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Important women of 20th Century Herbalism: Maud Grieve
Welcome to the fourth blog in our month of celebration for International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month.
Words by Nichole Bahrt
Sophia Emma Magdalen Grieve, known as Maud, was born in Islington in 1858. After her father’s death in 1864 her mother was unable to care for her and her siblings, so she moved in with extended family. It is thought that she left the UK for India sometime in the early 1880s, where she met and married her husband William Sommerville Grieve in 1884. By the early 20th century Maud and her husband were back in England living in Chalfont St. Peter in Buckinghamshire. Maud was already a proficient gardener with a particular interest in the medicinal properties of herbs, and she soon developed an extensive herb garden on their property. Maud worked with groups such as the Daughters of Ceres, an organisation that worked to train young ladies in agriculture and horticulture. With the start of World War I, Maud began to focus on the use of herbs for nutrition and medicine during wartime.
Wartime seeds
By the outbreak of WWI, few herbs were commercially grown in the UK, as it was cheaper to import herbs from the Continent. According to McOnegal, Germany controlled 80% of the pharmaceutical production at the time, and supply lines of medicinal herbs used as medicine and to synthesise drugs from plant constituents were compromised (2021). In 1914 the Board of Agriculture published a leaflet entitled The Cultivation & Collection of Medicinal plants in England, which encouraged farmers to consider growing some key medicinal plants including Aconite, Belladonna, Digitalis, GoldenSeal and Henbane. Maud was a founding member of the National Herb Growing Association, which was set up by a group of women who worked to improve conditions and opportunities for women in agriculture and horticulture. The National Herb Growing Association, Chelsea Physic Garden, Kew Gardens and Maud provided seeds for their members and the public to grow medicinal plants, in an effort to support wartime herb production (de Carle, 2017).
The Whins Herb Farm and Training College
Maud did a lot to educate people, particularly women, on herbal Materia Medica and the growing and processing of herbs. During WWI Maud started The Whins Herb Farm and Training College, a place where she provided practical knowledge and courses in herb growing, harvesting, drying and marketing. According to de Carle, students studied for 13-week terms at a time, with a total of 2-3 years of study considered optimal to become proficient in the growing of medicinal herbs. Students also learned plant identification, both Latin and common names of plants, propagation and care, and how to harvest, dry and pack each type of herb. The course included hand-on elements, with the students carrying out gardening tasks required to care for the plants (2017). Society of Herbalists advisory committee member and another important figure in the 20th century revival of herbalism, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, studied with Maud at The Whins. Maud published hundreds of pamphlets on the cultivation of herbs and their use as medicine, which she sold to the general public via post, along with plant seeds and a correspondence course on growing herbs. The Herb Society holds in our archives a copy of the correspondence course which Hermione Farmar-Bringhurst purchased from Maud in 1926. Maud promoted her correspondence course via a pamphlet, in which she describes the benefits of learning about herbs:
“This is an informative and unique method of training for a profession which cannot fail to materially benefit those who have time and opportunity to take up what is assuredly, apart from any other consideration, a fascinating, instructive and essentially useful hobby.” (1926, quoted in De Carle, 2017, p.102
A Modern Herbal
The contribution to 20th century herbalism which Maud is most famous for is her modern compendium on herbs, which to this day continues to be a popular resource for herbal information. Most people who are interested in herbs will be familiar with her seminal text, A Modern Herbal, which looks at not only the medicinal properties of plants, but also the culinary, cosmetic, cultivation and folklore. More than 800 varieties of plants are included in the work, as well as 161 illustrations.
Maud herself wrote of the significance of The Modern Herbal in a letter to a friend, stating
“… on the other hand I have the satisfaction of having done it – what no other person has attempted since 1649. Some people have written to me they think it is a “marvellous” piece of work. (Grieve, 1931, quoted in The Herb Society, 1980, p. 5)
The Society of Herbalists founder, Hilda Leyel, edited the book and described how she read Maud’s herbal monograph pamphlets and thought they would make great content for a modern herbal. Hilda showed the monographs to her publisher Jonathan Cape, who agreed to publish them if the content also included American herbs and if Hilda was to edit the text.
Hilda goes on to praise Maud as someone who
“did a great deal to revive the herb industry in England” (Leyel, 1931, quoted in Grieve, 1931, p. xiv).
A copy of the manuscript of A Modern Herbal with Hilda’s handwritten notes resides in The Herb Society archive.
If you’d like to find out more about this remarkable woman, please check out the definitive guide on all things Maud, Maud Grieve: Now first let me tell you about that wonderful plant, written by Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust Trustee Claire de Carle.
Bibliography
De Carle, C. (2017) Maud Grieve: Now first let me tell you about that wonderful plant. Poole: CMP-UK.
Grieve, Mrs. M. (1931) A Modern Herbal: The Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic and Economic Properties, Cultivation and Folk-Lore of Herbs, Grasses, Fungi, Shrubs and Trees with all their Modern Scientific Uses. London: Jonathan Cape.
The Herb Society. (1980) Recollections of Mrs. M. Grieve. The Herbal Review, 5(3), pp. 4-6.
McOnegal, R. (2021) History of the use of medicinal plants. Available at: https://www.lowimpact.org/posts/history-of-the-use-of-medicinal-plants (Accessed: 5 March 2025).
About Nichole
Nichole discovered herbalism in her very early twenties, and has used herbs medicinally and nutritionally ever since. constantly expanding her home herbalist knowledge and experience through books, online resources, podcasts, foraging, and growing. Having eaten a plant-based diet for nearly 30 years, she has an interest in the culinary use of herbs and spices to promote health and wellbeing and as an excellent source of micronutrients. As a pagan practitioner, her spiritual path is closely aligned with the seasons and the earth. She values growing and using herbs to help re-establish our lost connection to nature and plant life.
A professionally trained librarian and information professional, she worked in academic libraries for 15 years before pivoting to working with charities. Alongside working as the Operational Support Officer for the Herb Society, she is also a heritage volunteer at the Pankhurst Museum in Manchester, and a volunteer at her local Repair Cafe.
Explore the Archives
As the Herb Society approaches its Centenary year (2027), we’re excited to be able to develop our website pages to give fuller account of the history of the society and all the fascinating people and stories who’ve been associated with it through the years. There is a wealth of archive material that we’re keen to share more widely, giving plenty of scope for volunteers to get involved. If you’d like to be part of the team helping draw out these stories and developing an engaging set of web pages, get in touch with Nichole at [email protected]
