HOW DO GARDEN HISTORIANS RESEARCH GARDEN HISTORY?

ANN BENSON

April 6th 2022 at the 37 Club, Puriton

TA7 8AD

2.00 for a 2.15 start

Great country houses have often amassed records across time of the designers of their gardens, accounts showing what was done and when, estate maps, paintings, drawings, and occasionally, diaries and stories of peoples’ experiences of being in the garden. Discovering a garden’s history can be challenging because it requires investigating different types of evidence from different disciplines, including social history and archaeology ‒ but it is also immensely enjoyable as a sleuthing activity when the bits of the jigsaw fall into place. This lecture reveals how one aristocratic family, the Dukes of Beaufort and their ancestors, created gardens at their three main homes, Raglan Castle during Tudor times, Troy House during the Stuart period and Badminton on the cusp of the eighteenth century. Richly illustrated, including 3D and fly-through reconstructions of these gardens from her research. Ann provides an insight of how the history of a garden can be discovered.

Dr Ann Benson FSA FRHistS is a writer and lecturer on Garden, Landscape and Architectural History specializing in the Tudor, Stuart and early Georgian periods. She teaches and lectures for the Society of Antiquaries, the Gardens Trust, the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain and many local history groups. Ann has also taught garden history at the Institute for Historical Research.

She has degrees in Garden History (MA, Distinction), Learning and Assessment (MEd, PhD) and Science (BSc, Hons). Ann was first a teacher and then an academic at the universities of Oxford, Bristol, and the Open University whilst serving as a consultant for the UK’s Cabinet Office. She has published three ground-breaking history books, one commissioned by the Duke of Beaufort, and many peer-reviewed articles on garden and architectural history. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquarians of London, Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow for her garden history research, an Associate of the Institute for the Study of Welsh Estates, and Beaufort Visiting Fellow at St John’s College, University of Cambridge. She has forty years’ experience of being an educator and continues to love sharing her knowledge and experience with others.

Visitors are always welcome at a charge of £8 per lecture

www.annbenson.co.uk