As part of the reorganisation of the Society’s conservation and planning work, we wish to appoint a part-time Deputy Conservation Officer for England.

The Deputy Conservation Officer will work in close association with the Principal Conservation Officer and the Conservation Casework Manager in planning casework.

The Deputy Conservation Officer will also be involved in developing and updating the Society’s generic conservation advice (known as Planning and Conservation Advice Notes), and will be closely involved in training and support for county gardens trusts and other local and national amenity societies who are undertaking conservation and planning work.

Details of this part-time post are available from the Society’s office, by emailing a request or if writing for details, please address to Administrator (address  below) and enclose an SAE.

Closing date: Friday 13th January 2012.

The Society’s offices are closed over the Christmas and New Year period.

CONSERVATION CONSULTANTS (ENGLAND)

We are also looking to appoint a panel of appropriately experienced and qualified Consultants upon whom the Society can call to deal with specific conservation cases. Consultants should be members of the Society, but Trustees are ineligible for this role. This freelance work would be undertaken on the basis of a standard inclusive case fee.

Download a .pdf version of the GHS Conservation Jobs advert

Expressions of interest in covering letter and c.v. may be lodged at any time.

Working Together

The Working Together Feasibility Study Group, comprising GHS, AGT, the Garden Museum and the Parks & Gardens database (P&GUK), continues to discuss a possible way forward towards closer co-operation between its members.

A prime motive for undertaking this study, which has strong support from English Heritage, is the prospect of reduced Government funding for historic parks and gardens, and particularly the likelihood of a reduction in financial support from English Heritage for our work in 2012–13.

Facing the prospect of reduced public funding as well as potentially harmful changes in national planning policy, we know that our current individual resources will not be sufficient to address threats to the parks and gardens about which we all care.

As part of the Study, each organisation has also undertaken a thorough review of its activities and the way in which each organisation operates. This has included a critical analysis of each others’ operations. The conversation has been wide-ranging and occasionally challenging, but also stimulating.

It is already impossible for the GHS alone to respond to all planning threats to our parks and gardens. Collectively, and by building on our respective strengths and expertise, we stand a much better chance of making our views known to, and understood by, national and local government.

The Study Group has concluded that uniting our skills and resources will give us a more effective voice and avoid confusion as to which body is giving what advice. Giving County Gardens Trusts’ membership more ability to get involved with direct conservation action underpins this thinking. These conclusions have been welcomed by English Heritage.

Future GHS Conservation Activity

During October, following recommendations from the Conservation Committee, GHS Council decided to implement a reorganisation of conservation practice within the GHS.

Jonathan Lovie will remain as Principal Conservation Officer and Policy Adviser in England; Linden Grove’s role as Casework Manager (England), and the Casework Log are unaffected by this reorganisation. In Scotland, Alison Allighan remains as Conservation Officer; and a Casework Log, similar to that operating in England, will also now be created and maintained. As part of this process, three of our existing Conservation Officers in England will be redundant from 4 April 2012.

The way forward

Under the Principal Conservation Officer, a new post of Deputy Conservation Officer (England) has been created; you can see an advertisement for this post elsewhere in this section, and an invitation for expressions of interest from individuals wishing to be Conservation Consultants in England. The freelance Consultants will be commissioned to deal with specific conservation cases, complementing the work of the Principal and Deputy Conservation Officers in England. Our current Conservation Officers may, of course, apply for both the advertised roles.

Planned changes to the Society’s conservation operation include:

• Moving away from a geographical structure for responding to consultations.

• Reinvigorating the Society’s role as a campaigner for Parks and Gardens.

• Providing support and training for county gardens trusts and others to engage in more conservation work, especially where this affects sites on which they are the undoubted experts.

• Ensuring, with the help of the Society’s colleagues in the CGTs, that local government recognises the importance of Parks and Gardens when drafting local plan policies.

The Society also intends to concentrate resources on responding to changes in Government policy affecting Parks and Gardens; and responding to the major cases and generic threats which face Parks and Gardens.

The site of the house and garden at Sayes Court — John Evelyn’s London residence by the then Royal Dockyard at Deptford — is currently subject to a planning application from a property developer which would see the site of the garden built over. A small group of concerned locals has mounted a campaign to conserve the site with a view to seeing it re-emerge as a public garden or park, integral to the riverfront residential development envisaged by the developers. At present, the entirety of the Sayes Court estate lies under an apron of concrete, but it is believed that garden archaeology could reveal much of its layout; the cellars of Evelyn’s house survive and have already been subject to some archaeological investigation. The site of Sayes Court takes up about one-sixth of the area to be developed, now known as Convoys Wharf. The proposal from developers Hutchison-Whampoa is for 3,514 residential units, 80% of them one- and two-bedroom flats, in three tall blocks of 32-, 38- and 46- storeys, plus a variety of smaller blocks typically between 8–18 storeys; one of the blocks is directly over the site of the principal parterre of the garden.

The masterplan gives some idea of the scale of the intended development, see http://www.sayescourtgarden.com/campaign.html for more.

The GHS supports this campaign and is adding its voice to those suggesting that Lewisham Council looks favourably on the idea of conserving the site of Sayes Court as part of an overall development plan when the application is considered by Lewisham’s planning committee in either January or April. A revised plan would potentially mean the construction of approximately half the number of residential units, with a greater mix of commercial, community, artistic and other uses at the site, as well as the integration of green space on the footprint of the old garden.

The garden at Sayes Court (see Garden History 25:2, Winter 1997) was laid out by Evelyn from 1653 and included an oval garden, a terrace walk or mount, an orchard and the grove, which contained more than 500 specimens of standard oak, ash, elm, service, beech and chestnut. Numerous unusual and exotic spice and citrus plants were grown here (the proximity of the docks playing its part) and there was also a substantial kitchen garden of 38 beds laid out systematically. Other attractions included a banqueting house and an island reached by a drawbridge. All of this is well delineated in Evelyn’s own plan of the garden, held by the British Library and viewable in the online gallery section of its website.

Wooden model of Sayes Court made by George Carter in 1988, for the V&A Garden exhibition. The (originally) Thames side walk to the right of the model can still be detected on aerial photos of the site today. Picture by Tim Richardson.

Charles II visited the garden on several occasions, though the most celebrated story was the time when Peter the Great of Russia, who leased the house for a period, ruined some of Evelyn’s prized holly hedges having been pushed around the garden in a wheelbarrow for fun.

After Evelyn’s death in 1706 Sayes Court was used as a poor-house for 125 years. By the end of the 19th century both the house and garden were in disrepair. The old dockyard was transformed into the Foreign Cattle Market, leading to the conversion of a great double-arched slipway cover into cattle sheds. This is now a Grade II listed structure and must remain as part of any future development. The house itself was slightly damaged during the Second World War by a V1 rocket and was subsequently demolished. The local activists suggest that the great arched structure could be used again as a boatyard for the construction of historic wooden ships, and to that end they have teamed up with historic ship experts who have submitted their own detailed proposals based on other schemes which have been successful, not least as tourist attractions, in France and the Netherlands.

Today the surrounding local area is taken up by light-industrial units and low-rise residential blocks, but John Evelyn and the garden at Sayes Court is commemorated in local street names and remains very much a part of the folk memory of Deptford. Sayes Court has even been ‘saved’ on one previous occasion, when a descendant of John Evelyn mounted a campaign in the 1880s with the help of Octavia Hill (prior to her creation of the National Trust) to turn it into a public park. The campaign was successful and Sayes Court Park remained a public amenity until the First World War, when 3/4 of the park was absorbed into the Dockyard and never returned. The remainder of the park was remodelled in the 1950s.

In 2000 Lewisham Council commissioned a report on Sayes Court, its significance and the impact of development. Prof Burdett’s report recommended the reinstatement of the complete area of John Evelyn’s garden as part of the scheme and highlighted the role of the wharf area as a historically important site in terms of both ship-building and horticulture.

For more information see: www.sayescourtgarden.com and londonslostgarden.wordpress.com

See our Events pages for April 2012 Study Day info.

The Society’s AGM was held at Keele University on 22 July 2011. 70 members were present.

Messrs. Peters Elworthy & Moore were appointed as the Society’s Independent Examiners.

We are pleased to announce that Dominic Cole was re-elected to Council, and Patrick Eyres, Jeremy Rye and Michael Thompson were elected as members of the Council.

Peter Hayden was elected for a further five years as a Vice-President of the Society. Alan Baxter and Susan Campbell were elected to be Vice-Presidents for five-year terms.

The full minutes of the meeting will be included in the papers for next year’s AGM.

Elizabeth Cairns, Hon Secretary

Other AGM news

A huge boost to the Society has been the generous legacy from Pippa Rakusen. The first part of this has been received and, by combining it with the existing reserves, we have made an investment that guarantees circa £10,000 income per year. This will go part of the way towards the anticipated loss of grant from English Heritage.

I am supported by a dedicated team of volunteers, officers and members and thank everyone of them for their passion, and look forward to reporting on our progress over the next twelve months.

Thank you all for your ongoing support.

Dominic Cole, Chairman

Looking Ahead

Our Chairman Dominic Cole made an important announcement at the Society’s AGM, summarising the results of the ‘Working Together’ study, which he will also be giving at The Association of Gardens Trust’s AGM at Worcester College Oxford, on Friday 2 September.

