Views
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Views
For everyone
Issue 55 Autumn 2018 Editorial information Guidelines for contributors Views is compiled and edited by Jacky Ferneyhough. Credit and Views is intended as a free exchange of ideas, experiences and thanks are due to Anthony Lambert for his efficient proofreading. practices. Comments and contributions are welcomed at any time from the Views readership. However, if a contributor’s opinion differs All queries associated with Views should be emailed to widely from policies and practices endorsed by the National Trust, we [email protected] may wish to discuss with the contributor the best way to represent their view, whilst also giving space for the Trust’s approach to be The opinions expressed by an author or quoted person are not stated in the same or a future edition. necessarily those of the National Trust. Articles containing what could be interpreted as negative references to a named or identifiable individual within the Trust, their This publication may be freely copied for the Trust’s internal purposes work or opinions, will be cleared with that person before publication. but, if directly quoted, acknowledgement of source should be given. Permission must be sought from the Editor before reproducing Please email articles to [email protected] articles in external publications. v Length: Shorter, punchy pieces are easier to digest than long, complex ones, especially if you want non-specialists to read the article as well as the converted. The maximum length recommended is 1,200 words. Please use sub-headings to divide articles into manageable chunks. Corrections will be made, Distribution as necessary, to grammar and punctuation. Edited articles will The distribution of Views to National Trust properties and offices is be shown to you; if you disagree with the editing, please say now centrally managed. If you need to change the quantity you receive so immediately as silence will be assumed to be agreement or to raise any queries, please email [email protected] (i.e. we won’t chase if we’re happy with the edited version).
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Front cover: Putting an arm around nature. © National Trust Images Printed on 100% recycled paper /Tom Soper © 2018 National Trust. Registered charity no. 205846 Small images: Visitors meet a First World War enactor at Park Hall Farm Designed by Blacker Limited (7004) near Oswestry, Shropshire. © Heritage Open Days/National Trust Images/ Print managed by Park Lane Press Chris Lacey; Ladybird on a child’s arm. © National Trust Images/Chris Lacey; Snakelocks anemone in the fragile seagrass habitat at Porthdinllaen, Gwynedd. © National Trust/Laura Hughes; Visitor writing a message on a roof tile, The Vyne, Hampshire. © National Trust Images/Karen Legg Page 1: Stanley Sharpe and his mum, Rachel, who collaborated in a project to make Croome Park, Worcestershire, accessible and enjoyable for all. © National Trust Page 3: A view across the park to Petworth House, West Sussex. © National Trust Images/Andrew Butler
2 Views Editorial
o be ‘for everyone’ is a big ask. But with communities to harness natural evidence-based examples to promote it’s okay – we had a head start. In energy, to how we manage change based on discussion and advocacy across the UK and T1895, the Trust was established to be communication and knowledge, and from further afield. At a property level, we can ‘of benefit to the Nation’ – the second part experiencing the world through another’s show where we have ‘stolen with pride’ by of our maxim ‘For ever, for everyone’. For eyes, to coming to our senses – literally – adopting best practice and learning from nearly 125 years we have known that it is through nature. others. Whether staff or volunteers, we can, people who give meaning to our work and to We are hugely grateful to the authors in like our authors, share what we do for others our places. this issue for sharing their knowledge and to adapt and use. The need for space and beauty is as experience. All show their sincere passion There are so many new ways to welcome relevant today as it was when we started. for the work that they do. ‘Valley views’ anyone who wants to enjoy the places we By putting people at the heart of our is a textbook case of how a team with a care for on behalf of the nation on their conservation work, and engaging or single goal is pulling together to restore an terms, whether they want to join in and involving them, our places become what entire landscape. Other articles recognise connect, or simply relax and reflect. We hope ‘everyone’ seeks: a haven, a pleasure ground, the influence that visitors, partners and this issue of Views will share some of the a fun day out, a work of art, a force of nature, community groups have on places and how ways we are doing this, so please, read on! an opportunity and far, far more. they develop. This issue is an introduction to what can We can be proud of the past but more Mark Harold Director of Land & Nature and is being achieved across the Trust, from important is what is happening now. In John Orna-Ornstein Director of Curation the creative to the resourceful: from working these times of great change, we can use & Experience
What a Views!
You can help us make the 2019 issue of Views a fantastic The theme for Views 2019 will be announced shortly. reading experience! If you’re doing something you find Deadlines will be between 21 May and 1 June 2019. interesting, we’d love to hear about it. Tell us what you’ve However, articles and recommendations of authors/projects tried, what you’ve learned and what you’ve achieved or are are welcomed at any time; please send them to planning to do next. [email protected]
Views 3 Contents
Shared landscapes Change management Our essential nature
6 An evolving masterpiece: 25 Sustainable and enjoyable: 38 How do we secure the the outstanding, universal, managing access in houses natural environment for valuable Lake District and gardens future generations? Alex McCoskrie, World Heritage Site Rebecca Bevan, Gardens Researcher, Rachel Hall, Land & Nature Officer Programme Manager and Helen Lloyd, Preventive Conservation Adviser – Housekeeping 40 Engaging our visitors with 8 Valley views: finding nature: the latest research inspiration in 28 Every Step Counts, even and activity Fishpool Valley more at Hatfield Forest Penelope Chapple, Outdoors Claire Watts, Visitor Experience Ben Rosendal, Visitor Experience Experiences Manager, and Carl Officer; Ian Grafton, Operations Manager and Stuart Warrington, Greenman, 50 Things Product Manager; Imogen Sambrook, Project Regional Wildlife Adviser Development Manager Manager; Malcolm Emmerson, Ranger Volunteer; Adam Edwards, Fundraising 30 Changing coasts: 43 Following nature through Consultant; Andrew Perry, Ecologist; for everyone but maybe the seasons: a fresh and Janine Young, Archaeologist not for ever approach to programming Phil Dyke, Coast and Marine Adviser Sarah Kinnersley, National Seasonal 14 Securing the future of the Programming Manager, and Jenny White Cliffs of Dover 31 Changing perceptions for Brown, Easter Project Officer Virginia Portman, General Manager future access at Compton Bay 45 Treemendous Trail: 17 Kipscombe Farm: John Brownscombe, Compton bringing trees and connecting farming, Landscape Project Officer people together habitats and people Harriet Cade, Assistant Ranger Josey Field, Project Ranger 34 Planning to keep the coast open 48 Connecting people with 20 Living the dream: Sally Brown, Senior Research Fellow coast and nature renewable energy projects Eric Wilton, General Manager in north-west Wales 36 Eco-friendly moorings: Keith Jones, Environmental Practices pleasing boat owners, Adviser conservationists and wildlife 22 Reflections on relevance: Andy Godber, Llŷn Countryside four decades in pursuit Manager, and Sue Wells, Marine of meaning on Wales’s Project Manager mountains and shores Richard Neale, former Coastal Engagement Project Manager
4 Views Better by design Co-operation and Illuminating the community experience 50 Trust in Nature: conservation volunteering therapy in action 67 Lifting the lid at The Vyne 80 Opening to a lifelong Carl Henderson, Conservation Kathryn Allen-Kinross, Assistant love of heritage Volunteer Project Curator Annie Reilly, Heritage Open Days National Manager 52 Sharing tranquillity 70 Working towards a Simon Toomer, Plant Conservation common purpose 82 The Jewish Country National Specialist Barbara Wood, Curator Houses initiative: telling a new story 55 Transforming lives and 72 Community and public Abigail Green, Professor landscape: how we archaeology at Knole mapped joy at Croome Nathalie Cohen, Archaeologist 84 Looking into pictures: Rachel Sharpe, Creative Partnerships narrative, allegory and Manager 74 Participatory design allusion and social impact at Christopher Beharrell, former 58 Welcoming visitors Rainham Hall Historic Buildings Representative, on the autism spectrum Sally James, Creative Programme and Christine Sitwell, Paintings to Chirk Castle Manager Conservation Adviser Jon Hignett, Visitor Experience Manager, Jasmine Hrisca-Munn, 76 Engaging new audiences 87 LGBTQ heritage Volunteer & Community Involvement at Tredegar House and its contemporary Officer, and Susan Jones, Volunteer & Philip Wilson, Community Engagement relevance Community Involvement Manager Officer Tom Butler, Creative Producer, Julie Howell, Experience Designer, and 78 Seeing things differently Richard Sandell, Professor of Museum at the Roundhouse Studies Birmingham Chris Maher, Creative Producer 89 Forging a heritage experience through the skill, experience and the mediation of memory in Northern Ireland Lasting attractions Petra Honkysova, Tourist Advisor and Researcher
59 Visiting country houses 92 Welcome here: Anthony Lambert, freelance editor and cultivating arable plants writer in a historic garden Kevan Horne, Volunteer Gardener 62 ‘Knowle neere Sevenock a greate old fashioned house…’ Helen Fawbert, House & Collections Manager 64 Brimham beginnings Stephen Lewis and Rupert Tillyard, Day Maker Volunteers
Views 5 To comply with GDPR, this image has Shared landscapes been removed
An evolving masterpiece: the outstanding, universal, valuable Lake District Alex McCoskrie, World Heritage Site Programme Manager
ollowing over 30 years of partnership belong to all the peoples of the world, nominated as a mixed site but was deferred. working, the English Lake District was regardless of their location. It was resubmitted as a natural property Fsuccessfully inscribed onto UNESCO’s There are ten criteria upon which three years later, but was again deferred. World Heritage List in July 2017 and joined nominations are judged. These criteria Though inscription was recommended by a family of famous and iconic places across cover values such as human creativity, the World Heritage Committee’s advisory the planet.1 This list of over 1,000 special important buildings, cultural traditions, body, ICOMOS,2 there was still debate as to sites represents the world’s best cultural and human interaction with their environments, how best to categorise the Lakes. In 1992 natural treasures, considered of outstanding exceptional natural areas and outstanding UNESCO recognised significant interactions value to humanity, now and in the future. examples of geology, ecology and between people and the natural environment This is embodied by the international treaty biodiversity. If a place meets at least one The Convention Concerning the Protection of these criteria, or Outstanding Universal of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, Value (OUV), it could then be considered Voted Britain’s favourite view, Wastwater and the adopted by UNESCO in 1972. What makes worthy of inscription as a cultural, natural or surrounding hills epitomise why the Lake District is considered to be of outstanding value on a the concept exceptional is its universal mixed WHS. world-wide measure. © National Trust Images/ application: World Heritage Sites (WHS) In 1986 the Lake District was first John Malley
6 Views Shared landscapes and created a new WHS category: cultural The Trust’s Outstanding Grasmere Island, the sale of which in 1893 set landscape. This opened the door for the Universal Value Canon Rawnsley on a course to found the National Trust. The Trust acquired the island in UK Government to resubmit the Lake 2017. © National Trust/Andy Wills (Hovershotz) District’s nomination, on the basis of three The National Trust and the Lake District’s intertwined attributes: World Heritage status are intrinsically linked. The third attribute of OUV is the Lakes’ m being a landscape of exceptional beauty role in the development of the worldwide and conservation at loggerheads. The that has been shaped by people through conservation movement. This includes the lessons learnt and the actions implemented persistent agro-pastoral traditions and roots of the Trust. helped to spark and shape the two most industry It was here that great thinkers like prominent and influential global approaches Wordsworth and Ruskin, and subsequently to landscape protection. m inspiring artistic and literary movements, the general public, recognised the The American pioneers who created generating ideas of global importance importance of looking after landscapes. the first national park in 1872 were directly on the notion and appreciation of Early awareness of the Lake District grew inspired by the environmental thinking of landscapes, their value to society and through the Picturesque and Romantic Wordsworth, Coleridge and Ruskin. The their ownership movements. Creations by their writers, poets American model of protection through m sparking the development of models of and artists extolled the Lakes’ landscapes legislation would wash to these shores landscape protection that have spread and traditions. These works became widely in 1951, and specifically here with the nationally and internationally available, interest in the Lakes flourished, establishment of the Lake District National and the first tourists started to arrive. As the Park that same year. The 2016 nomination was submitted by the Lakes’ popularity grew, so did the public’s A second innovative way of looking Government on behalf of a partnership of 25 attachment to it, and it became thought of after landscapes – through ownership – organisations, comprising local government, as a ‘national property’, as first suggested by similarly has its roots in the Lakes. Early conservation bodies (including the Trust), Wordsworth in his Guide to the Lakes (1810): environment campaigner and Grasmere land owners, education providers and ‘… a sort of national property, in which every resident Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, when business representatives. The process of man has a right and an interest who has an faced with the potential private sale of key nomination itself has been beneficial beyond eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy.’ The local beauty spots in the 1880s, realised that World Heritage inscription. It brought Lake District became firmly embedded in no organisation existed to protect the land previously disparate organisations and the nation’s consciousness and has remained and the public’s access to it. Together with sectors together to agree the Lakes’ OUV, to there ever since. Octavia Hill and Robert Hunter, Rawnsley submit the bid and work together to manage This love evolved into a desire to protect created the National Trust in 1895. the WHS. As with all relationships, the Lake landscapes. The prospect of industrial These models of land conservation have District National Park Partnership still faces developments, whether tree felling, non- had worldwide influence. Over 100 countries occasional divergence of opinions. The native plantations, railway extensions have national parks; over 70 have National Partnership will have to work as a platform or reservoir building, stirred opposition, Trusts. The thinking and ideas behind both, for debate and discussion, accommodating lobbying and organised campaigning. and their international significance, are in part differing agendas and objectives, and seek Repeatedly key moments through the why the Lake District now enjoys WHS status. balanced solutions to the challenges faced. history of the Lakes brought development
Shared landscapes Views 7 A major part of looking after the cultural landscape of the Lakes means ensuring that traditional upland farms continue to be financially viable. The uncertainty over Brexit is raising challenges that will have to be jointly overcome by farmers, landowners and markets. © National Trust/Paul Harris
Looking after the Lakes of visitors each year, which WHS may make their mark, WHS status is stimulating stimulate. Monitoring tourism numbers and debate on how to look after the Lakes for The Lake District is a complex WHS. It is their impacts is crucial if we are to manage all, now and in the future. It is only through the UK’s largest, and managing it will not be the more negative effects of popularity partnerships and collaboration that this very without significant hurdles. On inscription, and sustain the very things they come to special place, now globally recognised, will UNESCO provided the Partnership with experience. The Partnership already has in continue to support and nurture nature, recommendations that need planning place measures of economic impact, visitor culture and farming, and to delight and for and working out, in order to maintain numbers and conditions of attributes of inspire. World Heritage status. The magnitude of OUV. Further assessments will be coming on these challenges emphasises the complex stream in the near future. References environment of the Lakes. It will be no mean We play an integral role within the 1. The Trust owns land within eight WHS and feat to minimise the impact of nuclear power management of the WHS. As one of the few buildings in a further three in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. These are inscribed by station expansion, mitigate and manage partners to be multi-issue, we need to drive UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, the impacts of climate change, seek a multiple strategies that will protect OUV and Scientific and Cultural Organisation. sustainable future for upland farming, secure sustain nature, industry, communities and 2. ICOMOS: International Council on Monuments affordable housing and retain local services. visitors alike. Whilst unknowns like Brexit and Sites. The Lakes also welcome many millions and Common Agricultural Policy changes will
Valley views: finding inspiration in Fishpool Valley Claire Watts, Visitor Experience Officer, Ian Grafton, Operations Manager, Imogen Sambrook, Project Manager, and Malcolm Emmerson, Ranger Volunteer, Croft Castle and Parkland; and Adam Edwards, Fundraising Consultant, Andrew Perry, Ecologist, and Janine Young, Archaeologist, Midlands
Introduction of flora and fauna, all of which were under Improvements are now underway to threat from years of neglect and lack of both its designed and natural attributes. A little lost and forgotten, Fishpool Valley maintenance. With help from supporters, we The myriad aspects of Fishpool Valley have is a Picturesque landscape lying squeezed finally have the funds to restore its designed inspired different motivations with one goal. between the tree-lined entrance drive to views, walks, cascades and structural features The following views are from seven members Croft Castle and neighbouring Bircher as well as habitats, and to improve land of the project team who have been working Common in north-west Herefordshire. The management which, in terms of woodland to get the design of the restoration planned valley has man-made pools, aesthetic and and invasive species, had gone far beyond the and agreed, to make our vision for Fishpool functional structures, and a diverse array resources of our Countryside Team. Valley a reality.
8 Views Shared landscapes The designed landscape of Fishpool Valley had become hidden and its features lost. © National Trust Images/Tom Webster-Deakin
The Gothick Pumphouse, which sits on Dam 5 between two pools, at the heart of the valley. © National Trust Images/James Dobson
Malcolm Emmerson, Ranger Volunteer, Croft Castle and Parkland
Since retiring from teaching five years ago I consider myself very fortunate to work as a ranger volunteer at Croft Castle. This has allowed me to combine my love of the local countryside and its fascinating past, while helping to maintain Croft’s historic parkland. The Iron Age hill fort of Croft Ambrey, the ancient trees and wood pastures capture the interest of many visitors, and for the more adventurous there is, of course, the Fishpool Valley, almost hidden from view as one drives up to the car-park. My first experience of working in Fishpool Valley made me aware of the wide variety of trees, the almost hidden architectural features, the varied wildlife and the natural beauty of this part of the estate. To observe the sunlight penetrating through the tree canopy on the beech hangar is an amazing sight. It soon became apparent, however, that large areas had become overgrown, and the pools and dams were suffering from years of neglect. Fortunately we have an energetic and enthusiastic team of volunteers who are passionate about restoring the valley, so when the Fishpool Valley Project was announced, we were delighted. At that stage we had already started clearing and restoring a few of the original carriage rides and pathways, but many of the fine views remained sadly obstructed by the density of tree growth. Clearing the vegetation around one of the pools last year opened up hitherto obstructed views of the old pump house and proved that even limited work could restore the ‘Picturesque’. The project started in earnest in August 2017 when I and other volunteers assisted Stephen Wass of Polyolbion Archaeology to Andrew Perry, Ecologist, West of Special Scientific Interest for the habitat it uncover stonework features associated with Midlands provides. the dams. Through careful archaeological As an ecologist, one of my roles is to work, we started to reveal spillways, As with most of the landscapes at National ensure that we look after the wildlife that we cascades and other puzzling features, Trust properties, Fishpool Valley has been have, and to advise on how we can create covered over by the detritus of time and engineered at various points in history to suit new opportunities for it. Restoring the dating from the Picturesque movement of the styles and fashions of the time. However, Picturesque vision for the Fishpool Valley the late eighteenth century. What became these modified landscapes can also provide a Project has brought a number of challenges apparent was that in its heyday, the Fishpool valuable habitat for wildlife. For example, the around protected species, and we’ve had to Valley must have been an awe-inspiring place man-made pools and spillways in Fishpool balance the aims of heritage conservation for visitors to the Croft Estate. It is hoped Valley support large numbers of the rare with the needs of the wildlife. that future archaeological work, linked with white-clawed crayfish, the Grotto and other There will be some ecological gains: the dam restoration and the opening up of structures provide roosts for bats, and otters selective thinning of the woodland will more of the original carriage rides, will excite feed on trout in the streams and pools. A improve habitat for butterflies, wildflowers present-day visitors as well. large part of the valley is designated as a Site and give future veteran trees room to grow;
Shared landscapes Views 9 Andrew Perry (left) looks on as Simon Barker, Wildlife Adviser, measures a white-clawed crayfish. These training events were held to prepare staff and volunteers to assist with crayfish rescue. © National Trust/Imogen Sambrook
The pride of Fishpool Valley: a white-clawed crayfish. © National Trust/Imogen Sambrook
and repairing the dams will help preserve for woodland plants such as herb-paris. I’ve protected species, and I am looking forward the aquatic habitats long into the future. also been searching for dormouse signs to gaining more experience working with the However, in going about this work, we and nests with the help of Croft Castle’s crayfish when we start work on the dams. have to be careful not to lose what we’ve dedicated volunteers, although we’ve found got, and ensure that we are complying no evidence yet! with the national and European legislation There have been new opportunities for Janine Young, Archaeologist, West around protected sites and species. This has me too, such as receiving training on how to Midlands involved gaining various consents, liaising survey and handle white-clawed crayfish, and with external organisations such as Natural learning about natural flood management. The estate and park at Croft contain all England and the Environment Agency, and Local natural historians have also volunteered sorts of fascinating archaeology, including working with consultants regarding bats and their knowledge, such as advising us on the the less well-known archaeology in Fishpool white-clawed crayfish. special fungi that can be found in the valley, Valley, which is primarily that of the designed One of my specific tasks in the project and sharing their records of breeding birds. landscape, although it also contains evidence has been mapping ecological features such My next task will be working with the for industry and technology. The hidden as potential bat roosts, badger setts, places contractors on site to make sure that we features and stories of the valley have always that may be used by otters and areas notable follow best practice for working around been tantalisingly just visible yet beyond
10 Views Shared landscapes our reach, and this project has been a good Equally important as this research, designed former glory, and while we nibbled opportunity to explore them a bit further. however, is ensuring that work carried out away at the dense tree cover, it was only a Being involved with this great project as part of the project, such as tree felling, drop in the ocean compared with what was from the very beginning meant we had time dam repair and improvement, doesn’t have needed. Many conversations with senior to consider carefully how the archaeology an impact on any archaeological remains and management were always aspirational and was built into the overall project timetable. that any important remains are preserved, usually ended with ‘well, one day ...’. Early on we realised that there were at least either in situ or, if necessary, by record. That ‘one day’ has finally come: two important ways that archaeology could During the works planned this year a close unexpected, unheralded and unbelievably contribute. relationship with the contractors and an exciting! Firstly as an important part of the ongoing archaeological watching brief will And the very first thing I said when told research informing our understanding of the be essential to enable us to ensure this was that I wanted to be on the team! Not valley – it’s hard to restore something if you preservation. because I wanted to poke my nose in but don’t know what was there! Analysis of the The archaeological work has also because, after all these years, I could not LiDAR data has given us a good overview of provided a great opportunity for have coped with being unable to feed in, the landscape, allowing hitherto unknown considerable volunteer involvement and no matter how insignificantly, my thoughts, features to be picked up. Alongside contribution, as well as sparking the interest ideas and comments. Thankfully I have that some extensive documentary research, a of visitors. privilege and although busy with daily ‘stuff’, programme of excavation has been carried it has been great seeing so many varied out. So far this has enabled us to understand disciplines getting involved. in more detail how the valley worked and Ian Grafton, Operations Manager, So what does it mean operationally how some of the dams functioned. This Croft Castle and Parkland for Croft? From a purely practical point of in turn has influenced the engineers’ new view, it means that we have a ‘new’ asset designs for the dams. With the vital help of The countryside of the Croft Estate is the to promote and share with our visitors. We volunteers, we have uncovered previously backdrop and buffer from the twenty- encourage people to visit the valley, but the unknown spillways, steep cascades, curious first century which makes it such a special Ambrey hill fort is what most people choose water management features as well as paths and precious place. With a background to visit. However, once valley views have and carriage rides. As ever with archaeology, in countryside management, my love been opened and interpretation developed, the story is never complete, and the for Fishpool Valley is both aesthetic and we will have a unique offer right next to the fieldwork still leaves us with questions professional. that are difficult to answer… just what was From the time I was first made aware Staff and volunteers assist Polyolbion Archaeology the function of the small vaulted building of its significance, I have had a yearning with the excavation of the old spillway on Dam 1. uncovered at Dam 3? to do something to return the valley to its © National Trust/Imogen Sambrook
Image altered to comply with GDPR.
Shared landscapes Views 11 car-park, one less demanding than trogging case for Fishpool Valley. Here was part of the is remarkable; it has been very beneficial to up to the Ambrey. story of Herefordshire on which these funds view the project from different perspectives It’s a wonderful opportunity to link the could make a significant impact and a visible and learn so much more about the history of stories of the castle and the landscape in a difference. the designed landscape and its wildlife. new way and explain the reasons why Croft The project has moved very quickly and As the project is innately multi- looks and feels the way it does, to draw the changes such as tree clearance are already dimensional and complex, it has been vital outdoor visitors inside and to encourage the evident. Having a clear project plan, with lots to share clear, positive and consistent castle visitors outside and show them that, of historical information, and good visuals messages surrounding our vision for the according to Gilpin, ‘which is agreeable in a showing what the valley might look like valley and the reasoning behind our work. It picture’. when work is completed, has been invaluable has also acted as the perfect opportunity to Exciting times! when showing prospective donors around promote our cause and share the incredible the site. It is really important when talking to conservation work that the ranger team are potential donors that there is a clear vision undertaking in the valley. We’ve had really Adam Edwards, Fundraising and outcome for the project which you can positive engagement with our interpretation Consultant, Midlands articulate and thereby encourage them to and marketing, including temporary leaflets support you on that journey. and panels, web articles, regular social My first experience of Fishpool Valley was media posts, press releases and on-property in the late autumn three years ago when marketing. Strong internal communications we came with a donor as part of his visit Claire Watts, Visitor Experience have also been imperative to maintain to Herefordshire. It seemed a hidden and Officer, Croft Castle and Parkland awareness across the property of the forgotten part of the estate that was difficult project and its aims. We’re now beginning to access due to the mud. To hear the My first venture into Fishpool Valley an exciting fundraising campaign for the General Manager talking about the scale of was about four years ago during my job restoration of the dams, which will require a restoration needed to the dams as well as induction. This only scraped the surface holistic approach to ensure the message is the wider valley made it seem a tall order to of its vast and varied history, but I was consistent and engaging across the site. find a funder who would be able to make this immediately struck by the secluded beauty It’s been interesting to consider both our work happen. In 2016 I received a request to of the place. Four years on and I now have short-term and long-term interpretation propose projects to which an allocation of the privilege of working closely on a project and programming. We held a series of donated funds could be contributed, which which encapsulates what the Trust stands Picturesque Tours in early summer, as well I thought a perfect opportunity to make the for: restoring, protecting and conserving a as other guided walks through the valley to vitally important part of our heritage and the engage people with the project. In five years’ historic landscape at Croft. time, for visitors to be able to experience a From a Visitor Experience perspective, it’s revived Picturesque landscape, with restored Part of the restoration work involves replacing the temporary measures installed following a flooding been wonderfully rewarding to work within carriage rides and sweeping vistas, will be an event in 2012 with longer-lasting repairs to dams such a multi-disciplinary team. The amount awe-inspiring experience in itself. The valley and spillways. © National Trust/Imogen Sambrook of expertise and experience within the team will undoubtedly ‘speak for itself’, but it
12 Views Shared landscapes An artist’s impression remains to be decided what supplementary of the view once the interpretation will be needed to share its Picturesque design stories with our supporters. This is such has been restored. © National Trust/ an exciting time for Croft and I’m looking Coulimages forward to seeing how we can engage our visitors with the project in ever more The team head out for another day’s innovative ways. work; this time it’s the ranger volunteers on their way to ground- truth the LiDAR data. Imogen Sambrook, Project Manager, © National Trust/ Croft Castle and Parkland Imogen Sambrook
With a background in managing multiple projects relating to conservation, I came to the Trust in March 2017 to plan and deliver the Fishpool Valley Project. When I saw the role advertised, I stopped off at Croft to investigate the valley and see the quality of the project team: a multi- Lastly, I would add, still new to the Trust, whether the project would be of interest. It disciplinary mix of property, consultancy and I am emboldened and proud to be working was a late December afternoon in golden volunteers who have woven a strong web of somewhere that supports and invests in sunlight, the beech hangar and Picturesque plans, engagement, activity, fundraising and such exciting and important conservation features still holding on against centuries of proposed works which, combined, will see work, not for financial gain, but one where weathering and natural overburden, some the valley returned over the next four years we are simply looking after nature and of which looked as delightful and surprising to a Picturesque landscape. heritage. Support through the project as the scene was probably intended upon The most overwhelming aspect has management process and provision of inception. I was won over – instantly. been the commitment of volunteers: guidance via the Specialist Advice Network The joy of the role has come from being well underway with addressing invasive has been invaluable. We think of ‘for immersed in just one project that epitomises flora when I started, I expect they’ll be everyone’ in terms of our visitors, and rightly the Trust’s ethos and core purpose; being maintaining the valley long after I have left. so, but these accounts from just seven of the able to become so involved in every aspect The ranger volunteers have been excavating people involved are a reminder that beauty has been a real pleasure and a privilege. historic spillways, clearing debris and scrub, and awe are part of the experience of our At the time of writing, we are at a second felling chestnut to construct cleft wooden staff, volunteers and partners also. Our vision stage in project management, that of gates, researching the Picturesque, surveying for Fishpool Valley will become a shared seeking approval for implementation. At the for dormice, restoring views and carrying out reality for very many thousands of people time of publishing, we hope to be underway much of the actual work on the ground. They for years to come because of their alliance of with the first repairs. are truly amazing and this project would be skills, interests and motivations. Success to date is simply down to nowhere without them.
Shared landscapes Views 13 Securing the future of the White Cliffs of Dover Virginia Portman, General Manager, White Cliffs & Winchelsea, Kent
he original White Cliffs Neptune Dame Vera backs the refusal should it ever be up for sale. But appeal in 1974 prompted Sir John fundraising appeal we had just 42 days to gain Regional and TWinnifrith, Director-General of the Executive Team backing, to fundraise and to National Trust between 1968 and 1970, There have been two occasions since then complete the purchase. A key lesson is that to write: when our supporters have responded it is indeed possible to galvanise support magnificently to calls for help to ensure we to tight deadlines if you work closely and Far more of it [the White Cliffs] needs can protect more of the cliffs. The first was communicate well between property teams, the safeguard of Trust ownership if we are in 2012 when £1.2 million was raised in and regional and central colleagues. The to preserve the historic setting to the sea 90 days to acquire ‘the missing link’ of fundraising team were wonderfully fleet approach to Dover, the Gateway to England. White Cliffs between Langdon and St of foot, and the involvement of Dame I can guarantee that there will be further Margaret’s, and most recently in 2017 when Vera Lynn ensured not only a successful chances to enlarge our protection. Only £1 million was raised in a staggeringly fast campaign, but brilliantly positive media the generosity of members and supporters 19 days. On this second occasion, more than coverage for the Trust. can guarantee that, when the time comes, 17,500 donations were received to secure We were touched by some of the there will be funds ready to ensure that this 70ha of the cliff top at Wanstone, deepening responses from donors when they were historic coast is kept safe for the nation in our ownership inland of the cliff edge asked why they had given to the appeal: the ownership and protection of the National acquired in 2012. Trust. Demonstrating incredible insight and forward-planning, colleagues had discussed One of Wanstone Battery’s 15-inch guns, the Wanstone land with the owner back ‘Jane’ which was named after the pin-up. in 2012, who agreed to give the Trust first © National Trust archive
14 Views Shared landscapes m ‘The White Cliffs are a sign that we are arable with a re-focus on nature. This is installations that were constructed by home and they live in our hearts’ likely to include options for flower-rich order of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. margins, beetle banks, unharvested cereal In memos to the War Cabinet in August m ‘I feel a common sense of ownership of headlands and the use of autumn-sown 1940, Churchill wrote: ‘We have to fight for this unique piece of our nation and that ‘bumblebird mix’ to encourage farmland the command of the Straits (of Dover) by fills me with joy’ birds and a range of nectar-feeding insects artillery, to destroy the enemy’s batteries, m ‘Thank you National Trust for securing such as bumblebees and butterflies. Local and to multiply and fortify our own’. He had the future of the cliffs for us all to enjoy’ birdwatchers are already delightedly a genuine concern that the enemy would reporting large increases in bird numbers take control of the Channel at its narrowest These show just how connected people are attracted by the overwintering stubble. point and that would provide ‘a natural with our cause, particularly where there is a We’ve already created wider field margins preliminary for invasion’. He made several strong emotional link. for all sorts of wildlife, including ground- visits to Dover with ministers and senior Donations came from all areas of the nesting birds, and there was a noticeable members of the armed forces from the UK country, and our efforts received recognition increase in the song of the skylark in spring. and overseas to reinforce his point of view. the world over, confirming the White Cliffs’ Our long-term ambition is to increase The structures are well-preserved, and status as iconic and truly internationally the size of the area managed as grassland we have begun the task of securing these known. During the BBC Breakfast’s Facebook abutting the cliff edge, but whatever the precious monuments by working with live stream on the day that the successful future, the land is now a place dedicated to local contractors and an enthusiastic and achievement of the appeal was announced, nature and for people to enjoy. skilled band of volunteers. Many of these comments of support came from such volunteers bring with them the experience places as Perth in Australia, Guatemala in and knowledge gained from the Fan Bay Central America and even Chitwan in Nepal. Churchill’s legacy deep shelter project that was realised in 2015 and is now a much-loved and thriving Many people associate the cliffs with times visitor attraction. The two Sound Mirrors Creating a haven for wildlife of happiness and homecoming but they uncovered as part of the project date from do also evoke memories of some of the the First World War and just after (1917 and We are currently discussing with Natural darker moments in our nation’s past. The England and our own Wildlife & Countryside site contains a number of Second World War and Food & Farming advisers how much of structures and buildings that are significant The 15-inch gun ‘Clem’ (after Clementine Churchill) fires in the distance. The image is the land should be reverted to permanent to the overall narrative of British history, taken from where ‘Jane’ is sited. © Photographer grassland, and how much might remain including the remains of heavy artillery unknown.
