Events and Outings
HGT 20th Anniversary Celebrations
This year marks the twentieth anniversary of Hertfordshire Gardens Trust and we have organised a very special Calendar of Events to help us celebrate. (Click here to download your copy). This tells you everything you need to know about our extensive programme as well as how to book. It is a programme which includes an amazing series of walks and talks on our historic landscapes as well as those events highlighted below, some of which will help raise much needed funds for the Trust.
Sunday 15th May 11.00am - 4.00pm
Plant Sale and Open Gardens at Benington Lordship
by kind permission of Richard and Susanna Bott.
This magnificent seven acre garden is simply stunning at this time of year and is covered in swathes of scilla byzantica, tulips, fritillaries and a host of other spring flowering plants, trees and shrubs. We shall have several stallholders from around the country with a variety of unusual plants and HGT's own stall will be there as usual. We would be most grateful to receive any of your potted or recently split unusual plants for the stall. There will of course be refreshments in the Manor House tea room. Please get in touch with Annie Saner on 01442 843428 about plants or if you can help in any way. Admission £4 RHS Members free
Thursday 9th June 7.30pm
The Dowager Marchioness of Salisbury lecture: A Gardener's Life
In The Marble Hall, Hatfield House. Tickets £20 to include wine. Please do apply early for your tickets, using the enclosed booking form and sending an SAE along with your cheque to Annie Saner at the address given.
Saturday 28th/Sunday 29th May
Herts County Show at the Showground, Redbourn
The Trust has a stand in the Food and Farming marquee and on each day we will be offering a Wheelbarrow Workshop activity for children. We do hope you will come along and support us.
Saturday 8th October 7.30pm
An evening of Beethoven and Betjeman
In the Judi Dench Theatre at Abbot's Hill School, Hemel Hempstead. The Montagnana Ensemble will be performing the Beethoven Septet and Crispin Bonham-Carter will read poems by John Betjeman with a musical accompaniment. Tickets £20 to include wine. Contact Annie Saner on 01442 843428
Saturday 12th November
'THE GARDEN OF ENGLAND'
A day of talks about the parks and gardens of Hertfordshire from the 16th to the 20th century given by experts from the Hertfordshire Gardens Trust. Venue: Abbot's Hill School, Hemel Hempstead. All welcome. £12 for members; £15 for non-members. For further information and booking form click here.
Recent visits to gardens for Members have included:
Thorp Lubenham Hall Leics, Kelmarsh Hall Northants, Marks Hall and Glen Chantry, Essex, Blewbury Manor, Rofford Manor, Rycote Park and Garsington Manor in Oxon, Feeringbury Manor and Spencers Gt Yeldham Essex, Coton Manor Northants, Great Fosters Surrey, Waltham Place Berkshire, Fermyn Woods Hall Northants, Rousham Gardens and Pettiers Banbury in Oxon.
Fundraising events
We have musical evenings both indoors and out, bridge days in the winter months and plant fairs with stunning open gardens – as at Serge Hill, Abbots Langley, held jointly with the Hospice of St Francis, Berkhamsted. View pictures and write up
Lectures are held twice a year – at Ashridge near Berkhamsted and at Haileybury near Hertford with some exceptionally distinguished speakers :-
Peter Inskip, Conservation Architect "Strawberry Hill Revaled". The story of this Heritage site and its restoration
Jennifer Potter, Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund King's College London and Reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement, "The Curious Gardeners: The lives and times of the John Tradescants"
Anna Pavord Gardening Correspondent of the Independent, "The Tulip"
Tom Stuart-Smith, Award winning Landscape Architect (seven times gold winner at Chelsea and designer of the Queen's Jubilee Garden at Windsor Castle, "New Gardens Historic Landscapes. Articulating between old and new with inspiration from music, cell biology and cultural history to create new gardens that are contextual and modern"
James Bolton, Garden Designer and Historian, "From the Picturesque to Paxton: The Changing Style of Gardens in the early 19th Century"
Dr. Peter Burman, Director of Conservation & Property Services, The National Trust for Scotland, "New Art, Old Landscapes. The Role of Contemporary Craftsmanship in Historic Gardens and Designed Landscapes"
Jane Roberts, Librarian and Curator of the Print Room, The Royal Collection Windsor Castle, "Royal Landscape: The History of the Royal Parks at Windsor"