Following the great celebrations of the achievement of Capability Brown in last year’s tercentenary CB300 Festival, the Gardens Trust has felt it is important to remind everyone that many of Brown’s actual landscapes continue to be threatened or harmed. They have now published a report, Vulnerability Brown, to highlight this.
There is now much greater recognition that these parks are major artistic creations, comparable to the paintings of Constable and Turner, and must be handed on undamaged to future generations. But the practical challenge of their conservation in the face of ongoing development pressure and the cost of looking after them properly means that the risk of damage is not less, but greater than ever. It is shocking that well over a thousand planning applications for the hundred and fifty registered Brown parks have been received in the last fifteen years.
This report, written by Sarah Rutherford and Sarah Couch, identifies the issues and makes recommendations on how all of us – amenity groups, planning authorities and national bodies – can help to protect Brown’s legacy. The Gardens Trust was able to commission this report through a generous grant from Historic England, and its launch has been supported by the Landscape Institute, to both of whom we are most grateful.
