Hosted in partnership with The Gardens Trust, this course provides an introduction to the history of gardens and garden design through the ages.
This course offers students with little or no previous knowledge a chronological panorama of the development of garden history from medieval and Tudor gardens through to the twentieth century, and will end with the 21st century, tomorrow’s history in the making!
The sixteen lectures will run over four Saturdays and be delivered by well-known speakers and experts in their fields.
Week One: Saturday January 18 2025
- What is garden history with Tim Richardson
- Overview of the early modern era with Jill Francis
- John Tradescant naturalist, gardener, collector with TBA
- Looking at surviving 17th century gardens with Jill Francis
Week Two: Saturday 25 January 2025
- Setting the scene of the Georgian era with Dr. Twigs Way
- Looking at landscape parks with Dr .Twigs Way
- Looking follies and grottos with Peter Cooke
- Understanding picturesque landscapes with Dr. Deborah Evans
Week Three: Saturday 1 February 2025
- Setting the scene on the Victorian era with Francesca Murray
- High Victorian design with Ben Dark
- Working class gardening with Ben Dark
- Looking at the arts and crafts garden with Cherrill Sands
Week Four: Saturday 8 February 2025
- Overview of the 20th & 21st Century with Tim Richardson
- Post industrial landscapes with John Little
- Planting styles in the 20th century flower garden with Andrew Wilson
- Modern women gardeners with Caroline Holmes
Speakers
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Tim Richardson
Tim Richardson
Tim Richardson is a landscape historian and critic of contemporary landscape , and the author of a number of books including Arcadian Friends: Inventing the English Landscape Garden, The New English Garden, Avant Gardeners and Great Gardens of America. He writes widely for many publications including Country life, and Gardens Illustrated
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Dr Jill Francis
Dr Jill Francis
is an early modern historian, specialising in gardens and gardening in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Her book, Gardens and Gardening in Early Modern England and Wales, was published by Yale University Press in June 2018. She is currently involved with delivering the online lecture programme for the Gardens Trust, and also works at the Shakespeare Institute Library in Stratford-upon-Avon.
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Dr Twigs Way
Dr Twigs Way
Dr Twigs Way is a garden historian, writer and researcher. Much of her work has concentrated on the roles played by women in all forms of garden and plant-related spheres, and she is increasingly fascinated on the overlap between art, fashion, textiles and gardens. Her history of the chrysanthemum in art and culture was published by Reaktion in 2020 following an earlier work on the carnation. Twigs teaches for the Cambridge University Botanic Gardens and, from September 2024, will also be co-Course Director of the MA in Garden History at the University of Buckingham.
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Peter Cooke
Peter Cooke
Peter Cooke is a folly enthusiast and long-standing member of the Folly Society. Peter first trained at the Manchester University School of Architecture, which had a tradition of teaching about the history of architecture as well as international modernism, before completing his training at the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow. He worked for many years for Donald Insall Associates on a number of high-profile restoration projects before moving to Adam Architecture, which specialises in new build designed in traditional styles. During his time there, he worked on projects that included follies or new houses with folly overtones.
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Deborah Evans
Deborah Evans
Deborah Evans is a landscape architect, historian and horticulturalist. She established her own consultancy in 2015 having worked in the public and private sectors over many years. Deborah is an established trainer in the heritage sector, and has been a member of the National Trust’s Historic Environment Advisory Group since 2016 , Deborah is also a trustee of the Gardens Trust.
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Francesca Murray
Francesca Murray
Francesca is a garden historian whose particular interest is forgotten Victorian gardeners, nurserymen and florists and the mutual aid associations that came to their aid. She is currently researching a PhD at Queen Mary University of London, on the nineteenth century history of the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution (the forerunner of Perennial) and the gardeners who subscribed to its charitable funds. In 2019 she co-wrote The Eighth Wonder of the World, Exbury Gardens and the Rothschilds (2020) about the history of this famous 200-acre woodland garden in Hampshire. She has a Masters in Garden History from Buckingham University (2015) and has published several articles. Her other interests include the Rothschild orchid collections, the 19th century gardening press, Victorian gardens, Victorian historic object history and Guano. Francesca trained in Horticulture and Garden Design at Berkshire College of Agriculture and practised as a garden designer for ten years after a career in the historic interiors industry. She is a Trustee of the Gardens Trust and a member of their Fundraising committee. A volunteer Archivist and a guest speaker for Perennial (formerly known as the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution) she teaches garden history on the RHS Diploma of Horticulture course at RHS Wisley and is a speaker for the RHS Lindley Library.
Published articles:
The Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution: Product of Mutual Aid Associations and Gardening Networks in the Nineteenth Century in Conversations in Garden History, New Research…IHR (September 2023)
The Stanwick Nectarine, Garden History, Vol 50:2 (Winter 2022) pp. 186-206.
The Parochial Nurserymen Part One – Youell and Sons Norfolk Gardens Trust Magazine, Spring 2022, No 33, pp.8-13. ,Part Two - The Falstoff Raspberry, Autumn 2022, No 34, pp.14-17.
An Absolute Passion: The Rothschild's Orchid Collections at Gunnersbury Park, Tring Park, Exbury Gardens - and London’s East End. Rothschild Archive Review 2013.
Book: 'The Eighth Wonder of the World, Exbury Gardens and The Rothschilds' 2019 (Exbury Gardens Trust) with Lionel de Rothschild.
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Ben Dark
Ben Dark
Ben Dark is an author, head gardener, broadcaster and landscape historian. He studied Horticulture at Capel Manor, before completing a traineeship at the Garden Museum and an MA in Garden and Landscape History at the Institute of Historical Research. He hosts the award-winning Garden Log and Dear Gardener podcasts, while his book The Grove: A Nature Odyssey in 19 1/2 Front Gardens won The best gardening book of 2022.' the Telegraph. In the same year he won the Journalist of the Year award from the Garden Media Guild.
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Cherrill Sands
Cherrill Sands
Cherrill Sands is a garden historian with an MA in the Conservation of Landscapes, Park & Gardens. She has been engaged as Historical Consultant at Painshill Landscape Garden in Surrey since 2004. As a freelance speaker she presents talks throughout the UK and abroad on garden history and theatre studies. Cherrill is a former Chair of the educational charity Surrey Gardens Trust and remains a member of their Research Team.
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Andrew Wilson
Andrew Wilson
Andrew Wilson is a former RHS show gardens judge, a past Chairman and a Fellow of both the Society of Garden Designers and the Landscape Institute. A respected author and writer with 11 books to his name including the No 1 Bestseller RHS Small Garden Handbook. He has been at the forefront of garden design teaching in the UK and overseas, for over 30 years.
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John Little
John Little
John Little founded the Grass Roof Company in 1998, experimenting with plants that grow in poor soil or in cracks in city streets. Since 1998 he has designed and built over 300 small green-roof buildings, combining deep biodiverse green-roofs with walls of breeding and hibernation space. A freelance speaker he talks passionately about the need to invest in gardens rather than more infrastructure and questions our obsession with specifying topsoil in all new projects, especially on highways and new developments.
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Caroline Holmes
Caroline Holmes
Caroline Holmes is an experienced and accomplished lecturer working for a wide range of organisations including leading tour and cruise operators. She is an Accredited Lecturer of The Arts Society and is also a Course Director for the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education. Her own gardens are open to the public and have featured in many magazine articles and on television in both Britain and Japan. Since the 1990s she has been researching, writing about and lecturing on the Riviera. Caroline is author of 12 books, her latest being Where the wildness pleases – the English garden celebrated (2021).
