Newsletter of the Staffordshire Gardens and Parks Trust. Registered Charity No. 1013862. SUMMER 2013 ISSUE No. 48 News Staffordshire Gardens & Parks Trust Published by the Staffordshire Gardens and Parks Trust. c/o South Staffordshire LETTER Council, Wolverhampton Road, Codsall, Staffordshire WV8 1PX. Tel: 01902 696000 “THE OLDEST, BIGGEST AND BEST”
a Liberal MP for City and County for Shocked by her experience, the Thus, John Weston twenty-seven years. nurse, Mary Robinson, persuaded described the National William Rathbone to continue He shared the view held by many of and extend his support. He went Gardens Scheme, his class that wealth should be used as further…. established as a charity a means of carrying out philanthropic works. A view which he put into Aware of an acute need for trained since 1980, at the beginning practice, when, following the death nurses, he sought the advice of of his talk to a well- of his first wife after a long illness, he Florence Nightingale, who suggested continued to employ the nurse who that he might set up a nurses’ training supported meeting of the had tended her, he sent her into one school, attached to the local hospital, Trust which took place at of the poorest areas of the city to and this was duly built. relieve the suffering of the destitute Already, an impetus was being the Haling Dene Centre, people living there and teach them created which could only gather in Penkridge, last December. the rudiments of healthy living. strength. What followed next was the organisation of the city into To trace the origins of the Scheme, This was at a time when immigrants districts, each presided over by a which was founded in 1927, one has escaping the Potato Famine in Ireland Lady Superintendent and funded from to go back to mid-Victorian times flocked into Liverpool and were dying the wealth of a local family. Soon, and meet the remarkable William in their thousands as a result of poor Liverpool’s example was followed Rathbone, who belonged to a wealthy housing and sanitation, malnutrition by other industrial cities, such as family of Liverpool merchants and and unclean water. Manchester, Derby and Leicester, and who sat in the House of Commons as thereafter the movement gathered momentum. Then, in 1889, the Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Institute for Nurses was set up by Royal Charter, funded by a grant of £70,000 from the Women’s Jubilee Fund, money contributed by the women of England to mark the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. The aim of the Institute was to provide “training, support, maintenance and supply” of nurses for the sick poor as well as to set national standards in training.
In 1927 the Institute became known as “The Queen’s Institute of District Nursing”, which, in turn, became “The Queen’s Nursing Institute” (or the “QNI”), the name by which it is now known, and William Rathbone’s pioneering work reached its fulfilment. Birch Trees, Copmere End
continued overleaf “Promoting the conservation and understanding of the county’s rich heritage of designed landscapes”
about the Trust and how to join, our Brown Tercentenary ‘CB300’ Chairman’s current and future activities, and will initiative. It is planned that future play an increasing role in how we “Features” might highlight sections Report to the communicate with members and the from the current Newsletter or wider public in future years, both from past issues. So watch this 2013 Annual because that is the way of the world space! and because it is a useful way of General Meeting keeping our costs down. The website is still free of charge to the Trust, as it is part of a package held at Wightwick We have been recording statistics on that we have for hosting it. We owe the website’s traffic since September a great debt of gratitude to Richard Manor 2012. This shows that, between and Jackie Moseley, who have put Hamilton House, Little Aston September and December 2012, the website together for us and I am delighted to see you all here the website had 1025 visitors, but manage it impeccably, with Jackie as this evening. We must thank the – straying into this year – to the “mailbox” and Richard as designer It was to raise money for the Queen’s by ten per cent, a reflection of the first stage in enrolling in the Scheme National Trust, who have made it end of April we have had 1124, so and editor. The site address is: Nursing Institute that the National economic times in which we live. will be a visit from John and Sue, possible to hold this AGM in such we are attracting more visitors, www.staffordshiregardensandparks. Gardens Scheme was founded. In its who will come and have a look at special surroundings. an average of 267 per month now org. first year, 609 private gardens “of The charities supported by the NGS your garden; this will be followed by compared to 256 last year. Visitors quality and interest” were open to include Macmillan Cancer Relief, a formal interview which has been I start as I always do by looking for are coming to us from all over the On the planning side, the Trust the public at a charge of a shilling Marie Curie Cancer Care, Help described as “like an oral interview new talent to help us on Council or world – in order, Great Britain, the has continued to be consulted on a (5p) a head, raising over £8000, a the Hospices, Parkinson’s UK and for Oxbridge” and “taking tea with in other ways of running the Trust. USA, Canada, Sweden, the Czech number of draft local development comparatively modest sum, perhaps, Crossroads Caring for Carers. the Queen”! We are a voluntary body and depend Republic, China, Ukraine, France and framework documents by local by modern standards but more Once approved, your garden will on active members to help us carry South Africa! authorities. We have had little to say substantial when viewed against the Have you ever wondered whether join the more-than fifty gardens in out the Trust’s educational, planning on them, as most have had little or average annual income of the time. your garden could be included in Staffordshire that already open yearly and member support activities. if More significantly, the website is no heritage impact. Your Chairman the Scheme? Perhaps you think it to the public; these include such you are interested, please have a starting to generate more Trust- has made contact with the local Until the 