Our conservation team face big challenges in their work due to changing government policies and reduced funding. In Scotland a significant issue is the availability of grants under the Scottish Rural Development Programme (Rural Priorities) for Native Woodland Creation, increasing bio-fuel production (largely for domestic consumption in woodburners etc). Landowners, pleased to take advantage of these funds, will often disregard the aesthetic landscape in favour of productivity which puts major designed landscapes at risk.

In England the proposed government review of planning potentially reduces the protection offered to designed landscapes by encouraging development without the need for rigorous review.

The GHS has been anticipating such changes over the last two years and at this year’s AGM we were able to announce the results of the joint ‘Working Together’ feasibility study that has been made possible with funding of £20,000 from English Heritage, shared equally between the four partner organisations concerned. We have worked in partnership with three like-minded organisations, The Association of Gardens Trusts (AGT), the Parks and Gardens Database (PGDS) and the Garden Museum. The findings include that:

• GHS and AGT to plan how the two could become one and, in the process, actively involve County Garden Trusts (CGT) so that we become a single strong voice, albeit recognising CGTs are individually constructed and will have particular priorities.

• Not to be overly driven by Government (‘Big Society’ etc) but to promote a single, independent, strong and informed conservation and learning voice under one ‘banner’.

• To plan how to transfer responding to case work (statutory referrals) to CGT’s whilst maintaining standards of professional responses. This will involve deciding lines of communication, who does what, training, maintaining records and where ultimate responsibilities lie for quality and effect of responses.

• The Garden Museum, GHS, AGT to form a working group specifically to plan activities and events based on themes and topics. PGDS to provide information page on website.

• PGDS to progress brief for development of the website, already in progress, and to involve the Museum, GHS, AGT during process.

• The Museum to consider the new ways of working in its Development Plan.

• To build in communication as a vital element of our ability to operate effectively. If a paid ’Co-coordinator’ post is agreed it is likely to be based at the Museum.

• To consider how administration and back-up will be most effectively provided, e.g. office systems, finance, constitutional roles and overarching co-ordination.

• To consider what streams of revenue generation are possible jointly and severally, and communicate these across the group.

We believe that uniting our skills and resources will give us a more effective voice and avoid the confusion as to which body is giving what advice. The most significant outcome of the study has been the agreement between the GHS and AGT, working towards the idea that, in future, there may be one organisation. Giving county membership more ability to get involved with direct conservation action underpins this thinking.

The GHS has already undertaken an internal review of the way that we tackle Conservation. It has become increasingly clear that our freedom to have an independent voice in this field is hobbled by our relationship to public funding. In England, as statutory consultees, we are obliged to respond to some 1,500 cases per year. Even now we are struggling to respond to enquiries and with a planned reduction in EH funding will find the position increasingly hard to sustain.

In Scotland, we are not statutory consultees and our only public funding from Historic Scotland comes with the condition that it should be used solely for the support of volunteers researching and recording Regional and Local landscapes.

Dominic Cole, Chairman

GHS Essay Prize 2011

The 2011 annual GHS Essay Prize has been won by Karin Seeber from Bristol University. There was a very strong field this year with entries from as far afield as Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, Sheffield and London universities, but Seeber’s piece on the Mount at New College, Oxford: ‘Ye Making of ye Mount’ was the unanimous winner. The judges were particularly impressed with the way the author went back to original sources, re-examined and reinterpreted them, and discovered new pieces of information along the way. The essay challenges accepted theories, presents a new interpretation of the Mount and in so doing makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of mounts in general and the New College Mount in particular.

The level of scholarship in the other entries was also very high, with some excellent social history, good use of primary sources and wonderfully dynamic writing. With the demise of several Garden History courses this year, the entry criteria for the prize will probably be broadened out next year, so interested parties should watch the GHS website in the autumn to see if they will be eligible to submit to next year’s competition.

Katie Campbell

In the Non-Catholic cemetery in Rome, lying near Shelley’s grave, is a stone with a poignant inscription which reminds us of the dangers of trying to experience the thrills of sublime landscapes and why health and safety standards haunt our enjoyment of them:

Sacred to the memory of Robert the eldest son of Mr. Robert Brown of the City of London, Merchant who unhappily lost his life at Tivoli by his foot slipping, in coming out of Neptune’s grotto, on the 6th July 1823. Aged 21 years. Reader beware by this fatal accident a virtuous and amiable youth has been suddenly snatched away in the bloom of health and pride of life…

Neptune’s grotto is near the bottom of a spectacular natural picturesque gorge which has undergone a number of changes over the last two millennia, now known as the Villa Gregoriana. The gorge has been carved out from uncompacted tufa, conglomerate stones and sedimentary deposits, by the Aniene river, a tributary of the Tibur, at Tivoli north of Rome where it drops over 100metres from the centre of the town into the plain. At one time there were a number of little waterfalls, sprouting randomly out from different places on the cliffs wherever water found its way through the porous rock, in addition to the principal waterfalls (below).

One of the many waterfalls at Villa Gregoriana, Tivoli. Photo by the author.

So beautiful was this place that the Romans, in the 1st century BC, built the circular Temple of Vesta with the Temple Tiburnus alongside, the ruins of which are still perched high to one side of the gorge (below). They are supported by reinforced concrete (opus caementicum) vaults below the temples, innovative high tech engineering of their time.

The Temple of Vesta, exemplar for so many others. Photo by the author.

Until 1915 this was Tivoli’s main attraction, so it is disappointing that visitors who now come to visit the later Roman Villa Adriana and the Renaissance Villa d’Este nearby usually miss out on the wonderful Villa Gregoriana. It was a ‘must see’ tourist destination on the Grand Tour and from the 17th century was celebrated in paintings by many artists from Poussin, Claude Lorraine, Fragonard and Piranesi to Ingres and Turner.

The unfortunate Robert Brown was, by 1823, able to access Neptune’s grotto more easily than 18th century visitors because of a tunnel, the Traforetto, with arched window openings to the gorge, constructed in 1809 by General Miollis, Napoleon’s Governor in Rome. Before that the precarious path was so difficult to navigate, even with the aid of ropes that few ever experienced the grotto. Steps were cut into the rock inside the grotto in1841 and there is an iron railing part of the way up. But, it is still very scary inside and a strong feeling of vulnerability overwhelmed me as the thunderous sound of the water echoed throughout the space whilst the river churned through large boulders below, spitting up a fine mist. It is not dark, only gloomy, as light comes from a huge opening at the back made larger by the devastating flood of 1826.

As a result of this disaster, which seriously affected the livelihood of Tivoli’s residents, Pope Gregory XVI (1831–46) commissioned engineering works which solved any more uncontrolled destruction of the town and the gorge. Villa Gregoriana, a public park (confusingly there is no house), was created as a result of these works, and opened in 1835. It has recently undergone a restoration by FAI, Fondo per L’Ambiente Italiano.

People were writing about the gorge’s natural beauty and its unstable nature long before Pliny the younger’s eyewitness account of a typhoon leading to a flood which washed away large parts of the town in November 105 AD. In his Epistle 8 (17, 3–5) he describes how standing on a high part of the town he watched the torrent tearing away at the rocks, woods, buildings and villas and described the ‘mighty chattels of the rich’ along with oxen, ploughs, peasants, monuments and tree trunks floating past. There had been a large and beautiful green lake, the Pelago, in the bottom of the gorge but this all but disappeared as the water level dropped and a new opening was forced through below the level of the second cascade, now a natural bridge called the Ponte Lupo. The bottom of the gorge, now planted romantically with evergreens, is called the Valle dell’Inferno, Valley of Hell. Where water pushed through under the Ponte Lupo it became known as the Albergo delle Sirene, Grotto of the Sirens, named in the late 18th century by the Swiss landscape painter Louis Ducros.

Many attempts were made over the millennia to channel flood waters which repeatedly swept away at least three weirs erected by the Romans as well as a barrier from 1489, which with careful maintenance had lasted until the disastrous flood of 16/17 November 1826. Pope Gregory, when he acceded, invited engineers to submit proposals for a competition to find the best solution to taming the floods. Clementi Fochi, an experienced hydraulics engineer, won it, even though his plan to move most of the river away from the town was the most expensive of the 23 submitted. It took three years to dig out a pair of parallel tunnels 280 metres long by 10 metres wide through hills to the northwest of Tivoli that divert most of the water from the river running through the town. The long, spectacular, ‘Grand Waterfall’, which resulted, dropped from the twin tunnels to a shorter yet equally showy one. They could be viewed from the other side of the valley, where the Pope presided over its inauguration on 7th October 1835, accompanied by the King of Portugal and the Queen of Sicily. The completion of the diversion came just in time, because, on 6th February the following year, another flood tested the engineering works and its level is recorded on a plaque inside one of the tunnels.

Samuel Palmer’s c.1839 view of the falls and surroundings; not long after the new works were completed. Philadelphia Museum of Art; The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei

Within the gorge the water pressure through the tufa dropped and the smaller waterfalls dried up allowing the gorge to be landscaped with paths and views in a more orderly fashion than in the past. Cardinal Rivarola, in charge of the project, suggested planting evergreens “in order to avoid monotonous uniformity and to ensure that there should be as much scope as possible for that which can be classed as charm and picturesque.” Holm oaks, pines and cypress created a tree canopy, under which holly, viburnum, arbutus and bay were planted along with acanthus, ferns and cyclamen. Walks, seating areas and view points were created including a new overlook focussing on the Grand Waterfall, which lay outside the gorge park.

