Christina’s September 2011 blog

It was great to see so many people at our AGM at Watlington House. One has been to so many tedious AGMs where hardly anybody is there and the atmosphere is dreary, so it was refreshing having to put extra garden chairs in the car before we set off (because we realised Watlington House wouldn’t have enough seats, given the number of acceptances !). We had also underestimated the number of orange-juice drinkers, so there was the Chairman rushing off to the nearest Corner Shop to buy in extra supplies before we got started. Good to think we might have run-out because of the numbers.

People wanted to hear about Watlington House, the oldest domestic residence in Reading, and our speakers Gaila and Clive did fantastically well. There was a sharp intake of breath when Gaila revealed her designs for the gardens and grounds. She has put in a lot of work on them. So roll on 2012 when hopefully we get going.

We also had a good presence from the civic dignitaries who were there mainly for the Awards. Ben, a brilliant photographer, took some great pictures of the Lord Lieutenant presenting the certificates which we can use for the press release. Thanks, Ben.

It is a shame that Ben is giving up the Treasurership which has been handled so well and ably over the last 2 years. But he and I went today to see Hugh Simon, a possible successor, and that too went really well. In fact it was Hugh who pointed out to me I hadn’t done my blog bit for the BGT website so here it is ! Good to know we have a prospective Treasurer unafraid to give the Chairman a nudge when necessary !!

The autumn is now panning out before us with plenty planned and we are looking forward to working on the Hungerford Tragedy Garden later this month. The involvement of ex-offenders is so topical now with the summer riots, sentencing, the courts etc and it was good to know that we were once again ahead of the game and had already planned to use the Unpaid Work/Community Payback Scheme within the Probation Service for this. In fact,the former offenders are a West Berkshire team so those old enough to recall the dreadful events of summer 1987 will be aware of the terrible blow that this was to the people of Hungerford, how everyone pulled together and how this is a real opportunity to contribute to a community scheme. And of course it was our own Gilly Drummonmd OBE, President of the AGT, who suggested this as a project for us when she met the Mayor of Hungerford (Elizabeth Cardwell, now a BGT Committee member) at the BGT launch two summers ago. Thanks, Elizabeth and Gilly.

We also have our visit to East Berkshire coming up, when we shall be at South Hill Park in Bracknell. This is an interesting place because the House, though much altered, is the only Nabob property in Berkshire along with Basildon Park which was actually built by an Indian Nabob. The others used their fortunes acquired via the East India Company to buy existing Berkshire properties. It is a couple of years since I went round the grounds so it will be interesting to see what has been done.

Then there is the Gazetteer seminar to organise for our dedicated researchers and the new Membership Leaflet to work on. Plenty happening ! It was great to have existing and new Committee members elected at the AGM and I look forward to working with them all.

Thank you.

Berkshire Gardens Trust Chairman, Dr Christina Hill Williams DL.