1970s, the price of entry might not measure up to the required well-known places as Alton Towers, word with any members of the related email interest, including authority conservation officers and remained at a shilling a head, but, standard? But do you know what that Biddulph Grange, Heath House, Council who are here today or with several enquiries regarding potential reminded them of the expertise eventually, this had to be increased standard is? Size is not an essential Middleton Hall, Sugnall Hall and The myself. I have now been Chairman visits or enquiries concerning in the Trust, but so far there have under pressure of inflation and, as a requirement; the basic criteria are Wombourne Wodehouse. for seven years and, as I say every conservation issues. been few new planning issues consequence, more substantial sums quality, character and interest, all year, if anyone else fancies a shot at affecting parks in the historic county were raised. very subjective judgments. Is your The SGPT is proud to number some chairing the Trust, please don’t be There is still work to do at home, (including the Black Country). Wind garden loved and cared for? Does of its own members amongst the shy and step forward. though. A survey has just been farms were very topical last year In 1980 the National Gardens it have horticultural interest? Is its owners of gardens open under the completed by the web team to and, while schemes are still coming Scheme Charitable Trust was design striking, innovative or original? NGS. On the business front I am pleased generate some ideas for Trust visits forward, none is currently impacting set up as an independent charity These are characteristics that are not to report that the Trust has enjoyed and activities. We took advantage on designed landscapes locally. The with Queen Elizabeth the Queen necessarily recognised by the owner. Members who visit these gardens will another active year in 2011-12. Our of the initiative to try to see if big issues coming forward in the Mother as its Patron and Princess be supporting some noble causes, Treasurer’s report to this meeting anyone was interested in getting future will be the impact of HS2 on Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, as its There are also some more practical and, anyway, who could resist visiting has indicated that our finances involved with the publishing of the several parks, including Ingestre and President, and the royal connection considerations; your garden should a garden called “Paul’s Oasis of Calm” remain sound. It is pleasing to note Newsletter. The survey indicated Swynnerton. has remained unbroken ever since, offer forty-five minutes of interest to (a garden “created from nothing into a slight increase in our membership that some Trust members were not the Prince of Wales being its present its visitors (including time for a cup of a little oasis”) or “Small but Beautiful” numbers. Please do encourage your aware that the Trust had a website! Our Archivist reports that the Patron. A total of 3800 gardens in tea!), and then there is the safety of (this garden is “just what it says it is”)? friends and others with an interest We shall need to address this again overall total of sites recorded on our England open under the Scheme the visitors to be considered. Are the in Staffordshire’s gardens and parks in future Newsletters. inventory has increased slightly, with each year, (Scotland has its own paved pathways even and how steep to join us and help our work in eleven sites being added following Scheme), and annual income from all are the slopes? Could the path leading promoting the conservation and The website is about to be publication of Volume XI of the sources averages £3½m, a total of to a significant part of the garden be understanding of the county’s rich re-launched. The new site will be Victorian County History, covering £35m, having been raised since the narrow and result in congestion? And heritage of designed landscapes. easier to navigate, and any news Audley, Keele and Trentham inception of the Scheme. Last year, then, of course, there’s the need for will now feature on the main page. parishes and four sites attributed to Staffordshire, Birmingham and the sufficient parking space. The Trust’s website is now entering There will also be a “Features” Edward Milner following publication West Midlands region raised £66,223, The NGS will, however, provide its third year, having gone live in section on the new site, the first one of “Paxton’s Protégé – The Milner down on the previous tear’s total insurance for private gardens. The January 2011. It contains information being information on the Capability White Landscape Gardening
continued overleaf Dynasty” by John Craddock, son Burslem Park; a late Victorian Finally, it is always my pleasure at of Peter Craddock, a longstanding park used as a setting in a novel by the AGM to thank many people for member of the Trust. Arnold Bennett, a tour of Blithfield their commitment and hard work Hall and an energetic hike around in supporting the Trust and its “There is nothing in London to Work in the County Record Trentham Park to see the replanting activities over the past year. Firstly, Office has noted two recently- of the north park. John Weston, our President, Lord Cormack, who deposited eighteenth-century plans one of our members, who, with his continues to support us from his compare with Wightwick” of Chillington Hall and various wife, Sue, is Joint County Organiser new home in Lincoln and despite Following the conclusion of the of different periods – medieval, accommodation. While retaining documents and design plans by for the National Gardens Scheme, a heavy workload at The House of formal business of the evening, Tudor, Elizabethan and Jacobean -, the social barriers of his age; he Edward Kemp and William Barron gave us a memorable insight into Lords. members were taken on a guided thus giving the impression that the might provide his servants with of Rowley Hall, in Stafford. The the history and development of the tour of the house by Tracy house had grown over the years. comfortable accommodation, Catalogue of Special Collections ‘Yellow Book’ scheme to round off As always, our thanks extend to Clements, the Estate Manager. The impression of antiquity was but it was still at the very top of at Reading University has revealed our year. our