News & Events

Please note that events are for members only and generally have to be pre-booked.

A booking form is sent to members with the newsletter in January and June.

Mid March                            Lecture                      Event 1

Chinoiserie, Tea, Trade Routes and a Taste for the Exotic. Talk by Dr. Laura Mayer.                

We are delighted to welcome back Laura, a renowned independent lecturer and researcher who has published extensively. She has an MA in Garden History and a PhD in C18 architectural & landscape patronage.  Chinoiserie, an early European interest in the arts, architecture and gardening of the Far East, blossomed in Georgian Britain.  Soon every landscape park and public pleasure ground in the country had a pagoda or tea-house, a Chinese bridge, barge or brightly painted umbrella under which to take tea. Laura will examine the expanding trade routes of C18 Britain as well as the craze for informal gardening which begs the question ‘Just how English was the English landscape garden after all?'

Afternoon refreshments are included.

 Late March                           Visit                           Event 2

Llanover House, Nr. Abergavenny. 

By kind permission of Mrs. Elizabeth Murray.

An early spring visit to a beautiful 15 acre listed garden and arboretum. It holds one of Wales’s largest collections of magnolias and, if the weather gods have been kind, as they have been over the past 5 years, the flowers will be superb.  Numerous spring bulbs and camellias, herbaceous borders within circular walled garden.  Lakes, streams and water features fed by the Rhyd-y-Meirch stream. Featured in Gardens Illustrated October 2025.

To include guided tour and refreshments.

 May                                      AGM                          Event 3

Perrycroft, Upper Colwall.              

By kind permission of Gillian and Mark Archer.

A 10 acre garden and woodland on the upper slopes of the Malvern Hills with glorious views across Herefordshire and into Wales. The garden has been developed over the past 24 years and is set around an Arts and Crafts house designed by CFA Voysey (not open). Yew and box hedges, topiary, mixed herbaceous borders, meadows, ponds & woodland. Some steep and uneven paths.

Garden visit followed by AGM.

Wine and refreshments are included.

Mid June                              Visit                           Event 4

Lasborough Park, Tetbury. 

By kind permission of Sir Hans Rousing.

Lasborough Park, built to designs by James Wyatt around 1800 is a very picturesque, castellated house overlooking a beautiful, steep-sided limestone valley. The 12 acre garden including formal lawns, shrubs, roses and herbaceous border has remained more or less unchanged since the 1840’s, but has been revised by the present owners over the last 8 years. The pièce de resistance is the walled garden, planned around a large glasshouse built on the site of a previous structure shown on mid-C19 plans. The planting throughout the garden reflects the fruits of a long collaboration between Julia Rausing and Tom Stuart-Smith. Mrs Rausing loved old fashioned flowers, especially roses and the garden brims over with them in mid-summer. 

Includes a guided tour and afternoon tea and cakes.

Late June                              Visit                          Event 5

Millfield, Eaton Bishop.

By kind permission of Richard and Angela Mainwaring.

1½ acre informal country garden shared with wildlife. The terrace and vegetable garden are enclosed by pergolas and espalier fruit trees.  Mixed borders of trees, shrubs and perennials create their own tapestry with plenty of self-sown plants to surprise and inspire us! Grass paths connect the borders, ponds and a wildflower meadow and native hedges and trees enclose and divide the different areas. 

Visit includes refreshments.

Early July                              Visit                          Event 6

The Green, Welsh Bicknor.  

By kind permission of Patrick and Laura Vaughan.

An enchanting garden created by the current owner from a few acres of farmland. The Green perches on one side of a hill with magnificent views overlooking the River Wye and wooded hills beyond, built on several levels accessed by steps. A bold box parterre and an abundance of roses.  Featured in House and Garden in 2023.

Afternoon tea is included.

Late July                               Visit                          Event 7

Ivy Cottage, Malvern.

By kind permission of Jeffrey Haworth and Paul Finn.

The Trustees invite Members, Partners and Potential Members to a Garden Drinks Party at Ivy Cottage, a hidden, private acre of landscape at the upper part of the Common.

August                                 Visit                          Event 8

Bromesberrow Place, Nr. Ledbury.

By kind permission of the Hon. Dr. Gilbert and Mrs. Greenall.

The visit will be hosted by Dr and Mrs Greenhall and include a tour of the house and grounds and an address on 'The Grandeur and Decline of the English Country House'.

Refreshments on arrival are included.

Mid October                               Visit                          Event 9

Bodenham Arboretum, Kidderminster.

Bodenham is situated in a protected valley, away from traffic noise and visual intrusions. Its 170 acres contain mature woodland, specimen trees and shrubs – over 3000 species in total which include important collections such as Acers, North American Oaks and Alders, and two chains of pools and lakes, integrated within a working farm. The plantings and water, combined, cover 54 acres, 15 pools have their own constant supply of water.

Lunch is available in the cafe.

Late October                              Lecture                     Event 10

Country Houses and Gardens of Derbyshire.   Oliver Gerrish.

