GHS news 88 late Summer 2011 news T H E G A R DEN HISTO R Y S O C I E T Y AGM report The Society’s AGM was held at Keele University contents on 22 July 2011. 70 members were present. Messrs. Peters Elworthy & Moore were news 2 appointed as the Society’s Independent Examiners. GHS events 4 We are pleased to announce that Dominic conservation notes: England 8 Cole was re-elected to Council, and Patrick Eyres, conservation notes: Scotland 11 agenda Jeremy Rye and Michael Thompson were elected Villa Gregoriana at Tivoli 12 as members of the Council. In Praise of George London 15 Peter Hayden was elected for a further five years ‘Turn your Faces towards Rousham’ 17 as a Vice-President of the Society. Alan Baxter and Caldwell Tower by Uplawmoor 18 Susan Campbell were elected to be Vice-Presidents Doing ‘Green Heritage’ 20 for five-year terms. Historic Landscapes and the 2010 Flood The full minutes of the meeting will be included and Water Management Act 22 in the papers for next year’s AGM. Keele Conference 2011 25 Elizabeth Cairns, Hon Secretary The new Olympic Park 27 in memoriam Alix Wilkinson 29 other AGM news other events 30 A huge boost to the Society has been the forum 34 generous legacy from Pippa Rakusen. The first part Consider leaving a legacy 39 of this has been received and, by combining it with principal officers 39 the existing reserves, we have made an investment GHS events diary 40 that guarantees circa £10,000 income per year. This Stop Press will go part of the way towards the anticipated Draft National Planning Policy Framework 40 loss of grant from English Heritage. I am supported by a dedicated team of volunteers, officers and members and thank Copy deadlines everyone of them for their passion, and look for micro-news 88a — 10 November forward to reporting on our progress over the for GHS NEWS 89 — 1 February 2012 next twelve months. Thank you all for your ongoing support. Dominic Cole, Chairman contact us www.gardenhistorysociety.org Membership applications to: The Garden History Society, The Garden History Society Head Office 47 Water Street, 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ Lavenham, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 9RN phone: 020 7608 2409 phone: 01787 249 286 email: [email protected] email: [email protected] The Garden History Society in Scotland Our cover shows a view from the Temple Glasite Meeting House terrace within ‘China’, at Biddulph Grange. 33 Barony Street, Edinburgh EH3 6NX GHS Vice-President Peter Hayden can be seen phone: 020 7608 2409 rounding a rock on one of the many winding email: scotland@)gardenhistorysociety.org paths within the garden (see the Conference report on p25). The Society gratefully acknowledges the If you have an image you think might be support of Alan Baxter and Associates suitable for the front cover, please send it in. news Looking Ahead working group specifically to plan activities and Our Chairman Dominic Cole made an important events based on themes and topics. PGDS to announcement at the Society’s AGM, summarising provide information page on website. the results of the ‘Working Together’ study, which • PGDS to progress brief for development of the he will also be giving at The Association of Gardens website, already in progress, and to involve the Trust’s AGM at Worcester College Oxford, on Museum, GHS, AGT during process. Friday 2 September. • The Museum to consider the new ways of Our conservation team face big challenges in their working in its Development Plan. work due to changing government policies and • To build in communication as a vital element reduced funding. In Scotland a significant issue is of our ability to operate effectively. If a paid the availability of grants under the Scottish Rural ’Co-coordinator’ post is agreed it is likely to be Development Programme (Rural Priorities) for based at the Museum. Native Woodland Creation, increasing bio-fuel • To consider how administration and back-up will be production (largely for domestic consumption in most effectively provided, e.g. office systems, finance, woodburners etc). Landowners, pleased to take constitutional roles and overarching co-ordination. advantage of these funds, will often disregard the • To consider what streams of revenue aesthetic landscape in favour of productivity which generation are possible jointly and severally, and puts major designed landscapes at risk. communicate these across the group. In England the proposed government review We believe that uniting our skills and resources of planning potentially reduces the protection will give us a more effective voice and avoid the offered to designed landscapes by encouraging confusion as to which body is giving what advice. development without the need for rigorous review. The most significant outcome of the study has The GHS has been anticipating such changes been the agreement