Newsletter of the Gardens and Parks Trust. Registered Charity No. 1013862. AUTUMN 2007 ISSUE No. 37 News Staffordshire Gardens & Parks Trust Published by the Staffordshire Gardens and Parks Trust. c/o South Staffordshire LETTER Council, Road, Codsall, Staffordshire WV8 1PX. Tel: 01902 69600

After a guided tour of the gardens and The year so far...... the cellars of the house (from which tunnels ran to the edge of the estate, thus allowing the servants to reach the The first visit of the year was to The Wodehouse, where our members house without being seen by the fami- were given a warm welcome by the owner, Mr. John Phillips, and his wife, Caroline. ly!), the group were given a tour of The earlier part of the visit was spent in the gardens, at the heart of which is the Mayfield led by two members of the walled kitchen garden, first established in the late 1700s and covering an exact Mayfield Heritage Group. The history of acre. Here, in the old orchard, we admired the collection of irises for which these Mayfield goes back at least a thousand gardens are noted. years and was at times turbulent; And then the rain came, and we were driven into the house for an earlier-than- Bonnie Prince Charlie’s army passed planned guided tour. through the village on its retreat from The house itself dates from 1240 and was built in the form of a traditional medieval Derby and left their mark on the west hall-house with low-ceilinged rooms. In Elizabethan times, the hall was painted, door of the medieval church, where the and, even now, vestiges of red paint can be seen on some of the beams in the villagers had taken refuge and the entrance hall. The house still boasts the best example of a spear truss left in Scots, unable to break in, vented their Staffordshire. anger and frustration by firing through In the late 1700s, there was a plan to turn the house round so that it faced the the door. pond, but, at £3600, this was thought too expensive, so, instead, two large rooms A dominant feature of the village is the were added to the side of the house, and, in the next century, eight weather vanes large mill at the side of the River Dove; were added to the roof in order to give the house a romantic skyline. However, their built in 1795 as a cotton mill, it is still function is decorative rather than functional, since they sometimes point in differ- providing employment for the neigh- ent directions as a result of having been erected in the lea of the hill. bourhood but is now producing man- A tour of the house more than made up for the restricted tour of the gardens. made fibres. Nor did it provide only Additions and change of use over centuries of habitation have altered the original employment; built (in some cases liter- layout of its interior in a conspicuous and interesting way. Moreover, The ally) in the shadow of the mill stand Wombourne Wodehouse houses a very fine collection of paintings, china, glass and rows of stone cottages, once tenanted period furniture brought to the house over many years by its discerning owners and by workers and still forming a small now treasured and cared for by John and Caroline. community, though not all are now However, those disappointed that more time could not be spent in the gardens will occupied by mill workers. have the opportunity of listening to an illustrated talk by Dianne Barre on the gar- Happily, the enjoyment of the visit was dens in the eighteenth-century in the rain-free setting of Rodbaston College in guaranteed by an uncharacteristically October. Remember, too, that The Wombourne Wodehouse opens each year under dry and sunny day, the only dry and the National Gardens Scheme, though not now until 2008. sunny day midway through a fortnight The following month, the Trust visited Hall Gardens, where mem- of wind and rain! bers were given a richly-informative guided tour by husband and wife, Martin and The Trust continues its programme of Sybil Mizon-Hind. These gardens are a rare example of the eighteenth-century fash- visits with visits to Derby Arboretum on ion for formal gardens, and their survival is a tribute to the dedication of the teams September 8th and to Beaudesert Park of volunteers who have worked tirelessly since the Gardens on November 3rd. Details of these visits Trust was set up in 1985 to rescue the gardens from decades of neglect and restore appear elsewhere in the newsletter. them to their former splendour, aided by financial support from a number of public bodies and commercial interests. (Useful websites: Castle Bromwich Hall At Castle Bromwich, classical garden buildings rescued from dereliction, authentic Gardens www.cbhgt.org.uk eighteenth-century garden design and historically-accurate planting combine to Mayfield Hall www.mayfieldhall.co.uk give visitors a unique opportunity virtually to step back three centuries and experi- Derby Arb’ www.derbyarboretum.co.uk ence at first hand the tastes and fashion of a by-gone age (always provided, of Beaudesert Trust www.beaudesert.org course, that one can shut one’s ears to the sound of modern jet aircraft passing