The Evolution of Park and Garden Legislation in England: I – The Early Years

I always feel that in this country we do not quite do ourselves justice as regards gardens.

Mr Jasper More, 1 June 1962, during the passage of the Local Authorities (Historic Buildings) Bill

A previous post lamented the fact that legislation to protect historic parks and gardens emerged just over a century after the recognition given to monuments, about forty years after recognition for buildings, and the best part of two decades after the provisions for conservation areas. This post is the first of two celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the legislation which finally gave historic parks and gardens their proper recognition, the National Heritage Act 1983, which received Royal Assent on 13 May 1983, and introduced the power to create the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. Through an examination of relevant parliamentary activity from 1944 to 1983 (i.e., legislation relating to planning, conservation or heritage, from the emergence of conservation legislation covering something other than monuments, to the first formal recognition of parks and gardens with a view to their protection in the planning process), it covers the many near misses in achieving this milestone, in a rollercoaster tale of hopes raised and dashed (the second post will cover the drama of the eventual enactment).

The Town and Country Planning Acts of 1944 and 1947

The primary conservation focus of both the 1944 and 1947 Town and Country Planning Acts was buildings: these were the Acts that introduced listing. In relation to the 1944 Act, Colonel Greenwell came close to referring to parks and gardens when he asked:

Will the compilation of such lists enable my right hon. Friend to schedule other areas adjacent to the buildings concerned? … what is to be the position of land adjacent to them on which there may be developments inimical to the aesthetic value of the building itself?

This was an early example of the priority given to buildings, and the consideration of anything around them as merely setting – something which was to become a recurring and unfortunate theme. In this case, though, it did lead to the introduction of provisions permitting the acquisition by local authorities of the land adjoining those listed buildings which were subject to a building preservation order, and therefore the first indirect protection for gardens.

Committees

Wider interest in gardens was growing, though. The 1948 Committee on Houses of Outstanding Historic or Architectural Interest (or ‘Gowers Committee’ – to be discussed further in a separate post) considered gardens as well as houses:

We have treated the word “house” as including gardens, parks, woods and lakes – in fact so much of the surrounding countryside as serves to set off the building. We shall call this the “amenity land”.

Outside Parliament, the National Trust and Royal Horticultural Society formed a Gardens Committee to ‘raise money for the Gardens Fund of the Trust’ and thereby enable the preservation of ‘the more important gardens’, such as Hidcote.

Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act 1953

The tide had now turned sufficiently that, whilst the Minister of Works stated that the ‘main object of the Bill is to preserve for future generations the gems of our domestic architecture’, he also acknowledged that there was a body of ‘those who think that we should make sure that every house we assist gets enough money to be maintained in good order, including… the upkeep of the gardens and of amenity lands’. One of those wishing to broaden protections to gardens was Mr. John Dugdale:

I hope that not only are the houses themselves to be preserved but that steps will be taken to preserve the gardens attached to them, many of which are of as great importance as the houses themselves…. I think we ought to take steps to see that, if the houses are to be preserved, the gardens also, and particularly those designed in the architectural manner, should be preserved in the same way.

This interest did not entirely translate into protection for gardens, but the provisions of the Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act 1953 included one ensuring that ‘any land’ directly associated with outstanding buildings could be purchased by or gifted to Government, and grants made for its upkeep, subject to available finance, and the agreement of the owners – this was very much a permissive power.

Local Authorities (Historic Buildings) Act 1962

Support for the protection of parks and gardens continued to grow, but this was still not reflected in legislation. It was however very apparent in the discussions taking place around emerging legislation. Sir Hamilton Kerr expressed a desire for gardens to be included in the Bill, noting that ‘Very often the garden binds and welds the house to the landscape around it’. Mr. Robert Cooke showed his passion for historic gardens in an aside on Westbury Court, then under threat (the outcome is addressed in another post, in case of interest):

I was appalled to hear that [the gardens] are all being destroyed. That this can happen in this modern age is fantastic. I hope that the speculator concerned makes no money out of it. I hope that his bungalows sink into the remains of all those glorious canals.

