The Stonehenge Dahlia Shows 1842-1845
Marvelling at the flowers and listening to the band, as many as 10,000 visitors were to be found promenading and picnicking at Stonehenge on 31 August 1842.
What attracted such a large assembly was not the stones, this was five years before the railway arrived at Salisbury bringing daytrippers and long before crowds made pilgrimages to the summer solstice.
What had induced thousands to visit Stonehenge for the first time on that fine summer day in 1842, was the 19th century passion for dahlias.
Dahlias make an entrance
It would be impossible to exaggerate the popularity of dahlias in 1842, yet the obsession was a relatively recent phenomenon. Native to Mexico and mountainous regions of South America, dahlias were named after the Swedish botanist Anders Dahl and first arrived in Britain in 1798.
The earliest dahlias to flower in England were single blooms and, albeit unfavourable to the British palette, the roots if boiled were considered a potential food source. Hybridization eventually fashioned double blooms and with experimentation producing dozens of different varieties, an endless selection of colours and shapes saw dahlias prove highly attractive as cut flowers and competition exhibits.
The arrival of dahlia shows
Flower growers known as florists had organised annual shows since at least the 17th century, by forming societies that traditionally met at public houses and inns.
Al fresco entertainment saw a surge in popularity in the first half of the 19th century and offered an alternative to the confined spaces of the traditional flower show venue.
The opportunities for promenading and spotting fashionable attendees were big draws and events such as the Horticultural Society’s grand fete at Chiswick in June 1827 demonstrated what could be achieved with marquees and tents. Dahlia shows at Surrey Zoological Gardens in 1834, and two dahlia shows held at Bath’s Sydney Gardens the following year proved to be equally popular.
Al fresco entertainment
With al fresco entertainment proving as much of a topical attraction as dahlias in the first half of the 19th century, the expanded settings of open-air events posed quite a contrast with many of the taverns and town halls which were the more traditional venues for flower shows.
Against those confined spaces, the opportunities for promenading and spotting fashionable attendance were far greater if weather reliant, but events such as the Horticultural Society’s grand fete at Chiswick in June 1827 demonstrated what could be achieved with marquees and tents.
The opportunities for promenading proved equally popular at dahlia shows at Surrey Zoological Gardens in 1834, and two dahlia shows held at Bath’s Sydney Gardens the following year.
The Salisbury Plain Dahlia Society
The Salisbury Plain Dahlia Society was formed in 1838, with the sole aim of staging an al fresco entertainment on the Everleigh estate of Sir John Dugdale Astley (1778-1842). Astley had been a founding member of the first countywide horticultural society in Wiltshire. His near neighbour, Charles Brudenell-Bruce, 2nd Earl and 1st Marquess of Ailesbury (1773-1856), was patron of the first dedicated dahlia show in Wiltshire, held at Marlborough town hall in August 1834.
Held under canvas in the grounds of the Crown Inn, the Astley-owned public house at Everleigh, a band of music complemented an event which drew around 1,000 visitors on Friday 31 August 1838. It would appear the attraction was as much the celebrity status of the local gentry and the opportunity to be seen promenading, as witnessing the dahlias. Instantly successful, the Salisbury Plain Dahlia Show ran for four years.
Why a dahlia show at Stonehenge?
John Keynes (1805-1878), a nurseryman from Salisbury, was probably key to the decision to hold a dahlia show at Stonehenge. Keynes became the Salisbury Plain Dahlia Society’s Honorary Secretary in 1840 and, with Everleigh no longer an option upon the death of Sir John Dugdale Astley in January 1842, the Salisbury nurseryman’s eagerness and organizational abilities were surely to the fore in the decision to continue with the annual dahlia shows.
Among those actively involved with the Salisbury Plain Dahlia Society, the Astley and Everleigh connected aside, there was only one that could conveniently host an open-air show for 1,000 or more visitors. Sir Edmund Antrobus, 2nd Baronet (1792-1870), was a Fellow of the Horticultural Society of London, Stonehenge stood on his Amesbury estate and was a traditional meeting place remote from his formal grounds and the game habitats he valued. A cricket pitch lay close to the site and relocating the dahlia exhibition to Stonehenge would combine the attractions of the two.
The Stonehenge dahlia shows
Held under the patronage of Lady Antrobus (1800-1885), it was later remarked that the Stonehenge dahlia show was ‘one of the earliest of the great exhibitions’. In addition to fine weather, a band of music and side-shows - a cricket match completed the attraction with a Salisbury XI beating an Amesbury XI by 47 runs. With the catering arrangements in the hands of Shrewton born Edward Smallbone, of the George Inn, Amesbury, a hundred and sixty people sat down to a formal dinner. Meanwhile ‘parties of gentlemen and elegantly dressed ladies’ enjoyed a ‘universal picnic.’
The prize for a floral device was predictably won by John Keynes for ‘The Antrobus Arms’. Floral devices were sculptures made entirely from dahlias supported by wire formers. Words could be spelled out to a background of contrasting colours, allowing creative Victorians to illustrate their talents, loyalties and patriotism. John Keynes habitually competed in this category, frequently winning prizes and drawing praise for his inventiveness.
Another drawing special praise was Mr Whale, the Head Gardener, at Elcot Park, near Kintbury, Berkshire, for the Hero of Stonehenge, a dark mulberry dahlia which won first prize in the Seedlings of 1841 class.
Experiencing the Stonehenge dahlia shows
The size of the crowds attending the Stonehenge dahlia shows between 1842 and 1845, were estimated at between 5,000 and 10,000 on each occasion.
Rapidly advancing Stonehenge’s foothold in the public imagination, these annual dahlia shows saw thousands visit that had never given the site a second thought. It no doubt helped that the weather always proved fine, and Mr Ransome’s band from Devizes was apparently popular, but it is also clear that accessing the stones was something of interest to the wider public.
In 1843 John Keynes was obliged to issue a notice:
‘It is respectfully requested that no vehicles, booths, or standings may be placed within fifty yards of the Stones, that all parties may have access to them.’
The legacy of the Stonehenge dahlia shows
Of the first Stonehenge dahlia show in 1842, it was reported that barely a conveyance remained in Salisbury by midday. This was of course prior to the first train transporting the regular influx of excursionists to arrive in Salisbury in 1847, it was then through the annual dahlias shows that the proprietors of horse-drawn carriages for hire had gained valuable insight. A tour that stopped at Old Sarum as well as Stonehenge proved popular, with the outward route along the Woodford Valley offering different scenery to a return leg which sometimes included Wilton.
That Keynes had changed the widespread reputation of Stonehenge into that of a theatre and a resort, was admirably demonstrated on Monday 31 July 1843. Between showers pupils of schools at Shrewton and West Lavington were among around 120 newly trained singers from Wiltshire towns and villages to perform their maiden ‘sight singing’ concert to an audience of around 1,000 spectators at Stonehenge. Children from poor backgrounds receiving applause alongside better off contemporaries, and families playing games amid sheltering from the rain that day, illustrates the extent to which Stonehenge had been adopted and democratized.
With the popularity of Stonehenge on the rise the obsession with dahlias was waning and evolving tastes saw floral devices described as ‘monstrosities’ by mid-century. Having been fashionably ignored during the 1860s, interest in dahlias revived with the rediscovery of single varieties in the 1870s and was ensured by the formation of the National Dahlia Society in 1881.
Brian Edwards researched and compiled the history of the Stonehenge dahlia shows. Brian Edwards is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Regional History Centre, UWE Bristol.
