The Future is Already Here

I just received a Google Alert message for my keywords 'garden history' and discovered it was a new comment on the Garden History Society (GHS) website Forum from another garden historian 'stephenha' who has some interesting points to make.  The link takes you to the page but I have taken the liberty of copying Stephen's text below.  I, and I am sure he and the GHS, would value feedback from yous who are interested in garden history, maybe are members of the GHS and also social media users.  Feel free to post comments here or on the Forum page. 

Embrace the Future or Stagnate

by stephenha.

'I teach garden history to a wide age range of students. If you can deliver the subject without making it stuffy then I find younger students are interested in it and see the relevance to other subjects such as garden design.

In these modern times getting your message across to younger people is vital. Facebook and Twitter are both modern mediums that most young people use. Organisations and Societies now use Facebook and Twitter to get their message across to a global audience. These mediums are used to raise profile and make a global audience aware that the organisation even exists. Do you think that the time has come to follow suit and the Garden History Society has a Facebook account and even Twitter. Yes you can find a tweet on the lecture series but more is needed. I believe this would be extremley popular and attract followers and new members.

I try to encourage some of my students to join the Garden History Society because I believe that now or in the future they will have a part to play and have something to offer. After all to offer the old cliche, younger people are going to be the future of the society and what is really offered to attract the new blood in?

As much as I like looking at the website it does not set the world on fire and does not say come and join us. Some may think I want to dumb down, some may think I want shiny bright things like attracting magpies which is not the case. I just think the time has come to embrace the new IT age.

I also enjoy recieving my copy of the Journal. But again for some younger students one look at the jounal is enough to turn them off garden history for life. I would like to see essays at different levels to entice people in. Students are not all yet at the academic level of the Journal. I say not yet, but some will be, but by then it may be to late.' 

The Brown Debate / Controversy begins...

A earlier today I posted my admiration for 'Capability' Brown and informed of a blog dedicated to him.

Now I see that there is already comment and discussions about Brown, his legacy and his forthcoming tercentenary.

Informed debate is a good thing, so please use this arena or the GHS Comments page to pass on your educated opinions and thoughts....

Pulhamite

James Pulham & Son. Photo Credit: Alan Bishop & Associates

Pulhamite is one of those great Victorian and Edwardian garden obsessions that  I mentioned earlier in the year.  There has now appeared a new book dedicated to the subject: Rock Landscapes: The Pulham Legacy by Claude Hitching (with photography by Jenny Lilly) and and a review by the esteemed garden historian Dr Brent Elliott is printed in the Winter 2012 issue of Garden History (the Journal of the Garden History Society).

Rock Garden at Madresfield Court.  Photo Credit: The Pulham Legacy

The review is available to read on the fascinating website entitled The Pulham Legacy which is run by the author and dedicated to the product and its inventors.

Rock Garden & Boathouse at Sandringham.  Photo Credit: The Pulham Legacy

But in brief.  Pulhamite was a patented anthropic rock 'material' invented by James Pulham (1820-98).  James was a skilled stone-modeller but also developed a new material, a cement concoction which looks like a gritty sandstone. 

He also developed the technique of using his concoction - which became know as Pulhamite - to created very natural-looking, but artificial rocks from heaps of old bricks and rubble covered in Pulhamite, and ‘sculpted’ to imitate the colour and texture of natural stone. 

The Waterfall, Madeira Road in Ramsgate.  Photo Credit: Michael's Bookshop 

The biggest use of these artificial rocks was in the construction of ornamental rockeries and rock gardens, which became a huge fashion in the last quarter of the 19th century and up until the First World War.  

The Western Chine in Ramsgate.  Photo Credit: RamsgateHistory.com

Other features constructed from Pulhamite included ferneries, caves and grottoes as well as fountains and other garden ornaments.

And if you have Pulhamite in need of repair, Alan Bishop & Associates is one of the UK's leading experts on the repair and renovation of Pulham rockwork.

