Parks & Gardens Web Resource
This is an exciting new web resource for everyone interested in our historic designed landscapes. The project to create the database began in 2005 and the major work was completed in March 2009 with over 6,300 records on the site. Parks and Gardens UK is run by Parks and Gardens Data Services (PGDS), a company set up jointly by the Association of Gardens Trusts and the University of York. It has been supported by nearly a £1million pounds from the Heritage Lottery Fund and contributions in kind from the AGT and County Gardens Trusts (CGTs).
The information provided by the site includes urban public parks, country estates, cemeteries, allotments, botanical gardens, arboreta and gardens belonging to institutions. It has come from organisations including CGTs, English Heritage, Cadw, Historic Scotland and the Northern Ireland Heritage Gardens Committee. At the launch of the project AGT President, Gilly Drummond said, "Easy online access will encourage and stimulate interest in local historic landscapes at grass roots level through volunteer involvement in the County Gardens Trusts, as well as at a national and international level. The AGT is proud to be a partner in Parks and Gardens UK."
The site also holds information about people and organisations associated with the developments of these designed landscapes and the site can be searched either by location or by person. Whilst it focuses on the historic landscape (this refers to anything older than 20 years), key contemporary information is also available. To make the site accessible to as many people as possible it also offers themed resources for schools (currently designed to compliment Key Stages 1 – 4 of the National Curriculum) including conservation and restoration, and landscapes designed for health and sport.
From April 2009 PGDS will become self funding and will continue active management of the database. Individuals in CGTs have been trained to input into the system so that information can be checked and added to locally. To discover more log onto www.parksandgardens.ac.uk. If you would like to get involved with researching and recording locally then please contact the SGT via our website.
Sussex Gardens Trust Database
Furthermore, the Sussex Gardens Trust also have a local database, which is available for download in two formats: a Microsoft Word document, and an Adobe Acrobat file. If you have neither of these programs, you can download the Acrobat reader for free.
The Sussex Gardens Trust's research material that has been completed in sufficient detail has been added to the Parks and Gardens website resource. The information on the Parks and Gardens website that has been supplied by English Heritage for the parks and gardens on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest is considerably reduced compared to the hard copy information. This is to protect the privacy of information available on the web.