In 1902, Peter Grieve’s widow Ann installed a window in the church in memory of her husband and daughter.
Peter Grieve (1811-1895) was a celebrated Victorian gardener who worked at Culford Hall, near Bury. He was best known for his work on coloured leaved pelargoniums, but was also responsible for raising double-flowered petunias.
Grieve was born at Allanton in Berwickshire, the son of Robert Grieve and Margaret Ingles. He began his training at Black Adder House, near Allanton, where his father was head gardener, and worked for three years at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, with William McNabb, regarded as one of Scotland’s greatest and most influential gardeners. After a spell with another renowned gardener, William Barron, at Elvaston Castle, near Derby, and seven years at Swithland Hall near Leicester, Grieve became head gardener to the Rev Edward Benyon at Culford Hall near Bury, now the home of Culford School. Benyon had been instituted Rector of Culford St Mary in 1839, and acquired the estate from his uncle, Richard Benyon de Beauvoir, a noted landowner and philanthropist. Grieve arrived in 1847 and remained at Culford for 33 years, during which time he undertook the hybridizing which was to make him famous. He also gained a reputation as a landscape gardener, working on the 500 acres at Culford Hall which had been laid out for the previous owner, the 1st Marquis Cornwallis, by Humphry Repton in 1791. While at Swithland Hall, Grieve had married Ann Paget (1822-1907), a local woman. He named one of his pelargoniums ‘Lucy Grieve’ after their only daughter, who sadly died at Culford in 1864, aged 12. Nothing is known of Lucy save that she is said to have bred a pear which was named after her.
Grieve won a number of awards for his work including, in 1869, the Royal Horticultural Society Cup for the best collection of bedding plants. Following retirement in 1880 he moved to Orchard Street, where he attended St John’s. In 1902 his widow Ann installed a window in the church in memory of her husband and daughter (pictured). Designed by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, this depicts Mary Magdalene greeting the Risen Christ in the Garden. Grieve’s name also lives on at Culford School, where a master’s house is named ‘Grieves End’.