move to wavertree
Summary
The rapid spread of the buildings in the neighbourhood of the Gardens and the impact from the smoke and general pollution arising from them, made a move to another place inevitable.
The meeting in January 1831 agreed on this removal, again to a space in the countryside.
By April 1831 they had purchased 6 acres on the south side of Edge Lane about half a mile beyond Edge Hill church. The new garden, was four times as large as the garden at Mount Pleasant.
Over the nest 5 years they moved EVERY tree and plant to the new garden and it was officially opened in 1836.
Funding Issues
Between 1802 and 1807 the number of shares available was extended to 375; but these funds proved inadequate “to the necessary expenditure of the garden, and a very considerable debt having been contracted by the expense of building the conservatories; upon the report of the Committee at the general meeting of the Proprietors in May 1807, they unanimously resolved further to increase the number of shares to 450, by a subscription of the Proprietors only; which subscription was filled up in a very few days.”
They needed more cash, even after selling the other five acres. Some of this money was earmarked for paying for Sir James Smith’s duplicate herbarium collection.
In June 1821 there is a newspaper article highlighting “the alarmingly low ebb of the funds of the Botanic Garden and soliciting the acquisition of new subscribers”.
Part of the funding crisis can be seen as being caused by proprietors failing to pay their subscription, as the shares of 27 proprietors, which had been unpaid for 2 years, were declared as lapsed. There were also issues of proprietors selling their shares cheaply as another resolution passed at the Special General Meeting renewed the prohibition of the sale of any forfeited shares for under 10 guineas.
In a report of the Botanic Gardens, dated 1825, we find this note: “The Conservatories are finished. The catalogue of 165 books is printed. The annual salary of the curator is to be increased by 20 guineas and 20 guineas are to be paid him for books. Critics have questioned the value of this Institution. Such people measure the advantages by numbers resorting there daily, forgetting that the Science is in its infancy. Perhaps they think that the face of the countryside should have been changed. The triumphs of the Institution lie in the gardens around the town and the creation of a hundred other institutions all ministering to the comforts of society. Horticulture is nowhere more zealously pursued. Our hot houses attached to every villa excite the wonder of all strangers.”
However, it was not easy to keep a positive bank balance, as on February 6th 1828 the President, John Moss, wrote to the Corporation to ask for a donation to help keep the garden going. They agreed to give 500 guineas, plus the “annual 30 guineas”.
Finally in 1830 they held an AGM where the treasurer declares that there is a considerable positive balance in the accounts. Discussion then turned to removing the gardens to another location. The rapid spread of the buildings in the neighbourhood and the impact from the smoke and general pollution arising from them, rendered such a move desirable.
The meeting in January 1831 agreed on this removal. The Liverpool Council had agreed that they could dispose of the land, on leases of 75 years. The Committee were given a free hand to find somewhere suitable. Discussion was also held on how desirable it would be to include a Zoological Garden.
Wavertree Botanic Garden
By April 1831 they had purchased 6 acres on the south side of Edge Lane about half a mile beyond Edge Hill church. The new garden, was four times as large as the garden at Mount Pleasant.
The following month a notice appeared in the newspaper stating that committee should be sent tenders for the brick and stone work of the walls, sewers etc. of the new garden in Edge Lane.
The subscribers felt a larger plot was required to allow for walks and lawns to be provided, an acknowledgement that a pleasure garden was now a necessity to attract subscribers.
A letter from John Shepherd of Liverpool in 1831 gave his reasons for the establishment of Botanical and Horticultural Societies, though he made very little mention of science. He attributed their development to the effects of living in a large town, as many residents were confined for most of the day to their work-place and went home to a house with, at the very most, a small garden. Urban inhabitants wanted the pleasure of walking in a large Botanic Garden, a garden that would also enhance the character of the town in the eyes of visitors and show the town supported ‘science, liberality and good taste'. However, from his experience he had found that the public soon tired of looking at vegetables and preferred flowers instead.
