Sylvia Crowe

Who was Sylvia Crowe?

Dame Sylvia Crowe, DBE was a British landscape architect and garden designer.

Born in Sussex, and trained under Madeline Agar at Swanley College. She was President of the Institute of Landscape Architects from 1957 to 1959 and made important contributions to landscape planning for new towns, roads, forestry and the landscape of power. Among her notable projects is the roof garden for the Scottish Widows building in Edinburgh, implemented using native Scottish plants.

In the mid-20th century [Lower Lower Soughton Hall] at Northop in Flintshire belonged to the Gray family. In 1972 Stephen Alexander Reith Gray was Flintshire High Sheriff and Chief Executive of Shotton Steelworks. He commissioned Dame Sylvia Crowe and Raymond Cutbush to redesign the gardens and they remain much as they look today, with formal and informal features which includes herbaceous borders, yew hedges and island beds with mixed planting.