Robert Marnock

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Robert Marnock

Born	1800
Died	1889
Occupation	Gardener, landscape designer

Robert Marnock (1800 - 1889) was one of the outstanding horticulturalists and garden designers of the 19th century and was considered by his contemporaries to be the best exponent of the gardenesque school of landscape gardening.

Before he came to Sheffield, Marnock worked as the head gardener in Bretton Hall (now the Yorkshire Sculpture Park), Wakefield between 1829 and 1833. He was appointed by the Sheffield Botanical and Horticultural Society in 1833 to design and lay out the Botanical Gardens, at an annual salary of £100. Marnock designed the Botanical Gardens in the then highly fashionable Gardenesque style. He became the first curator of the Gardens in 1836.

In 1839, Marnock moved on to lay out the gardens of the Royal Botanic Society of London in Regent's Park and was appointed as the gardens' curator on the advice of J.C. Loudon. He left this post in 1863 but continued to practice in his profession as a landscape gardener until 1879. He was editor of The Floricultural Magazine for four years.^[1]

One of the best preserved examples of his work is Dunorlan Park in Royal Tunbridge Wells which has recently undergone a £2.8 million transformation^[2] to restore it to the original Marnock design. The park is now on English Heritage's National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.