Editor DFJ Pearce Registered Charity Number 800887

Annual General Meeting

The 2013 Annual General Meeting is being held in the main hall at Ladock Community Hall on Friday 19th April commencing at 1-30pm.

The trust is currently in a dilemma and possibly facing an uncertain future. Major decisions will have to be taken shortly on the best way to drive the trust forward and ensure that it can continue with the really important work that it was set up and tasked with doing. With the ever increasing pressure from developers to find land for housing and industrial use, it is becoming ever more important to help to conserve the garden land and designed landscapes that exist in Cornwall and the Isle of Scilly, and to make sure that these are preserved wherever possible.

This is going to be a significant meeting and may mark a turning point in the future of the trust. It is hoped that both our President Sir Richard Carew Pole, and our Vice President Sir Ferrers Vyvyan, will be able to attend this meeting and to set out and amplify the problems and possible solutions that are now being actively considered by the trustees.

As members, you also have a very important part to play in the running of the trust. Your attendance at this particular Annual General Meeting is your opportunity to have your say in the preferred way forward for the trust, and you are therefore urged to make every effort to attend.

So that we can make suitable arrangements for those members who do wish to attend, would you please indicate on the enclosed visit booking sheet whether you will be attending?

It would be really helpful if members would contact the Secretary, Peter Fairbank before the end of March with their views and suggestions as to the way forward and also to offer their services in the way of being active committee members. (Telephone: 01326 372293 or e-mail [email protected])

A booking form for the summer visits is enclosed or attached together with important notes regarding the visits. Please complete the forms as soon as possible and return to Peter Fairbank as instructed.

The Cornwall Gardens Trust’s PowerPoint presentation

‘Cornwall’s Garden History: from Chysauster to Eden’ is now well and truly on the road. Sue Pring presented it in the autumn to Kea Garden Society and I delivered it recently to Probus Old Cornwall Society. There was a good turnout in Probus – obviously the subject had appealed to the society’s members – and some good questions from the floor afterwards. I took along membership leaflets and some copies of past issues of the Journal to give away – these all proved very popular.

We are reasonably well booked up for the rest of this year – a total of eight talks to be given this spring and autumn – and we already have two bookings for next year. If you know of a group who might like to see the presentation, do let me know. It lasts about 45 minutes to an hour. There is no fee – we only ask for a petrol contribution for the lecturer but also welcome a donation to the Trust.

The talk is very straightforward – slides on a PowerPoint presentation, which is shown through the CGT’s own projector, and a script to go along with them. We do need more presenters, though, so if you felt at all able, please do get in touch. Sue or I would be very happy to give you a training session in preparation or why not come along to one of our bookings to see how it’s done. (Trish Gibson)

We are pleased to learn that Trish is progressing well after the earlier Stroke. Inevitably she has to take things easier and has cut back on many of her activities including production of this year’s CGT Journal. We are also pleased to hear that Angela Stubbs, former Chairman, is home after a spell in Mount Edgcumbe Hospice. We wish them both a full and speedy recovery.

From the Recorders’ group

Recorders - a training session is being held at 6.30 pm on 22nd February at Ladock Village Hall - and any members wishing to learn about recording would be welcome.

In keeping with the aims of the Trust

In keeping with two of the aims of the Cornwall Gardens Trust – “to offer help and advice on the conservation and restoration of private and public gardens…” and “to award small grants for specific projects…” the Trust is supporting the following two projects:

Ned Lomax, gardener at Glendurgan National Trust Garden is undertaking a project and is seeking financial assistance. He says:

“In the early 1990′s an idea was conceived by our then Gardens Advisor, John Sales, to create a Bhutanese themed area within the garden. Twenty years on, the area is starting to mature and we have decided to continue its development with further planting and by creating a new path in order to allow access to the public. I have been researching the origins of the plants in the area (many of which were grown from wild sourced seed), as well as contacting John Sales in order to discuss his original plan. John described to me a particular valley he walked though during a visit to Bhutan. This valley, the Chendiji Valley, reminded him of Glendurgan and inspired him to create our Bhutanese garden. I am very keen to develop this area in the spirit that it was originally intended and also in a way which fits with the ethos of Glendurgan Garden. In particular, I would like the new path to give the feel of a mountain trek. The path will need to incorporate a raised wooden board walk over a boggy area, as well as a bridge across a stream. I have therefore begun to research Bhutanese building methods and designs. In order to give an authentic feel to the area, I am hoping that my research will culminate in a study trip to Bhutan in the spring of 2014, ideally to the Chendiji Valley itself.”

“Due to travel restrictions in the kingdom of Bhutan, study trips such as the one that I am proposing have to be organised entirely through local travel agents. Consequently, they are very expensive (in the region of £4000 for a three week visit). I am making some initial enquiries in order to establish whether I might be able to raise enough money to fund the trip. I feel that if I am able to organise this study tour, it will prove to be not only a fantastic opportunity to further my own knowledge, but also to help develop a really exciting and authentic area in one of the great gardens of Cornwall.”