between the GHS and over the last two years and at this year’s AGM AGT, working towards the idea that, in future, we were able to announce the results of the joint there may be one organisation. Giving county ‘Working Together’ feasibility study that has been membership more ability to get involved with made possible with funding of £20,000 from direct conservation action underpins this thinking. English Heritage, shared equally between the four The GHS has already undertaken an internal partner organisations concerned. We have worked review of the way that we tackle Conservation. It in partnership with three like-minded organisations, has become increasingly clear that our freedom to The Association of Gardens Trusts (AGT), the have an independent voice in this field is hobbled Parks and Gardens Database (PGDS) and the by our relationship to public funding. In England, as Garden Museum. The findings include that: statutory consultees, we are obliged to respond • GHS and AGT to plan how the two could to some 1,500 cases per year. Even now we are become one and, in the process, actively involve struggling to respond to enquiries and with a County Garden Trusts (CGT) so that we planned reduction in EH funding will find the become a single strong voice, albeit recognising position increasingly hard to sustain. CGTs are individually constructed and will have In Scotland, we are not statutory consultees and particular priorities. our only public funding from Historic Scotland • Not to be overly driven by Government comes with the condition that it should be used (‘Big Society’ etc) but to promote a single, solely for the support of volunteers researching independent, strong and informed conservation and recording Regional and Local landscapes. and learning voice under one ‘banner’. • To plan how to transfer responding to case Honorary Secretary work (statutory referrals) to CGT’s whilst Elizabeth Cairns intends to retire as Honorary maintaining standards of professional responses. Secretary of the Society having completed This will involve deciding lines of communication, eight years in office. Would anyone who who does what, training, maintaining records is interested in taking over this role please and where ultimate responsibilities lie for quality contact her: [email protected] and effect of responses. or Lou Cooper, the Society’s Administrator • The Garden Museum, GHS, AGT to form a GHS news 88 summer 2011 3 news & GHS events GHS Essay Prize 2011 The 2011 annual GHS Essay Prize has been won a valuable contribution to our understanding of by Karin Seeber from Bristol University. There was mounts in general and the New College Mount in a very strong field this year with entries from as particular. far afield as Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, Sheffield The level of scholarship in the other entries was and London universities, but Seeber’s piece on also very high, with some excellent social history, the Mount at New College, Oxford: ‘Ye Making of good use of primary sources and wonderfully ye Mount’ was the unanimous winner. The judges dynamic writing. With the demise of several were particularly impressed with the way the Garden History courses this year, the entry criteria author went back to original sources, re-examined for the prize will probably be broadened out next and reinterpreted them, and discovered new year, so interested parties should watch the GHS pieces of information along the way. The essay website in the autumn to see if they will be eligible challenges accepted theories, presents a new to submit to next year’s competition. interpretation of the Mount and in so doing makes Katie Campbell GHS events 2011 & 2012 full details of our 2012 programme will appear in future issues Study Day: The History of an Estate influence will be explored in three morning talks. in its Designed Landscape Brookwood Cemetery’s huge size (150 hectares) Smeaton Estate, Tyninghame, East Lothian (by means that we will be selective in what we visit, in courtesy of Mr Kenneth Gray) order to obtain a broad view of how it was used 10am to 4.30pm, Saturday 10 September in the 19th century and how it relates to the 21st century. Brookwood still has its own station and The Study Day will begin with coffee in can be reached direct from Waterloo. Tyninghame Village Hall followed by two talks Cost: £47. For further information, please contact in which David Affleck will share with us the the Co-ordinator at the AGT: 020 7251 2610 findings of the extensive and new research that or: [email protected] he has undertaken into the designed landscape of the Smeaton estate. Lunch will be provided at A Study Day at Wrest Park the village hall after which we shall set out on a Wrest Park Revealed walking tour of the estate, guided by David and in association with the AGT, EH and Beds GT GHSS member, Kristina Taylor.