21 Aug Beth Chatto Gardens in Colchester and Harlow Town Park added to the National Heritage List
Beth Chatto Gardens in Colchester, Harlow Town Park and The Improvement Garden at Stockwood Park in Luton in the East of England have been added to the National Heritage List for England today (Friday 21 August 2020).
Beth Chatto’s environmentally-sustainable garden in Essex is significant worldwide in terms of the history of English gardens. She was an advocate of using plants that worked in harmony with local conditions. Her ‘right plant, right place’ philosophy, radical at the time, still shapes gardening today.
Harlow Town Park is a rare example of a new park associated with a first-generation new town. It is intended for active public use, successfully blending formal park design with existing landscape features including undulating topography, gravel works and watercress beds.
The Improvement Garden at Stockwood Park in Luton was designed in the 1980s by Ian Hamilton Finlay, and remarkably well-maintained, it is now the only complete garden remaining in England by this artist, poet and landscape designer.
Nationally, 20 landscapes have been granted protection and added to the Register of Parks and Gardens, part of the National Heritage List for England.
The newly announced protections by Historic England are the result of a three-year collaboration with The Gardens Trust. Thanks to suggestions from landscape professionals and members of the public, some of the best examples of landscapes designed between the end of the Second World War and the early 1990s have been identified for protection.
Those highlighted range from memorials to the grounds of housing estates, institutions, and private houses, as well as commercial and industrial sites. Some also include associated structures, which have been listed.
Tony Calladine, Regional Director of Historic England in the East of England said: Each of the designed landscapes in the East of England given protection today is special. Many demonstrate incredible thought and care for the people who would go on to use them, and others mark significant turning points in the history of English gardening. These past few months have taught us that our green open spaces improve the quality of the environment around us, are good for our wellbeing and give us breathing space. This project shines a light on some amazing historic landscapes that exist all over the country, celebrating how they enhance our lives, and helping to protect them for generations to come.”
Dominic Cole, President of The Gardens Trust, said: “We are delighted that our collaboration with Historic England has effectively doubled the number of registered post-war designed landscapes. This project was undertaken as part of the Garden Trust’s mission to protect and promote appreciation of significant gardens, parks and landscapes of all periods. Inclusion on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England is vital to our ability to help such landscapes survive to delight future generations. Twentieth-century heritage landscapes have often been overlooked and undervalued so we hope that these additions to the Register will throw a spotlight on the importance and quality of post-war designed landscapes.”
Three places have been newly added to the Register of Parks and Gardens in the East of England:
Beth Chatto Gardens, Colchester, Essex (Grade II)
Addition to the Register of Parks and Gardens
The informal garden created by Beth Chatto OBE VMH at Elmstead Market in Essex, created between the 1960s and the early 21st century, is significant worldwide in terms of the history of English gardens. Chatto was an advocate of using plants that worked in harmony with local conditions. Her ‘right plant, right place’ philosophy, radical at the time, still shapes gardening today. Chatto began work on the garden in 1960, transforming seven acres of wilderness which was unsuitable for conventional gardening. She created a series of linked designs to suit contrasting dry and water-logged soils, in areas that became the Mediterranean Garden, the Gravel Garden, the Reservoir Garden and the Water Garden, amongst others. As well as making a success of her revolutionary ecological planting style, Chatto created a designed landscape of the highest standard. She used a series of footpaths, terraces, mature oak trees, stepped ponds and a canalised drainage ditch, as well as her own house, to create a structural framework. She also drew on her knowledge of the artistic principles of ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging, with its focus on asymmetrical shapes, and harmony of shape, form, outline and texture. The structural framework for Beth Chatto’s pioneering design survives virtually intact today. Beth Chatto’s garden is open to the public, with access details available on the website.
Harlow Town Park, Essex (Grade II)
Addition to the Register of Parks and Gardens
Harlow Town Park was planned between 1949 and 1953 by the planner and architect Sir Frederick Gibberd, and the landscape architect Dame Sylvia Crowe DBE. Detailed designs were produced by landscape architect John St Bodfan Gruffydd and Harlow Urban Development Corporation’s engineer and surveyor AWR Webb. It is a rare example of a new park associated with a first-generation new town. The park is an environment intended for active public use, successfully blending formal park design with existing landscape features including undulating topography, gravel works and watercress beds. The design incorporates the old hamlet of Netteswell Cross, in a rare early example of a conservationist approach to planning. This is a fine example of a post-war public park where the structural framework and key features including the bandstand, the formal gardens, footpath and canalised stream survive largely intact.
The Improvement Garden at Stockwood Park, Luton, Bedfordshire (Grade II*)
Addition to the Register of Parks and Gardens
The Improvement Garden was designed in the 1980s by Ian Hamilton Finlay, and remarkably well-maintained, it is now the only complete garden remaining in England by this artist, poet and landscape designer. The garden’s six sculptures and their setting integrate poetry, history and nature, providing an overview of the themes that dominated Finlay’s work. The inspiration for the sculptures and design range from Greek mythology and Roman architecture to the grand landscape gardens of the 18th century. The design is a fine example of Finlay’s collaboration with the sculptors and carvers he used in his later career, and with the gifted Bob Burgoyne. It is part of an important ensemble of buildings and garden design that has evolved over 300 years, including the Grade II listed 18th century stable block and the 19th century walled gardens and glasshouses.
