The Gardens Trust has created a seven part series on Tuesdays, beginning September 12, to mark 50 years of UNESCO World Heritage, £5 each or all 7 for £28. Starting with an overview of World Heritage values and the changing nature of the UK list, the series will aim to enthuse people about individual sites around Great Britain, highlighting what makes each one exceptional, the advantages and challenges of being inscribed on the list, and the issues around sustainable future management of these global assets. 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. Register for the complete series HERE, or follow the links on that page to sign up for individual sessions.
Week Two on September 19 is The Lake District with Harvey Wilkinson. The English Lake District is a self-contained mountain area whose narrow, radiating glaciated valleys, steep fells and slender lakes exhibit an extraordinary beauty and harmony. This landscape reflects an outstanding fusion between a distinctive communal farming system that has persisted for a millennium with improvements of villas, and designed landscapes during the 18th and 19th centuries. This combination has attracted and inspired writers and artists of global stature. The landscape also manifests the success of the conservation movement that it stimulated; a movement based on the idea of landscape as a human response to our environment. This cultural force has had world-wide ramifications.
Added to the World Heritage list in 2017, the complex nature of the Lake District inscription, based on three areas of outstanding universal value, led to the creation of the category Cultural Landscape, of which the Lakes is one of the first.
This talk will focus on the significance and role of the Lakes villas, gardens and designed landscapes.
With a background as an art gallery curator in historic buildings, Harvey Wilkinson has worked for the National Trust for ten years, acting as Cultural Heritage Curator for the largest land asset in the National Trust, which amounts to 25 percent of the Lakes total area. He works at a landscape scale, covering all the Trust’s built assets and significant early land acquisitions.
