The Nesfield Family Archive

The Garden Museum is acquiring an extensive collection documenting the UK’s iconic landscapes and gardens.

The Nesfield archive contains materials belonging to landscape architect William Andrews Nesfield (1793–1881) and his sons Arthur Markham and William Eden Nesfield, who together designed more than 250 landscapes. They were known for their formal style, incorporating complex parterres, grand fountains and intricate statuary.

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Recording lost gardens

The collection comprises over 700 design sketches and plans, 900 watercolours, sketches and studies and 100 other items including notebooks and papers.

Many of the Nesfields’ gardens have long ago vanished or changed beyond recognition. As a result, this archive is the best surviving record of hundreds of important gardens across the UK

Simon Thurley, Chair of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, said: “We are delighted to support the Garden Museum’s acquisition of the Nesfield Archive. The Nesfield family were some of the UK’s most eminent landscape architects and the acquisition of their family archive will give many more people the opportunity to discover the origins of some of the UK’s most famous landscapes – elements of which can still be seen today.