Partner Property
Strawberry Hill House & Garden: Find out more about Strawberry Hill, or visit their website.
About the talk
Strawberry Hill is “an open grove through which you see a field which is bounded by a serpentine wood of all kinds of trees and flowering shrubs and flowers.” Although the former water meadows of Strawberry Hill that separated the gardens from the Thames have now been developed, the core of the gardens remains intact. The development of the gardens and landscaping of the grounds started at Strawberry Hill when Horace Walpole acquired the property in 1747 and continued until his death in 1797. Further additions to the gardens were made during the 19th century, most notably during the occupation by Lady Waldegrave, but it is Walpole’s intervention that provides the greatest significance and interest. Explore the 18th century garden through this lecture to find the ‘gaiety in nature’ that Walpole describes at Strawberry Hill and that is still present today.
About the speaker
Dr Marion Harney is Director of Studies and Director of Teaching at the University of Bath specialising in the history and theory of historic buildings, designed and cultural landscapes and their conservation. Appointed to ICOMOS-UK Cultural Landscapes and Historic Gardens Committee she is a Director of the Gardens Trust and Trustee at Hestercombe Gardens Trust. Her book, Place-Making for the Imagination: Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill, won the prestigious international J.B. Jackson Book Prize, which recognises books that have made significant contributions to the study and understanding of garden history and landscape studies, awarded by The Foundation for Landscape Studies, New York. Appointed Visiting Professor, University of Westminster, she is also External Examiner for the MA in Garden and Landscape History, Institute for Historical Research, University of London.