Set in Stone? The Past and Future Lives of Memorial Landscapes

A conference in partnership between the University of Oxford and the Gardens Trust

Memorial landscapes are the meeting place of memory and nature. Designed to create and retain cultural meaning, they provide a shared space for reflections, emotion and hope for the future. While the most overt examples are war memorials and cemeteries, aspects of memorialisation can be found throughout designed landscapes – as gardens, public parks, woodlands, trails and, at a smaller scale, trees, flower borders, plaques, sculptures, benches, even street names.  

The creation of gardens celebrating Queen Elizabeth II in London’s Royal Parks has brought the subject of memorial landscapes again to the fore. Our conference in partnership with the Gardens Trust will explore some of the latest thinking on the role of such landscapes, the comfort they bring, the ways they evolve and the challenges they can present. 

Sessions will explore the myriad ways in which outdoor spaces celebrate, recall or honour significant events, people, places and ideas. We’ll learn about the increasing focus on ecology, horticulture and sustainability in the design and maintenance of memorial landscapes, and consider the interplay between official historical narratives and visitors’ own experiences and practices. Case studies will help us examine why and how particular collective memories and histories have been celebrated in our heritage landscapes, and how previously absent stories are now being heard. Far from being set in stone, memorial landscapes will be revealed as places of shifting values, nuance and evolution.

The conference will be chaired by Dr Louise Crawley and Jill Sinclair from the Gardens Trust. Delegates will be offered a discounted annual membership of the Gardens Trust.

The keynote lecture on the Saturday will be given by William Whyte, Professor of Social and Architectural History at St John’s College, Oxford, editor-in-chief of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, trustee of English Heritage and chair of the London Blue Plaques Panel.

On Sunday, the keynote speaker will be Wesley Kerr OBE, broadcaster, journalist, historian and horticulturist. Wesley served for 12 years as Board Member and Trustee of the Royal Parks, is a Council Member of the Royal Horticultural Society and President of the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association.

Other speakers will include:

• Helen Antrobus, Assistant National Curator in Social History at the National Trust, on the People’s Landscapes project and other memorialisation within the charity’s landscapes,
• Anna Eavis, chief executive of the Oxford Preservation Trust, trustee of the National Lottery Heritage Fund and formerly English Heritage’s Curatorial Director, on memorialisation in Oxford,
• Anna Malpas, PhD candidate and Oxford Wolfson Marriott Scholar, on her ethnographical research into the memorial bench,
• Dr Laura Mayer, garden historian, author and conservation consultant for the National Trust, on the politics of remembrance,
• David Richardson, Director of CWGC Horticulture, on the changing role of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The conference will include a guided walking tour of sites in Oxford created in memory of the city’s political, social, literary and academic history. Highlights will include the Holywell Cemetery, a garden celebrating penicillin created by Dame Sylvia Crowe, and the Suffragette Border and memorial Rose Garden in the riverside grounds of St Hilda’s College. Covering about 2.5 miles around the city centre, the walking tour will be delivered in partnership with the Oxford Preservation Trust, which is celebrating its centenary in 2027.

Please note:

• Attendees will be offered discounted annual membership of the Gardens Trust. 
• This event will close to enrolments at 23:59 on 23 May 2027.