In 1870 the Pope transferred the park’s ownership to the Italian state and in the early 20th century it was fenced in, with a museum at its entrance in Via Quintillo Varo. After bombing during WWII, which damaged large parts of the town, the park went into decline until in the 1990s it was finally closed because of its state of decay. Health and safety measures had never been considered and the park was not fit for purpose. In 2002 the FIA began a five-year project of restoration including conservation of the Roman Villa, Manlius Vopiscus, with its columns, capitals and cippi which had been scattered over the left side of the valley. Only some foundations to the huge villa complex remain, as vaulting six metres high, built into the cliff face. However a giant fish tank in the basement area is still visible.

Poor Robert Brown will be remembered for daring to explore the sublime gorge and the terrifying Neptune’s grotto at Tivoli whilst his family are long forgotten. His gravestone, inscribed both in English and Italian, concludes: “his disconsolate parents are bereaved of a most excellent son. His brothers and sisters have to lament an attached and affectionate brother and all his family and friends have sustained an irreparable loss.”

When next in Rome try to make time to visit his grave at Zona Prima, row 15 no. 3 to pay homage to him and then take yourself off to Tivoli to experience Neptune’s grotto. Be careful the rocks are still very slippery inside.

This was the advice of Clary, the proud Rousham gardener who had laid out William Kent’s garden for General Dormer in 1737; it was also my advice to the Historic Buildings Council, over two hundred years after Clary’s letter, when acting as Secretary of The Garden History Society. We had approached them to consider giving protection to historic gardens as well as buildings. Thanks to Jennifer Jenkins, who was then Chairman, an unofficial Gardens Committee was set up to consider criteria for listing and grading historic gardens. The GHS had already produced a pilot scheme for my own county of Oxfordshire and Rousham headed the list. The provisional text as submitted was;

‘One of the earliest of English landscaped gardens, embodying the poetic and philosophical ideas of the age. As it stands it is entirely the work of William Kent, with no later additions; his ‘most engaging’ according to Horace Walpole’.

Following a site visit when ‘Faces’ were set towards Rousham , it was unanimously given provisional Grade I status; this was confirmed after the 1983 National Heritage Act empowered English Heritage, which replaced the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission, to compile a Register of Gardens and Parks of Special Historic Interest; the term listing now being abandoned as that implied statutory control. Rousham was the first entry.

I should now like to give due thanks to Alun Jones with whom I worked on the Oxfordshire CPRE, which had been concerned about the lack of protection for its historic parks even before the GHS entered the fray. I accompanied him on many happy surveys at a time when he was producing map guides to historic landscape in the Oxfordshire countryside and succeeded in persuading him to extend this to historic gardens. Although we took many Oxford students to Rousham, as a study document, the map guide was not published until 1980, and then because the famous Clary letter showing the way to view Kent’s garden had just been discovered and to encourage more visitors to ‘turn your Faces towards Rousham’. At the time it was not clear whether this was in 1750 or 1760 and so no date is given on the map guide, but when the full letter was published in Garden History (Vol 11:2, 1983 pp125–32) the date was given as 1750. Now, however, Angela and Charles Cottrell-Dormer have studied it again, and can date it definitely as 1760, and this has greatly added to its interest, particularly as the first garden historian, Horace Walpole, was shown Rousham by Clary in 1760. Walpole was so impressed by Kent’s planting instructions to him, at the very time he was planning his own garden, now that his gothic villa at Strawberry Hill had been completed.

Walpole writes in July 1760 that his greatest pleasure had been in visiting Rousham and we now realize that it was Clary the gardener who showed him round in the absence of the owner. Admiring ‘the sweetest little groves, streams, glades, porticoes, cascades and river imaginable’, he goes on to say ‘if I had such a house, such a library, so pretty a place and so pretty a wife, I think I should let King George send to Herrenhausen for a Master of the Ceremonies’. The Cottrell family had been Master of Ceremonies since the days of Charles II, but it became a more onerous task with the coming of the Hanoverians as they spent their summers back in Herrenhausen.

The reason for Clary’s recent letter was to give the family a reminder of their gardens. ‘Madam, I am afraid my Master and all of you have forgot what sort of a Place Rousham is, so I have sent you a description of it that it might not creep out of your Memorys’. Walpole clearly commiserated with him, but George II died later in the year and there was no more need for the Cottrell-Dormers to attend at summer courts. The pretty wife, Jane Caesar, returned to being a fulltime mistress of Rousham and promptly fired Clary.

However, not only has Clary’s guided tour become a gem of garden history, his description of Kent’s romantic planting clearly delighted Walpole. ‘You see deferant sorts of Flowers, peeping through the deferant sorts of Evergreens, here you think the Laurel produces a Rose. The Holly a Syringa, the Yew a Lilac and the sweet Honeysuckle is peeping out from under every Leafe’.

By 1765 Walpole at Strawberry Hill could write ‘the honeysuckle dangles from every tree in festoons, the syringas are thickets of sweets’. When Walpole later came to write his history of modern gardening, he could see it all in perspective.

It was Pope who had influenced Kent, and it was Pope who was held in such high esteem at Rousham, where a special ‘Pope’s room’ had been set up for him. Although Pope was dead when Walpole moved to Twickenham, he said that his ghost skimmed by his windows.

General Dormer, who never recovered from wounds received at the Battle of Blenheim, liked nothing better than to sit in his gardens reading Pope’s verses, enjoying ‘the ‘philosophic retirement’ Walpole said Kent had planned for him.

Kent had learnt from Pope a great love for Spenser’s The Faerie Queene and one of his illustrations is of Phaedra’s island clearly showing Rousham’s arcade Praeneste, the place to which celebrated Romans retired to regain their health.

At Rousham are two of Kent’s drawings, one of the view across the Cherwell, ‘calling in the country’ as Pope advised, and the other of Venus Vale, the best example of his ‘practical poetry’.

We often see references to the splendid 17th-century nurseries of London & Wise at Brompton Park, London. They were used by royalty and many other important landowners who were ‘improving’ their estates. They supplied trees, shrubs, fruit trees and especially the newly introduced plants, mainly from North America.

The formal designs of George London & Henry Wise were nearly all swept away by the naturalistic landscapes of the 18th century. Perhaps only one remains, at Melbourne Hall in Derbyshire. This layout was a collaboration between the owner and London & Wise, who supplied the plants, the work carried out by locals. In modern times the elaborate Parterre has been grassed over but the Wilderness remains with many delightful statues of cherubs and fine stone urns.

The National Trust has recently re-created London’s early 18th-century gardens at Hanbury Hall, Worcestershire. Fortunately some of the original plans of George London were available at the Worcestershire Record Office, they are probably office copies. It is a delight to see the house returned to its original setting. A single Cedar of Lebanon is probably the only survivor of London’s original planting.

The Grove (below) near the house is small, designed around an oval walk. On the outside are blocks of mixed small trees, surrounded by a hornbeam hedge, with tufts of small elm trees every 15ft. This is a sheltered area for the enjoyment of the garden. There are niches along the walk to display statues and rare plants in pots.

George London's 'design' for the Grove at Hanbury Hall. By courtesy of Worcestershire Record Office

It is interesting to look at these designs which were rather different from the usual gardens of the day, as recorded in the many engravings of Johannes Kip. I suspect George London had an enlightened client in Thomas Vernon who was a successful London lawyer, and that they were both influenced by the writings of John Evelyn. Evelyn didn’t like the regimented schemes we see in Kip’s engravings, and was advocating more natural lines and the planting of many more trees. He wrote about the pleasures of views out into the surrounding countryside. Looking at London’s plans here, we get the feeling the grounds were laid out for the pleasure of a family who would enjoy walking around and admiring the views over the local countryside.

Further out in the parkland, at the highest point, is the Viewing Platform. This is a plantation of large native trees with paths radiating out to create views of distant villages. These are named on the working plan (below), together with measurements needed to set out the design. This ‘excursion’ must be intended for those who wanted more energetic exercise!

London's drawing recording the views out from the Viewing Platform at Hanbury Hall. By courtesy of Worcestershire Record Office

The man

Originally he worked for Bishop Compton at Lambeth Palace, where he learned about ‘curious’ new plants from North America. Later, when he set up his own business he travelled on horseback to visit his customers’ estates. The most prestigious of these was Queen Anne.

His first commission was for Lord Weymouth at Longleat in 1682. His then traditional approach was recorded in a Kip engraving of 1690. This shows a formal design of squares and oblongs, adorned with a few fountains and parterres-de-broderie and rows of trees. However I detect a touch of originality even there, the main axis is a long, wide path leading to an elaborate arbour, surrounded by trees. The several water features are fed by diverting the small River Leat; simple water engineering.

In John Evelyn’s book The Complete Gard’ner (1693) he includeed a report on the Brompton Nurseries with some detail of their horticultural expertise and knowledge of silviculture; they must have been advanced for the day. It does suggest that George London was a disciple of John Evelyn and had already acquired a feeling for his ‘rural gardening’.