Oliver Gerrish, former Chairman of the Young Georgians, is a busy director of Cultural Tours.  Derbyshire is rich in historic gardens, as well as the famous ones at Chatsworth and Renishaw which will also feature in this garden orientated talk.

Refreshments will be served after the lecture.

PRESS_RELEASE_-_Gardens_Trust_urges_government_to_reconsider_its_plans_V2.pdf 

NEWS FROM THE GARDENS TRUST

Government proposal to remove statutory consultee role from the Gardens Trust
The Gardens Trust is appalled that the government is considering removing it as a statutory consultee within the English planning system.  

We don’t recognise ourselves in the government’s characterisation of statutory consultees. We only rarely miss the 21 day response deadline (remarkable given that we work closely with local volunteers in forming our responses), and last year objected to less than 10% of our consultations, with the remainder of our responses being simply supportive advice.

The Gardens Trust receives some 1800 planning application consultations each year, and provides local planning authorities with many hundreds of constructive advice recommendations to support positive change. Around 80% of our comments are advice to support approval of planning permission, with only 20% expressing serious reservations about proposals.

To support the Gardens Trust’s statutory consultee work it receives a grant of £42,000 from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

In order to deliver its statutory consultee role, the Gardens Trust’s small team of national paid Conservation Officers and experts working pro bono coordinates a volunteer army across 36 affiliated County Gardens Trusts.

We are passionate about the role that the UK’s world-famous historic parks and gardens can play in supporting positive economic growth and healthy cohesive societies, and eager to continue helping this in our role as statutory consultee. We understand that the government will shortly be launching a public consultation into proposals, and we will contact our members and supporters with an update at that point, if not before. In the meantime, please read the Gardens Trust’s statement. Your support is vital.

MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAIRMAN

It is probably fair to say that Sir Simon Jenkins is Clough's lineal successor. In a Times article, Simon sets out how the present government with its ambitions for a Third Runway and the Oxford-Cambridge arc (and the construction of what he designates Starmerville) is dealing with past challenges not the present or future ones. He advocates mending historic towns and cities instead, repurposing old buildings VAT-free. He points out that with modern communications there is no need for new settlements to allow people to work close together, nor a need for a new railway line. 

News in 2024

GOOD NEWS FOR OUR PARKS & GARDENS

For many years our historic parks and gardens have been poor cousins of Listed buildings with little of the same level of protection. This woefully inadequate recognition of their cultural and historic importance has slowly improved with successive levels of legislation until now the new Levelling Up and Regeneration Act has given them equal status. At last there is statutory duty to preserve and enhance Registered parks and gardens and the recognition that un-designated sites are also important. 

 Warwickshire Gardens Trust have indicated that they would be pleased to see members of HWGT at their events. If you are interested in joining them you can find details at Upcoming Events – Warwickshire Gardens Trust  

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News in 2023 

Malcolm Meikle. 3^rd June 1929 – 1^st April 2023

Seen here with our Chairman, Jeffrey Haworth.

Malcolm Meikle, our longstanding Gardens Trust member and stalwart committee member has sadly died at the ripe old age of 93. We will all miss him. The following words have been penned by Jeffrey Haworth.

On hearing Malcolm had died, Anne Langton (our Secretary) wrote, “Such a Grand Old Man, always interested and informative - and not afraid of lobbing the odd apple/pear/plum into the conversation.” We have appreciated his amiable insights and help since he joined the Committee 25 years ago, until he stepped down two years ago and even afterwards in phone calls. We've valued his guidance and ability to pull strings after a Worcestershire lifetime.

Malcolm was born at Wick Grange and only recently he and Mima formed a dower house nearby. He attended the remarkable Victorian choir school at St Michael's, Tenbury. He was sad when it folded and I told him about the refectory furniture, in the manner of William Burges, looking so desolate and unappreciated in the Leominster saleroom.

His father died suddenly when Malcolm was 18, so he had to stay on at Wick to help his mother run the large mixed farm.

He had a long association with Wychavon District Council, stepping down as Leader in 2004. Then Malcolm and Mima had more time for HWGT and have been regulars at our visits and lectures and generally conspicuous at our gatherings. They have been so hospitable at Wick, with several group visits there that we remember.

Several of us recall Malcolm being intrigued at his first Committee meeting by one or two of our more eccentric colleagues, John St Bodfan Gruffydd in particular, the decidedly Welsh and opinionated former President of the Landscape Institute (the Committee has never lacked spark). Malcolm was certainly a backbone of HWGT, if an organisation such as ours can have several. Many of us have lost a good friend.

For a quarter century Malcolm had been intrigued by the saga of the Pershore organ, with its novel twists and turns. He was thrilled when at last a new pipe organ was commissioned and entertained that it is Italian and placed uniquely high up near the vaults in the triforium. Delayed by Covid and Brexit, it was given its first major airing at Malcolm's memorial service, bringing the saga as well as his life to a close.