Shared landscapes Views 15 The White Cliffs are a far more tranquil place Who will help us with our ambition? Trust’s protective ownership transforms the today. It is being transformed into a place fortunes of these vital, internationally valued dedicated to nature and for people to enjoy. © National Trust Images/James Dobson Natural England chose the White Cliffs of landscapes.’ Dover as the setting for the launch of the south-east section of the England Coast 1920). They became scheduled ancient Path, and during the appeal, messages For everyone? monuments in 2016, and although the of support came in from the Kent Downs Wanstone battery is listed in the Dover AONB, Kent Wildlife Trust and local The generosity of members and supporters, District Heritage Strategy as a key heritage authorities, including Dover District Council which Sir John wrote about, is as strong asset, it is noted at the same time that it and St Margaret’s Parish Council. We will today as it has ever been. While all our places has no legal protection, without official continue to work closely with these partners are held ‘for the benefit of the Nation’, the designation. and other organisations, such as Canterbury White Cliffs may be one of very few with As reminders of a time when a nation’s Archaeological Trust, the Imperial War which so many people identify, whether resolve was tested to extremes, we must not Museum and Operation Nightingale, in order they reside in this country or abroad, and take lightly the responsibility that comes to realise our ambition. Senior members whatever their cultural relationship to the with preserving such monuments, and of national AONBs held their annual field UK. The cliffs have been a rallying sight and to making them accessible to the public. trip at Wanstone and the White Cliffs in have embodied ‘for ever, for everyone’ for The extent to which we do this will be in July, using it as an example of a much-loved the whole country long before the Trust part dependent on the levels of funding heritage coast. As the director of Kent adopted the phrase. With our acquisition of that we can secure, but our commitment Downs AONB, Nick Johannsen, said at the coastal hinterland, all are now able to see in the regional coast strategy is to make time of the acquisition: ‘The White Cliffs and participate in looking after the White ‘the coast in London and the South East have historically had many land management Cliffs and help us make this former icon of alive with reminders of our past, enabling issues: disparate ownership, low potential wartime into a haven for nature. visitors to connect with the people who income from agriculture, urban fringe have lived and worked there, and leaving damage and harm. Many organisations work them feeling inspired’, and the Wanstone together to try to overcome these issues and battery acquisition holds great potential for there have been successes, but it is quite achieving this. clear from experience that the National
16 Views Shared landscapes Kipscombe Farm: connecting farming, habitats and people Josey Field, Project Ranger, Kipscombe & Watersmeet, Devon
ipscombe Farm is a 357ha hill farm The enclosed grazing is set out in six hand for at least the next three years. The on the north Devon coast. Parts are large blocks of about 120ha, which span the reasons were the current political landscape Kclose to 300m above sea level, and landholding. Each block is split into smaller (potential loss of subsidy, upon which the conditions can be challenging. Overlooking field structures by ageing Devon banks or farm currently relies), the Trust’s Land, the Bristol Channel to the north and the wind-battered hedges, which are beginning Outdoors and Nature (LON) programme Watersmeet Valley to the south, the land to crumble and become less stock-proof; (many opportunities to improve the farm’s undulates sharply: precipitous cliff edges in fact ‘ranch’ might be more descriptive nature status) and a team keen to take on a drop away to the sea on one side, while the of the farm in its current state. Even where farm. land cascades into the sessile oak woodland the boundaries are stock-proof, some of the General Manager Rob Joules sourced of Watersmeet on the other. fields are enormous, at more than 8ha. £140,000 of funding for a three-year project The farm itself is a mixture of enclosed The Trust had always let the farm, but to: (1) develop a sustainable, nature-friendly grazing (semi-improved and dry acid in March 2017, with a change of tenancy, a farming system; (2) improve the habitat grassland), surrounded by dry acid review was conducted into its future. Many and wildlife value of the farm; (3) build heathland, coastal heath and bracken slopes. options were considered, including: taking connections with local communities, farmers The soil is mostly acidic, free-draining, the farm fully in-hand; re-letting fully to a and visitors. In January 2018 a project team sandy loam, which in winter is resilient to tenant; or keeping the buildings in-hand and was assembled to deliver these goals. ‘poaching’ (the heavy puddling caused by re-letting the land. After a full Land Choices livestock), but in summer dries very quickly. assessment, as well as a Phase 1 habitat Kipscombe Farm, looking out over some of the The top layer is thin and prone to run-off. survey and soil sampling (thanks to the 2016 enclosed fields to the heathland beyond. Our herd of Exmoor ponies, along with longhorn cattle and Much of the farm’s land is designated a Site Academy Ranger group), it was decided Exmoor horn sheep, will help achieve our grazing of Special Scientific Interest. that Kipscombe would be taken back in- goals. © National Trust/Josey Field
Shared landscapes Views 17 Hedges and walls in their current state. © National Trust/ Josey Field
Connecting farming to nature i.e. breeding robust native varieties of sheep ecological food chain (birds, bats, butterflies (Exmoor horn) and cattle (English longhorn) and other invertebrates and mammals, As mentioned, the farm has relied heavily on that can be kept out all year, and by selling etc.). Additionally, stocking density across government subsidy. In the past it had been our produce straight to source wherever the wider heathland will be reduced and overgrazed, with as many as 1,500 sheep on possible, through meat boxes and in our managed more systematically to help the holding. While much of the heathland is café. Both actions help us to preserve native manage the bracken and heathland structure. in an ‘unfavourable-recovering’ condition, breeds, connect directly with local suppliers some priority habitat has been lost and and consumers, and help our financial bracken slopes are beginning to predominate margins. Connecting wildlife to habitat – all issues which we hope to address by Secondly, sustainable farming means implementing a sustainable farming system. using livestock both to create and maintain Using grazing animals to improve the So what is a sustainable farm and how healthier habitats on the farm. When quality of existing habitats is important, does it connect with our nature conservation the farm was taken back, the permanent but so too is creating more and better- goals? Firstly, it means being economically pasture and heathland was in a declining connected priority habitat. Much of the farm sustainable; liberated from the ties of state. By implementing a system of ‘mob is currently arranged in isolated ‘habitat government subsidy, the livestock must grazing’ (high stocking densities, but low blocks’: a long coastal strip, bordered on financially support themselves. Therefore stocking rates and moving stock frequently) each side by woodland, with blocks of it is imperative that we add value wherever throughout the enclosed fields, we can enclosed permanent pasture surrounded possible, and most especially to our meat. improve soil health, sward structure/ by heathland. All of which are fantastic After lengthy discussions, we believe this can density, habitat value and stock health. This environments in themselves, but each type be achieved by farming a low-input system, should lead to increases throughout the is unconnected, with very formal edges
18 Views Shared landscapes separating them. As such, wildlife has very and visit us. Neighbouring farmers, for paths, we hope to increase opportunities for few corridors to move along. Furthermore, instance, can help to make this project a engagement. Interactions with property staff many of these habitats are, for want of truly landscape-scale venture. By making our and volunteers, and maybe some ‘hands on’ a better word, ‘monotats’; they are of a ‘brand’ of nature-friendly farming desirable activities, will allow us to share our ideas and single structure and lacking in diversity and to them, through partnership working, messages about good farming practice and dynamism. wildlife corridors would expand well wildlife conservation. To rectify this, we’ve planned a programme beyond the Trust’s ownership. With Brexit of tree planting and grazing: (1) the planting poised to change the landscape of farming, of large shelter belts will, as well as separate there is an opportunity to reach out. For Concluding thoughts fields, also provide shelter for livestock and instance, the funding for this project was set wildlife alike, form wildlife corridors across intentionally low to provide an example of Written at the beginning of our project, this fields and reduce run-off of soil and nutrients; how establishing a low-input, nature-friendly is as much a speculative piece as anything (2) block-planting to create wood-pasture, farming system could be a financially viable else. It is my hope that in three years I can thus creating a double-layering of habitat that option for a family business. write an article to report the progress we is more relevant to a greater variety of wildlife; Nearby residents, children and have made in supporting farming, wildlife (3) reduce grazing pressure in the combes business owners are important too, and and people at Kipscombe. The full force of where we’ll plant more trees to grow wooded the Kipscombe LON project also aims to our changes probably won’t be felt for many connections right across the farm; (4) grazing open meaningful conversations with them. years, as we all know nature’s concept of the woodland edges, opening glades and By inviting local groups to help conduct time differs greatly from our own. However, generally blurring the line between woodland surveys, volunteer on the farm, buy our if we start now I may be lucky enough to and fields. organic meat or attend workshops, we can see some of our aims come to fruition in my explain our management and why it matters, retirement. making this project a success on the social Connecting people to our cause landscape as well as the physical one. Visitors are perhaps the hardest group to All this work would be short term and reach, purely because they are transient. By Andrew, our stockman, and Bob, one of our isolated if we don’t somehow manage to creating a ‘farm hub’, including workshop ‘Farm Thursday’ volunteers, making much needed make it meaningful to those who surround space, and a network of new permissive repairs. © National Trust/Bob Walters
Shared landscapes Views 19 Living the dream: renewable energy projects in north-west Wales Keith Jones, Environmental Practices Adviser, Wales
he National Trust in Wales has been using its expertise in renewable Tenergy generation to help rural communities generate their own energy and an income. The area we focused on, north-west Wales, is a candidate World Heritage Site famed the world over for its slate mines. Image redacted to comply with GDPR It really is beautiful here, but a community can’t simply live off the view. Using the natural resources – hills and plenty of water – for renewable energy, we can help them realise one more benefit of living among such splendour. ‘Splendour’ is no exaggeration for the landscape is more than a mere utility; Snowdonia, for example, is a designated National Nature Reserve, Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Area of Conservation and a Ramsar site – a perfect storm of designations, some might suppose, that would hinder development. To date, however, we have enabled, facilitated and signposted four became an enabler and supporter to the The National Trust (Rosie and Linda in the major renewable energy projects, which are project. foreground) gave training to community energy companies on claiming income from generated wholly owned by their communities. These Three years later the Anafon Community electricity. © National Trust/Keith Jones generate not only sustainable energy, but Hydro was switched on. Some funding was also sustainable income for what can be raised via a community share offer and this quite poor communities. By assisting them £1 million hydro became the first of a few day, switched on by an MP in one valley and to become masters of their own destiny, community energy schemes in the area a Welsh Assembly member in the other. we are also growing confidence in their highlighted by the Trust as possibilities. The Trust team have been unbelievable ability to sort their own problems and seize The Trust receives a commercial rent for in supporting this project in their own time. opportunities. The benefits go both ways the Abergwyngregyn land it leases to the Volunteering after work and at weekends as as the Trust is now relevant to communities community hydro, and the now established project managers, client engineers, business beyond its boundaries, which aids further community-benefit society of Anafon support, arborists – the list goes on and relationship-building such as the Penrhyn Hydro (co-operative) has also committed on. There is such a wealth and depth of Castle transformation project which follows to donate a significant sum for catchment expertise in the Trust; when working for it, on the heels of the Bethesda community management to the Trust once the hydro is it’s easy to take this for granted, but then hydro, albeit with a different approach. paid off. something like this project causes you to see your colleagues afresh, and it is amazing. All this support has allowed us to make a real Starting with a discussion Two more hydros follow difference in ‘places where people live’, to quote the Strategy, and to present the Trust Where did this all start? Following the Following the success of the Anafon in a different light to these communities. very successful development of the £1.3 community hydro, the Trust also identified million National Trust Snowdon Hydro, we and supported the development of hydros in wanted to share what we had learnt. We the communities of Bethesda and Llanberis, UK recognition opened a discussion with the community both of which were 100 per cent funded of Abergwyngregyn on the possible through a community share offer. What was The next phase of this work was to see if the development of a community hydro scheme so positive was that most of this funding electricity generated from these renewable on the Anafon river. This was initially came from within 15 miles of the projects, systems could actually be supplied to people expected to be a partnership as the Trust and the shares sold out in six weeks. Both in the communities and help those most in owned part of the catchment above the communities supported each other during need. Again the Trust played an enabling role village, but it soon became obvious that the marketing to the point of even launching through the establishment of a ‘network’ ahead of us was a legal minefield and so we both hydros at the same second on the same of community energy companies it works
20 Views Shared landscapes Anafon community with called Cyd Ynni (Energy Together) hydro completed and hosted the group’s early meetings in and working as Paul Penrhyn Castle. Southall looks on. © National Trust/Keith The first project the communities Jones supported was the UK’s first pilot of an end-to-end community electricity supply Below: Some of the people behind the co-operative (Cyd Ynni Ogwen). The grid Llanberis Hydro, energy supply in the UK is a dark art, but Ynni Padarn Peris basically, in this pilot, a Trust hydro (Berthen volunteers, at Afon Goch. © Ynni Padarn Hydro) supplies electricity via Co-op Energy Peris/Malcom Mills to over 100 households in the small town of Bethesda (the electricity can only be supplied to a single valley at a time). The households get their electricity cheaper, and the Trust receives increased income for its supplied electricity over and above a normal export agreement. In this very simple statement lies a whole world of learning. So successful has the pilot been that communities across the UK are setting up their own Energy Cyd Ynni schemes. In 2016 the Trust and Cyd Ynni won the Community Energy England and Wales partnership award for this project. Sharing our knowledge and nature work. But the intangibles are of The next and almost final phase of significantly more value in the long term. this work was assisting Cyd Ynni to gain Besides this practical work, the Trust has Politically, at a government level in Wales, significant funding from the Big Lottery to been supporting and encouraging research the Trust is seen as an enabler: it can make employ a development manager and support so that we can learn and share. We took things happen. Socially the communities officer to grow more projects. There is £15 on a social leader from Clore Social Leader recognise that the Trust is more than a million to develop projects between the for the Abergwyngregyn formative work, visitor attraction, and that we have true member communities but volunteers have looking at the Trust’s role in this subject long-term vision and a practical ‘can do’ only a limited amount of time to develop area, and we have been supporting multiple attitude which should serve us well in the them. The new development manager, research projects, including Cardiff School of future should we ever have to deal with more Gareth Harrison, will be joining projects Business research into the whole-life value of complex issues. together, looking for operational savings community energy. The last major research Overall the Trust is not a community from simple stuff such as multiple insurance initiative has been Cyd Ynni funding a full- development body, but by sticking to our payments, shared accountants, export time PhD student to look at the social value core purpose of ‘for ever, for everyone’, payments, etc. of this form of work to the communities this small project in north-west Wales has The last phase of this work is the themselves. demonstrated that we can make a difference establishment of a charity to enable the As we near the end of this work, what by sharing what we have with those most community energy schemes to be tax did the Trust gain from putting in people to in need and also increasing community efficient, and to draw in further funding and enable things to happen? Tangible benefits understanding of the role special places have look for more opportunities to help people include income from land rent and promised to play. in places where they live. gift aid donations to continue our land
Image redacted to comply with GDPR
Shared landscapes Views 21 Reflections on relevance: four decades in pursuit of meaning on Wales’s mountains and shores Richard Neale, former Coastal Engagement Project Manager, Wales
he evolution of the National Trust creation be ‘for the benefit of the nation’. ringside seat whilst those around me were in from a radical preservation society Each generation has interpreted what ‘for the thick of it. Tfighting the evils of the Industrial everyone’ means. Successive iterations have My diary entry for 27 September 1979 Revolution to today’s complex business been pursued passionately if not always states: ‘An important day. Got picked up by and national institution has not been one successfully in the eyes of the public. Mr Shaw of the NT and we went to Ogwen of uniform growth. The charity’s long and Until my retirement from the Trust in to a farm called Bodesi where the warden for fascinating history is marked by periods of February I was lucky enough to enjoy a career the Carneddau lives. He is to be my boss.’ continuity bordering on inertia followed by that spanned some of the most fundamental As a rather reckless 18-year-old with an sudden advances as it seeks to modernise changes in what constituted ‘for everyone’. obsession with motorbikes and mountains, and catch up with the ever-changing needs As one of its first General Managers, I was I couldn’t have realised that I was stepping of society. Since the passing of the 1907 Act, fortunate to lead some of these changes in into an organisation that was on the cusp with its powers of inalienability, the Trust has my part of the world, north-west Wales, for of great changes in the way it operated. Nor indeed been ‘for ever’. But it has been ‘for the best part of a decade. But at other times did I realise that I would also be working with everyone’ since its inception, as evidenced it felt more as if I was an active spectator (if some of the protagonists of these changes, by the founders’ determination that their that’s not an oxymoron), revelling in having a whose methods would appear to some as subversive. But more of that later; let’s first consider the working world that I naively entered all those years ago.
Loyal servants
From the perspective of a labouring warden, the National Trust of the 1970s was a paternalistic organisation. It was run almost exclusively by well-educated men who managed the countryside along the lines of the landed estates. A decade earlier, it had been rocked by a small rebellion. The touch- paper for this revolt – which led to one of the very few Extraordinary General Meetings in the Trust’s history – was lit by the unruly grandson of one of its founders (and the architect of the hugely successful Enterprise Neptune), Conrad Rawnsley. It resulted in sweeping reforms aimed at making the Trust ‘really and truly for the man in the street’. Rawnsley saw that an unintended consequence of the Country Houses Scheme had led to the Trust being run by and for the ‘old boy net’. The resulting Benson Report led to the decentralisation of the Trust’s management and a greater emphasis on public access and enjoyment. But in the depths of wild Wales the old order still held sway, and as I arrived on the scene there was still a hint of the aristocracy in the way we were run. The day-to-day practicalities were in the hands of local estate workers, chosen purely for their practical skills. I was fortunate to work In my youth, tree with a number of these extremely capable planting in the Aberglaslyn Pass. individuals, countrymen through-and- © Richard Neale through. There was Huw Dic, at Beddgelert,
22 Views Shared landscapes The remote Bwlch who was the sort of chap you went to if Tryfan wall, which was you had a problem with ‘vermin’ such as restored by me and rabbits or foxes; and there was Emrys Evans, Simon Lapington in 1979–80. © Richard of Dolmelynllyn, a charming man who in Neale his time could single-handedly turn an oak tree into a stack of neatly cleft and pointed fence posts; and there was the quietly polite Robin Thomas, of Plas yn Rhiw, who was equally skilled with hedge-clippers as he was with a plastering trowel. The skills I learnt in the years I worked with Robin saved me thousands of pounds as I renovated a succession of cottages. Towering above all these deferential and loyal servants was the indomitable John Williams who came to the Trust in 1951 with the mighty Penrhyn Estate as their chief woodman at Ysbyty. John had started as a 14-year-old nurseryman at Penrhyn Castle about the time of the First World War. His loyalty to Lord Penrhyn was happily transferred to his new boss, John Tetley, the Trust’s North Wales Agent, and he became his general factotum, capably arranging work throughout the region. One of the last times I met John Williams he was energetically overseeing forestry operations at Plas Newydd, Anglesey, in his mid-eighties. Incidentally, John Tetley’s take on ‘for everyone’ was his unstinting support for the farming community of Ysbyty. Merlin Waterson, one-time Director for East Anglia and Trust historian, put it nicely when he said, ‘For John Tetley, it was satisfaction enough to see the playground at Ysbyty Ifan village thronged with children when a few years earlier the school was facing closure.’1 My life was enriched by knowing renewed commitment to earlier ideals, by essentials. There was a distinct mismatch these characters, but it was my first boss, reaching new audiences through educational between the ambitious goals of making the the Carneddau Warden Simon Lapington activities. Trust relevant to everyone, and the resources who was to lead us to a more modern and Not that I would have appreciated this and decision-making powers bestowed upon inclusive way of working. at the time. Reading my diary I’m struck by those who were expected to do it. the fact that almost all our time was spent on hard graft, often helping our farming School of hard graft tenants. Simon and I spent many months, Trouble brewing through atrocious weather conditions, I have before me an article published in the rebuilding hundreds of metres of a remote After the two-year apprenticeship at Ogwen, summer 1986 edition of the National Trust dry-stone boundary wall at Bwlch Tryfan to I was posted in 1981 to the Llŷn peninsula to Magazine, entitled ‘A Warden’s Work is Never aid the neighbouring tenants in the process supervise a group of unemployed youngsters. Done’, written by Simon. He was the first of gathering their flocks. A low point was This was in the immediate aftermath of of a new breed of front-line staff in Wales the three lonely weeks I spent reopening a the death of the last of the three Keating who would embody the new ways of doing long-neglected mountain ditch that drained sisters of Plas yn Rhiw, who had been things. In it Simon emphasises the role of Rhos Bodesi heath high up on the slopes of donor-guardians of miles of Llŷn’s unspoilt ‘warden as educator’, volunteer recruiter Carnedd Dafydd. But this character-forming coastline. I was soon taken under the wing and community ambassador. This sounds experience was more than compensated for of the next of the new breed of warden, obvious to us today, but only a few years by the time I spent with the tenants, loading Neil Caldwell, who quickly teamed up with before, the Trust’s Secretary of the Historic hay, painting barns and joining in with the Simon to develop their ideas for community, Buildings Committee, Robin Fedden, had camaraderie of their communal mealtimes. learning and volunteer development. As said, ‘education is not our business; it should To enable Simon to manage one of Neil’s assistant, I was the sounding-board for be left to the professionals’.2 But by the mid- the Trust’s largest estates, he was given a many of these ideas and was excited by the eighties, Simon’s call reflected those of the cottage, a battered unmarked van and an dizzying pace of change as we turned the Director-General, Angus Stirling, whom I was account at the local agricultural merchant sleepy property into a bustling Rural Skills later to welcome to Snowdonia on a couple where he was allowed to buy a pair of Training Centre and started to involve the of occasions. Sir Angus was pressing for a Wellingtons, a Barbour coat and other community in a big way.
Shared landscapes Views 23 The 8,500-hectare Carneddau Estate, where was appointed to support the development Nearly 40 years have passed since that I started my career with the National Trust in of countryside management as a profession day when I sat in the kitchen at Bodesi. Like 1979. © National Trust Images/Chris Lacey and, last but not least, the Views journal hundreds of other properties throughout was launched as a means of sharing expert this unique organisation, the Carneddau information between the often isolated Estate has been transformed. It now has But trouble was brewing. Simon and Neil front-line staff. I became one of the first a team of up to seven Rangers delivering were becoming radical square pegs in what beneficiaries of these upheavals and began an extensive programme of educational, was still a very conservative round hole. to put some of the ideas into practice myself volunteering and estate management They got in touch with other like-minded when I was appointed as the Trust’s first activities. It has a residential outdoor colleagues throughout the Trust and started warden at Beddgelert. education centre run in partnership with to form an Association of National Trust the Outward Bound Trust, a climbers’ café Wardens to promulgate and support their and a manned information point where you ideas. Post-Benson, the Trust was open Continuing purpose can find out about the weather conditions to these ideas in principle, but struggled on the summits before you start your walk. to cope with their bottom-up rather It’s perhaps ironic therefore that one Despite all this progress, I sometimes think insurgent approach. The last straw came of the changes I made years later as that the Trust has lost something of the with the publication of Crowbar. During the General Manager for Snowdonia & Llŷn personal approach it had with its tenants preparation of this pamphlet, printed and was to shift some of the warden’s public and communities in those far-off days when distributed at their own expense, Simon engagement responsibilities to new roles. it was a smaller, less corporate organisation. and Neil had agonised over including a piece It was obvious that the rapid growth of our I also feel that many more challenges need to about wardens’ pay scales (agricultural properties, coupled with the complexity be overcome before everyone in our countries labourer rate), but in the end it was Simon’s of our enterprises and the increasing need feels that the Trust is relevant to them. But as ‘Wives’ Lament’ which touched a nerve with for effective communications, meant that I gathered with colleagues for a farewell walk the senior managers. This well-meaning, light- too much was resting on the shoulders of up to Llyn Idwal on my final day, I felt proud hearted poem, which described the lot of the wardens. We put in train a process of to have worked through a period of such the warden’s unpaid wife, expected to serve specialisation, with outreach work being momentous growth in an organisation which refreshments to senior managers on their shared within a multi-disciplinary property means so much to so many. visits, proved incendiary. The whole affair team. As well as developing a new Ranger almost cost the rebellious pair their jobs. role, with its emphasis on involving people References Nevertheless, the Trust listened. in all aspects of our practical outdoor 1. The National Trust, The First Hundred Years, by Wardens were allowed to join the (then) conservation work, this process also involved Merlin Waterson, 1994. p.156. 2. Ibid. p.164. Association of Countryside Rangers; Jo much more collaborative work between the Burgon, as Access and Recreation Adviser, pay-to-enter properties and the outdoors.
24 Views Shared landscapes Change management
Sustainable and enjoyable: managing access in houses and gardens Rebecca Bevan, Gardens Researcher, and Helen Lloyd, Preventive Conservation Adviser – Housekeeping
isitor numbers to National Trust collections is a significant challenge, as Gardens was produced in 2017. This covered houses and gardens have grown overcrowding reduces visitor enjoyment technical solutions for making turf and Vsignificantly over the last five years. In and may damage what they come to enjoy. paths more resilient and advocated advance gardens we have seen an average increase of In gardens the wear caused to turf and path planning to accommodate peaks in visitor 25% with many, including Bodnant, Cliveden surfaces can have a long-term impact, and numbers. The objective is to keep visitor and Dyrham, experiencing an uplift of 40% lead to lower Conservation Performance routes open as much as possible and, where or more. Visitors to houses are not routinely Indicator (CPI) and Visitor Experience (VE) closures are necessary to protect fragile counted at the door, but estimates suggest scores and an increase in maintenance features, to do so while providing the best that annual numbers have grown since 2014 costs. Year-round opening has also brought possible access to key views and features. from 10 million to 15 million, with some challenges as routine conservation work now New online guidance on Garden Paths ‘treasure houses’ experiencing an increase either takes place in full view of visitors or and Planning was also published to ensure greater than 50%. areas are closed off during opening hours. interventions made to provide access meet Managing visitor flow through historic planning legislation and are sensitive to the spaces full of fragile materials and historic environment. Maintaining high presentation In houses, the design of access routes standards and interpretation requires a collaborative Using the Conservation approach to presenting an inspiring visitor for Access toolkit, assessments can be To help property teams provide a great experience which also supports control of made on sensitivity garden experience year round, a Best visitor flow and preventive conservation, of interiors to wear Practice Guide to Managing Visitor Access in thus reducing the risk that the balance of and light exposure, with frequency of overcrowding. The arrows indicate the visitor route. © National Trust/ Helen Lloyd
Change management Views 25 authentic presentation and story-telling will Each room has a capacity point (based be diluted by the closure of rooms, removal on its size and the of vulnerable items and/or addition of fragility of its content) protective measures. The Conservation for beyond which viewing conditions Access toolkit (C4A) promotes discussion become difficult. between property teams, volunteers, Managing capacity managers and consultants, helping them and flow improves visitor experience review their aspirations and plans for and reduces risks of improving both the visitor offer and the wear and damage. sustainable presentation of interiors and © National Trust Images/Arnhel de Serra care of collections.
Keeping access sustainable
In houses, the C4A toolkit helps teams to gather facts and figures, generating an Design process at many properties. At some the fragile areas of a garden and to develop accurate picture of how intensively display of our most sensitive garden properties, a model of care for heritage sites open to rooms are occupied by visitors, the rate of trials are underway to manage access at peak the public. Connected to this research, the cumulative wear to floors and floor coverings, times, including ‘Bookable Easter’ in 2017 at Royal Oak Foundation is funding a student the capacity of the house team to present Packwood, Baddesley Clinton and Coughton to study the interventions made at gardens and clean rooms to conservation standards, Court which significantly reduced wear to both in the UK and abroad to facilitate access and the cost of maintaining equipment and the garden at Packwood by capping visitor and the impact on visitor experience and renewing protective materials. Potential numbers at 1,200 per day (a figure calculated expectations. Findings will be shared in 2019. solutions and options for visitor access are from past experience). When Hidcote recently Technical solutions for making gardens plotted on floor plans, enabling staff and introduced coach-free Fridays and Bank more resilient are also being explored. Since volunteers to see at a glance where spaces Holiday weekends and limited the number of the issue of turf wear was picked up in tend to be over-and under-capacity, and coaches on other days, it also offered coach many CPI reviews, and is thought to affect which interiors are most sensitive to wear, parties the option to book a new early- visitor enjoyment, better turf management dust and light exposure. These plans are then morning exclusive access ticket. The team at has become a priority amongst Gardens annotated with options for changing access Sissinghurst also limit coach numbers at peak Consultants. Training in turf maintenance to to display rooms on busier and quieter days, times and keep the fragile garden closed in make lawns more resilient is being provided, making more flexible use of interpretation to winter; visitors are able to walk through one and sports turf experts are being consulted optimise visitor flow and improve enjoyment part to the South Cottage and Tower, from on the solutions available to properties that and conservation. where the garden can be viewed. need something more. In gardens the C4A toolkit has been In houses, the growth in visitor numbers harder to apply due to the difficulties is driving a proportionate need to increase of measuring dwell time and capacity in Research and training routine cleaning, not only for presentation particular areas, but work is ongoing to but also to mitigate the probability that address this and provide other tools to aid Emma McNamara, Gardens Consultant in neglect of cleaning will incur higher conservation. Gardens Consultants are also London and the South East, is undertaking conservation costs. The dust research project playing an active role in the Experience a PhD exploring the best ways to protect (in partnership with English Heritage, Historic
The gardens at Sissinghurst are closed during the wettest months but views across them can still be enjoyed from the tower. © National Trust Images/Mark Wigmore
26 Views Change management Royal Palaces and UEA Environmental Sciences) demonstrated clearly that the greater the number of visitors, the more dust is deposited on surfaces; also, the closer people stand to fragile objects, the more rapidly dust accumulates, resulting in a need to clean these more frequently than their delicate materials can withstand. Research also showed how high relative humidity causes particles to stick to surfaces, a process known as ‘cementation’; the higher the humidity, the more dust will stick preferentially to textiles, books and paper. The longer dust remains on surfaces, the more difficult – and expensive – becomes its removal. Research carried out by the International Wool Secretariat and UCL Engineering Science enables conservators and curators to select resilient materials to protect carpets and floor surfaces from foot and wheelchair traffic. House Manual records GPS tracking (observations and images) enable house technology carried by teams to track the condition of individual visitors at Attingham objects and surfaces year on year, and relate Park was used to show dwell points these more precisely to visitor numbers, (i.e. pauses for longer dust deposition rates and methods of care; than two minutes) at surface protection, daylight control and certain places around the estate. © National cleaning routines can then be adjusted Trust in response to the ability of materials to withstand visitor access, light exposure and During a Conservation in Action use. The Manual of Housekeeping (2011) is demonstration, being updated to include extended opening house staff prepare and access, reflecting current training at the protective materials for temporary packing Housekeeping Study Days which advocates and storage of a year-round programme of conservation metalwork. © National cleaning, integrated with demonstrations Trust Images/Paul Harris of conservation in action to promote the Trust’s cause.
