Using the Website

Welcome to the James Pulham Website.   James Pulham and Son were eminent landscape gardeners of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and are now most widely remembered for the spectacular rock gardens they created in many country estates around the United Kingdom, including the Royal Estates at Sandringham and Buckingham Palace, and the RHS Gardens Wisley.  

Rayne Thatch

This website is devoted to their lives and work, and the following headings will help you find your way around this Home Page quickly and easily.   Just click on the Section Heading boxes below to go immediately to the section in which you are particularly interested.   Click on the Menu Tabs in the left-hand Menu Frame – or at the top or bottom of each page – to transfer to another page of the website, and click in the Main Frame to scroll through your current page.

General Background Notes

Claude Hitching is currently researching the lives and work of the Pulhams with a view to producing a book about them.   His interest stems from the fact that no fewer than five of his ancestors – including his grandfather and great-grandfather – all used to work for them as ‘Rock Builders.’  

Wherever economically or practically possible, Pulhams would always, of choice, prefer to construct their rock gardens from natural stone, but, if this was not economically available, they would literally ‘build their own’ by making heaps of old bricks and rubble, and coating these with cement.   The craftsmanship of their workmen was based on their ability to sculpt the surfaces of these ‘rocks’ to simulate natural stone – hence their quite literal job description of ‘rock builder.’

Navigating the Website

This website is designed for an optimum Screen Area of 800 x 600 pixels, and incorporates a left-hand Menu Frame to enable you to move quickly from one section to another at the touch of a button.   Just click on the Menu Tabs, and your target page will be displayed immediately in the Main Frame, but remember to click within the Main Frame in order to scroll through it.

There are also Menu Tabs at the top and bottom of each Page of the Website, so you can also navigate quickly and easily between pages by staying in the Main Frame, and using these.   Just remember that, any time you use the Menu Frame menu tabs to move around, you will need to click back into the Main Frame to scroll through your chosen page.   

All the Menu Tabs will take you to the top of your target page.   If, when you have finished reading that page, you then want to return to the point you left in your previous page, you may find it more convenient to click on the 'Back' button on your Internet Menu.

Almost all pages contain a selection of ‘thumbnail’ illustrations, but large versions of these pictures are also available.   Just click on the ‘thumbnail’ version within the document, and a large picture - scaled to fit into a maximum frame size of 800 x 600 pixels - will appear in a new window.   If you wish, you can see a full-screen reproduction of the picture by pressing the 'F11' key, and you can then return to the point you left in the 'Main Frame' document by either Closing or Minimizing the Picture Window. You can see full-screen versions of the thumbnail pictures in the left-hand Menu Frame in the same way.

Section Contents

History

The ‘History‘ button will take you to a Page where you can read a brief history of the firm and its four generations of James Pulham, from its beginnings in the early 1800s to its demise c1940.

Portfolio

The ‘Portfolio‘ button will take you to a Page from which you can access any or all of the several articles that Claude Hitching has written for various special interest and national journals and magazines since he began his research in 2000.  

The ‘Front Page’ of this section contains brief summary notes on the subject matter of each article, together with a ‘thumbnail’ reproduction of the front cover of the publication in which the article appeared.   Click on the ‘thumbnail’ cover reproduction, and you will be taken to the article itself.   Each article is illustrated, and you can access full-screen versions of the pictures as described above.

Cuttings

This is similar to the ‘Portfolio’ Section, except that the articles reproduced here are by other authors – i.e., it is rather like a scrapbook of cuttings on the subject of James Pulham.

Where?

One question that crops up quite frequently is, ‘Is it still possible to see some of Pulham’s work, and, if so, where?’   Luckily, there are still a number of parks and gardens around the country where their rockwork, ferneries and terracotta garden furniture still survives in very good condition, although not all locations are open to the public.  

The list of sites in this Section is not completely exhaustive, but includes all those that will be discussed in the book that Claude is hoping to produce.   For ease of reference, they have been divided into ten separate areas - each of which has its own page, where they are listed in alphabetical sequence of county and town - and the note for each one provides a brief description of the main features, together with a note about its private or public status.   If it is open to the public, then its contact telephone number and website address is included to enable you to obtain further information.

Links

This is a normal ‘Links’ page that enables you to transfer to other sites of similar interest.   It contains links to National Organisation, such as English Heritage and The National Trust etc, as well as to an alphabetical list of the garden sites listed on the ‘Where?’ page that are open to the public.

Contact

One problem that has arisen from this research is that all the firm’s records were destroyed when they went out of business c1940.   Details of all their garden projects up to c1877 were listed in a promotional booklet published at that time, but our knowledge of the work they did after that date may well be incomplete, so, if you have any knowledge or information that may help to fill in the gaps, Claude will be delighted to hear from you.   Full contact details can be obtained by clicking on this ‘Contact‘ link, or on the Menu Tabs in the left-hand frame, or at the top or bottom of this Page.

Feedback

If you have found this site useful or of interest, why not let us have your feedback?   In fact, if there are things here that you don't like, or if there is something that you hoped to find but couldn't, your feedback would be even more useful!   It would also be extremely useful to discover whether or not you would be interested in buying the eventual book that is being written about James Pulham, because that will enable us to put you on our priority mailing list, and keep you in touch with progress or future plans and developments.   Many thanks in anticipation of your comments.

Site Map

This Map shows you how this website has been constructed, and provides a brief overview of all the Pages that are available for access.   You can also use the links here to go directly to any Page you choose.