ISSUE JANUARY 2010 8 BushyTelegraph PARK CENTREPIECE COMES HOME

The final major part of Bushy Park’s renaissance was completed at the end of last year with the New discovery restoration of the Diana Fountain. During the restoration, the project team uncovered a stone The gilded statue arrived home in November, after four at the base of the statue carved with a crown and the date months of renovation in south . The scaffolding AR 1712. This would have been added when the statue and around the fountain’s stonework was removed in the fountain were installed in the basin in the middle of Chestnut following week, revealing the magnificent centrepiece Avenue as part of Sir ’s plan to create a of the park. grand route through Bushy Park to Hampton Court gardens. This was the first time in 300 years that the statute The fountain originally stood in the garden of had been moved and the first chance to get an and was designed in the 1630s accurate idea of her size: 2.38m tall and 924kg in by the French sculptor, Hubert Le Sueur, for weight. During the restoration, the statue was King Charles l. In 1656, it was moved to Hampton cleaned, coated in four layers of paint, each Court and then just over 60 years later it one slightly more yellow than the last, and moved again to Bushy Park. then finally gilded. Final Bushy Telegraph Bronze and This is the final Bushy Telegraph. We hope you enjoy it as much as the previous issues, which stonework have covered the Bushy Park Restoration The fountain’s bronzes – four boys, Project since 2005. This issue looks at four water nymphs and four shells the final stages of the project and – were also removed for cleaning, what happens next. repairs and waxing. The shells had been thought to be stone but they were confirmed as bronze that had been heavily encrusted with lime Links, learning, accumulated over the past discovery 300 years. and fun page 2 The stonework of the fountain Reviewing the was cleaned and re-pointed and restoration page 3 damaged stones replaced with Transformed copies of the originals. A new Water Gardens open page 5 water system was also installed. The final stage of the project A big thank you page 6 involves weeding the bed of the pond and turning the water back on, which is likely to happen in the spring. Once the pond has settled, the fish which were caught in February 2009 will also be returned.

The restored Diana sculpture www.royalparks.org.uk Detail of a wall hanging by students at Waldegrave School

Local groups We strengthened our links with several community organisations, including the Greenwood Centre, local Age Concern groups and the South West London Stroke Club. Members came to the park for art workshops and walks on the nature trail and enjoyed talks and presentations Links, learning, by the team. We also provided opportunities for visits and discovery Wall hanging by students activities for local groups, ranging at Waldegrave School and fun from Beaver Scouts and Brownies, to church groups and the Friends Hannah Pritchard reports of Bushy and Home Parks. Welcome on another busy 12 months for the Education and Our public events were again Centre opening Community Engagement successful, including a very busy The Pheasantry Welcome Centre team at Bushy Park. Chestnut Sunday in May and in the Woodland Gardens opened the annual Big Draw art event at the end of August and proved The refurbishment of the in October. For the third year popular from day one. The centre Stockyard Education Centre running, our Summer Activities has a café, toilets, an information has been a key feature of the were fully booked, allowing point and an education and restoration project. The new hundreds of children and families community room. “The café has facilities have been used and to take part in art sessions, been trading at twice the level of enjoyed by many educational environmental activities and business that had been expected,” groups, from pre-school nurseries guided walks. explained project director, to university students and Greg McErlean. “We’re learning trainee teachers. from these first few months and Volunteers we are improving the speed of Trailblazer We work with volunteers on our service.” almost all our projects. With Opening hours an army of volunteers recently programme Café and toilets recruited for the Information Point Our Trailblazer schools programme from 9am-dusk daily at the new Pheasantry Welcome continues to engage large numbers Information Point of primary pupils, allowing them to Centre, we now have over 100 volunteers engaged in projects 10am-2pm Saturday, Sunday spend a day with us, experiencing and Bank Holidays hands-on environmental activities in the park. A huge thank you to and encountering wildlife on our all our wonderful volunteers for your support! Snake in the grass, one of the nature trail. We continue to work Bushy Park summer activities with secondary schools on a range of activities and visits. GCSE textiles students at Waldegrave School produced incredible wall hangings for their coursework inspired by a visit to the park, while Oaklands School held its Harvest Festival in the beautiful setting of the Woodland Gardens. We also worked with Richmond Council on a variety of school activities and projects, including Waste Free Picnics. 2 provide a habitat for water voles. Reviewing the As part of this project, we also installed artificial banks to attract restoration nesting kingfishers and created a As the restoration viewing point which will be used by education groups and surveyors. project comes to This new wetland feeds water into an end, we look at a restored ditch which crosses what’s been achieved the park and now helps to feed a new woodland pond in the Round New footbridge linking the and get the views of Plantation. We enhanced a small Water Gardens and Brew House some of the people section of the , known as the Weir Pool, partly by Reflections closely involved. clearing excess vegetation from the channel and planting reeds. “Bushy Park is now in excellent condition. The areas that needed Surveying restoration and maintenance have Access and In 2004, we carried out an been addressed and the park is parking ecological survey which gave us now more attractive and easier to good baseline data about the use. The wildness of the park has Car parks park and set a high standard for not been compromised but, at the We created new car parks at surveying in the other Royal Parks. same time, people in wheelchairs Broom Clumps and Clapperstile It mapped key areas of vegetation can now visit areas like the Gate (due to open January 2010). and revealed interesting species, Woodland Gardens which, in the Upper Lodge Road car park is due particularly decaying wood and past, might have been inaccessible. to close in early 2010 to improve water invertebrates. The findings The project has protected the life the landscape, safety and ecology were taken into account in the of the park and improved the ways of Bushy Park. planning and management of visitors use it. It has made people Paths the restoration work. Follow-up realise that they have a marvellous surveys will be carried out from We made over 7,000 metres amenity that is unique and should March 2010. of new paths, including level be respected.” surfaces around Heron Pond and Trees Peter Lynn, a circular route in the Pheasantry Over 1,000 new trees were public project advisor Plantation. There are also new planted as part of the project. paths linking useful routes, at “When The Crown Estate acquired Ash Walk for example. We also Upper Lodge and its surrounding improved ramped access between Education and properties in the 1990s we had the Fountain car park and the little or no awareness of the Pheasantry Welcome Centre. community adjoining but overgrown Water Bridges and gates We expanded the education Gardens. Thanks to the hard work programme and created new and perseverance of many people Improvements include replacing community activities. In 2008-9: including , Friends steps with ramps, such as at of Bushy & Home Parks and Bushy Church Grove Passage. • Over 3,400 children took part in schools projects Park Water Gardens Trust, the Signage gardens now provide a remarkable We installed new interpretation • 1,400 adults and children took example of how a “lost” historic boards, extra finger posts and part in special projects landscape can be successfully improved maps. • Over 1,100 adults and renovated to provide a wonderful children took part in community environment for all to enjoy.” consultations Jim Yates, Biodiversity • Education and community The Crown Estate Brew House Meadows projects benefitted from over We created a new area of 3,600 volunteer hours reedbeds and water bodies which will benefit wetland wildlife and 3 The new Pheasantry Welcome Centre The restored Brew House