Company Secretary, Hayden also reinforced by the amount of the house, and the dining-room letters of Edward Cooke and Baugh-Jones, and his team at South Wightwick Manor, a mock-Tudor Jacobean panelling and furniture was situated at one end of the James Bateman relating to Biddulph But perhaps for many the event Staffordshire District Council for mansion with timber-framed, from different Grange, while the local history of the year which will stand out all their quiet work behind the whitewashed walls and tiled roofs, periods. website at Burton has produced above all the others was the trip scenes running the day-to-day was built for Theodore Mander, information about Byrkley Park, to London, when we visited The administration of the Trust; to a local manufacturer of paint and No wonder Rangemore Hall, Rolleston. Hall, Museum of Garden History before the District Council for allowing varnish, by the Liverpool-born Tracy (tongue in Sinai Park and Stapenhill Hall. being entertained to tea at The them the time to do this and for architect Edward Ould, who based cheek, no doubt!) House of Lords by our President, continuing to host our company his designs on the timber-framed introduced the Newspapers are always a Lord Cormack. address; and to our Treasurer for cottages of Cheshire and Lancashire, house as first and good source of contemporary her work in managing our finances a style which became so popular foremost ‘a fake’. information. The ‘Staffordshire The Chairman of the Activities and ensuring that we remain solvent that it was dubbed “the Ould English However, she was Advertiser’ has been a useful Group puts on record his gratitude and prudent in our expenditure. style’! also quick to point source for garden details via sales to his colleagues on Council and the out that, though The Rose Garden advertisements, as has the ‘Derby wider membership for their help My special thanks are also due to The house was completed in 1887. its inspiration had Mercury’. Interestingly, the old with developing and managing the all my colleagues on the Trust’s In 1893, the Great Parlour, was been from a past newspapers show that the difficulty programme of events. Council for their continued input added as a re-creation of a late age, the comfort of its Victorian house while the kitchen was at with County boundaries did not and support and also to yourselves, medieval hall. This hall, which had occupants had not been neglected, the other, so servants still had to begin in 1974; the Derbyshire/ As the list of parks and gardens our members, without whose all the features associated with electric lighting having been installed! carry heavy dishes of cooked food Staffordshire line was along the grows, the hunt for gardens not yet interest and encouragement we a medieval hall, such as an open The Turkish Bath was another a considerable distance. But Mrs. River Trent but was altered in 1896, visited becomes more challenging, would not be able to continue. timber roof, a minstrels’ gallery, modern feature. Beeton did recommend boiling while, in Tamworth, the boundary though, given that gardens are a screen passage entrance and an cabbage for forty minutes with the with Warwickshire ran up the always changing, some visited in the Finally, as every year. I cannot enormous inglenook fire, more Theodore Mander was a devout lid off…! High Street, and the Shropshire earlier years of the Trust are ripe let the moment pass without than doubled the size of the house. Congregationalist who, like other border around Market Drayton was for revisiting. Moreover, members offering a very special thanks to It stands at the very centre of the Victorian industrialists, combined a decidedly erratic! have shown themselves willing to Bryan Sullivan, who organises house, both architecturally and strenuous commercial career with Theodore Mander shared the travel beyond the County to gardens our Council meetings, takes our socially, its sprung floor being an a lively social conscience, expressed aesthetic and social values of the On the Activities side, we followed of exceptional historic interest minutes, produces the newsletter essential feature in a house where in a range of civic and philanthropic Arts and Crafts Movement, whose up last year’s AGM at Whitmore such as the Elizabethan garden at and organises our varied and always dancing was an important social activities. philosophy was heavily influenced Hall with a delightful and informative Kenilworth Castle. Suggestions from interesting programme of events. activity. by the writings of John Ruskin, afternoon at The Temple of Diana members for future visits would be The design of the house did not He was a benevolent employer, the leading art critic of the time, at Weston Park, an afternoon at very welcome. By Alan Taylor conform to a single medieval re-building estate cottages for who deplored the development period, however; instead, it his estate workers and providing of industrialisation and the impact combined features from a number his servants with comfortable which it was having on both Dr. and Mrs. Jacques have garden design, and garden history. masterminded the renovation of Sugnall walled the 1730s walled garden, employing Karen Jacques will take the skills and modern environmentally-conscious design aspects, and David Jacques Garden on Tv methods within the historic will take the history side. The Sugnall Walled Garden has been framework of walls, paths and Currently, the courses are being filmed for BCC2 on Sunday 15th fruit trees. The garden opens for planned, and progress can be September, during a Plant Hunters’ the National Gardens Scheme and tracked on the website, www. Fair. on Sundays between April and sugnall.co.uk, where details will be September for the general public. published early in the autumn. Outline Productions, the company behind such series as “Great British Over the coming winter they will Food Revival” and the forthcoming be launching a Garden School based “Big British Wildlife Revival”, is at the walled garden and the hall. working on a new prime-time ten- A series of day-courses, including part series called “Great British refreshments and lunch, will be run Garden Revival. on the themes of garden skills, Wightwick Manor continued overleaf A Walk Around Hagley Park “…the great Beauty of Hagley is the great Diversity of the ground” (John Parnell, 1770)
