The final installment of the Gardens Trust’s five part series on British Spa Landscapes takes place October 18 with Anna Rhodes speaking on 150 years of Edward Milner’s Buxton Pavilion Garden.
The Pavilion Gardens in Buxton opened in August 1871. It was created out of the need to provide entertainment, particularly on rainy days, for the thousands of people that came to the town for the ‘water cure’. In under a year, the 12-acre pleasure ground was created – including 5 bridges, 2 miles of paths, 2 cascades, 5000 plants, a bandstand, and a large cast iron pavilion. In the late 1800s the Pavilion Gardens were further extended and improved, including the boating lake, ice rink, tennis courts and a new concert hall designed by Robert Ripon Duke. The Buxton Guide of 1898 declared them – ‘the finest public gardens of any health resort in Europe’. The Gardens, which now extend to 23 acres are loved by visitors and locals alike. This talk will plot their history with particular focus on the Victorian period.
Anna Rhodes has been a curator at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery since 2010. Her research interests include eighteenth-century tourism to Derbyshire, focusing on travel journals and the picturesque tour. Recently she has been involved in cataloguing and researching the Pavilion Garden material in the Museum and working with the Pavilion Gardens to create an exhibition to celebrate their 150th year anniversary. www.derbyshire.gov.uk/leisure/buxton-museum/buxton-museum-and-art-gallery
The individual ticket (£5 through Eventbrite) may be purchased HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.