He went on to note the ability of the Historic Buildings Council for England to make grants towards the repair and maintenance of land adjoining buildings of outstanding historic or architectural interest, and to conclude unequivocally that the ‘preservation of notable gardens is just as important as the preservation of buildings’.

All this talk of gardens delighted the Bill’s proposer, Paul Channon, who explained in Committee that he had ‘never dared to include parks or gardens in the Bill… because I did not think that such a proposition would ever meet with the approval of the House’. He then concluded that ‘if it were thought right to tackle gardens, we ought to… do the whole job properly’. Just as promising was his observation that discussions were on-going on this issue between the Minister of Housing and Local Government, Minister of Works, and the Institute of Landscape Architects, ‘with a view to considering whether some means of dealing with them… can be found’.

Channon was concerned that ‘we might endanger the future of the Bill if we put too much into it’, but various solutions were put forward in the Committee discussions. One was to restrict the gardens addressed by the amendment to ‘“gardens of special historic or horticultural importance”, or something like that?’ (Tom Driberg), whilst another was to regard independent gardens as ‘an entirely different matter [which] would require separate consideration’ (G. R. Mitchison).

Once again, a high level of interest in historic parks and gardens did not result in direct protection. The provisions which were subsequently enacted remained confined to the financial: the Act enabled grants or loans to be contributed towards ‘the upkeep of any garden occupied with the building and contiguous or adjacent thereto’.

Intermission

Some of the wider momentum was maintained in the coming years, but more outside Parliament than within it. The Garden History Society (GHS) was formed in 1965, the Committee of Gardens and Historic Sites in 1968 (by the General Assembly of the International Federation of Landscape Architects), and the International Committee on Gardens and Historic Sites in 1970. 

In Parliament, there were various legislative opportunities, but these did not result in any relevant provisions, nor even a continuation of the discussions around historic parks and gardens. The Town and Country Planning Act 1962 merely consolidated existing legislation. Discussions during the passage of the Civic Amenities Act 1967 managed to cover much relevant ground without direct links to parks and gardens ever being developed, with attention being given to topics such as trees, the setting of country houses, and the role of open space and park societies in creating the amenity movement. This was a surprising omission, but the Act did introduce conservation areas, which have proved to be an important designation for the conservation of parks and gardens.

There was a suggestion during the passage of the Town and Country Planning Act 1968 that ‘certain features’ such as drives, pavements, hedges, trees, gates and fences should be included within the definition of a listed building, but the enacted provisions related solely to curtilage buildings and fixtures. The Town and Country Planning Act 1971 did not include any provision for, or discussion of, parks and gardens. The Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Act 1972 resulted in the control of demolition in conservation areas, and provision for grants, but did not prompt any discussion of parks and gardens. 

Town and Country Amenities Act 1974

Garden-related parliamentary activity resumed in earnest with the Town and Country Amenities Act 1974, which was the first piece of legislation in which parks and gardens were deliberately and explicitly included from the outset. Its sponsor, Sir John Rodgers, noted that that the Bill ‘would afford – I think for the first time – official recognition to historic gardens in their own right’, and the Bill included a measure enabling grant to be paid ‘towards the upkeep of a garden [on land not attached to outstanding buildings] which was considered… to be of outstanding historic interest’.

Whilst undoubtedly a positive development, this was still just a financial provision, and lacked a certain degree of ambition, with even the Bill’s sponsor noting that ‘I am advised that there may be as many as 200 [historic] gardens in Britain’ (at the time of writing, there are 1701 entries on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, suggesting this was just possibly an underestimate). There was little discussion, and a question at Committee stage seeking confirmation that the new provision would address informal historic landscapes as well as formal gardens associated with historic buildings was not addressed.

The Act enabled the Government to make grants or loans towards expenditure incurred ‘in the upkeep of a garden or other land which appears to the Secretary of State to be of outstanding historic interest’: it was with the 1974 Act that garden-related measures became associated solely with historic interest, despite a much wider range of interests having been referred to in the various debates. The Act also introduced a requirement for planning applications for development affecting the setting of listed buildings to be publicised.

