Conservation and restoration of historic gardens

An 1835 estate map of the landscaped parkland at Blenheim Palace, in Oxfordshire, England.

Historic garden conservation is a specialised type of historic preservation and conservation or restoration concerned with historical and landmark gardens and designed landscapes.

Profession[]

Practitioners predominantly come from backgrounds in horticulture, garden design, landscape design, and landscape architecture. To prepare a management plan for a historic garden, such experts require knowledge and skills in environmental design, horticulture, landscape history, architectural history, and management. Specialist educational programs are available (see section below).

One of most famous historical landscape architects, Lancelot "Capability" Brown (1716 - 1783).

Historic garden restoration is the professional task of restoring historic gardens to the character they had at a previous point in history. Since the use of old gardens is in flux, this normally involves a consideration of current and future use. The job of researching historic gardens and preparing a policy for their conservation involves landscape archaeology, historic knowledge, design judgment and technical skill in horticulture and construction.

Education[]

United Kingdom[]

Several universities and colleges in England run undergraduate and postgraduate courses related to historic garden conservation.

Institute of Historical Research - MA in garden and landscape history, Institute of Historical Research (London)
University of Greenwich - BSc landscape management course, University of Greenwich
Institute of Continuing Education - historic environment (landscapes and gardens) courses, Institute of Continuing Education (Cambridge)
Writtle College - BSc garden design, restoration & management, Writtle College
MA historic designed landscapes, Writtle College
The University of Bath ran a specialist MSc / PGDip course in the conservation of historic gardens and cultural landscapes, until the 2014-15 academic year.

France[]

The Institut national du patrimoine (The National Institute of Cultural Heritage) trains curators specialized in « scientific, technical and natural heritage ».

Public protection[]

United Kingdom[]

Statutory protection exists for registered parks, gardens and designed landscapes. There are separate heritage registers maintained for each of the four countries of the United Kingdom:

The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England is maintained by English Heritage;^[1]
The Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales is maintained by Cadw;^[2]
The Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland is maintained by Historic Scotland;^[3]
The Register of Parks, Gardens and Demesnes of Special Historic Interest is maintained by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.^[4]

Organisations[]

Australia[]

In Australia, the Australian Garden History Society is a similar organization to the UK's Garden History Society.

United Kingdom[]

The Baroque terraced garden at Powis Castle in Wales, restored in the early 20th century and now cared for by the National Trust.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the National Trust, and likewise in Scotland the National Trust for Scotland, own or manage many country houses and/or the gardens and parkland attached to them, as well as other treasured gardens, parks and landscapes, on behalf of the nation.

The Garden History Society is the oldest such society in the world, forming in 1966. It became ^[5] in 2015, having merged with the Association of Gardens Trusts. Its aims are to study garden history and conserve historic gardens. Since 1995 it is a statutory consultee on proposals affecting registered parks, gardens and landscapes in England. It has about 1,500 members and publishes the Garden History journal twice-yearly, as well as a regular members' newsletter. The society has an active group for Scotland, with its own regular newsletter and conservation officer.

The is a similar society specifically for gardens, parks and landscapes in Wales. Most of the counties of England also have their own trust, which were represented by the Association of Gardens Trusts, which since 2015 forms part of The Gardens Trust.

In London there is the Garden Museum, covering all aspects of gardening history and with a large and growing collection of historic objects such as old tools and plans.

United States[]

In the United States, The Garden Conservancy actively assists in the preservation of notable gardens and designed landscapes in the country.

There is also the California Garden and Landscape History Society for events and education in California specifically.

The Garden Club of Virginia has restored many of the most notable historic gardens in Virginia since its founding around 1913. A Historic Garden Week is run, in part to raise money for restorations.

The Archives of American Gardens is an archive which preserves documentation and content related to gardens in the United States. Housing over 80,000 photographic images and records pertaining to over 6,000 gardens throughout the United States, some as old as the 1870s, the Archive is part of Smithsonian Gardens, a unit of the Smithsonian Institution.

Examples of restoration[]

United Kingdom[]

Restoration work at Wrest Park.

Recent and ongoing examples of garden conservation and restoration in England include Lowther Castle in Cumbria, Lever Park in Lancashire, Biddulph Grange in Staffordshire, Croome Court and Witley Court in Worcestershire,^[6] Wrest Park in Bedfordshire, and the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall.

References[]

^ "Historic Parks and Gardens". English Heritage. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
^ "Historic Parks and Gardens". Cadw. Archived from the original on 9 March 2012. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
^ "Gardens and Designed Landscapes". Historic Scotland. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
^ "Historic Parks, Gardens and Demesnes". NIEA. Archived from the original on 13 December 2011. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
^ The Gardens Trust
^ BBC News Croome parkland restored by National Trust (4 October 2014)

External links[]

[1] "Historic Parks and Gardens". English Heritage. Retrieved 18 November 2011.

[2] "Historic Parks and Gardens". Cadw. Archived from the original on 9 March 2012. Retrieved 18 November 2011.

[3] "Gardens and Designed Landscapes". Historic Scotland. Retrieved 18 November 2011.

[4] "Historic Parks, Gardens and Demesnes". NIEA. Archived from the original on 13 December 2011. Retrieved 18 November 2011.

