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, and 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 Navikas; 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 includestalks celebrating the life and works of two of the 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 anybody 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 what you are searching for, eg play, Jellicoe, Sweden, and hopefully you will find something that is useful for you.

 

New Towns landscapes & Gordon Patterson - celebrating mid 20C Design — FOLAR study day

Five short talks from key speakers, all shedding light and reviewing elements and ideas from this period that have relevance today: Landscape planning for London and the New Towns in the 1940s,, including a video and government sponsored film about the pleasures of settling in the spacious and green new towns, presentation by Tom Turner, landscape architect & garden historian; Housing, Traffic and Landscape – detailed urban planning in the New Towns by Elain Harwood, senior architectural advisor, Heritage England, active member of the C20 Society and author; Stevenage New Town & landscape architecture with Gordon Patterson’s written answers; Landscape without boundaries by Oliver Rock, landscape architect, HTA Design, recipient of Landscape Institute Heritage and Conservation Award in 2011 for restoration of Stevenage Town Gardens, emphasising the importance of thorough research before restoration; New Town material from The MERL's collections by Caroline Gould, deputy university archivist, University of Reading, this presentation focuses on the Land Settlement Association archive, established in1934, now at The MERL, including a contemporary film of their experiment in redeploying unemployed industrial workers from depressed areas. Gordon Patterson's archive was a recent additions to the LI archive at The MERL coinciding with this study day. Work from his and other collections were on display at The MERL as part of a special exhibition supporting this FOLAR study session.

There is a record of the conversations Annabel Downs held with Gordon Patterson, and John Thompson, Laurie Fricker and Wendy Powell offering further insights into his life, works and colleagues including Frank Clark, Maria Shephard, Peter Shepheard and Peter Youngman, Kenneth Booth, and Gordon Howe his partner in private practice. Part of this event was recorded this includes Oliver Rock and Caroline Gould’s presentations and questions afterwards. For more information on Gordon Patterson’s life see obituary; and blogs by Roger Cartwright and Barry Newland. For a brief introduction to Gordon Patterson’s archive at the MERL see link and online catalogue.

Speakers: Elain Harwood, Tom Turner, Oliver Rock, Caroline Gould and Annabel Downs; Chair Robert Holden
March 2016 at The MERL

Annabel DownsNew Towns landscape, Stevenage New Town, Gordon Patterson, Landscape archives, restoring historic landscapes, 20C landscape design