The Gardens Trust is delighted to have been awarded £99,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for its Repton-themed audience development project, ‘Sharing Repton: Historic Landscapes for All’, made possible by money raised by National Lottery players.
Sharing Repton: Historic Landscapes for All is working with local volunteers to deliver five pilot activities aimed at including participation from local communities, based around five Repton sites across the country. It will additionally create an infrastructure of skill sharing, guidance materials and training workshops with a view to other groups being able to offer similar local community events in the future.
The 5 audience development activities are:
1) A welcoming social event for members of the Bristol community at Blaise Castle, with Avon Gardens Trust, at which guests will be treated to a fun ’10 Things about Garden History’ workshop and then a tour of Blaise.
2) A family excursion to Wicksteed Park, Kettering, with Northamptonshire Gardens Trust, with invited guests from the multicultural Victoria Centre community centre in Wellingborough enjoying children’s activities such as paperboat making and tree-measuring, as well as a tour of the park.
3) A world cultures Heritage Open Day at Catton Park, Norwich, with Norfolk Gardens Trust and Broadland District Council with international cuisines, a display of gardens across the world, bushcraft and Bollywood dancing
4) The Warley Woods Big Red Book Project in Birmingham at which parents and children from Abbey Junior School and its community will learn to research and record their local Repton landscape in a uniquely fun volunteer project.
5) A collaboration between London Parks and Gardens Trust and English Heritage in which guests from the Refugee Women’s Association, Hopscotch Asian Women’s Project and the Barnet Refugee Service will be empowered to enjoy and conserve their local green space through a visit to Repton’s Kenwood in London, with a look at 18th century plantings and then a project to find out plants and gardening styles from their countries of origin have inspired Britain’s gardening in 2018.
The project will run till the end of 2019 and we would love to hear from anyone wanting to participate, or to link into the associated skill sharing and training. Do get in touch via repton@thegardenstrust.org , or follow us at @humphryrepton; #sharingrepton; or fb.com/humphryrepton