Programming
Conservation in action demonstrations are during traditionally quiet periods or scaling with gardens, the secret to successful popular with visitors to houses and gardens, back at busy times. management of conservation and growth, and are crucial for engaging their support. In houses, seasonal programming now making visitor access both enjoyable and The organisation-wide move away from introduces opportunities to vary the route sustainable, lies in close collaboration high-impact, one-off events to year-round and rooms displayed to visitors, enabling between house teams and curators, programming has largely been good for house teams to close spaces for periodic conservators and VE consultants. gardens. Attingham, for instance, no longer high-level cleaning and annual detailed holds a May Plant Fair and pre-Christmas inspection, and to engage visitors in the Frost Fair now that their core offer and fascinating process of caring for historic Further information programming is strong enough to spread collections using traditional housekeeping visitors at a more sustainable level over each techniques underpinned by conservation Information on Conservation in Action day. As is so often the case, closer working science. Many house teams are discovering can be found on the website at www. relationships between teams seem key to that taking time to plan this work properly nationaltrust.org.uk/features/our- addressing these challenges. In gardens, is a wise investment, developing innovative conservation-work or by Trust staff and when garden and VE staff work together, ideas for managing year-round access. volunteers on https://nationaltrustonline. programming can be designed to fit around Greater transparency on the sharepoint.com/sites/acorn_ja_curators/ what a garden can support, interpretation housekeeping burdens of supporting Pages/How-can-I-deliver-conservation-in- can be placed to help manage visitor flow, income-generating events in historic action-.aspx, along with the C4A toolkits on and path closures or new routes made clear interiors has prompted a more business- https://nationaltrustonline.sharepoint.com/ to visitors upon arrival. Strategic marketing like, risk-aware and cost-effective approach sites/acorn_ja_curators/Pages/Conservation- can also play a role, encouraging visitors to their planning and management. As for-access-in-houses-and-gardens.aspx
Change management Views 27 Every Step Counts, even more at Hatfield Forest Ben Rosendal, Visitor Experience Manager, Hatfield Forest, and Stuart Warrington, Regional Wildlife Adviser, East of England
n last year’s Views, Sarah Barfoot introduced the innovative ‘Every Step ICounts’ project at Hatfield Forest, a five-pronged approach to managing visitor numbers and recreational pressures comprising: forest works, infrastructure, communications and community involvement, acquisition and strategic housing developments. Leading landscape historians consider Hatfield Forest the best preserved medieval hunting forest in Europe. It is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a National Nature Reserve, has two scheduled monuments and four listed buildings. However, due to its heavy clay soils and the increase in visitors, we are seeing significant impacts and damage to the path network with loss of vegetation, extensive areas of mud and compacted soils. The conservation significance of the site is at risk and we needed to act.
What have we learned since last year?
The state of the paths: each spring since 2014, every path is walked and assessed for the extent of vegetation cover and bare soil, as a measure of human footfall, and scored as Red (very poor, serious trampling impact, 75+% bare mud, water retention on the surface), Amber (bare mud between 25 and 75%) or Green (acceptable with over 75% vegetation cover, muddy areas localised). drive to the central car-park, we get a total Top: A path through woodland at Hatfield Forest On 3 April 2018, 8.9km (46%) of paths were of 500,000 visits. The number who come showing the contrast between the footfall impacts and the fenced-off woodland soils, April 2018. assessed as Red, 7.3km (38%) as Amber and through the gates is very consistent, day © National Trust/Stuart Warrington only 3.1km (16%) as Green, which were the by day and month by month; for example, poorest results so far recorded. about 12% of a week’s total visits are made Locally made hurdles are used to block off paths that are closed to see if the vegetation will recover. Rainfall has a major impact on the each weekday, rising to 20% on Saturday © National Trust/Stuart Warrington resilience of paths on clay soil. At the end and Sunday. The peak month in 2017 was of last autumn, we were optimistic about April and the quietest was February, but the paths which were holding up well, but these were only 25% above and below our Visitor survey: we commissioned Footprint December 2017 had 160% of the average monthly average. Ecology, experts in visitor use of the monthly rainfall, March 2018 had 150% and Counters also allow us to look at the countryside, to investigate our mid-winter April 140%, with January and February being time of day that people arrive. The peak visitors. They surveyed for 13 days (104 close to average. Path condition rapidly hours are between 11am and 5pm, but 13% hours), recording 2,579 people (plus 642 deteriorated in 2018, not helped by the early of visits are between 6pm and 6am; there dogs) and interviewing 188 people. Headline wet Easter. are visitors every hour of every day. Patterns results: the average distance being walked can change; for example, a previously quiet was 3km, with 50% of people walking dogs, Gate counters: we have more reliable data gate in the north-west corner has now most with companions. 76% of visitors live and now estimate that there are at least become almost the busiest, as people have within 10km of us and 87% said they arrived 285,000 visits per year by foot through discovered a free car-park in an adjacent by car. These numbers are not fully reflected the perimeter gates. Added to those who industrial estate. in our car-park use, however, so many
28 Views Change management visitors are regularly parking in the local area level of trust in our management of the site have also devoted a significant amount of and not on Trust land. by making ourselves far more transparent. time to resilience training for our front of On frequency, 25% of interviewees visit Communications and marketing are a key house team, as it became clear that this was daily and another 25% visit one to three multifaceted work stream, encompassing a difficult message for some of our visitors times per week; 70% said they visit equally print material, web and social media to receive. We focused this training on trying frequently throughout the year. A very rough postings, meeting with local press and to understand the root cause of the anger scaling-up of data on frequency of visits personal engagement; as an example, see or aggression the visitor was displaying would suggest that 92,000 visits/year (18% our page on how we’re protecting three and to tailor our responses to help mutual of the total) are made by just 851 individuals. ancient hornbeam trees: www.nationaltrust. understanding. We also felt it necessary org.uk/hatfield-forest/features/vulnerable- to set clear boundaries with the team as Perceptions of value of site: when asked hornbeams-in-hatfield-forest to what was not acceptable and when to to rate Hatfield Forest for its value to them The local parish magazines, newsletters ask for help from senior staff. Some of the on various grounds, 91% gave a maximum and volunteer groups are especially most vigorous responses to our attempts (five) for greenspace value, 82% gave a five important. These have given us noticeable to explain the seriousness of visitor impacts for wildlife value and 58% gave a five for access to certain user groups, although on the forest are the same people who have historical value. 10% said that it is the only others have remained elusive and hard to been critical of the Trust’s management of it greenspace they use, while another 32% engage. We have repeatedly found that for the last 10 or 20 years. state that at least three-quarters of their those who are used to engaging with us and It is important to say once again that countryside visits are to Hatfield Forest. who make a beeline for our visitor facilities we do not have the solutions. The situation 76% of interviewees stated that they would are the most open to our messaging – they at Hatfield Forest is a complex one, but we consider using an alternative, expansive use our social media, pick up our leaflets and have to try to make progress with all aspects greenspace if such a site existed or was talk to our staff. Those who don’t use our of this project so that this important place created near to the forest. facilities are far harder to engage, and we has a chance to be wonderful for ever, for have identified this as a key area to work on. everyone. Housing: within 2km of Hatfield Forest, We have become much more willing to the number of houses increased by 33% talk openly about the challenges we face Reference between 2003 and 2017 and within 10km at Hatfield Forest and more honest about 1 Barfoot, Sarah ‘Every Step Counts at Hatfield the increase has been 20%, to almost the damage winter visitors cause to the Forest’, Views, Issue 54 (National Trust, 2017); pp.45–7. 10,000. Analysis of local plans and planning conservation significance of the site. We permissions for more houses would suggest that visitor numbers can be expected to Visitors are clearly increase by a further 26% once allocated by-passing this set of hurdles and continue housing is in place. on the same path. © National Trust/ Forest works and infrastructure: the team Stuart Warrington has been undertaking a great deal of work to help the survival of the landscape: ditches are being cleared on rotation, and scrub We have protected the management and coppicing of trees beside very significant ancient paths is more extensive and regular. We are hornbeam pollards also closing some paths using hurdles and by the entrance gate with hurdles. This tree signage to see if the vegetation will recover, was suffering from as well as protecting individual trees. soil compaction under A specialist drainage engineering the crown from both cattle and people. contractor was commissioned to come up © National Trust/ with a plan to improve the resilience of the Stuart Warrington core visitor area of the Shell House area by the lake. The work will be undertaken this autumn. With the support of Natural England, we are testing short sections of various path surfaces in the busiest areas. Cutting-edge work with Bartlett Tree Research Laboratory and the University of Reading has taken place to test decompaction methods for woodland soils, using both air spading and other techniques.
Communications and listening: stakeholder engagement is a core strategy and we have set up a working group of lively and influential representatives from the local community and users. We are now much better informed as to how our decisions are perceived locally, and we have also raised the
Change management Views 29 Changing coasts: for everyone but maybe not for ever Phil Dyke, Coast and Marine Adviser
n the autumn of 2017 I was invited to Newport, where the US cultural heritage and 2017. Imagine the nuisance that climate speak at the opening session of the environmental sector could find a common change and the associated challenges and Iconference ‘Keeping History Above Water’ platform to discuss sea-level rise and uncertainties pose for everyone. in Annapolis, the capital city of Maryland, climate-change issues. USA. I talked about the experiences of the The conference brought together National Trust and how we are seeking delegates from grass roots ‘not for profits’, Time to speak is now to adapt our coastal conservation and local government officers and elected engagement work to take account of sea- representatives, academics, private Adding to my sense of despair, while at the level rise, working with natural processes enterprise and many more. To me the most conference I learned that the US intends and local communities to make sense of the astounding thing about it was the non- to withdraw from UNESCO and ICOMOS, climate change-related alterations that we partisan political leadership being shown by compounding the shock of impending see ever more clearly at the coast. the city government, through its mayor and withdrawal from the Paris Agreement; Sharing the platform was the acclaimed alderman, to face up to the realities of sea- and if this were not enough, that same energy and climate-change author Jeff level rise and the impacts it is having, and week the Head of the US Environmental Goodell. Jeff’s recent bookThe Water will continue to have, on this most precious Protection Agency (EPA) ruled that no Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, of US cultural heritage locations. It was all scientist in receipt of EPA grant support and the Remaking of the Civilized World1 the more impressive against the backdrop for research can in future be a member of sends a salutary reminder that we live in of a strong whiff of climate-change denial the EPA Advisory Panel. It is not hard to a time of rising sea levels with profound that continues to pervade the air. You really imagine what the cumulative impacts of accompanying changes that will affect us all. can lose your job in some US states if, as these acts of Orwellian censorship will be in Lisa Craig, Head of Historic Preservation a public-sector worker, you utter or write the US at federal level; it will deter people in Annapolis and all-round mover and shaker the words ‘climate change’. In the hard-line from showing any form of leadership in on sea-level rise and impacts on cultural climate-change-denying states of the US countering the hole we are digging ourselves heritage in her community, had grasped the and federal corridors of power, the term into, deeper and deeper, on climate change. nettle, and in conjunction with the Newport ‘nuisance flooding’ is the censor’s word of But it is at least heartening that lower down Restoration Foundation (NRF) put on an choice – imagine the nuisance still being the food chain there are very many good inspirational conference over four days. NRF felt by millions in the Caribbean following people in the US who will continue to speak had taken the initiative in 2015 to host the the conveyor belt of intense storms that and act to tackle climate change – and with first Keeping History Above Water event in shattered entire nations in the autumn of good reason.
Flooded streets and businesses around the Annapolis port area are a near weekly occurrence, even occurring during calm weather conditions. The image shows a normal high tide that has come over the harbour wall (mid line of image). © National Trust/Phil Dyke
30 Views Change management Annapolis and a good portion of the Fantasy. The film first saw the light of day draw our attention to the growing demands eastern seaboard of the US are already as a product of the EU-funded Living with a on Trust properties and where desired experiencing more than double the global Changing Coast project in which the Trust growth might cause conflicts between relative sea-level rise per annum, so not was a partner, based around Poole Harbour interests – nature versus visitors, or visitors 3.2mm per annum that we see in the UK but in Dorset. This short animation distils the versus visitors, and what we’re doing about it. more like 8mm a year. This is due to a perfect complex issues associated with geology What greater and steadily growing demand storm of sea-level rise, sinking land and a and geomorphology, climate change, sea- can there be on our special places, at the stacking up of water along this coast as the level rise and in Tim Britten’s words, ‘our coast or inland, than the strains climate Gulf Stream slows in response to ocean species’ boundless ingenuity to tackle these change imposes upon us all? ‘For everyone’ warming. As one speaker, a retired high- problems’, into a film of just six minutes. remains, as our founders intended it to be, a ranking US naval officer turned university Six minutes of humorous exploration – noble and worthy goal, but in all landscapes professor, put it: ‘Take your mobile phone, measuring, for example, deep geological and across our work our conservation effort turn it landscape and realise that its height time in grannies (that’s one granny every is increasingly about facilitating change. is how much sea level has risen in the last 50 years). Nurturing in everyone a better ‘For everyone’ it may be, but whether in decade on the eastern seaboard, and will understanding of coastal change and our Annapolis, at Formby on the shifting sands of continue to do so.’ responses to it is key to the remake of the Sefton Coast or standing on the majestic, this film. By extending its geographical yet quietly dissolving White Cliffs of Dover, references across England, Wales and it’s worth reflecting that these places just Getting the message across Northern Ireland, this light-hearted look is may not be for ever. for public consumption as we engage in local At the same time as I was in Annapolis, community participation on the topic. You Reference back home we were putting the finishing can view the Changing Coasts animation via 1. Goodell Jeff, The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, touches to a remake of the animated film this link: https://vimeo.com/254485828 Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World (Little, Brown and Company, 2017). Changing Coasts – a tremendous tale by the In focusing on the theme of ‘For creative genius Tim Britten of Forkbeard everyone’, this edition of Views seeks to
Changing perceptions for future access at Compton Bay John Brownscombe, Compton Landscape Project Officer, Isle of Wight
Compton Landscape Project feasibility stage of the project commenced slopes, creating habitats with assemblages in October 2017 and will run until the end of of plant and invertebrate species, many In 2015, the National Trust purchased February 2019. of which are nationally rare or scarce such 166 hectares (400 acres) of farmland at as curved hard grass, hoary stock and the Dunsbury, Brook, Isle of Wight, as part of Glanville fritillary butterfly. This coastal the Future Coast and Neptune Coastline A beautiful landscape rich in wildlife zone gives way to a farmed landscape with Campaign. This strategically important grazing, much of it managed through our acquisition effectively joined up our land at Popular with local people and visitors, long-term relationships with tenant farmers. the coast with our downland, creating one the whole of the Compton Landscape Prior to our acquisition, the land at almost continuous area of land ownership of area falls within the Isle of Wight Area Dunsbury was fairly intensively grazed and around 442 hectares (1,092 acres). of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) cultivated for vegetables and maize, creating Around this time, the Trust received a and the Tennyson Heritage Coast. It has, soil erosion and compaction issues which gift of £1.25 million with the stipulation arguably, the best rural beach on the island, we are seeking to address. There is great that this be used on the Isle of Wight for backed by fossil-rich soft cliffs, where low potential to allow species to recolonise a capital project or projects to raise the tide exposes scattered ichnofossil casts of from our surrounding more biodiverse profile of the Trust on the island, improve iguanodon footprints fallen from the cliff areas and to manage this farmland in a the visitor experience and create income- and submerged petrified rafts of trees. The more sustainable way. The coastal plain generating opportunities. It was agreed that eroding cliffs are punctuated by a series of and ever-changing pattern of rolling a contribution could be used to establish a ‘chines’, ravines eroded by watercourses farmland is backed by chalk downland. This Compton Landscape Project to develop a running off the land and incising through internationally and nationally important vision for the future of the landscape with the cliff line to the shore. This coastline is of species-rich chalk grassland is a breeding stakeholders, undertake feasibility studies international and national importance (SAC ground for Glanville fritillary and vital habitat and develop a business case for investment and SSSI) for its geomorphology, exposed for other butterfly species. Equally important in the area in line with the stipulation. The geological sequence, vegetated cliffs and for chalk grassland flora, it has the largest
Change management Views 31 Compton Bay, Isle of scheme to slightly realign the route close Wight. © National to Dunsbury Grange (then not Trust land) Trust Images/ Wightskycam where coastal erosion was once again an issue. The Trust was able to support the The coastal slopes scheme at Afton Down which was given support important habitat for the a projected lifespan of 50 years, provided Glanville fritillary. there was a legal requirement to remove the © National Trust installed structures when 10% were exposed Images/Sue Davies in the cliff face and before they collapsed. The Trust also took on the route of the old road close to Dunsbury Grange and, after the carriageway had been removed, restored the area to coastal grassland. These schemes were completed in 2001. In late 2009 and population of the very rare early gentian. so small realignments were incorporated 2010 coastal erosion threatened the road Prominent burial mounds on the skyline are into the widened and surfaced roadway. The at another location close to Brook with, at an indication of the cultural and spiritual new route was opened in 1936 as part of a one stage, the cliff top being very close to significance of this place over thousands ‘Marine Drive’ being promoted for tourism. the edge of the carriageway and requiring of years. All these special qualities provide It remains popular for the dramatic coastal the introduction of single-way traffic and us with an opportunity to conserve and, views it offers. temporary traffic lights. Drainage and where necessary, reactivate more natural In the 1980s concerns were raised about carriageway-strengthening works enabled it processes to maximise the importance of the long-term viability of the section running to be reopened to two-way traffic in 2011. In this place for nature, support sustainable along the base of Afton Down above the all these cases the approach has been largely farming practices and maintain an inspiring steep chalk cliffs. A proposal was put forward reactive with the local highways authority landscape for everyone. to divert the road over Afton Down to seeking a solution to address an imminent or Freshwater (all within Trust ownership). This immediate problem. was objected to by the Trust and others on The Coastal Change Report written by The Military Road the grounds of damage to wildlife, landscape Professor Vincent May indicates a likely and the inalienability of the Trust land. The impact of coastal erosion on sections of the The A3055, also known as the Military Road, application for the scheme went to Public Military Road in the next 30 to 40 years with passes through this landscape, separating Inquiry and was rejected; the inspector cited the route being truncated in a number of the coastal zone from the farmed hinterland. the environmental importance of the area places. Within 100 years much of the present This has historically created a barrier to a as outweighing the economic and social road will be lost, as will the majority of our natural rolling back of coastal habitat as the benefits of the proposed new route. This existing coastal car parks. cliff erodes, squeezing the space available was a difficult time for the Trust with the between the cliff top and the road edge. local community seeing our stance as being It was constructed in the 1860s as part obstructive, and creating a false perception Towards a strategic approach of a network of defence structures. Initially that we were the decision-maker on the a private and gated route with a narrow road’s future. In the late 1990s/early 2000s Historically, there has been no strategic track, it was donated to the Isle of Wight a new scheme was proposed which involved approach to the future of the road, County Council in the early 1930s. Parts of strengthening and cantilevering the current nor a plan in the event of its loss. The the original route were already under threat road structure at Afton Down through Military Road remains an emotive issue of loss or damage through coastal erosion the use of concrete piling and a secondary with many people who see the road,
32 Views Change management despite the obvious impact of coastal became clear that they shared the view that sensitive to the community’s understandable erosion, as a ‘permanent’ feature. This is the road required a long-term strategy. One attachment to the route while also being often accompanied by the belief that an ward councillor took this message back to clear on the constraints. Though some engineering solution can be found. the Isle of Wight Council and as a result, a limited accommodation to allow the When thinking about the Compton meeting was called with representatives of route to continue might be possible, once Landscape and our visitor infrastructure the parish councils, ward councillors, local the condition to remove the piling and (coastal car-parks, concessions and toilets), authority officers, ourselves, the AONB cantilevered structures on the road at Afton the Military Road is a major factor. It and Natural England. This resulted in an Down is invoked, it will no longer serve as provides access to our visitor infrastructure agreement by the local authority to begin a through route. We are working towards so factoring in its partial or complete loss developing a strategy in partnership with being able to articulate our long-term vision is important to our investment decision- organisations with an interest in the area. for the area as being a tranquil spot where making for existing or re-sited facilities. This is an excellent step forward and we natural processes have been allowed to The risk of having the Military Road intend to play an active role in this. We have take place. Our current thinking is that at issue become the focus of discussions on shared information with them as part of some point in the next 30 years we will need the future of the Compton Landscape was this process, including the Coastal Change to abandon our existing coastal car-parks highlighted at an early stage in the project. Report and copies of recently commissioned and facilities and provide gateway sites at We developed a clear position statement aerial photographs showing the current the western and eastern ends where the to help aid understanding of our thinking coastal profile in relation to the road. road can still be accessible by vehicle. This on this issue. Lessons learnt from previous will need us to encourage a modal shift in reactive approaches to the Military Road how people access this landscape. All of and the potential for misunderstanding over Taking a long look the special qualities of the area currently the role and stance of the Trust led us to enjoyed will still be present, and the gains engage with key stakeholders early on. This The challenge for us is to not allow this for nature, conservation and enhancement included the two parish councils and the single issue, albeit an important one, to of the landscape and its increased quiet local authority elected members who have dominate our engagement with the local enjoyment through the loss of motorised part of their ward within the area. When community over the future of the Compton traffic will be evident as a result. giving them an overview of our project, it Landscape. We need to recognise and be
Far left: Old Military Road before reconstruction; taken from official opening programme (1936). © Photographer unknown
New road at Afton Down; taken from official opening programme (1936). © Photographer unknown
The A3055 at Afton Down. The section of road in the foreground has been underpinned. © National Trust Images/Wightskycam
Change management Views 33 Planning to keep the coast open Sally Brown, Senior Research Fellow, University of Southampton
Fig. 1. Regional breakdown of area of Trust land located in the Environment Agency’s Flood Zone 2 and 3 (km2)
ast year, when learning about science policy, I was fortunate to visit LParliament and was told that one of the longest bills to go through the House of Lords was the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, partly because of the aim to create a walkable route around the English coast.1 The significance of the openness of the coast, making it ‘for everyone’, resonates in all walks of life, and was something in which the Lords had a keen interest. The National Trust, which owns 10 per cent of the coast in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, is just one part of this. But making the coast safe
and accessible presents many challenges, National Trust Regions something I discovered more about while on a six-month placement at the Trust funded by the Natural Environment Research – now the Neptune Coastline Campaign fears are for flooding and erosion more than Council (NERC), which aimed to apply new – responded to a growing awareness development, particularly through climatic science to coastal matters. that natural coastline was being lost to and coastal change. Although these can be Making the coast open for everyone indiscriminate development. It aimed to beneficial, long-term change needs to be means not just thinking about the situation identify and save through acquisition the planned to allow access and appropriate land today, but how it will evolve in the future. pristine stretches worthy of protection. The use and management, so that the coast can Launched in 1965, Enterprise Neptune same vision still holds true but today our be enjoyed for decades to come.
The slim banks which separate salt marsh from sea at Orford Ness Nature Reserve. © National Trust Images/John Millar
34 Views Change management New data sets
As a researcher in coastal science and engineering, one of my passions is making my results useful to others. During my time at the Trust, I have analysed and introduced new coastal data sets for England and Wales. These will be launched on the Geographic Information System (GIS) browser by summer 2018. In these layers, Trust staff will be able to see how much of its land is subject to flooding from rivers and the sea, the potential rates of erosion, the type of landforms, how the coast is defended, where Marine Conservation Zones are, and what policy options are advised under Shoreline Management Plans. This will help Trust staff on the ground plan to keep the coast open ‘for ever, for everyone’, and thereby give wider benefits to local people and visitors. So, how will the new data layers help staff do this?
