Christina’s December 2011 blog

The last third of 2011 was one of the busiest and most successful periods which Berkshire Gardens Trust has enjoyed since its formation. On 24th September 60 members and guests gathered at South Hill Park in Bracknell to enjoy talks and tours of this Grade 2 heritage site’s recently restored gardens and grounds. We were delighted to be joined by Landscape Institute South East members. This was late September,but “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” it was not: we were then at the beginning of an unexpected heat-wave;indeed, 5 days later London experienced its hottest day for a century,with temperatures hitting 28.8 C on 29th September! It was,however, highly appropriate that we should enjoy an Indian Summer at South Hill Park, because the House was built in 1760 by William Watts, an Indian Nabob, who had made a fortune as a senior official with the East India Company. A really enjoyable day. See Past Events for more details on this visit.

From East Berkshire, the next day attention shifted to the far edge of West Berkshire when we started the first phase of the restoration of the Hungerford Tragedy Memorial Garden which carried on throughout September. The completed scheme is a real achievement by Berkshire Gardens Trust and we have been told how much it is appreciated by the Hungerford community. I am personally very proud of what our members have achieved in this first practical project we have undertaken. The Hugerford Tragedy Garden Project in the section on Completed Projects has more details.

In November about 50 members and guests assembled at St Stephen’s Church Centre, Upper Basildon for our Autumn/Winter Lecture. This year we heard an excellent talk from Richard Wheeler, the National Trust’s Specialist in Garden History, whose discourse on the Spirit of the Place covered many of the Trust’s great gardens, such as Chastleton in the Cotswolds and Sissinghurst in Kent.It was a really interesting evening,but what struck me in particular was the number of members and guests who turned out on a dark, dreary evening at this dismal time of year.Thank you to all who supported the event. As before, there is a longer report on this occasion elsewhere on the web-site

Finally, 10 of us gathered in early December at Honeycroft House, Upper Basildon for a seminar on the Gazetteer project,one of our long-term initiatives. Parameters were set for 2012, and various ideas were tabled to carry the project forward into the future. So my thanks go to all the Committee and members for the completion of another successful year and I wish you all a Happy New Year.