Paul Auguste Aquatias: French Gardening
He was called Paul Auguste Aquatias and was born in Passy Grigny in La Marne, France in 1878. The family can be traced back to the 16th century in that region of France, all vignerons to the Champagne houses.
When he was about eight years old, the family moved to Paris. I know very little about his early life but I guess, due to the experience he had by the time he came to England, he must have undertaken a serious agricultural apprenticeship. I am sure he must also have learned English at this time.
He completed his national service in 1902 and came to England almost immediately after. He first went to work in the garden of the vicarage at Glentworth, a very small village in Lincolnshire, in the east of England. There, he met his future wife, Ruth Phillipson.
After just a few months, he left Glentworth and lived in London for a while, before going to Chesterfield in Derbyshire, to work at Spittal Nurseries for Francis Maximillian Marks. Marks disappeared after just six months, wanted by the police and depriving my great grandfather of three weeks' pay and, of course, a job. (This later threw a shadow over my great grandfather's application for British citizenship, as the Home Office had to be convinced that he was not involved in Marks's fraudulent activities).
He worked for three years at Woodbine Nurseries in Wanstead, London.
Then it was in February 1907 that he moved to Mayland, Essex, to work for Thomas Smith at Nipsell's Farm. It was while he was here that Smith recorded all the work they did at the French Garden of Joseph Fels in his book French Gardening. While he was in Mayland, he married my great grandmother, Ruth Phillipson, in St Barnabas's church in the village. They had obviously kept their relationship alive during the years since they met. It was also at this time that he traveled around Essex and Kent, giving lectures about the techniques of French gardening. In 1909 he moved to work for a Mr F Mynott at Brook Hall, Tiptree, Essex, on a new 12 month contract. Prince Kropotkin wrote about his work and the consequences of his departure from the Mayland experiment in Fields, Factories and Workshops (pages 228-231).
In 1909 Paul Aquatias obtained British citizenship.
In 1910 he moved to the north of England to work at Far North French Garden at Allithwaite in Cumbria.
In 1912 he bought a house and land in Timperley, a village in Cheshire, not far from Manchester, and set up nurseries there, which he ran until just after World War II, when he sold the business to my grandfather. My father grew up there and I also lived there for the first six months of my life. My grandparents finally left that property in 1972 (I used to stay there as a child and have some very fond memories of the place).
Paul Aquatias died in 1959 (I never knew him).
One thing which may interest you for your web site is that he wrote a book himself: The intensive culture of vegetables on the French System : with a concise calendar of operations was published in 1913, and was based on all his experience in France and England. It is currently reprinted on demand by Applewood Books, but it is also available in full on Google Books: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9bGffJfvqaUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=intensive+culture+of+vegetables&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false
I guess he thought that, as everyone else had written about his work, he might as well get something out of it himself!
I hope you find this interesting.
Best wishes
Kelsie Aquatias
Custom Web Search
