Brenda Colvin

Brenda Colvin CBE (1897–1981) was a British landscape architect, author of landmark works in the field such as Land and Landscape. She was a force behind the professionalisation of landscape design and co-founded the Institute of Landscape Architects. She was part of the Colvin family, which had long ties to the British Raj.

Biography Colvin was born in 1897 in India where her father, Sir Elliot Graham Colvin, was a senior administrator in Kashmir and Rajputana. In 1919, Colvin began training in garden design from Madeline Agar at Swanley Horticultural College (now Hadlow College). Agar and Colvin worked together on Wimbledon Common.

Colvin set up her own practice in 1922, which is now the longest running in Britain. In the early years of her career, she worked mainly on private gardens and designed nearly 300, including one at the Manor House in Sutton Courtenay, former home of the socialite Norah Lindsay, and one at Burwarton.

Colvin wrote Trees for Town and Country in 1947 with Jacqueline Tyrwhitt. Her book Land and Landscape (1948, revised 1970) was developed from notes of lectures she had given for the Architectural Association.

In the 1960s Colvin shared an office with Sylvia Crowe, later also president of the ILA (1957–1959). In 1945, immediately after the end of World War II, Colvin offered a room in her Baker Street offices to Crowe from which Crowe could resume a career in private practice.

Colvin also worked on industrial landscaping, siting factories and reservoirs, New Towns, and created landscapes around the Drakelow C Power Station and the University of East Anglia. the listing states:

Later Years In 1969, Hal Moggridge joined Colvin's landscape design firm as partner; the firm continues today under their joint names. Colvin was awarded a CBE award as part of the New Years Honours in 1973. She continued her landscape practice into her eighties.

Legacy alt=Image of a cluster of light pink blossoms on dark green leaves from the 'Brenda Colvin' rose varietal. Her own garden was at Filkins in the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, and is now the office of Colvin and Moggridge. Sometimes the company opens it via the National Garden Scheme.

In 1970, Colvin bred a rose varietal named 'Brenda Colvin'. The blooms are light pink and have a strong fragrance.

In 2022, Luca Csepely-Knorr led a UKRI-funded research project called 'Women of the Welfare Landscape' which explored Colvin's work and network. Sutton Courtenay Manor, Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire (1948–1951, 1960, grade II) Morgans Junior School, Hertford, Hertfordshire (1948–1949, grade II*) Salisbury Crematorium, Salisbury, Wiltshire (1956–1958, grade II)

Written work Trees for Town and Country, written with Jacqueline Tyrwhitt. London : Lund Humphries, 1947. Land and Landscape. London: John Murray, 1948. Wonder in a World. London: The Cygnet Press, 1977.