Balancing the Challenges – Managing Heritage Landscapes alongside Contemporary Needs

Essex Gardens Trust and Essex Record Office joint Symposium

Saturday 2 April, 10:00am to 3.30pm at the ERO, Chelmsford

We are delighted to be holding a joint all-day symposium in Chelmsford with the Essex Gardens Trust on Saturday 2 April 2022. This event was originally conceived and planned before the pandemic and after some enforced rescheduling, is now going ahead. The theme of the day is to explore some of the many challenges that heritage landscapes and gardens face today in trying to balance competing priorities of preservation, conservation, ecology, sustainability, and public access.

We will be welcoming to Essex, Peter Hughes, QC and Chair of The Gardens Trust whose talk is entitled “Opening the gates – Conservation and the Challenges of Garden Tourism”. Peter chose this subject for his Masters’ degree dissertation in Garden and Landscape History and undertook a case study of six important gardens around the country, some in public and some in private custodianship, and interviewed head gardeners and other prominent figures involved in garden conservation.

Cressing temple walled garden

A talk by Alison Moller – Garden Historian, lecturer, and researcher – will provide the landscape context for Essex landscape heritage sites tracing the geological formation of the land beneath the historic landscapes of Essex.

Landscape Architect, Liz Lake will explore how our historic landscapes can be a source of inspiration for modern day designers and an additional reason why they should be managed and conserved. Liz will pick out key features from historic designed landscapes and looks at how they have been reworked for our times.

Stephen Smith, Historic Gardens Consultant will speak on “A Vision for Landscape Conservation”. Many historic gardens and landscapes are managed by bodies with a culture and expectation which diverges greatly from those which envisage their restoration and conservation. For example, prejudice against exotic plant species on the one hand and an underappreciation of habitat management on the other are common points of divergence. He will argue that the different approaches can be detrimental to the original vision of a conservation project. In his paper, Stephen Smith will share his observations, drawing on examples of landscape conservation schemes on the London fringes of Essex and beyond, to identify the problems as well as proffer some mutually beneficial solutions.

Meadow

And finally, Ailsa Wildig – Chair of The Tuesday Research Group, at Warley Place will talk about How Warley Place still respects its garden history – From historic garden to nature reserve looking at the challenges facing those managing and caring for Ellen Willmott’s historic garden, that was recently listed as ‘at risk’ by Historic England.

This should be a fascinating day exploring some of the challenges facing those conserving historic landscapes and gardens and will also provide the opportunity to meet or catch up with others working or with interests in these fields.

Tickets, costing £30 and include a light lunch, can be booked at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/essex-gardens-trust-essex-record-office-joint-symposium-tickets-251982946777

Essex Gardens Trust; caring about our green spaces

Back to the Future: The impact of science across Essex – The Science of Brewing

Over the centuries science has had a massive impact on the lives of the residents of Essex. Join us on the 7th March for a day of talks celebrating some of the everyday developments in technology that have transformed lives in the past and how we live today.

This one day conference is positively brimming with no less than 6 speakers talking on 7 different subjects.

  • Peter Wynn will be talking about gas manufacture and water purification;
  • Zoe Outram will discuss the science of archaeology;
  • David Crease will talk about the science of  brewing;
  • Ian Vance will look at the development of fibre optics at STL in Harlow;
  • John Miners will explore the science of cloth manufacture, and;
  • Tony Crosby  will wrap up with a whistle-stop tour of the industrial archaeology of Chelmsford

Over the next few weeks we will be introducing some of our speakers and their topics in a little more detail right here on our blog.

Our first introduction is for Dr David Crease. David is, amongst other things, one of the founding fathers of Woodforde’s brewery in Norfolk where he was for many years the head brewer. David and his Friend Ray Ashworth pioneered the new wave of handcrafted beers in the 1960’s. Having produced thousands of barrels in his career, who better to talk to us about the science of producing the perfect pint? David may have even hinted that he might bring some samples of medieval brews, so we have made sure to schedule him to talk just before lunch!

Brewing of some kind has a history almost as long as humanity and it will forever be intertwined with the human story. Essex was no exception, when a medieval agricultural labourer in the Dengie reached for a drink it was undoubtedly an ale he grasped and when the workers at STL went out for a drink after work, there were more than likely a few beers consumed.

Brewing has had a huge impact on our landscape and our society, but how many of us know how our beer and ale is made now and how it was produced by our forebears.

Make sure to come along on the 7th March to learn about the whole brewing process from field to glass.

To secure your place visit our website
http://www.essexrecordoffice.co.uk/events/back-to-the-future-the-impact-of-science-across-essex/

Part of:

Workers of the world unite!

Recently, we held our Workers of the world unite! day as part of Black History Month. We heard stories from around the county about people from other countries and cultures who have come to live and work in Essex, from those who arrived on the Empire Windrush in 1948, to the community around Tomas Bata’s shoe factory in East Tilbury, to what it was like to arrive in Essex from India and Jamaica.

We were visited on the day by BBC Essex’s Ian Wyatt , who recorded interviews with some of our speakers, which he played on his shows this weekend.

Scroll through to 56 minutes on his Saturday show to listen to our chairwoman Yvonne Howard, and Fred Price from the Bata Reminiscence and Resource Centre:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00yxg74

And on his Sunday show, tune in from 53.58 to listen to poet Jeffrey Porter:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00yy4qn

Both shows will be available on iPlayer for the next few days.

The conference was a great day, and we are now busy planning for our next one, A night at the opera and a matinee at the flicks: theatre and cinema in Essex, on Saturday 24 November, exploring the history of theatre and cinema in the county. More details can be found here.

Poet Jeffrey Porter being interviewed by BBC Essex's Ian Wyatt

Poet Jeffrey Porter being interviewed by BBC Essex’s Ian Wyatt

Lunchtime - enjoying our culturally diverse buffet

Lunchtime – enjoying our culturally diverse buffet

This event was kindly sponsored by the Essex Cultural Diversity Project.