Flooding Flooding – up to a 1:1,000-year event – is modelled by the Environment Agency and does not take account of coastal defences. Statistically very unusual, these flooding events indicate a very severe flood scenario. The first thing that surprised me is that the greatest risk from flooding on Trust land is not from the sea but from rivers (see fig 1). This is largely because of the Trust’s considerable landholding in and around
View of storm- damaged cliffs at Birling Gap, East Sussex, in February 2014 when the most vulnerable buildings on the cliff edge were being demolished. © National Trust Images/John Miller
Failing and unsightly sea defences were removed from the south shore of Brownsea Island to leave the beach in a natural state. © National Trust/ Tony Flux
Change management Views 35 the Lake District, where there are ‘flashy’ footpaths are interrupted. While a theoretical perpendicular to the coast) or seawalls, may river basins. 90% of Trust coastline is at risk from erosion, see change. Brownsea Island, Dorset, was In England and Wales, 4.6% of land is at some of this coastline is hard rocky cliffs, part of this process where failing unsightly risk from coastal flooding, but of Trust land, and so it erodes very, very slowly. Average defences were removed. Today, the beach is 2.7% is at risk. This means that the Trust erosion rates on Trust land are less than more natural and beautiful. on average has less land exposed to coastal 0.1m/year today, and this is likely to continue flooding than the national average. This layer throughout the century, even taking account is useful to raise awareness of potential flood of changing management practices. Today, Moving forward risk to developments (including non-Trust the greatest rates of erosion on Trust land property) and how the environment could are recorded in the London & South East and This new data will be used by Trust staff in change if flooding becomes more frequent North regions (greater than an average of a number of ways. Importantly it will help with sea-level rise. 0.25m/year). Erosion rates are faster in these them plan access and management over Taking a regional perspective, Trust regions than elsewhere because the cliffs are the long term. It also helps to identify what land in the East of England is presently formed of soft, erodible chalk or there are types of coastal habitats and features there the most exposed to coastal flooding with many sand dune frontages. are, such as whether a property has a cliffed 24% of its land at risk. This is because a coast or low-lying coast, or whether any high proportion of Trust land here is on the Coastal change coastal defences are present. It can also be low-lying east coast, particularly on spits Change on the coast is inevitable. Extreme used to start conversations with visitors, (an extension of the beach which stretches events are unpredictable, so managing neighbours and stakeholders and to increase into the sea), islands and marshes of Orford the coast and anticipating change is very awareness of coastal change. Ness, Blakeney, Scolt Head Island and Copt important. This is helped through Shoreline Coasts have always changed. Change Hall Marshes. Management Plans – non-statutory guidance does not need to be a bad thing, but change on how the coast might be managed over needs to be anticipated and managed, Erosion the next 20, the following 30 and then 50 developing new, exciting opportunities as I’ve also analysed how much Trust land years. The majority of Trust-owned coast is they arise to ensure the coast remains open could erode. Cliff erosion is beneficial for our natural land with no defences and is subject for ever, for everyone. enjoyment of the coast, because sediment to a policy of ‘No active intervention’. This and sand from cliffs help to form beaches. means that it remains a dynamic part of a References Natural erosion is not viewed as positive healthy, natural environment. Elsewhere, 1 Coastal and Marine Access Act: https:// by all, of course, where structures such as some coasts which have defences, such as services.parliament.uk/Bills/2008-09/ marineandcoastalaccesshl.html houses are in danger of collapse or where groynes (wooden or rock barriers that are
Eco-friendly moorings: pleasing boat owners, conservationists and wildlife Andy Godber, Llŷn Countryside Manager, and Sue Wells, Marine Project Manager
or anyone who is a sailor or goes out with sensitive marine habitats and species, for providing advice on the management regularly in a boat, the big concern the seabed can suffer considerable damage. of Marine Protection Areas, and the Fwhen anchoring or mooring is whether For example, at Porthdinllaen on the Llŷn Marine Management Organisation (MMO), the boat will hold fast – and still be there Peninsula in north-west Wales, bare circular responsible for licensing mooring installation when you come back. When parking a car, patches have been created in the seagrass and regulating anchoring, with the aim few of us (particularly National Trust staff beds, caused by the abrasive action of of sharing experiences between research and members) would consider making use of anchor and mooring chains. projects and the various trials that are a nice orchid-dotted wildflower meadow or With the increase in shipping and underway. precious chalk grassland. The problem with recreational boating, the need to manage The 28 participants included ‘parking’ a boat is that you often can’t see such impacts is growing rapidly. The Trust representatives from Natural England, what is underneath, and there is a risk that it has the potential to play a key role in MMO, Marine Biological Association, British could be a rich marine wildlife habitat, such demonstrating good practices, and it is vital Marine (an umbrella organisation for the as a seagrass bed inhabited by seahorses. that we do not ourselves cause damage to yacht and marinas industry), Royal Yachting Several Trust coastal properties have ecologically important areas of seabed. Association, Wildlife Trusts, Sealite (a anchorages or moorings used by staff, We therefore hosted a workshop at manufacturer of eco-moorings), Plymouth visitors, boaters and fishermen, either for Heelis in October 2017 in collaboration University and the Port of Milford Haven, access or recreation. Where these coincide with Natural England, which is responsible as well as eight Trust staff. Over 20 other
36 Views Change management The sheltered bay of Porthdinllaen has extensive areas of seagrass habitat. New environmentally friendly moorings have been ordered to prevent further loss. © Gwenan Griffith
people expressed an interest but were will help to produce evidence that can be to hold reports, information and other unable to attend. used to ensure effective future management documentation about eco-moorings and We heard the main conclusions of two of the moorings. anchoring practices.1 For the Trust itself, shortly-to-be-released Defra-contracted The workshop resulted in the a priority is to identify places where we studies: one on impacts of anchoring establishment of a discussion forum for could help to trial new approaches and and mooring and one on the pros and information sharing, as well as ideas for demonstrate the benefits of environmentally cons of using environmentally friendly, research and funding opportunities. It friendly practices. or ‘eco’, moorings. These concluded that revealed how much work is underway management requirements will be highly already, how fast the technology is Reference site-specific, given the diverse nature of changing (the industry clearly sees an 1. Environmentally friendly moorings: different locations in terms of seabed opportunity here), and the interest www.rya.org.uk/knowledge-advice/planning- environment/Pages/environmentally-friendly- habitat, tidal ranges, current strength and from not only conservationists but also moorings.aspx (accessed 25 June 2018). vessel usage. harbour authorities, ports and local Case studies on trials and research councils. A website has been established undertaken at Porthdinllaen, Salcombe Estuary, Plymouth Sound and Torbay helped to bust some of the myths that have developed around eco-moorings: that they don’t work, are too expensive and can’t be insured. Lundy was cited as a success story, with an eco-mooring that has been in place for three years. The Trust is closely involved in the work at Porthdinllaen, and the workshop provided an opportunity for a review of the trials that were being planned. The final decision was to have three helical anchors shipped over from America, which will soon be installed in the bay. These will act as a test bed for a potentially wider introduction of such moorings over the coming years. The aim is to demonstrate that the devices are effective Seagrass is a nationally scarce habitat, from an ecological perspective and also offer valuable for seahorses, safe and secure mooring. Allied to this trial, fish, shell fish and we are adapting the existing moorings to anemones, like this snakelocks anemone. have less impact on the seagrass by using © National Trust/ risers to lift chains off the seabed. Both trials Laura Hughes
Change management Views 37 Our essential nature
How do we secure the natural environment for future generations? Rachel Hall, Land & Nature Officer, North Region
t the end of May, the UK conservation agencies and the ABritish Ecological Society hosted a joint meeting in Manchester to discuss this poignant title question and set the onward direction and priorities for nature conservation in the UK. It was an unmissable opportunity to ‘strength-test’ our national Land, Outdoors and Nature (LON) ambitions and priorities, alongside some existing working assumptions and approaches to delivering conservation on the ground. Despite conservationists’ efforts to date, nature in the UK is still declining at rates significantly faster than the global average (we rank 189th out of 218 countries from least to most losses).1 UK conservation agencies are now at a pivotal moment of reflection and deliberation about how to move forward. The sentient messages from the conference ultimately weave through Professor Sir John Lawton’s principles from National Trust’s own ambitious target to The UK’s nature is vulnerable: on the Biodiversity Making Space for Nature: we need ‘bigger, create/restore 25,000ha (61,777 acres) of Intactness Index, the UK is 189th out of 228 countries. Our LON work will have benefits far better, more and joined’ habitats, water, significant habitats by 2025 as one of the wider than our properties. © National Trust people and objectives if we really want to indications that conservation is shifting into Images/John Millar secure the future of the natural environment this era. for the benefit of people and nature.2 Importantly though, the success of ‘bigger, better, more and joined’ relies on make positive differences for nature in our a nature-friendly farmland ‘matrix’ that farmland, and while not always easy to make, What should our priorities for nature enables free movement of species and genes it really does emphasise the importance and conservation be? through it. However, over the past 40 years impact our High Nature Status ambitions farming practices have had the biggest could have. Sir John’s ‘bigger, better, more and joined’ negative impact on the state of nature in mantra for establishing fully functioning this country.1 It is clear that ‘doing things at and resilient ecological networks for nature the margins [metaphorically and literally] Who is nature conservation for? received unanimous support throughout the is not enough’ to reverse this trend (Helen conference – a confident reaffirmation that Browning, Soil Association). This doesn’t Including people, in all our diversity, in the our own nature strategy, founded on these have to be complicated. A great example drive for conservation is critical to achieving principles, is following a common vision. of this came from the Trust’s own Stewart and sustaining its success long term. The To achieve this, both Sir John and Clarke, Freshwater & Estuaries National message from the conference was that Tony Juniper of the World Wildlife Fund Specialist, who gave a fantastic speed talk on if nature is for everyone, we need to be emphasised that we need to move from an the significant nature benefits that can come reflecting this in our policy and practice. age of protection to an age of restoration from ‘just adding water’ (i.e. ponds and It’s natural for people to engage and value for nature (though we still need to continue lakes) back into our landscapes. nature in different ways.3 Truly listening on both fronts). Sir John referred to the There is clearly overwhelming potential to to and collaborating with people from a
38 Views Our essential nature Just add water: much broader range of interest groups can this pond created provide a more holistic understanding of three years ago at a conservation issue and in turn help to Ringstead, Dorset, has been naturally co-design better worked-up, sustainable colonised with aquatic solutions. Juliette Young of the Centre for vegetation, providing Ecology & Hydrology shared a fascinating habitat for a number of invertebrates and example from Scotland where local food for insectivorous knowledge of wild bird population changes birds. It will eventually closely reflected the scientific literature.4 benefit other wildlife such as amphibians. I wonder how many forms of knowledge © National Trust/ work in, care for and pass through our Trust Stewart Clarke places? Not just our staff and volunteers, but our tenants, members and visitors too. In this context our strengthened commitment to more inclusive and collaborative ways of working with these partners will be critical for delivering our LON strategy and sustaining its impact beyond 2025. In discussing further ‘who is nature for?’, 14-year-old naturalist Dara McAnulty challenged us to ‘accept this young generation for who we are, including our love of technology… we’re waiting to learn more and shout louder’ for nature. Louise The River Liza in the MacDonald (YoungScot) presented some Ennerdale valley, Lake District. We’re part fantastic examples of young people on of the Wild Ennerdale the ReRoute Panel, working with Scottish partnership, working Natural Heritage to co-design nature with nature and pioneering innovative and outdoors policy and practice. Helena ways to integrate Craig (Black2Nature) also spoke about and manage forestry her and her daughter Mya-Rose Craig’s and farming. Sir John Lawton cited Wild (aka Birdgirl) campaign for better access Ennerdale alongside to nature and inclusivity for people from the Knepp Estate, black and ethnic minority backgrounds in West Sussex, as one of the bolder places nature organisations. Reflecting on our own where people have organisation, Hilary McGrady’s commitment ‘just got on with it’ and to leading the Trust to inspire, involve and let nature and natural processes help shape connect with more people from all parts the way. © National of our nation wholly encapsulates the Trust/Maddie Downes
Our essential nature Views 39 speakers’ messages. Furthermore, it brings for nature conservation in today’s world: i) roaring back’. So at the risk of sitting on the nature conservation within the Trust closer accept change (it isn’t the same as ‘loss’); fence of inaction because we don’t know than ever to our commitment to being ‘for ii) maintain flexibility (including genes and everything, let that not be the reason for us everyone’. species to provide the building blocks to not to do something. The Trust may be for fuel future change); and iii) think global ever and for everyone, but nature may not (what is Britain important for globally?). be if we don’t play our part in making this Change is the only constant Handling uncertainty and being open- happen – we just need to be brave and get minded to change is something that will be on with it. Throughout space and time, change has crucial to new ways of working, something been and will continue to be the only that arguably many conservationists, the References constant. This holds particular resonance Trust included, struggle with in practice 1 Hayhow, D.B. et al. (2016) State of Nature 2016. now, where not only climatic but political even though it is clear that, individually and State of Nature Partnership; p.13 and p.71. and social changes, such as Brexit, make collectively, it is something at which we will 2 Lawton, J.H. et al. (2010) Making Space for the future seem increasingly uncertain. Our be forced to get better. Nature: A review of England’s wildlife sites and ecosystems and the environment are all ecological network. Report to Defra. fundamentally dynamic systems, continually changing in space and time to adapt and Act now, don’t take forever; aim to do 3 See example: Dutch Nature Outlook study; at request of Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs survive. Professor Chris Thomas (University it for everyone http://themasites.pbl.nl/natureoutlook/2016/ of York) challenged us to think about the gains as well as the losses that change can In the round, while everyone at the 4 Ainsworth, G. et al. (2016) Understanding bring. For example, change in the form of conference whole-heartedly supported predation. A review bringing together natural advancing technologies brings enhanced bigger, better, more and joined ecological science and local knowledge of recent wild bird populations changes and their drivers capability for monitoring our environment networks at all geographic scales, Sir John in Scotland. Scotland’s Moorland Forum: via remote sensing, eDNA and genomics himself exhorted us not to get too bogged www.moorlandforum.org.uk/project-work/ and chemical sensors to name but a few. down in the planning and analysis of it all – understanding-predation He encourages us to adopt three principles ‘just get on with it…[and]…nature will come
Engaging our visitors with nature: the latest research and activity Penelope Chapple, Outdoors Experiences Manager, and Carl Greenman, 50 Things Product Development Manager
o much nature engagement work goes Nature connection theory on at our places – from bat walks and Spond-dipping to fungi identification Miles Richardson, University of Derby and bioblitzes – that the list is endless. But how do we know whether what we are What is nature connection? doing is really making any difference? Do our visitors leave our places feeling differently We know that being exposed to nature is about nature and ultimately taking action for good for us. However, connection to nature nature? is something more meaningful and deeper, These were some of the questions I the feeling that we are part of nature and was asking myself last year, when I very not separate from it. It’s something we can’t fortuitously found myself sitting next directly observe, but is expressed in how to Dr Miles Richardson over dinner. He we think, how we feel and how we relate to is a psychologist and expert in nature nature. connection, and our conversation has led to a partnership with the University of Derby, with research carried out by Miles on our Nature connection is: behalf. Here, we present a summary of m cognitive belief about our place in the Miles’s research and report on how we have natural world, that we are part of nature applied the theory to one of our products. rather than sitting separately on the top of a pyramid of life; Starting small: getting to know nature can start out as play. © National Trust Images/Chris Lacey
40 Views Our essential nature m having an emotional affiliation with, and buying a reusable cup for their coffee and The benefits of nature connection are as a response to, nature. It is about having recycling more household waste, feeding important for our well-being as other measures of happiness. © National Trust Images/John Millar an ‘emotional balance’ between joy, calm the birds and planting bee-friendly flowers, and anxiety that helps keep us well; to writing to their MP, signing a petition or joining a ‘clean-up’ activity. 2 Emotions create a connection by m nature is part of you as a person, when emphasising a bond with, and love for, you have a view of self that extends into nature, or by reflecting on the positive the natural world rather than living in a How do we create a connection to feelings nature inspires, such as calm and separate box labelled ‘human’. nature? happiness. 3 Compassion for nature leads to looking Nature engagement has commonly used after nature and developing a moral and What are the benefits of nature education and knowledge to help facilitate ethical concern that may inform product connection? a greater connection to nature. However, choices we make or being concerned these often fail to sustain increases in nature about the welfare of animals. Being connected to nature has been proven connection. Instead, starting with activities to be good for us in many ways and is such as sensing nature, noticing its beauty 4 Emphasising nature’s traditions will also linked to a range of well-being outcomes, and the emotions it evokes have been found help to build a connection such as seeing including vitality, meaning in life, happiness to achieve a significantly more positive the first swallow and smelling the first and life satisfaction. There is also a link change in people’s connection with, and bluebell or reflecting on the language and between higher levels of nature connection attitudes towards, nature. symbolism or meaning nature provides, and reduced anxiety owing to increased The University of Derby has identified such as ‘busy as a bee’ or ‘heart of oak’. positive emotions. It’s no surprise then five pathways which can create and reinforce 5 Engaging with the aesthetic qualities of that a connection to nature helps meet the nature connectedness. These are: contact nature, the beauty of nature, will impact challenges of stress and provides resilience through the senses, emotion, compassion, on nature connectedness, whether in our modern lifestyles. meaning and engagement with natural through the appreciation of natural The benefits of nature connection have beauty. The pathways, described in more scenery or engaging with nature through been found to be as important for our well- detail, are: poetry, art or music. being as factors such as good relationships, education and income. Research also 1 Connecting through the senses These five pathways are often inextricably shows that when people are connected encourages us to take in what can be linked, but all help people to develop a more with nature they are more likely to have seen, heard, smelt and felt; for example, meaningful and emotional relationship with positive attitudes and behaviour towards the listening to birdsong, smelling wild nature. Knowledge and education still have environment. This could be anything from flowers and touching the bark on a tree. a part to play, adding great value as the first
Our essential nature Views 41 step into nature for some, but more often By weaving the pathways through some Changing ‘Climb a tree’ to ‘Get to know a tree’ follow on once people are engaged and of the existing activities in the list, we’ve has opened up fresh opportunities to engage with trees and the environment.© National Trust develop a greater appetite for learning. been able to create activities that are Images/Tom Soper still playful, fun and exciting, but which encourage exploration and discovery, Weaving the pathways delving deeper into nature and getting the into 50 things whole family involved in the experience. what animals live in this tree? Throughout During May this year we took a small the pilot we saw the audience really engage Carl Greenman, 50 Things Product selection of these activities and piloted them with these new ideas, and early indications Development Manager at 15 sites. from the research show that they’ve The most popular activity on offer succeeded in getting families closer to, and 50 things to do before you’re 11¾ has been, was a new version of ‘No. 1. Climb a tree’. thinking more about, nature. and continues to be, a hugely successful Previously this had been all about the We’ve also seen how using the pathways campaign; it has driven significant growth challenge and physical activity, but gave has enabled property teams to be a lot more in our family audience and raised brand little encouragement to engage with one creative with, and re-energised about 50 awareness. Miles’s research, however, has of the most majestic and important pillars things, flexing the suggestions given in the encouraged us to take a fresh look at the of nature. By changing the name to ‘Get to activity cards to work within their places activities in the 50 things list and reflect know a tree’, the emphasis instantly changed and engage families with their story. We are on what impact completing the activities and opened up a wealth of opportunities to still waiting for the full evaluation to come is having on children’s connection to and really engage with trees and the environment through, but early indications are positive concern for nature. around them. and we are expecting to review the whole Children are the next generation of Using the pathways as starting points, campaign to align with the five pathways. advocates for nature and will produce the there were some lovely hints and suggestions next David Attenborough. The five pathways that came through such as: touch the bark, Reference give us an opportunity to take the 50 things smell the pine needles, listen to the wind 1 You can find Miles’s nature connections activities to a new, deeper, level that will help through the leaves; lie under a tree and look research blog at https://findingnature.org.uk/ to develop a lifelong connection to nature. up through the branches, what can you see?;
42 Views Our essential nature Following nature through the seasons: a fresh approach to programming Sarah Kinnersley, National Seasonal Programming Manager, and Jenny Brown, Easter Project Officer
aving a seasonal emphasis to our programming will, we hope, start to create this could spark a new relationship with programming gives us a chance deeper connections with nature for our nature on our places that they will continue Hto focus on the key times of year visitors. Creating this relationship with the in their own ways at home and within associated with customs and celebrations, natural world is important for us all, but how communities. people coming together or taking holidays. do we do it? Now that we have started this journey to Christmas is a great example – a bright put people in touch with the natural world, moment among short days and long a next step is to join up the many different nights. We began focusing our efforts on Connecting with nature streams in which we are already working, Christmas a few years ago, bringing the such as 50 things, Natural Play, Active traditional aspects of the season to the The five pathways to nature presented by Outdoors, and so on. By presenting these as fore and creating stronger links to the the University of Derby2 explore the multiple one under our seasonal programme, they will individuality of our places and their stories. ways we can connect with nature on a more naturally fall into place throughout the year. Places focused on planning for and creating meaningful, emotional level (see previous magical experiences to make the most out article). By incorporating them into the of the seasonal spirit and delight those who activities we offer, we can encourage visitors Overcoming challenges came through the door. Now established, to: use their senses; relate on an emotional our Christmas programming has become level; build compassion for wildlife; be A big part of this new approach to ‘business as usual’. aware of nature’s traditions and symbolism; programming is changing the way we plan We’re now working on making nature and appreciate nature’s beauty. Whether for the peak times. During celebratory the unifying thread of all our seasonal speaking to young or old, we want to inspire occasions like Easter, our places are visited programming. One of our strategic aims is a sense of discovery and wonder; for some, by a high volume of visitors over a short centred on nature – ‘restoring a healthy, period of time. We are changing our thinking beautiful, natural environment’ – and and planning to spread this out across a two- providing nature-themed experiences will to three-week period, making this a more help us to meet another aim to ‘move, teach sustainable model. Increasing capacity while and inspire’. Looking after wildlife, coast easing pressure on properties, giving visitors and countryside is a huge part of our core a better experience and inspiring a love purpose. Over the last few years we have of nature may seem aspirational but they been working in all sorts of ways to get are achievable – our properties are already people outdoors and connecting with their proving that! surroundings. We worked with Project Wild Having pinch points at different times Thing,1 which encouraged children outside of the year is common to all attractions; and away from computers, changing how focusing on the quality of the visitor we ‘brand’ nature and present it to the next experience and service leads us to manage generation. This gave rise to 50 things to these better. We need to keep exploring do before you’re 11¾. Raising awareness of ways in which we can make this work and the nature on our doorstep and how we look make the most of both challenges and after it is an obvious progression, whether opportunities. We have seen creativity we are trying to sustain or increase interest and innovation from our places as they and support. devise new ways to incorporate nature For many open-space properties, of into programming. At Erddig, for instance, course, this means continuing with and a talking tree trail encouraged visitors to refining what they do best, and even for venture around the park and gave simple houses and gardens, places have taken messages about caring for nature (see simple steps to include what nature means following article). for them: what are the highlights particular to each season? How can we share it in a way that is meaningful and relevant? What are Reaching everyone we already doing that, with a small tweak, could become something more than just a Through our seasonal programming, passing moment and stays in people’s hearts Easter is a popular time for family visits; offering creating meaningful experiences for our and minds? We are building on what we activities over two or three weeks and a nature- visitors will be very important. As we strive themed trail around the estate helps make this do to deliver a richer experience. Looking an enjoyable time for all ages. © National Trust to meet this growing appetite and exceed through the nature lens as we plan our Images/Rob Stothard their expectations, we need also to explore
Our essential nature Views 43 Nature may be closer than people think. Gardens can be a perfect place to begin growing a love of nature. © National Trust Images/ Paul Harris
Below: Ten places will trial an autumn nature programme this year. © National Trust Images/ John Millar
Below right: Programming over the whole of Christmas is second nature to us now. These visitors are on a winter solstice walk at Kedleston which culminated in Christmas carols. © National Trust Images/Chris Lacey
how we reach new and wider audiences. By making really strong headway and showing in our calendar. They will be testing new being clever and creating different layers of excellent results of what the Easter offer ways in which we can tell the stories and interpretation and programming, we can can look like, with nature threaded through local traditions of the season to engage our appeal to many; for example, alongside thanks to thorough planning. In 2018, places visitors. its family trail, Anglesey Abbey broadened progressed even further by linking core its Easter offer with a ‘Mindful Meander’ nature themes to their Spirit of Place and trail which connected visitors to their particular significances. Scotney Castle, for Conclusion surroundings at a deeper level. example, put the very positive feedback they Moving on from the stately homes and received down to the quality of the offer: Through seasonal programming, we are scones image will be a challenge, but by they invested in a professionally designed able to marry our core values of heritage focusing on nature – which offers change trail inspired by childhood diaries that told and nature. Rather than take over local and discovery by the day, if not the hour of nature hunts in the garden. customs and celebrations, such as wassailing – through all seasons, we can increase our and flower festivals, running a nature chances to engage people on many levels. theme around high points in the calendar On to autumn complements and connects them. Fostering an emotional bond with nature is good for Putting ideas into action Our next focus will be autumn. This season is our properties, it’s good for people, and rich in colour and tradition: warm-coloured it’s absolutely great for wildlife and the Easter is an incredibly important time for our leaves, the abundance of harvest, nights environment. places as it’s the first holiday period when drawing in and a sense of change. One of people start to get outdoors more. Spring the major festivals is Halloween, but many References and nature go together so it sets the scene are now more familiar with an Americanised 1 Project Wild Thing: www.thewildnetwork.com/ for the rest of the year on the kind of natural version of it than the original meanings and 2 University of Derby blog about the five pathways to nature: https://blog.derby. connections our places can offer. regional customs. This year, ten places will ac.uk/2017/05/5-ways-closer-nature/ Our places made a good start this year develop the possibilities around Halloween on new thinking for Easter programming. and autumnal nature programming, which Some had tested the new approach in 2017, will build our insights into this key time
44 Views Our essential nature Treemendous Trail: bringing trees and people together Harriet Cade, Assistant Ranger, Erddig, Wrexham
ationally, our key message is to get m Oak – old, wise, strength, dryad m Yew – old, spirits of the dead, magic, people to connect with nature, to continuity of life Ncare about it and to spend more time m Beech – mother of the woods, wisdom, within it. Our Easter programming was an knowledge m Cedar of Lebanon – peace, eternity, biblical opportunity to facilitate an emotional nature m Hornbeam – puzzle-solving, mysterious, experience for all our visitors of whatever cunning age. We chose to engage our supporters with Why 11 face masks for ten trees? The silver something that many, though not our estate m Swamp cypress – water, freshwater birch in our Rose Garden is a double- team, take for granted – trees. With Erddig’s nymphs stemmed tree, so each was given a face and 486ha (1,200-acre) estate being home to m Lime – fairness, justice, protector they became the ‘Silver Birch Sisters’. one of the best collections of notable and We contacted Greystone Books in Canada veteran trees, we naturally leaned towards m Sycamore – hardiness, least demanding, for copyright permissions to use quotes the idea of using our special trees as our key tolerant and extracts from Wohlleben’s book. Lesley theme; the only question was what form the m Silver birch – lady of the woods, water, Morris, Retail Manager, contacted the engagement should take. enchantment, healing Trust supplier to get the book in the shop Our former Interpretation & to enable visitors to purchase it. Working Programming Officer, Rachel Bingham, m Scot’s pine – direction, leader, compass/ with graphic designers at JPDS Creative, we showed me a book called The Hidden Life finger pointing, sun created a short leaflet and commissioned of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. It caught my interest and I ordered my own copy that night! Once I read the book, although I work in our woodlands all the time, it showed me a new dimension to trees. I felt inspired to use Wohlleben’s theories at Erddig, and so our ‘Treemendous Trail’ idea was born. The concept was to create a trail which emotionally engaged visitors by bringing ten trees to life by giving them ‘faces’ and telling their individual stories of what they had seen and heard over the years around Erddig’s grounds. Our visitors would receive a leaflet which included hints on where to find the trees and short stories – from the trees’ perspective. The idea was to engage visitors on two levels: the excitement of finding the faces and then having that deeper, emotional connection with the trees and thinking about them in a different way.
Putting our plans into action
We had from 1 December 2017, when we held our Easter meeting, to 24 March 2018, when our Easter activities would have to open, to get everything done. The starting point was to select ten trees to ‘bring to life’. They had to be different species and form a trail around the gardens and outbuildings. Volunteer and chainsaw carver Ian Williams was approached to carve 11 unique face masks for the trees based on specific tree characteristics from mythology, and using timber from the estate. The trees selected were: Ian Williams carving the ‘Mother of the Woods’ mask for the beech tree. © National Trust/Harriet Cade
Our essential nature Views 45 Left: One of Graeme’s poems; this one was for the yew. From here I can see most things in the garden, east and west, © National Trust/ like the rope garden behind you, where climbers do their best Graeme Clarke to wind their tangling tendrils around lengths of twisting twine; a riot of colour and fragrance when we come to the spring time.
And then the pleached lime trees, holding hands like paper chains, or the house that stands below my boughs for children playing games. From here you can make out, as well, the laurels with white boxes, supposed to look like orange trees, just the gard’ners trying to fox us!
I’ve seen these views a century and a half, you know, it’s true and still have so much growing to be done before I’m through. Some folks suppose me magical, to people past, a link. That’s why I’m found in churchyards, or so they ‘d have you think.
The truth is far less mystical, it’s about how cows behave; they stay far from my poisoned leaves, so they can’t go near the graves. No cattle here, just visitors and gardeners on this path; I have to breathe in tightly when they bring the tractor past
I’ve kept you long enough now, you’ve other trees to see. Give my friend the Swamp cypress a big ‘hello’ from me. I’ll get back to my watching now, as you go on your way Far left: Tree Tone, our into the shaded moss walk there. Enjoy your special day. tree surgeon, installing the Scot’s pine mask. © National Trust/ Harriet Cade
pulleys and winches. Despite more than 30 which we then used to secure the masks years of tree surgery experience, Tony said around the trees. Pieces of rubber were it was something that he had never done used to protect the trees from any pressure before and was excited to be a part of the points caused by the masks. To hide the Treemendous Trail. The faces were installed brightly coloured ratchet straps we created over two long days! hessian sleeves. However, after the first One more carving which included a quote day of installation we had miscalculated from the book was created by Ian who used the amount of hessian needed and ran out. a 4m-piece of redwood from the estate. This Luckily, Medina, Head Coachwoman, had was positioned by the ticket office to set the spare hessian that we could use. So my scene as visitors entered the property. evening consisted of creating hessian sleeves them to create six interpretation panels, for tree face masks late into the night! each with a different quote fromThe Hidden The work was a real team effort with Life of Trees. Changes and challenges along the way most departments across the property While each selected tree had a ‘face’, being involved in one way or another. We three of them, the yew, silver birch and Our main challenge was working in a quite couldn’t have done it without our volunteers, sycamore, had ‘voices’ too. Graeme Clarke, short timeframe, as the Easter work plans especially Ian our face carver, who is also is House & Collections Manager, created were handed over to the ranger team at the a house volunteer. Even our tenant farmers three poems which were used to tell visitors beginning of January when Rachel left the joined in, helping to move the large piece their stories of what they had seen over the Trust. of redwood from the estate yard to the years. We approached Fuzzy Duck Creative Another challenge was figuring out how timber yard. for voiceover actors to record the poems, to install the faces up to 12m up the main enabling the trees to tell their story. These trunks without causing any damage to the were played on a loop with a 20-second trees or carvings. This was something none Reaction of visitors delay between repeats. of us had any experience of – we are usually Our tree surgeon, Tree Tone (Tony taking pieces off the trees, not adding to Overall the reaction from the visitors was Hughes), was asked to help install the faces them! We decided to bore slots through the extremely positive with everyone enjoying on the trees which was done by using ropes, back of the masks to take ratchet straps, the trail, and many people feeling a deeper
46 Views Our essential nature Left: Giving expression emotional connection with the trees. Our to the swamp cypress. final tree was The Tree of Reflection, where © National Trust/Vicki visitors were encouraged to write on tags Coombe how they felt and what stories they had heard in the gardens. Many tags simply said ‘I love trees’, which is touching in itself, but others were particularly appreciative of the experience: m ‘I love this tree walk. It made me think of the trees’ feelings’ m ‘Loved to see the trees come to life’ m ‘Amazing experience – 1000/10’ m ‘The trees made us feel happy and relaxed. The sounds were calming’ m ‘Thank you for all the trees’ (Joshua, age 5)
Reference 1 Wohlleben, Peter, The Hidden Life of Trees (Greystone Books Ltd, 2016). ISBN-10: 1771642483; ISBN-13: 978- 1771642484.
Acknowledgement Below: The redwood carving in Erddig’s My thanks to Lorraine Elliott, Marketing & timber yard. The quote is from The Hidden Communications Officer, and James Stein, Life of Trees by Peter Head Ranger, for their help and support on Wohlleben reprinted both the project and this article. with permission from Greystone Books Ltd. © National Trust/ Harriet Cade
Our essential nature Views 47 Connecting people with coast and nature Eric Wilton, General Manager, South of Tyne Group
‘ eas’ is an old word for a meadow or its exceptional features in preparation for my Looking across the Leas towards South Tyneside grassland, and for us the Leas refers to interview. gives an idea of how valuable and important this site is. © National Trust Images/Paul Harris Lthe three miles of coast given to the This area’s significance is purely down National Trust by South Tyneside Council in to the underlying geology of Magnesian 1987 for the sole purpose of protecting it for Limestone. Stretching for over six miles, ever as a green space for the people of South it is the only place in the UK, and possibly activities and events. This gives us plenty Tyneside. the world, where this occurs on the coast, of opportunity to talk passionately about The ink was barely dry on the legal which in turn gives rise to unique maritime the place and its wildlife, and play a key role documents when we decided to buy the grassland flora that is particular to the area. in creating lifelong memories for the many adjoining Souter Lighthouse for £1 from The Leas is therefore designated a Site of children, families and adults who visit us. Trinity House in 1988. As well as being a Special Scientific Interest, Special Area of The team works with over 3,000 pupils significant building which ties the landscape Conservation and Special Protection Area. a year from the areas of Durham, Newcastle and coast together, it provides a year-round We are extremely fortunate to manage and South Shields. Although more would base and a presence for us, making it easier this amazing area, and enthuse, involve and like to visit, this is the limit of our capacity, to engage people in the work we do on the inspire the people of South Tyneside in its so, unfortunately, each year we have to turn coast. protection, management and conservation, schools away. The programme we run is all ensuring that it remains an important green about getting the kids out and engaging space that is visited by a million visitors a them in a range of activities on the coast, Finding significance, sharing year. We use many different ways to engage such as beach schools, team-building, it with others people in the work we do, which gives us coasteering, sporting activities and seashore lots of opportunities to talk about the safaris, as well as the draw of the first I became General Manager here in 2015. importance of nature and the coast. lighthouse in the world built to be powered At the time of applying for the job, I didn’t by electricity. really have a clear understanding of how Alongside this we run many family events fantastic this site was; like many people, For everyone throughout the year, including World Book I underestimated the quality of South Week, Easter egg hunts, camping on the Tyneside’s natural environment and wildlife There is a great team of people at Souter Leas, bird-ringing taster sessions, as well as a appeal. This perception soon changed with and the Leas who connect with people on summer of sport and Great Run Local to help my first visit as I started to learn more about a daily basis while delivering a vast array of us link with new audiences.
