GTNEWS ISSUE 11 • Autumn 2019

Research • Conserve • Campaign

Front cover image: In the Deanery Garden at Christ Church, Oxford, we were delighted to see the very tree in which the Cheshire Cat (dis)appeared to a young and enquiring Alice. The ancient horse-chestnut tree is suffering, as so many of its kind are, and although it has been propagated, this offshoot is also GT unwell. GT Oxford Conference 2019. NEWS Photo by Charles Boot. ISSUE 11 • AUTUMN 2019

Join Us If you or someone you know is not a member, please join us! Contents Your support is vital to helping in brief the Gardens Trust to protect and campaign for historic designed News and Campaigns landscapes. Benefits include Annual General Meeting 2019 report 5 GT News, our journal Garden GT launches new membership drive 6 History, and access to exclusive Sharing Repton 6 member events. A special rate is Unforgettable Gardens 7 available to County Garden Trust Gilly Drummond Volunteer of the Year members. Join today at: Award 2019 8 thegardenstrust.org/support-us/ Parks & Gardens (UK) update 9 “A very fine Shepherdess”, NRS report 11 Features Mavis Batey and Nuneham Courtenay 14 Mavis Batey and Oxford 17 The Garden History Society and the Conservation of Parks and Gardens, Mavis Batey 1990 20 Conservation and the Climate Emergency 28 www.thegardenstrust.org The Memorable Garden at Bottengoms 33 The Highbury Pergola Project 35 The Gardens Trust head office: 70 Cowcross Street, Events London EC1M 6EJ Members’ Meet-Up, Bristol 37 phone: 020 7608 2409 London Lectures 2020 38 general email: [email protected] Birmingham Hagley Hall lecture and visit 40 Company number: 03163187 Gardens Study Tour to south-east Ireland 41 Registered Charity number: 1053446 Welwyn Garden City Study Day 42 Annual Conference and AGM 2020, Richmond and Wensleydale 43 Copy deadline for Spring 2020 Grapevine Courses 45 Copy deadline for the Spring issue 12 1 February 2020 for distribution Events Diary 47 in March 2020 David Marsh at the back of his shed Anniversaries

e’ve celebrated 300 years of was the general response. But for The trouble is there are always WMr Brown and 200 years of many people there’s no stopping great names to remember, and Mr Repton and re-assessed their the appeal of a big round number, there’s a big danger that our work contribution and legacy to great and since then we’ve been asked becomes dominated by trying to acclaim, but I somehow get the what we’re planning to do to keep up with the calendar rollcall. feeling that we as an organization mark the 300th anniversary of the It’s not that we are trying to were in danger of becoming a death of John Evelyn, the 200th ignore Evelyn, the greatest garden little fixated on anniversaries. anniversary of the death of Joseph writer of his day, nor Banks who I’m probably saying that because Banks, or the 500th of the birth was effectively the founder of with a significantly large birthday of William Cecil, Lord Burghley; Kew as a serious botanic garden, cropping up myself next year I’m great gardeners all. and the man who devised the trying not to be obsessed with idea of economic botany, but such big numbers. luckily there are others who guard As we said goodbye to Humphry and promulgate their memory at the end of 2018 it was clear probably more effectively than we that was a more general view, and can ourselves. Part of the reason much though we loved what had that our work around Humphry happened there was a sense of Repton was so effective was relief that it was over. Humphry because we used his life and work had dominated and now we could as a way of engaging with people move on to look at other things. who had probably never heard of At a Trust Board meeting someone him before the project started, and said “Well at least there aren’t getting them to understand a little any major figures looming over more about the background to the us and demanding our attention historic green spaces they enjoy in 2019.” There was, however, a using today. gasp or two and a grimace or three That’s why, despite some initial when I mentioned that it was the misgivings I’m very keen on our 100th anniversary of the death of next big theme; Unforgettable Sir Frank Crisp [see GT news 10] Gardens. It’s nice and open-ended and why weren’t we going make and allows a wide range of things a big fuss of the man who built to happen in different parts of the the Matterhorn in Henley. And, country, but all under the same I went on, what about the man umbrella. It will help continue in the upper photo, the most to develop our relationship with prolific garden maker of his age, the Royal Horticultural Society, who also died in 1919, or the man and especially the Lindley Library, in the lower photo whose book building on our current small on Britain’s wildflowers is still input into their professional a well-loved standard work. No training programme, and the more of such things for a while, garden history courses I’ve run

4 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 news & campaigns Annual General Meeting for them. With any luck those Report from The Honorary Secretary on The Gardens Trust’s County Gardens Trusts who have Annual General Meeting 2019, held at the Queen’s College, RHS gardens on their patch will Oxford, on Saturday 7 September 2019 be able to get involved with the exhibitions that the RHS are he Gardens Trust’s fifth Chairman, Honorary Treasurer, putting on, or even offer joint TAnnual General Meeting and Committees, together with events with the gardens. That was held at the Queen’s College, President’s closing remarks, will level of co-operation might even Oxford on Saturday 7 September form part of the papers for the be extendable to the much larger 2019. There were eighty-two 2020 Annual General Meeting. number of RHS partner gardens. attendees and thirty apologies for Reports on the Membership It will also mean that we can absence. Drive; our Unforgettable Gardens celebrate all those ‘little’ people, The Events Committee, theme for 2020–22; Sharing all those smaller places, the local especially Virginia Hinze, Repton; and new training projects landmarks and follies, and all Directors, volunteers and appear over the next few pages those ‘minor’ historical events that staff were thanked for all the of GT NEWS, as well as for the make our parks and gardens so preparations and arrangements for Gilly Drummond Volunteer of the special. the Conference and AGM. Year Award, and an update on the And it doesn’t mean that we The Report and Accounts for the parks&gardens.org data base. won’t celebrate big number year ended 31 December 2018 anniversaries. There will, for were laid before the members example, be a special Joseph Banks and Averillo & Associates were lecture by Jordan Goodman his re-appointed as Independent biographer, and our blog will be Examiners. Under the Trust’s featuring both the men pictured Articles of Association, one third before the end of the year. So, if of the Directors were required you haven’t guessed who they are to stand down and could offer already, please sign up to have a themselves for re-election. Dr mini-garden history article, with David Marsh, Maureen Nolan and lots of pictures, drop into your Peter Waine stood down and were in-box before breakfast every re-elected for a further three-year Charles Boot Saturday morning. And we can term. Christine Addison stood Susan Oldham is presented with the mark such big number events down at the AGM, resulting in a 15th Annnual Mavis Batey Essay Prize by in other ways too, as you’ll see vacancy on the Board which was Gardens Trust President Dominic Cole, when we mark what would have filled by Thadian Pillai, who was with David Marsh in the background. been the 100th birthday of Ted elected a Director. Fawcett, one of the great pioneers Reports for 2018 were included The winner of the Mavis Batey of garden history and a stalwart of in the Notice of The Annual Essay Prize Susan Oldham, the Garden History Society, next General Meeting 2019 and announced in our last issue, was year. So big numbers need not be Annual Report 2018, previously presented with her prize by our too frightening after all, as I keep distributed. Minutes of the AGM President Dominc Cole. reminding myself! 2019, including reports from the Maureen Nolan

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 5 news and campaigns Gardens Trust launches new membership drive

he Gardens Trust is recognised Tfor its leading national role with respect to parks and gardens, with flagship work as a statutory consultee in the planning system, unique efforts to support and nurture local volunteers, and ground- breaking initiatives to encourage the sharing of historic parks and gardens with wide audiences. However, for all this, we cannot survive without the financial support of our membership, nor could we receive the grants we receive without significant non-grant income. For example, Historic England grants require that we have a high percentage Charles Boot of other income. Individual Gardens Trust and Yorkshire Gardens Trust members at the entrance to Ray Wood, membership income, which is our Castle Howard, North Yorkshire. Gardens Trust Study Day, July 2019. largest source of other non-grant income, is accordingly essential if The membership drive will in get involved in their activities we are to continue to obtain these future also aim to achieve new and conservation at a local level, grants and to support our core members from other organisations and meet people near to you with activities, including our working and audiences. common interests. with and supporting County We also urge Gardens Trust Details of all the CGTs can be Gardens Trusts. Hence, a large members to consider joining an found at: thegardenstrust.org/ and healthy individual Gardens appropriate County Gardens about-us/find-local-cgts/. Please Trust membership is essential Trust, which will mean you can mention us when joining! to the survival of the Gardens Trust into the future. We very much appreciate your support Sharing Repton, at which we welcomed 300 guests as members, especially as we Sharing of all ages and backgrounds, continue to grow our ambitions. the Adventure thanks to the park’s impressive To help ensure our survival into Friends group. the future, the Gardens Trust is ur Lottery project, We hope very much that our launching a multi-year effort to OSharing Repton: Historic experiences on this project will build its individual membership. Landscapes for All is now in inspire and encourage others to This began in September 2019 its final months, but the pace have their own try at sharing with a publicity drive amongst has not slowed! In September, historic parks and gardens with County Gardens Trusts to Northamptonshire GT organised new people. encourage their local members to an excursion to Wicksteed Park On Thursday 28 November in also join the Gardens Trust. By for residents of a care home Birmingham (see 37) we will be way of incentive, there is now a specialising in dementia, and our exploring the project’s ups and special discounted rate of £25 for very own annual Family Picnic downs at Sharing the Adventure: County Gardens Trust members took the form of a Heritage Open a Case Study Day to help you also joining the Gardens Trust. Day at Repton’s Grovelands Park, reach morepPeople; do join us.

6 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 news and campaigns

Unforgettable Gardens: The Gardens Trust stretches its training get involved, 2020–22 tentacles! e are delighted that this n recent years the Gardens This is our opportunity to show Wautumn the Gardens Trust ITrust has been delighted by the off the sector’s hard work, and has been commissioned to deliver results of working collaboratively hopefully attract new volunteers training to external volunteers, to themes such as the Capability and supporters! We will be calling working closely with local County Brown Festival (2016) and this Unforgettable Gardens, Gardens Trusts also. Celebrating Repton (2018). For and would welcome anyone who our next theme we would like would like to join in by organising to highlight threats to historic events, research, activities or more. designed landscapes, conservation Contact: and research and recording, [email protected] and the invaluable efforts of if you or your organisation would organisations and volunteers. like to get involved.

The Gardens Trust Family Picnic goes The Land of the Fanns volunteers to Grovelands at the Essex Record Office. The Land of the Fanns ‘Know It, his year our annual Family Love It Project’ has seen 22 new TPicnic combined with a volunteers from the Essex-London Heritage Open Day organised by borders trained to read a landscape the Friends of Grovelands Park on the ground, use archives, in Enfield, London, and we were and complete basic surveys and delighted to welcome 300 guests Statements of Significance. Our on a gloriously sunny September thanks to Twigs Way for delivering day. The Friends laid on a huge this training on our behalf. and spectacular exhibition [right] The ‘Investigating Historic on the history of Grovelands, Parklands’ project with the which is perhaps of most interest Greensand Country Landscape Linden Groves to us as having been designed by Partnership has welcomed new Humphry Repton, and our own volunteers from Bedfordshire to Linden Groves ran an afternoon learn how to read a landscape of traditional garden games in her and use archives, but this time alter ego of Hahahopscotch. be trained specifically to support If you, personally or with your consultants to deliver ‘Condition County Gardens Trust, would Assessments’ of historic landscapes, be interested in co-hosting our as well as ‘Enrich the List’ and Family Picnic in 2020 or beyond, write ‘Statements of Significance’. do get in touch with Linden at: Both these projects have been [email protected] fabulous opportunities to extend the reach of our training offer, hopefully attracting new trained The Friends of Grovelands Park laid on volunteers for the local County a huge exhibition at our 2019 Family Gardens Trusts, and we would love Picnic, whilst Linden entertained the to hear from anyone interested in children with traditional garden games. Linden Groves working with us on a similar basis.

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 7 news and campaigns The Gilly Drummond Volunteer of the Year Award 2019

he annual Volunteer of the Conservation TYear Award celebrates the Management Plans dedication of people who have contributed to the work of the n January of this year the Gardens Trust or their County Ichairman of the National Gardens Trust (CGT), which Lottery Heritage Fund wrote to increases the enjoyment, learning confirm that, in order to save and conservation of designed storage costs, they had destroyed gardens, parks and landscapes. their unique archive of thousands This year, the panel of judges of Conservation Management comprised: Jenifer White (Chair), Plan. You may have seen the Kate Harwood, and Maureen Nolan. leading article in The Times, or the

There were five nominations Charles Boot letter signed by 150 academics, including one group and the Gilly Drummond praises, and thanks, consultants and Garden Trust nominees were: our Prize winners at the Oxford AGM. members in protest. • Vicky Basford, Isle of Wight GT The Hestercombe Gardens • Elizabeth Bowskill, Lincolnshire GT Judith Christie and Juliet Wilmot. Trust has, over the last five years, • Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust Both Judith and Juliet have been managed to acquire some 750 Research and Recording Group committed and loyal supporters of CMPs perhaps a third of those • Judith Christie, Cambridge GT their Trusts and have helped their that have been produced to date. • Juliet Wilmot, Wiltshire GT Trusts grow and extend their reach. Our intention is, that as well as The judges were impressed with Judith has played an important providing a unique resource for all the submissions, which were role over a long time in nurturing researchers, academics and the well presented and supported by and guiding her Trust and Juliet public, the reports will eventually more than one member. Normally, has pioneered and developed be digitised and incorporated into there is one overall winner of the outstanding education outreach the Parks & Gardens Database for Award but the judges felt that two initiatives. Unfortunately, neither of the benefit of all. nominees stood out as making an the winners was able to attend the We would be very grateful outstanding contribution to their AGM to receive the Award, but the to hear from anyone, owners, CGT. The Panel members agreed news and the Award were passed on consultants, or individuals, who unanimously that the Award to them with many congratulations would feel able to donate or allow should be presented jointly to after the AGM. us to copy their CMP so that it may be preserved for posterity. Philip White Volunteer for the Gardens Trust

f you might have an interest organising events in different Iin further supporting the parts of the country, or indeed work of the Gardens Trust by worldwide, tracking our volunteering to help, we would planning successes or developing love to hear from you. news stories. This need not be time If you would like to learn consuming, the amount of more, please contact our time you spend will be up to Administrator, Louise Cooper: you. We can always use help in [email protected] our communications efforts,

8 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 news and campaigns

Parks & Gardens (UK) report at The Gardens Trust AGM 2019

At our recent AGM Philip White, Chairman of the Hestercombe Gardens Trust, host of parks&gardens.org as it is now, explained the current situation regarding the developing database, its management and its relationship with the collection of Conservation Management Plans also being built up at Hestercombe.

