Dear Members and friends,
Firstly great thanks must be extended to Dr Sarah Rutherford, our retiring Chair who, for 22 years, has been at the helm of the Bucks Garden Trust – firstly as Vice-chair from the Trust’s inauguration in 1998 then again when, on the retirement of Charles Boot in 2016, Sarah accepted the role of Chair.
During this time the Trust has gone from strength to strength, particularly with regard to the Research and Recording Project, now an exemplar for other County Gardens Trusts. Since the project’s inception in 2013 stalwart Trust volunteers have research and recorded 70+ vulnerable sites in Bucks, thus assisting in their protection. The project remains under Sarah’s direction and is ably co-ordinated by Claire de Carle who, along with this and other responsibilities, has taken on the role of Vice-chair.
Gwen Miles, quite apart from editing and compiling our newsletter, has agreed to become Membership Secretary. This is all wonderful and great thanks to everyone including Council members, Research and Recording volunteers and Bucks Gardens Trust members, without whom the Trust wouldn’t exist.
Some years ago, in 2006, the Trust was encouraged to revive its hitherto neglected Gardens for Schools project, the aim being to help schools in the county create gardens or improve existing sites. Later the project fell into abeyance due principally to changes in school staffing … but 33 schools had been helped, again by Trust volunteers. Recently a request was receive from a Bucks school that has acquired an allotment and needed advice; one of our members has kindly agreed to help. As a file exists with details of the 33 schools originally visited and helped, I just wondered if one or two of our members might be happy to revisit these schools to see how their gardens or sites have progressed. If you feel that you might like to help, please do let me know: enquiries@bucksgardenstrust.org.uk
Speaking of gardens, we have had some interesting visits during the 2019 Summer months including visits to: Red Kites, a beautiful garden at Bledlow Ridge, the Woburn Garden Show – excellent, the Cowper & Newton Museum and Orchard House, both in Olney, the Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham, our AGM at Wotton by kind permission of our Patron, David Gladstone and finally a visit to the Sandham Memorial Chapel at Burghclere in Hampshire. Information and a booking form for our Summer 2020 visits is included with this newsletter. We do hope that you will be able to join us for at least one or two.
One other excitement is our refreshed website which we trust will be up and running by the time you receive this, if not shortly after. It will hold all the information on our Research and Recording Project, news of our events and other events of interest, membership application forms and useful links to other sites. The website address will remain the same: www.bucksgardenstrust.org.uk and we do hope that you will find it interesting and easy to navigate.
All that remains for me to say is thank you for your support of the Bucks Gardens Trust.
Rosemary Jury
Chair of Bucks GT
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