* Giving the Radio Times guide a closer inspection, it seems as though there are other episodes coming-up soon too (e.g., Fri 5th May) but some of the ones listed are actually on Home+1, which is only on Sky/Virgin, so check first.
Thanks to a comment by Rosemary, here, I've just discovered that the 'Home' tv channel have been broadcasting repeats of 'Victorian Kitchen Garden'. They did the first three episodes yesterday (23/04/2017) and, according to the Radio Times episode guide they're also going to repeat those 3 again* on 2nd - 4th May, with episodes 4,5, & 6 next Sunday. Enjoy #victoriankitchengarden !
* Giving the Radio Times guide a closer inspection, it seems as though there are other episodes coming-up soon too (e.g., Fri 5th May) but some of the ones listed are actually on Home+1, which is only on Sky/Virgin, so check first.
21 Comments
No, despite the date, this is not a joke. I’ve been meaning to get back to posting on the blog again, and I’ve got a tentative list of stuff to include as long as my arm. However, it’s a bit of sad news that’s made me actually write something. Whilst doing a little light internet surfing for any fresh Walled Garden news, I came across an article from about a month ago that really quite moved me. Leasowes Walled Garden in Halesowen in the West Midlands was struck by vandals on Tuesday, 28th Feb. 2017. I found the article on the local newspaper’s website: (Halesowen News - Leasowes Walled Garden). The article says that, "thieves broke into the buildings damaging doors, windows and then stole cash, museum artefacts, an oven, gas canisters and even a box of teabags”. It goes on, "Project Manager Mick Freer was left “disgusted and devastated” when he discovered the burglary’s aftermath . . . They have put this project back years, they have caused so much damage and . . . we will have to pay for everything to get fixed.” The garden was purchased by a charity in 2014 and is staffed by volunteers. They have been labouring away ever since, trying to reinstate a garden inside the remarkable 18th century walls after decades of non-walled garden use, followed by years of neglect and abuse. It must have really affected the morale and confidence of the volunteers, finding that mindless idiots have undone so much of their hard work, which will also end up creating additional expense. The article finished with a request for donations and for any volunteers wishing to join the project. If either (or both!) of those sound like something you’d like to do, they’re on Facebook and there’s a website - www.leasoweswalledgarden.co.uk where there’s a bit of history, contact details, and a donations page. I’m not close enough to volunteer, so it’s going to be a donation from me. The garden also featured in the WKGN (Walled Kitchen Gardens Network) The Grapevine dated 31st March 2015. On Sunday 5th Feb 2017, Ruth Mott would have been 100 years old. Ruth was the cook in the BBC's 'Victorian Kitchen' series, which first aired back in 1989. Like many of her fans, I'm definitely going to be using the 'Ruth Mott's Favourite Recipes' book to cook with on 'Ruth Mott Day', as I've been calling it. A foregone conclusion is that we'll be having Baked Lemon Pudding (page 139) for dessert but still not sure about the main course. Decisions, decisions . . . On the plus side, I think there's still a bottle of 'Auntie Ruth's Winter Warmer' somewhere. I hope it's still OK to drink . . . The beer came from the West Berkshire Brewery, based in Yattendon, where Ruth lived for most of her life. Unfortunately, they only brewed it one winter, 2013-14. Maybe they'd like to do it again, every winter even. In the meantime, if they'd like to brew some 'Auntie Ruth's Centenary Ale', that wouldn't go amiss either. And what a great way to celebrate Ruth's 100th? Photos:BBC (above), Sara Males (Ruth's neice) on Facebook (left) 2017 is really quite a significant year for VKG fans. It’s a sort of quadruple anniversary and, bearing in mind the enjoyment VKG has given (and is still giving!), I think we should do something about it. First, it’s the 30th anniversary of Victorian Kitchen Garden itself. I find it hard to believe but the first broadcast was as long ago as September 16th, 1987. Second, and one that will be notable for all Victorian Kitchen fans especially, is the fact that February 5th, 2017 would have been ‘Auntie’ Ruth Mott’s 100th birthday. Thirdly and co-incidentally, it’s also the 30th anniversary of the publishing of Susan Campbell’s book, “Cottesbrooke - An English Kitchen Garden”. If you like VKG, you will definitely find “Cottesbrooke” a familiar read. Susan has written extensively about kitchen gardens, and she also runs the ‘Walled Kitchen Gardens Network’, which celebrates walled gardens and advises walled garden owners and restorers. Fourth and last, but most certainly not least, 2017 marks 70 years since the great Harry Dodson took over as Head Gardener at Chilton Foliat. No self-respecting VKG fan would want an