The Gardens Trust, an organisation with similar aims as the LPGT, has been commissioned to deliver the Know It, Love It Project.
This project will train volunteers to research and record local historic parks and gardens and then help conserve them by surveying and writing Statements of Significance. It is part of the Land of the Fanns Landscape Partnership Scheme – a 5 year programme seeking to restore, discover and celebrate one of the last remaining landscapes of London and Essex as it once was.
The workshops are designed to be entry-level and will teach the role that research can play in conserving parks and gardens, to find and use historic documents, to recognise and survey a historic designed landscape and its features as you walk around it, and to write-up your knowledge so it can help protect the site in future. They will be followed by work over the next two years to write Statements of Significance for other sites in the Land of the Fanns area.
The workshops are free of charge, but places are limited to 30 so please book by emailing deborah.brady@thameschase.org.uk as soon as possible or by 31st July at the latest.
For some of the workshops we will be splitting volunteers into smaller groups looking at Dagnam, Belhus, Thorndon and Warley Place – please indicate your preference and we will do our best to accommodate it.
Workshop dates (please note that they are designed as a package so you should aim to attend all five):
| DATE AND TIME | VENUE | TITLE | CONTENT |
| 9th September 2019
10am-3pm |
Stubbers Adventure Centre, Upminster | Workshop 1: Know It, Love It | How research and recording volunteers can help
conserve historic parks and gardens |
| 17th September 2019
10am-5pm (depending on your group) |
Essex Record Office, Chelmsford | Workshop 2: Historic Document Detectives | Learning how to find and use historic archive material |
| 23rd September 2019
12pm-3pm NB volunteers are only requested to attend one Workshop 3. |
Dagnam Park, Harold Hill | Workshop 3: Reading a Landscape on the Ground | How to recognise key features in historic parks and gardens |
| 24th September 2019
12pm-3pm
|
Belhus Park, South Ockendon | Workshop 3: Reading a Landscape on the Ground | How to recognise key features in historic parks and gardens |
| 25th September 2019
12pm-3pm
|
Thorndon
Country Park, Brentwood |
Workshop 3: Reading a Landscape on the Ground | How to recognise key features in historic parks and gardens |
| 7th October 2019
12pm-3pm
|
Warley Place, Brentwood | Workshop 3: Reading a Landscape on the Ground: | How to recognise key features in historic parks and gardens |
| 15th October 2019
10am-3pm |
Thames Chase Forest Centre,
Broadfields, Pike Lane, Upminster RM14 3NS |
Workshop 4: The Significance of Your Research | Using research and recording to conserve landscapes through surveys and Statements of Significance |
| 5th November 2019
10am-3pm |
Thames Chase Forest Centre, Broadfields, Pike Lane, Upminster RM14 3NS | Workshop 5: You Can Do It! | Mop-Up Session |