s you may be aware, in 2017 is functioning well — although The project has not been without Athe Hestercombe Gardens we still have some way to go. its challenges, especially from a Trust took over stewardship of the If you have visited the site staffing point of view. Our part- Parks & Gardens UK Database recently, you will notice that time Data Manager unfortunately website with the support of a it is faster to load, has a much had to step back from the project Transition Funding grant from improved visual identity, and is in March, and we are now in the the Heritage Lottery Fund. With fully mobile-responsive. Using process of finding a replacement, this funding in place, we moved a modern, open-source Content which for such a specialised forward with various technical Management System has made the project, has not been easy. We are developments to protect the data inputting and web editing hopeful that a new Data Manager integrity of the database and ensure much simpler; and whereas the will be appointed soon. smooth operation of the website, old system was bespoke and In the meantime, the which had been developed over needed constant maintenance and Hestercombe Marketing Manager the preceding 11 years. At the time upgrades, this has regular software has stepped in to guide the project of my last report one year ago, updates from the Craft system on a part-time basis; he has a web we were at the testing stage of the developers, thus making it much and digital background and has revamped database, and the new more reliable and robust. kept the ball moving whilst we website had not yet been published. The database, consisting of consolidate the Parks and Gardens I am happy to report that almost 10,000 records of parks, team. One priority is to keep the the new website went live in gardens and designed landscapes, News and Events pages updated March of this year, and the site was successfully moved by with new content, be it press developers Yello onto the new releases from the Gardens Trust, system, at which point a great raft book reviews, and interesting of inconsistencies and data errors stories from individual County were discovered. Whilst many Gardens Trusts and estates. We thousands of these were cleansed are always on the lookout for new during the transition process, we content, so if you have any, please are still finding many legacy data email it to us at: errors as we go, which we compile [email protected] onto an ‘action’ list, along with The data input team consists of other user experience and technical a number of volunteers, including errors. These are actioned on a members of the Somerset Gardens monthly basis to keep the website Trust, who join us at Hestercombe moving forward. for a few hours each week. They

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 9 news and campaigns have been keen to take on new Trusts submit their surveys to be considerations is how we make responsibilities and are proving inputted to the Parks and Gardens this whole project sustainable invaluable to the progress of the database. for the future. To this end, we project. The recording form, which is have reintroduced ‘Adsense’, a Now, to update you on some of now over 10 years old, has been key revenue tool showing what the results of our efforts so far I identified as a problem for some I have been promised are relevant am pleased to report that there has time. It does not match well adverts. We are also exploring been a consistent growth in organic with the database fields and, as the possibility of including links traffic month on month from the a result, many County Gardens to gardens open to the public in beginning of this year ranging Trusts have developed their own exchange for a small fee on the from 5% to 33% and within the survey templates. This in turn not basis that the website already last month alone there were nearly only creates considerable extra attracts a great deal of traffic 54,000 users of the website. work for the Parks and Gardens which, with careful management, The search functionality has volunteers as they try to unpick can only increase. recently been much improved, the information before entering As I have mentioned before using Google Maps’ ‘clustering’ it into the database but also often some County Gardens Trusts to show relevant results, with results in vital data being omitted. are considering developing their better filters; and the homepage own databases but without search box has been made easier spending a great deal of money to use. The whole experience has we need CGTs to fully and manpower these would not also been made faster and more embrace the new have the capacity, power or reach responsive for users. of the Parks & Gardens website, There have been swathes of much format if we are to which now stands at over 600,000 smaller technical updates, but one continue to develop unique users a year. There are recent and key development has some older CGT databases which, been the introduction of ‘location’ parks&gardens.org although innovative in their time, landing pages which will play a for the future are now out of date and often key part of our Search Engine entirely reliant on one or two Optimisation strategy. Every members to input and edit the location landing page will display The database can only ever be as information, which is often not a long-form description of each good as the data that has been fully searchable. county and its gardens. This, in inputted and missing data means In due course we shall be writing turn, will attract large numbers that the database cannot be fully to every County Gardens Trust of website users who will read the searchable. We have discovered offering them the opportunity to description and see a list of all hundreds of sites without site piggyback their reporting, databases, the recorded gardens, parks and coordinates which means that they image collections, planning histories designed landscapes for that county. cannot be mapped and may end etc on to the P&G website with Your help is vital in developing up not being listed at all. Now all the benefits of its very powerful this resource and we would ask with Google maps when you are search capacity but with the each County Gardens Trust to recording a site you only have to possibility of controlled access and prepare their own description, identify the position of the park login for their own County Gardens based on a template we have or garden and the coordinates Trust members. created. This is a tried and tested will appear as if by magic. With We intend to offer a short menu technique that many large online the advice and expertise of our of options to which individual retailers use that will help promote volunteers, we are refining the County Gardens Trusts will be able the on-line position of the P&G form, and will circulate it when to subscribe. The Hestercombe website and drive more traffic ready but we urgently need CGTs Gardens Trust is a charity and has thereby making it more secure for to fully embrace the new format no interest in making money out the future. if we are to continue to develop of Parks & Gardens UK — only I am pleased to report that we are parks&gardens.org for the future. that it should survive into the now starting to make headway in As you know, given the financial future and be sustainable long refining the ‘Research Recording state of the database when we term. The more CGTs who join Form’, whereby County Gardens took it over, one of our key with us the safer it will become.

10 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 “A very fine Shepherdess” Jemima Marchioness Grey and the gardens of Wrest Park Jemima Hubberstey

fter a series of family tragedies New Research Symposium 2019, Oxford Aleft her sole heiress of the emima is currently undertaking Bedfordshire, from 1740–1760, Duke of Kent’s estate, Jemima Ja Collaborative Doctoral Award using the circle’s ideas to explore Marchioness Grey inherited Wrest with the University of Oxford and the intersections between Park in 1740.1 Her marriage English Heritage. Her research country house literary culture to Philip Yorke, second Earl of focuses on the literary coterie and garden design in the mid- Hardwicke, was a pre-requisite to that flourished at Wrest Park in eighteenth century. her inheritance, but their mutual interests in literature, history, antiquities and landscape design made their union a successful one. They invited friends to Wrest, establishing a circle of writers, intellectuals, and gardeners. Although the coterie’s ideas would inspire some of the landscape’s features, the gardens had great personal significance to Grey, who had grown up there in the 1730s. Friends remarked upon her centrality to the gardens at Wrest, nicknaming her ‘Graia’,2 both punning on her family name ‘Grey’ and comparing her to the Greek goddess ‘Gaia’, the personification of Mother Earth. This paper explores the significance of Grey’s personal attachment to Wrest, demonstrating her integral role in overseeing developments in its landscape.

1 James Collet-White, ‘Yorke [nee Campbell], Jemima, suo jure Marchioness Grey’, Body: footnote Oxford Dictionary National Biography, [accessed 19th April 2019]. 2 Thomas Edwards, ‘Sonnet XXV’, Canons of Criticism, (London, 1758), p.305. Jemima, Marchioness Gray by Allan Ramsay, 1741

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 11 New Research Symposium

For both Philip Yorke and Jemima Grey, Wrest Park became a rural retreat where they could enjoy their intellectual pursuits, walks around the garden, and the company of their friends. As a result, the garden and library at Wrest formed the nexus of social and intellectual activity, and it is no surprise that Jemima Grey herself should feature in so many of the coterie’s literary compositions. Although she does not appear to have written poetry or prose herself, her letters reveal that she was a keen literary critic and an avid reader. For the members of the coterie, she may even have been regarded as a muse figure. Thomas Edwards, the architect of the root-house, particularly capitalises on the idea of ‘Graia’ The Root House, Wrest Park. as a muse figure in a sonnet that he wrote for her, in which The Root-house had a further Grey would jokingly refer to his hermitage at Turrick in personal relevance to the Wrest herself as a ‘very fine Shepherdess’,4 Buckinghamshire corresponds coterie, as it alluded to the although sadly, the fawn died not with the root-house at Wrest: fictional Athenian Letters that they long after. Her ‘shepherdess’ role had composed almost a decade would continue, although perhaps The Beechen Roots of before from 1739–1743, in which in not so much of a romanticised wood-clad Buckingham the authors feigned ‘translations’ pastoral sense. On June 12th To Bedford Elms, their courteous of Cleander, an agent of the King 1750, she wrote to her aunt, Mary breth’ren, send Health and kind greeting, as of Persia during the Peloponnesian Gregory, that she was: from friend to friend, wars. While Grey was not a ‘at present engaged in And gladly join to celebrate their contributor, she enjoyed reading reclaiming the Wildness & fame; the letters and delved into the roving Dispositions of some Beyond all roots above ground imaginative realm that the letters Peacocks & teach[ing] them to we proclame evoked. In a letter to her friend be content with the Bounds of You happiest, destin’d all your Catherine Talbot, she remarked: the Garden.’5 days to spend ‘My Y: is gone to Cambridge The literary and pastoral tropes In Wrests fair groves, and Graia […] &Body has left me to aside, Jemima Grey was clearly to defend inhabit the Root-Hermitage a knowledgeable and practical From Eurus’ blasts, and Phoebus sultry flame; & recommend myself to the manager of her estate. Although High Privilege to you, though protection of Mithras (you must her husband also seems to have dead, accorded, know I have been deeply engaged enjoyed spending time in the Which every living tree with in the Athenian Letters of late).’ 3 gardens at Wrest, it was Grey envy views! The landscape was not only who both oversaw the day-to-day We envy not, but pray for your imbued with literary allusions, management. Practically speaking, stability; but it also represented something too, since Philip Yorke was often Proud, that ourselves by Graia of a pastoral idyll to Grey. Upon called to London on parliamentary are regarded, acquiring a small fawn that would business, it was Grey who would At her command we not the fire follow her around the gardens, remain at Wrest and manage refuse, But chearful [sic] blaze and burn with Affability. 3 Bedford, Bedfordshire Archives and 4 BARS, L30/9a/1, fol.34 Records Service, L30/9a/6 fol.21. 5 BARS, L30/ 9a/2 fol.43.

12 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 New Research Symposium the estate. Her letters reveal half a Guinea a piece.’6 behalf, continuing a form of ‘long both a practical and economic In later years, Grey’s daughter, distance’ gardening.7 understanding of the garden, Mary Jemima, would recall Evidently, Wrest Park had and in one letter to her husband, witnessing her mother getting strong personal and emotional she shows particular knowledge herself ‘knee deep of new made significance to Jemima Grey. For of gardening activities that have earth’ while visiting her aunt’s the ‘Fine Shepherdess’, Wrest was taken place, as well as the costs new ‘Capability’ Brown landscape both a practical garden that she involved. at Moor-Park in 1755. Clearly, could enjoy, but it also provided ‘Pray let me ask while I think of Grey was not the sort of woman the opportunity for rural retreat it whether you would have any to stick to the paths and view the and a means of allowing the new Pine apple Plants got this garden from afar. Whenever Grey literary and pastoral imagination year because this is the season could not be at Wrest, she would to amplify the experience of the for it. There has been but one of request information about the gardens. ours you know fruited this year, gardens, and once her daughters but the Plants are alive & may were old enough to oversee the 7 Twigs Way, Integrated Report, Catalogue, Fruit the next, & so should those gardens themselves, Grey would Report, and Index of Entries Relevant to that were cut the last Summer, also ask them to instruct the WREST PARK, (Unpublished English but if you would have some more gardeners or estate officials on her Heritage Report, 2012), p.8. that you can better depend upon let me know what number & I 6 London, British Library, Hardwicke Further extracts from the NRS will send for them. The plants are Papers, Add MS 35605, fol.20. 2019 will appear in our next issue.

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GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 13 Oxford & after Conservation histories

ur Annual Conference 2019 formation of the GHS, it was Bletchley Park code-breaker Owas based in Oxford, a city certainly a contributing factor, to campaigner for parks and with which the Garden History as we shall see. gardens completed. The Society and Gardens Trust has One of our visits was to following pages are a tribute had a long association. Arguably Nuneham Courtenay, the to Nuneham and Mavis, and it was the plan to put a ‘relief cradle where Mavis Batey was bring the story of conservation road’ through the Christ Church formed as a garden historian, campaigns right up to date. meadows which led to the her metamorphosis from Mavis Batey and Nuneham Courtenay a personal memoir Professor Malcom Airs

t was the eighteenth-century in its historic or cultural value. Iestate of the Harcourts at They had bought it with the sole Nuneham Courtenay that object of finding a cheap location inspired Mavis Batey to become for the storage of books for the a historian of great distinction Bodleian Library on a site that and a passionate advocate for the was close to Oxford. Inspired by protection of historic gardens. walks in the park with her young After an effective and highly family and the university lectures secret career during the war as of W.G.Hoskins, Mavis began to code-breakers at Bletchley Park, research the history of the estate. Mavis and her husband Keith Within a year she had published a came to live at Nuneham in 1967 seminal paper on the transplanted when Keith was appointed the village which established it as chief financial officer of Oxford the subject of Oliver Goldsmith’s University. When they arrived the poem The Deserted Village. She ‘Capability’ Brown landscape was became fascinated with William neglected and overgrown. It was Mason’s pioneering flower garden still littered with the temporary and its connection with Rousseau huts which remained from its who had found refuge in the wartime requisition by the RAF. village after exile from France. The estate had been sold by Lord In 1970 she wrote a history Harcourt to the University in of the estate which promoted Paul Sandby’s 1777 view of Mason’s Flower 1948 but they had little interest the importance of successive Garden, looking towards the Temple of Flora.