The Trust has agreed to award £500 towards this project and Ned Lomax has agreed, in return, to write an account in the CGT journal and/or give a talk on the venture.

Cornwall Gardens Trust has also awarded a grant of £300 to Dr Toby Musgrave for help towards his researches into his new book on the Lobb brothers, due to be published 2014. Based on original research the aim of this highly illustrated and long overdue book is to document their lives, travels, plants and creative influence. In particular it will reveal the artistic impacts of ‘their’ plants on Victorian garden fashions, both outdoors and in the conservatory, and their legacy still felt in the gardens of today.

Bishop Hunkin Memorial Plants by Margaret Burford

Between the years of 2003-2005 I visited 247 parishes in the diocese of Truro, following a commission from Bishop Bill. Readers of the Cornwall Gardens Trust Journal may recall reading the reports following my progress.

Last November a paragraph was published in The Coracle in which the writer asked “Is your Churchyard still Hunkined?” So of course I contacted the editor explaining my interest and asked to be put in touch with the author. I was not permitted to be given her phone number so I gave my details and looked forward to hearing from her. Disappointingly, this has not happened.

However, in the February issue of The Coracle there is an anonymous follow-up which appears to have been based on the CGT record. I had told the editor that the record was available at the County Records Office in addition to the “owner’s” copy I had given to Bishop Bill for filing in the records at Lis Escop.

It occurs to me that perhaps some other reader of The Coracle is reading this newsletter and was more successful than I in contacting the original questioner. I had been wondering whether to undertake a mini-pilgrimage in 2015 (after 10 years) to see how many Hunkin plants are still extant.

If you can help in any way please contact Margaret Burford on 01326 221632.

Start Brownian Thinking for 2016!

2016 will see widespread celebrations of the birth of world–renowned landscape architect Capability Brown. His Tercentenary presents a marvellous opportunity for us all to engage more people countrywide in the legacy of Brown’s designs, by learning to read the landscape and enjoy his grammar in their local historic parks. The first meeting of interested parties has been held at the Garden Museum. Steffie Shields represented AGT, others included representatives of English Heritage, National Trust, Historic Houses Association, the Garden History Society, Garden Museum, Landscape Design Trust, Landscape Institute, ICOMOS, Tate Britain, Financial Times, Visit England and Visit Britain. As a member of the Cornwall Gardens Trust would you like to start thinking about your local CGT ‘capabilities’?

A new book of interest to CGT Members is out this month. Landscape and Garden Design - Lessons from History by Gordon Haynes provides descriptions and explanations of landscape and garden design techniques with examples drawn from 500 years of heritage. It makes an ideal reference book.

ISBN 978-184995-082-4, 240 × 170mm, 194pp including 16pp b/w and 8pp colour softback. The cost is £35 plus £3-50 postage.

Further details from: Whittles Publishing, Dunbeath, Caithness, Scotland KW6 6EG

Tel.+44(0)1593-731333; E-mail: [email protected] or www.whittlespublishing.com

Parks & Gardens UK News

is very pleased to announce that their new website www.parksandgardens.org is ready for use and a new email address for queries: [email protected]

The Association of Gardens Trusts

The Annual Weekend Conference 2013 is held on Friday 6th to Sunday 8th September. Entitled Eastern Promise: transforming London’s Landscapes from Abercrombie to the Olympics

It is hosted by the London Parks & Gardens Trust and based at Queen Mary’s College, University of London, Mile End, London, E1 4NS. The Conference will look at the transformation of East London’s landscapes since Patrick Abercrombie’s seminal 1940s London Plan. Lectures and visits will focus on Mile End Park, Canary Wharf, and the Thames Barrier Park; and will conclude on Sunday with a guided tour of the new Olympic Park.

The Association’s AGM and Business Meeting on the Friday afternoon will be preceded by an optional seminar on Open Garden Squares Weekend, the London Parks & Gardens Trust’s highly successful annual event. For full details please email [email protected] or phone: 0207 839 3969; or write to: London Parks & Gardens Trust, Duck Island Cottage, St James’s Park, London, SW1 A2BJ.

2013 Spring Flower Show

The Cornwall Garden Society is holding its 101^st Flower Show at Boconnoc on Saturday 6^th April (10.00am-5.00pm) and Sunday 7^th April (10.00am to 4.00pm)

Entry on the gate is £7.50 (under 16s free), advance tickets are £6.50, groups of 20 plus £6.00 and CGS members are £5.00. This includes entry to the gardens at Boconnoc, but house tours are charged extra. Free parking on site, and dogs on leads are welcome.

Full details are on their website: www.cornwallflowershow.co.uk

And finally…….

David Pearce, Cornwall Gardens Trust Newsletter editor, is happy to receive short articles of information from members for publication in future Newsletters. These may be on any garden related topic, technical, personal experiences, humorous moments, cartoons etc. Please send articles to Sweet Thymes, Rose, Truro TR4 9PQ either by snail-mail or preferably by e-mail to: [email protected]