overhead on their way to and from Airport!). Our final visit of the summer was to Mayfield Hall, in the east of the county. Mayfield Hall is a Georgian manor house whose three-acre garden contains many of FOOTNOTES its earliest garden features, amongst them an almost unique set of egg-timer steps (the only others in the country are in Wiltshire), a walled kitchen garden and an Lichfield’s Historic City Centre Parks ice-house, as well as a clock tower and dovecote. Two-and-a-half years ago, the present owners, Michael and Eva Brett, embarked on Lichfield District Council has, in part- a comprehensive programme of modernisation, re-roofing, re-plumbing and re-dec- nership with Lichfield City Council, sub- orating the Hall and reclaiming the gardens from long years of neglect. Such a mitted an outline bid for £4m. to the long-term enterprise needs substantial investment, and Michael and Eva plan to Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant to fund it by offering high-class holiday accommodation; already, bed-and-breakfast restore Lichfield’s city centre parks. The facilities are available within the house, and there are plans to develop a Holiday Let detailed plans can be downloaded from section in the nearby outbuildings. www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/historicparks ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2007 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS

The Trust was privileged to be Sir Patrick thought that this addressed at this year’s Annual General award might be extended to gardening, Meeting by its new President, Sir Patrick adding that he would shortly be meeting Cormack, whose passion for conserving Gilly Drummond, President of the our national heritage has been amply Association of Gardens Trusts, to see demonstrated during his thirty-seven whether anything could be done nation- years as a Member of Parliament. ally to encourage young people to go Sir Patrick confessed to not into gardening as a career. There was still being a great lover of gardens, but he a snobbish attitude towards those who had devoted a lot of attention to mat- worked with their hands and a belief ters relating to our historic heritage and, amongst some that you were a failure if as a member of the Trust for a number you did not have an academic leaning – of years, he had been aware of the work this had to be combated. Monks Walk and that South Staffordshire done by the Trust. This, he believed, was Competitions could be Council had implemented schemes for very important and marched very well arranged for school-children, and head working with excluded children and with work of the County’s two other teachers could be encouraged to invite young offenders. Conservation Trusts (of which he was speakers on parks and gardens into their Sir Patrick was convinced that also President), the Staffordshire Historic schools to talk to pupils and stimulate an an enormous amount could be done to Buildings Trust and the Staffordshire interest in horticulture and garden spread knowledge of and affection for Historic Churches Trust. design. our historic parks and gardens. Some Thirty-three years ago, Sir He was pleased to hear that the things, he concluded, were of enduring Patrick said, he had been instrumental in Trust was involving pupils from Queen’s worth and should unite all people of forming the Arts and Heritage Group, Court School in the work of restoring good-will. which now had three hundred members in both Houses of Parliament. The Group believed that the nation enjoyed a mar- vellous heritage which deserved champi- oning and had successfully campaigned for the future of , formerly the home of the Earls of Bradford and, in ‘VICTORIAN GARDENS Sir Patrick’s view, “one of the glories of the English country home”, which was now managed by a Trust, Calke Abbey, in PUBLIC AND PRIVATE’ Derbyshire, and Tyntesfield, in North Somerset, both now safely in the care of The National Trust. Colchester 28th April 2007 ’s greatest contribution to European culture had been the coun- try house and park; having been spared invasion and violent revolution England This study day was organized and hosted ability of information for amateurs. The had more than any other European by the Essex Gardens Trust as part of a talk was illustrated by a range of slides country. Moreover, in The National Trust programme of events celebrating their showing gardens of the period and an this country had the greatest amenity tenth anniversary. It was held in a church advertisement for the latest technologi- society in the world, but Sir Patrick felt hall adjacent to the historic Colchester cal gadget – a lawn mower, as recom- that the days of acquisition and preser- Castle Park and consisted of a range of mended by Shirley Hibberd and needing vation were over because of the increas- speakers as well as a tour of the park. two people to operate it. Magazines such ing need for substantial endowment. The first speaker, Patrick The Floral World and G ardeners As a consequence, everything Denney, a local historian, set the