It is important to mention London’s own book, The Retir’d Gard’ner (c.1706). This must have been a great help to landowners. It is a translation from a French book by Louis Liger, adapted by London & Wise. It explains ‘good horticultural practice’, and was helpful with growing newly acquired exotics and Mediterranean plants. It also explains the fashionable garden design of the day.

Caldwell Tower in East Renfrewshire was recently featured in a Channel 4 television series about the restoration of a number of small historic buildings. The particular programme repeated the owner’s belief that his tower was built in the 15th century and was the last standing portion of a large mediaeval castle which stood by Uplawmoor on the hillside above Loch Libo. Artistic licence and a considerable amount of imagination was used to produce an image of a Renfrewshire Camelot.

A different picture has emerged from research undertaken over the past two years by an East Renfrewshire Historic Designed Landscape Group supported by the Garden History Society in Scotland. The group has been studying and surveying a number of sites in the area including the designed landscapes associated with Caldwell House.

The present Caldwell House was built in 1773 for William Mure, Baron of the Exchequer of Scotland, to the designs of Robert and James Adam. The house was originally planned as a rather plain classical box but the detailing was changed by the addition of a machiolated cornice with small bartizan towers, and the house as built is one of the last of the Adam castellated mansions. However, whilst site was new, this was not the first property at Caldwell.

Timothy Pont’s 1580 map of Renfrewshire (below) shows a substantial tower house at Caldwell. It appears to be located above the southern end of Loch Libo, which would place it some distance from the site of the present house.

Timothy Pont’s 1580 map of Renfrewshire. Courtesy of National Library of Scotland

The nature of Pont’s map is such that buildings are represented rather than accurately sketched and we cannot be sure what the building actually looked like. The indications are that it was a tower and may have had a barmkin wall or enclosure, but it was certainly not a large or important multi-towered castle. Little seems to be known about the occupation of this tower at Caldwell. The main branch of the Mure family lived at Glanderston a few miles from Caldwell and whilst the Blaeu map of 1654 identifies a number of properties in the area it does not show any inhabited site for Caldwell. It may be that the old tower had been abandoned by this date.

In 1666 William Mure was attainted for his support of the covenanters’ cause and went into exile in Holland where he died in 1670. The Caldwell estates were restored to the family in 1690 following the accession of William of Orange to the English throne, and eventually passed in 1722 to the nephew of William Mure of Glanderston, another William who became Baron Mure in the same year.

It has been suggested that a new house commenced building in the early part of the 18th century on the recently restored family property. It is not clear when this house was completed as General Roy’s map (below) of 1746 shows a tree lined avenue, an elaborate garden of intersecting alleys, and a walled enclosure, but no house.

General Roy’s map of 1746. Courtesy of National Library of Scotland

However, Jean Hunter Blair (the sister-in-law of Colonel William Mure, the heir to Baron Mure) writing from Caldwell in 1799 reports that “Mr Mure is at present in the very agony of making a new garden on the Brandy Hill behind the stables and offices. He has converted the old house into stables and means next year to take away the offices entirely which will be an immense improvement to the place for at present they are not a beautiful ornament.”

Survey work by the volunteers has identified the living remnants of an avenue of old limes and the location of tree root hollows in patterns corresponding with the Roy garden. In addition there still exist the footings of the large enclosure and a levelled platform suitable for a house close to a stone water pump of classical design. The presence of fragments of plaster, pottery and slate in disturbances on this latter site suggest that the older dwelling was indeed on the top of the rising land in front of the Adam house. Unlike the current house, the demolished property and the ‘new’ garden looked out across the intervening valley to the site of Pont’s tower house.

The Armstrong map of 1775 (below) suggests the fate of the tower house as it identifies a ‘Ruin’ on the hillside above Loch Libo corresponding approximately with the location of that provided by Pont.

The Armstrong map of 1775. Courtesy of National Library of Scotland

Fifteen years later, after the completion of the Adam house, Ainsley’s map of the area (below) shows a castellated tower, described as a ‘Pigeon House’ (circled), on the site of the ruin.

Ainsley’s map of 1790. Courtesy of National Library of Scotland

The tower is still visible from the hill on which the pre Adam house was built, and without the trees which have grown up over the intervening years, this ornamental ‘Pigeon house’ would have been the principal eye catcher in the landscape as seen from this viewpoint. In fact the group’s survey work has revealed the presence within the “new garden” layout of a belvedere or bastion which looks directly to Caldwell tower.

Further documentary research will be needed to establish exactly when the site of the ruin acquired its castellated pigeon house, but it seems likely that it was contemporary with, or shortly after, the construction of the castellated Adam mansion house.

It seems probable that the Caldwell tower that we see today was constructed as a decorative feature in the landscape surrounding Caldwell House. Its construction on the site of the earlier tower, and possible incorporation of remnants or materials from the original building, would no doubt also have provided a link or memorial to the Mure family past and a reminder of how the family’s fortunes had improved.

There is no evidence for the conjectured ‘Camelot’, but the story of the tower is no less romantic in its own way. It is sad that this small element in the landscape has fared better than the mansion itself, as Caldwell House now lies roofless waiting for another map to describe it as a ruin.

Reprinted from The Journal of The Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, 2010.

Update

It is now a year on from the Channel 4 Restoration Man programme referred to in the article about the B listed Caldwell Tower. In the intervening period planning permission was granted for a modest ground floor extension and a covering for the external stair giving access to the upper room of the tower. Conditions were attached to the permission for the expressed purpose of protecting the visual amenity and historical and architectural character of the tower. Roofing was to be in thick blue slate and weatherboarding to be in natural wood. Though not specifically included we imagined that window frames would be similarly treated so that the finished extension would blend in with the tower allowing it to remain a key feature of the landscape.

The work is now nearing completion, and we have been very surprised to find that the pale blue material which from a distance we took to be temporary tarpaulin covering the construction is in fact the finished article. There has been an unsympathetic ground floor extension in stone which looks rather like a 1960s public toilet. More startling is the bright blue tongue and groove erection covering what is left of the original external staircase (below). It has a rubberoid stepped roof with white plywood fascia. This part of the development dominates the appearance of this modest tower. It’s a real shocker! What was an ‘eye-catcher’ is now a major ‘eye-sore’.

Caldwell Tower, from ‘eye-catcher’ to ‘eye-sore’. Photo by John West

It is hard to believe that this development was sanctioned by Historic Scotland in the form that it now presents to the world or that regular monitoring by the authorities has not noticed the failure to comply with the requirements to protect the visual, historical and architectural integrity of this landmark tower. It’s clear that even when we believe that appropriate conditions have been attached to a development as a result of advice and intervention, there is a need for continued close monitoring. It is to be hoped that retrospective action will be taken to remedy or ameliorate the effect of this damage to the focus of Caldwell’s Brandy Hill gardens.

The Channel 4 team is now doing a follow up to the original transmission. The continuing research work of the volunteer group and the GHSS view of the tragedy have been expressed in an interview for the programme, though of course only a selected fraction of the dialogue is likely to be given air time.

Alix Wilkinson. Photo by Hazel Conway

Alix and John, her husband lived for several years in Jerusalem and later in Washington, D.C. and both postings provided opportunities which contributed to her development as a garden historian. While based in Jerusalem, Alix taught English to Palestinian students attending Birzeit University, outside Ramallah. She also learnt modern Arabic and became involved in the archaeology and gardens of the Near East, travelling later to Iran and to Syria.

In Washington D.C. Alix studied at Georgetown University where she was awarded her PhD in Linguistics. However as her commitment to garden history increased, she accepted an offer to become a Gardens Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Landscape Architecture, Dumbarton Oaks. This meant that she was paid to study historic gardens and during this period she researched much of the material for The Garden in Ancient Egypt (Rubicon Press, London, 1998). This involved studying archaeological remains; documents on stone and papyrus which described the layout, size, plants and use of particular gardens; and paintings and models of gardens.

Once back in London Alix became involved in a variety of garden-related activities. She became a tour guide at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, joined the Birkbeck College Garden History Course, set up the Kensington Gardeners’ Club and organised a programme of visits and lectures, and was a founder member of ASTENE, 1997 (The Association for the Study of Travellers in Egypt and the Near East).

She also embarked on new research in Egypt, focusing this time on nineteenth century Cairo and the gardens of the Khedive, Ismail Pasha. Ismail Pasha was determined to bring Egypt into the ‘modern’ European world and as part of this plan he brought in Barillet Deschamps, who had worked with Alphand on the parks of Paris. The plans and planting lists of two of Barillet Deschamps’ gardens, Gezira and Ezbekiah, survive, as do documents of his assistant. Tracking down the individual plants, in a period when plant nomenclature was by no means standardized, was a challenging task and Alix was often to be seen at Kew studying and photographing particular plants; she was a very good photographer. Her research meant frequent visits to Cairo and another circle of friends and colleagues.

Other important areas of her research remain unpublished. These included Lyveden New Bield and sacri monte. The original sacred mountain was the hill of Calvary outside Jerusalem and from the late fifteenth century this inspired the creation of many sacri monte, initially in Italy and later across Europe. They were approached via a pilgrimage route, which was in effect the Via Dolorosa. Much smaller versions could be found on religious sites such as monasteries. Even if these had been abandoned the sacro monte, which could created from a natural feature, or man-made, often survived. It was these smaller sites that Alix was amassing information on, travelling widely in order to do so. These sites were often off the beaten track, as were many of the gardens that Alix visited. This meant contending with local public transport which could be very unreliable. Her tales of some of her struggles to return to base could be most entertaining.

