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. £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.
Work at Baddesley Clinton began early in 2022 to examine and appraise recent LiDAR coverage for the park. It revealed a number of new features including the sites of former fishponds and possible formal garden and moated mound. Further consideration of the sites on the ground and some new documentary material enabled a reassessment of the historic development of water management in the park and the suggestion made that the current ponds and canal north of the house are likely to be part of an early modern pleasure garden, in short a radical reappraisal of the entire landscape.
Dr. Stephen Wass is a researcher and has just completed his D. Phil. on the subject of seventeenth-century water gardens. In addition, he works as a commercial archaeologist. In this capacity most of his projects involve historic gardens and he is currently occupied with a series of archaeological investigations connected with the latest programme of restoration at Stowe Landscape Gardens near Buckingham. He is also working to set up a new research programme alongside the Oxfordshire Gardens Trust into the ‘lost’ Tudor and Jacobean gardens in the county.