48 Views Our essential nature Souter Lighthouse from the Leas, a focal point for visitors and activities. © National Trust Images/John Millar
A rock stack and arch of Magnesian Limestone. The geology gives rise to limestone grassland flora unique in the UK, which in turn supports rare and scarce invertebrates. © National Trust Images/John Millar
Looking ahead mention is its past: the whole area was the coast, with the work that we do and how industrial heartland of the North East no far the area has come. We’ll offer the same We are an ambitious team, and the more than 50 years ago. The last coal mine enriching experiences, but we’ll be able to lighthouse is just not big enough to allow on the Durham coast closed in 1994 and expand visitor numbers and the range of us to expand and connect with even more Whitburn colliery, which had closed in 1968, activities we provide. people or provide a better service to our was sited right next to the lighthouse. In 2020 the Trust will celebrate 125 years visitors. But thanks to the success of a For me its history makes the story of of conservation. All being well it will mark recent Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) bid, we this coastline even more exceptional and the start of the delivery of Seascape for us, have funding for our plan to develop the increases the importance of introducing so watch this space. It will be great to be Whitburn Coastal Conservation Centre. The future generations to the past and the part able to mark the occasion with a centre that HLF-funded project, in which we are a key we have played in restoring and conserving will justify the trust given to us by South partner, is ‘Seascape’, the UK’s first marine the land for the future. The proposed centre Tyneside to protect this incredible coastline Landscape Partnership. will provide us with the space to do this and for ever for the benefit of South Tynesiders. I wrote earlier about the uniqueness give us the opportunity to connect visitors of this coastline but the one thing I didn’t and our local audience with nature and the
Our essential nature Views 49 Better by design
Trust in Nature: conservation volunteering therapy in action Carl Henderson, Conservation Volunteer, Saddlescombe Farm, South Downs
he majority of my fellow conservation volunteers at Saddlescombe Farm Tnear Brighton have, at some point, spoken of their past struggles with mental health. That the number is greater than half is unremarkable: two-thirds of people in the UK have suffered from one or more mental-health issues at some point in their life. What is remarkable is that each emphatically attributed their recovery and continued mental well-being in part to conservation volunteering with the National Trust. I had heard these accounts before I had learnt anything about Saddlescombe Farm’s relationship with ecotherapy, and they left a deep impression on me. Conservation volunteers are a vital and indispensable resource for the Trust, but to many volunteers, the Trust is just as vital and indispensable. It begs the question: what potential does conservation volunteering have for proactively helping people with mental-health issues? In April 2018 Saddlescombe Farm started its pilot programme – Trust in Nature – to cooking by fire and countryside the GROW programme has been studied explore this question through conservation management tasks. They are encouraged by researchers from Brighton University volunteering therapy. The idea was to form nature connections, develop over the course of three years. All well- conceived as a way for former participants of mindfulness and connect socially, all with being indicators measured during the study the local GROW programme to extend their a high level of support throughout. As with showed significant increase. Surveys and relationship with Saddlescombe and the any ecotherapy programme, the natural diaries have shone more light: the natural Trust beyond the conclusion of their time setting for these activities is the key to the setting contributes to a sense of escape from with GROW. therapies’ efficacy, rather than any specific everyday stresses, of personal achievement plan of activities. working with nature, and of enhanced social To date, GROW has helped over connections between participants. These Self-sustaining 300 participants. Feedback has been findings closely echo, as well as contribute overwhelmingly positive. For most, the to, the wider body of evidence (young but GROW, a Sussex-based mental-health experience has been life changing; for some, rapidly growing) supporting ecotherapy’s charity, partnered with the Trust in 2011. it’s been life saving. On the strength of their efficacy as a psychotherapy. Its most It offers ‘low-cost/free courses for people improved mental well-being, participants ambitious proponents envisage a near future who would benefit from time in nature, such have reported going on to engage with where ecotherapy is widely prescribed by as those who’ve experienced depression, training, education, employment and other medical services alongside the existing anxiety and stress’. Participants take part positive life changes. Exactly how nature trio of medication, exercise and talking in an eight-week season of guided nature effects these improvements in mental treatments (e.g. person-centred counselling, walks, green woodworking, wild-food well-being is a current area of interest to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). Dorset’s foraging, beachcombing, shepherding, psychology and medicine, and to this end pioneering Natural Choices programme
50 Views Better by design is already trialling the idea, with doctors Trust in Nature – a new conservation It is early days for Trust in Nature, and referring patients suffering mental ill health volunteer therapy group a review of its benefits will have to wait to outdoor activities, outdoor yoga, guided until its pilot year is concluded. Brighton wildlife walks and conservation volunteering. And so Trust in Nature was born. As a University will again be collecting data to However effective, if an ecotherapy conservation volunteer group dedicated to measure the success of the programme, as programme has a fixed-term relationship former GROW participants, Trust in Nature well as help identify factors in continued with participants, it is limited in its ability is able to provide an intermediate level of participation. to provide extended preventive therapy. support between GROW and regular Trust Ultimately, the programme aims to In the case of GROW, when a season volunteers. Conservation tasks have been evolve and demonstrate a working model concludes, participants are introduced to designed to accommodate a range of ability of a sustainable, long-term preventive local natural places and outdoor activities levels, from clearing the historic Devil’s ecotherapy. Considered as a companion as encouragement to continue regularly Dyke railway line to pressing the apples of to GROW, an increase in the sustainability self-prescribed ecotherapy. One suggested Saddlescombe’s prolific orchard. Increased of positive results would add to GROW’s activity is conservation volunteering with support is given for tool use and conservation funding appeal considerably. Saddlescombe Farm. A familiar setting, skills acquisition, supervised by staff members positive associations and activities known and volunteers who have past experience from personal experience to increase mental working with mental-health issues. Back to our roots: for everyone ... well-being would all seem to offer a natural Throughout its pilot year, Trust in Nature extension to former participants. A recent will refine this support, identifying factors Mental ill health tends not to be the first 2017 study by the Wildlife Trusts on the that promote continued engagement and disability people think of when tasked with mental-health benefits of conservation eliminating factors that constitute barriers. increasing access to the countryside for volunteering has even identified the same The most obvious barrier was identified everyone. But as the single largest cause of well-being benefits recognised in Brighton and eliminated from the start: whereas disability in the UK, it has to be given prime University’s GROW study. However, for GROW provides minibus transport to consideration. The disability was a formative reasons still not fully understood, continued Saddlescombe, Trust volunteer groups do influence on the Trust: Octavia Hill’s own involvement with Saddlescombe Farm’s not. Volunteers ordinarily meet on sites experience of mental-health crises, and volunteer groups has historically been that are, in terms of public transport, her resulting insight into the well-being minimal and ad hoc (though the few former relatively remote, so to afford conservation benefits of nature, informed her mission to GROW volunteers who volunteer do so volunteering, you must first be able to afford protect and expand access to green spaces regularly and enthusiastically). The concern transport independence. Because people threatened by urbanisation. Developments is that there may be too large a difference in in lower socioeconomic groups and living since Octavia’s time have only increased the the level of support between GROW and the in cities are more likely to suffer mental importance and urgency of this mission. Trust’s own volunteering group. In addition, ill health, Trust in Nature’s free minibus Urbanisation has increased; wealth disparity one or more aspects of Trust volunteering transport from Brighton is essential for has oscillated, but at last count remains on may act as a barrier to volunteers suffering overcoming the physical and monetary course to exceed Victorian levels; recent mental-health issues. barrier of transport. reports by the NHS and charities paint a
Left: Food-growing, foraging and conservation tasks on Trust in Nature vary and are intended to suit all abilities. © National Trust/Neil Jakeman
Country skills, such as hurdle-making, are taught at Saddlescombe Barn. © National Trust/Neil Jakeman
Better by design Views 51 Companionship and teamwork are a big part of ecotherapy: Andy makes a pot of wild nettle tea. © National Trust/Neil Jakeman
physical and mental illness as linked, and regularly prescribed countryside air, walking regimes and holidays away from cities to treat depression, stress and anxiety. Exactly how access for people suffering mental ill health can be increased is a complex and sensitive subject, and no one programme will be able to address every aspect of the challenge. Trust in Nature demonstrates that complex and sensitive does not have to translate into difficult or costly. It is an exemplary low-investment, high-impact model, a necessary feature of a sustainable preventive therapy. And by marrying the existing Trust volunteer group template to community outreach, Trust in Nature achieves another important feature bleak picture of mental-health services have numerous tangible and intangible of sustainability: a relationship between unable to cope with rapidly rising demand, barriers, and an invitation from afar has participants and the Trust that is mutually resulting in a ‘looming national crisis’. little chance of reaching them. But we also beneficial. In all my fellow volunteers’ Modern methods and sciences have have new insights into therapies, including accounts, that was an essential part of why expanded our vocabulary for understanding the one Octavia spent her life championing: conservation volunteering therapy works: these issues, and in the process outlined ecotherapy. She may not have used that the feeling of genuinely contributing to the the true scale of the challenge of access for word, but nothing in this article would have countryside and the Trust, and of being everyone. People suffering mental ill health surprised a Victorian. Their doctors regarded valued for their contribution.
Sharing tranquillity Simon Toomer, Plant Conservation National Specialist
ny survey seeking to reveal the A very human need attractive and enduring aesthetics, and the reasons why people visit gardens and ability to predict their appeal. The theory Aparks almost inevitably comes up Although sometimes forgotten, gardens are was extended to include even modest with the word ‘tranquillity’. Probing deeper explicitly designed to meet our emotional landscapes, including gardens, and provided reveals a more diverse interpretation of and recreational needs and desires. Some a new basis for understanding why some the meaning of the word, including peace, academics have even suggested that are more successful than others. Of course, calm, stillness, serenity, beauty and quiet. their design arises unconsciously from landscape designers had understood and Given the unanimity of this response, it may an atavistic instinct to create the kind of applied these fundamental human responses seem strange and perhaps contradictory landscapes that our ancestors would have for centuries, though not with a scientific that so many people choose to find these found most likely to meet their basic habitat and evolutionary foundation. things in designed gardens rather than in requirements for shelter, security and food. the relatively more open environment of In 1975, geographer Jay Appleton published the coast and countryside. What is it in the The Experience of Landscape, in which he Emotion and theory physical characteristics of our gardens and proposed the prospect-refuge theory of parks that provides this emotional service? human aesthetics. Appleton’s thesis was The contrasting (and sometimes opposing) And, when our garden properties are that humans have ‘an acquired preference emotional forces of refuge and prospect attracting more and more visitors in search for particular methods of satisfying inborn provide a creative tension picked up of these qualities, how can we understand desires’. The two desires are for opportunity with relish during the English landscape them and plan for their preservation and (prospect) and safety (refuge). Tracing period of the eighteenth century and maintenance? these two desires back through human later. Massive budgets and broad sweeps evolution gives us a means of understanding of land gave Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown,
52 Views Better by design Humphry Repton and others great scope to express themselves and satisfy their clients’ aspirations. They took inspiration from seventeenth-century painters such as Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin who had expressed the same contrasting emotions on canvas, and the adoption of the word ‘picturesque’ reflects this. This was the age of enlightenment, and philosophers and writers were busy theorising on the nature of beauty and other emotive qualities. In 1753 William Hogarth (better known as a political satirist) wrote an influential treatiseThe Analysis of Beauty in which (at great length) he attempted to define what makes things beautiful. Central, was the idea that nature was full of shapes and colours that were geared towards ‘entertaining the eye with the pleasure of variety’. Another quality for Hogarth’s intellectual scrutiny was the notion of intricacy; referred to as ‘the habit which causes us to end up in the whirling game of pursuit, when bit by bit discovering the beauty of an object.’ At a more practical level, landscape and garden designers took up the challenge to apply such theories. In 1794, outspoken aesthetician Sir Uvedale Price launched the Picturesque movement as a reaction to the prevailing landscape design aesthetics of Brown and Repton. Price proposed a more naturalistic style that allowed for greater wildness and ‘accidents’ of nature. In his essay ‘On the Picturesque – as compared with the sublime and the beautiful’, Price pontificates on (what now often appear) uncertain distinctions between his ‘improved’ landscapes and those of the established order. He describes the Picturesque quality as lying somewhere between those of Beauty and Sublime and incorporating elements of both. Beauty being defined as being all that is comforting and familiar, while Sublime is challenging and dangerous, leads these two qualities to have a satisfying resonance with our theory of refuge and prospect – if only he’d known about it! Price also outlines the fundamental Picturesque principles of Variety, Intricacy and Connection. Of the three, Intricacy is perhaps the most elusive but also, in some ways, the most important, and Price’s use of the word applied to landscapes resonates with Hogarth’s earlier description – in particular the value of landscapes to reward exploration, discovery and revelation.
An idealised pastoral landscape by Claude Images show (top) A River Landscape with Jacob Lorrain incorporating human desires for calm and Lanban and his Daughters by Lorrain (1654); Intrigue and anticipation and aspiration. Taking inspiration from paintings (centre) A View of the Garden at Stourhead by by classical artists such as Lorrain, Henry Hoare Coplestone Warre Bampflyde (1775); and (above) In achieving the kind of intricacy desired by created one of the first Picturesque gardens at visitors taking in the actual view. Images © NTI/ Stourhead, itself idealised in a contemporary Derrick Witty; © NTI; © NTI/Nick Daly designers and their clients, it was especially watercolour, centre. important to define spaces and control
Better by design Views 53 As here at Emmetts Garden, paths and planting are used to lead the eye and reveal new views at every turn. Light and shade, calm and wild, Beauty and Sublime, the long prospect and near refuge – this balance of conflicts is often found in garden design. © National Trust Images/John Miller
The intricate and quirky landscape of Biddulph Grange was created in the Victorian era to provide wonderful landscapes and endless opportunities for exploration and appreciation of botanical beauty. © National Trust Images/ John Miller views. Evergreens were especially valuable in this respect, and it was a fortunate coincidence that the dawning of the English landscape movement coincided with unprecedented availability of new and exciting evergreen and especially coniferous species. Our native yew and box had long served as the evergreen component to give gardens an atmosphere of visual intrigue and anticipation, but a whole new level of possibility was opened up by the new ‘greens’ as they came to be known. Passing through a designed landscape could be an ever-changing sensory experience of dark clumps and shady glades contrasting with broad rides and sweeping vistas. Pleasure grounds and ‘wilderness’ areas with sinuous paths running through clumps of evergreen shrubs became especially popular and helped to demonstrate how landscape principles can be scaled up and down depending on space and budget. Even where Old lessons and new challenges that promote a feeling of tranquillity. It the immediate garden was too small or may also help us to increase the acceptable lacked the opportunity for some of the more In the twenty-first-century our need for ‘capacity’ of gardens by differentiation ‘prospective’ elements, these were often gardens and the emotional well-being and visual separation. This doesn’t simply acquired or ‘borrowed’ from the surrounding they can provide has never been greater. mean evergreen screens or the crude wilder and more natural landscapes. At the same time, we need and want to segregation or zoning of noisy (un-tranquil) In later garden design styles and in other share those benefits with an increasing activities, but a more imaginative and cultures, these prospect-refuge influences number of visitors. This provides us dynamic approach. Discovery of a refuge is can clearly be seen. As in many other with an opportunity, but also poses the just as popular with children as adults and areas of their culture, the Japanese excel great challenge of how best to preserve the prospect of climbing and playing on in miniaturising with great subtlety, and tranquillity (as well as beauty and intricacy) a far-spied hilltop are similarly appealing. even their bonsai gardens demonstrate the while welcoming access for everyone. Tranquillity is a complex and sought-after contrast between dark and shade, refuge Understanding these human responses to emotion that gardens can kindle in their own and incorporation of wider setting. spatial characteristics can certainly help distinctive and diverse ways. Variety, beauty designers and gardeners to create gardens and intrigue all play their part.
54 Views Better by design Transforming lives and landscape: how we mapped joy at Croome Rachel Sharpe, Creative Partnerships Manager, South Worcestershire
useums and heritage sites have become increasingly focused on Ma visitor experience developed through creative partnerships, with audience participation and debate at the centre of practice and development. Moving beyond social inclusion, leaders in the museum and heritage field, such as Nina Simon, are creating places, exhibitions, activities, business models and staff/ volunteer structures which actively put the visitor at the core of the experience. In The Art of Relevance, Simon argues that sites should work directly with their collections, people and visitors to build interchanges of knowledge and understanding through relevant activity to forge a much deeper emotional connection: ‘What is relevance? Relevance is the key that unlocks meaning. It opens doors to experiences that matter to us, surprise us, and bring value to our lives’ (Simon, 2016, p.25). experiences. From this, our confidence grew, Working together, the children showed us where A more value-based approach, moving as did that of external partners who built the sensory opportunities were in Croome’s park. © National Trust/Rachel Sharpe audiences from a social experience to the vision with us. Beneficial and sustainable one which forms a stronger bond, is the relationships were developed through driving force behind the Trust’s Move, organisational participation. Teach, Inspire strategy, which challenges together as nowhere provides experiences properties to devise more relevant and that support ‘Stanley’s world’. Katherine moving visitor experiences. This opened A brave new world in which to and I worked together to find a new way to the door at Croome and other places for Potter and Ponder engage families like mine, and take co- a participation-based approach through production to a new level. creative partnerships. ‘Potter and Ponder’ took Croome Redefined to the next level by having an often marginalised audience at the centre of, and Giving life to new experiences Putting audiences at the directing, the creative process. A small team, heart of what we do led by myself and Katherine Alker, Gardens Motivated by the isolation my family & Outdoors Manager, collaborated with experiences, and seeing the potential in the As an organisation the Trust recognises 35 children with wide-ranging additional expansive parkland, the team (including Kiki the importance of remaining relevant and learning and medical needs, along with their Claxton, Creative Programme Coordinator, engaged with local, regional, national and teachers, parents and carers, and an arts and Jo Amphlett, Access and Inclusion) international audiences. Through HLF- charity, with funding from the Capability wanted to work alongside the children to funded projects such as Croome Redefined, Brown Festival (CBF). The children all have interpret the outdoors in a new way. As with we are finding new ways to make places profound learning difficulties, disabilities or any creative project at Croome, we began innovative and meaningful, allowing new terminal illness; some are receiving end-of- with the development of a project brief and ways of thinking to emerge. life care. key objectives: Croome Redefined paved the way for Every project begins with one person’s collaborative creativity on the property with story. We began with the inspirational story m To have the children at the heart of the inclusion at its heart. We often joked as a of my seven-year-old son, Stanley, who has co-production process by collaborating team that if there wasn’t a risk, the Senior been described by medical professionals meaningfully with a seldom-heard Project Manager, Richard Higgs, wouldn’t as one of the very rare one per cent of the audience to create a visitor experience let us do it; but this was no joke, it was an global population profoundly affected by that could be enjoyed by all. open invitation to experiment professionally autism. For Stanley, the world is a terrifying m To collaborate with the children as equal and deliver a cohesive offer focused on place, where nothing makes sense. Our experts, not as a token gesture. working directly with audiences to create family finds it almost impossible to go out
Better by design Views 55 More than grand vistas, enjoyment of being in Croome’s park can come from small touches of nature. © National Trust/Rachel Sharpe
Enter Outside In
Getting the right artist for the project was essential. We had to find someone who shared some of the children’s challenges to act as a real-world mentor. The charity Outside In provides a platform for artists who see themselves as facing barriers to the art world due to health, disability, social circumstance or isolation. The choice of such a partner (initiated by Kiki) was pivotal in ensuring the integrity of the project. Outside In advertised our commission through its platform to 2,000 artists, all of whom have a learning/health need, and shortlisted a variety of artists and styles, whose work was then presented to the children for selection. It was essential that the children chose the artist to ensure the style fully appealed to their view of the world. Teachers used a variety of communication tools and m To create a beautiful bespoke map of the watched in awe as they grew in confidence translation methods to ensure that all sensory opportunities in the parkland, over repeated visits; becoming more settled children, most of whom are non-verbal, in line with the quality expected at a in the environment meant they were able, clearly made the choice; for example, Trust property, and to move our working at their level, to assert ideas and feelings, through tracking smiles, eye movements, practices to fit the children’s needs. begin to interact socially with us and each giggles and gestures. When Stanley would other, and escape the constraints of their not choose, in the spirit of the project, we m To demonstrate courage in collaborating everyday situations. One of the very special waited a month for his response as we were with audiences who experience the world moments we recall was when, on his third committed to our collaborative process. in a different way by helping other Trust visit, Stanley, who had refused to interact, Artist William Hanekom was the clear places to adopt the Potter and Ponder was notably calmer and slipped his hand into favourite. He visited Croome’s sensory sites model. Katherine’s while walking down the path, a and made illustrations to represent the Meetings were held with staff from the tear-jerking interaction that proved we were selected moments. Working with designers four specialist schools involved to ensure making real progress in his world. Blended Creative, William’s illustrations the working methods fully supported the needs of the children and that all staff and volunteers were prepared. The children then began visiting Croome to experience the outdoor space: we watched, noted and mapped their moments of joy to discover where the sensory opportunities were located across the parkland. Quite literally hand-in-hand, we set about generating a map of these opportunity points to open up the landscape, telling Croome’s story through the highly sensory world where Stanley and his friends live. Following in the footsteps of ‘Capability’ Brown, whose first commission was Croome, the children inspired us, their teachers, carers, parents and siblings with what they achieved. Working expert-to-expert with us, they surpassed usual expectations of engagement and personal development, with their ideas driving the process. We
The resulting map opens up the landscape by leading visitors to new places of sensation and interest. © National Trust/Jack Nelson
56 Views Better by design Stanley, like the other children, has grown in confidence through Potter and Ponder, the map he helped to make. © National Trust
were placed on Croome’s site map. Outside In helped us ensure William’s own needs were met regarding communication, access and inclusion: ‘I took interest in the project because of the uncertainty of what children would want out of it. I also wanted to help everyone that visits Croome to find and appreciate the beautiful and peaceful areas.’
Expanding our horizons
In addition to the relationships we have built with the schools, children, parents and carers, we are working with Worcestershire Association of Carers, which has a direct We worked alongside the children, listened project gets my heart thumping because reach to over 11,000 carers, to support and learnt from them, took our inspiration of the determinedly genuine co-creative outreach for Potter and Ponder. A hard from their thinking, entered their world approach with distinctly complex audiences. copy of the map is freely available on site – something which is so rarely done. This Demonstrating how creatively addressing and downloadable from our website so journey produced an experience which can the needs of a marginalised community can carers have the opportunity to plan their be used by all at Croome; it’s not seen as be inclusive to all, it teaches us how to make visit. Since we began, thousands of maps being of lesser importance, it is part of our our places uniquely valuable and meaningful. have been given to families, and the online mainstream interpretation. The children Potter and Ponder provides rare access to map has an average 60 downloads per had the rare opportunity to meet and work inspiring leisure and learning experiences.’ month. Interestingly the map is used by with an artist who shares some of their Tate encouraged us to apply for a Museums all audiences, and is seen as a key piece of challenges. This had a poignant effect on the and Heritage award, mentoring us through visitor experience, not limited to its intended parents, teachers and carers, giving them the process and cheering as loudly as we audience. a real sense that their children can move did when Potter and Ponder became the The recent annual visitor figure at beyond their perceived barriers in society: recipient of the 2017 National Educational Croome is 270,000. Anecdotally we have ‘Meeting William made me realise there are Initiative Award. seen a boost in numbers of visitors with possibilities I’d never considered my child On a personal note, as a family we now additional needs, noted by staff on property, might have in the future. This had a really have a place to go with our son, and feel real and this is corroborated by the number of positive impact on me. We don’t get many pride in the fact he and other children in our people using the map, many of these now chances to consider a more colourful and community helped to create it. Stanley now repeat visitors, adding a boost of 600+ fulfilling future for our children, but this runs around Croome with confidence and new audience family visits in the first five project gave us all that opportunity.’ real joy, and we know how to help him enjoy (winter) months. Considering this project as The CBF became an integral partner and his time because he’s told us how – for all of a business case, that’s a fantastic return on ambassador, helping to spread the word us, that’s life changing! Never underestimate the original £3,000 spend. To support the about Potter and Ponder, sharing our story how a walk in beautiful parkland can make steady development of this ‘new’ audience across the UK through its network: ‘Lots of some of the hardest moments liveable. on site, we have installed an accessible sites find it difficult to interpret and engage Thanks to everyone who helped, we’ve toilet with an adult changing bed and audiences with their historic landscape, given a community with a very small voice a designed a full property training programme and few even try to think about potential wonderful project to shout about! for staff and volunteers on meeting the visitors with more profound differences or needs of this audience. The project has kick- disabilities. Croome, however, grasped the Reference started a Trust revolution: members of the opportunity. Potter and Ponder has been a 1 Simon, Nina (2016), The Art of Relevance team are regularly contacted for advice by real learning curve for everyone involved, (Museum 2.0, 2016). Website: www.artofrelevance.org colleagues at other properties keen to co- and this is something that has pleased us. produce in a similar way, ensuring a legacy The CBF has been very proud to be able to across the Trust. support the project and hope it will inspire Acknowledgements One of the specialist teachers on other historic landscapes to rise to the Potter and Ponder commented that: ‘All challenge’ (Ceryl Evans, National Festival My thanks to the Croome team working too often children with additional needs Director). with me on Potter and Ponder: Katherine are the beneficiary of education projects Key internal support from Tate Alker, Kiki Claxton and Jo Amphlett, and created by others who do not share their Greenhalgh, the Trust’s National our partners, the Capability Brown Festival challenges. This project is a huge leap Interpretation Specialist, gave the team team, Heritage Lottery Fund, Sunfield School forward, considering the world’s attitude confidence and further ambition to share & Children’s Home, Fort Royal Primary on how to include, support and work with this approach and the extraordinarily School, Regency High and Acorns Children’s children with profound additional needs.’ brave work of the children: ‘This moving Hospice.
Better by design Views 57 Welcoming visitors on the autism spectrum to Chirk Castle Jon Hignett, Visitor Experience Manager, Jasmine Hrisca-Munn, Volunteer & Community Involvement Officer, and Susan Jones, Volunteer & Community Involvement Manager, Chirk Castle, Wrexham
n 2016 we received feedback from several a way to overcome them. We already had Howard Williams, father of Jemimah, who families with autistic children regarding an Access Statement for the site, but this has ASD, and her four siblings. Itheir experience when visiting Chirk is aimed mainly at the physical restrictions Castle. There were a number of issues, such and it became apparent that this could be Awesome! Really pleased to see the Trust as having to join a noisy queue on busy days confusing for an autistic visitor to read. taking this initiative. First time I’ve seen one of just to get in, or their child not being able to We decided to create a ‘pre-awareness these. Please can you roll this out nationally? take a toy sword they had just purchased in pack’ that autistic visitors or their families Mr Phillips, father to a child with the gift shop into the house – and not being could download, so they could see what a Aspergers. able to understand why. Rather than simply visit would entail before they even got to us, offering an apology for the disappointing and identify any problem areas. The first step visit, we decided to dig a little deeper. We was to research other successful examples What’s next? recognised that we did not have a good level signposted to us by the families, such as the of understanding of the needs of visitors guides at Liverpool John Lennon Airport and We are clear that this is not a tick-box with autism, and we invited the parents to the Tate. We then had to decide what each exercise and are committed to develop come along to help us improve. step of the visit would involve and how to further the support we can offer visitors The parents worked with us to provide a describe this for Chirk. As with most of our with ASD and those with other additional better understanding of the differing ways work towards being more autism-aware, needs. We are already adjusting some of that an autistic visitor might experience the guide is a work in progress, which will our volunteering roles to be more suited Chirk Castle. They helped us to identify evolve and develop as we become more to individuals with specific needs and will processes, access points and areas that experienced: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ continue to develop this flexible approach would raise a possible red flag to them chirk-castle/features/autism-awareness-at- to volunteering. We have links with the when thinking about how their child might chirk-castle Priory College North Wales at Wrexham, interpret the situation. Together we worked a specialist college for those with ASD up some possible solutions and alternatives, The feedback about the guide so far has and associated needs, and are providing leading us to some clear actions, which been overwhelmingly positive: specifically designed work placements included training for our teams and for their students. The college in turn is providing a pre-visit downloadable guide. My main challenges with Chirk, as a parent of providing more autism-awareness training multiple little kids as much as in terms of ASD for our teams. [Autism Spectrum Disorder], are: getting In 2018 we are pledging to continue Making changes past the entrance ticket area… going into our work to welcome visitors with ASD by the state rooms… when Jemimah was little trialling early opening for busy events and One of the families had links with the the staircase was too stressful. The guide… looking into the possibility of quiet-time organisation Autism Together, based on the highlighted all of these dimensions. Once tours. Wirral, which provides awareness sessions for at the castle/in the gardens – it is a dream. organisations and also advocates the Autism Champion programme. We held training for a number of staff and volunteers in 2017 and from them we selected six Autism Champions for Chirk Castle. These are members of our team who can be called upon to help any visitors who require assistance, information or additional support. One of the elements that came through very strongly in our discussions with the families was the amount of preparation that could go into visiting new places. One of the keys to a successful visit was being able to predict any possible difficulties, and find
Making it easier for a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder means that a whole family can enjoy their visit; Jemimah with her brother and sisters enjoying the gardens at Chirk. © Howard Williams.
58 Views Better by design Lasting attractions
Visiting country houses Anthony Lambert, freelance editor and writer
ention country-house visiting in a historical context and Jane Austen’s Maccount of Elizabeth Bennet visiting Pemberley with her uncle and aunt in Pride and Prejudice almost certainly first comes to mind – not least for Mr Darcy’s arrival in the BBC production filmed at Lyme Park. Of course, visits to country houses are as old as the houses themselves, and have their origins in medieval traditions and obligations of hospitality. But the first instances of what we may term architectural tourism date from the sixteenth century at a time when monarchs – most particularly Elizabeth I – made summer progresses round the country houses of their subjects, doing much to deplete their wealth in the process. Besides the entertainment costs, many alterations or additions to houses were done in expectation of the certain or hoped-for visit from a monarch. As late as 1803–6 major alterations were made such collections is exemplified in thec. 1663 The Paston Treasure painted by an unknown to Shugborough prior to a visit by the Prince Dutch School painting The Paston Treasure Dutch artist commissioned by either Sir William Paston or his son, Sir Robert, who were both keen Regent which never happened. (Norwich Castle Museum) of the Paston collectors. The original now hangs in the Norwich Ideas for the construction of ‘prodigy family’s curios. This painting is a perfect Castle Museum. © Artist unknown (CC BY-SA 4.0) houses’,1 such as Hardwick, Hatfield, example of the often arcane symbolism Burghley and Longleat, were sometimes referred to in Christopher Beharrell’s essay garnered by visiting others; during (see p.84); it has taken years of research by voracious appetite for works of art as well the summer of 1592 when her house Norwich Castle Museum and the Yale Center as an intelligent curiosity.3 Evelyn was happy was at an early stage of construction, for British Art to decode all the elements spending an entire day at Knole although Bess of Hardwick visited Holdenby in of this picture, unwittingly prefiguring historically there is perhaps a correlation Northamptonshire and Wollaton in the decline of the Paston family and their between the length of a visit and the journey Nottinghamshire. The visits seem to have Norfolk home of Oxnead Hall. time or difficulty of getting there. been productive as we know that some Towards the end of the century this One of the earliest travellers to leave of the skilled workmen at Hardwick had practice was being mocked in plays and by written accounts of visiting country houses worked at Wollaton for its architect, Robert such silliness as a coffee-house proprietor was Celia Fiennes.4 The daughter of a Smythson, even if his probable responsibility advertising its possession of Pontius Pilate’s Cromwellian colonel and the granddaughter for Hardwick is unproven. wife’s chambermaid’s sister’s hat.2 of the 1st Viscount Saye and Sele, she was Visitors in the seventeenth century – remarkably independent for her times. Her before the great influxes of continental travels between 1685 and 1710 took her to acquisitions during Grand Tours – might be Precursors to Trip Advisor every county in England, but her accounts impressed by the ‘cabinet of curiosities’ in are not always as detailed or accurate as which the virtuoso collector might display Country-house perambulating began in one might wish. She was most interested in rare objects from China or Japan, miniature the late seventeenth century, though its new houses, sometimes displaying a certain paintings, sea-shells, bones or egg shells. early practitioners were seldom single- contempt for things that weren’t up to Perhaps the best surviving room is the Green minded about it in the written accounts of date. Lichfield Cathedral was dismissed as Closet at Ham House. The eclectic nature of their travels. John Evelyn’s diaries display a being ‘a stately structure but old’. Haddon
Lasting attractions Views 59 Hall in Derbyshire was ‘a good old house… but nothing very curious’ and she found Sir Richard Temple’s gardens at Stowe ‘replenished with all the curiosityes or requisites for ornament pleasure and use’. In contrast, the Irish statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke took a very different view. In 1791 he wrote to Knole’s owner: ‘I who am something of a lover of all antiquities must be a very great admirer of Knole… It is pleasant to have preserved in one place the succession of the several tastes of ages… This is not the sort of place which every banker, contractor or nabob can create at his pleasure. … I would not change Knole if I were the Duke of Dorset for all the foppish structures of this enlightened age.’5 Many visitors complained about the avarice of attendants and the English vice of tipping. John Byng, 5th Viscount Torrington, recorded that ‘the expense of seeing Blenheim is very great: the servants … being very attentive in gleaning money from rich travellers.’6 Horace Walpole thought his housekeeper had made so much money from showing people round Strawberry Hill that he told the Countess of Ossory in 1783 ‘that I have a mind to marry her, and so repay myself that way for what I have flung away to make my house quite uncomfortable to me.’7 One of the more highly regarded housekeepers was Mary Garnett at Kedleston Hall. Like many housekeepers, she gave guided tours of the house to visitors, including Dr Samuel Johnson in 1777. Another tourist, James Plumptre, wrote in 1793: ‘Of all the Housekeeper[s] I ever met with at a Noblemans Houses [sic], this was the most obliging and intelligent ... she seeme’d to take delight in her business...’