She is much missed.

Hazel Conway

Continuing the tradition of holding these events regionally, to reach as many members as possible, we were at the University of Keele in Staffordshire, described by our guest speaker Dr Nigel Tringham (of the History department at Keele) as the ‘lost county’. Some 80 members attended. Our visits to two major gardens near Stoke on Trent, Biddulph Grange and Trentham proved that the county is very much still on the map! Two past Chairmen resident in the county further proved that Garden History is thriving here.

At Biddulph Grange, our extra visit, Peter Hayden shed light on this remarkable garden and its restoration, and is looking forward to a reprint of his book, Biddulph Grange, Stafford: Victorian Garden Rediscovered (1988), to coincide with the National Trust refurbishment of Bateman’s unique Geological Gallery. Keith Goodway hosted us at Keele and gave a fascinating account of the early history of the house, its residents and its garden and landscape setting, as well as of the transformation of the former army barracks and Keele Hall into a vibrant University campus; Keith has been involved at Keele for many years and was pleased to see some of his former students enjoying the weekend.

GHS members at Biddulph Grange, with Vice-Presidents Peter Hayden (in cap) and Keith Goodway (in terracotta jacket). Photo by Peter Ranson

We were especially pleased to initiate the first GHS Graduate Symposium on the morning of the AGM. The idea was proposed by former Chairman, Colin Treen and built on by Tim Richardson and Patrick Eyres. The aim is for new unpublished students of Garden History to showcase their studies and establish a public footing in the discipline. We enjoyed the lucid and erudite offerings, from five new scholars. Oliver Cox on Jeremiah Dixon, Alfred the Great, and the merchant fathers of Leeds provided a valuable lesson in showing how one Leeds resident’s aim was to remind the Lascelles at Harwood that political decisions had consequences; alas his architectural and landscape reaction is now just a street name in a Leeds suburb. Sarah Hundleby on The Development of Bramham Park raised questions of the attribution of the famous park’s designers, suggesting the key role for London, wasn’t in fact the famous designer, but instead a local mason. Sarah Law on The Rufford Abbey Estate provided an engaging account of how one enterprising landowner built up a remarkable garden under the eye of his much wealthier and better landed neighbour. Elaine Mitchell on ‘A fine crop of peaches, and several hundred geraniums’ traced the story of how two business partners created a large and thriving business on the banks of Birmingham’s canal system which survives as a trace in a business still extant. Gabriele Mulè on The Extended Garden: following Walter Swinburne, ‘Grand Tour’ traveler, demonstrated a delightful journey in the footfalls of this now obscure traveler, brilliantly elucidating his view of a journey through the Sicilian landscape as a garden; perhaps made more poignant as Gabriele himself was combining the Symposium with his honeymoon. Most members attending the weekend were able to attend the Symposium and found it very stimulating; a very exciting way of encouraging younger people to engage with the Society, and it will be rerun next year.

Having been involved with the reawakening of the gardens at Trentham our chairman, Dominic Cole, was able to describe the huge amount of work that has gone into re-opening this garden as a popular local and national attraction. Long ago memories of the Beatles performances in the conference centre and waterskiing on Brown’s lake are now complemented by the magnificent new plantings by Piet Oudolf and Tom Stuart Smith. He was also able to explain how in a scheme on this scale it is possible to accommodate the enormous new car park, shopping village and garden centre without detracting from the overall ambience of a great garden.

GHS Chairman Dominic Cole with Keith Goodway & Barbara Simms, our journal editor, in the foreground, at Trentham. Photo by Peter Ranson

On Sunday we visited two very different gardens, both still in private hands. At Adlington Hall in Cheshire, after a brief tour of the house that set the context of the visit, we were impressed to discover ‘The Wilderness’, which deserves to be far better known. Currently undergoing a very gentle rediscovery with vistas and garden buildings being opened out and uncovered for our visit it made an impression on all who visited it. We await the return of Father Tiber to his Cascade, albeit in replica form.

Members hear about changes underway in the Wilderness at Adlington Hall. Photo by Peter Ranson

The final visit was to Henbury Hall, which is itself about to undergo a transformation under the guidance of its new chatelaine, the owner’s third wife. Julian Bicknell’s new villa Rotunda sits at the head of a system of ancient radiating avenues, with relatively modern pleasure gardens laid out in a hidden valley below the East front, though an older walled garden suggest there has been a garden here for some time. Somewhat surprisingly this old landscape has no Register listing at present, surely an oversight. Perhaps it is Cheshire that is the lost county?

report by Steffie Shields

The Reservoirs Act 1975, ensuring the safety of UK reservoirs, is being updated by the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, England and Wales. Haycock Associates liaised with English Heritage and other key organisations to host a conference for interested groups to share experiences of implementing these changes, where costs may be significant, and to summarise challenging requirements of the new Flood and Water Management Act for historic landscapes whilst maintaining a sensitive approach to management.

Professor Andy Hughes, Director of Dams & Water Resources, Atkins; Panel Engineer, Advisor to DEFRA, began the day with a historical perspective (see www.barrages-cfbr for his paper Reservoir Safety in the UK). The first reference to reservoir safety in the UK appeared in the Waterworks Clauses Act of 1863, where anyone who was concerned about reservoir safety could complain to two Justices of the Peace who would then investigate the issue and organize repairs/action. Then in 1925 three failures caused loss of life. On Monday 20 April 1925, heavy rain caused Skelmorlie reservoir dam to overtop, killing a woman and four children. On 2 November 1925, a cascade failure caused the death of 16 persons in Dalgarrog village, North Wales, when two dams failed, after poor quality construction. This led to the Reservoirs (Safety Provisions) Act 1930, applying to all reservoirs containing more than 5 million gallons and subject to inspection by an independent engineer. There was a responsibility under common law for accumulating water and filth, but no powers to enforce the Act or compel the owner to carry out works required in the interests of safety. The Reservoirs Act 1975 brought in the formation of a supervising Enforcement Authority nested in more than 136 different authorities, with the provision of a Supervising Engineer for each dam with a capacity of 25,000m3 to inspect the dam usually twice a year. The first formal Register was made. Every year since 1975, there have been three or four incidents of dam failure, though no loss of life. A guide ‘Floods and Reservoir Safety: An Engineering Guide’ (1978, updated 1989 and 1996) suggested standards and categorised dams in terms of the potential hazard to life and property downstream:

• Category A dams: where a community (10 or more people) are at risk.

• Category B dams: where inhabitants of isolated houses are at risk or where extensive damage would be caused (i.e. erosion of soils, severing a main road or rail communications).

• Category C dams: situations where there is negligible risk to human life, flood-threatened areas that are ‘inhabited’ only spasmodically e.g. footpaths etc and loss of livestock and crops.

• Category D dams: usually small dams where additional damage caused by the release of water may be insignificant if lake is small, where stored water would add no more than 10% to the volume or peak of the flood.

The 2003 Water Act called for better record keeping of ‘flood-plans’; inundation mapping, velocity and depth of water, on-site and off-site emergency planning. 136 different enforcement authorities were replaced with a single enforcement authority, the Environment Agency and Crown immunity was removed.

The Flood and Water Management Act 2010 includes more small reservoirs and cascades with a 10,000m3 threshold and will provide more monitoring, better maintenance, a risk-based-approach to protect persons and property against the escape of water. Statutory Inspections will have the force of law. Recommendations may be challenged at the report stage with a referee procedure. Owners will be given three years to resolve problems. Many historic water features previously exempt from regulation will now have to meet statutory standards and will be subject to inspection; those which pose a low risk to people and property downstream may be deregulated.

The choice of pragmatic and flexible engineers will be key for owners, so as to build and maintain stable level-crested, smooth dams with working valves, appropriate spillways, and ensure no trees in wrong positions, care with machinery, grass cut and no overgrown vegetation so that dams may be inspected. The advice is be safe, be legal, be sure.

Simon Rundle, Principal Counsel for Reservoirs, Environment Agency, continued the theme, pointing out that the average age of reservoirs is 110 years. Owners will be enforced to register. In Phase 1,

April 2012, every reservoir will be assessed, probably in three categories, high, medium and low risk, with necessary measures to be taken ‘as soon as practicable’. Phase 2, Oct 2013/2014 will require the registration of new large reservoirs and flood maps for those from 10,000m3 to 25,000m3. High-risk reservoirs will require a supervising engineer to make a statement of compliance on maintenance. Post incident reporting will become a legal requirement, and will enable the sharing of knowledge with owners/undertakers/lessees of ornamental lakes. In cases of dual, or even several ownership regarding upstream face, and downstream face, and road, or even different local authority areas, it will be a matter of negotiation on a case-by-case basis. Safety is paramount. Criminal charges may be brought for an offence of strict liability.