14 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 Conservation histories generations of Harcourts in the indefatigable campaigner for the enthusiasm for its importance. history of the English garden. official recognition of historic Although many of the individual For his part, Keith persuaded the parks and gardens as an indivisible buildings on the estate were listed, University to provide the funds component of our national the designation of the historic for the restoration of the mansion heritage. An essential milestone park was ten years away and its which, as she later described it to in achieving this goal was the integrity as a planned landscape me, had long been ‘a millstone Town and Country Amenities was unprotected. Over the next round their neck. He had always Act of 1974 which, for the first few years we acted in concert to hoped that it would have been a time, gave the Historic Buildings preserve that unity by seeking suitable place for External Studies Council the power to make grants to influence our respective in the same way as Madingley Hall for the preservation of gardens of institutions. Despite Mavis’s best is for Cambridge.’ outstanding historic interest. In efforts, the Land Committee of the The Bateys only lived in order to establish whether they University initially continued to Nuneham for five years before qualified as outstanding; it was view Nuneham as an opportunity in 1972 Keith took up a new necessary to compile a list of the for development. The mansion position asTreasurer of Christ significance of individual gardens was a particular problem for Church where his rooms and Mavis engaged with this task them as various uses failed. After overlooked the Deanery garden. with boundless energy. its restoration it was leased as a Mavis was delighted to find The result was the Register of teachers’ training college which that it was the setting for Alice’s Parks and Gardens of Special closed in 1978. For the next Adventures in Wonderland, Historic Interest in England which ten years it was a management particularly as Lewis Carroll’s later was first published by the newly- centre for the cigarette company story of Alice Through the Looking established English Heritage Rothmans before the University Glass partly took place in the in 1984, and which included granted a 125-years lease to a woods at Nuneham. Nuneham at Grade I. As well as dubious American entrepreneur The year before the move the Register, English Heritage set whose ambitious plans for a luxury Mavis had been appointed the up an advisory panel on Historic hotel ended in bankruptcy. It then Secretary of the Garden History Parks and Gardens on which lay empty for several years before Society where she became an Mavis served from its inception. the lease was taken over by its At the same time she acted as a part-time tutor for the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education where she promoted the academic discipline of garden history with a series of memorable conferences. I met Mavis in 1974 when I was appointed as Conservation Officer to the new South Oxfordshire District Council. One of my first tasks was to inspect the Carfax Conduit at Nuneham which had just been restored by the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works after being dismantled during the war. We already had many connections in common as I had been a research student of Hoskins and I also acted as a tutor for the Wikimedia Wassell, Stephen commons Department. Prior to our meeting The Carfax Conduit building in the she sent me a copy of her history grounds of Nuneham House, Oxfordshire. of the Nuneham estate and I Removed from Oxford in 1787, it is now immediately succumbed to her in the care of Englsh Heritage.

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 15 Conservation histories

trunk load of Nuneham records which are now back with me and it was suggested that they might join the Harcourt mss in the Bodleian.’ Mavis died in 2013 at the age of 92 having served the Garden History Society as its President from 1985–2000, and then as a Vice President. In 1986 she was awarded the MBE for services to the conservation of historic gardens. She was a remarkable woman of great charm and with an endearing sense of humour. She was a fastidious scholar who generously shared her discoveries with others and she had a unique ability to persuade others of the importance Newnham Court, Oxfordshire, the Seat of Lord Harcourt. W Angus, 1793 of the causes that she championed. In an interview Mavis once said present tenants who operate it as a defined boundary did not include that ‘I hope that as many people spiritual retreat. the village.This was rectified as possible will visit and love However, the attitude of the in December 1984 when an gardens, and that their history University began to shift when enormous conservation area of will become as much part of our their proposal to fill Brown’s nearly 420 hectares was designated lives as poetry or painting.’ That walled garden with further that embraced the whole designed vision has undoubtedly been warehousing for the Bodleian was landscape. At the time it was fulfilled. Amongst all her many refused on appeal in a decision certainly the largest conservation other achievements, her legacy which emphasised the historic area in Oxfordshire and possibly has ensured that what Horace importance of the landscaped in the whole country. Hitherto Walpole called ‘one of the most park. In 1978, when they decided most conservation areas had been beautiful landscapes in the world’ that they could no longer afford confined to the built environment at Nuneham is now fully protected the cost of modernising the and it was a bold move for a for future generations to enjoy cottages in the village, they rural local authority to designate even though the University has approached the District Council such a broad sweep of open now sold the estate to new owners. to explore ways of retaining its landscape. Needless to say, it was distinctive character as an estate partly the result of the gentle village.Together a unique legal pressure applied by Mavis who agreement was devised which was cited a similar designed park in signed in August 1980 by all the Staffordshire as a precedent. tenants as well as the University Mavis continued to keep an eye and the Council which requires on Nuneham long after she had specific permission for the smallest retired to Sussex. In December change to the cottages and 2009 she wrote enthusiastically to their settings. After nearly forty tell me that finally the University years and countless changes of had commissioned a conservation ownership, the intention of the management plan for the whole agreement seems to be standing estate and was exploring ways of up well. re-establishing the link between Despite its inclusion on the the Arboretum and the rest of the English Heritage Register, in landscape. Characteristically, she itself that gave the park no added that ‘needless to say I had Courtesy of Keith and Mavis Batey statutory protection and the a finger in the pie by providing a Haro’s tribute to a tour of Nuneham, 1970s.

16 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 Conservation histories Mavis Batey and Oxford David Lambert

on firms in neutral countries and attending the opening night. supplying goods to Germany. She always said she was able to One day, her more experienced keep the memories alive by talking colleagues were puzzling over a to Keith, her husband, who was place-name, St Goch, and, with also a Bletchley code-breaker a genius for lateral thinking we and whom she married in 1942. all came to know in her garden Her boss, Dilly Knox, whom she history life, she asked the simple thought the real overlooked genius question, how are capital letters of Bletchley, said of her and her represented in Morse code? colleague Margaret Rock, ‘Give me When the answer came that they a Lever and Rock and I can move weren’t, she realised it wasn’t a the universe.’ Welsh village at all but Santiago, After the war she and Keith, Chile. Impressed, in early 1940 embarked on a peripatetic life her superiors sent her off, still with Keith working for the only eighteen, to the now famous Foreign Office, before settling in GCCS station at Bletchley Park Farnham in Surrey in the 1950s. Nick Bennett where she joined the newly formed She raised three children and also avis Batey was born Mavis Enigma research team. began to explore the history of the MLever, in Dulwich in south Mavis’s part in cracking the first countryside around her, always London, in 1921, one of two two Enigma codes is well known paying tribute to the inspiration children; her father was a postman now. When the restrictions of of WG Hoskins whose Making of and her mother a seamstress. At the Official Secrets Act lifted, the English Landscape appeared in her convent school in Croydon after years of silence, she found 1955. She particularly admired she discovered a talent for modern new celebrity as a go-to source his approach to what he called languages and at seventeen went of information on the story of ‘observables’, and would later to University College London to Bletchley, advising Kate Winslett comment of the Oxfordshire study German and French. As a on her part in the film Enigma landscape that ‘it was all of a student she joined in anti-Fascist demonstrations in support of Republican Spain and protested outside the German embassy after Kristallnacht. The worsening situation in Germany meant a placement at a university there was unwise and she went to Zurich instead but with the declaration of war in 1939 she returned to London and applied for war work at the Foreign Office. Because of her fluent German she was sent to the Government Code and Cypher School at Broadway Buildings, St James’s and began breaking commercial codes providing intelligence to the

Ministry of Economic Warfare Courtesy of Keith and Mavis Batey

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 17 Conservation histories piece — villages, Roman roads, The first fruit of her new career The Nuneham research vernacular architecture, ridge and was the impeccably researched and introduced her to the Garden furrow, scholar gypsies,William influential article in Oxoniensia History Society, formed in Morris, [and] Capability Brown.’ in 1968, pinpointing Nuneham 1965, and she agreed to become Keith was appointed Secretary as the inspiration of Oliver Honorary Secretary in 1972. to the Oxford University Chest in Goldsmith’s The Deserted Village. She led the GHS to develop 1964, a post he held until moving She became active in conservation as a campaigning conservation to become Treasurer of Christ rather than just academic history, body rather than just a learned Church in 1972, and Mavis’s serving on the committees of society and in the first few years garden history career began after both the Oxfordshire CPRE of her involvement, the GHS they took a lease on the Old Town and the Oxford Civic Society, fought threats to many parks House at Nuneham. Mavis later and her interest was always and gardens: road schemes at recalled, ‘When I cut my way into wider than just gardens:she Beckley Park in Oxfordshire (now Mason’s flower garden, almost later recalled campaigning in under threat again), Petworth in losing a small daughter in the 1967 for the protection of the Sussex, Levens in Cumbria and undergrowth, I had the feeling not watercress beds in the village of Chillington in Staffordshire, a so much that it was a garden that Ewelme. In Oxford, she lectured sewage works at Audley End in was derelict, as that somebody had at the University Department for Essex, and development proposals once tried to say something there.’ Continuing Education, where she at Summerhill in Bath and in the She began to explore the history became a part-time tutor in 1970, vista from Vanbrugh’s Castle at of the place, and to bring her and ran courses for the Workers’ Greenwich. In 1977, as part of the Bletchley skills for understanding Educational Association on campaign to rescue the neglected a coded language to bear on the Oxfordshire landscape history as masterpiece, Painshill in Surrey, English landscape garden. well as on gardens. she put the case for funding at the parliamentary inquiry into the National Land Fund, and Painshill Nuneham Courtenay: not just a garden became the first landscape garden to benefit from grant-aid from the Georgina Craufurd new National Heritage Memorial Nuneham Courtenay will be Fund when it was formed in 1980. recognised by many a ‘blue and On the strategic front, one of white’ china collector. Here it her early successes was working is immortalised on a Pearlware with the Civic Trust to introduce dish, and though the house seems the idea of the ‘setting of a listed to have lost its bay window, building’ into the 1974 Town and the church with its cupola is Country Amenities Act, and in the easily recognisable. Graeme same Act to secure an amendment Cruickshank, now writing a to the 1953 Historic Buildings and magnum opus on transferware, Monuments Act to allow grants for tells me that the identification is ‘historic gardens’ as well as historic correct, and it is now used on the buildings — the first mention of internet when people are trying the idea in legislation. Following to sell plates of this design. Wild Rose plate made by J. Meir & Sons a speech to the Schwetzingen The original drawing was after a print of Nuneham Courtenay. conference organised as part of by S. Owen, the print (by W European Architectural Heritage Cooke, and jointly Vernon, versions alone! It is known as Year in 1975, she got a resolution Hood & Sharpe) is dated 1st the Wild Rose design from the that ‘historic parks and gardens February 1811, though most of decorative border. should be recognised as essential the ceramics seem to have been I have tried to locate the original components of European culture.’ produced around 1840.The engraving, but so far no luck. The GHS had already begun pattern was extremely popular; Perhaps some kind member? compiling an inventory of parks we have five slightly different Contact: [email protected] and gardens and in 1975 Mavis met the Secretary of State for the

18 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 Conservation histories

Environment, Anthony Crosland, book Oxford Gardens remains the parks and gardens, which and, citing the Schwetzingen best of guides. embedded the Register firmly in resolution, persuaded him of the Mavis stepped down as the the planning system. Unfailingly need for government recognition Society’s Secretary in 1985 and encouraging to inquirers and of their importance. became its President, a role she generous with her research, In 1977, Jenifer Jenkins, a great held until 2000. In 1985, she she maintained a voluminous ally and chair of the Historic received the RHS Veitch Memorial correspondence with academics Buildings Council, set up a Medal, followed two years later and scholars around the world. Gardens Sub-Committee, and by an MBE for ‘services to the As a historian, her interests over the next six years Mavis led preservation and conservation of were bound up with conservation the voluntary effort by the GHS historic gardens’. Keith retired campaigns, either stemming from and others to compile county from Christ Church in 1985 or leading to them. Mavis was the lists. These formed the basis for and in 1987, they moved from author of many books and articles the national Register of Parks and Oxford to Aldwick near Bognor, for Garden History, Country Life Gardens of Special Historic Interest where they bought West House, and other journals. Although enabled in the 1983 National a Regency cottage ornée, a few she wrote on John Evelyn in Heritage Act. Soon after the yards from the coast. From here, the seventeenth century and on Historic Buildings Council was she kept up a leading role in Gertrude Jekyll and Arts and Crafts reformed as English Heritage the Society’s affairs and in the gardens in the early twentieth, in 1984, an advisory Gardens conservation movement. For many her principal interests lay in the Committee was established on years she continued to organise eighteenth- and early-nineteenth which Mavis served for ten years. conferences and summer schools centuries and in particular in the Naturally, over the years in Oxford with the University’s Department relationship between landscape Mavis became deeply familiar with for Continuing Education at and literature. She published the history of the county’s and Rewley House. She worked with articles on William Gilpin and the city’s gardens. I remember her Kim Wilkie on the pioneering the Picturesque, Keats’ House in excitement at discovering the letter ‘Thames Landscape Strategy’, Hampstead, Jane Austen, Pope and from Mr MacClary the gardener, 1994, and on GHS campaigns Walpole, Morris and Ruskin. She which set out the correct way over golf courses and the plight of was a champion of Lewis Carroll, round the garden at Rousham, Victorian public parks as well as in whose life and work she became transforming visitors’ enjoyment high-profile cases such as Mount interested during Keith’s time at of that wonderful place [GH 9 (2) Edgcumbe in Plymouth. In 1995 Christ Church, when she could 1981, 110–17]. She was proud of she led the Society’s successful explore the college gardens which the booklet on Oxfordshire Parks lobbying of government to become inspired Wonderland. She often produced by one of herWEA a statutory consultee on planning claimed that her most successful students, FrankWoodward in applications affecting registered book was Alice’s Adventures in 1982, and she particularly enjoyed Oxford, 1980, which remained in working with the cartographer print for many years as a staple Alun Jones to produce a series of the city’s gift shops. Her other of exquisitely drawn maps of books included Oxford Gardens: Oxfordshire parks for the CPRE, the University’s influence on garden a match for anything Alfred history, 1982, The English Garden Wainwright was doing in the Lakes. Tour, 1990 (with David Lambert), In the city her research gave each Arcadian Thames, 1994 (with of the college gardens a unique Henrietta Buttery, David Lambert story: Celia Fiennes wandering and Kim Wilkie), Regency Gardens, around the formal gardens at New 1995, Jane Austen and the English College, Addison developing his Landscape, 1996, and Alexander theories of the imagination at Pope: the poet and the landscape, Magdalen, Morris and Burne- 1999. In 2009, she published Jones as undergraduates at Exeter, Dilly: the man who broke Enigmas, and of course Charles Dodgson Christopher Hawgood an affectionate tribute to her and Alice at Christchurch. Her Alun Jones at work. mentor at Bletchley.