occasion like that to go unmarked, surely? So, there’s the rub: I don’t think that the anniversary of a year so significant to VKG fans should pass without being marked, nay, celebrated in some way. And, not forgetting the contribution of Susan’s work, what better way than if the BBC were to create a little tribute/retrospective to Kitchen Gardens, the VKG programmes (and the people involved in making them), and their legacy? In an attempt to precipitate that, I’m going to follow the example of a friend of mine who’s already on the case. Just like him, I’ll be writing / emailing / tweeting to the BBC (and anyone else I can think of who might have some influence), to try and persuade them to properly mark the occasion and also give another generation the chance to discover the magnificent, sublime pleasure that is VKG. And if enough of us write then maybe, just maybe, we can make it happen. So, let the BBC know what VKG means to you, and why VKG and its legacy deserves to be celebrated on this special anniversary. Go on, you know you want to. Write now. See? You feel better already. I had wondered how we were going to access the podcasts when I first saw this post on the Croome Walled Gardens Facebook page. Having forgotten about it in the meantime, I had a look just now and found the podcasts page on the NT website. There are three podcasts in this series, covering Stourhead, Croome and Sissinghurst. The first has been available since 20th October 2016 with Croome available from 10th November and Sissinghurst from 1st December. However, if you don't already subscribe to iTunes, and don't want to subscribe to iTunes, you've got a problem. If you select one of the podcast options off the NT's web page, you are re-directed away from the NT website and onto a page on the iTunes website. Although the podcasts are notionally 'free', if you want to get them you have to subscribe to iTunes, with everything that that entails. 10/11/2016 Postscript: In case I've confused anyone, you can listen to the podcasts without signing up for iTunes; it's only if you want to download a copy that you'll need to subscribe. Just press the little 'play' button (hover over the number) to the left of the podcast you want. Nice though todays podcast about Croome is, I'm more than a little sad that the Walled Gardens (see photo) didn't make it into the mix. We know they're not NT but they are part of Croome and the Brown vision that the podcast is heavily based on Another semi-serendipitous discovery, made while idly ‘surfing’ the internet last week, has once again spurred me into action (I use the term loosely). The trigger this time was due to the 25th Anniversary of the restored West Dean Gardens in Sussex. Specifically, it was the Press Release about the Garden Party held on 16th September 2016, where Peter Thoday was a guest. Speaking at the party, Peter congratulated the head gardeners, husband and wife team Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain, on their 25 years at West Dean, commenting, "The gardens at West Dean are the best place in Britain to see the skills that underpin the craft of gardening practiced to perfection." Jim and Sarah have often declared that their inspiration to restore West Dean was The Victorian Kitchen Garden, the BBC television series presented by Peter in 1987. Other guests at the Garden Party included: John Gardiner, Executive Vice President, Royal Horticultural Society; Michael Fitt, OBE, Chairman, The Royal Parks Guild; and Susan Campbell, Vice President of The Gardens Trust, and founder of the Walled Kitchen Garden Network. The Press Release also includes a rather charming little biography of Peter. If it seems familiar to you, as it did to me, you may have read something very similar in another article. As I’m mad enough to be interested, not to say excited, by such things, I felt I had to share the recent news on Croome Walled Gardens Facebook page. They have now had confirmation from Susan Campbell (she of the Walled Kitchen Garden Network fame, and author of books on the subject, like ‘Cottesbrooke’, no less) that the recently-uncovered vinery is the very one in the designs they’d posted before. Further, it’s possibly the only one still in existence by that particular vinery builder, George Tod. Tod seems to have been at the top of the glasshouse-construction game in Georgian times. There’s also a new picture, showing the excavation of the furnace, or fireplace, area, where the vinery heating emanated from. What a coup for Croome Walled Gardens. And if that’s not enough, the restored Bothy will be open soon, too. Got to be worth a visit then, surely? Although my appreciation of Walled Gardens stems from the BBC’s VKG (Victorian Kitchen Garden) programmes, to have reached their zenith in Victorian times, I know that walled gardens had been around for much, much, longer. So, I can enjoy a Georgian Walled Garden as much as a Victorian one. One such is the privately-owned Croome Walled Gardens in