and out of the Blathwayts' house.

Every guest suffragette who came to Eagle House was asked to plant an evergreen tree in Annie's arboretum . On April 23, 1909, Annie Kenney, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Lady Constance Lytton and Clara Codd planted the first trees. The rule here was that the militant suffragettes who had been in prison were restricted to the large species of conifers , while the non- militant women only planted holly bushes. The newly planted wood was given a white sign on which the type of wood and the name of the suffragette were indicated. Circular beds with flowering perennials were created around the trees. The women usually planted their trees together and then posed in festive attire, with their WSPU badges and pins of honor, umbrellas and a spade in hand for the photos with which Colonel Blathwayt documented each event for posterity.

Between April 1909 and March 1912, 68 women, including leading suffragettes such as Emmeline Pankhurst and Christabel Pankhurst , Charlotte Despard and Millicent Fawcett , planted just as many evergreen trees and holly on the approximately two acres (8094 m²) site .

Destruction and aftermath

Helen Watts planting her juniper, March 17, 1911

Helen Watts is the only suffragette known to later return to Annie's Arboretum. She visited the property in 1962 at the age of 81, and using Linley Blathwayt's photos, she managed to find her juniper again. She told a newspaper that she had kept a branch of her tree in her wallet for 50 years and always carried it with her.

After Mary Blathwayt's death in June 1961, the entire property was sold. The listed Eagle House was divided into several residential units. The cultural and historical value of the associated property with Annie's Arboretum was not recognized at that time, and the competent authority did not raise any objection to the clearing of the wooded stock on the garden property, which had meanwhile been overgrown. A new housing estate called Eagle Park was built there in the late 1960s . Only one tree, the Austrian black pine planted by Rose Lamartine Yates on October 30, 1909 after her one month imprisonment , has been preserved and now towers over the residential area. Most of the white labels on the trees were lost; a few are owned by the Roman Baths Museum in Bath, while others are privately owned.

For International Women's Day on March 8, 2011, three trees were planted as replacements at various locations in Bath to commemorate the lost memorial trees. This was made possible by a previous fundraising process.

In the summer of 2018, by accident, herbaria leaves more than 100 years old with pressed branches from five trees from Annie's Arboretum were discovered in the archives of the University of East Anglia . The branches come from the trees planted by Annie Kenney, Lady Constance Lytton and Christabel Pankhurst. They came into the possession of the Archives in 1994 when the Annie Kenneys family donated them to the university. Specialists from Kew Gardens in London were brought in for advice to ensure the branches could be prepared and preserved.

The University of East Anglia announced in September 2018 that it intends to produce an online anthology with the participation of writers and schoolchildren and students from Norfolk on the life stories of the women who lost their memorial trees in Annie's Arboretum.

The suffragettes and their trees

Mary Blathwayt with Vera Holme , Jessie and Annie Kenney, 1909

Rose Lamartine Yates (right) planting her Austrian pine; it is the only tree that still exists today

Jennie and Kitty Kenney, Florence Haig, Marion Wallace-Dunlop, Mary Blathwayt and Annie Kenney

Edith Wheelwright and Lilias Ashworth Hallett, 1911

The online archive of the organization Bath in Time contains numerous historical photos of Annie's Arboretum, which show the women doing the planting and care work, impressions of the entire complex or individual trees with their signs and beds. These pictures by Linley Blathwayt are preserved on valuable glass negatives .

The following assignments could be made using the Blathwayt photos and other sources:

