Mark Johnston will speak of his 50 years as an independent scholar in the greenspace industry. He is the author of 'Street Trees in Britain , A History' 2022, among other works. He will reference the detail covered in his recently published book.
he Northern Ireland Heritage Gardens Trust recently held a very successful conference at the Woodenbridge Hotel, Co Wicklow, when over a hundred delegates from Ireland and Great Britain enjoyed a programme of talks about The Role of Water in Historic Garden Design and Management.
Christy gave our Spring Lecture earlier this year, giving us a foretaste of what was to come, and, for those also attending our conference next week, there will be a number of the books available to buy as well as an opportunity to speak to the author.
NIHGT Annual Conference
Woodenbridge Hotel, Avoca, 3-5 October 2024
The Northern Ireland Heritage Gardens Trust recently held a very successful conference at the Woodenbridge Hotel, Co Wicklow, when over a hundred delegates from Ireland and Great Britain enjoyed a programme of talks about The Role of Water in Historic Garden Design and Management. The conference commenced on the Thursday evening with Caroline Holmes who gave a fascinating illustrated talk on the history of waterlilies and the role of the French hybridist Latour-Marliac. She asked the
interesting question –‘did any of Latour’s waterlilies come to Ireland?’ and we wonder would any reader have information.
On the Friday morning Jan Woudstra, who was responsible for the recreation of the garden of Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace, gave a succinct history of water gardens, illustrated by Versailles and Hutton Loo, pointing out that Britain and Ireland never had massive gardens like these. Terence Reeves-Smyth continued this theme with an illustrated talk on what was happening in Irish gardens during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. The following speaker, Wendy Bishop, based her talk on her recent research for her book, Ornamental Lakes, which charts the development of the ornamental lake in the eighteenth-century landscape. The morning session finished with Mary Forest talking about the significance of water in the design of Mount Usher, which was the setting for the garden visit in the afternoon.
The Conference Dinner took place on the Friday evening when Patrick Bowe gave an interesting talk on the earliest water gardens, for which there are few illustrations, so what we can deduct from only written account or archaeological remains. The next morning everyone was keen to hear the three speakers who were talking about the use of water in modern garden design. Gordon Ledbetter, the well-known Irish designer who has been responsible for many water features in both public parks and private gardens here and abroad and is author of two books on Water Gardens, spoke first, followed by Andrew Clayden of Sheffield University, who challenged us to think about gardens where rainfall is harnessed to animate these spaces. The final speaker, Steve Porter, head gardener at Chatsworth in Derbyshire, concluded the morning by talking about his work looking after the monumental waterworks in his care that are over a hundred and fifty years old. The afternoon’s garden visit took us to Killruddery where Lord Meath led a walk around the pleasure gardens and explained the problems and solutions to managing their three-hundred-year-old, five hundred-and fifty-foot-long canals.
The 2025 NIGHT Conference will be held in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, on 2-4 th October 2025 when the theme will be Bulbs and Tubers; their history, propagation and use in the garden.
More information at www.nihgt.org/events/26/