Overall, the Act did not provide direct protection for historic parks and gardens, but still had undoubted benefits: as noted by Mavis Batey, the Swiss Garden at Old Warden, Bedfordshire, was the first garden to receive funding under the new provisions.

Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979

The disconnect between interest in parks and gardens and provisions in legislation to protect them was particularly pronounced during the passage of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. In Committee stage in the Lords, Lord Craigton proposed an amendment that would enable ‘any garden or other land’ to be ‘listed’ in its own right as an ‘ancient monument’:

My Amendment closes a small loophole in the Minister’s powers to list ancient monuments. It was brought to my attention at CoEnCo in 1977 by Mr. J. St. Bodfan Gruffyd in his publication, which the Minister has had, entitled Protecting Historic Landscapes, and this is the first opportunity that we have had to close this very small gap. What is missing from this Bill is power to list as an ancient monument a garden or landscape that is not part of the site of the monument…. So that if the garden is not comprised in or adjoining the monument, the Minister cannot schedule it even if he should, or wants to.

One of the illustrations provided of the need for this amendment was Painshill, in Surrey, which ‘has been created so far away from the house that it would not be protected by this Bill’. Lord Craigton concluded that ‘it would be quite monstrous to let this golden opportunity go at this point’.

This very promising moment came to nothing, thanks to a somewhat robust response from the Government spokesperson, Baroness Stedman. Citing general planning powers, existing financial provisions, and the ability to list or schedule ‘garden buildings and other structures or remains’, she concluded that, although ‘historic gardens and parks play a very important part in our heritage’, she was ‘not quite sure why the noble Lord thinks we need to do more about historic gardens and landscapes, because the means are there now to help them’.

Baroness Stedman’s response did send some mixed messages, though. On the one hand:

… the compiling of a non-statutory list… remains quite a major undertaking, and I must make it clear at this stage that there is no prospect of the Government being able to provide the inspectors of ancient monuments or other civil servants to take up such a task.

On the other, she noted the Manpower Services Commission’s pilot project for ‘a preliminary listing of historic gardens and parks in the Bristol region’, which ‘may very well clarify the criteria which ought to govern the selection of historical gardens and parks, and help us to assess what benefits might be derived from a national list’.

The disappointment of this outcome is of course somewhat tempered by the fact that gardens can be scheduled, as explored further in a recent post. Also worthy of note is that a ‘list’ of historic parks and gardens was now being discussed in earnest, although it was to be four more years before the power to create one was finally enacted.

National Heritage Act 1980

In the meantime, the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 did not deliver anything of relevance to parks and gardens. Historic parks and gardens were discussed at each key stage in the progression of the National Heritage Act 1980, but, again, only a financial measure was introduced. This was the creation of the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) from the earlier National Land Fund – Painshill was later the first landscape garden to receive NHMF funding, as recounted by Mavis Batey in ‘Paradise Regained’ (New Arcadian Journal, 2010, 67/68, pp. 15- 21).

Reflections

It was here that matters rested for three more years. The long-awaited provision for a ‘list’ of historic parks and gardens was not to appear until the National Heritage Act 1983 – which will be considered in detail in the next post.  

Gardens – or at least land adjacent to buildings – were mentioned in discussions around planning and heritage legislation as early as 1944, but it was to be nearly four decades before a reasonably consistent degree of parliamentary interest was translated into meaningful provision for their protection. The reasons for this delay appear to have included a higher priority being given to historic buildings, concerns about further imposition on property owners, and perceived practical obstacles. But it is also very clear from the parliamentary discussions referred to above that the work of various individuals and organisations – most notably the Garden History Society – ensured that the profile of historic parks and gardens was maintained, and that the evidence of both a problem and a solution was to hand when suitable legislative opportunities presented themselves. The National Heritage Act 1983 was to – finally – introduce the power to create the Register, but (as the next post will outline) the passage of the legislation was far from smooth, and the outcome by no means certain.

The research underpinning this post is written up more comprehensively in this Garden History article, should you wish to learn more.