MEDIA ALERTFor immediate release: 19 March 2018

The Gardens Trust launches national celebration oflandscape gardener Humphry Repton

24 March 2018 marks bicentenary since the death of Repton

Overview

This year, the Gardens Trust is leading a national celebration of the life, work and legacy of Humphry Repton, the last great landscape gardener of the eighteenth century, responsible for some 400 landscapes across Britain, including Longleat (Wiltshire), Woburn Abbey (Bedfordshire) and Russell Square (London).

More than 200 sites and project stakeholders coordinated by the Gardens Trust, from English Heritage to local volunteer and friends’ groups, are coming together to run hundreds of Repton-inspired activities, ranging from conferences to special public garden openings.

Inspired by their role as a partner in the 2016 Capability Brown Festival, the Gardens Trust is keen to maintain the momentum and legacy of the hugely successful festival by continuing to build collaborative partnerships and raise awareness of our nation’s beautiful, historic landscapes with as wide an audience as possible. Helping to fulfil this ambition, the Gardens Trust was awarded a £99,500 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, to pilot activities that are designed to welcome wider local communities to Repton landscapes. The ‘Sharing Repton’ project will pilot five activities for local communities in Repton-designed parks and gardens, with a long-term view to nurturing a new wave of volunteers and supporters for these heritage assets. These pilot activities will be delivered across five regions: London, South West, East Midlands, West Midlands, East.

For more information about Repton and this year’s celebrations, visit www.humphryrepton.org, or follow @humpryrepton, #humphryrepton, #sharingrepton, or fb.com/humphryrepton

The Gardens Trust is a Registered Charity No: 1053446 and a Company Limited by Guarantee,

Registered in England and Wales No: 3163187

Media opportunities

The Gardens Trust has partnered with Broadland District Council to launch the Humphry Repton bicentenary celebrations on Friday 23 March 2018, from 18.00 to 20.00 at St Michael’s Church, Aylsham in Norfolk, where Repton is buried – media are welcome to attend the event

Event listings and features Photo opportunities Outside broadcasts in a Repton landscape Expert interviews with leading historians

See Press Office contact details below.

Bicentenary celebrations: highlights

There will be a range of events and activities taking place across the UK for all to enjoy, including walks, talks, study days, and exhibitions, some of which are highlighted here:

Celebrating Humphry Repton in Norfolk, a Norfolk-based festival with over 40 events including baby and toddler activity days, after school clubs, a foraging workshop, writing sessions, concerts and more, from March-June 2018, organised by Aylsham and District Team Ministry, Broadland District Council, the Norfolk Gardens Trust and the National Trust

Repton and the Russells, a major exhibition at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire from 23 March to 10 October 2018. Curated by the Woburn curatorial team with landscape designer Keir Davidson, the exhibition will include the Red Books for Woburn and Endsleigh as well as archive accounts, letters and works of art illustrating the importance of the Russell family’s patronage of Repton

Repton Rides: led by Tatton Park's Head Gardener, Simon Tetlow, this is a unique opportunity to see Repton's Design of 1792 by guided cycle ride, Tatton Park, Cheshire, 17 April 2018

‘Celebrating Repton’ Family Picnic with Northamptonshire Gardens Trust at Wicksteed Park, Northamptonshire, 30 June 2018

Heritage Open Day, St John’s, Ryde, Isle of Wight, 15 September 2018 Repton Revived: An exhibition of Red Books, designs and watercolours by

Humphry Repton at the Garden Museum, London, from 17 October 2018 to 3 February 2019. The exhibition brings together the greatest number of Red Books for over 30 years

Joint Symposium with the Garden Museum to showcase County Garden Trust’s research on Repton research, London, 5 November 2018

The Landscape Institute will announce later in the year a competition for school students to create either a physical or a digital version of a Red Book

Visit www.humphryrepton.org for more information and tickets.

Humphry Repton: his life and career The Gardens Trust is a Registered Charity No: 1053446 and a Company Limited by Guarantee,

Registered in England and Wales No: 3163187

Humphry Repton was born on 21st April 1752 in

Suffolk, into the well-to-do family of a tax collector. Whilst a child, his family moved to Norwich, where he attended grammar school, before being sent to the Netherlands at twelve years old as preparation for what was expected to be a career in commerce. As he grew into a young man however, it became increasingly clear that he did not really have a head for business.