topography of hills and valleys, ancient Bridge; a cascade (all undergoing or woodland and watercourses, it was awaiting restoration); Memorials to laid out by George Lyttleton (1709- Pope (the urn has gone but the base 1773), later 1st Baron Lyttleton, remains), Thomson, Shenstone and following the death in childbirth of Milton, testimony to his reputation as his beloved first wife Lucy, though a poet and a cultured man of letters the work had already been started who had studied classical literature by his father, Thomas. Prominent in and been on The Grand Tour. public life through family connections, The approach to The Rotunda his wide circle of friends included Beyond the inner park, there stands the rose garden politicians like William Pitt the the Temple of Theseus, designed Elder and literary giants like the by James ‘Athenian’ Stewart, which, In the eighteenth century, poets Alexander Pope and William predating the Doric Temple at traditional skills and the working and of late nineteenth and early Mawson believed that the garden Hagley Hall was, with Enville, living conditions of ordinary people. twentieth century books is a should complement the house. He Shenstone (all of whom advised him Shugborough by just two years, is Kelmscott Chaucer, illustrated by divided the grounds into distinct (the seat of the Earl of in the laying out of the park) and the earliest Greek revivalist building in Theodore commissioned wallpapers Burne-Jones and printed by William compartments from which the Stamford, and The Leasowes, James Thomson, the Scottish nature the country. Like the nearby obelisk, and fabrics from the firm of William Morris at his home, Kelmscott house could be glimpsed, though poet. it has been recently restored but the home of the poet William has, sadly, been even more recently Morris, glass from Charles Kempe Manor, in Oxfordshire. Timothy Mowl and Dianne Barre, Shenstone) one of the three and tiles from William de Morgan, in their book on Staffordshire’s Thomson went so far as to disfigured by graffitti. all of whom were at the forefront In 1899 Theodore Mander invited historic gardens, judge that, each estates in the West Midlands incorporate a section on Hagley in of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Alfred Parsons to submit designs compartment having its own which had to be visited. a revised version of his poem, “The Early visitors to Hagley included John Together with paintings by members for the garden. In his time, Parsons separate identity, the garden Seasons”, in which he wrote of Adams, who was to become the of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, was as well-known as a painter of as a consequence lacks coherence. All were within ten miles of each “hollow whispering breezes”, “mossy second President of the United States who also took their inspiration from landscapes, gardens and flowers as a other, and each was developed by its rocks”, “gushing waters” and “rough of America, and his Vice-President a past age, rejecting developments in garden designer. Indeed, he believed Mawson also believed that the owner, consequently being spared the cascade”, declaring that Hagley was and successor, Thomas Jefferson, as their art over the past two centuries. that the eye of a painter was formality of lawns and topiary close attention of professional landscape “The British Tempe!”. well as members of the European essential to good garden design. to the house should give way to designers like ‘Capability’ Brown and royalty and nobility. After his visit, Theodore’s son, Sir Geoffrey, and the less formal the further one Humphry Repton. The park still offers its visitors the rich Horace Walpole, inveterate visitor of his second wife Rosalie, an expert He described the garden he found moved away from it. Eventually, variety of buildings and ornaments gardens, wrote: “I wore out my eyes on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, at Wightwick as “rambling and the grounds melted into the All marked the movement away erected to stimulate thought and with gazing, my feet with climbing, continued to add to an already disjointed”, but little, if anything, neighbouring landscape, a philosophy from the rigid formality of the contemplation in the minds of its and my tongue and vocabulary with impressive collection of paintings remains of the garden he designed, well illustrated at Wightwick continental model preferred by André visitors. Prominent amongst these commending”. and other works of art until, in and none of his plans survive. Manor, where the terraces, walls, Le Nôtre and his imitators which is Sanderson Miller’s Ruined Castle, Simon Jenkins’ words, Wightwick Following Theodore Mander’s death balustrades and clipped yews in front had dominated garden design for built in part from stone taken from What visitors experienced as they Manor became “an Arts and Crafts in 1900, his widow, Flora, already of the house give way to orchards, the past century. Instead, all were the ruins of Halesowen Abbey, and made their way around George Banquet” Today the visitor can see, closely involved with her husband winding paths, pools and stream, being developed from the 1740s intended as a declaration of loyalty Lyttleton’s landscape was not only in addition to wallpapers and fabrics in its development, invited Thomas finally merging into the countryside. onwards in the new ‘picturesque’ to the Whig party (to whom Gothic a cultural experience recalling by William Morris, tiles by William Mawson to prepare plans for the style encouraged by a new attitude architecture represented Liberty), A past civilisations but also a variety De Morgan, glass by Charles Kempe layout of the garden. However, the high cost of to Nature evident in the art and reminder of the inexorable passage of of sensual experiences. Visitors and eighteenth-century Chinese maintenance led to the loss of some literature of the age which rejected time or even as a spurious claim to an passind from the gloom of the porcelain and Turkish carpets, He designed the South Terrace, the features of Mawson’s design as the the domination of Nature by Man in ancient lineage. oak-enshrouded church, through a paintings by, amongst others, Dante Lower South Garden and the Long need to economise became more favour of a recognition and enjoyment vale devoid of plants and scattered Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman- Walk, as