FOLAR
Friends of the Landscape Archive at Reading

Women In Landscape

20C Women in Landscape Design

Although perhaps uniquely the profession of landscape architecture has enjoyed an equal balance of male and female members, the lives, work and records of women members, however, has been less equally represented. FOLAR's ongoing talk series, some, like this one, with the Gardens Trust, has endeavoured to correct this imbalance. This particular group of six - Susan Jellicoe, Sheila Haywood, Brenda Colvin, Mary Mitchell, Marjory Allen and Marian Thompson - comprise some of the earliest pioneers in the profession who contributed to the expertise, development and awareness of the landscape profession in many different ways. It also includes two women from later generations, invariably inspired by the work of earlier designers, and their contemporaries, and who went on to lay down their own paths. We will never run out of valuable candidates for this ongoing series of talks.

The speakers we invited to share their knowledge about these remarkable women - Sally Ingram, Paula Laycock, Hal Moggridge, Joy Burgess, Wendy Titman and Bruce Thompson - have each known, worked with or researched into one of these six women.

3 Sheila Haywood - Cambridge

Sheila Haywood (1911-1993) studied at the Architectural Association in London from 1929-1934 during a period of intense student activism and change in the architectural profession. She did not become as well-known as some of her contemporaries. However, she played a significant role in the development of the profession of landscape architecture, as is reflected in her achievements.

But it was her role as Assistant to Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe from 1939-1949 that was pivotal to her career, and which saw her interest transferring from buildings to the setting of the buildings themselves. While her work in the extractive industries would be a mainstay of her career, she also ventured into other areas, including as Landscape Consultant for Bracknell New Town (1950-1974).

This talk focuses on Haywood’s work in Cambridge, first on the New Addenbrooke’s Hospital Site (1958-1962), then on the landscape of Churchill College (1959-1974), and finally as Landscape Consultant for Wolfson College, Cambridge (1974-1980).

PAULA LAYCOCK is a By-Fellow of Churchill College where she has worked for the past 36 years, for the main part as College Registrar, and in more recent years, in the Churchill Archives Centre where she carries out oral history interviews - https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/fellows/paula-laycock-2/. However, it was in the College’s own archives that Paula first came across Haywood’s 1959 landscape drawings for the College. Her interest in Haywood’s work and subsequent research resulted in the publication of a guide to the College’s grounds and gardens (2019) - https://shop.chu.cam.ac.uk/products/churchill-college-garden-guide, and then to a detailed exploration of their development from 1959 to the present day, now recorded in her book Portrait of a Landscape (2022) - https://shop.chu.cam.ac.uk/products/portrait-of-a-landscape. While Paula also produced an online biography of Sheila Haywood in 2016 - https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Biography_of_Sheila_Haywood.pdf, she has recently completed work on a detailed biography entitled Sheila Haywood: A Life in Landscape, with a view to publication in 2026.

MORE INFORMATION

Contact The MERL for additional information on and by Sheila Haywood in the Institute Journals, membership files etc. merl@reading.ac.uk or telephone +44 (0) 118 378 8660

The Landscape Institute collection at MERL: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/collections/landscape-institute/

More information about FOLAR and joining: https://www.folar.uk

Speaker: Paula Laycock

22 January 2025 online

Annabel DownsComment