[5] The Gardens Trust

[6] BBC News Croome parkland restored by National Trust (4 October 2014)

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

show v t Horticulture and gardening
Gardening	Allotment Arboretum Butterfly Community Forest Foodscaping French intensive Garden Garden design computer-aided Garden tool Green wall Guerrilla Historic conservation History Landscape Native Parterre Proplifting Raised bed Square foot Sustainable Xeriscaping
Types of gardens	Alpine Ancient Egypt Back Baroque Biblical Bog Botanical Bottle Butterfly Byzantine Cactus Colonial Color Communal Garden square Community Container Cottage Dutch East Asian Chinese Cantonese Japanese Roji Zen Korean English Fernery Floating Flower French formal landscape Renaissance Front German Greek Greenhouse Hanging Hügelkultur Islamic Italian Keyhole Kitchen Knot Market Mary Monastic Mughal Orchard Indonesian home garden Persian Bāgh Charbagh Paradise Philosophical Physic Pleasure Pollinator Rain Rock Roman Roof Rose Sacred School Scottish Sculpture Sensory Shade Shakespeare Spanish Tea Therapeutic Trial Tropical Victory Walled Water Wildlife Winter Zoological
Horticulture	Agriculture stock-free sustainable urban Arboriculture Botany Companion planting Crop most valuable Flora Floriculture Canada Taiwan Fruticulture Genetically modified tree Hydroculture Indigenous Intercropping Landscape architecture Olericulture Plant breeding propagation drought tolerance hardiness Pomology Postharvest physiology Tropical Urban agriculture horticulture forestry reforestation Viticulture Monoculture
Organic	Biodynamic agriculture List of organic gardening and farming topics Vegan organic agriculture
Plant protection	Fungicide Herbicide Index of pesticide articles List of fungicides Pesticide Plant disease forecasting Pruning Weed control Aquamog weed remover
Related articles	Garden tourism Community orchard List of gardens
Gardening portal Category Commons WikiProject

show v t Cultural heritage and historic preservation
Topics and issues	Archival processing Archaeological science Archaeology Archive Bioarchaeology Calendar (archive) Conservation and restoration of cultural property Conservation and restoration of immovable cultural property Conservation and restoration of movable cultural property Conservation and restoration training Conservation science (cultural property) Collecting Collection (museum) Collection catalog Collections maintenance Collections management Collections management system Cultural heritage Cultural heritage management Cultural property Cultural property documentation Cultural property exhibition Cultural property imaging Cultural property storage Cultural resources management Database preservation Digital library Digital photograph restoration Digital preservation Risk management (cultural property) Film preservation Finding aid Fonds Found in collection Heritage asset Heritage science Inherent vice Intangible cultural heritage Integrated pest management (cultural property) Inventory (library and archive) Inventory (museum) Media preservation Mold control and prevention (library and archive) Museum Optical media preservation Preservation (library and archive) Preservation metadata Preservation survey Provenance Repatriation Sustainable preservation Web archiving
Roles and expertise	Archivist Art dealer Art handler Auctioneer Collection manager Conservator-restorer Conservation scientist Conservation technician Curator Exhibition designer Mount maker Paintings conservator Photograph conservator Preservationist Registrar (cultural property) Textile conservator
Methods and techniques	Aging (artwork) Anastylosis Arrested decay Cradling (paintings) Cultural property radiography Deaccessioning (museum) Detachment of wall paintings Desmet method Display case Digital repository audit method based on risk assessment Historic paint analysis Inpainting Kintsugi Leafcasting Lining of paintings Mass deacidification Overpainting Paper splitting Rissverklebung Textile stabilization Transfer of panel paintings UVC-based preservation VisualAudio
Conservation and restoration of immovable cultural property by item type	Archaeological sites Frescos Historic gardens Outdoor artworks Outdoor bronze objects Outdoor murals
Conservation and restoration of movable cultural property by item type	Ancient Greek pottery Automobiles Bone, horn, and antler objects Books, manuscripts, documents and ephemera Ceramic objects Clocks Copper-based objects Feathers Film Flags and banners Fur objects Glass objects Herbaria Human remains Illuminated manuscripts Insect specimens Iron and steel objects Ivory objects Judaica Lacquerware Leather objects Lighthouses Metals Musical instruments Neon objects New media art Paintings Painting frames Panel paintings Papyrus Parchment Performance art Photographs Photographic plates Plastic objects Shipwreck artifacts Silver objects South Asian household shrines Stained glass Taxidermy Textiles Tibetan thangkas Time-based media art Totem poles Vehicles Vinyl discs Woodblock prints Wooden artifacts Wooden furniture
Intangible cultural heritage preservation	Dance notation Ethnopoetics Language preservation Living history Oral history preservation Preservation of meaning Tradition preservation
Notable projects	Conservation issues of Pompeii and Herculaneum Conservation-restoration of Ecce Homo by Elías García Martínez Conservation-restoration of The Gross Clinic by Thomas Eakins Conservation-restoration of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper Pompeian frescoes Conservation-restoration of the Shroud of Turin Conservation-restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes Conservation-restoration of the Statue of Liberty Conservation-restoration of the H.L. Hunley Modern and Contemporary Art Research Initiative Preservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies

Conservation and restoration of historic gardens

Contents

Profession[]

Education[]

United Kingdom[]

France[]

Public protection[]

United Kingdom[]

Organisations[]

Australia[]

United Kingdom[]

United States[]

Examples of restoration[]

United Kingdom[]

See also[]

References[]

External links[]