In 1961 Brenda Colvin was appointed, with engineers Rendel Palmer & Tritton, to design a new hill made from pulverized fuel ash from two coal fired power stations, together with waste shale from the nearby coal mine. It is 7 miles SW of Selby, beside the M62. The 50m high hill, 1.5km wide by 2.2km long, was designed to be constructed in three phases to an “unabashed and obvious artificial form” with the surface returned to agriculture, arable fields on top. Construction started in 1972 under Hal Moggridge, Brenda’s new partner; at first experiencing a number of awkward landscape problems and continued until the coal-fired power stations were closed. The brief gradually developed preferring nature conservation over economic land use, and on this basis Phase 1 was completed successfully in 2004. However, fuel ash has now become a valuable raw material so that the further parts of the hill which were commenced in the 1980s are not to be permanent features. This September 24 online lecture is sponsored by the Yorkshire Gardens Trust.

Colvin & Moggridge, the oldest active landscape practice in the UK, was founded in 1922 by the late Brenda Colvin. Hal Moggridge joined her as partner in 1969; Chris Carter became partner in 1981. Both are now consultants to the practice which continues thriving under younger directors, with a staff of 15. (www.colmog.co.uk). This link is for this individual session and costs £8. Register through Eventbrite 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 2 weeks .