Tracking the Use of Climbing Plants in the Urban Landscape through the Photoarchives of Two Oxford Colleges, 1861–1964

Abstract

This paper explores the historical appearance and use of climbing plants (ivy and creeper) at Trinity and Pembroke Colleges, University of Oxford, UK. Archival materials are used to present the evidence and establish an historical record of landscape change in the use of ivy and creeper in the built environment. The record from the Trinity College archive captures ivy or creeper between 1861 and 1964. Temporal trends convey increasing growth on some buildings, such as the Chapel. Four photographic albums were identified at Pembroke College that contain photographs dating between 1889 and 1964. Whereas climbing plants appear in photographs from the nineteenth century, around 1953 they were cleared from walls that served as backdrops for group photographs. There is, however, some indication that ivy- or creeper-clad building backdrops were favoured, perhaps suggesting a continued social preference for this visual aesthetic.

Key Words:

• Climbing plants, building management, plant management, ivy, rephotography, photo archives

Acknowledgements

I am particularly grateful to Archivists Clare Hopkins at Trinity College and Amanda Ingram at Pembroke College for help with my archival search. Gillman & Soame of Bicester provided reprinting permission for the photographs contained in Figure 1, and the author is very grateful to them. Richard Markham, Gardener at Pembroke College was also very helpful. Thanks also to Heather Viles, who encouraged my idea of an archival study addressing ivy and its historical appearance at Oxford colleges. The author acknowledges the dedication of the anonymous reviewers who made many improvements to the manuscript, including a notable expansion of the literature review. She is especially thankful for the enthusiasm of one of the (anonymous) reviewers, in particular, who recommended further research as a follow-up to this study.

Notes

According to the College website (http://www.trintity.ox.ac.uk/college/history/, accessed 18 October 2006), Trinity College's archive was established when the College was founded in 1555, and prints of buildings date from 1675. The College was built on the monastic foundation of Durham College, which had been used for study by Benedictine monks from 1286 to the time of the Reformation. The original buildings comprised a single quadrangle that included a hall, chapel, library and rooms; however, the only surviving building from Durham College is the Old Library (completed in 1421). The present Hall was built after 1618 and retains none of its original character (e.g. its ceiling and panelling are from the eighteenth century, with decoration from the late 1980s). The Front Quadrangle was created in the nineteenth century; and the seventeenth-century cottages (which had been private houses) were brought into the College, and since reconstructed in the 1960s. The Chapel was designed by Dean Aldrich with advice from Christopher Wren, and consecrated in 1694.

According to the College website (http://www.pmb.ox.ac.uk/College/Archives.php, accessed 18 October 2006), this archive provides various documents, including photographs, since the foundation of Pembroke College in 1624. Broadgates Hall, which was built in the fifteenth century and had provided accommodation for law students, was the predecessor to Pembroke College. Its only surviving part was used until 1848 when the Hall was built. The building of the Hall was completed in 1850, and there were active plans to refurbish it by 2010.

The selection of albums for this study is appropriate, since it has been used by other researchers for published studies. Rose (2000), for instance, based her study in the Print Room at the Victoria and Albert Museum of the Lady Hawarden collection, which is kept in two large red binders.

This postcard was printed by Henry Stone & Son (Printers) Ltd of Banbury, Oxon.

There is also an undated letter addressed to ‘Mr. Carter’ (also from the Garden Quadrangle, Landscape file, BF 15/7) that suggests that climbing roses (‘the red flowering, small leaf creeper name not known’) were being planted at some point with the yew trees flanking the gates. Additionally, this document suggests that a vine was planted in the Cumberbatch North Terrace.

Non-college (and some non-university) buildings also represented in this record include: Ashmolean Museum and St Mary the Virgin (1846–1874); Bodleian Library, Blenheim Palace (located north of Oxford) and Pitt Rivers Museum (1874–1887); Ashmolean Museum, St Mary the Virgin, Sheldonian Theatre, Clarendon Building and Bodleian Library (1887–1926); and St Mary the Virgin, Blenheim Palace and Sheldonian Theatre (1926–1998).

Key (1997) listed almost 50 cultivars of common ivy; Jane Marriot of Estates & Buildings identifies 11 separate species and over 280 cultivars of Hedera helix (webpage: http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/estates/Sustainability/Biodiversity/trees/ivy.html, accessed 18 October 2006).

Some buildings adorned by ivy or creeper today include Oxford University Press, Balliol College (west exterior wall), Exeter College and so on. Climbing plants, in addition to ivy or creeper, can comprise of wisteria and other flowering climbers, as evident for example at Jesus College.