Andy Wimble, Regional Landscape Architect EH, considers approximately 13% of registered parks and gardens could be affected by this 2010 legislation. He endorsed the need for flexibility and pragmatism regarding issues of extreme weather and ground saturation, de-silting of lakes, die-back in trees, and warned of the cumulative effect of managing a chain of lakes or abandoned water features. ‘Heritage at Risk’ Funding is being extended to landscapes at risk. There are design issues such as the use of ‘riprap’ (loose stone construction) to counter rising water tables. Warning that landscapes are vulnerable to failure to understand the character and key components, he emphasised both the need to mitigate highly inappropriate, over-engineered solutions and the importance of dialogue, case studies and data gathering to help both an understanding of the history of features and how lakes are being used. Case studies included Bretton Country Park, EH Grade II, (home to Yorkshire Sculpture Park) restoration of the lakes created by damming the River Dearne; Plumpton Rocks, EH Grade II*, to retrieve the picturesque landscape as depicted in Turner’s c.1798 paintings; Alnwick Castle Estates looking at using hydro-power from cascades on the River Aln.

Wrest Park Old Park lake dam by Capability Brown newly restored by EH. By courtesy of the author

David Thackray, Head of Archaeology, National Trust, has been working on their policy publication Source to Sea. 5% of NT land and 2,000 buildings are at risk, with 120 NT properties at Flash Flood Risk. Slope is an issue, as is erosion, episodes of high rainfall and climate change. NT is looking at slowing the speed of water moving downstream, using land to absorb and store water. With coast erosion and sea level rises, nine coastal historic parks and gardens are in the flood risk zone. The restoration of the Stourhead dam is an example of good practice regarding hydrological, archaeological and biodiversity aspects. In Studley Royal water garden artificial islands caused by previous dredging have now been removed. At Woodchester, Gloucestershire, a chain of five lakes poses a serious health and safety risk to the Stroud valley community. Dense forestry creates a problem, casting deep shade on the lakes. Viewpoints have been obscured. The 25-year NT plan aims to take out the forestry and return the land to grazing. Some serious, austere engineering, including enlarging spillways, has followed appropriate historical research and design intentions to ensure water resource conservation in planning.

Dominic Cole, Principal Landscape Architect, Land Use Consultants, Chairman of the GHS, agreed that the brutal engineering at Woodchester works, because the sides of the valley are planted up. Water features placed on tops or on sides of hills cause problems; for example the scale and visual illusion at Prior Park with small ponds in a geologically unstable area of Bath. At Wardour Castle, Richard Woods’ dams had collapsed when trying to implement Lancelot Brown’s lake proposals. A fascinating plan of the contours of the Stowe landscape showed great amounts of earth-moving and excavated soil deposited, when Brown had problems sourcing water and failed to create a lake in the Grecian valley.

Nick Haycock, Director of Consulting, Haycock Associates, focused on hydrological perspectives, the challenges of catchment risks, and modifying catchment behaviour. Should we use smart hydrometrics to reduce reservoir management risk, or find softer solutions? He spoke of eleven water bodies on the 600-acre Hampstead Heath, the impact of people, and the problems of compaction and sorptivity, with some areas like concrete. Crisp, clear water is an aspiration. The badly silted lake at Croome was dredged, keeping the weir and original penstock systems. The need was for sympathetic solutions, particularly with a heronry on the island, the reduction of pollution and nitrogen because of significant wetlands and, with ground water seeping down the valley, alternating flow and run-off. He discussed warning systems, such as the rain radar now monitoring the weather on Hampstead Heath, and rain gauges and water-level recorders to trigger an alarm system.

Steve Capel-Davies, Partner & Past-Chair, Peter Brett Associates, concluded with a key case-study, Blenheim, having been involved for 8 years working with EH, Natural England and the Environment Agency where Vanbrugh built ’a monstrous bridge over a vast hollow’ (Thomas Whateley) and Brown dammed the modest river Glyme to create the Great Lake, 7½ million m3 of impounded water in a World Heritage Site. In 2007, a tractor made a hole in Brown’s underground spillway beside the dam. The cascade, with 7 to 8 metres drop, was also leaking. They cut down the plane trees below the dam and dug a 1m wide trench to remove eroded and breached sections of the dam, replacing the 600 mm core by back filling with bentonite (a form of clay) slurry (or cement made of hydrated aluminosilicate minerals, comprised chiefly of montmorillonite). Instead of underground, they built a serpentine armour-lock spillway as a path where vegetation will take root. 12,000 cubic metres of top-soil were imported, wildflowers and grass sewn, and evergreen shrubbery planted. A viewing area for visitors overlooks the Grand Cascade which was grouted, and limestone rocks placed either side to stop leakage. An area below the Swiss Bridge is being addressed that was once wetlands according to a 1920’s photograph, and also the river–lake, embanked and densely wooded all the way to Brown’s brick Lince Bridge and another 4-metre drop cascade.

New work on the cascade of Lancelot Brown's dam at Blenheim Palace, World Heritage Site. Photo by Sally Stradling

A view in the opposite direction along Brown's Blenheim dam. Photo by Sally Stradling

Conclusion. A worthwhile day explaining the implementation of the 2010 Flood and Water Management Act, adding much to a gathering wisdom re hydro-projects in historic landscapes. Haycock Associates’ posters in the conference room: “Putting water first creates habitat for lives” and “Thinking big to solve problems at source” would seem to suggest a positive way forward for owners of historic landscapes, which will need to be individually addressed, carefully, sensitively, case by case. Personally speaking, I am concerned that Blenheim’s engineering solutions have set a precedent that may radically affect sense of place.

report by D.H. van Wegen

Theory of conservation and restoration is usually focused on Art with a capital A. Those involved with ‘Green Heritage’ can borrow from this, but usually they rely on standard practice, and common sense. In recent years conservation theory has been tailored to accommodate more specific forms of heritage, such as technical collections and contemporary art. In particular non-traditional art forms such as installations called for new practices and a new theory of conservation. At this meeting in Holland it turned out that these new concepts might fit the needs of historical gardens surprisingly well.

Our purpose was to develop and exchange ideas on the conservation of historical gardens and to introduce these ideas to an audience of gardeners, gardens designers and conservators of historical gardens. Chaired by Jan Willem Edinga, four experts on green heritage engaged in fruitful debate with a fifth scholar specializing in conservation of twentieth-century installation art. The symposium was organized within the context of an exhibition, entitled ‘Tuinvisioenen; Jonkheer van Sypesteyn op zoek naar de verloren tuinkunst’ (Garden visions; Jonkheer van Sypesteyn in search of lost garden art).

Rik van Wegen, who initiated the exhibition and is the author of the accompanying book, emphasized that gardens present a living heritage; the identity of gardens ought to be considered as partly fluid. It is inevitable, moreover, that over the years this identity becomes multi-layered. At Sypesteyn Castle, this multi-layered identity was even built in; designed at the beginning of the twentieth century the gardens point back to the heyday of Dutch garden design. Jonkheer Van Sypesteyn laid out the gardens as his fancy took him; they reflect both the period around 1600 as well as the modern ideas of the early twentieth century, his own lifetime. And, to top it off, his gardens breathe his own, personal taste and passion as a collector of rare plants and trees.

An elderly Jonkheer Van Sypesteyn in his garden. By courtesy of the author

Johan Carel Bierens de Haan argued that van Sypesteyn’s seemingly unique creation was in fact part of a much wider tradition. When designing his gardens, van Sypesteyn’s aim was not to be restricted to a mere reconstruction, his aim was to create an image of continuity. He wanted to present a ‘gardenscape’ that not only looked as if it had been created in the sixteenth century but had then been cared for ever since. This resulted in a traditional garden with modern features. Sypesteyn Castle and its gardens would emphasise the ancient roots of the Van Sypesteyn family.

Van Sypesteyn was not the only one doing this, as Bierens de Haan pointed out. Other Dutch families had been engaged in similar endeavours. Huis ten Bosch in The Hague, for example, was built in the seventeenth century by Prince Frederik Hendrik, and completed by his spouse Amalia van Solms; the decoration of the main hall illustrates the role of the Princes of Orange in the long struggle for freedom from Spain. At Duivenvoorde, near The Hague, gardens and house were restored, and extended using both modern and older styles; at Keukenhof and Heeswijk Castle, old architectural fragments were integrated in the buildings; Schaffelaar Castle was built in the then modern neo-gothic, a want-to-be medieval style, emphasizing the ancient origins of the family. Even at the Royal Palace ‘Het Loo’, at the beginning of the twentieth century Queen Wilhelmina ordered the main staircase to be redecorated in order to evoke the most glorious period of the palace and her own family, the reign of Stadholder King William III; who not only re-established the family in its leading position in the Netherlands, but also became King of Great Britain and gave Louis XIV many a hard time, both in the battlefield and in European politics.

Vivian van Saaze introduced the audience to the latest developments in the theory of conservation of contemporary installation art. Although van Saaze focused primarily on her own subject-matter and did not venture into the field of green heritage, interesting parallels could not be misssed. Van Saaze defined installations as three-dimensional artworks engaging in a physical and substantial relationship with the surrounding space, requiring some kind of meaningful participation of the observer. A starting point for Van Saaze’s research was the strain between the supposedly fixed identity of artworks in museums and the variability which inevitably shows up with installation art.

Originating in the 1960’s from an anti-institutional attitude, such works, intended to be ephemeral, were eventually bought and incorporated into museum collections. From then onwards, re-installing installations presented a challenge. Whenever a work of art is installed in a space other than in the one for which it was originally conceptualised, it entails consequences for its meaning. More substantial problems occur when a change in technical ‘surroundings’ demands changing hardware-support that can change the aura of the work completely. For example, the 1979 multi-channel video installation 25 Caramboles and Variations: Birthday present for a 25 year old by Miguel-Ángel Cárdenas was originally shown by using black-and-white monitors on a billiard table in a pub and is now re-enacted in full colour in the museum. Several stakeholders, each with their own ‘interests’, were involved in the decision-making processes which surround re-installing installation art. The word ‘biography’ is nowadays commonly applied in this context.