Rising numbers
The development of turnpike roads during the eighteenth century facilitated travel and spawned such an increase in visitors during the last decades of the century that Walpole complained bitterly about the numbers. Of the few statistics to have been passed down, we know that in 1775 Wilton received 2,324 people. With the increase in numbers came damage and thoughts of closing the doors. entire life of the house, an arrangement that Top: A drawing by Jean Claude Nattes of Stowe And with the railway age, that is what was formalised after 1815 with the death of from the New Inn, which was specifically built in 1717 by Lord Cobham to house visitors to his park happened: opening hours were implemented 4th Duke of Dorset at just 21. By 1874 10,000 and still receives Stowe’s visitors today. The view is or doors closed altogether. Until the First people a year were visiting the house. Rather not technically possible but fits the romantic style World War, it was mainly the great houses than trying to limit numbers by imposing of the period (c.1805). © National Trust such as Alnwick, Blenheim, Chatsworth and a charge or reducing opening hours, the This painting by Nicholas Condy shows visitors Haddon that remained open. curmudgeonly Mortimer Sackville-West in the Inner Hall at Antony, Cornwall, following One of the most dramatic incidents – who went to court against most of his the remodelling of the ground floor by Reginald Pole-Carew in 1809. © National Trust Images/John around country-house visiting occurred at relatives at some time or another – simply Hammond Knole in 1884 when 1,500 people invaded closed the doors. the park and besieged the house. Visitors That stopped visits to the house but the had been coming informally for almost the park had been seen as a right of way for
60 Views Lasting attractions This painting by Thomas Smith shows people admiring Belton House’s cascade, created in 1745. © National Trust Images
Mary Garnett was the housekeeper at Kedleston Hall from 1766 to 1809. In this painting by Thomas Barber the elder she is shown offering a Catalogue of Pictures, Stature &c. at Kedleston, first published in 1769. © National Trust Images/John Hammond generations, and was a popular destination The changing ways in which people for a day in the country for Londoners. respond to country houses, to the stories Mortimer had had enough of people they have to tell and to the art and ‘galloping promiscuously across the park’ architecture they embody, have preoccupied and in 1883 erected barriers that would stop the Trust to a greater or lesser degree since even prams from entering. Rising resentment it took its first admission fee.9 We follow turned to direct action, and in June the every generation of country-house visitors in following year the barriers were broken down interpreting what we see through the prism to the singing of ‘Rule Britannia’ and dumped of the culture of our day, our own knowledge in front of the main door to the house. The and taste, and the choice of others in next night some windows were broken, a gate what we are presented with – the rooms forced open and people rode ceremonially and objects on display, the guidebook’s back and forth through the park entrance. observations. Perhaps we can be thankful Mortimer felt so threatened he decamped that few come armed, as the 1st Duchess of to the Grand Hotel at Scarborough, and Northumberland did in the mid-eighteenth the local press sided with those insisting century, with a 150-point questionnaire of that landowners had some responsibilities things to ask of herself or the house staff. towards local communities. The park was Or should we be disappointed? not closed again. References 1 The term refers to the large houses of the 6 David Souden (ed.), Byng’s Tours: The Journals In search of inspiration Tudor, Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, of The Hon. John Byng 1781–1792 (Century designed to impress. [National Trust Classics], 1991), p.48. 2 Adrian Tinniswood, A History of Country House 7 Tinniswood, , p.97. A measure of country-house visitors is op. cit. Visiting (Basil Blackwell and the National Trust, 8 Lady Hope, English Homes and Villages (1909), provided by words written in 1909 for 1989), p.61. p.216, quoted in Tinniswood, op. cit., p.162. visitors to Ightham Mote by its then owner, 3 John Evelyn’s diaries, spanning 1640–1706, 9. The firstadmission charge was introduced at Sir Thomas Colyer Fergusson: ‘One of the were first published in 1818. Barrington Court (1 shilling) in 1922 (National 4 The first eliabler publication of Celia Fiennes’s Trust, Annual Report, 1922–3). charms of old homes is that within their journeys appeared in 1947/49 by the Cresset walls are enshrined memories and traditions Press. An illustrated edition was published by of bye-gone days. The first question usually Macdonald & Co. in 1982. put regarding any old house is “What are its 5 Edmund Burke, Correspondence (Cambridge historical connections?”’ University Press, 1978), Vol II, pp.394–5.
Lasting attractions Views 61 ‘Knowle neere Sevenock a greate old fashioned house…’ Helen Fawbert, House & Collections Manager, Knole, Kent
nole has been attracting country- in the 1707 Britannia Illustrata by Dutch landscaped gardens of Stowe or Stourhead, house visitors since the seventeenth draughtsman Kip and his collaborator, the ‘modern’ Adam interiors of Kedleston or Kcentury, although by that time it was Knyff. Though giving minute detail and the art collection at Chatsworth. It wasn’t already considered a relic. In 1673 it was setting Knole in its magnificent avenues and until the last quarter of the eighteenth described by John Evelyn as a ‘greate old parterres, as a guidebook, the source is mute. century when the 3rd Duke began to expand fashioned house’.1 The house was out of Praise for Knole was usually confined to the picture collection that the house began step with the fashions of the time, when the nobility and antiquity of the Sackville to be appreciated on its own terms. admiration was focused on buildings such as name and not for architecture. In 1714, the Not unlike a visitor of today, many factors the ‘Banqueting House built at White-Hall by Scottish writer and spy John Macky, in his determined whether a visit was successful. Inego Jones’ rather than those with a more A Journey Through England in Familiar Letters, Horace Walpole was quite taken with Knole ‘Gothic’ heritage. referred to it only in terms of it being the following his first visit in 1752, praising both principal seat of a noble family, describing the park and the house: ‘… the outward the 7th Earl, rather ingratiatingly, as ‘an court has a beautiful decent simplicity that Five centuries on the ‘must see’ list ornament to the Wells’, a reference to his charms one. The apartments are many, but spending much of his time at the then not large. The furniture throughout, ancient This was by no means the first time a review fashionable spa of Tunbridge Wells. magnificence …’ of Knole – as an historic building – had Further into the eighteenth century, By 1780, on a second visit, Walpole found been mentioned in printed sources. Early Knole was admired simply for its antiquity. himself disappointed, though this might antiquarian William Lambarde included it In ‘A Tour Through Kent in 1735’, Mr Whaley, have been connected to the servant sent to in his Perambulation of Kent, a historical and the writer, describes Knole as ‘Next to accompany him around the house who he topographical survey of 1576. Similar works Audley End House, it is the largest & most described in a letter dated 31 August as ‘a followed, such as A Topographie or Survey of regular old Stone Building I have yet seen in trapes of a housekeeper … who put me out the County of Kent by Kilburne in 1659. These England’.2 of humour’. The effect of the servant was sources gave little about the building, the obviously still raw as her deficiencies were focus being the illustrious owners and their mentioned in a second letter, written only a family connections. Extending the visitor offer day later: ‘I worship all its faded splendour The successor to the topographical … and could have wandered over it for survey was the bird’s-eye view which Knole was in some ways an unusual hours with satisfaction; but there was such became increasingly popular at the turn of destination for the eighteenth-century a heterogeneous housekeeper as poisoned the seventeenth century. Knole featured traveller. It lacked the fashionable all my enthusiasm. She … shuffled about in
A view of Knole by Knyff from Kip and Knyff’sBritannia Illustrata, 1708. © National Trust Collection
62 Views Lasting attractions slippers, and seemed to admire how I could care about the pictures of such old frights as covered the walls!’ Few visitors felt there was more to Knole than the park, the paintings and the connection to ancient nobility. When the writer Frances Burney visited Knole in 1779, she described the park with some enthusiasm, though did mention that it had no temples or obelisks. She felt the general air was ‘monastic and gloomy’ though was rather taken with the silver furniture: ‘nothing could be more splendid’. Her friend, the artist Mary Delany, had visited in 1773 and found the park ‘very fine’ but the house ‘dully magnificent’. Irish statesman Edmund Burke was one of the few who fell for its antiquarian charms, regardless of popular late eighteenth- century notions of ‘taste’: ‘I, who am something of a lover of all antiquities must be a very great admirer of Knole. I think it the most interesting thing in England. It is pleasant to have preserved in one place the A photograph succession of the several tastes of ages; a of Victorian visitors to Knole. pleasant habitation for the time, a grand © National Trust/ repository of whatever has been pleasant at Photographer all times.’ unknown The nineteenth century saw a new appreciation of Knole, perhaps influenced by the Gothic Revival and the fanciful, romantic vision of the late medieval past. Novelist Maria Edgeworth wrote to her mother in 1831 that ‘…I never did see any place, house included which altogether pleased me so much. There is so much good taste in keeping up this fine old mansion in its dear old style.’ Visitors in the Cartoon Gallery, c.1870. © Artist Writing the guidebook unknown.
The first guidebook – the 1817An Historical the 6th Earl installed his collection of royal Jacobean house, creating set pieces where and Topographical Sketch of Knole by John perquisites (hence ‘perks’), along with those portraits from the mid-seventeenth century Bridgman, steward at Knole from the 1790s of his grandfather which had been formerly were clustered together with appropriate – was predictably just behind the cusp of housed at Copt Hall in Essex. furniture. The hang in the Great Hall changed this change in view. The route described by Changes in presentation would have from the last vestiges of the eighteenth- Bridgman follows a very similar route that ensured that the royal connections were century connoisseur’s hang to one in which visitors follow today, with the paintings not lost on the nineteenth-century visitor. the 4th Earl, courtier and Civil War soldier, being described in every detail, to the almost A very conscious level of display along the took centre stage over the fireplace, flanked total exclusion of the furniture for which visitor route saw portraits of seventeenth- by family members and connections from the Knole is now, arguably, more famous. century kings placed in conjunction with era. Deer heads, antlers and pewter returned By 1839, the focus had not changed furniture very similar to that in the paintings. to the room, enhancing the re-creation of the significantly, when John Brady wrote The Furthermore, room names were changed Jacobean past. Visitor’s Guide to Knole, in the County of Kent. to reference the furniture that sat in them, This re-presentation of Knole’s actual Brady’s notes to the reader suggest he tying both together for ever. past, albeit enhanced and tweaked, seems was more concerned with setting down Joseph Nash published his four-volume to have created a second renaissance if the an accurate building history of the house, The Mansions of England in the Olden Time numbers of special requests to view Knole though in reality he seems to have drawn between 1839 and 1849 in which Knole outside the usual opening hours in 1893 heavily on Bridgman. featured. Nash highlighted the Jacobean alone are a typical example. From a party of Throughout the nineteenth century, romance in his engravings, and the house 12 from the City of London Cycling Club to however, the appreciation of Knole as a in turn came to mirror Nash: throughout a party of 150 from the memorably named ‘collection’ began to grow – something the remainder of the nineteenth century Young Men’s Societies’ Union In Connection that in fact it had been since 1701, when the family presented it more and more as a With The Presbyterian Churches In And
Lasting attractions Views 63 A romantic neo-Jacobean imagining of the Brown Gallery by Joseph Nash which appeared in his popular book The Mansions of England in the Olden Time. In time the presentation of the house began to follow Nash’s impression. © National Trust Collection
Around London, Knole was popular as a visitor destination for its own sake. To cater for the influx of visitors, new guidebooks were published almost yearly, with increasing levels of detail – and often accuracy. Following its acquisition by the National Trust in 1946, Vita Sackville-West was asked to write its first Trust guidebook. She drew heavily on her family archives and affirmed the Jacobean romance of Knole with which she had grown up.
Presenting the many layers today
Knole has continued to evolve. The presentation from the 1960s nodded towards changes in country-house they weren’t considered important or reimagined glory of the Restoration and the scholarship, focusing on ideas of tasteful. Where once the presentation honour of the Dukes of Dorset. By March connoisseurship from the late eighteenth told a story – a painting of a wife facing a 2019 the final stage of this process will be century – arguably a movement that, despite mistress; a painting of James I on a chair complete. Will modern-day audiences find the collections of the 3rd Duke, Knole nearly identical to a chair placed alongside that the new ‘old’ Knole once again speaks never really suited. By the beginning of the the picture, highlighting those past glories to them as it did so eloquently more than a twenty-first century, Knole was suffering of royal association and intimacy – the century ago? from an identity crisis and visitors were connections and the stories were being struggling to connect with the haphazard lost. Layers of institutional change were References presentation. The display and interpretation confusing the story, and the house that the 1. de Beer, E. S. (ed.) The Diary of John Evelyn, Vol. was museological – a chair or a table as an Sackville-West family had been trying to IV: Kalendarium, 1673–1689 (Oxford University Press, 1995); p.17. exhibit, or a painting moved to prominence present to visitors was disappearing. 2. Torr, V.B.J., (ed) ‘A tour through Kent in 1735’ because it was better than the others – Research has unpicked those institutional (Torr’s article contains the account written rather than a player in a diorama, each changes, returning the presentation of the by Mr Whaley of King’s College, Cambridge), contributing to a bigger narrative. Some show rooms to reflect the story the family Archaeologia Cantiana, Vol. 43 (Kent items were removed from display because wanted to tell – the ancient origins, the Archaeological Society, 1931); pp.267–80.
Brimham beginnings Stephen Lewis and Rupert Tillyard, Day Maker Volunteers, Brimham Rocks, North Yorkshire
rimham Rocks, an SSSI moorland First inkling of a lucky chance that the Trust was the with a unique landscape of strangely benefactor as Mr Ackernley was wont Bshaped rocks, has been popular with On 12 September 1953, Vice-Admiral frequently to change his will, sometimes visitors for over 200 years. The property Oliver Bevir, the Secretary of the Trust, monthly, and other charities had, at had passed through many hands before received a letter from Vint Hill and Killick, times, been cited. Even so, all was not coming under the management of the solicitors in Bradford, informing him that straightforward as he had also stipulated National Trust. As the 50th anniversary of a Mr R. R. Ackernley had died and left an a ‘life interest’ for his sister and it was only its acquisition approaches, we looked back estate, commonly known as Brimham subject to this that the Trust would benefit. at the complicated story of how this came Moor, to the Trust. C. H. D. ‘Cubby’ Acland, the Trust’s to be. It later emerged that it was somewhat Regional Agent, went to inspect the bequest,
64 Views Lasting attractions which included farmland, some outbuildings, a cottage and Rock House, now known as Brimham House. He reported that it was a ‘great place of public resort’ and the rocks themselves ‘have assumed grotesque shapes’. Public interest was being utilised, he reported, by a tenant who charged a shilling to visitors and ran a café from a hut. Brimham House was unused and much dilapidated; this, with some farmland, he recommended selling to raise some capital. There is much, he concluded, that could be done to improve the site for visitors.
Biding time
Owing to the constrictions placed on the bequest, there was little the Trust could actually do. Miss Ackernley was the trustee and her life interest meant she could dispose of Brimham as she saw fit. A memo to the Trust’s Secretary in 1959 suggested seeking to appoint a member of its staff as an additional trustee of the property, especially as Miss Ackernley was not ‘in the least interested’ in the Trust itself. Meanwhile the visitors continued to come and the tenant continued to charge them. A contemporary article in the Yorkshire Evening Post (27 August 1955) reported that Brimham had long been a favourite destination for visitors since before 1786, when, at a lecture given in London,1 Major Hayman Rooke had declared that the rocks had been shaped by druids – this was, the paper assured its readers, an entirely erroneous theory, but it had persisted in some of the popular names given to particular rock formations, such as the Druid’s Idol, the Druid’s Writing Desk and the Druid’s Face. ‘Many other romantic legends’, the reporter revealed, ‘attached themselves to the rocks.’ By 1960 the approach to Brimham’s development had become clearer. The area agent wrote a report outlining the legal situation and expressed the view that when Ackernley and two new trustees were A young visitor photographed at the the property finally passed fully to the Trust, appointed, including a member of the Rocks in 1871. © National Trust/Francis Frith Collection ‘the whole of the moor would be acceptable Trust’s staff. In September 1960 the newly and worthy of inalienability’, i.e. preserved appointed trustees could at least report that from being subsequently sold. Turning his they knew what was happening on the estate wanted to relinquish her interest, that the attention to Brimham House, originally and to the associated money raised by the Trust formally acquired it. On 16 April 1971, built in the 1780s by the estate owner, Lord earlier sales of land. the Trust’s Executive Committee noted Grantley, he reported it in bad condition that ‘Brimham Moor (Yorks)’ had been and needing either to be demolished or transferred. restored as a warden’s house and café. Progress In January 1972 the Trust resolved to Furthermore, new lavatories and a car-park make Brimham into a country park and were needed. At this time there was no water Concern grew about the estate and how it enacted its inalienability. There were just supply to the site; the water needed for the was being managed: cars parked wherever the small matters of restoring the house café was transported in a large barrel. The there was a space, the house continued in to provide suitable accommodation for a agent estimated likely visitor numbers to be its dilapidated state, and new lavatories warden; building an information centre 70,000 per annum and concluded that the were now requested by Pateley Council. and new lavatories, which would need a project was viable. However, it was not until October 1970, water supply and some disposal or waste Further discussions ensued with Miss when Miss Ackernley had decided she system; constructing car-parks and access
Lasting attractions Views 65 By the 1960s, Brimham House was declining into serious dilapidation. It was restored by the Trust in the 1970s. © National Trust
working to preserve the physical site from the inevitable erosion caused by so many visitors. On busy days the site has the use of a neighbouring farmer’s field, which greatly decreases the pressure on the other parking facilities. The kiosk is often very busy with visitors purchasing cups of tea and ice-creams from the friendly catering team. The works completed in the 1970s are now in need of refurbishment. Brimham House is in good condition for its age, although as with any building from the 1780s, it requires roads; creating a new refreshment facility; had been the case. The site remained entirely continual maintenance, repairs and some connecting electricity and telephone lines... open access, raising money only through modernisation. A full refurbishment of oh, and respecting the commoners’ grazing car-parking charges for non-members, kiosk the toilet block has been completed, with rights of eight surrounding farms. The and shop sales, and, of course, through improved access to the disabled toilet. There twentieth century had arrived! member recruitment. are now ambitions for an additional welcome The restored house was indeed lived in centre and toilet facility in the car-park, to by a warden for some years. He and his wife improve visitor engagement and enjoyment. took charge of the site and its increasing Today As ever, the place is popular with all kinds number of visitors. Their job description of visitors, most especially families, and the left little out! They were expected to Since those early days the site has gone Trust is striving to ensure that more of its sell refreshments, control the car-parks, from strength to strength. Some 250,000 natural wonders can be seen and enjoyed by manage the visitors and maintain the site. people a year are estimated to visit, more all. Following a successful trial, a new kind New toilets were built and because a local than fulfilling the expectations of the area of path surface made from resin-bonded farmer objected to a septic tank, thinking agent in 1960. But the challenge now is how rubber (from recycled tyres), mixed with it would be inadequate at busy times, a to cope with these numbers both in terms pebbles of local stone, will, once completed, sewage pipe was installed across the fields of enabling a worthwhile visitor experience run from the car-park to the visitor centre to join the main. Mains water, electricity and and preserving the unique attractions of this and picnic area. This has made life much a telephone line were similarly connected. special place. easier for visitors bringing young children Many different plans for car-parking were There is no longer a warden living on in buggies and for visitors in wheelchairs to submitted and discussed before two car- site but a team running the car-parks, propel themselves. parks were built. serving in the shop and kiosk, dealing with The more accessible areas of Brimham The Trust did not charge for ‘entrance’ as a myriad of visitor needs and, crucially, have been mapped and, thanks to a new purchase, visitors are now able to borrow an all-terrain mobility scooter to take them around. It is intended to build ramps up to the shop and viewing area (at present accessible only by steps) and to construct a path round the back of the visitor centre – a route much used by the volunteers on their guided walks – both to encourage visitors to explore by themselves and to protect this area from further erosion. Caring for the environment and caring for all visitors go together in Brimham’s plans for the future.
Reference 1. Rooke, Hayman, Some Account of the Brimham Rocks in Yorkshire, lecture report (Society of Antiquaries, 25 May 1796). PDF available via Image redacted to Google Books. comply with GDPR Acknowledgement Above: Visitors can borrow a ‘Tramper’, an all- terrain vehicle, which lets anyone with mobility restrictions explore further afield. © National Thank you to Rose Pearce, Assistant Building Trust/Liz Houseman Surveyor, for her condition survey notes.
Brimham Rocks is still a place for young and old today. The house has become the visitor centre and shop. © National Trust Images/Paul Harris
66 Views Lasting attractions Co-operation and community
Lifting the lid at The Vyne Kathryn Allen-Kinross, Assistant Project Curator, The Vyne, Hampshire
To be on the roof! To see the condition of the The perilous state of roof was outstanding, every pound that the the roof and chimneys gave urgency to the Trust is spending on the repair is worth it, I project. © National myself would give my last coin in my purse. To Trust Images/James be so near to 500 years of history was just an Dobson amazing experience, I hope to visit again before the scaffolding comes down.
his is just one of the many glowing comments left by visitors who Texperienced The Vyne’s £5.4 million roof conservation project which arose following the deterioration of the roof’s condition. In 2009 a quinquennial survey recommended that a roof project should be carried out within 15 years, but bad storms in the winter of 2013 worsened its condition and revealed its weaknesses. Chimneys were leaning at precarious angles, parapet walls were crumbling, tiles were failing and water was making its way into the house. From that point, plans began to be drawn up while temporary props were put in to stabilise the building. In 2016 the budget was approved and fundraising began with a target of £475,000.
Engaging our visitors with the conservation work
The project and property team felt that a key objective was to make the project accessible for everyone. Looking at other successful Between March 2017 and March 2018 the replaced, along with the rebuilding of parapet roof projects within the National Trust, it property welcomed 220,000 visitors on site, walls and 14 chimneys, and new insulation was clear that a visitor walkway was a great 149,416 of whom went up on a scaffolding installed alongside fire-retardant panels. way to engage people with the conservation walkway to watch the works happening. As the old tiles were removed, the work that needed to be carried out. The Visitors of all ages, including children from Tudor structure of the roof was exposed inclusion of a lift meant that everyone had local primary schools, were fascinated to see and gave us the opportunity to work with the opportunity to visit the walkway and the works happening right in front of them. partners to conduct research into a range of see what is involved in looking after a Tudor They were able to see the immense scale of different areas. The Oxford Rock Breakdown building and ensuring its survival for future the project which required 71,000 clay tiles, Laboratory (OxRBL) was bought in to generations to enjoy. 1,200 slates and many rotten timbers to be investigate building materials. Monthly
Co-operation and community Views 67 Left: Covered with scaffolding, this was a major project, one which visitors were able to watch as work went on in front of them. © National Trust Images/Karen Legg
Below: Visitors of all ages were fascinated by the roof-top view! A lift meant the tour was also accessible by less mobile visitors and wheelchair users. © National Trust Images/Virginia Langer visits from OxRBL with its mobile laboratory allowed visitors to see and handle a range of equipment and discover how they are used. This hands-on approach enabled visitors to engage with the scientific approaches used to understand and thereby slow the deterioration of historic building materials. Dendrochronology analysis was also carried out during the project to understand better the phases of the building work. Timbers in the Oak Gallery roof confirmed a felling date of 1526 which tallies with our understanding of when Lord Sandys carried out his building work. The analysis also showed some building materials used in the south ranges appeared to have been recycled. These may have come from the demolished north courtyards, the foundations of which lie buried under the north lawn. Gary Marshall, the Trust’s archaeologist, explained: ‘Through extraordinary scientific and technological equipment we are finding out so much about The Vyne’s construction, and we are sharing our discoveries with our visitors.’ While the rooftop walkway showed conservation in action and the mobile lab that reinforced the significance of the roof and learn about it. The project’s manager, allowed for hands-on activities, the interior conservation project. We wanted people to conservator, assistant curator, archaeologist of the house highlighted The Vyne’s history leave understanding that The Vyne has the and builder (the site manager) gave hour- and significance. Open stores displayed heart of a Tudor building, which has been long talks or tours each month. These collection pieces and hinted at the scale looked after by successive generations, and sessions were very popular, and a number of of the pack-up operation. Audio-visual that the Trust and they themselves are the visitors did repeat visits in order to attend all installations brought to life The Vyne at the next line of custodians protecting it. of the talks. They gave our audience direct time of King Henry VIII’s visit in 1535, and Programmed throughout the year were a access to those involved and new insight historic room set-ups introduced the family series of ‘Meet the Specialist’ talks and tours. into the complexities of the project and the whose 1842 roof project saved The Vyne. These events gave visitors the opportunity diverse range of specialists delivering it. The house exhibition had a clear narrative to meet members of the project team There were also opportunities to see brick-
68 Views Co-operation and community making demonstrations and tile-making We included as many participation activities days when the tiles were hand-thrown into for visitors as we could, including sponsoring a tile with a personal message. © National Trust moulds by visitors and, after firing, used on Images/Karen Legg the roof.
Keeping bat access
Looking after The Vyne ‘for ever, for everyone’ does not just include our visitors. The Vyne is home to more than one species of bat and ensuring their access was an integral part of the project. Ecologists were involved from the start, and several bat surveys were carried out to ascertain the type and number of bats that live in the roof spaces. The surveys also highlighted where the maternity roosts were. The programme of works was scheduled around the bats, and bat boxes were placed around the property to provide them with an alternative roost while the project was carried out. Bat ladders have been installed and spaces left to ensure that once the project has finished the bats can return to the roof spaces.
Fundraising for The Vyne’s future
The Vyne was tasked with fundraising £475,000 towards the cost of the project. Visitors’ generosity and their buy-in to the project has yielded some amazing results. Through on-site activities such as tagging a message on a roof tile, using the coin drop and giving donations alongside a direct mailing campaign raised an astonishing total of £571,522! By engaging visitors in this crucial piece of conservation work we have seen that they have felt motivated to support us. We have also gained a number of additional volunteers over the course of the project. An initial recruitment drive brought in 50 new volunteers who, along with our existing team, enabled us to open the roof-top walkway throughout the year. As the project continued, we also saw new volunteers sign up who had been inspired by the project and wanted to play a part in it. With an increase of 29,000 visitors from the previous year, we hope that this new audience will continue to visit and support us in our efforts to care for The Vyne.
Image redacted to comply with GDPR
Fitting bat access points was an important part of the roofing project. © National Trust Images/ Virginia Langer
Co-operation and community Views 69 Working towards a common purpose Barbara Wood, Curator, South West
King John’s Hunting Lodge in Axbridge. © National Trust Images/James Dobson
Archaeological and Local History Society. An active member of the Museums in Somerset Group, it is now operated entirely by a team of volunteers from the Museum Trust. The museum has both temporary and permanent exhibitions, notably geology, archaeology and fascinating galleries of local history. Highlights include the carved ‘king’s head’, thought to have been used as the inn-sign for ‘The King’s Head’ tavern in the 1660s. Although there are a number of medieval buildings in Axbridge, it is only King John’s Hunting Lodge and the church where the interiors can be visited. As is often the case, the intriguing name seems to have no basis in fact; the building was never a hunting lodge nor associated with King John who died well over two hundred years before the house was built.
Time to intervene
The National Trust first restored the building in 1971 and regular maintenance has continued. In May 2018 the time came for a major work of exterior redecoration. Given the location of the building, this required considerable planning from Building Surveyor Kath Campbell-Hards. Keen to limit the impact on the local community, she was pleased to have had to close the road for only three weeks due in part to the good weather and to the use of a tower rather his article is a brief example of how the building is something of a landmark in than fixed scaffolding. The road was also we achieve our best conservation the town, standing on the Market Square on reopened in the evenings and at weekends Twork by working together across the corner of the High Street. A rare survival which eased the impact on residents and National Trust disciplines and in conjunction of a timber-framed merchant’s house from visitors. with external stakeholders. around 1460, it probably succeeded an In consultation with curator and earlier building on the same site. An inn conservator colleagues, the need to during the seventeenth and eighteenth redecorate was also used as an opportunity It all begins with the place centuries, it was later used for a variety of to undertake some research on the and the people… shops with workshop and living spaces on building’s fabric. Although we were aware the upper floors until it was transferred to that previous repairs meant that much of A great exemplar of a sympathetic ‘tenant’ the National Trust through the bequest of the plasterwork in particular was relatively with similar conservation and heritage Miss K. Ripley in 1968. modern, this was a chance to improve our interests to the National Trust is the The building is a significant focal point understanding of that past work and also to Axbridge and District Museum Trust, which for the community and was originally explore some questions, particularly about occupies King John’s Hunting Lodge in established as a local history museum in the the colour of the plaster, something we were Axbridge, Somerset. Rising to jettied storeys, 1970s with the collections of the Axbridge often asked about.
70 Views Co-operation and community A specialist in architectural paint the twentieth century. Although undateable, but we also now understand the previous research, Lisa Oestreicher, was samples taken from some of the woodwork phases of decoration and have a record of commissioned to establish the nature and at second-floor level included layers of the range of colours used on the exteriors. It the extent of any surviving paint decoration red-coloured paint, and some small areas is this collaborative working which builds our and to analyse paint layers which were found of colour remained on the timber of the knowledge and ensures that as we care for on the plasterwork of the exterior walls. north elevation. The research demonstrated these places, we are able to make confident Working from the tower scaffold, seven paint that that there had been numerous past and informed decisions which are based on samples were taken which were mounted interventions to repair areas of render, and evidence and professional analysis. in polyester resin and cross sections also confirmed that, because none of the Hopefully we also continue to have happy prepared. These were examined under high panels investigated contained reinforcing tenants in the building, and Axbridge is magnification and, once the sequence of hair or straw, they were relatively modern pleased to have both a smarter corner to the paint layers was established, micro chemical introductions. Market Square and to have the road fully tests were undertaken to identify pigments Kath had commissioned contractor Ken open again. and materials on key layers of strata. All Biggs Ltd which applied a new limewash. As If you’re in the area and would like the samples showed a number of layers of part of the work, some of the infill panels to see the museum – and our beautiful decoration and there was much to learn. were repaired and previous mastic repairs refurbishment – the museum website’s A sample taken from the first-floor gable replaced with lime mortar. As there was no provides details of opening hours, events showed a layer of white paint mixed with evidence of any hair in the render, confirmed and exhibitions: www.beewhizz.co.uk/KJHL/ broken black charcoal, followed by a phase by the paint analysis report, a natural WP/ – it’s the ideal time to visit as the team when this section was covered with orange hydraulic lime was used. The lime mortar celebrates 550 years of the building and 50 ochre limewash. Subsequent redecoration fillets to the verges were also repaired. years since the National Trust took on the returned the wall to white with two schemes ownership. Although run by the Museum of limewash which were again followed by Trust, National Trust members are welcomed orange ochre. Two phases of white limewash True team work with free admission. lay directly under the most recent white colour. Although what we would hope to This project epitomises how the different find is something of the original scheme, the professions within the National Trust work Acknowledgement earliest identified here employed ‘modern’ together to make the best use of every titanium-based paint, so Lisa was able to opportunity to include research in the work With thanks to Kath Campbell-Hards and conclude that the scheme post-dated 1920 that we do. Not only is King John’s Hunting Lisa Oestreicher from whose work this article and was probably applied in the middle of Lodge looking at its best after redecoration, is drawn.