“We are delighted to see the restoration of Bushy Park near Key Facts ”A very thorough consultation completion. As one of eight Royal process, involving a wide section of Parks in London and of significant Over 80 separate the community, has led to a project historical interest, this has been that will enhance the experience an important project for the city. projects of all visitors to the park. Special We look forward to it enjoying thanks must go to the Heritage a renaissance among locals and Lottery Fund, for its backing of visitors alike, and for its historic Total spending such a valuable project, and to avenues, deer herds, and beautiful The Royal Parks for organising and grasslands to be enjoyed by future £7.2 million carrying it out so effectively.” generations to come.” David Ivison, Sue Bowers, Over £660,000 public project advisor head of the Heritage Lottery Fund, raised by The Royal “Thanks to many generous London Region Parks Foundation contributors, The Royal Parks Foundation has successfully raised hundreds of thousands of pounds Future 39 community for the restoration of Bushy Park. This fantastic project has Fundraising consultation also given us the opportunity to The Royal Parks Foundation meetings held build longer term partnerships is grateful to all the with many individuals, companies individuals and organisations and charitable trusts and there is who generously supported Restoration of the no doubt this will lead to more this historic project. successful fundraising campaigns Fundraising continues for Water Gardens, within London’s eight Royal Parks the education programme in years to come. The Foundation and more grants will be Brew House, team is proud to have been made available over the next Diana Fountain involved with the restoration of two years from longer-term Bushy Park – and has thoroughly partnerships. and Stockyard enjoyed working with the many There is still time to get Education Centre partners, donors and park visitors involved if you would like to over the last few years.” support Bushy Park. Please Sara Lom, contact Hannah Cottrill on Creation of the chief executive, 020 7298 2136. The Royal Parks Foundation new Pheasantry Welcome Centre

