Post-War Years
 

After World War Two,  Ralph began to work with his son Bramley.  Together (1945) they constructed the Gardens of Peace at Temple Newsam,  Leeds,  as well as many other garden projects, including a wrought iron rose temple at Knightsbridge Green, sadly now demolished. 

Ralph also paid for Denys's name, and for those of other local servicemen killed in World War Two to be added to a war memorial located on the main Eastbourne to London road (A22) at Blindley Heath. He also designed a wrought iron surround for the memorial. For many years after the war Muriel Hancock and her daughter Sheila placed flowers there each armistice day, November 11.  In 1989, a road widening scheme necessitated that the memorial be moved to St John's Church at Blindley Heath. On 25th June that year, a re-dedication service was held. The memorial now sits in a pretty setting in front of the church away from the very busy A22.

Nineteen forty-seven saw the return of the Chelsea Flower Show.  Hancock exhibited both a rock garden and a formal garden,  he also had an exhibit in the garden designers section. In 1948 he returned with another rock garden making use of Westmorland stone which included "such charming alpines".  He also won a Gold Medal for his formal garden.  Ralph's 1949 informal woodland garden also won praise. The Times Newspaper of 27 May reported; "Ralph Hancock's exhibit was such a charming example of the woodland style".

It was at one of these post-war Chelsea shows (probably in 1948) that Sir David Evan Bevans (a Director of Barclays Bank) commissioned Ralph and Bramley to build the gardens at Twyn-yr-Hydd near Neath, Wales.

The picturesque Twyn-yr-Hydd House and the gardens in which it stands are now the home of Neath Port Talbot College.  Through the work of the Horticultural Department and lecturer Bob Priddle the gardens are now being restored to their former glory.  The high walled garden contains many of the features for which Ralph has become known. Cotswold stone walls with wrought iron Claire Voyees and an attractive formal pond. 

The planting too is typical Hancock in style.  These two images show the gardens as they are now (left) and as they were when Ralph and Bramley created them (right).

Is it quite likely that the gardens at Twyn-yr-Hydd are the last major project, outside London, that Ralph designed and completed. The rose temple at Knightsbridge Green having been the last commission that Ralph completed before his death.

In 2007/8, another Hancock desgined garden was discovered in Wales and verified by Bob Priddle

St Quentin's House, Llanblethian, near Cowbridge was described and  regarded as one of the finest landscaped gardens in the Vale of Glamorgan.  A 1947 sale document described the garden as thus;  

The main terrace is paved, flanked by a dwarf wall, and leads to a large lawn, 72ft by 40ft, which is surrounded by herbaceous borders.  Beyond the terrace is the walled and productive kitchen garden, intersected by grass walks and with an ornamental sundial in the centre.  A second terrace, with a goldfish pond and a sundial, leads to a well-kept rose and flower garden, lawns and rockeries, interspersed with paved walks. The stock of fruit trees includes apples, pears, plums, gages, peaches, nectarines, raspberries, gooseberries and blackcurrants, and there is an outdoor vine. The ornamental gardens are flanked by trim Thuya hedges with dwarf Box hedge borders. The rockeries are stocked with most known Alpine plants, and the flower beds with a good variety of roses and bulbs. - All very much in the style of Hancock and Son.

Ralph Hancock and Son must have been a successful  enterprise.  As well as living in fashionable Trevor Square, Knightsbridge, the partnership also had a showroom a mere stones-throw away at Park Mansion Arcade. From here they sold such garden accessories as oil jars, antique statuary, urns and balustrades.  A workshop,  managed by Bramnley, in Lingfield, Surrey provided their wrought iron work and other garden ornaments.  And, in Baredown, Hook, Hampshire Hancock and Son had their Exhibition Gardens. 

It was during those early post-war years that Ralph  purchased a little cottage at Chailey Green,  near Lewes,  Sussex.  He planned to restore the cottage and had drawn-up plans to do so.  Sadly, Ralph passed away before work started and it was left to Bramley to complete the restoration. 

Ralph died on August 30 1950 at the National Heart Hospital, London, from heart failure.  He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium.  His ashes were later scattered into the Thames by his widow Muriel and by daughter Sheila from the Embankment near to Charing Cross.

After Ralph's premature death, Bramley continued with the landscape garden business that his father had established.  As Ralph Hancock and Son,  Bramley continued to exhibit at Chelsea for a number of years. A postcard from the 1957 show illustrates iron work from Hancock Industries. Bramley also diversified into aluminum glasshouses building up an incredibly successful business near Redhill (Surrey, England) that even today Hancock Aluminum Glasshouses are well known.

At Chelsea in 1951, Bramley exhibited a formal garden.  The Times Newspaper, 22 May 1951, described the garden in some detail.  A low, red brick wall, pierced by wrought iron grilles and an old brick, timbered and tiled garden house - placed beside a raised lawn with a brick retaining wall and a winding pool below.  He returned the following year with both formal and informal gardens. And in 1953 Bramley won a Gold Medal for his semi-floral garden. 

This delightful photograph (left) shows Bramley at one of those post-war shows with the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret.

Bramley passed away in August 1989, 20 years after the death of his mother Muriel (Hilda) who passed away on April 26 1969.  Sheila Dure-Smith (nee Hancock) now lives in the United States with husband Peter. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 


These two photographs of Ralph were taken sometime around around 1949.  The left hand image is of him with King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and Princesses Margaret and Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II) at the Chelsea Flower Show.  The location for the other image is unknown.