It seems a long time since we voted to join our two trusts, and the Merger Steering Committee felt that the membership should be kept up to date with our progress!
The name of the new trust is Avon and Gloucestershire Gardens Trust. We are amalgamating our two constitutions using the Charities Commission guidelines and are also our Charitable Objectives, focusing on the preservation and enhancement of all garden and landscaped land in Avon and Gloucestershire.
The Journal which forms part of the Trust’s charitable objective to educate and inform will continue in the AGT format as a printed academic publication with an introduction from the Chair and Editor and four articles. A newsletter together with updates on activities will be published on the website.
A designated Committee has been proposed including: Ali Jewell (Chair), Kay Ross (Vice-Chair), Colin Johnston (Treasurer), Fiona Gunn (Secretary), Barbara Hardy (Journal Editor), Kay Ross (Research). Prof. Tim Mowl has agreed to be President.
There are a number of other Committee positions to be filled, and the Merger Committee would love to hear from anyone who would like to be more involved. In the short term the Events and Garden Visits are to be suggested/proposed by a small group, with logistics- tickets etc. organised by existing committee members.
The membership fees will remain at the current 2025 rate, however as the AGT renews annually in June, and the GGLT renews one year after joining, it has been agreed that the new trust will renew annually, and arrangements will be made for members of the GGLT to merge into an annual system.
Our AGM will be at 2pm. on 25th October 2025 at Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester. Following the AGM, our President Professor Tim Mowl will invite us to celebrate this year’s 250th Jane Austen anniversary with a talk “A prettyish kind of a little wilderness” – Landscape & Gardens in the Novels of Jane Austen. Booking is now available on the AGT website.
To round off the year Dr Laura Mayer will speak on 15th November at BRLSI on “Creating Arcadia: the Grand Tour & the Invention of the English Landscape”.
An invitation with all details will be sent out in due course. We very much look forward to seeing you at the AGM for the start of what promises to be an exciting new journey for the Gardens Trust.
With best wishes,
Alison Jewell (Chair Designate)