Many gardens display sculptures, Kew being a wonderful example. Marwood Hill Gardens present a number of sculptures that remain where they were first positioned, unchanging, and embellishing the garden throughout the year.
Notably this is the case when little is in flower. Blossoms come, blossoms go, and colours change across the year. Part of the excitement in visiting Marwood Hill is to see what’s newly emerged, whether it’s swathes of snowdrops in late winter, the Spring glories of Magnolias and Camellias, newly named plants, a newly planted up bog garden, Astilbes in June/July, Hydrangeas in August, the splendor of trees reaching new heights and their autumn colours, etc etc! But beauty, like the sculptures, is always here, albeit differing in its manifestations across the seasons.
Our sculptures are all figurative rather than symbolic, and all are here because we love them. In general, we hope they can be enjoyed in-passing, without unduly drawing attention away from their biological neighbours.
Some notes about them may be of interest… read on.
Mother and children, sculpted in 1969 by John Robinson (4 May 1935 to 6 April 2007), is on the island in the middle lake. In explaining why Mother and children was created at Marwood and sited on the island, it seems appropriate to give some account of what led to John being at Marwood in 1969-1971. John and his brothers had an Australian grandfather who insisted on them being sent to Australia in 1940 to escape the Nazi menace. They returned to England in 1943. John then went to a prep school which he hated, and onto Rugby School. In his autobiography (written in 2005; details available from John Snowdon) he wrote that…
“The art class was the one bright spot in my life at Rugby and the day Fabio Barraclough introduced me to sculpting really was the best thing that ever happened to me in my school days. The seed that he planted took 20 years to germinate but has grown into the joy of my life”.
He left school at age 16, worked his passage to Australia (where his family had various connections) on a cargo boat, jackarooed around Australia having fun for five years, thriving on multiple adventures, and then worked in land development for a time. He then became the owner of a 600-acre farm in the Ninety Mile Desert in South Australia and built a house there and got married to Margie in December 1958. She was Australian. Three sons were born and “life on the farm was idyllic”. However, the farm was not a paying proposition due to droughts and was a long way from schools. In 1968 he confessed to Margie that “I have bought a bag of clay, and I am going to start sculpting again”. While still in Australia he started modelling figurines and when the clay was dry, he finished them off by carving them with his penknife. This led to modelling relief heads of their sons, casting them in plaster and colouring with bronze paint.
On one particularly hot day, he and Margie decided to ‘try’ England for a couple of years and for John to try sculpting as a full-time occupation. They sold the farm and John went over to England to find a furnished house that they could rent for the two years, and on August 28, 1968 he responded to an advertisement and came down to Devon to see Marwood Hill and meet Jimmy Smart and his nephew, John Snowdon, who was about to move to Sydney to work as a junior doctor. John Robinson was thrilled by the house and the barn available for use as a studio and agreed to a 2-year rent. Jimmy had moved into Barnstaple two years previously to care for his mother and was about to start building the house that now houses the tearoom.
The new tenant wrote in his autobiography that “Life was idyllic and the house was bliss to live in. Our landlord, Jimmy Smart, was one of the kindest men we had ever met, the locals were incredibly friendly, and there was a village school.” John bought some clay from the nearby pottery, and his oldest son posed for him while playing marbles. Thus, was created the first Marwood sculpture, and a master plasterer took a ‘waste mould’ and introduced John to a man who did cold-resin-bronze casting. “This first sculpture was followed by more children sculptures, then a mother teaching her son to walk, who was followed by a figure of a kneeling mother holding her daughter up in the air. This last became my first sale as our landlord bought it for the island, he had created in the lake of the gardens…. [He bought it] to celebrate the fact that he had won all the prizes for his Camellias!” [In truth, he didn’t win all the prizes!]
While still at Marwood, John sculpted the heads and torsos of Simeon and a child for the font cover at Marwood church. It is titled Nunc dimittis and is still there.
John had a very distinguished career as a sculptor. His figurative bronzes ranged from life-size commissioned sculptures of children to athletic sculptures (e.g. Acrobats in 1980), and he was commissioned to create busts of the late Queen and of her mother. Additionally, however, in 1975 he embarked on a series of abstract sculptures with the aim of symbolizing human values and our concepts of dynamic processes that shape our lives. One of his best known is Bonds of Friendship, which was intended to symbolize the notion that “trust is the basis of peace”. One edition in Portsmouth and another in Sydney were unveiled in 1980 to commemorate the departure (1787) and landing (1788) of the First Fleet, at the time Australia was colonized by the British.
John was the official sculptor for the British Olympic Committee in 1988. Many of his sculptures can be viewed on web-sites, including the Robinson estate website (https://www.bradshawfoundation.com/jr/)
Jimmy Smart, sculpted by Alan Biggs in 2000, was a gift from Dr Smart’s wife Margaret. We (and maybe visitors who knew Dr Smart) remember his great sense of humour and wish his bronze resin likeness was grinning, and that he was carrying a spade! But we acknowledge that many people like the statue as is. Anyway, it’s great to have him in the garden, next to the giant Gunnera and below the middle lake, contemplating the beautiful bog garden and the gardens he created. He wore glasses but the sculpted glasses have gone missing!
Piggy Back, sculpted by Mary Cox, is by the entrance to the quarry, just down from the first and largest Marwood Spring. Mary studied at Chelsea Art School. She lives and works in Sussex, and her sculptures are often displayed at Pashley Manor Gardens at Ticehurst, near Wadhurst. She undertakes commissions and has created works for churches and hospitals, as well as many life-size sculptures (cast in bronze or bronze resin) for gardens.
Pan, also sculpted by Mary Cox, is found on the verge of a path going up from the Wild Garden towards the church.
Two Swans, sculpted by Jonathan Cox (Mary’s son, and John Snowdon’s godson) are seen at the upper end of the lowest lake, taking flight. If the reeds around them are allowed to grow too tall, it is less easy to see them! Jonathan trained at Camberwell School of Art and later as a stone mason with the French Historic Monuments. In 2004, after teaching sculpture at Canford, then Eton, then Emmanuel, he and his young family moved to a farm in West Wales where his work is primarily with animals. He often casts his own work.
Cherub. There is a delightful stone sculpture of a cherub in the folly below the lowest lake (which was damaged in a 2025 storm, but luckily the cherub wasn’t). The provenance of this sculpture is unknown.
Chevalier. Very near the admissions office, on a pillar at the entrance to the herbaceous garden, is a delightful small figure of a French chevalier with a sword. A similar figure was stolen from the top of the opposing pillar over 20 years ago. The history of these figures is unknown to us, but we’d appreciate being told more about them by knowledgeable visitors. We should have obtained details from Dr Smart telling us where he obtained the figures.
If anyone has any questions about any of the statues, or about the blog, please get in touch with us and we’ll do our best to help.