well as the areas around pressing, though some have since of its variety of form and moods. In addition, there are an Ionic with fallen rocks depicting “a great Hunt, John Everett Millais, Edward the pools and streams, though it is been restored by The National Rotunda, unusual for having a stone percussion of Nature” to a “roseate Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown, not known whether he incorporated Trust. The park, like so many eighteenth- roof; a column in memory of Prince bower of paradise” of honeysuckle John Ruskin and Frederic,Lord any part of Parsons’s layout in his century landscaped parks, had Frederick, to whom George Lyttleton and lily pond and finally to the Leighton. designs. originally been a medieval deer was for a time Secretary, though openness of expansive pasture and Also on display in a large collection park. Designed as a circuit walk and with whom he later quarrelled; magnificent views of the Malvern taking full advantage of its natural a hermitage; a grotto; a Palladian Hills, the Clee Hills and, beyond, the continued overleaf Black Mountains obtained from the estate would have followed and which highest point of the park. is now being uncovered and restored their own way, but ‘organised so that present and future visitors can transport – included’ trips may be well worth considering for “Six Acres of Paradise According to Thomson, it could also enjoy a similar experience. The provide the appropriate atmosphere the future, over half expressing in which to “plan Britannia’s weal” In the course of the afternoon, an interest; The content of the in “warm benevolence of mind” and he outlined the programme of Newsletter is considered very in North Staffordshire” “honest zeal unwarp’d by Party- restoration already begun and due Website good, with most voters (77%) Did you know that our website Rage”. “Perhaps”, he comforted the for completion in the Spring of 2014, preferring to carry on receiving gets visitors from all over the them by post; Feedback on In July, members visited Wilkins and an arbour leading to an avenue of still-grieving Lyttelton, “the lov’d after which it will be open to the world? Visits are regularly the Website was positive, with Pleck, a six-acre garden in North pleached limes. Lucinda shares thy walk with soul general public, who will then have the recorded from countries such Staffordshire developed in the Arts ‘Activities’ being the most read and Crafts tradition by Chris and Sheila The garden also testifies to Chris and attun’d”. opportunity to immerse themselves as the USA, Canada, the Czech pages, with the Homepage and in an experience which was once Republic, China, Sweden and Bissell, who began work on the garden Sheila’s love of trees, though they Archive sections running a close in 1995. are limited in what they can plant; But by 1830 a visitor was recording familiar to their eighteenth-century South Africa! second at 20%. that “the park is no longer what it predecessors. nonetheless, amongst those to be seen The task which faced them was are dawn redwoods, Japanese maples was” and a further century-and-a-half We receive increasing If you would like to be included daunting; they were confronted by a and Portuguese laurels. of decline left it a ghost of its former Footnote 1. Next January, Joe will be correspondence concerning in future surveys, please do let us muddy field, “more like a paddy field greatness. In 2006, Christopher, 12th travelling to Pasadena, in California, conservation issues and requests have your email address to add to than a garden”. The site was already Chris’s overseas travels have inspired Viscount Cobham, inherited the title where he will spend the month studying for archive material – all helping to our Membership records. occupied by a cottage which dated him to design a ruined temple based and estate on the death of his older the collection of Lyttelton letters stored ‘spread the word’ (and hopefully back to 1877, but there was, said on the one at Leptis Magna, in Libya, brother and, having read the book at the Huntingdon Library, which is increase our membership). If you haven’t visited the Sheila, not a garden in sight! and the bridges over the koi-filled pond by Michael Cousins, came to the where the entire Stowe archive has been website, please do: you Not surprisingly for somewhere are based on the Japanese bridge in conclusion that Hagley Park must be deposited. The website is still relatively can find us on hhtp://www. so close to the Potteries, the soil is Monet’s garden. worth saving. young; it was launched in January staffordshiregardensandparks. almost entirely solid clay, and the area Footnote 2: Built by the GWR in 1929, 2011, and our average number of org/. The site, which is regularly experiences an unusually high rainfall, The garden, which opens under In 2011 Askew Nelson Limited, a Locomotive 4930 “Hagley Hall” was ‘unique’ visitors (or ‘traffic’) has updated, not only provides details so Chris, by profession an engineer The National Gardens Scheme, has steadily climbed since to 267 per of past, current and future events, specialising in waste water treatment, featured in BBC2’s “Open Gardens” firm of landscape architects, were one of a series named after various set about laying drainage and improving programme and, in 2011, was named commissioned to carry out a detailed halls. Withdrawn in 1963, it is now month last year. The months of but has lots of useful links. June and July this year, however, the soil by importing hundreds of in “Gardens Illustrated” as one of the survey of the historic landscape and undergoing restoration at the Severn You will also find back-copies have seen quite a significant rise in of Newsletters and a list of the tonnes of compost, horticultural grit top ten gardens to visit. prepare a Conservation Management Valley Railway depot at Bridgnorth. this traffic; at the time of going to and top soil, while Sheila planned the Plan as part of a Higher Level To fund this work, The Friends of Trust’s gardens and parks in the press we are on target to reach a archive. layout and the planting, taking her ideas Members left sated by the horticultural Stewardship agreement between Locomotive 4930 “Hagley Hall” have record of nearly 400 visitors for from other gardens she had visited, riches they had savoured in the course Viscount