Shepherd's solution was to dispense with the botanical department and form a large arboretum. Additionally, he would institute regular prize-giving exhibitions of fruit and vegetables to attract members. Shows were already current among florists, agricultural, and botanic societies, and Shepherd, in suggesting they moved centre stage, was in fact pointing to the future direction that the subscription botanic gardens would take. If his suggestions were not followed, he contended, the movement would not flourish. Interestingly, Sheffield, in concentrating on the pleasure ground, seems to have taken these ideas on board from the beginning, whether knowingly or not, from Shepherd's advice.
Shepherd, a nationally recognised figure amongst the subscription botanic gardens, must have known that the demand by subscribers for a pleasure garden was being made nationwide. So here we see Shepherd, an icon of the movement, questioning their viability in their existing form at the time when Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield were founded. How far his comments were regarded as `a voice crying in the wilderness' cannot be gauged but his remarks were to prove to be a prophetic vision for the Manchester Botanic Garden.
Garden Move
In an extraordinary feat, all the plants and trees, library and herbarium were moved several miles up the road to Edge Lane. It was laid out once again by John Shepherd, in a formal design this time, bounded by walls and railings. He also built a large glasshouse, a home for the tropical plants which had always been at the core of the collection.
The construction of the new garden and the transfer of the plants took much longer than expected and cost a lot more than initially estimated. In December 1834 an application was made to the council for a loan of £10,000 to finish the new Botanic Garden. This was referred to the Select Finance Committee for a decision.
The new Botanic Garden in Edge Lane was finally opened on 3rd August 1836. The Wavertree walled garden is an historically significant site with one of its key features being curved scrolled flower beds based on design on the floor of St George's Hall.
Change of Curator
John Shepherd ALS (Associate of the Linnaean Society), the first curator of the Liverpool Botanic Gardens died on 27 September 1836, aged 73, just over a month after opening the new garden.
Henry Shepherd, John's second cousin once removed, took over. He had been a member of the staff since 1808.
In Henry Shepherd’s obituary notice in January 1858, there was, sadly, a much greater focus on John Shepherd:
“John was the first curator and uncle of the deceased, was a gentleman universally known in the botanical world in his day. He was a personal friend of William Roscoe’s, and to their joint efforts was owing the establishment of the first botanical garden in Liverpool. He was a man of varied acquirements, of nice taste, of gentlemanly manner and bearing and universal kindness. At the time of his death, he possessed the best collection of antique coins in town, having been a collector for many years. William Stanley Roscoe was his executor. He disposed of this collection in London and many of its rarities found their way into the British Museum. There is a portrait of Mr J Sheppard [sic] in the library at the Botanic Gardens, by Mosses, worthy of notice to Liverpool men as a sample of portraiture, by a bygone artist, and containing an index by resemblance to ‘no common man’”.
The late 1830's
The Proprietors took out a mortgage to finance the transfer to Edge Hill.
The Liverpool Mercury in March 1839 reported: “We regret to learn that the managers of our Botanic Gardens find themselves pressed by pecuniary difficulties. In addition to current demands, a serious expense was incurred in the recent removal, and a considerable debt due on account of the former establishment remains unpaid.”
Events
By September 1837 they were using the new gardens for significant fine dining as described such as
“Dejeune at the Botanic Gardens”.
The Liverpool Floral and Horticultural Society started used it for their thrice-yearly competitions.
Herbarium
On John Shepherd’s death his personal collection of specimens was bought and added to the herbarium, after having been first put to public auction, and no buyer found. The bulk of it consisted foreign plants which have been cultivated in the garden; but were not considered of any value for the purposes of reference, as growth in the UK was likely to be quite different to their homeland. The native plants dried from the neighbourhood of Liverpool however formed a valuable addition to the herbarium, although in the commonest species they are not nearly so complete as they might be. As for foreign ferns, they had mainly been cultivated in the garden, and were highly interesting and very numerous.
LBG in debt
Proprietor subscriptions were not covering the wages and normal costs, let alone pay the interest on the bankl loan.