
Winterbourne was built in 1904 for John and Margaret Nettlefold and bequeathed to the University of Birmingham 40 years later by John Macdonald Nicolson. Follow our dedicated team of archivists as they explore Winterbourne’s past and share with you the special objects, photographs and documents contained within the Winterbourne Archives. In the History Room at…

When Margaret Nettlefold planned the garden at Winterbourne, daughter Valerie revealed that her mother ‘lived with gardening books for a year or so’. Here, the influence of Gertrude Jekyll is inescapable. Winterbourne is filled with Jekyllian detail inspired by her 1899 classic Wood and Garden. Each month, we follow in Margaret’s footsteps to see how the…

Henrietta Lockhart, Winterbourne’s Collections Officer, looks at the topic of her recent lecture on Birmingham’s Glorious Suburbs. ‘Glorious suburbs! Long may ye remain To bless the ancient town, whose crown ye are; Rewarder of the cares of those who toil Amid the din and smoke of iron-ribbed, And hardy Birmingham. And may ye long be…