Gardeners - was there an apprenticeship ? (General)

by pojames , Friday, July 26, 2013, 12:44 (4140 days ago) @ slowhands

Many thanks to both Jefff and slowhands for your thorough replies re. gardening. Jefff's very much confirms what I suspected: that there would not much have been much of a market for 'big-house'-type gardening within the FOD, though there might have been not too far outside it.

I was curious because my great-grandfather Benjamin James seems to be described as a postman (Census 1851), before leaving the Forest and living in/near Westbury-on-Trym for several years. (Very grateful indeed to slowhands for digging out his marriage [1855] - and his eventual death [1900].) Two of his children were born there, too. (Presumably he was gaining experience / training as a 'proper' gardener ?)

By the time of the 1961 census he was working at Tidenham, and living only two doors and the church away from 'Pill House' - which (photos on web) looks a fairly impressive building. Pill House then and the next door house (also under the heading 'Pill House' in the transcript) were separate farm houses (farms recorded as 272 and 300 acres respectively), containing not only the farmers and assorted farm workers but servants, a 'companion' (two very small children in the family, so perhaps a nanny ?), and even a 'gentleman - visitor.' Next door on the other side lived an 'Attorney + Solicitor'. Plenty of scope for gardening between the three large properties, I would have thought - and maybe the house went with the job ?

Digression - Jefff asks about where I 'come from' - geographically the answer is 'very rural Yorkshire'; so I can vouch for the fact that farmers are the world's worst gardeners ! I'm fairly new to the FOD, though, and a novice at genealogical research, though I'm a historian by training and find it fascinating. Oddly enough I'd already settled on the very book you recommend for reading online; waiting for it to arrive at the moment. But have read a couple of autobiographical accounts of childhoods in the Forest, which I found very helpful. Haven't yet been on a trip down there, (still working, and time is always short) though intend to once I know what I want to see there. That seems to be rapidly crystallizing. And very grateful for the full and generous replies my queries seem to be getting - extremely helpful!

Back to gardening - by 1871 Benjamin is in Meopham, Kent , of all places, again as gardener; there are a couple of large houses down there, but his address is given as 'Camer', which seems to now be a country park - perhaps then with large house attached ? Must have been an attractive job for him to move with family right across the country.

1881 saw him back again, gardening in Cirencester (living in Sheep St, with no indication as to where he was employed).

By the time of the 1891 census he is off again, living at Rodborough Manor House, Glos, as Gardener/domestic servant, with a much younger under-gardener also living there; his wife is described as 'caretaker'. The three of them are the only occupants. Looking up Rodborough Manor, the house seems to have passed through various hands in the late 19thC before burning down in 1906 [later to be re-built] - by which time Benjamin had died. (See http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rodborough-near-Stroud-Manor-after-Fire-1906-by-H-J-Comley-/3... for the house after the fire.) But - see http://www.flickr.com/photos/archidave/501827658/ for the present truly amazing Arcadian garden !

Sorry - we've come some way from the FOD in the course of researching Benjamin James, so strictly speaking this is 'off topic' for the forum. But he was born there (Joyford 1833), and I think my original question about how a Forester might have become a gardener has been amply answered by your various kind replies. Many thanks !