Herb Society Library & Archives

The books of Hilda Leyel in the 1920's

The Herb Society inherited from its founder, Hilda Leyel, a collection of important books on herbs including a few written by Hilda herself. Sadly many of the very old books were sold in the 1960's, all that remains for us is the old photo above, which shows a display of potted herbs and herbals in a room, not sure where, for the 'Press Tea Party' to launch the Culpeper shops.

The first wave of books were sold in 1962, 5 years after Mrs Leyel's death in 1957, the Society of Herbalists as the Herb Society was then known, received £2,000 which was a small percentage of the sale proceedings. The second wave was sold at Sotheby's in 1967.

The £65,000 raised was used to try and save the retail establishments (Culpeper's) but the amount raised did little to rectify the shops financial situation. So the name and goodwill of Culpeper shops was separated from the Society of Herbalists and both went their separate ways. In 1977 the Society of Herbalists became The Herb Society and obtained our charitable status.

Some of Hilda's books remain in the our library today, and this important collection of books has been added to by the Society over the years, and is now shelved at Sulgrave Manor. The books are currently being catalogued, ready for a list to be added to the Members Only section in due course. The society also have a large collection of magazines and all the back issues of our journal 'Herbs' including older editions when the journal was called The Herbal Review.

Donations of books and herbal items e.g. pestle and mortars, old herb jars, herb prints etc are most welcome. We would like to give our thanks to members who have already donated books to the Society's library.

We plan to have a computer in the library with copies of documents and some of the rarer and more fragile books not on display on the shelves currently. Members will be able to virtually browse these titles, along with an index of all the photos, documents and publications we have in our archives. Which will be available as copies for a nominal fee.


Our library as it looked when Debs took over the responsibilty of Librarian in early 2008. The bottom shelves were mostly magazines and periodicals and there were several boxes of books that still hadn't been unpacked.	And as it looked in late September 2008, note the paper publications and magazines are now housed inside the cupboards in the room. All the books are now unpacked and half of the collection has been catalogued.

Herb Society members can have access to the library by appointment,
please contact Flick to arrange a day and time.