'Known almost the world over’ as ‘Backhouse’s’ Professor Emerita Gillian Parker

Event details

The Sheldon Memorial Lecture - Spring 2024

In 1889, the report of a trip made by Manchester horticulturalists to the Backhouse Nursery in York implied that it was hardly less celebrated than Bolton Abbey and that its international reputation was assured. This lecture will outline the history of the nursery from 1815 to the 1920s and explore what led to its being ‘known almost the world over’, while it is now hardly known at all outside York. The Backhouses were an important Quaker family, various members of which were associated with the nursery. Discovering its history will help to relate the contributions of these men and women to horticulture, and to the wider economic and social life of York and beyond.