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 19 Conservation histories The Garden History Society and the Conservation of Parks and Gardens Mavis Batey, 1990

he Garden History Society over the years, had just completed such an eminent botanist as a T[now The Gardens Trust], his Shell Gardens Book and for founder member and supporter which celebrated its twenty-fifth the entries in it he had called on added distinction to the embryo anniversary in 1990, led the a variety of expertise and was committee and his expertise campaign for the recognition inspired with the idea of bringing was often to be called upon in of historic parks and gardens the participants together to conservation matters. as national heritage. Originally exchange ideas. In his preface he Peter Hunt was the first founded for the study of garden had written; Chairman of the Society and Kay history, it was soon apparent ‘There has long been a need Sanecki its Honorary Secretary that this was inseparable from a for a guide to British gardens; and they were responsible for the commitment to the conservation not to tell one which gardens pioneering work in promoting of historic gardens. Some may may be visited and when, but garden history and attracting have wondered why it was what features to look for when members. An important aim at necessary in 1965 to found one gets there. Furthermore the the inaugural meeting had been another garden society, when ideal guide, the curious garden- that as the only society of its kind gardening interests had been taken visitors vade mecum, should not exclusively devoted to garden care of over a century and a half only describe the various garden history it should be international. before by the founding of the features, but should relate them A systematic attempt was made society which was to become the to the long history of gardening to collect information, and our Royal Horticultural Society, of and garden design as a whole and librarian, Ray Desmond, began to worldwide renown. The RHS was place them in their context in the compile an index of references to founded in the true spirit of its social history of this country.’ gardens, which was published in age, however, the advancement of The contributors’ width of 1984 as the Bibliography of British the art and science of gardening, expertise, covering horticulture, Gardens. The same meticulous and and was scientific and progressive landscape architecture, history, painstaking scholarship which Ray and not concerned with an literature, art and architecture, Desmond had already applied to historical appraisal of gardening. botany and dendrology made Peter his Dictionary of British and Irish The Garden History Society, Hunt realise the need to make a Botanists and Horticulturists makes on the other hand, as its name cohesive subject of garden history his Bibliography invaluable to implied, is primarily concerned by forming a society to bring these researchers and garden restorers. with history and sought to apply wide-ranging interests together. An ongoing Register of Research the historical sense to all aspects Shortly after the publication of was also set up to encourage the of gardening and gardens; it the Shell guide, Peter Hunt and exchange of information, which was interested in the history Miles Hadfield, who in 1960 became valuable for conservation of the introduction of plants, had published his influential as well as for further research. plant collecting and exploration, History of British Gardening, met In the early years a Quarterly nurserymen, garden layout and by arrangement in the buffet of Newsletter reported on the designers, landscape architecture a London railway station, less Society’s activities but from 1972 a and buildings and above all to appropriate perhaps than an journal, Garden History, has been the gardens themselves in which historic garden, and discussed the published, which has established garden history is contained. formation of a Society. Its name itself internationally as the vehicle Peter Hunt, the founder of was suggested by Dr William for original articles on the subject. the Society, who had compiled Stearn, who was to be its President Conferences, visits and exhibitions information on garden history from 1978 until 1982. Having were arranged and the AGM held

20 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 Conservation histories at different centres in England and culture that is alive and aware succeeding generations, the Society Scotland to attract local interest. uses this opportunity as an must become an Amenity Society Special visits were made to see occasion for renewal… It is now as well as a learned society and restoration work with which becoming generally recognised take its place with the established the Society had been associated that in the 18th century this national amenity societies in progress, as at the Swiss country evolved and described concerned with the protection Garden, Bedfordshire, Painswick, a series of principles that of historic buildings and the Gloucestershire, and Nuneham in were humane, sensible and environment. Its first action in this Oxfordshire. functional… The meaning of the field was in 1970 when the Society The 1960s had seen the principles which were embodied presented evidence at a Public conservation movement gathering lay solely in their being an answer Inquiry concerning a proposed strength after the cult of functional to challenges. Though the nature trunk road through Levens Park modernism and comprehensive and direction of these challenges in Cumbria. Our representations, development of the 1950s when the have changed in this century, based on historical research and new technological age called for a the principle that environmental an appraisal of the present scenic non-historical approach to landscape. design must find answers to the value of the park, assisted materially The word ‘derivative’ was challenge of human needs is in building up a case which led frequently used sneeringly for an still relevant. And these human to the road being diverted to an architect who was influenced by needs are much the same now as alternative route; but although past traditions and the idea of then. Variety of visual experience, this established a claim for the restoring gardens authentically forms that are rich in association, protection of one historic landscape did not find much favour forms that are expressions of there was as yet no national policy. with landscape architects who the richness and complexity We became increasingly aware wanted to respond to a site with of nature, forms that allow the that with all the modern pressures unimpeded creative ideas. Frank processes of life to go on; all these on land use our great landscaped Clark, the founder President of the are as important now as they gardens were at risk and it was Garden History Society, had also were two hundred years ago. One imperative for us to campaign been President of the Institute of of the objectives of the Garden for steps to be taken to save this Landscape Architects and played a History Society is to propagate under-valued part of our heritage. leading role in reconciling the ‘new the values of this tradition as At first it was hoped that an lives — new landscapes’ attitudes they were expressed in the great Historic Landscapes Council with respect and understanding gardens of this country.’ might be set up to parallel the for the past, particularly the 18th It soon became apparent that if Historic Buildings Council but century which for him was a historic parks and gardens, with the climate was not right for any constant source of inspiration. their variety of visual experience, new official bodies. However, One of the first letters he signed, were to be handed on to an opportunity came to bring when the ink on the Garden History Society letterhead was scarcely dry, was a plea to West Riding County Council to preserve the gardens of Studley Royal for the nation. The first Garden Conservation Conference was held at Stowe in 1968 at which the President set out his own creed, which the Society has striven to follow since his untimely death in 1971; ‘The inheritance of a tradition confers both riches to an indigenous culture and responsibilities to the new Wikimedia Commons Mike (www.mikepeel.net), Peel generations that inherit it. A View over the gardens at Studley Royal, Yorkshire, now in the care of the National Trust.

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 21 Conservation histories historic gardens to public notice in future public opinion must be tested of the Conservation Area, first European Architectural Heritage on planning applications which introduced in 1968, by the new Year 1975 when we could jump might be detrimental to the visual Act. At first there was some on the already well-established enjoyment of an historic building. resistance to including landscape architectural heritage bandwagon. Hitherto, although there was a in the Conservation Area which We set up our own Conservation statutory requirement to preserve it was argued was intended Committee in 1974, chaired a listed building, no attention was as a protection for the built by John Anthony, and held a paid to its setting, which might be environment but those planning symposium in London on the a sea of concrete or power lines. authorities that were sympathetic treatment of the surroundings of After the Act we always made found ways and means of doing historic buildings to suggest that representations about threatened so. We were able to assist a number historic buildings were enhanced settings which were brought to of local authorities by providing by appropriate settings and that our notice, often by the Georgian the historical background for the the house and its garden should Group or Ancient Monuments designation of the Conservation be seen as an historic entity. We society, who as designated societies, Area, particularly Biddulph joined forces with the Association have to be notified when listed Grange in Staffordshire, now in for Studies in the Conservation building consent is applied for. An the care of the National Trust, of Historic Buildings who agreed application to build in the garden which the Society thought was with us that in many cases historic of a 17th-century Cotswold manor one of the most important gardens buildings were restored to the house was refused because the which would disappear without last detail of accuracy, while their house and its walled and terraced protection against development. surroundings which could greatly garden had a scaled and historic We were also approached by local have enhanced the interest of the relationship, and an application for a societies for help with preparing building were left to someone development near Vanbrugh’s Castle their case for designation. One completely unfitted for the task. at Greenwich was turned down particularly interesting example We were invited to speak at on the grounds that it would spoil was the designation of the Webb the Schwetzingen Conference its picturesque setting deliberately estate in Purley, Surrey as a on the Conservation of Historic planned by Vanbrugh. Conservation Area. The local Gardens in European Architectural We also took advantage of residents approached us when they Heritage Year, for as the invitation the strengthening of control were concerned that unsuitable said England had always led the way in gardening and must be in the forefront of garden conservation. Little did they know how far we had still to go! Gardens should be brought into the mainstream of history as part of the spirit of the age, and be seen as a link with the house and the people in it and an enhancement to the historic building itself. This was the case that was made to the government and it was as a setting to a house that the garden first received official recognition in Clause 4 of the town and Country Amenities Act 1974, which was a parliamentary prelude to Architectural Heritage Year. Any provision for protection of gardens was firmly linked to listed buildings, Charles Boot but the clause did mean, if full Biddulph Grange in Staffordshire; much of this structure lay in the pool below it. advantage were taken of it, that in We revisited the gardens in 2011, during our Annual Conference at Keele University.

22 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 Conservation histories development would erode the essential character of the estate, which was laid in 1903 on the maxims Webb explained in his book Garden First. The estate was planned to give enjoyment not only to residents but to the numerous pilgrims, who included Queen Mary every Spring to see the delights of grass footpaths along floral roads with daffodils, primroses, cowslips and violets growing under silver birches. Ltd Trust Park Painshill The 1974 Act also made Restoration work begins on the Chinese Bridge at Painshill, Surrey. provisions for grant-aid to gardens of historic importance whether or when we made enquiries about supported the campaign for the not they were attached to houses its terms of reference as we were protection of historic landscape, of architectural merit, but this then concerned with the plight and we have watched with pleasure was a very cutback carrot as no of derelict Painshill. As it was the achievements in restoration by extra money was made available clear that no financial help could the Painshill Park Trust on which to the Historic Buildings Council be forthcoming from the HBC we are represented. for the purpose; nevertheless, it it seemed to us that the Land We also made a submission to did introduce the concept of the Fund was set up for just such a the Select Committee on Wealth historic garden in its own right purpose and that the acquisition Tax to plead for tax relief for into the official conscience for and conservation of one of the owners of historic gardens and the first time, and very soon we country’s most outstanding parks, stressing that generations were able to take advantage of landscaped gardens would of country house owners had this when the National Heritage keep faith with Hugh Dalton’s invested in woodland management Memorial Fund was set up in imaginative idea of heritage land and the landscaping of their estates 1980. We had played a small part as a war memorial. It soon became and if they now had to be sold in the setting up of this Fund apparent that the request did off piecemeal, through crippling following the parliamentary not just fall on deaf ears but that taxation, the planned relationship inquiry into the working of the there were not even any Treasury of farming and parkland would be National Land Fund. This had ears that could listen. However, severed and the consequent loss been set up by Hugh Dalton when we were able to testify that our to the countryside immeasurable. Chancellor of the Exchequer in application to the Land Fund had It was now up to us to define our 1946 as a war memorial, which been disregarded when the next garden heritage and produce an instead of being a work of art in year we made a submission to the inventory of historic gardens and stone or bronze should ‘dedicate Environment Committee of the to increase public awareness of some of the loveliest parts of this Expenditure Committee, who their value. land to the memory of those who were appointed to look into the Fortunately, the Chairman of died. in order that we should have iniquitous suppression of the Land the Historic Buildings Council, freedom.’ This directive was only Fund. Painshill Park, which, much Mrs Jennifer Jenkins gave us grudgingly carried out by the to their credit, had been acquired great encouragement and set up Treasury with the result that by by Elmbridge Borough Council, an unofficial gardens committee, 1977, when the select committee was one of the first recipients which she chaired, so that the lists enquiry was set up, the Fund of grant-aid from the National of historic gardens could be graded had been very little used and was Heritage Memorial Fund, the in a way acceptable to the HBC. hardly more than a book-keeping independent body that was Those now concerned with garden entry. Indeed few people knew of appointed to take over the Land heritage must all be very grateful its existence. Fund. It also received a generous to Dame Jennifer Jenkins for the Our only contact with the grant from the Countryside initiative she took in promoting Land Fund had been in 1976 Commission who have often this unofficial listing as when

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 23 Conservation histories the National Heritage Bill was he is here today, but Derek available, some important gardens in preparation historic gardens Sherborn was the official who had been overlooked and there could be discussed with a better served the Committee, wrote the were others which, although not understanding of what we required minutes, and drew up the draft eligible for entry on the Register, than we had before the 1974 lists in his spare time. We were had features worthy of recording. Act. The 1983 Act empowered even barred at that stage from Researching and recording is, the new Historic Buildings using the official typewriter, so therefore, an on-going process and and Monuments Commission there were many obstacles.’ it is important that information for England to compile an As I remember we didn’t even should still be sent to the Centre official Register of Gardens and get a cup of tea at the meetings for the Conservation of Historic Parks of Special Historic Interest. for fear of being regarded as too Parks and Gardens at York and The following year we held a official, but we were very glad to the recorder at the county trusts Symposium, in association with have contributed to the process [now parks&gardens.org]. The the Ancient Monuments Society, which led to the appointment NCCPG [Thrive] provides the on the Conservation of Historic of a Gardens Inspector in the essential element of recording the Gardens to consolidate the Commission for the publication plants as well as the design features position and in official jargon of the official registers, and later and can assist garden restorers to chart ‘the way forward’. We for a permanent Inspector. We searching for authentic plants. We invited speakers from all the were particularly pleased when have always worked closely with garden heritage bodies, the Centre it was Dr Christopher Thacker, local history and museum societies for the Conservationn of Historic who had been the founder-Editor and frequently hold weekend and Parks and Gardens, the National of our journal Garden History, day schools with University extra Trust, the National Council for who was appointed as the first mural departments and we were the Conservation of Plants and Gardens Inspector and warmly pleased to be associated with the Gardens, the Tradescant Trust congratulated him on the Registers, setting up of the curriculum for [now The Garden Museum] and which are the backbone for any a diploma in the conservation of the then new County Gardens subsequent work on research or historic gardens at the Architectural Trusts, so that we could all work conservation. Although, unlike Association. One of the difficulties together for our common aim. The listed buildings, there are no of restoring historic gardens, now publication of the proceedings, statutory controls for registered that more and more owners are The Conservation of Historic gardens, the Registers have interested in authentic restoration Gardens, 1984, was assisted by greatly strengthened the cause of rather than a vague ‘period the Frank Clark Memorial Fund, conservation. Inspectors at Public gardening’, has been the lack of which had been set up in the Inquiries and planning committees training available to landscape memory of our first President. now use the term historic or architects in garden conservation. The Symposium, which was registered garden in the same way We received very practical opened by Lord Montagu of as listed building, Conservation encouragement of our Beaulieu as the new Chairman of Area, or scheduled monument conservation work by the receipt HBMC, was chaired by Jennifer and the fact that there was a of a grant from the Department Jenkins, who described the statutory requirement to compile of the Environment under the activities of her now redundant the Register gives the garden an Special Grants programme in sub-rosa committee thus: official status. Our representations 1986 amounting to 50% of the ‘The Committee which was now fitted into a recognised slot, costs of postage, stationery, hiring responsible for drawing up whereas before we sometimes rooms and travelling expenses, the first registers has been a wondered if their destination had when specifically related to voluntary committee, and the been the waste paper basket. conservation. The Conservation work has been done wholly Many more books on different Committee was able to extend voluntarily; indeed at one aspects of garden history were its work of providing an advisory moment I was instructed that no being published and many more service to local authorities and official in the Department of the courses and conferences held private owners on the restoration Environment was to spend his which backed up the new official of historic parks and gardens and time on such a frivolous activity recognition of historic gardens sponsoring research on specific as listing gardens. I do not think and parks. Inevitably, in the time sites. We had often been asked

