Kent Gardens Trust has been working with local authorities in Kent since 2008. The purpose to identify and record the most important historic parks and gardens in the county. To date the research team has worked with Tunbridge Wells, Sevenoaks, Medway and Dover Councils and it also helped to secure HLF funding for the Kearsney parks in Dover. All information about the research and the actual reports can be found on https://www.kentgardenstrust.org.uk under what we do.
In 2020 Swale Borough Council commissioned Kent Gardens trust to carry out research on the following eight public sites.
In Sittingbourne
Bell Road Cemetery, Grove Park, Johnson House Gardens and King George V playing field.
In Faversham
Love Lane Cemetery and King George V playing field.
In Sheppey
Beachfield Park and Sheerness and Sheppey Cemetery.
Our volunteer researchers have now nearly completed research on these sites.
We are now looking for parks and gardens in Faversham that have not been documented and are preferably privately owned. On the zoom meeting of the Faversham Society on the 19th October several gardens were identified these included
The Faversham Physic Garden
The Oare Gunpowder works, some of which is now a country park
The Chart Gunpowder Mills and private house with landscaped garden,
Davington Priory
Copton Ash
Lords
Stonebridge Pond
St Annes
Doddington Place
Lorenden Gardens trust
We would be grateful to be informed of more gardens that have historic value and also those that have been more recently designed that are significant however big or small.
The volunteers from KGT are also keen to work with local historians, garden owners and people who have an interest in garden history in Faversham and are willing to give support and training if necessary towards writing the reports.
Please let me know if you know of any sites to add to the list and if you are interested in joining our team of researchers. I can be contacted at cillafreud@hotmail.com
Cilla Freud October 2021
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