scene C hronicle were started to provide the must be done to encourage private own- by describing Victorian Colchester, a amateur gardener with the information ers and make it easier for them to market town on the main route to needed to be successful. The different remain in situ. London (now better known as the A12) crazes for ferns, rock gardens and gera- Sir Patrick believed that it was that the railway reached in 1843. Local niums were covered with appropriate essential that the young should be industries included engineering, tailoring, slides, including one of a geranium pyra- involved, and he highlighted the work of boot and shoe manufacturing and horti- mid ten to twelve feet in height. the William Morris Craft Fellowship, culture. Colchester was the home of the The last lecture was an intro- which awarded fellowships to craftsmen nurserymen Bunting & Sons; Isaac duction to Colchester Castle Park which allowed them to travel around the Bunting wrote Essay on the Character of before dividing into two groups for lunch country for six months looking at great Plants in 1828 offering advice on laying and a guided walk round the park. buildings, some under restoration, thus out gardens. In 1872 he traveled to Japan Covering 60 acres in two sections, the improving their knowledge of their own to begin a business exporting lily bulbs park is a Green Flag and Green Heritage craft and learning more about others. back to the glasshouses in Colchester. award winner containing Roman and Last year had seen the institu- The second speaker was the Norman remains. The park surrounds tion of the Queen Mother Memorial author Anne Wilkinson, whose topic was the castle, and much of it was formerly Medal, which had been presented by the ‘The Victorian Amateur Gardeners and the garden of the adjacent Hollingtrees Duke of Gloucester to John Baskerville their Gardens’, in which she dealt with House, landscaped in the eighteenth cen- for his work at Calke Abbey, Dunham the difficulties of pollution, the lack of tury. The site opened as a public park in Massey and Chastleton House. skilled gardeners and the limited avail- 1892 although the landscaping work ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2007 CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

The Trust has had another very active retired from the post at our last AGM, Walsall, the latter being a reminder that year in 2006-7. We were very honoured nonetheless continued as Acting our interests cover the whole of the his- and gratified that Sir Patrick Cormack Chairman through the summer of 2006. toric county, not just its present adminis- accepted our invitation to become the The Trust received relatively few trative area. Information on Farley Hall Trust’s new President in October 2006. consultations on planning applications and Mayfield Hall in north-east Sir Patrick is well known both as the during the year. Your Council hoped that Staffordshire was added to our invento- Member of Parliament for South this was a sign of inactivity affecting his- ry. Your Council has agreed to continue Staffordshire and also for his commit- toric parks and gardens rather than a contributing information to the National ment to and wide knowledge of the con- failure to notify us. As Chairman I intend Database of Historic Parks at the servation world. Sir Patrick is also to speak with local authority conserva- University of York, which is now man- President of our fellow County bodies – tion staff over the coming months to see aged by The Association of Gardens the Staffordshire Historic Churches Trust how we can strengthen our links and Trusts. and the Staffordshire Historic Buildings involvement in the planning process. Our There has again been a very full Trust. Sir Patrick has suggested a number major work has been responding to con- and varied programme of event for of interesting ways in which the three sultations on Local Development members throughout the year. Visits Trusts might work together, including a Framework documents (the new-style were made to Weston Park; to Witley special event which the Council of local plans), including one for the sug- Court, in Worcestershire; to Baggeridge Management is investigating further. gested Wolverhampton Airport. Country Park; and jointly with the I was elected Chairman in Work on recording Historic Buildings Trust to Middleton October. I would like to pay my own Staffordshire’s heritage of parks and gar- Hall, North Warwickshire. Members also thanks to the hard work and inspiring dens continued with four new reports heard talks from staff at English Heritage leadership of my predecessor, Sarah being prepared on Cannock Town Park, about the problems of garden buildings Ashmead, who, although she formally and Palfrey, Bescot and Bentley Parks in at risk; from the former Conservation Officer of East Staffordshire about con- servation philosophy; and from the Manager of Shugborough about recent developments on the estate. The Trust wasn’t completed for another four years. Manchester. The work of designers such was again represented