Daily schedule
Seminars meet each weekday morning after breakfast.
After lunch, afternoons are free for individual study or exploring the many places of interest in and around the city. Optional plenary excursions and social activities including walking tours will also be available.
The course fee includes breakfasts Monday-Saturday (residential guests only), lunches Sunday-Friday, and three-course dinners Sunday-Thursday. All meals are taken in Christ Church’s spectacular dining hall.
On Friday, there will be a special four-course gala dinner to celebrate the closing of the week.
Seminars and field trip
Monday seminars
Garden history at speed:
Gardens 2000BC to 1860AD, from the great classical cultures through mediaeval and renaissance gardens to the English Landscape Garden and the Victorian ‘gardenesque’. This will set the Arts and Crafts movement into historical perspective and begin to reveal the roots of the movement.
Tuesday seminars
John Ruskin, William Morris and William Robinson:
Put very simply, Ruskin conceived the ideas underpinning the Arts and Crafts, Morris brought the movement into being and Robinson translated Ruskin’s social arguments into the language of the gardener, being eager to vanquish the ‘industrial’ gardening of the Victorian era in favour of a system which would acknowledge the individual ‘personalities’ of his plants and improve the lives of the poor.
Wednesday seminars
Gertrude Jekyll:
Jekyll had lectures from Ruskin and Morris and was a friend of Robinson for the last fifty years of their lives. She wanted to be known as an ‘artist-gardener’ and, as an artist-gardener, influenced the making of gardens across the developed world. We will look at her life, her work (including her writing) and her influence.
Thursday field trip
Visit to the house and garden of Rodmarton Manor and the garden of Hidcote Manor.
Friday seminars
Life after Gertrude:
Miss Jekyll’s influence was spread through many channels but particularly through her long association with William Robinson and his association with the artist Alfred Parsons. Some of Parsons’ work was for Harper’s Magazine in New York so he was involved with the Cotswolds group of American anglophiles including Henry James, John Singer Sargent and Lawrence Johnston, the creator of Hidcote Manor garden.
Field trip
Destination: Rodmarton Manor and Hidcote Manor
Duration: All day
Excursion Rating: Moderate – up to two hours' walk on even ground or up to an hour's walk on rough and/or steep ground or up lots of stairs and steps.
