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Robert Marnock was one of the outstanding horticulturalists and garden designers of the 19th century and was considered by his contemporaries to be the best exponent of the gardenesque school of landscape gardening.

Before he came to Sheffield, Marnock worked as the head gardener in Bretton Hall (now the Yorkshire Sculpture Park), Wakefield. He was appointed by the Sheffield Botanical and Horticultural Society in 1834 to design and lay out the Botanical Gardens, at an annual salary of £100. Marnock designed the Botanical Gardens in the then highly fashionable Gardenesque style. He became the first Curator of the Gardens in 1836.

In 1840, Marnock moved on to lay out the Gardens of the Royal Botanic Society of London in Regent's Park and was appointed as the Gardens' Curator on the advice of J.C. Loudon. He left this post in 1869 but continued to practise in his profession as a landscape gardener until 1879. There are some other Robert Marnock Gardens which can be visited.

"Mr Marnock has evidently an excellent taste in landscape gardening, and may be regarded, in this point of view, as a valuable acquisition to the part of the country in which he is situated"