January 10, 2023 - Boston Flora

Tuesday, January 17, 10:00 am – 11:30 am GMT – Garden Archaeology: Designed for Display: Medieval and Tudor Moats, Online

January 10, 2023 by Boston Flora

This is the third series of Gardens Trust talks exploring how archaeology helps the garden historian find vital evidence on the ground which then informs future restoration projects and garden management plans. Our distinguished and popular speakers will be reporting mainly on current and on-going archaeology at various sites and with an emphasis on water features. On January 17 we will hear Designed for Display: Medieval and Tudor Moats, with Edward Martin.

Moated houses may have been conceived in imitation of castles and their defences, but from very early on they became vehicles for the display of status and wealth, with decorative embellishments and additions reaching a climax in Tudor times. Suffolk, with more than 900 examples, has one of the greatest concentrations of moats in England, and it will form the focus of this exploration of the origins of moats and their development as decorative settings for houses.

Edward Martin is the chairman of the Suffolk Gardens Trust and a vice-president of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History. Now retired, he worked as an archaeologist with Suffolk County Council for many years, specializing in prehistory and historic landscape studies, and has lectured widely on the archaeology, history, landscape, buildings and gardens of Suffolk. His published works cover a diversity of subjects, from Bronze Age burial mounds, through medieval field systems to 18th-century gardens.

£5 through Eventbrite. Register 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 will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week. That way you don’t have to get up so very early here in the US.

Thursday, January 12, 5:00 am – 6:30 am – Country Life: 50 Years of Revolutions in Garden Design, Online

January 10, 2023 by Boston Flora

Created and re-created against the backdrop of cycle of war and peace with its accompanying social and economic impacts, the twentieth century garden pivots between tradition and modernism, informality and structure. The century sees a shift in both style and materials as concrete takes its place at the heart of new towns and spaces, whilst the country house garden struggles to survive and flourish again in a new order. Garden design increasingly reflects the needs of a wider range of society, whilst literary and artistic movements locate gardens at the very heart of the struggle for meaning in a world of change and aspiration. At the dawn of the 20th century we start in a corner of Gertrude Jekyll’s garden at Munstead Wood, we will explore how canvases – landscape, garden or painting – primed by the ‘golden afternoon’, provided the narrative for comfort, remembrance and renewal. Reflections on conflict encapsulated in the words of Monet’s friend Clemenceau: And the action of this battlefield, it is life itself, luminously transposed, … here the drama of the Nymphaeas unfolds across the world’s stage.

Caroline Holmes is a garden historian of places, people and plants who lectures internationally, delving into the myriad ways people and plants have historically shaped landscapes and what we can learn from them. Course Director for the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education – International and accredited programs. Lecturer for The Arts Society. Author of 12 books. www.horti-history.com

This January 12 lecture is the first in a Gardens Trust series of online talks on The 20th Century Garden. You can register for the entire series on Eventbrite £30 or £5 each by clicking HERE.