Laura Ainsworth (1885-1958) planted a blue-green cultivar of Lawson's cypress ( Cupressus lawsoniana 'Wisselii' ) on April 30, 1911 .
Lady Elizabeth Betty Balfour (1867–1942) planted a cultivated form of the European holly ( Ilex aquifolium 'Scotch Gold Holly' ) on February 11, 1910 .
Georgina A. Brackenbury (1865–1949) planted a yellow Monterey cypress ( Cupressus macrocarpa 'Lutea' ) on July 22, 1909 .
Marie Brackenbury (1866-1950) planted a cultivated form of Lawson's cypress ( Cupressus lawsoniana 'Filifera' ) on July 22, 1909 .
Millicent Browne (1881–1975) planted a variegated variety of European holly ( Ilex aquifolium 'Argentea Marginata' ) on July 4, 1909 .
Florence Canning († 1914) planted a yellow-leaved variety of Lawson's cypress ( Cupressus lawsoniana 'Aureo-Variegata' ) on April 25, 1909 .
Clara Codd (1877–1971) planted a columnar yew on April 25, 1909 ( Taxus baccata 'Fastigiata' ).
Nellie Crocker (1872–1962) planted a magnificent fir tree ( Abies magnifica ) on February 7, 1911 .
Charlotte Despard (1844–1939) planted a variegated species of European holly ( Ilex aquifolium 'Argentea Medio-Picta' ) on January 17, 1911 .
Una Dugdale (1879–1975) planted a Chilean araucaria on February 7, 1911 ( Araucaria imbricata ).
Millicent Fawcett (1847–1929) planted a large-fruited variety of European holly ( Ilex aquifolium 'Macrocarpa' ) on July 3, 1910 .
Theresa Garnett (1888–1966) planted a gold yew on November 7, 1909 ( Taxus baccata 'Elegantissima' ).
Margaret Hewitt planted a white-margined variety of the European holly ( Ilex aquifolium 'Albo Marginata' ) on October 3, 1909 .
Vera Holme (1881–1969) planted a variegated variety of European holly ( Ilex aquifolium 'Aurea Marginata' ) on May 9, 1909 .
Elsie Howey (1884–1963) planted a Nordmann fir ( Abies nordmanniana ) on May 2, 1909 .
Maud Joachim (1869–1947) planted a Hiba tree of life ( Thujopsis dolabrata ) on June 17, 1910 .
Winifred Jones († 1955) planted a Colorado fir ( Abies concolor ) on July 2, 1911 .
Gladice Keevil (1884-1959) planted on 4 November 1910, the blue spruce species Picea pungens 'Kosteriana'
Annie Kenney (1879–1953) planted a silvery cultivated form of the false cypress ( Cupressus lawsoniana 'Silver Queen' ) on April 23, 1909 .
Caroline “Kitty” Kenney (1880–1952) planted a variegated variety of European holly ( Ilex aquifolium 'Aurea Picta Crispa' ) on August 25, 1910 .
Jessica "Jessie" Kenney (1887–1985) planted a maned juniper ( Juniperus virginiana 'Pendula' ) on May 9, 1909
Aeta Lamb (1886–1928) planted a columnar yew on April 16, 1911 ( Taxus baccata 'Fastigiata' ).
Lady Constance Lytton (1869–1923) planted a blue cypress ( Chamaecyparis alumii ) on April 23, 1909 .
Charlotte Marsh (1887–1961) planted a spruce ( Picea polita ) on March 5, 1911 .
Clara Mordan (1844–1915) planted a variegated variety of European holly on February 27, 1910 ( Ilex aquifolium ( English small leaved silver holly ) ).
Marie Naylor (1850–1940) planted a rocky mountain fir on April 9, 1910 ( Abies subalpina ).
Adela Pankhurst (1885–1961) planted a yellow Himalayan cedar ( Cedrus deodara 'Aurea' ) on July 3, 1910 .
Christabel Pankhurst (1880–1958) planted a Lebanon cedar ( Cedrus libani ) on November 6, 1910 .
Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) planted a Himalayan cedar ( Cedrus deodora ) on April 16, 1910 .
Alice Perkins (1865–1948) planted a variegated variety of European holly ( Ilex aquifolium 'Aurea Regina' ) on September 4, 1910 .
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence (1867–1954) planted a giant tree of life ( Thuja lobbii ) on April 23, 1909 .
Mary Phillips planted a blue spruce ( Picea pungens 'Glauca' ) on July 4, 1909 .
Katherine Douglas Smith planted a mountain Douglas fir ( Pseudotsuga menziesii 'Glauca' ) on February 18, 1910 .
Marion Wallace-Dunlop (1865–1942) planted a mountain hemlock on June 11, 1910 ( Tsuga mertensiana ).
Helen Kirkpatrick Watts (1881–1972) planted a common juniper ( Juniperus communis ) on March 17, 1911 .
Vera Wentworth (1890–1957) planted a Nootka cypress on July 4, 1909 ( Chamaecyparis nootkatensis ).
Edith Wheelwright (1868–1949) planted the holly variety Ilex aquifolium 'Handsworthensis' on October 10, 1910 .
Lillian Dove Willcox (1875–1963) planted a Caucasian spruce ( Picea orientalis ) in 1910 .
Rose Lamartine Yates (1875–1954) planted an Austrian black pine ( Pinus nigra nigra ) on October 30, 1909 .

literature

Cynthia Imogen Hammond: Architects, Angels, Activists and the City of Bath, 1765-1965: Engaging with Women's Spatial Interventions in Buildings and Landscape . Ashgate Publishing, Farnham 2012, ISBN 978-1-4094-0043-1 (English).