24 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 Conservation histories Charles Boot

Orange trees and historic bedding out at Mt Edgcumbe, modern Plymouth along the Tamar,in the background, 2018. for information about authentic of Hardy Pants of the late-18th practical conservation work on plants for restoration schemes century in 1988. Lists of authentic historic landscape without leaving and their availability today. John plants for earlier periods had been records and we hoped that this Harvey, a long serving member published in the Shire Garden information might be brought of Council and its Conservation History Restoring Period Gardens out in discussion and collated. Committee and from 1982 to also by John Harvey. We also invited a number of 1985 President of the Society, who We had always felt the lack private owners who had asked was the acknowledged expert on of our own premises and staff for advice on various subjects to the history of the nursery trade, where contact can be made with meet ·appropriate experts. It is not had provided information on the the public and we decided that everybody who is lucky enough to plants suitable for the restoration Conservation Workshops might have the National Trust Garden of flowerbeds at Kirby Hall; go some way to providing a Advisor or someone from the 4, The Circus, Bath; Nuneham, substitute. The first such workshop DOE at their elbow to ask about Oxfordshire; Brighton Pavilion was held in January 1987 at the conservation or grant difficulties. and Mount Edgcumbe and it was Society of Antiquaries and a The second workshop was on decided that a publication should number of directors of restoration archaeological aspects of garden be produced for future enquirers. projects with whom the Society restoration. We have always Having worked through several has been associated, including tried to co-operate with, and important trade lists and identified Painshill, Mount Edgcumbe, learn from, archaeologists who versions of the nursery stock, he Leigh Park and Castle Bromwich can add a new dimension to was able to compare them with the were brought together to compare garden history. Some of our most lists produced by the Hardy Plant notes and discuss problems. interesting Society visits have been Society in their Plantfinder of Many leaders of MSC teams to archaeological sites, on the quest 1987, which enabled us to publish have acquired useful knowledge for Nonsuch with Martin Biddle, his valuable The Availability and techniques during their the earthworks of Campden

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 25 Conservation histories

House with Paul Everson of the in the making, that is to say the Royal Commission on Historical plans and records of designers Monuments, the English Heritage of contemporary gardens and excavations of the Great Garden at landscapes. The funds were duly Kirby with Brian Dix, Harrington obtained and the working group and Holdenby with John Steane, Heritage CAVLP set up to continue in support the excavated garden at 4, The of the new landscape research Circus, Bath with Robert Ball fellow. Knowing where plans and and our Scottish Group to manuscripts are deposited greatly Chatelheraut with Neil Hynd and assists the work of landscape to the mediaeval hospital site at surveys and reports undertaken for Soutra with Brian Moffat. Our the purpose of conservation [see working lunch at the workshop parks&gardens.uk p.9]. was enlivened by passing round The fourth workshop was plant remains from mediaeval Heritage CAVLP part of our William and Mary cesspits. Gardens are of course tercentenary celebrations and was only one small part of the overall The work continues to this day at held at Hampton Court palace on interest of archaeologists but we Chatelherault, Lanarkshire. the restoration of formal gardens hope by bringing their incidental to coincide with the publication garden work together and offering decided to approach the British of the book on William and Mary them a forum in our journal and Records Association with a view to Gardens, edited by David Jacques newsletter to further the interest obtaining wider publicity on the and sponsored jointly by the Garden already stimulated by Christopher vital importance of such records History Society and the Dutch Taylor in garden archaeology. for history and conservation in Garden Society, and our exhibition The Society had from the the future. The outcome was an in the King’s Private Apartments. first been acutely aware of the invitation to speak at their annual The recreated Het Loo garden, importance of conserving garden conference in 1988 and we remain revisited by the Society in autumn archives, past and present, but most grateful to the BRA for 1988, is of course the outstanding lacking any premises for storage enabling us through their initiative example of an authentic restoration itself could only undertake to to emphasise the importance and and, while we had the plans on catalogue the whereabouts of interest of garden history and the display and the Dutch expertise such archives, and to pass on to need to preserve its records. available, it was decided to hold suitable repositories any archives it Following this lead, the third a workshop for those concerned might itself acquire. Following an workshop was on landscape with the restoration of 17th-century American Summer School, when archives, and was attended by formal gardens in this country. participants learned that would- representatives from the National Questions were invited in advance be restorers of Gertrude Jekyll Register of Archives, the Landscape of the Workshop and sent out to gardens were greatly hampered Institute, the R.I.B.A, British Het Loo; these included requests by lack of plans or plant lists Records Association, Centre for for information about planting which were all at Berkeley, the the Conservation of Historic design, parterre archaeology and the University of California gave Parks and Gardens, the Landscape maintenance of old flower cultivars us a gift of 17 tins of microfilm Research Group, Kew and the for restoration. Little had as yet copies of all the surviving plans. National Trust. It was decided been attempted in this country on These have been deposited at the to appoint a research fellow, if the authentic restoration of a formal National Monuments Record funding could be obtained, to be garden based on archaeological at Fortress House, Savile Row, supervised by Peter Goodchild evidence, but we were able to hear London, where they are fully at York to record archival sources about then current work at Kirby accessible. Negotiations with the for gardens to complement Ray Hall and Castle Bromwich, which NMR led to another deposit of Desmond’s bibliography of we had been supporting. original plans by Percy Cane, and published material. It was also Casework is always a most soon afterwards when the Society intended that the researcher should important part of any conservation learned of the destruction of a find out what provisions were committee and in this we had to large body of similar papers, it was being made for garden history play an uncharted role, particularly

26 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 Conservation histories before there was any official body on the recommended route that, the heritage value of historic parks recognising historic gardens. ‘during my site inspection my and gardens, which was published Precedents once established and thoughts were that one would have as an appendix to their Report cases won we had a better chance to be a philistine, or know nothing in 1987. It listed examples of with future successes, and this was about the area, to promote development proposals affecting particularly true of road threats, such a route as this’, a true historic parks and gardens and which for us began at Levens in recruit to garden conservation! highlighted. The problems facing 1970 before the official awareness Unfortunately, the outcome was owners of historic landscape and of the heritage of landscaped parks not so successful with the M40 the need for further funding. in the 1973 and 1983 acts. It now route under the Farnborough The Historic Buildings and seems unbelievable that the idyllic terrace, but the strong voices of Monuments Commission [now settings of Petworth, and Leeds protest ensured that extra effort HE] has powers to grant aid Castle were threatened by major was then made for satisfactory gardens, but in practice only gave roads. We were delighted by the screening. The Department of grants to garden buildings until Inspector’s recommendation to Transport had a ‘framework’ on the Great Storm came and money adopt the GHS route presented which options for road siting was made available to help owners by David Jacques at the Public are judged and we found it of storm-damaged historic parks Inquiry on the road through extraordinary that when routes and gardens, and we hoped, that Highclere Park, Hampshire. We were assessed there was no attempt following this precedent the ill had made many representations to quantify the value of the historic wind would do some good and about roads through landscaped park in terms of national heritage. that the case for grant-aiding parks, but this was the first time Both at Highclere and Castle Hill historic gardens would be more that an alternative route had been the Inspectors had taken into favourably looked upon. Certainly drawn up. We stressed that the account the high grading of the there was much eloquence in both park had a long and continuous parks, but we drew their attention Houses of Parliament about the history, having evolved from the to the fact that this should have loss of our landscape heritage. ancient deer park of the Bishops acted as a constraint at the We have often made historical of Winchester through the ‘framework’ stage before it had to reports as a basis for restoration early landscaping of lawns and come to a Public Inquiry. and management policies; the first cedars and classical temples to The Garden History Society of these was by Miles Hadfield, the late 18th-century Brownian made a submission to the Select who was President of the Society composition which Cobbett Committee on Environment on from 1971 until 1977, on thought superior to Fonthill, Blenheim and Stowe. We were particularly pleased that our route saved, not only much of the landscaping intact, but also a considerable stretch of the mediaeval park boundary which would have been lost in the Department’s preferred route. The Inspector was persuaded that Highclere was a ‘park deep in history and with its aesthetic pleasure enhanced by the awareness of that history’. There has also been success at Castle Hill, Devonshire where an alternative route through a disused railway was accepted. Our representative, Robin Fausset, put Charles Boot our case so well that the Inspector The view is still there to be enjoyed at Castle Hill, Devon, where the existing lane is on record as saying in his Report was to be replaced by a dual-carriageway. GHS visit, 2006.

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 27 Conservation histories

Westbury Court, Gloucestershire links with the National Trust, for the National Trust and later a [parks&gardens.org, Historic history of the landscaped park was England] with English Heritage prepared for Mount Edgcumbe and other interested organisations. Country Park as a basis for its Although England now had an conservation. We also had the official Gardens Inspectorate, for chance to research Mason’s which we had long campaigned, famous garden at Nuneham, the need for our conservation which Richard Bisgrove was in the committee’s vigilance has not process of restoring. We hope that diminished. Case work had in Nuneham will have a new lease fact so increased that we had of life now that [Nuneham Estate recently appointed a Conservation Ltd] have taken over the estate and Liz Ware Officer, David Lambert [this is have shown a great interest in an Mason’s Flower Garden at Nuneham back in 1990, remember, Ed.], holistic management of the whole Courtenay, replanted by Richard who has the advantage of being historic landscape. So many of our Bisgrove, a generation on… 2014. in close contact with the Gardens great houses are being taken over Inspectorate, and as the Hon. Sec by institutions and hotels, indeed of historic buildings was called of the Avon Gardens Trust was many of them could not survive the ‘antiquarian interests of a well-placed to co-operate with the without this change of use, and we few’. By 1974 that campaign had then new County Gardens Trusts see it as one of our most important long since borne fruit, but ours as they were formed. We had a functions to advise on the was just beginning. We are very very active group in Scotland, conservation of the historic park or grateful to those amenity societies, where official provision had been garden and put the new owners in the Ancient Monuments Society, made for the protection of historic touch with the right professionals. SPAB, Georgian Group, Victorian gardens, were now co-operating The first two decades of the Society, Civic Trust and CPRE with our Welsh representative, Society’s conservation efforts which had already influenced Susan Muir, to ensure that the had been directed to increasing conservation attitudes, and for heritage of Welsh gardens was public awareness and lobbying the the links we have maintained with not neglected. On our 25th government for the recognition them. On the garden front we anniversary [in 1991] we were able of historic gardens. At the 50th are now very happy to co-operate to rejoice that historic gardens anniversary of the Ancient with fellow conservationists in were not just ‘the antiquarian Monuments Society in 1974, an the County Gardens Trusts, interests of a few’ but were indeed elderly founder recalled the days [Thrive, the RHS and the Garden seen and enjoyed as part of the when the fight for the conservation Museum]. We maintain close national heritage.

Conservation and the Climate Emergency David Lambert

n 2002 Richard Bisgrove, for that increasing extreme weather language: earlier this year, he said, Imany years a member of the events and changes in seasonal ‘Climate change is now a very real Council and the Conservation temperatures and rainfall would existential threat to our whole Committee of the Garden have major implications for all our civilisation… I am firmly of the History Society, co-authored gardens, adding, that ‘important view that the next 18 months will a study for the NT and RHS though they are, a great deal more decide our ability to keep climate entitled Gardening in the Global than our gardens is at stake.’ change to survivable levels and to Greenhouse. It had a foreword by Nearly a generation on the restore nature to the equilibrium the Prince of Wales, who warned Prince is less moderate in his we need for our survival.’ In

28 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 Conservation histories Mark Newman Studley Royal acquired a new, unwanted, cascade during a night in May 2012, when the Wharfe broke its bounds (compare p.21).

2016, when the RHS revisited the frequency and are becoming a garden from the salt-winds is subject in Gardening in a Changing significant consideration in the increasingly at risk from storm Climate, it commented that in management of gardens. The surges which overwhelm the tidal 2002 the prospect of climate hurricanes of 1987 and 1990 now defences and flood the plantation. change having a real influence on look less like a once-in-a-century In addition, the past twenty years people’s lives and how they garden ‘Act of God’ than a taste of things have seen warmer winters which was not really considered; many to come; the series of storms, have encouraged new pests and people still looked forward to the floods and tidal surges of winter diseases and drier summers which opportunities of a warmer climate 2013/14, the wettest on record, have caused water shortages and without considering the risks. were unprecedented according to drought. Both trends are having In May this year, Parliament the Environment Agency, until the a major impact on decisions declared a ‘Climate Emergency’. storms of 2015/16 which broke about long-term planting. The The term had burst onto the scene the record again for intensity outlook for southern England is with the actions of Extinction of rainfall. The rivers that run one of increasing levels of aridity. Rebellion in London the month through gardens such as Bodnant At Nymans, in response to acute before, and it replaces those or Studley Royal are flooding with problems with dry conditions, familiar ideas of global warming increasing frequency and violence; the NT doubled its water-storage and climate change — two quite lake-dams in landscape parks are capacity in 2007 from 40,000 to comfortable phrases — with a having to be reinforced to cope 80,000 litres; in 2015 the system far more alarming one. Extreme with flood risk; the Sea Plantation ran dry. The 2016 RHS report weather events, notably flooding at Mount Stewart, which protects remarks that ‘even if greenhouse and storms, are increasing in the seaward boundary of the gas emissions are reduced today,

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 29 Conservation histories the climate will continue to effect of Massaria on London practices both within the park change rapidly over the coming planes, bleeding canker on horse and in its borders. Isabella Tree decades due to historic emissions. chestnuts [see our cover], and has given an eloquent perspective Consequently, gardeners should the increasing vulnerability of on the sterility of modern be mindful that trees planted now shallow-rooted beech to the agricultural management of might not be suited to the climate parkland in Wilding, the story of in 2050, for example. the Repton landscape at Knepp Thirty years’ time — that is ‘amenity grassland’ no Castle in West Sussex. Meanwhile, an extraordinary statement. many of the arable fields around A swathe of the most familiar more than landscape parks have become parkland trees is now becoming green concrete ecological death zones — from unsustainable for planting. Ray the disappearance of mycorrhizae, Hawes, head of forestry at the in terms of fungi and invertebrates in the NT, has commented that ‘over soil, to the loss of seed-bearing the last few decades, Dutch elm its value to life weed species around the margins disease, Phytophthora on larch, (1% per annum since the 1940s) red band needle blight on pine and the grubbing up of their and ash dieback have devastated dry conditions in the south of hedgerows, they are now effectively at least four species of significance England and you are facing a deserts and the consequence has and have also effectively removed major change in how we plan the been a terrible loss of wildlife. these from the already limited future of historic planting. The situation is much the same palette of trees we can use in any The landscape park does not in urban parks, with their acres of new plantings.’ Add to that the exist in isolation from agricultural ‘amenity grassland’ effectively no

