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About us

About The Association of Gardens Trusts

• • We are a charity that represents 35 County Gardens Trusts (CGTs) at national level
  • Together with 7000 CGT members, we acknowledge the vital part that green spaces play in creating a healthy society
  • We support CGT volunteers in their endeavours to research, conserve, and enjoy the parks, gardens and green spaces of our past, present and future.   These may be both historic and new, in towns or in the country.
  • We organise two study days a year.  These focus on a particular park, garden or research project in the counties.  They are open to other organisations.   
  • We hold regional education forums for any CGT working to raise the profile of plants and gardens in schools and their grounds.
  • Together with English Heritage and Natural England we set up the 3 year post of Historic Landscape Project Officer.  The post is being run as a pilot study in the South East Region and is managed by us. The Project Officer works with both National England and the CGTs on Higher Level Stewardship projects, providing training in new skills for our members.
  • Our website is a primary source of information about our work and publicises the initiatives and events organised by the CGTs.
  • Our yearbook is distributed to all our members. It provides a flavour of the work and interests of the different CGTs.  It can also be used to raise the profile of our Trusts with other organisations.
  • As the CGTs’ national voice, we share information with a wide range of like-minded garden heritage groups such as The Garden History Society, the Garden Museum, Green Space, Historic Houses Association, the National Trust and English Heritage.   We are the main conduit for the CGTs through to English Heritage and Government  as well as being active members of both Heritage Alliance and GreenLINK, bodies which are strong advocates for the Heritage and Green sectors.
  • Above all, we encourage and support schemes that will pass on essential skills and knowledge to the present and to future generations at both county and at national level.

Our England is a garden that is full of stately views,
Of borders, beds and shrubberies and lawns and avenues,
With statues on the terraces and peacocks strutting by
But the Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye.

Rudyard Kipling’s familiar verse is as good a starting point as any to convey the purpose of the Association of Gardens Trusts (AGT). The vision and strength of this unifying organization comes together to conserve our ‘thinking’ spaces. The AGT is a national charity, underpinned by volunteers, working to prevent further loss or corrosion of specially designed green living spaces that imbue a sense of our past while we survey the present. But there has to be more than nurture and enjoyment - we have to think about the future. This far too crowded island is under ever-increasing pressure from building development and motorways. Hence, since being founded in 1993, the AGT has been working closely in association with 10 branches of the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust, and in partnership and cross-fertilisation with a range of like-minded garden heritage groups, especially English Heritage, the National Trust, the Garden History Society, and the Garden Museum, but also Green Space, Historic Houses Association, CABE, NADFAS, the Heritage Alliance (formerly Heritage Link) and the Woodland Trust.

Why do we research tired, old landscapes and gardens? Spaces with a special sense of place are narratives of the taste and ambitions of individuals, reflecting layers of family history, often over centuries. Gardens offer more than aesthetic pleasure, adding to the visually enjoyable and often scented experience by engaging the mind with a much-rewarding fourth dimension: understanding the context of a garden, landscape or park. AGT President, Gilly Drummond is fond of pointing out: “Gardens are tellers of tales; the skills of the designer allow the tale to be heard.” If you are interested to learn about the design development of gardens, she says, you may then begin to read them like a book, even if some of the pages are missing. Recently, as a trustee for the Chiswick House and Park Trust seeking planning permission for a huge £12 million regeneration project, Gilly transported a group of Hounslow councillors by coach down to the outskirts of Swindon to view progress on the Lydiard Park project, to appreciate with their own eyes just what could be achieved. Consequently, those councillors who visited Lydiard supported the Chiswick bid including restoration of the walled garden. Those who had not taken the trip were noticeably “less enthusiastic”.

The AGT works to “make a difference” in conservation: by organising friendly, enlightening annual conferences for CGT delegates to learn about and explore the wealthy mix of gardens and parks, and their designers, in diverse areas of the country; by emphasizing special events by suggesting issues and recommending speakers for major conferences, regional workshops and study days; by informing and advising county gardens trust committees and members with website, papers and e-newsletters, by forwarding planning applications and, lastly by arranging insurance cover with modest premiums. The AGT responds to government initiatives, sometimes questions and challenges planning issues, but, perhaps above all, is committed to encouraging schemes to pass on valuable gardening skills and knowledge in schools and adult education and enable teachers and planners with local research. Hence the AGT supported the first phase of the unique online Parks and Gardens database www.parksandgardens.ac.uk and is now working towards expansion in a second development phase.

Encouraged that the County Gardens Trust movement has now come of age, the AGT team is determined to continue to support this valuable, pleasantly open, grassroots network. Rather like the vine and its fruit-bearing branches, the AGT is only as good and as responsive as its committed volunteers. The ongoing work of these impassioned county gardens trust members goes largely unsung like seeds sewn on the Solent wind carried to evergreen landscapes and gardens from Cornwall to Northumberland. ...But the Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye.

Steffie Shields
AGT Vice-Chairman,
October 2010