In her dissertation Doing Artworks, Van Saaze argues that when installations are re-installed time and again, their identity becomes variable and instable. Moreover, the very act of installation itself (the choices, the actions, but also the architectural framework and manner of documentation) inevitably becomes part of the identity of the work. In the context of installation art, Van Saaze proposes to replace the concept of ‘authenticity’ by ‘continuity’ and the concept of ‘artist intent’ by ‘interaction’. By introducing continuity as an important concept to the identity of installation art, the difference between gradual development and sudden change immediately comes out as being meaningful. Identifying interaction recognizes the fact that every time the artwork is re-installed, its meaning is also reconstructed. Consequently the identity of installation artworks can evolve, depending partly on the institution which became its owner.

Henk Boers, described how, since the death of van Sypesteyn in 1937, the Castle gardens had been neglected because of lack of funds as well as a lack of interest, until the late 1970s. Between then and the early 1990s, the head gardener and the voluntary staff, among them Boers himself, worked to restore and return the gardens to their former glory. Van Sypesteyn’s notebooks, drawings (below) and publications were thoroughly researched, as well as the garden itself. The efforts made were immense and the results truly impressive, the historical garden was reborn. In just over ten years, a complete metamorphosis had taken place; the original layout, the numerous singular patterns and the many pruned shapes were, once again, fully recognizable.

One of Van Sypesteyn’s drawings used in the continuing care of his garden. By courtesy of the author

During the process of this extensive restoration, the age of the gardens has always been respected. The passage of time, more than half a century, had left, undoubtedly, visible marks. It is curious, therefore, that the formal purpose of the restoration remained ‘reconstruction’, as if to fit sound garden practice into standard museological conservation theory. One might say that during restoration of the gardens between the late 1970’s and the early 1990’s, ‘authenticity’ as the main identifying concept was never explicitly challenged. At the same time, it was equally self-evident, that ‘continuity’ was implicitly introduced; reclaiming a huge topiary chicken from a giant shrub (below), doing a garden artwork indeed!

A huge topiary chicken rescued from within giant shrub. By courtesy of the author

By contrast, the fourth speaker, Hanneke Schreiber, took the audience to the reconstruction of the ‘Snippendaal Garden’ in the Amsterdam Hortus Botanicus (Botanic Garden), named after the 17th-century botanist and author of the Catalogue of the then Hortus Medicus. From the beginning it was obvious that authenticity in the strict sense of the word would be unattainable, just one authentic element was left of the original Hortus Medicus, the 1646 catalogue of its plants. Not a single image or description of what the original ‘Snippendaal’ looked like remains. Moreover, as the Amsterdam Hortus Botanicus had moved to a different location, a technical reconstruction on site would not be possible anyway. The Keepers of the Amsterdam Hortus Botanicus decided to turn this problem into an advantage. Rather than creating a ‘historical’ herbal garden anew, they created a truly new garden with all the original species of plants, giving the authentic assortment of medicinal plants a contemporary home.

Finally, Sypesteyn’s present-day gardener Henny van der Wilt demonstrated how she ‘does’ these gardens which are entrusted to her; not bound to any kind of theory, let alone dogma. Van der Wilt freely, yet respectfully adds to the continuity of their existence. As to respect for the ‘artist’s intent’, van der Wilt regards van Sypesteyn as her ultimate boss. First thing every morning, she salutes his portrait above the coffee maker, then she literally springs into (inter)action. The structural design of the gardens is conserved, but within that van der Wilt takes the liberty to change whatever needs changing; she alters the mowing-regime in order to gain a wealth of ‘stinzenplanten’, wild spring flowers, on the lawns; she replaces roses suffering from parasites with less demanding perennials.

Non-traditional artworks demand new practices and new theories of conservation and restoration. Conserving historical gardens fits in surprisingly well. ‘Il faut cultiver le jardin’, one must maintain one’s garden, was the answer to the disturbing questions of life that Voltaire’s hero Candide eventually came up with. But in maintaining one’s garden, men will still ask themselves: how? And why in that way? Theories of conservation seek to provide answers.

Van der Wilt found her ‘common sense’ practice confirmed by van Saaze’s analysis of the practice of conservation of installation artworks, as did the other speakers and the audience. Previously such ideas and actions were intuited, now it turned out that they can be argued in a rational and even academically sound debate. This allows those responsible for the conservation of green heritage to take the exchange of ideas one step further, to express and question thoughts and considerations which were not voiced before. As a result, awareness of questions facing the conservation of historical gardens are deepened.

It was back in August 2010 that I found myself standing with historian Louise Yeoman and several other interested parties in a ploughed field at Tullibardine, a little to the north of Auchterarder, in West Perthshire (above). My visit had been prompted by a telephone call asking whether there might be some truth in a tale told by the 16th-century Scottish chronicler Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie that there had once been a garden laid out there in the precise shape and dimensions of a great early 16th-century warship known as the ‘Great Michael’ (below), a feature which, by all accounts, would have measured some 75 metres (250 feet) by 11 metres (35 feet).

Most people have heard of the ‘Mary Rose’, favourite warship of the England’s King Henry VIII, which foundered during the Battle of the Solent in 1545; fewer, perhaps, of the ‘Great Michael’, built for Henry’s Scottish contemporary King James IV, and launched in 1511. Regarded by many as the most successful of the Stewart kings, James had this great ship built as a symbol of power to impress his neighbours and allies, most notably the English and French. However, his reign was to end disastrously at Flodden Field in 1513, when his ill-judged invasion of England, prompted by Scotland’s ‘auld alliance’ with France, resulted in a crushing defeat, and his death along with many members of the Scots nobility.

Pitscottie’s account, believed by many to be somewhat fanciful, talked of the shape of the Great Michael as having been planted out in hawthorn at Tullibardine Castle by one of the shipwrights involved in her construction. But why might this have been the case, so far from the sea, and from the shipyard at Newhaven on the Firth of Forth where she was built? The answer is that, with large oak trees required for building a ship of such huge dimensions, timber had to be brought from as far afield as Scandinavia, and from Scotland’s inland forests, among them those of Tullibardine and Kincardine, nearby Auchterarder. Not only that, but one of the king’s carpenters is known to have been a John Drummond, who hailed from Auchterarder. Finally, there are later accounts which suggest that remnants of the hawthorns survived into the early 19th century.

Although no trace now survives above the ground of the great Murray stronghold of Tullibardine Castle, and although there are no hawthorns to be seen, the party was successful in locating the site of the castle on a ridge, with the help of archaeologist David Connolly. A little to the north-west of this there is an elongated marshy hollow which local folklore identifies as the site of the ‘Great Michael’ garden. Viewed from ground level there might seem little prospect of a garden in this position having much visual impact. Yet, if one imagines that the feature was designed to be seen from a viewing platform atop the five or six storey tower house depicted by the 16th-century cartographer Timothy Pont (below), the story begins to make more sense.

Hawthorn is likely to have been chosen, because it would withstand regular clipping, to maintain its shape. Comparison might be made with other near-contemporary garden features such as the ‘King’s Knot’ at Stirling, or the P-shaped fishpond at Craigmillar Castle near Edinburgh, both features designed to be seen from elevated viewpoints. Also, with Tullibardine Castle being one of the places which the reigning monarch would have visited in the course of a royal progress through his kingdom, what better way could there be to flatter the king?

In a BBC Radio Scotland programme presented by Susan Morrison, and broadcast in November 2010, all parties were able to reach agreement that, while we could think of few precedents, there seems every likelihood that the garden at Tullibardine was laid out as Pitscottie described it, and that traces of it may have survived into the 19th century, albeit modified by 18th-century landscaping which would have accompanied the re-building of the castle for the Murrays of Tullibardine and Atholl to designs by architect William Adam.

July 2011 sees the 200th anniversary of the birth of James Bateman (1811–97), Fellow of the Linnean and Royal Societies, Vice-President of the Royal Horticultural Society and the creator of the extraordinary world image garden at Biddulph Grange (right) in Staffordshire. Bateman is celebrated as a botanist who orchestrated the collection of tropical plants and published the largest book (in 10 volumes) solely devoted to orchids, The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala (1837–43). He was also the author of two other major works on the cultivation of orchids; A Second Century of Orchidaceous Plants (1867) and a Monograph of Odontoglossum (1874).

The plate from ‘Orchidacea’ depicting Laelia Majalis used on the Spode plate below

Although much research was carried out at the time that the National Trust took over the garden in 1988 comparatively little has been written about James Bateman and the influences affecting his garden since Peter Hayden’s publication of Biddulph Grange, Stafford: Victorian Garden Rediscovered (1988). Inevitably, Bateman’s interests in botanical matters have tended to overshadow his wider interest and connections. However a series of unrelated episodes have recently combined to shed more light on the Bateman’s life. The acquisition in 2002 of land on the east side of his house, included the former Geological Gallery, long used as workshop during the time the estate was a hospital (1922–91), provided an opportunity to better understand the connections between Bateman’s Millinerian beliefs and the design and purpose of his garden. Recent research work by Pam Wolliscroft, the former Curator of the Spode Museum Trust, has uncovered further links with the world of ceramics and a discovery in the Enville Hall Plant Book of 1832–33 has demonstrated just how extensive was Bateman’s orchid collecting and dealing at an early age.