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30 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 Conservation histories more than green concrete in terms of their value to life. Extinction is not a polite topic of conversation but like the climate emergency it has come into sharp focus over the past year. As a conservationist and a lover of nature, I have for years read with dismay the figures on the drastic decline of some of my favourite bird species; the large-scale loss of insect-life and the scouring out of sea-life around the UK. But I thought a subscription to Greenpeace and the prudence of

our governments would take care Station Delabole Fire of the threats which had been so clearly identified. Bodmin Moor ablaze, April 2017. Then in September last year, I went to a talk which described catch the headlines with terrible century, face what Prince Charles what is going on as the 6th Mass stories, here in the UK, 2018 saw has called ‘a nightmare on the Extinction event in the history unprecedented levels of wildfires. horizon’; they may not survive of the planet. Worse, the speaker This July 2019 was the hottest ‘the collapse of civilisation’ which explained how this extinction has ever globally and it also saw the David Attenborough predicts been caused by human activity — hottest UK temperature ever if we do not tackle the collapse not just fossil fuels but intensive recorded (38.7o C recorded in of the ecosystem. It may not agriculture — in what has been Cambridge Botanic Garden. The be extinction at that date, but named the Anthropocene, chief executive of the Environment the impact of 4 or 5 degrees of destined to be the shortest of all Agency warned in June that unless global warming on human life the geological eras. we take action to change things, and society will be terrible and What has extinction got to do by 2040 we will not have enough we will reach that stage by 2100 with me? The biggest shock in the water in the UK to supply our if we continue on our present last year has been to recognise that needs — he called that date ‘the course. Carbon emissions are still it has everything to do with me. jaws of death’. rising; incredibly, oil producers Years of picturesque viewing had While erratic rainfall is a chronic have plans to raise oil production encouraged me to feel, at some challenge for gardeners, for by 35% by 2030; the same time level, a spectator of nature and farmers it is acute. A single flood frame as the IPCC has said we natural processes. We visit natural event, or a sustained drought can must reduce emissions by 45% if beauty spots, then we leave them ruin a harvest and in the past three we are to keep global temperature and go back to our cars and our or four years, there have been rises at a level above which we are indoor lives. But we are all part some major failures in European facing hundreds of millions of of a single system; the extinction harvests, resulting in reduced deaths. of ‘other’ life forms prefigures our yields of grain and vegetable of The UN has said limiting own; worse, at this scale, it assures up to 30% and more in several global warming to 1.5oC above our own. sectors. In the UK not only does pre-industrial levels ‘would Nor will we in the UK remain our agriculture remain largely rain- require rapid, far-reaching and spectators to the ‘hothouse fed and so vulnerable to floods unprecedented changes in all earth’ now being created with and droughts, we are also heavily aspects of society … land, energy, accelerating speed. Seventeen of dependent on imports from industry, buildings, transport the eighteen hottest years ever countries far more vulnerable to and cities.’ One might add global recorded have occurred since the extreme climate. finance and the debt economy to year 2000. While the Amazon, This generation of children, that list. There is no sign of the California, Greece and Spain who will live to the end of this government grasping the enormity

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 31 Conservation histories of the challenge or the imperative forty years, it is for drastic action. no more extreme Like every other western country, than the threats the UK government is on track to facing us. miss the targets it agreed to at the So, I have Paris talks in 2016; it cannot bring joined itself to halt HS2 or the Heathrow Extinction expansion; it has cut incentives Rebellion. It for solar energy development; seems to me it has effectively banned the to offer the development of onshore wind only rational turbines; it continues to subsidise response to this fossil fuel exploration and exclude catastrophe. international aviation from its Since last carbon emissions calculations. The September, I Environment bill brought forward have learnt to over the summer has precisely no break the law, targets; there has been no climate while meeting emergency budget. some genuinely The government not only will sympathetic, and not act; it will not tell the truth fearful, police about the scale of the emergency. officers; I have Given this double failure to either been caught protect or inform, you could red-handed with reasonably turn to Locke; ‘When spray cans and a Government fails to protect the pleaded not guilty to criminal front gate; I have been arrested lives and livelihoods of its citizens damage; I have blocked roads and three times and become familiar the people have a right to rebel.’ apologised to hundreds of drivers with the inside of a police cell; I This might seem extreme, but, and commuters; I have camped on have come to terms with the idea don’t take my word for it: everyone the streets of Bristol and London; of prison as well as the idea of should read up on the climate facts marched with grandparents and extinction — the former is easy and think about how to respond. school children; I have glued compared to the latter. All other avenues for demanding myself to the concourse at City But that is not all by any means. change having failed over the last Airport and to Jeremy Corbyn’s I have walked from Stroud to London in the early spring and saw my year’s first swallows over the Windrush at Burford; I spent a week on Waterloo Bridge when it was transformed into a garden; I have learnt to sing and weep with strangers. If I have seen how toxic modern life has become, I have also seen how good it could be; I have learnt how grief for what we are losing is the same as love, and have learnt to open my heart to that love. Facing extinction makes life infinitely more precious — the ‘blossomiest blossom’, Dennis Potter wrote, was that on the tree Euro-news waving outside his sickroom in the The author, David Lambert (right), glued to Jeremy Corbyn’s garden fence; last weeks before he died. he’s certainly not sitting on it!

32 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 The Memorable Garden at Bottengoms Jill Devon

he gloriously named about cultivating the garden with TBottengoms is located at the help from neighbours as soon as bottom of a track on the Essex they moved in: edge of the Stour Valley and is ‘With the aid of a succession of an Elizabethan yeoman’s house jobbing gardeners a jungle of old celebrated not so much for itself or roses, bulbs and flowers of every the design of its garden but because kind replaced the bramble, elder of its inhabitants and chroniclers, and nettle jungle, and during and the way that they chose to be high summer with very near the a part of the landscape itself. same density. Nightingales sang The house had fallen out of against the sound of the piano use and into disrepair during or the push-lawnmower and, in a succession of agricultural winter, owls hooted from the depressions, until it was reclaimed collapsing barn and sheds.’ in 1944 by the painter John Nash Meanwhile his wife Christine and his wife, at which time a took charge of the house: stream still ran through its kitchen Times Church The Ronald Blythe / ‘She swept it out, ran up to provide constant running water. and the Colchester Art School. curtains on her Singer, scrubbed John Northcote Nash, 1893–1977, Nash obtained some plants its bricks, lit its grates, imported was a British landscape and from his friend, Clarence Elliott, fine cats, and painted precious still-life painter and illustrator, proprietor of the famous Six Hills old things such as its Georgian particularly of botanic works. He Nursery in Stevenage, whose corner-cupboard ‘stone’ and received no formal art training catalogue he illustrated, and set ‘Charleston-rose’.’ after following the advice of his elder brother Paul (the surreal painter and war artist) that it would ruin his unique vision of landscape and that he should develop his abilities as a draughtsman. In 1916 Nash joined the Artists’ Rifles, fighting on the western front for nearly two years before becoming an official war artist, as his brother had before him. After the war Nash married a fellow artist, Christine Kühlenthal (a close friend of Dora Carrington, another surreal painter), and continued to paint and to teach at the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford, the Royal

College of Art and later at the of John Nash © Estate Flatford Mill field studies centre Wild Garden, Winter. John Nash, 1959

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 33 The Memorable Garden at Bottengoms

Some of Nash’s best-known Ronald Blythe has written more was one criteria, and there were paintings depicted life around than 30 memoirs, novels and many others… All the while, I Bottengoms, such as Wormingford books on rural life, as well as had Blythe’s books in my mind, Mill (1930), The Mill Pond(1936) works on Jane Austen, William in particular ‘At the Yeoman’s and Disused Canal at Wormingford Hazlitt, Thomas Hardy and Henry House’ and ‘Outsiders’. His (1958). A number of landscapes James. Blythe founded the John friendships with the Nashes and represent views from Bottengoms, Clare Society and, for 24 years other visitors felt alive. Uppermost such as Bottengoms Farmyard until 2017, wrote Word from was Cedric Morris and the plants (1950), Frozen Ponds (1959), Wormingford, his The Church Times he had introduced to the garden. The Garden in Winter(1964) and column. His best-selling book I became aware of motifs that Pheasants in the Snow (1968); Akenfield: Portrait of an English deserved attention, not from other though Nash never actually Village (1969), was dedicated people’s observations but from just painted the farmhouse itself. to John Nash. Other books are being there as it is now. The place In 1946, along with Henry Collins, about Bottengoms, its history and was not just an old farmhouse Cedric Morris, Lett Haines and environment. such as: Word from in two acres of land, it resonated Roderic Barrett, Nash became Wormingford (1998), A Year at with me and so many others, one of the founders of Colchester Bottengoms Farm (2007) and At because of lives lived in that Art Society and later the Society’s the Yeoman’s House (2011). In the house. It reflects its inhabitants President. He was close friends latter Blythe lists the wildflowers past and present in a profound with the writer Ronald Blythe (which he calls ‘The Glory and the way... As I looked back into the (1922-), and when Nash suffered ‘Rubbish) in his garden, which face of the house its windows from severe arthritis in later years, lived alongside many of the plants staring back at me, I could see he was nursed by his friend Blythe, additionally introduced by his and with absolute clarity how rich who had house-sat for the couple Nash’s friend, the great artist and Bottengoms is with wild and for many years whilst they went on plantsman Cedric Morris. gardened life. It teems with every painting holidays. In an article in The Guardian in 2011 Blythe recalled: ‘I was a poet, but I longed to be a painter like the rest of them. What I basically am is a listener and a watcher. I absorb, without asking questions, but I don’t forget things, and I was inspired by a lot of these people because they worked so hard and didn’t make a fuss. They just lived their lives in a very independent and disciplined way.’

In 1977 Blythe inherited © TheGardenMuseum Bottengoms from Nash. He later In their Garden. Charlotte Verity, 2017. published one of many books about the Nash’s and Bottengoms In 2016 artist Charlotte Verity sort of bird and insect, badger and entitled First Friends (1999), was commissioned by the Garden mole but also with memories.’ based on a trunk of letters he Museum in London to capture the It is fitting then, that Blythe found in the house that recorded essence of the garden at Bottengoms. has bequeathed Bottengoms the friendship between the Nash Verity later commented: to The Essex Wildlife Trust. At brothers, John’s future wife, ‘Blythe embraced the Bottengoms we have a garden that Christine, and the artist Dora proposal, ‘Do come’ he said has been lived in and cherished for Carrington. His book The View on the telephone, ‘I’ve always its links with the rhythm of the in Winter: Reflections on Old Age had painters in my garden. It’s natural world and the portrayal of (1979) is a consideration of his normal.’ Despite this, I wanted to it; and it is all the more precious time with Nash. be as unobtrusive as possible, that and unforgettable because of it.

34 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 The Highbury Pergola Project Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust & Let’s Grow Together CIC

embers will recall our us managed to see the Kitchen under way taking the Pergola and Mvisit to Highbury Hall, Gardens and were taken by the its living covering as a starting Birmingham, the former home charms of its fruit tree covered point. We explore this project of the Chamberlain family, as Pergola. Although not a part of here, and fully support Highbury part of our 2018 Conference, the Chamberlain Highbury Trust’s in its continuing efforts to restore and the venue for our New main Heritage Lottery bid a very the house and its still extensive Research Symposium. Some of exciting project has already got gardens, now a popular local park.

he Highbury Pergola Project Taims to ensure the conservation of a historically significant kitchen garden structure, whilst promoting awareness of heritage, conservation and horticultural issues to new audiences. Highbury Hall was the Birmingham residence of the Chamberlain family and the Chamberlain Highbury Trust (CHT) is in the process of applying for a large Heritage Lottery Fund bid to restore the house and surrounding grounds. The fruit tree pergola is the last remaining original structure in what was formerly Highbury’s kitchen garden. The Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust has commissioned a conservation survey to assess the The Highbury Pergola in Autumn 2018. condition of the pergola structure and has worked with a local artist, art project run by Matt Westbrook make up Highbury Park although a horticulturalist, architects and and this pergola project sits within portions of land have had other other professionals to bring artists and contributes to that overall work. uses over the years and are now and scientists together in engaging The work funded by SSHT has managed separately. the public with the site. A display been aimed at recreating the fruit The Highbury Pergola is structure has been produced to tree heritage still existent on the situated within the curtilage of house mini-laboratories for citizen site through propagation. Four Seasons day care centre, science work on plant propagation Highbury Hall is situated managed by Birmingham City and display interpretation material between the Birmingham suburbs Council Social Services. Given about the project. Moseley and Kings Heath. The the significance of the pergola as ‘Mr. Chamberlain’s Orchids’ is an grounds of the Hall now largely a historical link to the former,

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 35 The Highbury Pergola Project apparently magnificent, grounds Strong links exist between this with Birmingham University of the mansion, it is much-valued, project and the most significant Conservation Volunteers. despite its poor current state. local stakeholders; CHT manage the Alongside these students our The pergola is thought to have development of the entire Highbury work was promoted to local RHS been constructed and planted circa estate; Four Seasons currently Level 3 students, some of whom 1896. At this time major changes occupy the land upon which the attended workshops to learn an occurred in the gardens of the pergola stands; Highbury Orchard additional skill, above that taught Chamberlains; a photograph of Community (CIC) are a very on the course. the era, dated 1900, appears to local orchard project, also located Engagement with other local show the pergola with young trees within the Highbury estate. people, unaffiliated with a establishing within it. If this estimate All three of these groups were group or organisation was also is correct then the fruit trees within highly cooperative with the significant. The involvement of all the pergola are almost 125 years old. grafting work and supportive of it. of the people mentioned here is This is close to the maximum life- Highbury Orchard Community greatly appreciated. span for apple trees, although pears also brought several volunteers to The two grafting workshops were can live slightly longer. one of the grafting workshops. run as half-day sessions, with 8, The pergola itself is currently in a Chamberlain Highbury Trust 9, 5 and then 7 people present at poor state, but some pruning work facilitated the formal display of each half-day. has been carried out upon it in the some of the success of the project Since not all of the existent trees past two years. It is proposed and by promoting two guided walks to are yet reproduced as grafted planned that pruning workshops the pergola during Heritage Open specimens, it is proposed that run over the next three winters Day at Highbury Hall on 15th this work continues over the next will bring the existent pergola September 2019. three winters, to gradually build trees back into shape, encourage Links through the local Fruit & up a complete collection. It is productivity and generate greater Nut Village Stirchley project were also proposed that summer, bud, amounts of new scion wood. particularly useful in bringing grafting is carried out to increase Chamberlain Highbury Trust volunteers to grafting workshops. the chances of success with these see the care and ongoing survival These volunteers, in most cases, trees and overcome any problems of this structure as important also worked on grafting workshops with poor scion generation. Several in the overall plans they have with that project. of the trees do appear to have for restoration of the Hall and Matt Westbrook (Mr. died, but they will be inspected in grounds in coming years. It is Chamberlain’s Orchids) supported future in case this is not correct. planned that all of the specimens work building propagation beds Scion wood is being generated on linked back to the Chamberlain as well as carrying out grafting several trees by winter pruning to family now on-site will, eventually, work. Matt’s structure was used as encourage new growth. have a replacement propagated a display piece at which the work Different options exist for the and that these will be used to of Highbury Pergola Project was newly-grafted trees. Potentially, recreate the pergola. also discussed with Highbury Hall the pergola could be removed We believe Ribston Pippin, visitors on the Open Day. and reconstructed with these Emperor Alexander and Feeney Trust money was also trees in their original position. Gascoyne’s Scarlet are present offered in-kind, through CHT. Alternatively these could be within the pergola. These are all This funding contributed to some relocated to a new pergola built to apples, leaving all the pear trees, as of the infrastructure of the project mimic the original. A third option yet, unidentified. We would like which will be a legacy for future might be to simply keep the legacy to identify all the trees at some work of this kind on-site. of this garden growing elsewhere point and it seems that the most Several University of Birmingham on the site with new plantings in reliable way to carry this out will students were engaged in the other areas of the Highbury Estate. be through DNA analysis. work of grafting and also in bed Finally, surplus stock may be The Project set out to draw upon construction. These students very popular as specimen trees for different community groups and were connected to the project private collectors, and could be to bring different people together through links with Fruit & Nut sold on to support further work. through workshops and later Village Stirchley and in some cases Several of these options could be guided visits to the site. through their volunteering activity carried out alongside each other.

