Every month we feature two blogs written by volunteers, one describes an object in the Palace and one a plant from the Garden. It is a great way for us all to learn more about the Palace, if you would like to contribute there is no set format so please do send us your ideas!
221B Bishop's Avenue
Imagine if you will that Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson have recently installed themselves at 221B Bishop's Avenue (a.k.a. Fulham Palace) in order to solve a puzzle. Not a criminal puzzle, I hasten to add, but rather a historical, horticultural one. If you look at The History of the Garden section of the website, you will see that it is recorded that the very first Magnolia virginiana grown in Europe was raised here at Fulham Palace. A wonderful, and important, first. The question is, how do they know ? Hence the presence of Holmes and Watson (Inspector Dandelion and Sergeant Burdock being unavailable) to get to the bottom of this and other conundrums. The game is afoot!
The solution lies (as do so many other aspects of the garden at Fulham Palace) with Henry Compton who was the Bishop of London from 1685 to 1713. At around that time there was an explosion of interest in natural history and, not least, botany. Bishop Compton, along with other contemporaries, was in the vanguard of plant collectors growing and cataloguing plants, trees and shrubs from the New World. During his period of office, the see of the bishopric of London extended to North America. Compton made it his particular business to ensure that missionaries sent over to America were not only suitably qualified in their pastoral role but also knowledgeable botanists - the most notable example being the the Reverend John Banister who sent back to Fulham a stream of interesting and exotic specimens.
We (thanks to Holmes and Watson) know all this because of the records kept by Sir Hans Sloane of the Royal Society and other contemporaries such as James Petiver (who was the subject of a recent all day conference at the Linnean Society - the place where Darwin's theories on the origin of species were first subject to public debate). These historical records contain numerous instances of references to the garden at Fulham Palace and to specimens either first grown here or seen here but nowhere else in the UK.
In truth, the real detective work is to the credit of Head Gardener Lucy Hart with invaluable assistance from Dr Mark Spencer who, among his other claims to fame, is the Hon Curator of Plants at the Linnean Society itself. Visitors to the garden recently will have seen the current restoration work in progress. A key part of this restoration work (thanks to Lucy Hart's imaginative vision) is to reintroduce a number of specimens first introduced here during Bishop Compton's time - a genuine lasting legacy of a most important period in the history of British horticulture.
If you want to see living history, Fulham Palace garden is undoubtedly the place !
Jamie Atwell, Garden Volunteer and Head Gardener’s Admin Assistant
Please send your ideas for Object / Specimen of the Month blogs to rachel.bray@fulhampalace.org. If you would like some help, let us know.