Cobham and Natural raised nearly £100,000 through their July! particularly the National Trust garden of their visit. Almost incredibly, Chris If you have any suggestions for at Hidcote, just outside Chipping and Sheila employ just one part-time England. Sales Stand, by running photographic possible visits or articles for charter trains and through donations by Campden, as well as from magazines gardener, whose task it is to trim the Equally significantly, statistics the Newsletter, do drop us a and books. hedges and edges of the lawns, while The following year, Joe Hawkins, a dedicated group of supporters, who show that more and more people line; contact details are on your formerly Head Gardener at would welcome further donations. Sheila, assisted by her sister, attends to are using the information stored website. The result is described in Timothy the annual planting, using cuttings from Shugborough, became Head of on the site. It is clearly starting Mowl and Dianne Barre’s book on a well-stocked greenhouse, and Chris Landscape at Hagley Hall, and, (The Editor thanks one of the Trust’s to meet the Trust’s aspirations Or why not email us? the historic gardens of Staffordshire maintains the structures. already well versed in the history members, Michael Faarup, for this of becoming a valuable online as being “one of the county’s most of eighteenth-century landscape information) resource to students, researchers, The Web Team. inspiring gardens”, whose wide What was clear from the visit was that, design, he applied knowledge gained fellow Trusts and enthusiasts. herbaceous borders “which move from in Staffordshire, creative energy does from his recently-completed MA in cool colours to not find expression only in its pots, Garden History (Bristol) to bring a Recently, the Web Team hot, are worthy and, in Wilkins Pleck, the county has deeper understanding of Hagley Park. were asked by the Council of of comparison a garden which, it is hoped, will give Initially, this was via a total immersion Management to contact those with Hidcote”. pleasure for many years to come. in the natural and historic features members who had submitted of the park equipped only with the email addresses to take part in a A series of enclosed gardens period descriptions. Following these web-based survey on the Trust’s activities and publications. The have been assiduously, such a phenomenological created around approach has paid dividends, revealing survey ran for two weeks in May, and we’d like to thank everyone the house, a more accurate picture of the original Acknowledgements who took part. contained within landscape, including discoveries brick walls and The Editor wishes to acknowledge that have lain buried for well over The results of the survey showed yew hedges, with grateful thanks the assistance a hundred years. These discoveries that: most respondents would which protect of Joe Hawkins, Jackie Moseley, Giff have ensured greater period accuracy the plants from Broadbent, Alan Taylor and John prefer to receive notifications the strong and authenticity when drawing up the by post; the content and type Weston in compiling this issue of the recent management plan. westerly winds to Newsletter and Colin Fletcher, of of activities are considered which the site is good; in fact, all the feedback LGD Solutions, who prepared the exposed. Other layout. Having visited The Leasowes in 2008 on the Trust’s activities were features include a and Enville in 2009, members finally very positive; Events within formal parterre, visited Hagley Park in June of this Staffordshire and neighbouring a rectangular year, when Joe took us around an counties are preferred, as most pool fronted by arbitrarily chosen circuit, albeit one respondents preferred to make Herbaceous border at Wilkins Pleck a timber loggia, which many original visitors to the A Cascade Revealed a knot garden Memorial Gardens THE FRIENDS OF Next year will mark the outbreak of World War One, and the human sacrifice of the next four years has been commemorated in a number of INGESTRE ORANGERY Orangery to provide a small kitchen, toilets ways, most notably in the shape of war (“Orangery: A spacious and storage space. It has been estimated that memorials but also of community halls building designed to protect the total cost of the project will be in the and gardens. region of £500,000, the greater part of which orange plants and forerunner would be met by grants from the Heritage As a contribution to next year’s Lottery Fund, the Architectural Heritage Fund commemoration, the Staffordshire of the glasshouse and and the English Heritage Capacity Building Gardens and Parks Trust is compiling a conservatory”) Grants. list of memorial gardens in Staffordshire opened in the years following the The Friends of Ingestre Orangery was Thereafter, operational costs would need to formed as a company in January 2012 and be funded through revenue. Armistice and is appealing to its as a registered charity in July 2010 with the members to let it know of any such purpose of restoring the Orangery “so that garden in the area where they live. its heritage can be shared and used by the “Mr. James Stuart of community”. Any supplementary informtion and Grosvenor Square, History photographs would also be appreciated. The Orangery, which was built in about 1770 painter and Architect” by James and Samuel Wyatt to a design by It is hoped that this may be the start James Stuart, had been unused for many On June 22nd, the Friends celebrated the of a project which will provide a years, and its window frames were in danger opening of the Long Walk by staging an comprehensive record for future of rotting and the glass of falling out, while exhibition about James Stuart in the Orangery the interior was overgrown by a fig tree and together with a talk by Dr. Kerry Bristol, searchers, viewable on the Trust’s clematis. Initially, essential restoration was a senior lecturer at the School of Fine Art, website. funded by individual donations and a grant History of Art and Cultural Studies at the from the Staffordshire Community Fund. The University of Leeds. Please send your contribution to the stated aim of the Friends is “To preserve for Wilkins Pleck Parterre SGPT Chairman, at 15 Village Gardens, the nation Ingestre Orangery and to carry on Dr. Bristol began by pointing out that, unlike Walton-on-the-Hill, Stafford