Arthur Cobbold curator to the Charles Darrah collection Solved

[Pete A]

Published catalogue, original Darrah copy.
Note the reference to The Cactus Journal 1933.

[Pete A]

Here's a very poor but readable copy of the article from The Cactus Journal June 1933. This is out of copyright. 5 MB download.

The cactus journal June 1933 p47-51

[Bill]

I have sent details of this topic to several people who my be able to help.

Bill

Forum Administrator.

[Roy Mottram]

I don't really have much to contribute here, as I've already learned much form this thread that I didn't already know. I wasn't even aware of his first name! Below is an extract from my notes on the Darrah collection.

"After his death, his relatives donated the collection to the Manchester City Council, who erected a large range of glasshouses in Alexandra Park to house it. This was opened to the public on 14 Dec 1906, and remained the finest municipal collection of succulents in Britain for more than fifty years. His head gardener, Mr. Cobbold, was also retained by the City to continue as its first curator. Of its later curators, the best known was Harry Hall (1906-1986), who left the collection in 1947 to emigrate to South Africa in order to take up a similar position in the Kirstenbosch botanical garden."

I had long suspected that Cobbold was the real author of the catalogue, not Darrah himself or Superintendent Lamb as is usually quoted in bibliographic references, and the above confirms this, as does the material held by Gordon Rowley.

Again it was predictable that Gordon would end up as archivist for the Cobbold memorabilia, as he is the only recognised but unofficial guardian of such historic material, regarded as unimportant trivia by most society officials. Having catalogued the BCSS library myself, I can confirm that there is nothing, other than a copy of the Darrah collection catalogue, relating to Cobbold in the BCSS library. It would be good to have the Cobbold notes digitised for the BCSS eLibrary, and a new biography of Cobbold published, as he was clearly the true hero of the hour and should not be forgotten. There are far too many instances of fine growers and nurserymen of the past who have not commanded the respect they deserved, while over-inflated officials and botanists with little real knowledge and hands-on experience receive a status in society far beyond their true merit.

[ajm389]

I totally agree with all that has been said up to now.
However,as I may be distantly related to the Cobbold family I am currently working on my family tree and to this end will post any useful data regarding living relations.

Anthony Morris (Member of Macclesfield and East Ches branch)

[Thule]

Thank you all so very much for everything you've uncovered so far. I've emailed other members of the family to see if they can remember much about AC's collection of notes, photos etc - how extensive they were etc. - and will most certainly report back.
Anthony, I'm intrigued to hear you may be a distant relative! I'm a direct descendant of AC and very much into the family history... Is there any way I can contact you personally?
Kind regards to all,
Tolly

[Guest]

This is a bunch of typed notes and photo's from the collection, given to Gordon when they were having a clear-out. Gordon had them bound together.

Pete A, Is 'they' Manchester Council or the Society?
Thanks,
Tolly

[Pete A]

This is a bunch of typed notes and photo's from the collection, given to Gordon when they were having a clear-out. Gordon had them bound together.

Pete A, Is 'they' Manchester Council or the Society?
Thanks,
Tolly

"They" were Harry Hall, so it was the council. Apparently Gordon had bugged them for information so much that when they were clearing out, they sent all the junk to him!

I have to say that he doesn't have much and most of it appears to be notes on plants in the collection, with much of it translated from foreign language sources.

[Liz M]

I have been reading this with great interest. It is a huge pity that most of the original collection has been lost.
Peter B, do I gather from your comments that you have what is left of the collection? I seem to remember being told that you had an old collection of plants and were looking for help with it. How much is there and what are the plants? Where are the plants being housed?

[Peter B]

Hi Liz,

No, I don't have the remnants of the Darrah collection. Along with a few Manchester Branch members I have had many years acquaintance with the collection and Manchester City Council's mismanagement of the collection. I don't want to go into a full blown explanation here because it would take pages, sadly, to explain the mess Manchester City Leisure Department have made, not only of the Darrah Collection but of the entire Horticultural Centre. However, by going on
www.manchestercactus.co.uk
and clicking on 'Wythenshawe Park' you will find an outline of what has happened.

I have nothing but total admiration for Ian, the head warden, who has the impossible task of keeping Wythenshawe Park at its best with only subcontracted 'gardeners' to do the work. There is no one employed to look after the greenhouses as the council removed all remaining gardeners about 4 years ago 'to save money'. None of the subcontracted workers has a clue how to look after cacti & succulents, ferns, other ornamentals from around the world and so on. Maybe you heard about the vandalism that saw every bird in the aviary killed and all the fish poisoned a few weeks ago - lack of any form of CCTV, I'm afraid.

We have not been back to the Park this year following the council's reluctance to spend money on repairs etc. During the coldest part of the 2010 winter Ian was ordered to turn off the heat because it was too expensive (didn't matter about all the plants that needed the heat - they could just die, and many did).

As a last point, there is little left of the original collection from 1903, a few Agaves, some Aloes and cuttings from various Trichocereus and Opuntias, maybe the odd Crassula argentea (or its synonym), but what we did was to build up the collection to be an educational asset to the people of Manchester and beyond. We planted donated plants in their hundreds, I bought up collections (which the council did pay for but I got them dirt cheap) and we regularly attended to weed, water, advise and so on but when the council became so stingy I said 'enough is enough'. They refused to pay even my petrol expenses for all the times I attended.

There you are, Liz, a horrible tale about the demise of a valuable collection. If you really want the whole story contact me privately and I will explain. That is why I am so keen to amass all the details I can about the collection so hearing about what Gordon has is a real bonus. I hope, eventually, to obtain photocopies of all those details to add to what I have, which is not a lot I'm afraid.

Peter B Manchester Branch