CORNWALL GARDENS TRUST

Illustrated talk on the development of garden history in Cornwall

The Cornwall Gardens Trust has put together an entertaining and informative talk about Cornwall’s garden history through the ages, from the Iron Age village at Chysauster near Penzance to present-day gardens including Eden and beyond. We use many photographs and maps of gardens that the Trust has recorded over the years since it was formed in 1988.

We would be delighted to give the presentation to any interested groups, including schools and colleges. So far, a number of Old Cornwall Societies, gardening clubs and WIs have enjoyed the talk, and if you think your own association would welcome the talk, please contact cgtsecretary@gmail.com. There is no charge made by the Trust, although a small payment to cover the speaker’s expenses would be welcomed but this is not essential. We bring our own PowerPoint projector so all we need is electricity and a wall or screen to show it on, and the talk lasts approximately 45 minutes. The talk can be followed by questions, and hopefully a cup of tea!

New Chairman elected for Cornwall Gardens Trust

We are delighted that following gentle persuasion from both our President Sir Richard Carew Pole, and Vice President Sir Ferrers Vyvyan, a willing volunteer has come forward to take over the mantle of Chairman. He is Richard Stone, and his election was confirmed by the membership at the AGM on 19th April. Richard has very strong connections with the county, and can trace his ancestry in Cornwall back for nearly 800 years! After working in Herefordshire with his own archeology practice for a number of years, Richard returned to the county several years ago to take over the running of the family estate. He can be contacted via email at cgtchairman@gmail.com

Dr Angela Stubbs MA PhD

Although born in Pakistan, Angela already had strong Celtic connections – her father was born in Ireland, her mother in Scotland, and her grandparents had moved to Cornwall in the 1930’s. There, an uncle went to the Camborne School of Mines, another lived in St Ives with his artist wife, and her aunt worked as a water diviner near Devoran.

Angela’s mother, then a war widow, returned from India to Cornwall, where she worked for a while on a flower farm at Mawnan Smith. Angela went to school at the convent in Falmouth, and later attended Mayfield School in East Sussex. Before embarking on her university life, Angela met Michael at a cricket club dance at County Wexford, and they were to later marry. They both studied at Trinity College, Dublin, where Angela got her first degree in 1962. In addition to a busy life raising a family of three children, Angela also had a career in teaching English at St Marys, Ascot, and continued this while also studying for her doctorate of Medieval History and Civilisation at the University of Reading. Latterly, Angela and her husband Michael eventually retired and moved to Cornwall in about 2001.

Angela became a member of Cornwall Gardens Trust in 2005, and soon joined the group of recorders becoming involved in researching historic gardens. She also stepped in to the breach when we needed someone to take over the task of seeking out new gardens to visit. She used her tremendous network of friends and distant relatives who lived in the county, to arrange a varied and very well received programme of garden visits for the members of the trust. She enjoyed this work greatly, and which she continued with for a number of years up to and including the visits for 2013.

When the trust was looking for a volunteer to be the new Chair and to take over from Sir Ferrers Vyvyan, Angela again stepped up to the mark, and agreed to take on that additional role in May 2008. She continued to serve in that capacity, despite a recurrence of ill health, until she found that the treatment became too debilitating. Angela decided to stand down from that role in November 2012 in order to devote her energies to recovering full health. Sadly, despite valiant efforts to fight the disease, Angela died peacefully at home on 20^th February 2013.

Angela was unfailingly patient and gracious, and many people – her family, friends, pupils at the local Catholic school where she helped with reading skills, members of her Italian conversation classes, and members of Cornwall Gardens Trust, will be the poorer for her passing.

Association of Gardens Trusts yearbook

The 2013 edition of the Association of Gardens Trusts yearbook has just been published. Any CGT members who would like to receive a copy are asked to send a second class postage stamp and a note of their address to Peter Fairbank.

Ash tree dieback

Chalara dieback of ash (Chalara fraxinea)

The fungal infection Chalara fraxinea, which has ravaged other European countries and now spread to the UK, causes leaf loss and crown dieback in affected trees. It kills 90 per cent of the trees it affects. In the UK there are an estimated 80 million ash trees, taking up around 30 per cent of woodland across the country.

Imports of ash trees into the UK have been banned since 30 October 2012.