Jane Caryl Brown, a distinguished garden historian who played a pivotal role in reviving interest in historic gardens and the legacy of architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, died on June 26, 2026, at the age of 87.
Born on December 6, 1938, at the Picket Post Tea House in the New Forest, Brown grew up in Winchester and attended Winchester County High School for Girls, where she was head girl. Although her father did not permit her to attend university, she pursued a secretarial course and later worked for the Royal Institute of British Architects. In 1963, she married airline captain Peter Brown; the couple had two sons and divorced after 15 years.
Brown’s significant contribution to garden history emerged during her studies in landscape architecture at Thames Polytechnic, where she developed an interest in the collaboration between Lutyens and Jekyll. This inspiration led to her seminal book, *Gardens of a Golden Afternoon*, published in 1982 after a decade of research, including work in the Gertrude Jekyll archives at the University of California, Berkeley. The book was both a critical and commercial success, presenting a detailed account of the partnership between Lutyens and Jekyll, highlighting their mutual respect and interplay between architecture and garden design.
She emphasized that the study of garden history should extend beyond romantic appreciation to active restoration and conservation, a perspective that influenced subsequent historians. Brown’s scholarship was characterized by a deep understanding of landscape design, rigorous research, and a refined prose style.
Brown’s involvement in the 1981 Hayward Gallery exhibition dedicated to Lutyens helped spark renewed interest in his work, leading to the establishment of the Lutyens Trust in 1984. She served as a trustee for many years and was honorary secretary for the first decade. In 1991, when the Lutyens and Jekyll-designed Goddards estate near Godalming was given to the trust, she lived there for a year and later negotiated a lease with the Landmark Trust due to the absence of an endowment. Known as “a great opener of doors,” she also promoted other collaborations between Lutyens and Jekyll, including the Deanery Garden.
Throughout her career, Brown authored 23 books covering a broad range of topics within garden history and beyond. In addition to her well-known work on Arts and Crafts gardens, she wrote about modernism, produced biographies of figures such as Vita Sackville-West and Beatrix Farrand, and published social histories including *The Pursuit of Paradise*. Her last book, *Angel Dorothy* (2017), was a biography of the founder of the Dartington Hall Trust.
After settling in Elton on the Huntingdonshire-Northamptonshire border in 1996, Brown remained active in the field by joining the Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust, delivering lectures, leading tours, and contributing to the 2016 tercentenary celebrations of landscape architect Lancelot “Capability” Brown, whose biography she had published in 2011.
Known for her warmth, modesty, and dedication, Brown lived quietly in a modest cottage filled with books and was a committed churchgoer. Her final published work was a history of Elton church, reflecting her enduring connection to her community and subject.