4 Transformed Later, in the 1940s, the Admiralty “Pièce de résistance” took over the site and the ponds The project cost £780,000 and Water Gardens played an important role in the was funded by a Heritage Lottery development of Cold War defence Fund grant, The Crown Estate, technology. More recently, they donations and fundraising by The open disappeared under silt and scrub. In October the Upper Lodge Royal Parks Foundation. Wesley Water Gardens opened to “Remarkable restoration” Kerr, chairman of the Heritage Lottery Fund committee for the public for the first time in The original Water Gardens their history. London, said the gardens were “the stretched 1km across the north pièce de résistance of the Bushy The stunning restoration has west corner of the park. The Park Restoration Project”. The transformed the once derelict site upper section has been restored, chief executive of The Royal Parks into one of Britain’s finest baroque along with the nearby Brew Foundation, Sara Lom, described water gardens. The two ponds, House, which produced beer for the transformation as breathtaking. dramatic cascade and ornamental Lord Halifax’s workers. The Brew “We are immensely grateful to alcoves can now be seen from a House is now linked to the Water all those generous individuals and new circular path. Gardens by a new bridge over the companies who have given gifts At the formal opening by Princess Longford River and options are to help restore this rare piece of Alexandra, the gardens were being explored for the future use history”, she said. of the building. brought to life by historical Work on the site began in January characters, played by actors in Plans to restore the Water 2008 and involved a wide range of period costume. They included Gardens date from the late specialists, including archaeologists, Lord Halifax, a ranger of Bushy 1990s when the Friends of Bushy water engineers, surveyors, Park, who commissioned the & Home Parks formed a trust architects, landscape designers gardens in 1710 to enhance his to carry out research and raise and gardeners. Archaeologists home at Upper Lodge. money. The Royal Parks built on uncovered and recorded the Halifax’s garden was widely this early work and secured funding original structure and this informed admired by landscape designers and management responsibility the design of the restoration. The of the time and it was used as the for the site in 2006, allowing project team used as much of the backdrop of several 18th century restoration work to begin. The original stonework and bricks as paintings. Despite this, the garden chairman of the Friends, Pieter possible. The ponds were de-silted did not survive in the way Halifax Morpurgo, congratulated The Royal and the channels feeding them intended. After World War 1, the Parks on a remarkable restoration. overhauled. The Longford River, ponds became swimming pools for “It is a wonderful garden which the which had been diverted by the an open air school. public will enjoy for generations,” Admiralty, was restored to an he said. earlier course. New paths, lawns and formal landscaping completed the restoration.

The restored ponds, cascade and alcoves

Opening hours 9am-dusk every day except Mondays (Bank Holidays 5 excepted, when the gardens will be closed on Tuesdays). A big thank you In this final Bushy Telegraph I am delighted“ to record the many successes of the Bushy Park Actors in period costume at the opening of the restored Restoration Project. We now have Upper Lodge Water Gardens a new welcome centre and café for visitors, improved habitats for The results of this project are Public meetings were held wildlife and a more comprehensive testament to the dedication at three key stages of every community education programme. and commitment of everyone project: ideas; options; and final We have upgraded the Stockyard involved. I hope they will be proposals. Education and Volunteer Centre enjoyed by visitors both now The benefits of this approach and restored the splendid Upper and for years to come. have been huge. Local people Lodge Water Gardens and the ” Mark Camley, have played a real part in the Diana Fountain. We have also chief executive, restoration programme, directly restored the many ponds and The Royal Parks influencing its delivery and final streams and improved the park’s outcomes. infrastructure. The Royal Parks has learnt that None of these successes could What happens this is a very effective way of have been achieved without the working and we are now support of a huge number of now? exploring ways to use this people and this is a fitting place to The Restoration Project has model to both improve say thank you. Firstly, thanks go to been“ hugely beneficial both to the community engagement the project’s funders, The Heritage park and to the organisation. From across the organisation and Lottery Fund, The Crown Estate, the outset, we were very keen to the delivery of future projects. The Royal Parks Foundation and all involve the local community. I offer my grateful thanks their donors. In particular, thanks We set up a series of public to everyone that offered go to: The John S Cohen meetings covering a range of their time and expertise to Foundation for the footbridge special interests, such as wildlife, help us. linking the Water Gardens with the heritage, youth, education and ” Brew House; The Wolfson community, sport and the Friends Greg McErlean, Foundation, Weston Family and of Bushy & Home Parks. Each project director The Mercers’ Company for their group met regularly to discuss Bushy Park wonderful early gifts towards the issues and to inform the direction Restoration Project Water Gardens which acted as a of the project. In addition, catalyst for so many other representatives from each of the supporters; and The Wates groups joined senior Royal Parks’ Foundation, the Ernest Cook Trust staff to form the decision-making and Fenwick Ltd for their ongoing Partnership Steering Group, support for the restoration which had overall programme. responsibility I also want to thank everyone for the project. who contributed to the consultation process we began back in 2002 and those who provided valuable advice and guidance as members of our Stakeholder Interest Groups and the Partnership Steering Group. Finally, thanks go to our staff, volunteers, contractors, advisors, neighbours and local organisations, particularly the Friends of Bushy & Home Parks.

This publication is printed on paper made from 100% post 6 Restored stonework on the Diana Fountain consumer waste