at the Lichfield The park retains its bandstand and pavil- as Paxton, Milner, Kemp and Mawson Medieval Market and Fayre in partner- ion and has a range of formal planting was covered before considering the fea- ship with colleagues from the Castle beds. tures which Victorian parks boasted – Bromwich Hall Gardens Trust. This talk and tour led on to the bandstands, shelters, toilets, statues, Your Council would like to pay afternoon speaker, Hazel Conway, an lakes, palm houses. Features which after special tribute to the small band of vol- expert on public parks, and her talk ‘The a period of neglect and decline are now unteers doing practical work to restore Victorian Park Movement’. Tracing the increasingly being restored as funding is the Monks Walk garden in Lichfield. development of parks through the need channeled back into parks as their bene- When completed, this will stand along- for open space in the increasingly over- ficial effects are realized once again. side the nearby herb garden at Darwin’s crowded industrializing towns and cities, It was a very informative and House as instructive and attractive she highlighted some of the early parks interesting day and a walk in Castle Park examples of period planting. in Britain – Derby Arboretum, Victoria should be included in any visit to Two editions of the Newsletter Park, London and Philips Park, Colchester. AB have appeared. This is our principal means of contacting the majority of our membership. After some discussion, the Council of Management decided not to increase the frequency of distribution due to the high costs of printing and postage. The quality of the Newsletter depends on the editor continuing to receive good and interesting copy, and Council strongly encourages members to send in items of interest. Finally, as Chairman, I would like to thank all my colleagues on the Council of Management for their work on behalf of the Trust, and also our wider membership for their continuing support of the Trust. In particular, I must single out Bryan Sullivan for very special thanks on behalf of us all for his tireless work editing the Newsletter, organising our programme of events and acting as Secretary to the Council of Management. I look forward to seeing you all over the next twelve months at one or more of our forthcoming activities. Castle Park, Colchester (photograph by Ann Brookman Alan Taylor following comments on your behalf in does not propose the blanket withdrawal of response to the government’s consultation permitted development rights in conserva- which closed on 1 June: tion areas. The present discretionary Heritage The SGPT is very pleased that the arrangement for serving Article 4.2 directions Government proposes to retain all existing is bureaucratic, time consuming and can lead powers of protection for the historic envi- to confusion and inconsistency. We would Protection ronment. strongly encourage the government to with- We welcome the principle of the proposed draw all permitted development rights in White Paper additional measures of protection for locally conservation areas. listed buildings and for World Heritage Sites. We welcome the suggested introduction of However, we consider that the bureaucratic Heritage Partnership Agreements. complexity of serving Article 4.1 directions Imaginatively used, these could help stimulate In March the Government published a White will inhibit use of those powers in the former effective management of historic parklands. Paper on Heritage Protection for the 21st instance; and that the protection for WHS However the absence of any form of statuto- C entury. The main thrust of the White sites is seriously inadequate, given their ry protection for parks and gardens means Paper was to simplify and introduce greater recognised international importance. such agreements could be largely worthless if transparency into the current heritage pro- We welcome in principle the government’s an owner defaulted in matters over which tection regime. It is proposed to merge the intention to simplify perceived complexities there was no legal power of redress. current categories of listed buildings, sched- in the current system of heritage protection. Although the White Paper sets out a vision uled ancient monuments, and the registers of However, we consider that the proposed for protecting and managing the historic envi- historic parks and battlefields into a single new categorisation into national and local ronment in the future it is seriously lacking in Register of Historic Buildings and Sites for designations, both incorporating a mix of details about the mechanisms and resources, England. Current arrangements for listed statutorily protected and non-statutory sites both financial and administrative, by which building consent and scheduled monument (e.g. listed buildings v registered battlefields; this vision can be accomplished. The consent will be replaced by a new procedure conservation areas v local listed buildings), Staffordshire Gardens and Parks Trust would for seeking Heritage Asset Consent to be will add