FOLAR
Friends of the Landscape Archive at Reading

Past Talks

Friends of the Landscape Archive at Reading

Past Talks

Almost from the outset FOLAR has - with generous permission from our speakers - recorded virtually all the talks we have held at symposia and online.There are currently over 130 recordings available under Past Talks and Specials.

The Past Talks section covers topics ranging from the Festival Pleasure Gardens at Battersea Park, Susan Jellicoe’s photographs, the Open Spaces Society, working on Byker in Newcastle with Ralph Erskine, to landscape designs that promote human health and well-being. There are a number of talks that focus on women landscape designers, from Fanny Wilkinson, Marjory Lady Allen of Hurtwood, Brenda Colvin, Sylvia Crowe in Bristol, to Elisabeth Beazley, Diana Armstrong Bell and other contemporary landscape architects in the can…

Our speakers include past presidents of the Landscape Institute - Brian Clouston, Hal Moggridge, Tim Gale; landscape academics - Ed Bennis, Jan Woudstra, Alan Powers, Luca Csepely-Knorr, Catharine Ward Thompson; historians - Elain Harwood, John Boughton, Katrina Navickas; practitioners – Annie Coombs; Neil Chapman, Jennette Emery-Wallis, Paul Rabbitts, Ian Baggott, young researchers – Joy Burgess, Sally Watson, Karen Fitzsimon, and many more.

The Specials section includes talks celebrating the life and works of two of the Landscape Institute’s significant practitioners – Bran Clouston and Hal Moggridge;  and a series of twenty one talks on the C20 designed landscapes that were added to the Historic England register in 2021.

So how can anyone find anything in all these recordings?  The quickest way is to use the search box – type in a strong and simple key word linked with your search, eg play, Jellicoe, Sweden, and hopefully you will find something that is useful for you…. let us know !

 

Landscape Architecture & Management, Education in the UK: past present and future — FOLAR symposium

The University of Reading is an extremely appropriate venue for a symposium on the education of landscape architects and managers in England. Why is Reading so significant for landscape architecture? It’s simple really, because this is where the first university course in Landscape Architecture in England was established. This was in 1930, only a year after the Institute of Landscape Architects itself was born. Different terms have been used to describe the discipline of designing and managing landscapes and gardens, and people have learnt their skills over the centuries in a number of different ways.

The first English University course in landscape architecture

Guy Baxter, University Archivist at Reading, introduced us to the course in Science and Art - the first English university course in Landscape Architecture 1930-1959 and using University of Reading and Landscape Institute archives, he was able to identify some of the better and lesser well know students who attended the diploma course at Reading under Arthur Cobb FILA. The course sat uncomfortably for some between the departments of horticulture and fine art. The Reading students who also became members of the ILA include Marjory Allen, Sidney Willson, Paul Edwards, William Gillespie, Michael Laurie, Gordon Wither, Michael Downing, Gordon Patterson, Pat and David Thirkettle, Laurie Fricker, Neil Higson and many others.

A longer history of gardening and landscape education

Jan Woudstra, Reader in Landscape History and Theory, University of Sheffield, reviews the Development of English landscape architecture education spanning 17C to 21C, from pupillages, apprenticeships, journeymen, master, and artist gardeners, to gardening courses at the Crystal Palace with Edward Milner, and Swanley ladies college - amongst others - with Madeline Agar who taught design to Brenda Colvin and Sylvia Crowe, and at Liverpool University, Lord Lever appointed Thomas Mawson to teach landscape architecture in the department of civic design. Mawson wanted to professionalise landscape architecture, and taught design of parks, parkways, boulevards, and ‘gave students a critical sense of good and bad.’ A number of the first created Institute landscape architects were keen to teach the next cohort, Frank Clark, Geoffrey Jellicoe and Russell Page taught at Reading, Clark was also involved in the Liverpool course and later at University of Edinburgh. At the Architectural Association in London, Jaqueline Tyrwhitt strongly influenced by Patrick Geddes, ran the school of planning, Brian Hackett in 1949 was appointed course director in Landscape architecture at Newcastle (then part of Durham University); an evening course in landscape started at Regent Street polytechnic and in other Universities eg Leeds. AE Weddle’s paper Recruitment training and employment of landscape architects (1960), led to the establishment of landscape courses at Gloucester, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, London, Dundee - these offered skill-based training, mostly at polytechnics, later made universities; Weddle went on to be appointed the first Granada chair in Landscape Architecture at University at Sheffield University. He taught using live projects, often large scale reclamation projects, and brought in soil scientists, botanists and other specialists. Landscape courses are however often short lived eg Reading, Manchester Uni and Newcastle. Woudstra discusses the Institute’s examination system from 1946 to present times, and observes that now there are fewer students numbers generally, there is a shift away from attending university, and many of this generation have never played outside. He observed that the profession should be thriving as the subject is at the heart of the current political agenda.

Training Landscape Managers

Richard Bisgrove outlines the Landscape Management degree at Reading 1986-2009 himself a former student at Reading in horticultural science, who studied landscape architecture at Uni Michigan, he was invited to run a course in amenity horticulture at Reading, creating teaching-training gardens at the university; at this time there was also the Wye course in landscape ecology, design and maintenance under Tom Wright. Landscape management was set up at Reading 1986; offering practical outdoor training for students; he offers a useful analysis of what the students went on to do.

Universities, politics students and landscape education in facts and figures

Robert Holden landscape architect, author and teacher, discussed Landscape Architect education in the UK he shows a dated list of 20 courses in landscape from 1881-2014 showing that half have now closed; his talk examines UK universities generally in terms of income and expenditure; and its seemingly protected position was severely challenged with the impact of the economic recession, the introduction of fees, impact of Brexit on overseas student numbers; and most recently government control of student numbers since 2010 where they are categorised as migrants. Universities based on a model of continuous expansion since Robbins Report 1963, are now facing different future. Landscape architecture courses in 2015, apart from Sheffield now in a subservient position. Full time landscape staff in most UK universities are now greatly reduced - except Sheffield, in comparison with European and American landscape courses. Situation for landscape architecture education in UK is facing serious problems. LI not supporting its own education system. Frank Clark reported similar problem in journal on closure of Reading course, without Institute support. This presentation is backed up with many tables and references.

Questions about standards of debate, intellectual quality of students, popularity of garden designers, and where archives come from. Corporate records of the Landscape Institute from 1929- are at The MERL and can be seen in The MERL catalogue list.

Speakers: Guy Baxter, Jan Woudstra, Richard Bisgrove, Robert Holden; Chair John Stuart-Murray
April 2017 at The MERL





Annabel DownsTraining landscape architects, Reading University, history of learning landscape design