The concept of a link between the Millenarian belief of the imminent second coming and the layout of the garden at Biddulph has been the subject of some literary discussion. The geological gallery was a narrow corridor that lay to the north side of the service courtyard, and connected the house with the garden on the east side. Bateman’s knowledge of mineralogy is understandable given his family’s interests as mine owners. His father, John Bateman, had an established fossil collection. The wider interest, as demonstrated by the geological maps in the Gallery, arose from the increasing need to understand geological properties as civil engineering expanded during the industrial revolution.

China, part of Bidulph Grange gardens. Photo by Letitia Yetman

We know from the diaries of Edward Cooke, James Bateman’s friend who helped design the garden and its structures, that they visited the Great Exhibition and it is highly probable that they would have gone on to view the sculptures designed by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins at Sydenham. A link exists with sculptures in the garden by Hawkins; the Frog in ‘China’, the Dragons on the Temple roof and the Ape of Thoth. Bateman would almost certainly have been familiar with the work of William Buckland, Reader in Mineralogy at Oxford just before Bateman went up to Keble College. In 1829 Buckland had been commissioned to write the 9th Bridgewater Treatise entitled ‘Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology’. The illustrations in this book may have been an inspiration for Bateman’s layout of his gallery at Biddulph. James Bateman was, as were the majority of his peers, a believer in a doctrine of creation based on the Genesis narrative. However, the advancements in geology were leading to a recognition that much longer time periods were needed to explain the sequences and processes that had created them. Many involved in the advancement of geology as a science such as William Buckland were ordained Doctors of Divinity. Buckland had expounded a theory of Geology based on a series of cataclysmic events to explain the changes evidenced by sequences of strata. Each geological period was ended by an event that exterminated all living forms and resulted in new series of plants, animals and topography based on new geological strata. In such a world the biblical flood was but one example of a cataclysmic event.

This is in accord with what we know of Bateman’s views. He was opposed to the use of hybrids for most of his life believing they were a manual intervention in the divine process. In a lecture to the RHS in 1864 he argued that Plant Hunters, men such as Douglas, Fortune and others had a finite number of plants to discover, “they will find their occupation gone”. The situation would only be resolved in Bateman’s view by divine intervention. Brent Elliott in his book Victorian Gardens writes ‘… the garden at Biddulph Grange, by evoking vanished and alien civilizations, served as an affirmation that the millennium was coming.’ However there remains a doubt about Bateman’s motives in establishing the gallery and linking it to the layout of the garden. If he really believed a great statement about the approaching millennium and a rebuttal of Darwin’s theory was required then why were his views and Biddulph not more closely associated? Kemp in his Gardeners’ Chronicle article of 1862 makes only a passing comment about the layout of the Gallery being in accordance with the days of Mosiac cosmology. As far as we have been able to ascertain there no other contemporary accounts of the gallery.

In 1837 Bateman had begun to publish The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala, dedicated to Queen Adelaide. As only 125 copies of the edition were published, surviving copies are comparatively rare. Bateman prepared the text, and commissioned leading botanical artists to prepare hand painted illustrations for the book. Most of the orchids depicted had been collected by George Ure Skinner on his behalf. The list of subscribers includes William Taylor Copeland who along with his associate Thomas Garrett formed the Copeland & Garrett partnership that had taken over the Spode business in 1833. Bateman was already a customer of the firm having commissioned a tea service for his 21st birthday decorated with his own hand drawn illustrations of Knypersley Hall Batman’s home until 1840 and other local landmarks. It is more than likely that the Bateman family and Copeland moved in the same circles; Copeland was a director of The North Staffordshire Railway and John Bateman had persuaded the company to build a branch through the Biddulph Valley. It is, therefore, not surprising to find Copeland amongst the list of subscribers. However what had happened to Copeland’s edition was unknown until 2006 when archive material was transferred from Spode Ltd to the Spode Museum Trust. Amongst these were lithographs and the remnants of a large book on orchids. The museum’s curator was able to identify these as being from Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala and thus Copeland’s original copy which had clearly been used as a design source by the firm’s ceramic artists and engravers. The importance of the find was further reinforced by the discovery of a copper engraving plate with an orchid design taken from the book.

A modern reproduction (below) was made which is now on display at Biddulph Grange Garden. Whether this was part of a set based on the illustrations and for whom it was made remains a mystery.

A further link between Biddulph Grange and the local ceramics industry came to light when a plate (below) depicting the south side of the original Bateman’s house was brought into Biddulph Grange. It bears a mark of the Davenport Pottery at Longport dated to 1870–87.

Bateman’s early interest in orchid collecting has been well documented. The publication of Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala established Bateman’s reputation as a leading authority on tropical orchids at a comparatively early age. Bateman, whilst still a student at Oxford, in 1833 had commissioned Thomas Colley to collect orchids for him in British Guiana and in 1834 George Ure Skinner had begun to send him orchids. Therefore the discovery of a list of ‘Knypersley Orchidea’ from the Enville Hall Plant Book of 1832–33, prior to these dates, raises interesting questions about the extent of his orchid collection at an earlier period. There are a total of 149 orchid varieties listed and the plant book also records purchases. Bateman described himself as being “impatient at the tardy rate at which new species crossed the seas” as the reason for dispatching Thomas Colley, implying at least that he was already familiar with introductions prior to that date. There is evidence that Bateman had been cultivating tropical fruits in the Knypersley hot houses prior to his being infected by the “Orchido-mania which now pervades all.” However this latest discovery suggests that James was collecting and dealing at a much earlier age, he would have been in his late teens, than has hitherto been accepted or his father John Bateman may have been an established collector and James obtained his passion and plants from him.

The Society will be visiting Biddulph Grange the day before our AGM, cost £10 (£19 if not a member of the National Trust). Download the Booking Form for this and the rest of the AGM programme.

An exhibition and conference at the Potteries Museum in July will explore this further

It is the roof line of one of the main buildings that first catches your attention as you get off the train, and apart from the signs on the building, these northern lights structures in the roof, together with the cool north westerly location are tell tales of what the building was designed to deal with, Cadbury’s chocolate biscuits. The building was completed in 1953 and won a Civic Trust Award. Typical of the Cadbury approach, it’s a campus of buildings, for as well as the production buildings there are canteens, social clubs, pavilions, sports fields and much open space. Geoffrey Jellicoe was invited to design the landscape which he found ‘diabolical’.

Jellicoe's working plan for the site at Moreton. Picture courtesy of the Landscape Institute

The most interesting part of the scheme that he worked on was the boundary against Pasture Road, just at the point the main road swoops up and over the Liverpool-Wirral railway line and the entrance to Moreton Station, there’s a little slip road that peels off parallel with Pasture Road and leads to a side entrance of the station. Along this boundary Jellicoe plays with water, creating a concrete lined canal with a series of shallow stepped pools with scalloped edges for the water to tumble over. At the station end there’s a pump that takes it back to the beginning. He uses the idea of water as a barrier rather than just constructing a fence or wall to bound the site. More than this he engages with the passer-by to look onto the canal with a series of viewing platforms cantilevered over the water: these are only accessible on the public side of the boundary, you see the water in a completely different way looking up and down its length than you do looking across it. The outline of these platforms mirror the curves of the roof; in this way Jellicoe shares with the passer-by this delightful idea and view. It must have resonated completely with the Cadbury ethos. Susan Jellicoe took some photos of the scheme after it was completed (front cover of GHS news 87), and Jellicoe used this project as one of the examples of designing with water in Techniques of Landscape Architecture edited by AE Weddle, as well as in his own books.

Susan Jellicoe's contemporary photo shows the Water Gardens from the Station end. Photo courtesy of the Landscape Institute

There are two noteworthy points about this scheme; firstly it is almost unaltered since the photos were taken. It’s been neglected and not well maintained and the planting has long gone, but it survives intact. The second point is that the ideas Jellicoe developed here were subsequently used in his Hemel Water Gardens project where a section of the River Gade is canalised and is designed with viewing platforms and the same fluted weir detail. In another factory site for Delta Metals in West Midlands Jellicoe designed yet another version of this canal with weirs but this time without the viewing platforms.

The Moreton factory has been under threat for a number of years and also subjected to a series of changes in ownership. In January this year Burton’s Foods (the current owners) announced that they intend to close the entire site with the loss of all jobs. Redundancy notices have been issued. According to the House of Commons debate in January (2011) this site is the only land in the area suitable for industrial development and is zoned for that use.

In some ways it seems very inappropriate to think about saving designed landscapes when there are so many more pressing issues to be dealt with. However this is a significant example of Jellicoe’s work, and because it lies on the boundary of the site it could more easily survive and flourish as part of a new landscape, and then also with its shaped platforms it would be an indicator of what was here before. It will need help and shouting about to ensure it doesn’t get swept away, not many including the speculators and developers will readily see its benefits.

Jonathan Lovie adds: a case should be made to EH to get the landscape on the Register of Parks and Gardens. EH is planning a thematic study of post-war landscapes in the next year or so, should be able to respond reasonably quickly.