English Landscape Gardens: 1650 to the Present Day

Programme details

The course is broken down into 10 units over 10 weeks, each requiring approximately 10 hours of study time. The following topics are covered:

Unit 1: Introduction: The formal background

• Kenilworth: An Elizabethan garden
• The formal background: Versailles and Badminton
• English Baroque: Wilton House and Sayes Court
• London and Wise

Unit 2: The Anglo-Dutch Gardens of the William and Mary period

• The Dutch influence
• Hampton Court and Het Loo
• Westbury Court
• Castle Howard

Unit 3: Queen Anne and Early Hanoverian Gardens, 1701-13

• Palladianism and the Hanoverian succession
• Naturalism meets formality: Wrest Park
• Joseph Addison and the Whig Garden Project
•  Mainstream Whig gardens

Unit 4: Alexander Pope and William Kent

• Exotic planting
• Alexander Pope
• Tory rebel farmers
• William Kent at Chiswick
• William Kent at Rousham
• Gothick and chinoiserie

Unit 5: The apogee of the English Landscape Garden

• Stowe 1 – The overall structure
• Stowe 2 – The Elysian Fields
• Other political gardens in Prince Frederick’s circle
• Studley Royal
• The artistic inspiration
• Stourhead

Unit 6: Capability Brown versus the Picturesque

• ‘Capability’ Brown’s pastoral style
• ‘Capability’ Brown’s reputation
• The Picturesque movement – theory
• The Picturesque movement – practice

Unit 7: Humphry Repton and Regency gardening

• Repton in context
• Repton and the Picturesque
• The Red Books
• Regency garden design

Unit 8: Victorian gardening

• J.C. Loudon and the Gardenesque
• Charles Barry and the cult of the Italianate
• The Victorian kitchen garden
• The development of the public park
• William Robinson and the wild garden
• The cottage garden

Unit 9: Arts and Crafts and Gertrude Jekyll

• The Arts and Crafts atmosphere
• Gertrude Jekyll
• The Jekyll– Lutyens partnership
• Arts and Crafts garden architecture
• Baillie Scott and the makings of suburbia

Unit 10: Gardens in the later 20th Century

• Modernism
• Hidcote and Sissinghurst
• Little Sparta/Cosmic Speculation
• New Perennials and naturalistic design
• Conceptualism
• Naturalism and the ‘Sheffield School’

We strongly recommend that you try to find a little time each week to engage in the online conversations (at times that are convenient to you) as the forums are an integral and very rewarding part of the course and the online learning experience.

Level and demands

This course is open to all, and no prior knowledge is required.

This course is offered at FHEQ level 4 (first year undergraduate level), and you will be expected to engage in independent study in preparation for your assignments. Our 10-week Short Online Courses come with an expected total commitment of 100 study hours.

English Language Requirements

We do not insist that applicants hold an English language certification, but we warn that they may be at a disadvantage if their language skills are not of a comparable level to those qualifications listed on our website. If you are confident in your proficiency, please feel free to enrol. For more information regarding English language requirements, please see here.

Course aims

To provide an overview and introduction to English garden history, with special emphasis on the 18th-century landscape garden and on the 20th century.

Course Objectives:

1. To understand the trajectory of English landscape history from formalism to increasing naturalism.

2. To trace the development of garden style across five centuries.

3. To gain an understanding of how textual and other sources can be complemented by on-the-ground study of gardens and landscape.

IT requirements

This course is delivered online; to participate, you must be familiar with using a computer for purposes such as sending email and searching the Internet. You will also need regular access to the Internet and a computer meeting our recommended minimum computer specification.

Programme details

The course is broken down into 10 units over 10 weeks, each requiring approximately 10 hours of study time. The following topics are covered:

Unit 1: Introduction: The formal background

• Kenilworth: An Elizabethan garden
• The formal background: Versailles and Badminton
• English Baroque: Wilton House and Sayes Court
• London and Wise

Unit 2: The Anglo-Dutch Gardens of the William and Mary period

• The Dutch influence
• Hampton Court and Het Loo
• Westbury Court
• Castle Howard

Unit 3: Queen Anne and Early Hanoverian Gardens, 1701-13

• Palladianism and the Hanoverian succession
• Naturalism meets formality: Wrest Park
• Joseph Addison and the Whig Garden Project
•  Mainstream Whig gardens

