My colleague Sally Beamish, who has died of a brain tumour aged 54, was head gardener and estate manager of Brantwood, John Ruskin’s former home in the Lake District. Sally was a visionary gardener who recognised and restored the hidden treasure that is Brantwood’s gardens and estate, revealing the extent of Ruskin’s contribution to the practice and understanding of people’s relationship to nature.
Sally joined Brantwood at the age of 24 and made it her life’s work. She found an overgrown estate of 250 acres ripe for rescue, and could see that beneath its surface were clues to a former existence that was as important to Ruskin as his writing and painting.