ST17 there activities which sustain the preservation contemporaries such as Robert Adam, 0LL or, if you prefer, by email to of the Building and support and enhance no archive exists for James Stuart and, [email protected]. the education, health and well-being of the consequently, the researcher must turn imaginatively transformed into an copyist. The skill in producing that community”. to those of his patrons to learn about the attractive and varied sequence of design and implementing both the development of his career. The actual date of REFLECTION Volunteers have already spent six hundred his birth is uncertain, but it is believed that he garden compartments over the last 20 framework planting and floral displays Still To Come hours improving the condition of Orangery was born around 1713 (which makes 2013 ON A VISIT TO years. This transformation is perhaps in so short a time span is quite awe The Trust will be making the following and restoring The Long Walk which leads to it. his tercentenary, a year ahead of “Capability” all the more striking given the extent inspiring but perhaps the single most visits in September and October: Brown’s). Since he was a Roman Catholic, no WILKINS PLECK and variety in the garden, the fact that striking memory (apart from the The Orangery has been visited by over five record of his baptism survives, the ceremony the work is entirely that of the owner hospitality we enjoyed on the visit) is Saturday, September 7th, Melbourne hundred people, including local history groups, having taken place privately rather than in a members of NADFAS and social clubs, these church. Parks and gardens by their very and her immediate family with only the sheer energy of the owner, her Hall nature are never static even between visits being given an added dimension by limited external assistance. husband, sister and one part time combining them with visits to Ingestre Hall He was born to poor parents; his father, seasons and at most historic sites gardener in keeping the garden in The gardens at Melbourne Hall are and Ingestre Church. Fund-raising events have who died when he was young, was a Scottish successive generations have either The garden is essentially a plantsman’s such immaculate health and order. a rare example of early eighteenth- included performances by the Andante Choir, sailor, and it is believed that his mother changed or added to the layout. with the hedged compartments century garden design untouched by an historical exhibition and presentation by may have been Welsh. From an early age the Ingestre and Tixall History Society, an art This pattern of change and the laid out to create formal but self Alan Taylor later landscape designers. he showed the talent for drawing that was overlays of history are part of the The guided tour, led by the exhibition organised by a local artist, and tours to distinguish him throughout his life, and contained vistas within which massed Administrator, Jill Weston, will start led by volunteer guides. was apprenticed to a fan painter, this being fascination of our field of study. It ranks of carefully selected plants and a growth industry at the time (William Kent is right and proper that modern promptly at 2. 00 p.m. and will last an flowers are displayed for their colour ‘A proper little town’ hour, after which members will be free A website www.foio.btck.co.uk has been began his career by painting the panels of generations should make their mark and effect. The basic design elements set up so that a wider public can follow the coaches). to roam the gardens at will. progress being made towards restoring the either at historic sites or through the take their cue from Edwardian formal To mark 1110 years since Stafford was established as a Saxon burgh, Orangery to its former glory. In 1735 he joined a drawing school in London creation of new designed landscapes. layouts – stone pathways flanked by Saturday, October 12th, Ingestre Hall Staffordshire Archives & Heritage, and then there is a gap of seven years, Although the primary objective of grassed edges and massed herbaceous An Optional Appraisal to look at the feasibility until, in 1742, he turns up in Florence, an the Staffordshire Gardens and Parks borders or pleached lime walks in conjunction with the William Salt The visit will be led by Gill Broadbent, and sustainability of the project was carried acknowledged centre of antiquity, having Trust is to promote the conservation - although the recent drift garden Library, is holding a three-week Director and Trustee of the Friends out in 2012. This took into account its future walked to Italy (at that time, travel was more use by the community as an heritage and and understanding of the county’s rich of wild flower planting in expansive exhibition of their unique Stafford of Ingestre Orangery, and will start expensive than accommodation, so walking and varied legacy of historic parks, we Borough collections. promptly at 1. 00 p.m. at the nearby art centre and meeting place which would was for many a preferred way of travelling). lawns makes a nod towards more also be environmentally sustainable, in terms have always encompassed an interest Church of St. Mary the Virgin, the only Here, he developed a deep knowledge in the contemporary taste while enjoyably Wren church outside London. It will of a renewable heating source and efficient arts, going on to develop a reputation as a in contemporary garden design which It will run from Friday 13th insulation. A draft report was circulated connoisseur of arts and establish himself as a complementing the more traditional continue with a tour of the North, has been reflected in some of the neighbouring layouts. September to Friday 4th October amongst villagers and posted on the website, consultant, fluent in both Italian and Latin. sites we have visited. 