A paint sample analysis has a number of Titanium white paint on broken purposes, most often titanium white undercoat to find the earliest scheme. Knowledge of paint composition history means that dating is sometimes Lightly broken white limewash x 2 possible. This sample was taken from an exterior panel. © National Trust/Lisa Oestreicher Orange ochre limewash
White limewash x 2
Lightly broken titanium white paint Orange ochre limewash Broken titanium white paint
Render
Co-operation and community Views 71 Community and public archaeology at Knole Nathalie Cohen, Archaeologist, London & South East
More like a town rather than a house ... courts Robert Sackville, and the first Conservation and building recording were undertaken and buildings, grey, red, plum colour, lay orderly Management Plan (CMP) for the property principally by MOLA, revision and updating and symmetrical ... here was a chapel, there was prepared by Oxford Archaeology in of the CMP by Oxford Archaeology, a belfry; spaces of the greenest grass lay in 2007. Two PhD projects by Alden Gregory dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) by Ian between and clumps of cedar trees and beds of and Edward Town (University of Sussex), Tyers, and surveying of historic graffiti by bright flowers… funded by the Arts & Humanities Research MJC Associates. Orlando, Virginia Woolf Council, examined the documentary and historical background during the periods of archiepiscopal and early Sackville ownership Sharing our discoveries Introduction and project background respectively. In 2011, the ‘Knole in Flux’ project began a two-year programme of Throughout these projects, we have run Set within 1,000 acres (404.6ha) of urgent repair works to the roofs of the south a community and public programme parkland, Knole was bought by Thomas and eastern ranges and the façade of the to encourage engagement with our Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, east front. Museum of London Archaeology archaeological work and discoveries. A range in 1456, expanded by his successors and (MOLA) recorded the structure exposed of activities has been delivered, including acquired by Henry VIII in 1538. In 1604, beneath the tiles and render, and produced courses, on-site fieldwork, tours, family after 66 years as a royal palace, it was the first measured survey of the show rooms events and lectures, with regular updates purchased by Thomas Sackville, Lord and new spaces that will be opened to the via social media, blogs, press releases and Treasurer under Elizabeth I and James I, and public in 2019. An oral history project, ‘Knole publications. further developed to create a sumptuously Stories’, was also initiated in 2011 to collect The early stages of the community decorated Jacobean great house, and one of an archive of past and present memories. and public archaeology programme were the largest stately homes in England. However, the most rapid advance in designed in response to the Knole in Flux Our knowledge of the archaeology our understanding has taken place since project and the repair work carried out in of Knole has grown enormously over 2013 when Knole was awarded £7.75 million 2011–13. Safe access to scaffolding and close the last ten years. In 2006, a consultant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a five- co-operation with on-site contractors (W.W. archaeologist examined the private year project, ‘Inspired by Knole’, to ‘repair Martin) allowed visitors to see the works in apartments during refurbishment for Lord and conserve the former Jacobean palace progress on scaffold tours led by members and share its heritage with visitors’. The of the project and property teams. Summer James Wright from MOLA recording in the roof. archaeological work comprised a number open days of the Private Garden gave an © National Trust/John Miller of different elements: excavation, survey opportunity for informal conversations with visitors to discuss the project, and a number of lectures and tours were presented to staff, volunteers and local archaeological societies. This period was used to pilot some of the training we intended to offer as part of the Inspired by Knole project and included graffiti studies, landscape archaeology and artefact identification. Inspired by Knole is, at the time of writing, the biggest conservation project in the Trust. In order to conserve Knole’s internationally significant collections, major work was necessary to the fabric and environment of the structures which house them. A conservation studio has been built within the medieval barn, and new spaces across the site will be opened to visitors. This ambitious project means that, for the first time, we are able to explore, record and better understand parts of the complex through detailed archaeological recording. The aim of the archaeological brief is threefold: to record and analyse those parts of the property affected by the
72 Views Co-operation and community A seventeenth-century letter discovered in the South Barracks. © National Trust/Nathalie Cohen
Below left: Volunteers at work peering under the floorboards in the Spangled Bedroom. © National Trust/Nathalie Cohen
archaeological research have been woven into narratives by volunteer guides. The learning team at Knole has embraced the archaeology by developing new modules in prehistory and commissioning the creation of replica stone tools for use in teaching sessions with schools and other groups. More widely, project research has informed the creation of a tactile handling collection by an archaeologist who specialises in textiles, using the textures and smells of the past. Presentation of the results of our work has been very popular with over 60 lectures to date both on and off site, to staff and volunteers, to local societies, museums and conferences, and a project lecture programme as part of wider events programming. Volunteers have been instrumental to these events, by welcoming visitors, providing refreshments and information, and collecting feedback and evaluation. The final strand of our outreach work has engaged families. As part of the Festival of Archaeology (run by the Council for British Archaeology) we have organised annual community events which have been broadly chronological since 2014, beginning with prehistory and concluding this year with the Great War. We have also contributed to Knole’s Family Mondays held during half- terms and holidays. To do this we work with current work programme; to engage staff, included three seventeenth-century letters, local archaeology societies and museums, visitors and volunteers with the archaeology a message in a bottle from 1906 and experimental archaeologists, musicians and of Knole; and to disseminate the results of numerous personal items such as cigarette entertainers amongst others to develop the archaeological work. Specific targets packets, hairpins, buttons and a cold cream various activities and displays, including and outcomes for community and public pot lid. Many finds relate to servicing and graffiti colouring-in sheets, built heritage archaeology were embedded within the HLF maintenance, such as nails, tools, wiring timelines, artefact handling, flint-knapping Activity Plan, building on activities during and cabling, others to items dropped by and woodworking. Again, the volunteers and the earlier project. visitors such as stamps, tickets, guidebooks, property team have been heavily involved in Our five-day Archaeology Unwrapped pencil stubs and sweet wrappers. Animal these events. training for volunteers has run annually since and bird activity has been found in the form 2014. The course covers: graffiti surveys, of nests and skeletonised and mummified landscape archaeology, geophysics, digital remains, and the fragmentary remains of The future? recording techniques, building recording, textiles and furniture have been recorded in finds identification, retrieval, processing and many spaces. Some of the smallest artefacts Inspired by Knole has been a high-profile cataloguing, to which this year we added found were the hundreds of gold and silver project, and archaeological stories have an introduction to excavation methods. spangles painstakingly retrieved from received national and international press More than 80 attendees have taken part, beneath the floorboards of the Spangled coverage – we even featured as the ‘lead recruited from existing Knole volunteers and Bedroom. We’re delighted to have developed property’ in the first episode of Channel more widely from local communities, with a collaborative working relationship with our 5’s Secrets of the National Trust in 2017. sessions delivered by myself and colleagues building contractors HB&C who have helped Looking beyond our boundaries, we from the Trust and from universities and us uncover new discoveries. have been working with many partners archaeological consultancies. The volunteer team has been actively and researchers to learn more about the Since 2016, the Archaeology Volunteer engaged in the programme of walks and history and prehistory of the surrounding Team has been actively involved in tours, both in the house, the Private Garden landscape, including Sevenoaks Museum, undertaking finds retrieval of thousands and wider park. Over 50 behind-the-scenes York University and Northwestern University of artefacts revealed during the removal tours have been supported or led by (USA). So what does the future hold for of floorboards and panelling. These have volunteer archaeologists, while stories from archaeology at Knole?
Co-operation and community Views 73 We plan to store finds from the project on The stories from discoveries made during landscape, are dependent on the property’s site in a dedicated space, and these will be the archaeological project will become priorities in the future, as Knole moves on catalogued on the Collections Management part of the information delivered by room from the intensity of delivering such a huge System and eventually through the public- guides, and it is hoped that the lectures and conservation project towards routine daily facing National Trust Collections. There is other events can continue into the future. operations. It is hoped that we can continue also the potential for visitor engagement Volunteer recruitment and retention has to build on the volunteers’ enormous with the material, as well as research remained largely consistent, and we have enthusiasm for, and the public’s appetite for projects on specific types of artefacts. a highly dedicated and motivated group. more information about, Knole’s history and Artefacts discovered during repairs and However, more active archaeological archaeology with a sustainable programme excavations are already displayed in the engagement for them in terms of training of opportunities and engagement for the newly refurbished visitor centre, and more and fieldwork opportunities, such as widest possible audience. are planned to go on show in the future. research excavations in the parkland
Participatory design and social impact at Rainham Hall Sally James, Creative Programme Manager, Rainham Hall, London
n 2014 we appointed an external evaluator, work in terms of both the quantitative must achieve the HLF’s outcomes for people Anne Millman Associates, on a three-year outcomes and the qualitative impact. and communities, while aligning with our Icontract to produce a report about our Anne Millman worked with us to establish ambition to be ‘for ever, for everyone’. Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) supported evaluation methodologies, to train volunteers The report demonstrated that our engagement and participatory design on how to gather feedback and data, and she inclusive participatory design approach project work. Nearly three years on from conducted interviews with stakeholders. A has a number of benefits for both local the opening of Rainham Hall, now is a good HLF activity plan is a document submitted audiences and the Trust. They include moment to reflect on the lessons and legacy at the second-round application stage changing perceptions of Trust properties, of our ‘for everyone’ inspired approach. which, as the funder describes, should improving the authenticity of Rainham Hall’s Our evaluation report, submitted last year ‘set out everything you want to do in your presentation, engaging with new audiences, as part of our final successful claim to the project that is not capital works to engage allowing people to feel closer to the hall and HLF, reviewed our activity plan participation people’. The objectives of these activities its stories, enabling our local community to
74 Views Co-operation and community Above: The After School Gardeners getting ready this type of working is absolutely crucial. National Citizenship Service Schemes (of to plant up a new area. Many local children don’t Understanding your local demographics which up to 80% of every cohort placed so have gardens at home, so when they come to us, gardening is a whole new world – leading and how these are set to change is very far have been from BAME backgrounds). to amazement, apprehension and ultimately important too. We’re working hard to ‘For everyone’ is expressed so clearly in excitement. © National Trust/Jesse Lock increase awareness of the Trust in Rainham, the community gardens, as there is no pay Opposite: Through participatory design we aim and it’s important for our team to be barrier and the space offers exactly the sort to change people’s perceptions of the Trust, adaptive and responsive to the changing of ‘open-air sitting room’ for Londoners that and enable them to feel closer to the hall and its population and urban context. Octavia Hill envisioned. stories. © National Trust Images/James Dobson
Community gardens for all The future of participation at share and shape memories, and providing Rainham Hall a venue for local people to see their own The legacy of our participatory work is not work on display. Skills development was a only embedded in our way of working in the As pioneers of participatory practice, we key part of our project, and indeed is the hall (now at least 60% of exhibits in every often look towards the future and ask what ambition for any major HLF-funded project. exhibition will be co-created or co-curated), success will look like. What if every visitor Our evaluation report showed the myriad but it is the golden thread running through to Rainham Hall is actually a participant benefits for communities stemming from everything we do – from our gardens to who shapes their own experience and gets organisations like the Trust investing in this our café and outreach work. Instead of involved? What if we focused less on visitor type of work. Our local partners benefited appointing a head gardener to oversee numbers and more on outreach numbers? by developing a sense of teamwork, by our nearly three acres of green space, we Does success in the Community Gardens being taking out of their comfort zones, by opted to create the Trust’s first and only long term look like an urban green space learning about the hall and local area, by community gardener role. Rather than us cared for exclusively by local people and only working with archival sources, by working on serving as the ‘protectors’ of this urban supported by the Trust? a project from start to finish, and by seeing oasis, our mission is to get as many people their achievements publicised in the media. involved in helping to care for and shape To find out more about Rainham Hall or to Perhaps the most useful part of our the gardens as possible. Our community request a copy of our HLF evaluation report, evaluation report highlighted lessons gardener, Jesse Lock, matches each garden please email: rainhamhall@nationaltrust. learnt and challenges encountered along project or area with a different community org.uk the way. Working in partnership with local group, whether that’s police cadets or audiences takes time, and to work in a local charities for vulnerable adults such Reference truly collaborative way, conversations and as Treetops, or Havering Out and About 1 James, Sally, ‘Rainham Hall – opening a consultation need to start early on and then which places individuals with additional National Trust property in an urban and industrial landscape’, Views, Issue 53 (National continue throughout a project; managing learning needs in voluntary placements, or Trust, 2016); pp. 36–8. expectations and ensuring the legacy of young people volunteering through various
Co-operation and community Views 75 Engaging new audiences at Tredegar House Philip Wilson, Community Engagement Officer
Prior to the work, the old laundry building was in a neglected, semi-derelict state. Its position next to the community food- growing area made it a prime site to become a useful new space for groups. © National Trust/Dimitris Legakis
n a 50-year lease from Newport to establish a beneficial relationship between Following extensive consultation, it was City Council and situated in one the Trust and those living on the nearby established there was a need for residents Oof the poorest neighbourhoods in Duffryn estate. One of the most successful to have a space in which they could develop Wales, Tredegar House is in an exceptional ventures has been the leasing of a plot of personal and professional skills to get them position within the National Trust with land adjacent to a disused laundry building. back on the path to employment, and this is regard to community engagement: it is This land has been transformed into a just what we have set out to achieve. When rare for a traditional Trust mansion to have thriving community allotment, helping to the building officially opens in January 2019, a modern estate so close to its borders develop an affinity with the Trust’s cause at the plan is that it will host healthy eating or to be working so closely with the local a very local level, while providing a tangible classes, food hygiene courses, support authority; both provide us with a wonderful benefit to community members. meetings addressing local social needs opportunity to deepen the connection We are now taking the next step in and act as a hub for other education and between the house and its local community. cementing that relationship. community interests. Ten months into the works, the old building now has a new mess space, an Reaching new audiences Improving facilities accessible kitchen area, accessible toilets and offices to ensure the project’s economic One of the finest examples of a Restoration- The food-growing area used by the sustainability. era mansion, with early seventeenth-century community allotmenteers for the past The project has also included gardens, the Trust took on Tredegar House five years has proved a powerful vehicle developments to the outdoor spaces. The six years ago. It is working in partnership for engaging Duffryn residents. It has old allotment area has been extended with the local council to conserve and provided a non-threatening environment and improved to support individuals and restore the building and grounds. The Trust to nurture a culture of shared learning groups with a range of disabilities and has few built properties in south-east Wales, and support. Already seen by community social issues. There are now three separate and Tredegar House gives it a chance to workers and service users as neutral ground, areas: a sensory garden for those with visual reach out to new audiences and become it felt appropriate for us to explore what impairments carefully planted with scented more visible in the area. opportunities the neighbouring derelict and tactile plants; an area with raised beds Over the years, much work has been done building could bring. allowing wheelchair users to enjoy the
76 Views Co-operation and community A small fire had damaged the interior. © National Trust/ Dimitris Legakis
Below: The team welcomed Lord Elis- Thomas (second left), Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport, National Assembly for Wales, who was given a tour of the site in May 2018. © National Trust/Aled Llewelyn
Securing public support
With the outdoor spaces fully funded, we applied for a Welsh Government Community Facilities Programme Grant in order to cover the costs of the building work. A successful application resulted in a £447,134 grant from the Department of Culture, Tourism and Sport, which was match-funded by the Trust. During the initial stages of the build, Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport, visited the site to gain a deeper understanding of how the building would provide a useful space for the Duffryn community to socialise and learn new skills.
Sharing our stories
We didn’t want to keep the project entirely benefits of cultivating plants and being organisations including Growing Space, separate from our day-to-day business so it outdoors; and an area of tranquillity that will Keep Wales Tidy and the Duffryn Community was important for us to bring the story of appeal to those with mental health issues Link as part of their BIG Lottery Create Your the Morgan family to the restored building. such as autism and provide a quiet area for Space funding bid. The development of the Besides delivering a quality, accessible space, reflection and contemplation for all. community allotments and adjacent outdoor interpretation informs users about the spaces fits in with the grant’s conditions to estate’s past, while the design embraces the support communities in developing their property’s spirit of place and is sympathetic Maximising resources natural environment. to the Morgan family’s ownership when the Working as part of a wider partnership property was self-sustaining. With a £10 million backlog in conservation project has not only allowed us to secure Similarly, it was important for visitors to works at Tredegar House, finding the £20,000 of funding which wouldn’t have appreciate both the historic and current use resource for such projects can be a struggle. been possible on our own, it has also of the building and surrounding grounds. As such, we had to be clever in our approach, helped build on our already good working While the building itself will remain closed to and the decision was made to separate relationships with community organisations the wider public, the gardens and allotments the building and outdoor works into two which could benefit from the renovations to will be opened up on advertised days separate projects. In doing so we were the laundry building itself. with a view to increasing repeat visits and able to join forces with a number of local improving visitor enjoyment.
Co-operation and community Views 77 Seeing things differently at the Roundhouse Birmingham Chris Maher, Creative Producer, Roundhouse Birmingham
The aerial view of the Roundhouse shows how close it is to the canals and transport network and the amount of redevelopment all around it. © Roundhouse Birmingham
Below: The Roundhouse (not quite) Open Day attracted over 400 mainly local people. © Roundhouse Birmingham
he Grade II* listed Roundhouse new charity, Roundhouse Birmingham, will is a curious survivor in many develop activities and direct operations Tways. Nestled amongst 20-plus on the site on behalf of our parent years of almost continuous canal-side organisations. redevelopment, and located only 100 yards The plan is for Roundhouse Birmingham from the Birmingham Arena, one of the city’s to garner income through a mix of lettable biggest and busiest venues, the building office, retail and café spaces, and, most has nonetheless remained slightly hidden, a excitingly, by devising a programme of city distinctive but peripheral presence on the experiences based around six-monthly city’s waterways. programming themes. We want to take Built in 1874, the Roundhouse was people into urban spaces by foot, by bike a public works depot for Birmingham and by water, celebrating and exploring Corporation, playing a very practical part the hidden histories of the Roundhouse in Joseph Chamberlain’s series of public- and the city, while creating a self-sustaining works improvements in the late nineteenth After the final horses were sold in the operation that will safeguard this unique century.1 Located on a canal-side wharf 1950s, the building continued to be used for piece of industrial architecture. and with immediate access to road and a variety of purposes. Among other uses, rail, the site contained stables for up to 43 it has been a storage depot for the city’s working horses and was home to the Lamp Shakespeare Collection, a bric-à-brac store Building a community around us and Pavement Department. Eventually, and, until very recently, a nursery. Over time, all manner of craftsmen and professionals however, the building was used less and less, One of the key challenges of the project is worked here, including veterinarians, farriers and fell into disrepair. to develop a meaningful relationship with and wheelwrights. The Roundhouse’s Thanks to a joint venture between the our neighbours. The Roundhouse is located distinctive curved shape almost certainly Canal & River Trust and the National Trust, within Ladywood, a city-centre ward of nods toward a horseshoe, but on a more the Roundhouse will soon be renovated and extreme socio-economic contrasts. practical level, the large, round courtyard given a new purpose. This has been made Within a half-mile radius, residents may also have helped to circulate horses, possible by a £2.5 million enterprise grant range from affluent city dwellers to families carts and goods in and out of the site. from the Heritage Lottery Fund. A brand living in extreme deprivation. Key so far
78 Views Co-operation and community has been to plan a proposition that will sometimes complex but enviable position Before work begins on the buildings, benefit local people, including volunteer of being able to consult experts across we’ll be running a range of activities, from and training opportunities, paid internships two huge and experienced organisations, towpath bioblitzes, to a new heritage- and a programme with young people from working out which processes and in-the-pub series called ‘Conservation the area to become part of developing our approaches we will eventually adopt. It’s an Conversations’. The hope is to find new interpretation. exceptional if complicated process at times, voices and stories, and to be innovative in But this is not an overnight thing. As a but one which we’re very much enjoying how we convey them, enabling people to new addition to the area, with a relatively getting to grips with. view our city a little differently. Volunteer new team, those working on the Roundhouse The pioneering partnership to revive the opportunities will be created from this ready Birmingham project have had to work hard Roundhouse aims to safeguard the future to go live in the autumn. At the end of this to quickly build relationships and understand of this beautiful building and is part of a summer, we hope to hand over the site to the drives and needs of local people, in order wider programme of work we’re delivering our contractors to begin renovation works, to offer relevant opportunities to become in Birmingham. We want to become more while we continue testing and developing involved in our work. In the coming months, involved in facilitating access to urban our approach. We will bolster an already our team will attend community open green spaces and our collective heritage comprehensive research project further to days, run a range of workshops focusing on – something which, of course, chimes flesh out our thematic approach. hyper-local marketing, and will volunteer with the aspirations of the founders of the There are a lot of exciting, but admittedly, at community celebrations. All part of the National Trust. slightly nerve-wracking plates to spin, as process of saying hello! The successes of our colleagues at the we develop a new visitor and community For now, our audience is everyone, Back to Backs (only a 20-minute walk away) engagement proposition while taking a but our location in the centre of the UK’s and the GAP (a youth arts project) within the fledgling business from project phase to second largest city gives us the potential city have provided our team with an array day-to-day operations. We have created and to reach people who might ordinarily find of insights into building a thriving visitor launched a brand that we hope will become a historic or natural places in the countryside attraction, alongside running meaningful recognisable fixture in the life of the city, and inaccessible or simply not relatable. community projects and an amazing are continually defining new partnerships In particular, we aim to create new volunteering operation. across the community, commercial and relationships with the city’s waterways, For the Canal & River Trust, there are creative sectors. whether through heritage-based kayaking obvious benefits in terms of creating a You can follow our project’s progress tours or wildlife-themed towpath walks. In waterside heritage hub in Birmingham, the on our website www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ terms of access to local heritage, the stories heart of the nation’s canal network. Our roundhouse-birmingham or, better still, call of the people who lived and worked in active outdoors work based around the in and see what’s happening for yourself! industrial buildings like the Roundhouse and canals relates directly to their new health on Birmingham’s canal network have so far and well-being strategy, encapsulated in the Reference proved prove highly relatable and evocative. mantra ‘Life is better by water’. 1. Joseph Chamberlain MP was a radical To date, the reaction has been excellent: More broadly, this project is an evolving reformer and political heavyweight of the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. He was our recent open day offering project updates case study in how to work in partnership at also mayor of Birmingham, doing much to and taster tours attracted 400 people. all levels of a new heritage business in a city improve health and living conditions through Our volunteer research team have literally context, which we are continually evaluating. public works. re-written the accepted history of the Could this model be replicated to save and building in partnership with local history care for places across the country? groups. We have involved scores of local community groups in our activity testing and market research, and we head toward 2019 with a range of partnerships in place to deliver everything from our pilot learning programme with three neighbouring primary schools, to pre-show walking tours with Birmingham Hippodrome.
The partnership
It’s perhaps fair to say that, on a practical level, the project is an exploration of a new kind of partnership working for both the Canal & River Trust and the National Trust. As employees of Roundhouse Birmingham – and new to both Trusts – Simon, our Operations Manager, and I have the
Embodying the idea that ‘life is better by water’, our kayaking tours offer a different outlook on the city’s heritage and a new experience for many. © Roundhouse Birmingham
Co-operation and community Views 79 Illuminating the experience
Opening to a lifelong love of heritage Annie Reilly, Heritage Open Days National Manager
eritage Open Days is the UK’s largest visitors and added £10 million to local Days (Open Doors in Wales and European festival of history and culture. economies. Heritage Open Days is a powerful Heritage Open Days in Northern Ireland). HEvery September sees thousands of tool for engagement, social cohesion and a Based upon the longstanding La Journée places across England open for free. From catalyst for civic and community action. It’s Portes Ouvertes in France, this family of cathedrals, castles and nature reserves also great fun! What other festival allows you 50 equivalent programmes across the to microbreweries, private homes and to experience an escape room in the oldest Continent was launched in 1991 as a joint recycling plants, Heritage Open Days is a pub in England, visit the IBM headquarters action of the Council of Europe and the unique snapshot of twenty-first-century and archive, learn about the history of European Commission under the motto Britain. Doors – actual and metaphorical cider (with tasting) and have a go at making ‘Europe: a common heritage’. – are opened. A dizzying array of walks, medieval tiles, all in the same town? Previously run in England by the Civic tours, events, performances and one-off Trust, Heritage Alliance and English happenings make the festival a treasure Heritage, the festival has been led by the trove of compelling, unique and inspiring From European roots National Trust since 2011. Our small central opportunities. Our 5,500 events are run by team provides a range of support to our 2,100 organisers with the help of 46,000 Begun in 1994, Heritage Open Days is thousands of participants. We offer local volunteers. In 2017, we attracted 2.5 million England’s version of European Heritage and national PR, marketing materials, social media coverage and training (online and in person) on everything from how to write a risk assessment to running an open mic event. From 701 events in 1994 to over 5,000 last year, Heritage Open Days has grown into a festival of local and national significance. It is a nationwide moment of local action, a unique pause in the year when communities across the country look up, look out and explore, connecting through places, stories and history.
Crowdsourced
Heritage Open Days was originally very much about opening up the built environment, giving access to buildings, both public and private. That’s still a key component of the festival, with many town halls, council chambers and mayor’s parlours welcoming visitors. But it has evolved to be much more than that. Fundamental to its ethos is the fact that we do not define ‘heritage’. We
Cocktail making at the Botanist in Knutsford, Cheshire. © Heritage Open Days/National Trust Images/Chris Lacey
80 Views Illuminating the experience don’t require any place or event to pass a Excitingly, the benefits are not limited By embracing a people-centred approach test of significance to be included. We listen to visitors; 75% of our volunteers feel more to history and curation, Heritage Open to our organisers and enable them to share likely to volunteer in the future as a result of Days, the Trust’s single largest participatory their local history, their place, what matters their experience. We know that organising event, is a powerful tool for fostering in their town. We are a festival of citizen Heritage Open Days is a springboard for engagement with, and care for, places heritage, defined, determined and curated further civic action, with Heritage Networks, around us. We are delivering results for by local communities. town museums and week-long festivals places and communities through people. We forming as a result. As an organiser put are delivering public benefit by empowering it: ‘the outcomes from this year have far people across the nation to define, celebrate Diversity of people, diversity of events exceeded our expectations with many new and share the stories and places that make projects and partners now on the horizon.’ us who we are. Our organisers encompass cultural and heritage professionals and council officers as well as ‘friends’ supporter groups, civic societies and committed individuals. They are united by a passionate belief in the power of heritage and culture with a capacity for innovation and outreach that never ceases to amaze and surprise us. They embrace the opportunity to showcase assets, stories and places that are normally hidden. In 2017, for the first time ever, the archive of legendary tailors Gieves & Hawkes was opened to the public, while Petworth House invited visitors into the usually closed Old Library which served as a studio for J. M. W. Turner. Likewise, our organisers enthusiastically expand conventional perceptions of heritage and history. Some open nature reserves, boat lifts, tunnels and even a police treatment centre. Others hold cocktail masterclasses, pop-up dance workshops and spoken word events, organising a range of revelatory and niche tours (of the drains of Sheffield, for example) along with hundreds of family-friendly events. The great joy of Heritage Open Days is the unexpected: surprising histories, places and insights that redefine how we view and connect with the places and people around us. We are a platform for stories that may be overlooked by conventional histories and may sit outside mainstream cultural institutions. As one visitor said, ‘I live in the village, but did not realise this treasure was on my doorstep.’ Collectively, our organisers form a movement who curate and celebrate our local heritage, expanding our understanding of our past, present and future.
