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The Twyn yr Hydd grounds include a walled garden designed by Ralph Hancock who also designed the roof garden at the Rockefeller Center in New York and the Derry and Toms Roofs Gardens in Kensington, London.
Much of what is known about Ralph was uncovered by the students at Neath Port Talbot College. Their hope is to raise the profile of Ralph Hancock as one of the leading designers and contributors to the arts and crafts style of gardening in the United Kingdom.
"It is my experience that a man's love for his garden is so near to his heart that he is ever mindful of it." Ralph Hancock, 1935.
Clarence Henry Ralph Hancock (Ralph) was born in Albany Road, Cardiff in 1893. Sadly, we know very little about Ralph’s early life. In 1917, Ralph married Hilda Ellis at All Saints' Church in Penarth. The Hancock's two sons were both born in Penarth. At the time of their birth, records show Ralph's occupation as being a Marine and General Insurance Broker working from James Street, Cardiff.
What prompted Ralph's change of career is unknown but in 1926 he paid his membership fees and became a Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society. The following year, the family moved to Surrey. It was from here in 1927 that Ralph undertook the first of his more famous garden projects; designing and constructing a rock and water garden and also an iris garden for HRH Princess Victoria, (Edward VII's daughter) at her home in Buckinghamshire. The garden was something that Ralph was immensely proud of and one that HRH also seems to have appreciated. Hancock refers to “a little diamond and sapphire tie pin” presented to him by HRH which he describes as one of his most treasured possessions.
On 31st of May 1930, Ralph set sail for New York. In order to promote his work in the US, he published an illustrated booklet entitled “English Gardens in America” and described himself as being “Landscape Gardener to HRH the Princess Victoria of England”.
The promotional booklet must have worked as Hancock went on to design an exhibition garden at Erie Station in New Jersey. He also staged exhibits at the Massachusetts Horticulture Show where he won several awards including in 1933 the President's Cup. He was one of the designers of the Lydia Duff Gray Hubbard garden in New Jersey which now forms part of the Garden Club of America Collection.
Between 1933 and 1935, Hancock was to embark on the construction of one of his most ambitious projects, a series of roof gardens called the “Gardens of Nations” on the eleventh floor of the Rockefeller Center in New York. Hancocks “Gardens of the Nations” were a staggeringly ambitious project designed to reflect the cultural styles of gardens from Holland, France, Spain, Italy, Japan and England. Each of these gardens was to also have its own hostess dressed in themed costume.
The logistics in constructing this kind of garden are breathtaking. 3,000 tons of earth, 500 tons of brick, 100 tons of natural stone had to be hauled up via the service elevator. Some of the 2,000 trees and shrubs proved to be too tall to fit in the elevator. These were hauled up the side of the building to the eleventh floor using a block and tackle. Hancock was confident that what he had created would allow numerous opportunities for other similar gardens in the US. Throughout the project, Ralph was in regular correspondence with both John D. and Nelson Rockefeller. As well as designing and building the gardens, Hancock ran what we now refer to as ‘garden tourism’ by charging a dollar a visit for what was known as the “Sky Garden Tour”. Sadly, the enterprise did not prove to be profitable and was losing around $45,000 a year. By 1938, the attraction had closed.
The gardens at the Rockefeller were visited by Trevor Bowen, the managing director of Barkers who had taken over Derry and Toms in Kensington, London. Bowen liked what he saw and employed Hancock to create a similar effect in the heart of London. Again, the logistics involved in the construction are impressive. On opening, the gardens contained over five hundred different varieties of trees and shrubs.
In common with the gardens at the Rockefeller, the gardens at Derry and Toms had an international flavour and featured Spanish, Tudor and English woodland gardens. The gardens were completed in 1938 at a cost of £25,000. This must have been a particularly busy time for Ralph as he was also winning Gold Medals for his display gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show.
That same year, Hancock also found time to publish a book called “When I Make a Garden”. Ralph continued to be a very successful exhibitor at Chelsea , winning gold medals in 1936, 1937 and 1938. His 1938 Chelsea garden was particularly popular. A review in Amateur Gardening comments that ”Mr Ralph Hancock had one of the most ambitious schemes in the garden avenue; a model of an old mill cottage, complete with millstream and sunken garden, the whole construction being carried out in a most realistic manner. It was a centre of attraction throughout the show.”
As well as work on the book and constructing gardens at Chelsea, Ralph also exhibited gardens at the Ideal Home exhibition in 1936, 1937 and 1938. Each of the Ideal Homes gardens was required to conform to a theme. The theme for the 1938 show was “Novelist and their Gardens” for which the designers had to take as inspiration your favourite living author. Ralph chose as his inspiration Rafael Sabatini. Sabatini is famous for his tales of high adventure such as Scaramouche, Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk, all of which have been made into films. Captain Blood was produced in 1935 and gave a young Errol Flynn with his first ever Hollywood starring role.
In 1939 Ralph won a silver cup at Chelsea for a Formal Mediterranean Garden. Eighteen months after the Ideal Home Exhibition, Britain was at war.
Like many families in Great Britain, Ralph was not to be immune to the tragedies of war. Second Lieutenant Dennis Hancock lost his life in November 1941 at the battle of Sidi Rezegah in North Africa. Another casualty of war was the roof garden at Derry and Toms. The roof garden would be rebuilt but the death of their youngest son hit Ralph and Hilda hard. After the war, Ralph worked with Bramley as Ralph Hancock and Son. There was the construction of the gardens of Peace at Temple Newsam in Leeds. In 1947, Chelsea restarted and Ralph returned with a rock garden, a formal garden and also had an exhibit shown in the garden designers' section. It was at one of these post-war Chelsea shows that Sir David Evans-Bevan commissioned Ralph to build the gardens at Twyn yr Hydd. They are probably the last gardens that Ralph was involved with before his death in 1950. It is perhaps fitting that they are in Wales, the land of his birth and are now used by students studying horticulture - something I’m sure he would have approved of.