The Garden History Society Winter Lectures

The Garden History Society has announced its series of Winter Lectures, which take place on Wednesdays at 6.30 pm at The Gallery, 70 Cowcross Street, London (unless otherwise stated). Herewith the schedule:

30 January 2013

Gardens of court and country: English design 1640-1730
Dr David Jacques

20 February 2013

The 11th Annual GHS Lecture

Led by the land
Kim Wilkie

27 February 2013

Royal Horticultural Halls & Conference Centre

‘Harmony Compleat’ – music in the garden from Renaissance Italy to Georgian England
Judy Tarling

6 March 2013

A little bit of surrey in the sun?  A hundred years of the national botanic gardens of Burma
Dr David Marsh

20 March 2013

Passion, plants and patronage: three hundred years of the Bute family landscapes
Robert Peel and Kristina Taylor

For more information about tickets contact the Garden History Society by email or via the website.

A brief guide to researching a garden

I have to confess that I love researching the history of a garden.  It is detective work and wholly engrossing.  Sometimes, or more accurately, occasionally, there are a lot of leads which lead to hard evidence of how the garden once looked.  

But most often there is a dearth of obvious information which requires some lateral thinking, burrowing in archives, following hunches - and with this comes the risk of distraction.  One of my great weaknesses is old copies of Country Life - I spend hours reading the non-gardening content.

Then there is the excitement of finding something, especially if it is a n unknown clue or piece of information. And once all the evidence is gathered there is the fun of piecing it all together to make your case.

There are numerous sources that can be explored for evidence about specific gardens. Oxford University Library offers a guide to finding published information on garden and landscape history.  But just a word of caution, some of the databases and e-journals will require authorised access.

Also worth checking are the Garden History Society's Bibliography which is available to download and search.  Also their Cumulative Index which covers the contents of the GHS’s publications from 1966 to summer 2000.  For those who have access to JSTOR, the Garden History Society journal Garden History (1972-2008) is available there.

For a specific garden, a good start is Ray Desmond's Bibliography of British Gardens - it is out-of-print but available on AbeBooks 

And if you are really looking to burrow into the history of a specific garden then essential reading is  Parks and Gardens: A Researcher's Guide to Sources for Designed Landscapes (2006) by David Lambert, Peter Goodchild and Judith Roberts.  Its quite hard to get hold of but there are a few copies for sale HERE. 

Conservation of British public parks

The Garden History Society is asking for help with a survey about the conservation of British public parks.  Please help out by visiting this link and take a minute to fill in the national online survey.

Many thanks!

Does any one know anything about the gardens at Cefntilla Court?

Cefntilla Court.  Photo attrib. Andy Dolman

The Garden History Society has posted a request for information about the gardens of Cefntilla Court (the link is to a Wikipedia article) near Usk in Monmouthshire.  The Court together with 63.5 acres has been put up for sale by the heirs of Lord Raglan (of Charge of the Light Brigade fame / infamy) for £2 million.  

And according to sale documents 'a large drawing room looks out over the immaculate landscaped gardens, with a pond, an ornamental bridge and a row of yew topiary clipped into apple and pear shapes.'

If any one knows more, please do drop me a line or contact the GHS.  Thank you.

More on John Evelyn's Sayes Court

Plan of Sayes Court garden in 1692

The blog Depford Is reports on a Council for British Archaeology press release concerning the on-going issues surrounding development of Convoy's Wharf in Depford and threats to the adjacent remains of Sayes Court. 

The blog London's Lost Garden which is dedicated to Sayes Court (from which the above picture is taken) has an interesting piece which also mentions a Study Day all about Evelyn and his garden being hosted at the Linnæan Society on 25 April and organised by the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust  and the Garden History Society.  There is more information and a booking form on the Garden History Society website.

A Planet Garden anywhere? A request for assistance

'Webberr' has posted the following question on The Garden History Society website:

Does anyone know if any Garden worldwide was deliberately designed as a Planet Garden containing 9 (or 8 if more modern) garden ornaments/buildings named after the planets?

Answers most welcome here or post them direct the Forum.

The Garden History Society

Happy New Year.  And for the first post of 2012 I am putting out a plea that anyone who is interested in garden history, and is not already, become a member of the Garden History Society (GHS). 

To quote the GHS website, the Society is:  'the oldest society in the world dedicated to the conservation and study of historic designed gardens and landscapes. Through our interventions, advice and casework we have helped save or conserve scores of important gardens since we were founded by a small but dedicated band of garden-lovers in 1966.'

And just as a taster I have also added the Society's RSS feed on the left hand side of this page.