And it works…
This openness and innovation ensures that Heritage Open Days engages audiences, with over one-third of visitors making no other heritage visits in the year and 83% saying they feel more likely to visit in the future. It also benefits communities, with 92% of visitors feeling more pride in their local area Top: Visitors interact with First World War Above: Visitors explore the mysterious Williamson reenactors at Park Hall Farm near Oswestry, Tunnels underneath the streets of Liverpool. after visiting Heritage Open Days and 83% Shropshire. © Heritage Open Days/National © Heritage Open Days/National Trust Images/ feeling more a part of their local community. Trust Images/Chris Lacey Chris Lacey
Illuminating the experience Views 81 The Jewish Country Houses initiative: telling a new story Abigail Green, Professor, Oxford University
hat do the homes of Benjamin House, which houses the wonderful art Waddesdon and the Bearsteds of Upton Disraeli and Leonard Woolf have collection of Lord Bearsted, and Nymans in – lived rather differently in the Vale of Win common? At first glance, not Sussex, purchased by the German-Jewish Aylesbury and rural Warwickshire. Here much. Disraeli’s Hughenden Manor is a immigrant Ludwig Messel, who converted hunting, not business or synagogue grand, neo-Gothic pile that provided an to Unitarianism but did not lose touch with attendance, was the fulcrum of their social essential backdrop to the career of one of his Jewish family in England, Germany and world. Indeed, the enthusiasm with which this country’s most distinguished prime America. Even Strawberry Hill House – all these individuals embraced the English ministers, while Woolf’s home, Monk’s surely one of the most individualistic of all countryside – their love of gardening, their House, is a modest rural retreat associated English country houses – turns out to have commitment to village life, their generous with the avant garde Bloomsbury set. And Jewish connections. Most people associate contributions to local causes and even to the yet these properties do have something in Strawberry Hill with Horace Walpole, but upkeep of the parish church – is striking. common, because both have a Jewish story it was owned and developed by Frances, Yet thinking about Jewishness adds depth to tell. Countess of Waldegrave, the charming and to our understanding of these properties How can we tell these stories in a way charismatic daughter of a celebrated Jewish and their owners. At first glance, Disraeli and that highlights the diversity of our national opera singer, before passing into the hands Lady Waldegrave were perfectly integrated heritage while remaining sensitive to the of the very wealthy and cosmopolitan Sterns, into Victorian society as members of the fact that individuals like Disraeli and Woolf typical members of the European Jewish Church of England, but contemporaries often chose to downplay – or even reject – banking elite. Who knew? persisted in viewing both of them as ‘Jewish’. their Jewishness? Both had Jewish stories, One aim of the Jewish Country In their different ways, each embraced but perhaps it is going too far to describe Houses initiative is simply to uncover this label: Disraeli through his novels and Hughenden or Monk’s House as ‘Jewish these stories and help both curators and political persona, and Lady Waldegrave country houses’. visitors understand them better. This is through the paintings she commissioned of This problem lies at the heart of a not straightforward because often these Jerusalem and Masada. Antisemitism was an project being developed in partnership properties have very little that relates inevitable feature of the Jewish experience, with the University of Oxford, through the directly to the Jewish stories of their owners. never more so than in the interwar years framework of its Knowledge-Exchange This could be because, like Disraeli, Messel when Jews in Britain watched with horror the Fellowship scheme. As it turns out, quite and Woolf, they had largely broken with fate of their coreligionists on the Continent, a number of National Trust properties their Jewish origins through conversion, and did what they could to support them have Jewish stories to tell. These include intermarriage and assimilation. Or it could – giving generously to help refugees build Waddesdon Manor, home to the Austrian- be because families who led very Jewish new lives, and throwing themselves behind born Ferdinand de Rothschild, MP, Upton lives in London – like the Rothschilds of the Kindertransport initiative, in which Lord Bearsted played a leading role. Some, like the Messel family or Maud Russell (née Nelke) of Mottisfont Abbey, were Christians who helped Jewish relatives still living in Germany flee to safety in England. This year, for the first time, Trust properties and other country houses with Jewish stories will be participating in the European Days of Jewish Culture in September 2018. It is a way of flagging the Jewish stories associated with these properties, without simply labelling them ‘Jewish’. This year’s theme is storytelling so Hughenden will put on a special exhibition devoted to Disraeli’s ‘otherness’; Monk’s House will be offering readings from Woolf’s works; Nymans is displaying a family
A print from The Illustrated London News, 30 April 1881, showing Disraeli in his Library (now the Drawing Room) at Hughenden Manor. Many of the items depicted remain in the room. © National Trust/Thomas Boggis
82 Views footer bracelet given by the English branch of the Austrian, Italian and even Caribbean, Jewish light on their properties: the family ties Messel family to their German relatives experiences. Plans are now afoot to develop that linked the Sterns at Strawberry Hill which returned to England when they fled a European network of Jewish country with the Salomons family of Broomhill the Nazi regime; Strawberry Hill is running houses involving properties like Villa Kerylos Cottage (another Jewish country house activities inspired by Lady Waldegrave and Schloss Freienwalde, with the support open to visitors); the private archive full of and the Sterns; Upton will be displaying of the Association Européene pour la photographs of Messel’s Seligman relatives. objects from its collection that speak to the Préservation du Patrimoine Juif (AEPJ) which For the historians at Oxford, the project has Jewishness of the family; and Waddesdon runs the European Days of Jewish Culture illuminated the international nature of the has arranged a storytelling that connects and European Routes of Jewish Heritage. European Jewish elite, and the ways in which the Rothschild myth to Jewish folklore Knowledge-Exchange often seems like this influenced different national cultures. and culture. Volunteers working in most of an empty buzz-word, but in this case it And, of course, we are always looking for these properties will receive special training feels completely appropriate. Curators more Jewish country houses. We suspect this designed to enhance their understanding of and heritage professionals have uncovered is only the tip of the iceberg. Perhaps you Jewish heritage, history and identity, and to unexpected connections that shed new too have a Jewish story to tell? increase their confidence in speaking about these issues to visitors. We hope that next year we will be able to continue this aspect of the programme to cover all the Jewish country houses we have so far identified. One of the most exciting aspects of this project is the way in which it sets these properties in a properly European context, drawing on a conception of the country house that is rooted not in Englishness but in pan-European relationships. This dimension was to the fore at a major Knowledge- Exchange conference held at the University of Oxford in March 2018, which exposed Trust curators and other museum and heritage professionals to the latest research in this area – and provided scholars working on Jewish country houses with a new, interdisciplinary perspective on their work. Many speakers did discuss British houses and subjects, but there were plenty of contributions that spoke to French, German,
Above: Monk’s House, a modest cottage, was the much-loved home of Leonard Woolf. © National Trust Images
Left: Ludwig Messel with three of his daughters boating on the lake at Nymans, where he created a garden of international horticultural excellence. © National Trust Archive
footer Views 83 Looking into pictures: narrative, allegory and allusion Christopher Beharrell, former Historic Buildings Representative, in collaboration with Christine Sitwell, Paintings Conservation Adviser
art of the pleasure of looking at collection of Western art on show to the The nature of ‘a country house collection’ pictures is that we can read into public in the UK – larger even than the is, almost by definition, eclectic, as is its Pthem something of our own private National Gallery – representing every display: with a few exceptions, its pictures observations, but there is a world of subject, style and period, at least until the are not arranged by date and period like difference between lookingat and looking twentieth century. But how often do visitors those in a public gallery, nor do they have into pictures. On one level we can admire shuffle past pictures with the merest glance? neat descriptive labels alongside them. So, the virtuosity of the artist, the skill of The guidebook may give the basic facts, how does a mildly curious visitor find out applying the paint, but beyond that it is and a folder of room notes some additional more and thereby add to the interest of a both instructive and entertaining to know information; a portrait or a subject relevant visit? ‘what is going on’ (the narrative) and ‘what to the history of the house or its owners may does it mean’ (the hidden subject matter or warrant further remarks, and a particularly iconography). famous painting will sometimes get fuller Understanding what you see The National Trust has the largest treatment. The subject itself is the starting point for looking into pictures. In history painting, a knowledge of classical mythology and the Bible is needed in order to appreciate the subject matter. If you do not know that Jupiter seduced Io disguised in a black cloud or that Venus, the wife of Vulcan, had an affair with Mars, you will not understand the depictions of them at Kedleston and Dunham Massey. Sebastiano del Piombo’s great unfinishedThe Judgement of Solomon in Kingston Lacy will mean little if you do not know the biblical story of King Solomon determining the true mother of a disputed baby. The lives and deaths of the saints, especially their martyrdoms, were perennially popular with artists and patrons. Taking typical examples in Trust collections, many may know that St Peter holds the keys to Heaven and that St Jerome is always shown with the companionable lion from whose paw he had extracted a thorn (an interesting example of how Christian stories borrowed from classical precedent, the association here being Androcles and the Lion) but how many are familiar with the
On display in Kingston Lacy, Sebastiano del Piombo’s The Judgement of Solomon (unfinished) tells the story of two women claiming the same child: Solomon suggests they have half each, to which one woman agreed but the other said she would rather give up her child than have him die. Solomon thereby knew who was the true mother. © National Trust Images/Derek Witty
Love Among the Ruins by Sir Edward Coley Burne- Jones at Wightwick Manor. The title is taken from a Robert Browning poem although it is not a direct illustration as the interpretation alludes to the triumph of love over material wealth. © National Trust Images/Derek Witty
84 Views Illuminating the experience story of St Sebastian and why he would be in Arthurian and other Celtic legends, Genre painting – pictures of everyday life shown shot with arrows, or the symbols Shakespeare and the English Romantic – are ubiquitous in the Trust’s collections. associated with St Catherine of Alexandria poets. The best are from the Dutch seventeenth- (wheel and sword)? In many representations, A basic knowledge of classical sculpture century tradition, the so-called Golden the palm frond or wreath is bestowed from (mostly known through Roman copies of Age of Dutch painting, especially domestic Heaven during the act of martyrdom, the lost Greek originals) adds to the enjoyment interior scenes by such artists as Steen, palm being the traditional symbol of victory of much history painting in understanding van Mieris, Metsu, de Hooch and ter in Roman times, again adopted in Christian the composition of the figures, singly or Borch. These appear disarmingly simple iconography. in groups. The Medici Venus, the Discus and seductive in their use of cool light and Thrower and the Apollo Belvedere, to name air of calm serenity combined with great a few famous examples, have been used by attention to detail and texture. Samuel Allusions in fashion artists from the Renaissance to the present van Hoogstraten’s A View through a House day for the posture of figures, adapted at Dyrham Park (admired by Samuel Pepys The origins of many Pre-Raphaelite and filtered through different periods when he viewed it in London) could be seen narrative subjects can be notoriously of art. The excavation of the Laocoön as an exercise in spatial illusion but there is obscure, being buried in arcane Romantic Sculpture (showing the Trojan soothsayer more to it. As the eye is led into the painting, literature, although often filtered through and his sons strangled by a sea serpent) in we see some typical period details: a spaniel, more accessible poetry; for example, the Rome in 1506 had a profound influence on a broom, a birdcage, some backstools. But secondary source of Love Among the Ruins, High Renaissance and especially Baroque there is also the suggestion of a narrative: a Burne-Jones’s great painting at Wightwick artists, who were enthralled by its writhing letter dropped at the foot of the stairs, the Manor, is a Robert Browning poem. The movement and use of contrapposto, i.e. the parrot perched on the edge of an open cage, allegories that are central to much Pre- weight more on one leg than the other, to perhaps alluding to the people glimpsed Raphaelite painting can often be found give a more dynamic stance. behind a lattice window in the middle
A painting to be The 3rd Earl of Bristol, admired on many Commodore the Hon. levels, A View through Augustus Hervey, by a House by Samuel Thomas Gainsborough van Hoogstraten at at Ickworth: painted Dyrham Park, may not long after the 3rd Earl’s be merely a simple naval career was over, domestic interior but the setting – ships, fire, allude to a human Spanish flag – tells the story. © National story of his greatest Trust Images/John victory. © National Hammond Trust Images/John Hammond
Illuminating the experience Views 85 Detail from A Still Life of Flowers and Fruit Arranged on a Stone Plinth in a Garden by Cornelis de Heem at Dryham Park is a profusion of exotic flowers but in their midst are a slug, a snail, an over-ripe melon and the creeping tendrils of wild flowers, all indicative of the transience of life. © National Trust Images/John Hammond
distance. The parrot was a valued bird in and encroaching weeds are symbols of the legged pose, with hand on hip, exuding seventeenth-century Dutch society, exotic, fragility of life. confidence and insouciance, a pose repeated rare and expensive. The African grey seen The preponderance of portraits in time and again in eighteenth-century here was especially prized for its intelligence country-house collections is no coincidence: portraiture, but derives from Van Dyck over and mimicry. It also represented fidelity but portraiture was the staple commodity of a century earlier. when freed it stood for sexual licence. In the artists in Britain, and dynastic succession painting it seems to be poised significantly often ensured a continuous sequence of between the two extremes. Such innuendo is family portraits. From the late seventeenth Sharing the full story typical of many Dutch interior scenes. century the full-length portrait gave Another theme in northern genre painting the greatest scope for displaying the When a painting from a Trust collection is the tavern interior, well-represented in achievements or aspirations of the sitter, is lent for exhibition it is, of course, Trust collections in which the consequences at home with his estate in the background sumptuously catalogued, but back in its of drunken, idle and licentious behaviour or perhaps in Rome with a background of own home the scholarly detail is not readily are often alluded to by various motifs such classical architecture, and surrounded by accessible to the casual visitor. What is as broken crockery, spilt drink, a cane or the accoutrements of scholarly learning and needed is extended information on the a moral text tucked away in a corner. The artistic connoisseurship. Another type of pictures, room by room, in an audio-guide common, and not-so-common symbols of setting appears in Gainsborough’s portrait or, for those who don’t like being wired mortality (memento mori) – the skull, the of Commodore Hervey. He is shown not on up, a succinct companion guide in which hourglass and the snuffed-out candle – his estate at Ickworth, but retrospectively the iconography of paintings is discussed, appear in so-called ‘Vanitas’ pictures, which in a maritime setting with his command, together with cross-references to the same moralise on the theme of human vanity. the Dragon, at anchor. He himself leans subjects and artists in the Trust’s collections. Even a seemingly straightforward still life with studied nonchalance on an enormous Art is, or should be, ‘for everyone’ not just of a vase of flowers or a table of food may be anchor across which is draped the Spanish for art historians, but ‘there is no reality crammed with allusions and allegories. Many ensign – an allusion to his role in the defeat without interpretation’ (E H Gombrich, Art types of fruit and flowers, birds, animals of the Spanish at Havana during the Seven and Illusion, 1960). and insects are symbolic of virtues or vices. Years War – and in his left hand is a naval Decaying or overripe fruit, creeping slugs telescope. He adopts the standard cross-
86 Views Illuminating the experience LGBTQ heritage and its contemporary relevance Tom Butler, Creative Producer, Julie Howell, Experience Designer, and Richard Sandell, Professor of Museum Studies, University of Leicester
n late September 2017, John Orna- Between September and November 2017, evoke strong emotional responses in visitors. Ornstein, Director of Curation and Exile at Kingston Lacy drew attention to the Our approach to telling this story in a new way IExperience at the National Trust, received story of William John Bankes. A Member began with a process of emotional mapping, a letter from a couple who had recently of Parliament, collector and talented understanding the potential feelings and visited Kingston Lacy in Dorset. Prompted draughtsman, he had inherited Kingston responses of visitors as they moved through to write by their experience of visiting ‘Exile’ Lacy in 1834 and set about making dramatic the house. Our eventual design response – an installation that we had conceived, changes to his home. spanned the entire house, with three researched and designed with colleagues Just seven years later he was caught distinct installations linked by a series of (Anna Lincoln, Lea Nagano and James with a soldier in ‘an indecent act’. It was new interpretive panels. The experience Jones), Trust staff and volunteers to explore the second such incident. At a time when was conceived to foster in visitors different the property’s significant LGBTQ heritage – intimate relationships between men could emotions and responses at each stage; to they reflected on both the controversy that be punishable by death, William felt he had unsettle, move, inform and empower visitors. Exile had generated in the media and the no choice but to leave the home he loved for Our process was also shaped to welcome impact it had had on them: exile in France and, later, Italy. involvement from everyone that works in the William’s experiences are an integral part house today, knowing that the subject matter …the Exile project at the house, in particular of Kingston Lacy: knowing his story offers is still controversial to some and deeply the rope memorial, had a profound effect visitors a richer and fuller understanding personal to others. on us. We would not have predicted that it of the house. Indeed, it is impossible to We know that at the beginning of any would have had such an effect, bringing us to fully convey to contemporary visitors why story expectations are high. As such, the tears. That such a display should have proved the house looks the way it does without Entrance Hall was our chance to unsettle so controversial must indicate the residual knowing of William’s same-sex desires visitors, disrupting any preconceived ideas of strength of homophobia in this country. I and their consequences. Our ambition in what a visit to a National Trust house might say this as a 76-year-old heterosexual male developing Exile was not only to share this be. The first installation, In Memoriam, who regrettably in the past had significant story and place it at the heart of the visit featured 51 knotted ropes suspended from difficulties in understanding homosexual but, importantly, to use it to shine a light on a wooden frame. This striking installation feelings. Things are changing and in our view contemporary LGBTQ issues. represented the 51 men who were hanged in will be greatly helped by such strong displays Early on in shaping the project, we the UK under laws that criminalised same- as that at Kingston Lacy. recognised the potential for William’s story to sex acts during William’s lifetime. It aimed to
In Memoriam, part of Exile at Kingston Lacy, developed by RCMG, University of Leicester. © National Trust Images/Steven Haywood.
Illuminating the experience Views 87 communicate the brutality of the times and the context of William’s actions. In Memoriam was a fully immersive and sensory experience with as much to feel as to understand. Many visitors experienced unexpectedly strong emotions within the forest of ropes, moved by their smell, rough texture and proximity to the reality of hanging that they suggested. Within the layout of the ropes was further implicit detail: the height of the remembrance knots corresponded to the ages of the men, spanning from 17 to 71 years. Their position in the room also had meaning: the ropes that represented men who died together were placed together. Added to this was a soundscape comprising original music by James Jones and recordings of Kingston Lacy volunteers and staff reading the names of the 51 men. The voices – women and men of all ages – made the stories human and of the room, and a subtle soundscape of Prejudice, Persecution, Pride: LGBTQ lives and the personal: the ropes represented brothers, ordinary life – a key in a lock, a kettle boiling – law, part of Exile at Kingston Lacy, developed by RCMG, University of Leicester; Tom Butler in shot. sons and fathers. We carried out extensive reinforced the global, everyday experience of © National Trust Images/Steven Haywood. research to discover more about these same-sex love and desire. men, compiling a list that included, where Finally, towards the end of the visitor possible, their ages, jobs, where they lived route, Prejudice, Persecution, Pride set Germany soon after their liberation from the and where they were killed. William’s story within a global history, concentration camps in 1945. This new research provided great interest examining how the law has shaped and We created a gentle, calm and intimate and a foundation for deeper investigation by continues to shape LGBTQ lives. Copies of room with domestic lighting levels and volunteers and, in some cases, the visitors Acts from the Parliamentary Archives and space to sit, reflect and provide feedback – themselves. a timeline revealed familiar and surprising positive or negative. A video interview with In the elaborately furnished Spanish stories of persecution and intolerance, Ruth Hunt, Chief Executive of Stonewall Room we used film projection and sound to liberation and equality. UK, presented a powerful call to action to draw connections between William’s story This was our chance to empower visitors, continue awareness of inequality and how to and ongoing prejudice and intolerance helping them to reflect on their visit and support younger LGBTQ people today. today. Our intention was to disrupt any inspire them to think differently and share Over 19,000 people visited Exile, all with sense of a neatly packaged history that their views and opinions. The materiality their own connections and responses to began with intolerance and persecution of the Acts communicated the path from the story of William and his contemporary and ended with equality and respect for all. persecution to protection: a scrap of relevance. We hoped that visitors would Displaced drew on the diverse experiences sixteenth-century vellum instigating the leave not only feeling more emotionally of LGBTQ people forced to leave their death penalty juxtaposed with a 12cm-thick connected to Kingston Lacy, but with a new homes in the UK and abroad. legal volume enshrining LGBTQ rights in understanding of LGBTQ experience today. The Spanish Room, where visitors the UK today. Our 6-metre-long timeline encounter William’s creative vision for gave us the opportunity to include stories Kingston Lacy in its most arresting and that represented diverse experiences of the Acknowledgement complete form, provided an ideal backdrop law within LGBTQ communities. Indeed, and contrast to the narrative we inserted we researched and featured examples of This article was first published inPrejudice here. We projected our film onto closed how the law has affected trans and women’s and Pride (Research Centre for Museums window shutters, creating an optical illusion lives in an attempt to develop an inclusive and Galleries, University of Leicester, of the outside world. narrative that also helped to place William’s 2018): www2.le.ac.uk/departments/ An image of Kingston Lacy’s grounds story within a broader queer history. These museumstudies/rcmg/publications/ gradually shifted to contemporary scenes: a included Roberta Cowell, a former Spitfire prejudice-and-pride London street; a market in Uganda; a house pilot (1918–2011) who legally changed her in Chechnya. This helped visitors to make gender from male to female in 1951 and connections between legally and socially the ban in 1928 on Radclyffe Hall’s ‘lesbian About the authors sanctioned forms of prejudices that affected novel’, The Well of Loneliness, under the William in the 1840s with those that shape Obscene Publications Act. Tom Butler is a writer, researcher and LGBTQ lives today. It was a deliberate Alongside stories linked to well-known creative producer, Julie Howell is a socially choice to include UK as well as international figures such as Sir John Gielgud and engaged artist and experience designer, experiences, showing that – despite the George Michael, we featured lesser-known and Richard Sandell is the Professor of advances in the law that Prejudice and Pride stories related to, for example, Maureen Museum Studies at the University of celebrated – intolerance and stigma still force Colquhoun, the UK’s first openly gay MP, Leicester’s Research Centre for Museums people to leave their homes today. The design referencing William’s own career as an MP, and Galleries. You can follow Richard on was pared back to contrast with the opulence as well as the re-imprisonment of gay men in Twitter @RSMuseumStudies
88 Views Illuminating the experience Forging a heritage experience through the skill, experience and the mediation of memory in Northern Ireland Petra Honkysova, Tourist Advisor, Visit Belfast, and Researcher, Social Anthropology
atterson’s Spade Mill, near the visitor experience. I will touch upon the more here than meets the eye. This personal Templepatrick, Co. Antrim, is the transformation of a spade from a tool to introduction creates positive reactions and Plast water-driven spade mill in daily heritage-artefact and suggest ways that the an instant bond; many go on to promise use in the UK. It produces spades using Trust could benefit from how it thinks of and to recommend it to others, and leave old technologies and methods, some of interprets its industrial heritage. enthusiastic comments in the visitor book. which date back 200 years. I conducted My study sought to uncover why the mill When visitors enter the Plating Shop fieldwork here from May to September evokes such positive feelings in those who they quieten, absorbing the change of 2016, while working as a tour guide. This visit the mill. How does the tour create a environment in which the spade-makers research resulted in a dissertation in Social play of the senses amongst visitors? How do Colin and Tom fit perfectly. In the confines of Anthropology and a Master’s degree. visitors’ perceptions of a spade change as a their workshop they share their knowledge Social Anthropology is a science result of their visit? and skills with an attentive audience. The that studies social phenomenon as they highlight of their demonstration – their occur, and takes a holistic approach while performance – is when they open the gas focusing on the specifics. Its method is Creating an emotional connection furnace, take the hot spade blade out with participant observation – a form of being tongs, and begin to work its shape using there, enabling the researcher to see the The traditional building that houses the the tilt-hammer. As the turbine veins are gaps in what participants say and do. I also Spade Mill lacks a café or shop, unusual for interviewed staff and visitors. This article a tourist venue. Signage from the nearby will address the visitors’ experience of the motorway is poor, and on arrival visitors are In the small finishing shop. The atmosphere and environment of the mill provides an immersive site, the sensorial engagement created by often unsure what to make of the site. Guides experience for visitors when it is full of sound and the tour, and the roles of staff in creating are on hand to reassure them that there is action. © Petra Honkysova
Illuminating the experience Views 89 Colin the spade-maker at work. © National Trust Images/John Millar
Below left: A group of guests listen attentively as Tom (left) and Colin explain the process of spade- making in the Plating shop. © Petra Honkysova
own contributions to the story. These mutual interactions, including discussions and humour, are seen by visitors as enriching their experience of the mill. Staff are seen as essential fixtures in the working of the mill: ‘Tom and Colin … were chatting to us while working, just telling us what they were doing. It is not a reconstruction, but a real preserved and functioning workshop.’ The mill’s guides also learn to handle the tools and equipment in order to be able to demonstrate how a spade is made and assembled. From their first step on to the site, visitors are encouraged to interact with the staff and objects. My interviews revealed Image redacted to comply with GDPR that many visitors had some connection to the type of work and industry represented and could build upon their own experiences in relating to it. They are proud of their connections with an industrial past or present and add their own knowledge and stories to the tour. Those who lack a direct connection appreciate the interaction with the staff and the site, which often reveals other aspects they can relate to. The mediation of the guides plays a crucial role in the way the site is experienced. Interactive, personal and meaningful tour-guiding creates two-way communication as the guides strive to ensure that their tours are full of fun as well as detailed information. All staff have their own style, each adding a personal touch to opened, and the water begins to rotate the as earthy iron. To a significant degree, it their professional delivery. cogs, the machinery comes to life. Standing appears to be this sensorial involvement next to the furnace, visitors lean on the that makes the experience of the mill fence excitedly trying to peer closer into the feel authentic, and the tour’s balance of A Patterson’s spade – fire. They react to the spade-makers’ noisy verbal and physical stimulations focus the tool, artefact, symbol work with a degree of wonder; when Colin participants’ attention and may invoke brings the hot spade closer, their hands rise memories. The mill workers take visitors My research also focused on the spade up to feel the heat. It is a fully immersive on an organised journey of revelation and as a tool and heritage artefact, but more encounter. experience. importantly upon the relationships which The mill’s visitors are exposed to a wide condition its varying roles. It became variety of sensual stimuli: they see what’s obvious that the king of the show, the spade, around them, the familiar and new, while Staff performance, communication is perceived by visitors as more significant simultaneously being exposed to the sounds and interaction with visitors after the tour than before. Why is this? The of the mill – the turbine at work, the beating Patterson spade, solely a tool for digging, is of the tilt-hammer, the roaring furnace, Both the spade-makers and guides share in- transformed into an artefact that embodies spinning belts, voices of guides and visitors. depth knowledge through storytelling. These craftsmanship, industrial labour and heritage They also touch the heavy raw steel billets, stories include the history of the Patterson care, and the socio-cultural relations of the rough wooden shafts and the spade’s family, how they worked, lived and honed the past, present and future. Visitors see it smooth surfaces; they feel the heat from the their craftsmanship; the individual parts of as a useful tool for gardening, just as the furnace and heated blades, the weight of the spade; the materials used and crafted; Pattersons saw it as a functional tool, the the tools, the cold stony walls and draughts. and the parts and functions of the building. source of their livelihood; in the context They smell the gas furnace, dust, wood, Their knowledge forms connections to of the mill as a heritage site, however, the stone and oils, welding smoke, glue, paint, the site which contribute to the visitors’ spade becomes something more. even the surrounding countryside. There experience. They use historical and social Visitors watch a DVD on spade-making is a taste to the air, which some describe anecdotes, and allow visitors to add their prior to the tour, which provides an overview
90 Views Illuminating the experience to the manufacturing process, labour, Without the storytelling and those things a tool, comes to represent the skills of its knowledge, skills and unique working to flesh out what you are looking at, there makers, the history of its production and environment being preserved. Observing is just a collection of buildings and tools. collective and personal memories. their reactions while watching the DVD, I saw But staff and visitors show that, while at After the tour, visitors handle the spades their attitudes shift from mere pragmatic the mill, their connection extends beyond with care and respect. awareness of the spade-as-tool to a more the site to knowledge and memories of sophisticated comprehension of the elsewhere. When I asked the spade-makers historical significance and cultural value of a what the Patterson spade meant to them, Conclusion Patterson’s spade. The site keeps industrial their responses were similar to those of heritage alive, and the spade becomes a visitors: one saw the spade as an object of The mill is perceived as authentic on arrival, tangible manifestation of old skills, lives and craft, reflecting the spade-maker’s skills; because of its appearance. Its success is its an industrial past. Their comments illustrate one saw each as unique, with ‘one-of-a- ability to stimulate visitors’ senses through these kinds of thought processes: owning a kind’ characteristics; another felt the spade the physicality of the environment and Patterson’s spade is to possess something of reflects quality work and lasting value. demonstration. Most important to the lasting value in today’s disposable culture; These attitudes outside the official script visitor experience is the role of the workers, there is sentimental value when bought as are sympathetically received by visitors whose ‘performance’ gives rise to sensorial a gift or to be passed on in a family; it is the and deepen the bond between them. The stimuli which invoke memories for visitors. provenance behind the everyday item that mill provides a context, the conversation a The tour and conversations create a bridge makes it more interesting; it paints a picture. connection, and the spade, while remaining by establishing common ground. Crucially, visitors participate in the creation of their own experience of the site: verbally, by sharing knowledge; physically, by touching and lifting objects, and by sensory exposure to the mill’s activities. The Patterson spade is both what it materially is and what it has become, a heritage-artefact. This accretion of meaning occurs through the new ways that people engage with the object. As such, the Patterson spade embodies the site, quality and skills, and something more, and I suggest this additional value is the transformation of the viewer as a consequence of the interactional nature of the tour, their emotional bonds, attachments and feelings. Moreover, in addressing visitors as participants in the preservation of the site, their perceptions of their own position shifts from one of tourism to shared responsibility in caring for heritage. The Trust aims to create lasting bonds between visitors and the places it cares for in order to secure the finances needed to maintain them. My anthropological study, which can be accessed on request, contributes to the academic understanding of heritage tourism and offers a model of effective discourses and practices which achieve precisely these kinds of bonds. Such knowledge is useful to the conservation sector, not only in demonstrating effective ways of attracting and retaining visitor interest, but also in showing how staff and volunteers may be kept interested in and committed to their roles – a vital component in the visitor experience. The positive relationships at Patterson’s Spade Mill between staff, visitors and the environment, exemplify a form of heritage tourism which is likely to prove genuinely sustainable. Top: Visitors of all ages can be Above: A display of traditional If you would like a copy of my full study, emotionally engaged by the spade- spades and shovels at the entrance making process. © National Trust to the mill. © Petra Honkysova please get in touch with me by email on Images/John Millar [email protected]
Illuminating the experience Views 91 Welcome here: cultivating arable plants in a historic garden Kevan Horne, Volunteer Gardener, Stourhead, Wiltshire
here is one area of Stourhead’s walled would have regarded as very troublesome Room for all: the tall, garden which is often overlooked by weeds. However, these plants are now some spiky heads of the corn even the most diligent and observant of our rarest wild flowers, and some, e.g. cockle, bold common T poppy and puffs of field of garden visitors. In the middle walled thorow-wax (Bupleurum rotundifolium) are scabious grow alongside garden there is a narrow strip of border probably extinct in the wild. All of these other traditional running the whole length of the eastern plants are associated with arable crops. cultivated plants in Stourhead’s walled wall where once a number of fig trees grew. Arable farming developed in Britain garden. © National The border contains what many, in the past, about 7,500 years ago, spreading across Trust/Emily Utgren
92 Views Illuminating the experience most of the country over the next 1,500 tasted bitter and caused upset stomachs. armeria), corn cockle and the cornflower years and initially concentrated on the chalk The need to remove contaminants of this (Centaurea cyanus). and limestone of the North Wessex Downs type led to the development of superior There are a few remaining places where and the Cotswolds. Early crops cultivated methods for separation of weed seeds from some of the rare arable plants survive, were emmer wheat (Triticum turgidum subsp. the cereal grains, and this plant had begun including a National Trust reserve in West dicoccoides) and six-row barley (Hordeum to decline by the late nineteenth century. Pentire’s arable fields near Newquay, agriocrithon), einkorn wheat (T. monococcum), Many arable plants do not compete Cornwall, and a Somerset Wildlife Trust bread wheat (T. aestivum) and spelt (T. spelta). successfully with the newer, robust grain reserve, Fivehead Arable Fields, just off the Archaeologists have found that some of varieties and dislike highly nitrogen-enriched A378 between Somerton and Taunton. the arable weed plants predate the start of soils. Therefore, development of more The best time to see the border in flower agriculture. Coastal shingle and disturbed robust cereals with high nitrogen demand, is between June and August, though one or ground supported some of these plants while and the subsequent added nitrogen two plants will be in flower at other times. other species were introduced with grain fertilizers, contributed to further decline. Next time you are visiting Stourhead, do brought from overseas. Many of the plants The development and introduction of stroll into the walled garden to take a look at can no longer be found anywhere but on herbicides in the 1940s was catastrophic our ‘weeds’, and see if you agree with us that arable land, their origins being lost to history. for a lot of the remaining arable plants. they really are worth preserving. What has brought these once plentiful However, some plants, e.g. corn marigold Nature abhors a vacuum, and the gaps and often much cursed weeds to their (Chrysanthemum segetum) and shepherd’s- left by these attractive plants in arable fields present, parlous state? The answer is a needle (Scandix pecten-veneris) were common have been filled with pernicious weeds such combination of things such as changes in until the 1950s and one, thorow-wax, as black grass (Alopecurus myosuroides), agricultural practices, together with the persisted until the early 1970s, when further cleavers (Galium aparine) and barren rather specific germination requirements changes in agricultural practices – earlier, brome (Bromus sterilis), which thrive under of the seeds. Generally the plants have one faster harvesting and new herbicides with the new intensive farming regime and are or more things in common: to germinate efficient wetting agents – finally sent it into troublesome over large areas of the country. well they are reliant on disturbed ground extinction. There are no plans to introduce these into after they have set seeds; many have limited Since weeds are ‘plants growing where the border! seed dormancy, and will not persist in the they are not wanted’, our walled garden soil for long. If the soil is not disturbed border is not filled with weeds; they were, and A health warning for garden borders within a short time of seed falling, there will continue to be, deliberately planted, for they and people: although some of the plants be no flowers next year. There are notable are certainly very much wanted by us. Some are rare, none are too tricky to grow and exceptions to this, e.g. the common poppy may not regard the euphorbia (E. platyphyllos some are positive thugs and will need to (Papaver rhoeas) and the corn forget-me-not and E. oblongata) as pretty, though the latter be controlled once established. Like many (Myosotis arvensis) which will spring from the is grown in the florist’s bed of the top walled familiar garden plants, some are poisonous, soil seed bank 20 or more years after the garden and is sold by famous gardener and especially corn cockle and pheasant’s-eye. seed fell. flower arranger Sarah Raven: E.‘ oblongata is All of these plants thrived in the the all-round best-looking, longest-flowering If you wish to know more about these ‘inefficient’ agriculture of the past. Some foliage plant you can find anywhere in the fascinating plants, the best book to read had seeds which were almost the same size world. It forms the base of 95% of my floral is Arable Plants – a field guide by P. Wilson as the cereal grains, such as corn cockle arrangements, and lines most of the beds in and M. King (Wild Guides Ltd, 2003) – a (Agrostemma githago), and were difficult to my garden at Perch Hill.’ definitive look at the botany, rise and decline remove from the grain so were sown with the But I think that few would not be of the above plants, and many more besides. next crop. Unfortunately the bread produced entranced by the beauty of pheasant’s-eye from the corn cockle-contaminated flour (Adonis annua), the Deptford pink (Dianthis
Illuminating the experience Views 93 94 Views footer 6841_02_Views_v3_Views 03/08/2017 10:13 Page 127
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