Winter Talk – The Swiss Garden – Restorations of a Regency Gem

Speaker: Corinne Price

The Swiss Garden was created by Lord Ongley in the 1820s in the “Swiss Picturesque” style and boasts 13 listed buildings and artefacts within its 9-acre grounds. Embellished with Victorian features during the 1870s by Joseph Shuttleworth, the garden and its buildings sit within the wider landscape of Old Warden Park, Bedfordshire, an early 19th century Grade II listed parkland. The garden is a rare and complete example of a late Regency landscape in the UK, as many of the delicate structures in other gardens dating from this period have not survived.
The Swiss Garden has recently been extensively restored thanks to a £2.8 million Heritage Lottery grant, and as a result was removed from the Heritage at Risk register in 2014.
Corinne’s talk will cover the garden’s history and current management goals, highlighting various interventions and embellishments that have been carried out during its lifespan of almost 200 years.
Corinne is the Garden Heritage & Audience Development Manager for the Shuttleworth Trust’s Swiss Garden. She trained in Cardiff’s parks and green spaces before securing a gardening post with the National Trust in north Wales at a small, sheltered garden overlooking the sea. A subsequent role as Upper Gardens Manager for English Heritage at Wrest Park in Bedfordshire involved being part of a large-scale garden restoration project and mentoring thirteen garden apprentices over four years. Corinne has managed the Shuttleworth Trust’s Swiss Garden for the last seven years, is a committee member for Bedfordshire Gardens Trust and in 2018 launched the Bedfordshire Head Gardeners’ Network. She has a BA (Hons) in Art History and is a full member of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture.
corinne.price@shuttleworth.org/swiss.garden
The Shuttleworth Trust, Old Warden Aerodrome, Biggleswade , Beds SG18 9EP
http://www.shuttleworth.org/swiss-garden
Ticket prices: £5.00 for members, £8.00 for non-members.
The Zoom link will be sent out to attendees in an email 2 days before the talk.
The talk can be booked on the Eventbrite link below:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/195794636027