NEWS & EVENTS: Our Events: Trips, Talks & Workshops
We have an interesting set of events for the year and are pleased to be able to share the event details, dates, ticket prices and booking arrangements with you.
Visit to Wrest Park with guided tour
Andrew Hann will lead us on a tour of the grounds of Wrest Park to allow us to experience in person the landscapes we heard about in his earlier lecture. Visitors will be able to see the progress made on English Heritage’s 20-year master plan for Wrest Park, which started in 2006 and has included new visitor facilities, restoration of the rose and Italian gardens and the French Parterre. Most recently the Bath House grounds were restored and replanted based on detailed survey and research.
The visit has been timed to take advantage of the display of spring flowering bulbs.
As this is an English Heritage property, those who are not members of EH will also need to pay for admission to the site; members of EH will need to bring their membership cards!
Where? Wrest Park, Silsoe, Bedfordshire
When? 25th April 2024
Tickets: EGT Members: £8.0 & Non-members and guests: £10.00
Visit to and tour of Little Bentley Hall, Waterways and Garden
Guided tour by the owner Christopher Palmer-Tomkinson
The gardens at Little Bentley Hall have been transformed over the last 30 years under the ownership of Christopher and Virginia Palmer-Tomkinson. The present Georgian house was built sometime between 1810-20. It was preceded, however, by a grand mansion built by a 16th century London merchant which only lasted two generations before it was demolished due to a profligate son-in-law, the 20th Earl of Oxford Aubrey de Vere. Traces of the estate's existence remained in the remnants of garden walls and in fish stew ponds. Christopher will guide us around the garden to show how they transformed the open fields surrounding the house by creating a lake linked to waterways, adding terraces to the house, and planting a woodland garden extending into grass meadows. The gardens in spring are ablaze with colour from rhododendrons, azaleas, hydrangeas, primulas, and bulbs. The gardens adjoin a 107-acre ancient woodland. In May, the canopy of trees including chestnuts, limes and oaks are highlighted by the vivid displays of bluebells and wood anemones.
Where? Little Bentley Hall in Tendring District
When? 11th May 2024
Tickets: EGT Members: £8.00 & Non-members and guests: £10.00
Sketch & Scribe creative illustration and prose workshop
Based at Fête restaurant Gray’s Brewery Yard, Chelmsford, Essex with the workshop activity in nearby Chelmsford Central Park
Essex Gardens Trust’s Writer in Residence, Siobhan Pierce and Artist in Residence, Jane Frederick invite you to join them this Spring to develop your creative writing and drawing skills in the glorious Central Park, nestling in the heart of Chelmsford.
This small and friendly workshop is designed to help you develop your confidence in drawing and writing outdoors whilst mindfully engaging with some of the most treasured green spaces in Essex.
Jane and Siobhan will help you to take visual and written inspiration from the peaceful urban green oasis and find your own way to mindfully respond to the theme of ‘City Park life’ through drawing and prose.
Jane will demonstrate playful pen and ink- wash techniques and show you how to capture an atmospheric illustration of the landscaped parkland.
Siobhan will encourage you to seek inspiration from the varied landscape of the park by providing examples of nature and urban writing and suggesting creative hotspots that will hopefully get your imagination flowing!
Central Park was opened in 1894 and is one of the oldest public parks in Chelmsford. Today, it also includes Central Park Memorial Gardens, Frank Whitmore Place, Bell Meadow and Sky Blue Pasture with over 35.6 acres of parkland together with a Nature Reserve.
There is plenty of inspiration to be found including waterways, architectural monuments, formal flower beds and majestic mature trees.
The fabulous restaurant will be our venue for the day and is just a short stroll away from the park. Refreshments are available for participants to purchase at the downstairs bar area (a little bird mentioned that they provide very good coffee and cake!) alternatively you can bring your own packed lunch and enjoy al fresco dining in the park.
Suitable for complete beginners or the more experienced, this friendly and practical workshop is designed to help you develop your confidence in drawing and creative writing and learn how to create atmospheric impressions of the landscape. Your ticket includes individual tuition from both tutors and all materials.
Both Central Park and Fête are just a short walk from Chelmsford Rail and Bus stations and city parking facilities. The Chelmsford Park and Ride service also operates regular bus services into the city centre.
Where? Unit 10 – 13 Grays Brewery Yard, Chelmsford, CM2 6QR
Central Park Parkway, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 1LU
When? Thursday 23rd May 2024 10-3pm
Spaces are limited to 15 per workshop so early booking is recommended.
Tickets: EGT Members: £40.00 & Non-members and guests: £45.00
Visit to and tour of Benton End House and Garden, Hadleigh, Suffolk
Guided tour by Matthew Hodges
Benton End house and gardens in Hadleigh, Suffolk is the former home of celebrated artist and gardener Sir Cedric Morris (1889 – 1982) and artist, Arthur Lett-Haines, known as Lett, (1894–1978); lifelong partners, they met on Armistice Night in 1918.
Together they ran the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing – a sanctuary for a diverse range of influential artists, writers, musicians, and botanists of the 20th century. Lucian Freud and Maggi Hambling were among their students. Vita Sackville-West, Beth Chatto, Paul and John Nash, Elizabeth David, Constance Spry and Benjamin Britten all frequented the house.
In 2021 Benton End was majority gifted to the Garden Museum by The Pinchbeck Charitable Trust with the aim of reopening the house and garden to the public once again. We are delighted to have the chance to visit this garden as it develops.
Where? Benton End House and Garden, Hadleigh, Suffolk
When? Thursday 6th June 2024, 10.30-1.00
Tickets: EGT Members: £23.00 & Non-members and guests: £25.00
Visit to Blunts Hall, Blunts Hall Rd, Witham, including a guided tour from the owner, Lesley Gamblin
Join us for a summer afternoon’s visit to Blunts Hall, a delightful, and interesting, 3-acre Victorian garden, on the outskirts of Witham. Our private tour, kindly offered by the owners, will include a woodland walk around a spring-fed pond, a fernery and specimen trees. There is also an orchard (with old & new fruit trees), a vegetable plot (with restored garden building) and even a Listed Ancient Monument!
Close to a Courtyard Garden, there is a Terrace leading down to lawns, a reinstated Parterre and abundantly filled herbaceous borders; and during the afternoon, we will have the opportunity to relax and enjoy refreshments served here.
Where? Blunts Hall, Blunts Hall Rd, Witham
When? Saturday 13th July 2024 2pm - 4.30pm
Tickets: EGT Members: £12.00 & Non-members and guests: £14.00
‘Ellen Willmott’s Alpine Gardens and the Backhouse Nursery of York’ - Lecture by Gillian Parker
Writtle University College, Lordship Rd, Writtle
The Backhouse Nursery played a significant role in the development of alpine gardens in the 19th and early 20th century throughout the country, including those of historical interest such as that of Ellen Willmott. Gillian Parker has been carrying out research for her PhD into the work of the York-based Backhouse Nursery, who offered not only alpine plants but also garden design and construction services. Gillian’s talk will include a history of this family-run nursery, with a particular focus on their work at Warley Place.
This talk is being held in conjunction with Essex Wildlife Trust.
Where? Writtle University College, Lordship Rd, Writtle
When? Saturday 16th November 2024
Tickets: EGT Members: £8.00 & Non-members and guests: £10.00
Booking via Eventbrite to follow >>
