Newsletter No 38, Autumn 2006

In this issue:

Here are a few of the articles from the Newsletter which is distributed free of charge, three times a year to all our Members.

Extracts

Fundraising For The Trust: 2007 Plant Sale At Icomb Place

Abstract

Mr and Mrs Timothy Royle have kindly agreed that the Trust can hold a sale of plants at Icomb Place during their NCCPG Open Day in June 2007. So, when you are dividing plants, browsing through seed catalogues or taking cuttings please think of the Trust and plan a few extra. They could help greatly in funding our future activities.

You could also come along and support the sale and visit the interesting gardens at Icomb Place where Gloucestershire’s very own plant collector, Captain G H Simpson-Hayward, formed a garden at the end of the nineteenth century.

Jane Bradney

Book Review: Historic Gardens Of Gloucestershire

Abstract

Timothy Mowl is a household name in the Garden History world. Architectural historian, English Heritage inspector, planning journalist and campaigner, he now co-directs the Garden History MA course at the University of Bristol as Reader in Architectural and Garden History supervising PhD students while pursuing countless related academic activities.

But he is not too busy to research and produce eleven books and myriad articles since 1985 – histories of buildings, biographies of Walpole, Beckford and William Kent, polemics on modern garden experiments… His current project to write the landscape and garden design history of every county in Britain, each stylistically and topographically unique in character and development. So far, Wiltshire, Dorset, Worcestershire, Cornwall and Gloucestershire have been published. Oxfordshire is due to appear in 2007.

Tim Mowl reckons that Gloucestershire is the richest county in Britain for great gardens of almost every period. Chronologically from the beginning of the sixteenth century and going up to the end of the twentieth ten chapters of lively narrative and description cover gardens lost and forgotten, famous and favourite. An historical and aesthetic commentary with a mainly architectural slant (‘the bones’ – hedges, walls, ornamental buildings and water features) runs alongside an up to date guided tour garden by garden. Designers and owners, innovative and influential, mingle with anecdote and gossip around historic gardens from Thornbury Castle through to Highgrove.

A friendly open personal style makes fun reading although whole pages of unbroken text without subheadings can be a bit daunting. Eighty black and white figures include many Kip engravings, interesting paintings, photographs, maps and plans. These illustrate comprehensively, while looking rather technical and wan in reproduction. The twenty eight colour plates occur altogether after chapter five and so are nice to arrive at, if a bit disappointing in colour and tone.

A Gazetteer of gardens of historical importance and open to the public is useful, as a map would have been. Two hundred and fifty six notes and references indicate the extent of Tim Mowl’s library resources, just as his list of acknowledgements reflects his scholarly and social connections in Garden History circles. This is an impressive but user-friendly must-read for every landscape and garden-visiting enthusiast.

Timothy Mowl, 2002, pp 176 illustrated (Reprinted 2005) Tempus Publishing, Paperback

Judith Temple

AGM

The Trust will hold its AGM at Parmoor House, 13 Lypiatt Terrace, Cheltenham, GL50 2SX at 7.00pm on Thursday 26 April, 2007. It will be followed at 7.30pm by an illustrated lecture by Pat and Robin Fisher entitled ‘The Florist’s Auricula.’ For more details see the enclosed edition of ‘What’s On.’

Jane Bradney

From the Editor

I aim to produce a newsletter three times a year, in the spring, in the autumn and around New Year. To produce an interesting and varied newsletter. I need articles, photographs, letters, thoughts and suggestionys from members. Please do not be afraid to contribute. We offer a full editorial support service and can cope with most formats, typed, printed, e mail, ‘Word’ and legible handwritings.

Deadline: Submissions for the next newsletter to reach the Editior by the end of December please.

Editor: Jane Bradney, Hill View House, Aston Crews, Ross on Wye, HR9 7LW. 01989 750862, hvhac@aol.com.

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