Conservation

Linden Groves is busy carrying out an English Heritage funded project for Society to produce a readily available reference list of Conservation Management Plans (CMPs) relating to historic landscapes in the UK, and where to access them. Good news, we now have well over 400 entries, with contributors ranging from ‘big name’ landscape practices, to small one-man bands, as well as County Gardens Trusts and national heritage organisations. The landscapes themselves are a fabulous mix of 18th-century park, municipal urban recreation space, private garden, interesting cemeteries and much more.
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This is a tale of two golf courses and what exemplary restoration can be achieved in a great landscape garden with the generosity of an anonymous benefactor. It is a good news story, one which was unimaginable some twenty years ago when as an aspiring conservation professional I sent for a copy of In the Rough. Longstanding members will recall that this was not some investigation into the seamier side of urban life by Ian Sinclair, but a hard-hitting report commissioned by The GHS, The Georgian Group, and then newly-formed Association of Gardens Trusts to examine the effect of golf courses in landscape parks.
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Public Meeting at Main Assembly Hall, Edinburgh Academy, 42 Henderson Row, Edinburgh EH3 5BL
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Combe Royal is a Victorian house, listed Grade II, with a notable garden in a deep Devon combe, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, near Kingsbridge in the South Hams. The lower garden, which was largely planted with giant rhododendrons, still exists, but little remains of the elaborate Victorian layout around the house. The garden was renowned for the early study of citrus fruit. Combe Royal oranges were sent to Queen Victoria in the 1860s ‘who afterwards sent her head gardener from Osborne for the purpose of enquiring on the spot as to the mode of culture.’ (Fox, 1864).
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DEPUTY CONSERVATION OFFICER (ENGLAND) 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 [...]
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We wanted to keep Members informed of important developments following our AGM in July at Keele, and that of the Association of Gardens Trusts at Oxford in September. 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 [...]
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Site of John Evelyn’s Deptford garden under threat 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 [...]
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In late July the Government published its proposals for simplifying the planning system in England. We are working through this complex document, and will be submitting a full response to Government in due course. However, it is clear that the proposed Framework contains some very worrying changes which have the potential to allow unchecked and damaging [...]
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Please note our new Scotland office telephone number: 07760 893 954
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The Society has made many contributions to protecting parks and gardens throughout its history and, as Mavis Batey reminded us at her recent 90th birthday party, even Petworth’s park was once under threat from a bypass proposed to run through it. The latest threat is that posed by HS2, and we combined with both The [...]
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Wood was purchased by James McDiarmid, Surgeon, in 2008 with the intention of using the property as a cosmetic surgery/beauty therapy centre. Mr McDiarmid is aware of the historic importance of Wood, which is a Grade II* listed building within a Grade I Registered historic c1904, designed landscape by Thomas Mawson, [...]
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Ten years ago the garden at The Drum Inn was finally laid out to a design, based on a sketch by Cyril Fairey, which illustrated Edwin Lutyens original ideas for the garden. The design was never fully implemented; only a pair of Lutyens’ distinctive brick steps linked by one of the axial footpaths were constructed [...]
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As reported in the Summer News (86), the Historic Environment Amendment (Scotland) Bill progressed through the Scottish Parliament during 2010 with its third reading in January 2011. The Bill was duly passed and is expected to receive Royal Assent and become an Act in early March. The provisions of the Act will then be brought [...]
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In the eighteenth century, Queen Caroline is said to have asked the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, how much it would cost to close St James’ Park to those members of the public who were fortunate enough to be key-holders. The reply, “Only three Crowns, Ma’m”, was apparently sufficient to deter her ambition. Today, the [...]
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The Government’s controversial plans to dispose of some 258,000 hectares of woodland and forest presently managed by the Forestry Commission poses an interesting dilemma for the Society. The proposal to hand areas of ‘heritage woodland’ such as the Forest of Dean or the New Forest to new or existing trusts seems positive and should, with [...]
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