Researching Historic Parks and Gardens
HGT's Research Group traces Hertfordshire's landscape heritage from medieval times through to the 21st Century. The work is directed by Professor Tom Williamson, Chair in Landscape History at the University of East Anglia and the Group's desk research and site surveys are organised by the Trust's own Landscape Historian Anne Rowe.
We have carried out extensive research in three areas of the county and the results of our work can be seen in several publications and in an ever-growing collection of comprehensive reports detailing the histories of dozens of Hertfordshire's parks and gardens. Most of these reports can be seen in Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (HALS) at County Hall, Hertford. A growing number of sites in the county are also being added to the new national Parks and Gardens UK Database which can be accessed online (www.parksandgardens.ac.uk).
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Ardeley Bury Ayot House Benington Lordship Benington Park Benington Parsonage Blakesware, Wareside Bride Hall, Ayot St Lawrence Broadfield Hall, Cottered Brocket Park, Hatfield Childwickbury, St Albans Danesbury, Welwyn Fanhams Hall, Ware Furneux Pelham Hall Gorhambury, St Albans Hitchin Priory Holywell House, St Albans Homewood, Knebworth Kings Walden Bury Knebworth House |
Lamer, Wheathampstead Little Court, Buntingford Mackerye End Marshalswick, St Albans Moor Place, Much Hadham North Road House, Hertford Offley Place Panshanger, Hertford Rivers Nursery Orchard, Sawbridgeworth Rothamsted Rowney Priory, Little Munden Standon Lordship Temple Dinsley, Preston Tewin House The Hoo, Kimpton/Whitwell The Lordship, Much Hadham Tyttenhanger Wheathampstead House Woolmers Park, Hertingfordbury |
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Currently we are researching historic parks and gardens in the Welwyn-Hatfield area and, as always, our volunteers are offered training and study days to add to their interest and enjoyment. New members are always welcome and, as an example of the kind of work we undertake, below is a short summary of the report on Standon Lordship in East Hertfordshire.
The lovely Standon Lordship incorporates the fragmentary remains of a very grand mansion built in the mid 16th Century for the statesman Sir Ralph Sadleir. In the late 17th Century it was the home of Lord Aston and vied with Hatfield House for the position of premier residence in the county. No documentary or pictoral evidence for gardens from either century survives but in the fields around The Lordship there are some intriguing earthworks. The Research Group undertook a thorough survey of these earthworks under the direction of Professor Tom Williamson.
Professor Williamson concluded that the rectilinear humps and hollows in the fields lying to the south of the mansion represent extensive gardens and enclosures and terraces of 16th or 17th Century date (areas A and B on the Plan). To the north-west of The Lordship is another area of very impressive earthworks lying on the valley slope above the river Rib (area C). Various features suggest that these enigmatic terraces may also be the remains of early gardens and, if this were the case, then Standon Lordship would represent one of the most important earthwork sites in Hertfordshire.
For more information about HGT research email: research@hertsgardenstrust.org.uk