36 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 Lectures Conferences events Study Tours Sharing the adventure Sharing Repton: historic landscapes for all at the Birmingham and Midland Institute 10:30 to 4:30, Thursday 28 November A case study day to help you reach more people. The Gardens Trust has been working on a Lottery- funded project to learn how to share our passion for historic parks and gardens with new people and gather more supporters for this vulnerable heritage. We have tested five pilot activities that can be readily repeated by others, we S Williams, London P> London Williams, S have faced the learning curve so Pond at Barn Hill, Fryant Country Park, Wembley. you don’t have to. Join us to hear first-hand accounts Barn Hill, Wembley: of the pilots from the volunteers your Park, your Story who ran them, and pick their brains to see how they worked. 1:30 to 4:30, Saturday 23 November Programme The day is intended to showcase a Want to learn more about Barn 1.30pm Meet at project that we are all very proud Hill, Fryant Country Park? It the Church of the of, but also help inspire and guide forms part of Richard Page’s 18th- Ascension, Wembley, for tea and anyone who may also be thinking century Wembley Park estate [see exhibition of historic images about trying to reach new people. issue 10, p7] & how Humphry (from Leslie Williams, Barn Hill Booking now closed. Repton designed it 200 years ago? Park Ranger). Join us for a fascinating 1.45pm Welcome (London Parks Members’ Meet-Up, Bristol afternoon of talks & walks. Our and Gardens Trust). at Arnos Vale Cemetery, Bristol local parks and green spaces are 1.50pm History of Barn Hill 10.30 to 4pm Friday 6 December special places for so many people, (Leslie Williams). Join us at the wonderful Grade II* full of childhood memories, happy 2.05pm Barn Hill Walk and talk, Registered Arnos Vale Cemetery dog walks and family picnics. But finding out about its history and for an opportunity for Gardens have you ever wondered why trees development and how we can all Trust and County Gardens Trust were planted where they are? Why help to conserve Barn Hill for members to meet each other and the paths take such a long route? the future. discuss ideas, skills and questions. What makes your favourite view 3.15pm Tea back at the Church. The Agenda will allow for so beautiful? How the landscape 3.30pm What volunteers can do discussions on CGT experiences you enjoy today came to exist and to help. of Conservation, Outreach and still survives? Join the Gardens Trust Cost: Free. Contact: Research & Recording. Highlight and London Parks & Gardens Trust [email protected] speaker, Dr Ros Delany, Chair of for this free event to find out more. for more information. Avon Gardens Trust, will describe

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 37 Gardens Trust Events 2019/20

2020 Dr Mark Spencer, Honorary Curator at the Linnean Society of London Herbariums and Garden History: the Fulham Palace Experiencea at The Gallery, 77 Cowcross Street 6.30pm, Wednesday 15 January Adrian Pingstone, Wikimedia Commons Pingstone, Adrian Tomb of Raja Rammohun Roy in Arnos Vale Cemetery, Bristol. some of AGT’s recent work with their county to discuss. conservation and community. 12 noon Discussion Session 2: Meet Ups are free to attend Outreach, Including education, and are open to all members events, partnerships etc Content: of any CGT and the Gardens Each CGT to bring brief items Trust, no matter where in the from their county to discuss. country they are held, and no 1pm Lunch and networking 2pm matter the attendees’ current level Discussion Session 3: Research Historic dried plant collections, of involvement with their local and Recording Content: Each known as herbariums, are an gardens trust. A friendly and CGT to bring brief items from underused and potentially valuable informal atmosphere encourages their county to discuss. source of information concerning all to join in. 3pm Highlight Speaker Dr Ros the development of early modern Come and learn more about the Delany, Chair, Avon Gardens gardens. Studying the herbarium varied and valued voluntary work Trust, ‘Avon Gardens Trust in the of Sir Hans Sloane at the Natural undertaken by CGTs. Community: conservation and History Museum and the Fielding- Programme outreach’. Druce Herbarium at Oxford have 10.30am Arrival, tea and biscuits. 3.30pm Tea, AOB and current revealed overlooked plants that 10.45am Welcome and issues for CGTs. were once grown in the almost Introductions from Tamsin 4pm Close. entirely lost late-17th-century McMillan, the Gardens Trust, This event is free, with hot drinks garden of Bishop Compton at Historic Landscape Project. and lunch included, but if you Fulham Palace. This research has 11am Discussion Session 1: would like to make a £7 donation helped the Fulham Palace Trust re- Conservation Content: Each on the day, to help us with our costs, envisage this garden during their CGT to bring brief items from that would be gratefully accepted. recent restoration project.

38 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 Gardens Trust Events 2020

Dr David Marsh, Brian Dix, archaeologist at large Dr Catherine Horwood, independent researcher Princes, Parkland and Politics: social historian and author Nicholas Leate (1569–1631) ‘a the legacy of Muskauer Park Beth Chatto: A Life with Plants worthy merchant and a lover of and its modern revalorization at The Gallery, 77 Cowcross Street, all faire flowers’ at The Gallery, 77 Cowcross Street 6.30pm, Wednesday 26 February at The Gallery, 77 Cowcross Street, 6.30pm, Thursday 13 February Catherine Horwood’s recently 6.30pm, Wednesday 29 January Today the Muskauer Park, or Park published Beth Chatto: A life with Nicholas Leate isn’t exactly Mużakowski as it is also known, plants tells the story of the most a household name, even to straddles the border between influential British plantswoman historians of Jacobean England, Germany and Poland but was part of the past hundred years. Beth despite his being one of the most of a large estate in Saxony when Chatto was the inspiration behind prominent London merchants of Prince Pückler created it in the the ‘right plant, right place’ ethos the period. But he ought to be. early-nineteenth century. His vision that lies at the heart of modern of transforming the local landscape gardening. She also wrote some of into a place of great beauty as the best-loved gardening books of well as industry, agriculture the 20th century, among them The and commerce was respected Dry Garden, The Damp Garden, by subsequent owners, who and Beth Chatto’s Gravel Garden. continued its development largely Some years before Beth’s death in within the original blueprint. May 2018, aged ninety-four, Beth Following division after the authorised Catherine Horwood Second World War many areas to write her biography, with became neglected and eventually exclusive access to her archive. It overgrown. Recent political changes, also includes extracts from Beth’s however, have led to increasingly notebooks and diaries, never close co-operation between previously specialists and other workers in published, each part of the park to give the bringing whole a new life that recognises Beth’s own and revives its historical values. distinctive

An advisor to the Privy Council, Leate also took a major part in civic life in the city, including being the driving force behind the laying out of Moorfields. He had a finger in every major overseas and much-loved trading company which gave him voice into the a network of agents across Europe book. Most of and the Islamic world, with both the illustrations, John Gerard and John Parkinson from Beth’s citing him as a source of new own personal plants. archives, have Leate’s story combining national never been seen and local politics with commercial before. and botanic interests serves as a good example of how garden history fits into the wider social Until comparatively recently the Palace at Maskau was little and cultural context. more than a burnt-out shell, and the trees full of shrapnel.

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 39 Gardens Trust Events 2020

Dr Jill Raggett, Emeritus Reader in Gardens and Designed Landscapes Re-visioning the High Line, New York: “two guys with a logo” at The Gallery, 77 Cowcross Street, 6.30pm, Wednesday 11 March The World’s cities are housing more of us and are having to work harder to re-vision existing spaces. The students Jill seeks to inspire will be the future designers and landscape keepers of such vital places. With the help of an Essex Gardens Trust Travel Bursary Jill visited the successful High Line, in View up to the Rotunda, near the top of Hagley Park, concealing unexpected finds. New York City, to see how we can re-imagine spaces and, in addition, Birmingham lecture and visit with Joe Hawkins, Head of Landscape at Hagley Park

Finding My Place: the Rediscovery and Restoration of Hagley Park Lecture at The Birmingham & Midland Institute, Birmingham 6pm, Wednesday 15 April In his illustrated talk Head of Visit to Hagley Park, Hagley, Landscape Joe Hawkins will reveal Worcestershire his journey of discovery during the 2 to 5pm, Wednesday 29 April ongoing restoration of this once This will be a wonderful opportunity celebrated Georgian landscape. to see the restoration works in The Park’s main period of progress at Hagley Park, that have development occurred from enabled long-lost views to be 1747, and, in its heyday, drew opened up, once again, and allow visitors from around the world. the 21st-century visitor to experience But, Hagley Park has lain, largely this 18th-century landscape as it neglected as a landscape garden, for was intended. We will also be able a century and a half. The current to admire some of the restored

Jill Raggettt ambitious restoration will return it landscape features including the View along the High Line, New York. to its 18th-century glory. Palladian bridge, and its realtionship Hagley has now been designated with the Rotunda above. discovered some other inspirational a Grade I Registered Park, of Visitor accounts, literature, projects including Tear Drop Park, exceptional national importance, and poetry, as well as studies in the Irish Hunger Memorial, the Salt Joe is currently writing up his PhD archaeology, hydrology and Shed, and the 9/11 Memorial. thesis on the park. ecology have all been drawn on Cost: £10 for members, £12 non- to aid in the restoration of this All London lectures at members. Ticket includes a glass once rightly celebrated eighteenth- The Gallery, 77 Cowcross Street, of wine/soft drink and nibbles. century landscape. EC1M 6EL. Cost: £10 for At The Birmingham & Midland Please note: Numbers are Gardens Trust/County Gardens Institute, 9 Margaret Street, limited to 20 and early booking Trusts members, £15 for non- Birmingham B3 3BS. is recommended to avoid members. Season ticket: £35 disappointment. Sturdy footwear members, £55 non-members. Study tour to Palermo is recommended. The afternoon Book online from the Gardens and the West of Sicily will end with a cream tea at Hagley Trust website or pay at the door. Sunday 19 to Sunday 26 April Hall. Cost: £22 for members, £25 FULLY BOOKED non-members.

40 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 Gardens Trust Events 2020

Women and Gardens at Rewley House, Oxford Gardens Study Tour Friday 29 to Sunday 31 May 2020 to south-east Ireland Held in association with The medieval period to the present. Department of Continuing New and exciting research will be Sunday 28 June to Monday 6 July Education, University of Oxford, presented to illuminate the roles The tour will be based at the our annual weekend conference of women as designers, patrons, 4* Minella Hotel in Clonmel. will seek to document, explore writers, botanists, craftswomen and Pleasantly situated overlooking the and debate the pioneering artists and to explore the rich and river Suir, the hotel has spacious contributions made by women varied possibilities from combining well-equipped bedrooms. There to the development of gardens gender history and garden history. is a separate spa with a swimming and landscape design from the pool and gym, free to hotel guests.

The tour will start with a visit to Lismore Castle [above], birthplace of Robert Boyle of chemistry fame, where the two distinct gardens are set within the castle walls. The Upper garden was first created in the 17th The south parterre at Waddesdon, ‘hand coloured’ postcard c.1900. century and, although the plantings have changed, the design remains The conference includes an and evening Lecture by Clare the same with a mix of ornamental afternoon coach trip to Wrest Willsdon, University of Glasgow, borders, vegetables and herbs and Park, in Bedfordshire [see p.11]. on ‘The Lady of the garden, lawn fruit trees. The Lower garden was Programme and blackbird’: Beatrix Whistler mostly created in the 19th century Friday Sunday morning for the 6th Duke of Devonshire by Dinner followed by Catherine Lectures by Pippa Shirley, of Sir Joseph Paxton and one of his Horwood on Beth Chatto: a life Waddeson Manor, on Miss Alice original glasshouses is extant. in plants. de Rothschild and the gardens at Our next day takes us in the Saturday Waddesdon; Alice Strickland, opposite direction to Altamont, a Annabel Watts, Head Gardener, Curator, National Trust, on The garden which has had a succession Munstead Wood, on The Changing Messels at Nymans and Fiona of passionate gardening owners Seasons at Munstead Wood; Davison, RHS Libraries, on ‘An since the early-19th century. Jemima Hubberstey, University of almost impossible thing’: pioneering Today it boasts over 1500 different Oxford, and Andrew Hann, English professional women gardeners. mature trees and shrubs and Heritage on Literary Coteries and Tuition (includes coffee/tea & beautiful herbaceous borders. their impact on landscape design, coach trip): £156.20, single B&B We will travel on to Woodstock, 1740–1760; John Watkins, English Friday & Saturday nights: £165. Ireland’s Heligan. Although the Heritage on The Conservation and Full details on our website or house is a ruin the garden has been representation of 250 years of garden contact Rewley House email: reclaimed over the past 20 years history at Wrest Park; [email protected] and is a credit to the work of the Afternoon visit to Wrest Park, phone: + 44 (0) 1865 270 380. local Kilkenny Council.

