Henry Avray Tipping
Henry Avray Tipping | |
---|---|
Versailles, France | |
Died | 16 November 1933 | (aged 78)
Nationality | British |
Known for | Writer, garden designer, architectural editor of Country Life |
Henry Avray Tipping FSA (22 August 1855 – 16 November 1933) was a French-born British writer on country houses and gardens, a garden designer, and Architectural Editor of Country Life magazine for 17 years.
Early life
Tipping was born in the Château de
Henry Avray Tipping was educated in France and Middlesex before reading modern history at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was a member of the Oxford University Dramatic Society.[1] He worked briefly as a university lecturer before joining the staff of the Dictionary of National Biography, where he concentrated on genealogical research.[2] He also wrote musical comedies, performed locally in Kent, and became an expert on wood carving, particularly the work of Grinling Gibbons.[1]
Career
However, his main interest was gardening and garden design. In the 1880s, he lived at The Quarry, a house at Brasted (built on the Brasted Place estate for him as a bachelor house in 1874) where he designed his first garden. The house is built of
Tipping later moved to a cottage at Ramsbury in Wiltshire in 1890.[1] He also began writing articles for The Garden, a magazine which had been founded by William Robinson in 1871; and between 1904 and 1909 he also edited the three-volume work In English Homes, a largely photographic survey of English domestic architecture.[1] After The Garden became absorbed by Country Life in 1905, Tipping became one of Country Life's principal contributors.[2][3]
In 1907 he was appointed as the magazine's Architectural Editor, and became recognised as one of the leading authorities on the history, architecture, furnishings and gardens of country houses in Britain.[4] In 1910 Sir Lawrence Weaver became Architectural Editor, allowing Tipping time to write his books. However, in 1916 during the First World War, Weaver was appointed as a civil servant, with Tipping taking back the role of Architectural Editor, which he held until his retirement in 1930. Thereafter he continued as an architectural writer for the magazine until his death.
He also worked as a garden designer in the
In 1894 he bought
After inheriting a large fortune upon the deaths of both his brother and mother in 1911, he let (and later sold) Mathern Palace, and bought land at Mounton, again near Chepstow. The following year he commissioned from local architect Eric Francis – the son of George Carwardine Francis – an ambitious new house, Mounton House, above a small limestone gorge where Tipping designed his own formal gardens.[1][6] He also planned the gardens at Wyndcliffe Court, St Arvans, near Chepstow, a new house designed by Francis for the Clay family who owned the Piercefield estate.[1]
In 1922 Tipping bought land from the
In 1927, he became a member of the first committee of the Gardens of England and Wales Scheme, later known as the
Death
Before his death, Tipping instructed his friend and head gardener, Walter Wood, to whom he left most of his fortune, to destroy all his papers. Only a single year's diary survived.[1][7] He died of cancer on 16 November 1933, at Harefield House, at the age of 78.[2]
Writings
His books included:[1]
- Grinling Gibbons and the Woodwork of his Age (1914)
- The Story of the Royal Welch Fusiliers (1915)
- English Homes: architecture from Medieval times to the early part of the nineteenth century (1920–28)
- English Gardens (1925)
- Old English Furniture (1928)
- Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire: A Historical & Descriptive Survey by the Late Marquis Curzon of Kedleston, K.G. and H. Avray Tipping, Curzon and H. Avray Tipping, , 1929, Jonathan Cape, London, (Finished by Henry Avray Tipping after Curzon's death)[8]
- The Garden of Today (1933)
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7112-3223-5.
- ^ a b c d H. Gerrish, 'The Life of H. Avray Tipping', in Bulletin of the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust; No. 53 (Winter 2008/09), pp.6–7
- ^ A Biography of H Avray Tipping at www.gardenvisit.com
- ^ a b Avray Tipping Archived 4 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine at www.gardenhistoryinstitute.co.uk
- ISBN 0-9520009-4-6.
- ISBN 0-906134-37-4, p.96
- ^ Anna Pavord, Turning leaves: The best gardening books of the year, The Independent, 3 December 2011. Accessed 24 April 2012
- ^ Marquess George Nathaniel Curzon Curzon of Kedleston and Henry Avray Tipping Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire: A Historical & Descriptive Survey by the Late Marquis Curzon of Kedleston, K.G. and H. Avray Tipping (1929) at Google Books
External links
- Lane Fox, Robin. The Tipping point, An inspiration behind country living: Henry Avray Tipping had firm views on gardening and architectural style. London: The Financial Times. Retrieved 11 November 2011.