In 1773 he married Mary Clarke, with whom he was to have a much-loved family. When his parents died in 1778 he used the small legacy to abandon business and move himself and his family to a small country estate at Sustead, near Aylsham in Norfolk, where he was able to live the life of a country gentleman whilst growing his social contacts. Finances continued to dwindle however, prompting a mid-1780s downsizing to Hare Street Cottage, near Romford in Essex.

After unsuccessful times in various employments including the textile trade and as a private secretary, in 1788, at the age of 36, he set himself up as a ‘landscape gardener’. Repton is in fact credited with inventing the job title!

In order to launch his new career, Repton approached his social contacts to ask for work improving their estates. His first two landscape jobs were at Catton Hall for Jeremiah Ives, a textile merchant and Mayor of Catton, and for Thomas Coke of Holkham Hall in Norfolk. Both survive today, Catton as a public park run by the Catton Park Trust, and Holkham Hall as a privately-owned home open by ticket and for events. Other commissions were to include Blaise Castle in Bristol, Dyrham Park in Gloucestershire, Endsleigh Cottage in Devon, London’s Russell Square, Stoneleigh Abbey in Warwickshire, Tatton Park in Cheshire, Uppark House in Sussex, Valleyfield in Fife and Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire. 

In 1811 Repton had a serious carriage accident, after which he often had to use a wheelchair.

He died on 24 March 1818 and is buried in St Michael’s Church, Aylsham in Norfolk.

Humphry Repton: his landscaping styleThe Gardens Trust is a Registered Charity No: 1053446 and a Company Limited by Guarantee,

Registered in England and Wales No: 3163187

Repton wanted to fill the gap left by the death

of Capability Brown in 1783. He initially championed Brown’s landscape style but later adopted the ideas of the picturesque movement. His work therefore links the landscape design of the eighteenth century and the gardenesque movement of the early Victorian years.

His work reintroduced terraces, gravel walks and flower beds into the area around the house, to provide a foreground for views of the landscape. Repton also designed separate flower gardens, with more elaborate ornamental or themed planting, a style which became popular in the nineteenth century.

Much of his work included improvements to existing landscape schemes at the estates of aristocratic clients like the Dukes of Bedford and Portland, but interestingly also included designs for much smaller properties as his career coincided with war, economic instability, and the rise of the ‘nouveau riche’.

The way Repton presented his landscape designs was a key part of his success. He produced ‘Red Books’ or folios of his plans, drawings, maps and a description of the improvements he proposed to make. They famously include watercolour paintings with overlays showing ‘before’ and ‘after’ views of the estate.

His ideas about landscape design continue to influence designers today.

– Ends –

For further information, a press pack, images or to register your interest in attending the launch, contact:

Susannah Penn or Kerry Marshall at Firebird PR T: 01235 835297 or 07977 459 547  E: sp@firebirdpr.co.uk or km@firebirdpr.co.uk

Notes to Editors

The Gardens Trust obtained seed-funding of £10,000 from Historic England to set-up and establish a structure for Repton celebrations, as well as a grant of £99,500 from the

The Gardens Trust is a Registered Charity No: 1053446 and a Company Limited by Guarantee,

Registered in England and Wales No: 3163187

Heritage Lottery Fund to deliver audience

development projects. Project partners and supporters have provided additional match funding and funding in kind.

Many Repton sites, including some not normally open to the public, will host special events, tours and activities throughout 2018.

Visit www.humphryrepton.org for more information.

About The Gardens TrustThe Gardens Trust is a UK national charity dedicated to the research and conservation of designed landscapes and to campaigning on their behalf. The Gardens Trust, as the statutory consultee in England for parks and gardens, play a key conservation role, and more widely supports the County and Country Gardens Trusts in protecting and conserving our landscape heritage. The Gardens Trust was formed in 2015 from the merger of the Garden History Society (GHS) and the Association of Gardens Trust (AGT).

About the Heritage Lottery FundThanks to National Lottery players, we invest money to help people across the UK explore, enjoy and protect the heritage they care about - from the archaeology under our feet to the historic parks and buildings we love, from precious memories and collections to rare wildlife. www.hlf.org.uk. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use #NationalLottery and #HLFsupported.

The Gardens Trust is a Registered Charity No: 1053446 and a Company Limited by Guarantee,

Registered in England and Wales No: 3163187