11th and 12th October, at Knightshayes, Tiverton, Devon
Uncovering and Discovering Hidden History
We were delighted to hold the Forum this year (2024) in the Walled Gardens at Knightshayes – National Trust. Please see in further information – the programme and our speakers, and a blog written by Jean-Jacques Lescure just after the event. We will add more information here about the wonderful gardens we visited, with their owners – Ashley Court, The Regency House and Holcombe Court.
Tara and Nigel at Ashley Court arranged the most wonderful lunch on the second day during the visit to their garden – tables laid out beautifully for everyone to sit and enjoy, delicious produce from the walled garden.
We are enormously grateful to Will Woodman, head gardener, and his team at Knightshayes, for inviting us to hold the Forum at this historic property, with its woodland gardens and important plant collections, and the elegant, restored walled kitchen garden. There will be more information to follow, and please see details of our speakers, and garden visits planned for the second day.
The turreted Kitchen Garden at Knightshayes was laid out by William Burges in the 1870s, the original (old) kitchen garden site being used to build the current House. The ‘new’ kitchen gardens remained in production for generations before eventually being grassed over in the late 1950s – there is a huge amount of history before and since, but the National Trust began a restoration project in 1999, reopening as a productive kitchen garden in 2003. Plans are again underway to reorganise, and revitalize the layout and planting, bringing a revived interest both in the garden and to develop ideas to add new and different planting schemes.
With a great social and cultural history alongside the research and restoration work in the Kitchen Garden at Knightshayes, we have the ideal location for our theme this year, discovering what lies hidden behind and beneath these gardens – the archaeology, evidence in the walls and structures, and use of remote sensing methods such as LIDAR.
