This instilled the significance of recognising designed landscapes within the field of visual arts.  A few years later, I delved deeper into the subject with a MA in Garden History at Birkbeck College, University of London.  More recently, I was awarded a scholarship for doctoral research at Manchester Metropolitan University, where my PhD thesis centred on John Ruskin’s garden at Brantwood.  It’s remarkable how even well-trodden scholarly subjects can be looked at anew using the lens of garden history, and a multi-disciplinary approach can be very rewarding.

How have you made use of the qualification? 

My Garden History studies have been invaluable in my work for the Gardens Trust, firstly as a volunteer on the research team at Sussex Gardens Trust, then working part-time supporting County Gardens Trusts.  I now work as a Curator for the National Trust where there are lots of opportunities to be involved with the restoration and presentation of historic gardens, and I’m currently absorbed in research on Gertrude Jekyll’s garden at Munstead Wood, which was acquired by the NT in 2023.  I’ve also pursued a specialism in nineteenth-century designed landscapes, giving talks and writing books and articles focussed on aspects of the Victorian garden.