Worcestershire, adjacent to the National Trust property, Croome Court, and run in conjunction with them. Though there’s probably been a garden there for longer, the park landscaping and the remodelling of Croome Court and the walled gardens are the result of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown’s first commission, started in 1751. One surprise to me when I got there was to find that they have a ‘Hot Wall’. Built in 1806, it has 5 ‘furnaces’ along its length and so must have cost a fortune to run. At its western end there are the roofless remains of a service building incorporated into the wall. Evidence of it being a tool-store, in the form of tool-pegs on the inside wall, didn’t hide the fact that it looked like its use had changed more than once over the last two hundred years. So, my interest was very much taken by a post last week on their Facebook page. On commencing to restore it, they have uncovered evidence of that ‘service building’ actually being the rear portion of a Georgian vinery, also from 1806 and also heated in a similar way to the hot wall. They’re obviously very excited about it, and who can blame them? There are a few photos on the post of how it looks currently, and some of what appears to be an original plan and description. One aspect that amazed me is the amount of glass used. I’ve always assumed that the Glass Tax (in force until 1851) applied to such buildings, too, so what a statement of wealth to make – all that fuel for the hot wall and the vinery, and the Glass Tax too. The gardens are owned and run by a dedicated couple, Karen and Chris Cronin, but what a project to take-on. Derelict when they moved-in, they have spent the last 15 years clearing, repairing, rebuilding, replacing and replanting. Still a work-in-progress, the gardens are open Friday to Sunday each weekend, March to September (but check before you go) and I heartily recommend a visit. Thank you Stephen Fry (a) anyway, just for being Stephen Fry, and (b) indirectly for causing something on television last night that I most certainly did not expect. I had intended to end the lack of recent posts once I’d settled nicely into 2016. But the tiniest of tangential Victorian Kitchen Garden trivia references has spurred me into action (sort of). In the documentary on BBC Two about Fry’s career, ‘A Life on Screen - Stephen Fry’, at about 40 minutes in there are a pair of (extremely) short film clips of the late Dowager Duchess of Devonshire (you’ll need to watch it to find out why). I’m guessing that the clips date to the 1980’s and in them she’s walking in the grounds of her home, Chatsworth House, accompanied by a back and white collie dog. However, what’s more interesting to a VKG nerd like me is the fact she is also accompanied by the Chatsworth head gardener, Dennis Hopkins. Dennis appears a few times in VKG: in the section also featuring Sarah, the Chatsworth cook, and Vic, one of Dennis’s gardeners; and again thinning bunches of grapes in the Chatsworth vinery. It’s just a low-res ‘scrape’ from the BBC’s iPlayer but in the shot here, not only is there the Duchess, Dennis and the collie, but also a glimpse of Joseph Paxton’s ‘Conservation Wall’, in the left-background. Pure VKG trivia or what? I did wonder who would be the first to offer-up some Capability Brown-themed television, given the tercentenary in 2016. Well, the first shots have been fired (or soon will be). Starting on Thursday 17th September 2015, at 9pm, Channel 4 (or specifically, More 4) is broadcasting a 3-part series. It’s called, unsurprisingly, “Titchmarsh on Capability Brown”, as it is hosted by gardener and broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh. The intention of the series seems to be to tell the story of Brown’s life, whilst attempting to somehow realise the plans Brown drew up for Belvoir Castle. Plans, due to Brown’s death shortly afterwards, that were never implemented. Given what Brown usually had in mind for an estate of that size, good luck to them, as they are probably going to need it. Inevitably, looking at Brown’s work elsewhere is on the itinerary: Stowe, Longleat and Wotton are mentioned, as is Kirkharle (Brown’s birthplace and first gardening job), and Fenstanton where he was Lord of the Manor and was later buried. The third programme in the series doesn’t, as I type this, have any locations listed. Other Brown locations, though, include Croome Court in Worcestershire, and Ashburnham Place in East Sussex. Ashburnham, of course, is one of the gardens where Harry Dodson of Victorian Kitchen Garden fame honed his skills. More information at: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/titchmarsh-on-capability-brown/episode-guide and at : http://www.capabilitybrown.org/ where you can also find details of the book, due out soon, on the Brown/Belvoir story. |
AuthorNo good at cooking. Rubbish at gardening (despite my name). Love the old BBC 'Victorian Kitchen Garden' programmes. CategoriesArchives
October 2021
|