2013, at the Staffordshire Record Mount and South Gardens and end and a formal consultation evening held. A Office in Eastgate Street, Stafford. at the eighteenth-century Orangery, revised report taking into account all the One of his tasks was to obtain works of The garden is yet young but well where tea and cakes will be served. responses received was then drafted, and this art for clients on The Grand Tour to take Wilkins Pleck falls very much into established and still developing. was approved by The Architectural Heritage back home. In the face of such determined the new creation category and when The successful reprise of historical Opening hours will be as follows: Anyone wishing to take part in either Fund in January of this year. A summary of the acquisitiveness, well served by other agents, we visited in July it was remarkable design themes shows their enduring Mondays-Fridays 10am-4pm; of these visits should contact Bryan report can be viewed on the Friends’ website. the Roman authorities were powerless to see how a flat and uninteresting Saturdays 10am-12.30pm. Sullivan on 01543 684965. Work would include the construction of to enforce the law, which could easily be relevance and facility to create a a permanent building at the back of the circumvented by bribery. piece of pasture land has been garden which is modern and not Admission is free, He went on to visit Pompeii, which had By far the most influential of James Stuart’s bit lazy”, though, in fairness to Stuart, it just been discovered, and then spent five patron was Thomas Anson, of Shugborough should be said that Mrs, Montague was rare months in Venice studying the work of the Hall, who personally employed him amongst clients of her time in refusing to sixteenth-century Italian architect, Andrea in several projects there, notably in go into debt to complete the project and Palladio, whose signature style, which designing the Doric Temple, The Choragic in insisting that the work should always aimed at achieving balance, proportion Monument and the Tower of the Winds, all remain within her income. and a sense of harmony through the use of Stuart’s adapations of classical buildings he geometrical form, notably the cube, was had seen and sketched in Athens. Anson Be that as it may, the last ten years of his life very much in vogue and widely copied. . also introduced him to a number of family saw a considerable reduction in his work, connections; through Thomas’s brother partly due to ill-health (he suffered from Here, he met Sir James Bray, which proved Admiral George Anson, he was appointed gout) and partly due to a second marriage to a most fortuitous encounter, since Sir Surveyor to the Royal Naval James’s brother was Secretary of The Hospital at Greenwich, and the Dilettante Society, a society of noblemen Chapel he designed there is and scholars which sponsored the study of considered by many his finest Greek and Roman art and commissioned achievement. new work in the classical style. As a consequence, Stuart was nominated to No commission was too become a member, which immediately insignificant; the silver tureen he opened up to him a pool of patrons and designed for the Hospital is still ensured that he would never be short of in use to this day. commissions. Inside the Orangery George Anson’s wife, Elizabeth, Sponsored by The Dilettante Society, he belonged to the Yorke family of next travelled to Athens accompanied Wimpole Hall, in Cambridgeshire, where when he was 67 which resulted in four by Nicholas Revett, a young East Anglian Stuart was to secure more commissions. young children, on whom he doted. noblemen and amateur architect, Gavin He also worked for the Ansons’ near In any case, h w a wealthy man, and fulfilling Hamilton, a Scottish neo-classical painter, neighbours, the Bagots of Blithfield Hall, his potential never seemed to have been and Matthew Brettingham the Younger, where he designed a classical front to the primary aim of his life. a minor architect from Norwich. the west wing which was never built and where the Orangery was built to his design He was also painstaking in preparing the At this time, Greece was governed by the by James and Samuel Wyatt. He was also illustrative plates which accompanied his Turks, who viewed all Western European introduced to the Chetwynds of Ingestre publications, often correcting them when Christians with suspicion, to the extent Hall and to Josiah Wedgwood, whose they were returned by the printer. that, when Stuart and Revett were ceramic bowl originally crowned the measuring the Parthenon, at that time a Choragic Monument at Shugborough. At the time of his sudden death in 1788, it Turkish garrison, they were mistaken for was left to his young widow to preserve his spies and had rocks dropped on them! As an architect, though, his contribution legacy, but, instead, she allowed his papers was restricted to providing the design; he to rot in the stables of her new home, took no part to the great loss of future generations of in the actual architectural historians. construction. By 1765, James So what has been his legacy, then? First and Stuart was at foremost, he is seen as having inspired the the peak of his movement known as the Greek Revival in career and in European architecture, though Dr. Bristol that one year believes that to focus on this is to overlook was engaged his wider interest in Hellenistic culture, in designing no Ancient Roman architecture and the Ingestre Orangery fewer than five Renaissance. town houses; he was quite simply But an obvious part of his legacy to have Stuart and Revett spent two-and-a-half the man to go to if you wanted to know survived into this century has been his years in Athens, examining its classical anything about the architecture of Ancient garden buildings, which will, given the buildings, the latter measuring them while Greece. Not all his clients were satisfied, enthusiasm of such people as The Friends the former drew them, and their labours however; Mrs Elizabeth Montague, for of Ingestre Orangery, continue to survive were to result in the publication, in 1762, whom he was designing a house in Portman for future generations to admire and enjoy. of the first volume of “The Antiquities of Square, complained about the slow rate at Athens and Other Monuments of Greece”. which the work was proceeding, describing Join us for the visit on Saturday 12th him in her letters as “a bit of a drunk, a October 2013 Officers Of The Trust
President: The Lord Cormack of Enville, FSA Membership Secretary: Bryan Sullivan Chairman: Alan Taylor AGT Representative: Ann Brookman Company Secretary: Hayden Baugh-Jones Members of the Council of Management: Sarah Ashmead; Ann Treasurer: Catherine Thorpe Brookman; Francis Colella; Andy Goode; Sue Gregory; Joe Website Managers: Richard & Jackie Moseley Hawkins; Jackie Moseley; Bryan Sullivan; Alan Taylor; Catherine Archivist: Sue Gregory Thorpe.