Rosemary Verey

Rosemary Verey, (21 December 1918 in Chatham, Kent – 31 May 2001 in Cheltenham) was an English garden designer, lecturer and garden writer who designed the notable garden at Barnsley House, near Cirencester in Gloucestershire, England.

Life

Verey was born Rosemary Isabel Baird Sandilands and educated at Eversley School, Folkestone, and University College London. In 1939 she married David Verey, whose family owned Barnsley House, a Grade II* listed 17th-century house about north-east of Cirencester.

She was awarded the OBE in 1996, and in 1999 the Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH) from the Royal Horticultural Society, the highest accolade the Society can award.

Garden design Verey's most significant garden design was that for her own Barnsley House. In 1970, she opened the garden for one day to the public under the National Gardens Scheme; the garden's popularity was such that it would eventually open six days a week to accommodate 30,000 annual visitors.

In 1984, after her husband died, she began designing gardens for American and British clients. She helped plant and develop the gardens of Woodside, Elton John's estate in Berkshire, as well as Prince Charles' Highgrove House in Gloucestershire, and gardens for Princess Michael of Kent, the Marquess of Bute, and the New York Botanical Garden.

Verey took imposing elements from large public gardens and adapted them to scale for home use. Her laburnum walk in Barnsley House garden is an example of this technique, inspired by the large laburnum walk at the National Trust's Bodnant Garden in North Wales. Verey is also noted for reviving the fashion for ornamental kitchen gardens; that at Barnsley House was inspired by the garden at the Château de Villandry on the Loire in France.