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 41 Gardens Trust Events 2020

Welwyn Garden City Study Day at the United Reform Church, Church Road, Welwyn AL8 6PS 10am to 4.30pm, Saturday 25 July In 2020 Welwyn Garden City will be 100! The Gardens Trust is contributing to its celebrations with an exciting study day of lectures and a town walk with the Hertfordshire County Gardens Trust. Our venue is an example of one of the earliest churches in the town and the members of the church will also be contributing to the celebrations in 2020. It is conveniently situated about five-minutes walk from the station and there are several public Rosemary C, tripadvisor car parks close by. Richly planted borders in the walled garden Altamont, Ireland. The study day will look at all aspects of this pioneering city and Our next garden, Fota, is close After the visit we will travel on the ideas which were to influence to Cork and we will spend time to Curraghamore, the magnificent numerous developments both in visiting the House, the Victorian home of the 9th Marquis of the UK and abroad throughout the walled garden and the Arboretum. Waterford who still occupies the 20th century, and into the 21st. There is much to see here and house. The 2500 acres include The morning session of lectures on the homeward journey we formal gardens, a Shell House, a will be chaired by Dr Sarah will make a short visit to Tourin Japanese Garden and Lake. Rutherford, author of the Shire gardens, the home of the Jameson A more detailed itinerary, with Book on Garden Cities. family of whiskey fame. historical notes, will be sent to all Our speakers: Kate Harwood, On the Thursday we plan to visit guests before the tour. Hertfordshire Gardens Trust, who two gardens close to each other The tour will be restricted to 30 has carried out extensive research but relatively unknown, Anne’s people and the provisional cost in the vicinity; she will look at the Grove has been closed to visitors of the 6-night tour is €1400 area pre-1919 including the work for many years but has recently (Euro) per person with a single of Brown and Repton; Annabel undergone a renovation and supplement of €270. The cost Downs, former archivist of the restoration and is planned to be is fully inclusive of dinner/bed/ Landscape Institute, who will open for our tour. Similarly, the breakfast at the Minella Hotel, all examine the development of the 18th-century home of the St Leger lunches, entrances fees and tour/ town from 1919 to the 1950’s; family, Doneraile, had its first garden guides, and coaching. Claire de Carle, garden historian, open season in 2019. The parkland A booking form will be put on the who grew up in Welwyn Garden is an Irish interpretation of the website but if you would like to City; she will review how it has style of ‘Capability’ Brown. register interest now please email: changed from the 1960’s to the Many people will have read or [email protected] millennium; Shaun O’Reilly of heard about the gardens of Mount A booking form will be forwarded the Welwyn Garden City Society Congreve, largely created by the as available. We are waiting for will enlarge on the emerging local wealthy owner Ambrose Congreve outcome of Brexit before finalising Plan and development pressures who survived until 103 years old! the booking form, but it may be and question what the future holds He was reputed to buy his plants in useful to ensure you have travel for Welwyn. hundreds and the 70 acres of gardens insurance with medical cover. After a sandwich lunch a walking boasts one of the largest private Do not rely on the EHIC card. tour will be led by members of collections of plants in the world. Passports may also be required. Hertfordshire Gardens Trust. We

42 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 Gardens Trust Events 2020 will focus on the central part of And now for something completely different… the town which was the first area to be developed and where Barry The Gardens Trust Annual Conference Unwin’s Garden City and de and Annual General Meeting 2020 Soissons’ ‘City Beautiful’ design Richmond and Wensleydale, North Yorkshire concepts can be seen. Houses there were built in numerous different Midday, Friday 4 September to Sunday 6 September styles some of which were part of the Daily Mail Model Village. In contrast to our historic, This was built on Meadow Green medieval Oxford venue this year, in 1922 as part of the Ideal Home we are taking the GT conference Exhibition. Plans for 100 houses 2020 to the Yorkshire Dales, were massively over-ambitious and centring on Wensleydale and the project had to be bailed out by the picturesque Georgian town the Garden City Company who of Richmond. We are delighted then built 41 houses on six acres to have the local knowledge demonstrating 16 different systems and assistance of the Yorkshire of housing construction with all Gardens Trust, and Val Hepworth the latest appliances and fittings. BEM in particular, in both our Following the walk, we shall return planning and in guiding us over to the church for tea and cake. the weekend. Tickets will be on sale from 1 February 2020. Cost: GT and CGT members £45 Non-members £60.

Aske Hall c.1880, Saturday morning’s visit, before the AGM and NRS in the afternoon.

The Conference programme from the owners and access to will run from midday on Friday many areas not normally open to to approx. 5pm on Sunday 6 the public. September 2020 with the AGM Provisional visits programme and New Research Symposium Friday 4 September held on Saturday. We will be based An afternoon in Richmond at the Holiday Inn just off the A1 with the alternatives of either the (M)/A66 at Scotch Corner DL10 exquisite Picturesque landscape of 6NR, which has been attractively Temple Grounds or a plantsman’s refurbished and updated (with hidden gem at Millgate House efficient double glazing) and plus a tour of Richmond’s offers ample conference facilities Georgian Theatre, the UK’s oldest and on-site parking. We will also working theatre which houses the be offering some ‘Super-saver’ ‘Woodland Scene’, reported to be rooms at the nearby Travelodge. the oldest surviving stage scenery Darlington station is 20 minutes in the world. away by frequent local express bus Saturday 5 September or taxi to the hotels. Morning visit to Aske Hall’s All our visits will be to privately- designed landscape with,

Claire de Carle Claire owned and run historic estates, the provisionally, a welcome from Lord majority of which are ‘nationally Ronaldshay and a guided walk of the Louis de Soissons 1953 Coronation important’ listed buildings and/or landscape which ‘Capability’ Brown Fountain, restored for the Centenary, here registered landscapes; we will have visited and had surveyed in 1769, coloured pink for Breast Cancer Awareness. an introduction to some of these with its William Kent temple.

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 43 Gardens Trust Events 2020

conference will be in the region of £395 with other options such as non-residential and Saturday only also available. Please note that, to access parts of the estates’ landscapes included in our visits there will be significant walking on rough ground and steep steps at both our lunch venue in Bolton Castle’s Great Hall and at Millgate House garden. When booking, we will ask you if you think you may have any difficulties with this. Please contact Virginia Hinze: [email protected] or: 01273 844 819 with any queries.

Study Tour to France The French Garden: Le Nôtre, Constable Burton Hall, Leyburn, stands at the entrance to Wensleydale, North Duchêne and after Yorkshire. Designed by John Carr for Sir Marmaduke Wyvill, and completed in 1768. Friday 25 to Monday 28 September 2020 (TBC) The New Research Symposium apparent having survived, perhaps Over the last weekend of and AGM will be held at the hotel due to absent owners, both the September 2020 a four-day tour in the afternoon. extravagancies of the ‘Landscape is being planned for the GT Our conference Reception and Movement’ and minor alterations by Gabriel Wick and Robert Dinner will be held at The Station, in the 19th century. Peel,looking at some of the formerly Richmond’s Victorian Booking via Eventbrite (with a gardens of Le Nôtre, Duchêne and railway station (opened 1846) postal option) is planned to open after, to be based, principally, to but converted and refurbished on Friday 15 February 2020, the south-west of Paris. by the Richmondshire Building when the full programme will be More details in our Spring Preservation Trust as a community available. Ticket price for the full newsletter, when booking will open. enterprise with restaurant/bar, artisan food-sellers, cinema, gallery and heritage centre, opened in 2007. Sunday 6 September A morning visit to Constable Burton, a grade I listed house built 1762–67 by John Carr of York for Sir Marmaduke Wyvill and still the home of the Wyvill family who will guide us, along with their long-standing head gardener. We shall see the ground floor of the house and the grounds. After lunch in the Great Hall of 14th-century Bolton Castle and a viewing of its historically-informed re-created gardens we will have a guided walk around nearby Bolton Hall’s gardens, much of their late-17th-century formality still Looking down on the gardens, from the ramparts of Bolton Castle.

44 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 coursesGarden History Grapevine Garden history in 10 objects: a hands-on introduction to the history of British gardens and horticulture at CityLit, Covent Garden, Keely Street, London WC2B 4BA 10:30am, 23 November 2019 Interested in gardens? Want to know more about their history, who made them and why? Find out more at this fun day with a serious purpose! Hands-on investigation of some garden-related objects & lively illustrated lectures. With David Marsh. Cost: £59, seniors: £47, students: £30 Book on-line: citylit.ac.uk or phone: 020 7831 7831. A history of Commercial gardening from the Tudors to today, with a look at the future of British horticulture

ur eleven-week course will be based at the OInstitute of Historical Research in Bloomsbury, which is the world’s leading centre for research into all aspects of History, and runs the country’s only MA course in Garden History. Classes are small [max size 16] with lively illustrated lectures, visits, opportunities for discussion and further personal reading & research suggestions if you wish. The class will normally be held at the IHR on Tuesday mornings from 10.30 to 1pm, but there are also two off-site visits; one to the Museum of English Rural prepared! You might also wish to know Grapevine Life, Reading, and the other to a successful working works closely with the Gardens Trust, with any nursery. David Marsh will be leading the course with profits from our courses going towards their work. several outside experts con tributing as well. We often have a waiting list for places on our The course fee is £258 [plus Eventbrite’s booking courses so if you book a place but are unable to use fee]. Please note that the cost of transport for the it for any reason, then email us and we will try and visits is not included. This allows you the flexibility resell it if we can. In that case we will be happy to of making your own travel arrangements, and taking refund your payment, otherwise we regret we cannot advantage of concessionary prices where appropriate. offer a refund. In the unlikely event of a cancellation Visits will go ahead whatever the weather — so come of a lecture for any reason we will endeavour to

GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 45 Garden History Grapevine arrange a replacement session, or if that is not possible then a refund, as soon as practicable.

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME: Course runs on Tuesdays 14 January 2020 Commercial Gardening before the Restoration, with Dr Jill Francis, author of Gardens and Gardening in Early Modern England. 21 January The Worshipful Company of Gardeners. Its History, with David Marsh, Its Present and Future, with Dr Heather Barrett-Mold, the Master of the Company. 28 January Commercial Gardening in the late 17th and 18th centuries, with David Marsh. 4 February Working Nursery Gardeners in the 18th century, with Val Bott, project director of the Mulberry Garden Project at Hogarth’s House, & author of Nurserygardeners.com. 11 February The nurseries of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with David Marsh. 18 February The nurseries of the late 19th and 20th centuries, with David Marsh. 25 February The great seed companies: Carters, Suttons etc, with David Marsh. 3 March All day visit to MERL, The Museum of English Rural Life, in Reading, for an introductory tour and then a visit to their archive to see the records of Suttons, amongst others, with David Marsh. 10 March Rochfords — a case study in the rise, fall and re-invention of a great nursery, with David Marsh. 17 March Visit to Rochfords nursery, near Hertford, with Paul Rochford,nursery owner and former Master of the Gardeners Company. 24 March The Future of British Horticulture, with Dr Audrey Gerber, Technical Advisor to the International Association of Horticultural Producers, and expert in the links between Horticulture, Science, Design and Heritage, www.audreygerber.co.uk Course fee: £285 + booking fee £11.42, via our website and Eventbrite.

President Ex-officio Members of Board Dominic Cole CMLI FIOH VMM OBE Simon Baynes Welsh Historic Gardens Trust Vice Presidents Chloe Bennett Scotland’s Garden & Landscape Heritage Mr Alan Baxter, Mrs Susan Campbell, Sir Richard Carew Pole, Mr Ray Desmond, Staff Mrs Gilly Drummond OBE, Mr Robert Peel, Administrator: Louise Cooper Mr John Sales, Mrs Steffie Shields, Finance Officer & CGT Co-ordinator: Teresa Forey-Harrison Sir Tim Smit KBE Conservation Officer: Margie Hoffnung Conservation Casework Manager: Alison Allighan Chairman of Board Strategic Development Officer: Linden Groves Dr James Bartos HLP Officers: Tamsin McMillan, Sally Bate Members of Board Sarah Dickinson Editors Dr Marion Harney Chair, Conservation Committee Editor Garden History: Dr Barbara Simms Virginia Hinze Co-Chair, Education & Events Committee Editor GT News: Charles Boot Peter Hughes QC Dr Sally Jeffery Membership enquiries David Lambert phone: 01787 249 286 Dr David Marsh Co-Chair, Education & Events Committee email: [email protected] Maureen Nolan Honorary Secretary GDPR: [email protected] Thadian Pillai Peter Waine Advertising enquirie: Hall McCartney Lisa Watson Honorary Treasurer; phone: 01462 896688 Chair, Administration & Finance Committee email: [email protected]

46 GT NEWS 11 Autumn 2019 GT events diary 2019 & 2020 2019 15 to 29 November Study Tour to the Gardens and Landscapes of Australia FULLY BOOKED Saturday 23 November Barn Hill, Wembley: your Park, your Story Thursday 28 November Sharing Repton training event, Historic Landscapes For All, Birmingham Friday 6 December Members’ Meet-Up, at Arnos Vale Cemetery, Bristol 2020 Wednesday 15 January London Lecture: Dr Mark Spencer, Herbariums and Garden History Wednesday 29 January London Lecture: Dr David Marsh, Nicholas Leate (1569–1631) ‘a worthy merchant’ Thursday 13 February London Lecture: Brian Dix, Princes, Parkland and Politics: the legacy of Muskauer Park Wednesday 26 February London Lecture: Dr Catherine Horwood, Beth Chatto: A Life with Plants Wednesday 11 March London Lecture: Dr Jill Raggett, Re-visioning the High Line, New York Wednesday 15 April Birmingham Lecture: Joe Hawkins, The Rediscovery and Restoration of Hagley Park 19 to 26 April Study tour to Palermo and the West of Sicily FULLY BOOKED Wednesday 29 April Visit to Hagley Park, Hagley, Worcestershire 29 to 31 May Women and Gardens Conference, Rewley House, Oxford 28 June to 6 July Study Tour to south-east Ireland Saturday 25 July Welwyn Garden City Study Day 4 to 6 September Summer Conference and AGM 2020, Richmond and Wensleydale, North Yorkshire 5 September Annual General Meeting 25 to 28 September Study Tour to France, The French Garden: Le Nôtre, Duchene and after Details and booking information for all these events can be found inside on pages 37 to 44, or look at our website for updates: thegardenstrust.org/events for updates

GT News correspondence and items to The Gardens Trust head office, headed: GT news or email the editor Charles Boot: [email protected]

Please make a note of our new publications schedule GT News copy deadlines: 1 February, 1 June & 1 October, distribution: mid March, mid July with our Journal & Annual Report; mid November with our Journal.

GT News ISSN 2398-3248 New design by Topics, editor and layout Charles Boot. Printed by Lavenham Press, 47 Water Street, Lavenham, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 9RN

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