Unit 4: Alexander Pope and William Kent

• Exotic planting
• Alexander Pope
• Tory rebel farmers
• William Kent at Chiswick
• William Kent at Rousham
• Gothick and chinoiserie

Unit 5: The apogee of the English Landscape Garden

• Stowe 1 – The overall structure
• Stowe 2 – The Elysian Fields
• Other political gardens in Prince Frederick’s circle
• Studley Royal
• The artistic inspiration
• Stourhead

Unit 6: Capability Brown versus the Picturesque

• ‘Capability’ Brown’s pastoral style
• ‘Capability’ Brown’s reputation
• The Picturesque movement – theory
• The Picturesque movement – practice

Unit 7: Humphry Repton and Regency gardening

• Repton in context
• Repton and the Picturesque
• The Red Books
• Regency garden design

Unit 8: Victorian gardening

• J.C. Loudon and the Gardenesque
• Charles Barry and the cult of the Italianate
• The Victorian kitchen garden
• The development of the public park
• William Robinson and the wild garden
• The cottage garden

Unit 9: Arts and Crafts and Gertrude Jekyll

• The Arts and Crafts atmosphere
• Gertrude Jekyll
• The Jekyll– Lutyens partnership
• Arts and Crafts garden architecture
• Baillie Scott and the makings of suburbia

Unit 10: Gardens in the later 20th Century

• Modernism
• Hidcote and Sissinghurst
• Little Sparta/Cosmic Speculation
• New Perennials and naturalistic design
• Conceptualism
• Naturalism and the ‘Sheffield School’

We strongly recommend that you try to find a little time each week to engage in the online conversations (at times that are convenient to you) as the forums are an integral and very rewarding part of the course and the online learning experience.

Teaching methods

1. Guided reading of documents and of visual sources such as garden plans

2. Research topics with student feedback

3. Discussion sessions

4. Set questions on primary materials

5. Questions to be answered in personal folders

6. Quizzes

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be expected to have gained the following skills:

1. The ability to examine texts and visual sources with some discrimination as to their reliability.

2. An understanding of the importance of the wider cultural and political context of garden-making.

3. An appreciation that gardens are not just about plants or vice versa.

4. An appreciation of the importance of using both archival materials and books, as well as on-the-ground visits to gardens.

Assessment methods

You will be set two pieces of work for the course. The first 500-word assignment is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome, but preparing for it and the feedback you are given will help you prepare for your assessed piece of work of 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.

Katy Layton-Jones

Cultural historian and historical consultant Katy Layton-Jones grew up in South Manchester. Originally an art historian, she received her BA in Fine Art and Art History from Goldsmiths, University of London and her MPhil and PhD in from the University of Cambridge.

In 2006, Katy was engaged on the Liverpool Parks and Open Spaces research project, co-funded and supported by the ESRC, English Heritage, and Liverpool City Council. In 2014 Katy authored the National Review of Research Priorities for Urban Parks, Designed Landscapes and Open Spaces (English  Heritage, 2014) followed by History of Public Park Funding and Management (1820 – 2010) (Historic England, 2016), and Uncertain Prospects: public parks in the new age of austerity (The Gardens Trust, 2016). Her first book, Places of Health and Amusement was published by English Heritage in 2008 and her monograph, Beyond the Metropolis: the image of urban Britain 1780 – 1880 was published by Manchester University Press in 2016.

Katy has been a regular contributor to the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? magazine, for which she has written on subjects including illicit behaviour in Victorian public parks. Her radio appearances include BBC Radio 4’s Making History and The Matter of the North. Her television appearances include the BBC television series, People’s Palaces: The Golden Age of Civic Architecture and Channel 4’s Prince Albert: A Victorian Hero Revealed. 

Assessment methods

You will be set two pieces of work for the course. The first 500-word assignment is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome, but preparing for it and the feedback you are given will help you prepare for your assessed piece of work of 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.

Level and demands

This course is open to all, and no prior knowledge is required.

This course is offered at FHEQ level 4 (first year undergraduate level), and you will be expected to engage in independent study in preparation for your assignments. Our 10-week Short Online Courses come with an expected total commitment of 100 study hours.

English Language Requirements

We do not insist that applicants hold an English language certification, but we warn that they may be at a disadvantage if their language skills are not of a comparable level to those qualifications listed on our website. If you are confident in your proficiency, please feel free to enrol. For more information regarding English language requirements, please see here.

Fees

Module code: O26P345LHV

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