to confusion among planning officers have welcomed much greater clarity about managed by local planning authorities. There and members of the public at large and raise how the aspirations and intentions of the will be greater opportunity for public con- false expectations of the levels of protection White Paper will be delivered and regrets sultation and involvement in the process of available. that this is not currently forthcoming. adding new sites to the national register. All We are particularly concerned that the The consultation period closed on 20th June existing powers of protection will be White Paper does not propose either the and the government is now assessing the retained, albeit reshaped, and there will be statutory protection of registered parks and many responses received from heritage bod- some protection for the first time to World gardens (and battlefields) or to suggest fur- ies across the country. It is expected that a Heritage Sites. Owners of complex heritage ther discussion of the issue. Although regis- draft bill will be placed before parliament in sites will have an opportunity to enter man- tered sites will now be entered on the uni- the 2007-8 session and that, if enacted, the agement agreements (Heritage Partnership fied national register of heritage assets their new legislation for protecting all aspects of Agreements) with local authorities or English lack of statutory protection leaves them vul- the built and archaeological heritage will Heritage to minimise the number of individ- nerable to insensitive change or irrevocable come into force in 2009-10. ual applications they might otherwise have to damage outside the scope of planning con- make when looking after their properties. trol. We would strongly urge the govern- The White Paper also contained other pro- ment to introduce measures for the statuto- posals for strengthening local authority her- ry protection of registered historic parks itage provision and protection of marine (and battlefields). THE JOYS OF GARDENING archaeology. We are disappointed that the White Paper The Trust’s Council of Management made the It is true, since the Fall of our Progenitors, the work is not so easy as before it was, the Curse having covered the Ground with Thorns and Briars, so that the Ground which before, without Still to come..... Cultivation, would have been sponta- neously Obedient to vegetative Nature, Saturday September 8th: study of eighteeen-century gardens in must now, by the Sweat of the Brow, and Visit to Derby Arboretum. Staffordshire and will talk about the no little Labour, be brought under Derby Arboretum was the first publicly- development of the gardens and estate Subjection: But then at the same time, to owned park in the country, opened in at The Wombourne Wodehouse during make Amends, this very Labour is salutif- 1840. The visit, which will be led by one that period. erous: The Exercise of the Body prevents of the city’s Blue Badge Guides, will start Saturday November 3rd: the Blood and the Juices from stagnating at 2.00pm and will cost £2.50. There will Visit to Beaudesert Park, and growing corrupt; and the Labourer is be an opportunity to take part in an near Lichfield. every Moment drawing in with his optional morning visit to the nearby The Beaudesert Trust has recently pre- Breath a wholesome and enlivening Royal Crown Derby Works. This will pared a bid for lottery funding for an Stream from the Earth, which causes the begin at 10.00am and will cost £4.95 ambitious programme for the restora- Blood and spirits to circulate briskly; and Members will already have received a tion and regeneraton of this historic together with the Motion of the Body, booking form for this visits; further landscape park, once the home of the forces out and expels the morbid Parts copies may be obtained by ringing 01543 Marquesses of Anglesey. The proposals through the Pores, which exhaling, leaves 684965. include restoring the gardens in co-ordi- what remains more pure and uncontami- Wednesday October 17th: nation with a heritage walk trail; high- nated. Besides, Labour sets an Edge to Talk by Dianne Barre on lighting the footprint of the demolished the Appetite, gives a more grateful and “Samuel Hellier’s Follies”. Hall and stables; and carrying out repair delicious Relish to the Products of the This talk will take place in work on the cascades. The visit will be Earth, and at Night disposes the whole The Holtom Room, led by Michael Street, Chairman of the bodily Frame into a Capacity for the full Rodbaston College, Beaudesert Trust, and will include a pres- Enjoyment of those refreshing Slumbers, Penkridge, and will begin entation and guided tour of the site. It that balmy Sleep, which generally for- at 7.30pm. will start from the Chapel at 2.00pm. sakes the Downy Conches of the inac- The speaker has researched in depth Further details and booking form will be tive indolent Great. into the history of the gardens at The sent to members nearer the date of the- Philip Miller, The Gardeners Dictionary, Wombourne Wodehouse during her visit. 1731.