05 May 2010
Joe Hawkins, Head Gardener
“Planting, Practice, Pathogens and Predators”
As Head Gardener, Joe is one of our regular speakers. This time he will discuss the cycle of activities during the gardening year, including garden developments during 2009/2010, picturesque place-making, control of pathogens and predators, the relationship between the 18th Century landscape and the view today, current practice, necessary compromise, and environmental responsibility. There will be a short tour afterwards in the gardens to illustrate the points he has made during the presentation.

02 June 2010
Dr John Wilcock
“J.R.R. Tolkien and his connections with Staffordshire”
The work of the prolific author John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892 – 1973) is of course well known from his books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. What is less well known is that Tolkien spent some time at Whittington Barracks near Lichfield, and on Cannock Chase at both Rugeley and Brocton camps during the 1st World War. He married Edith Bratt and the couple agreed that Mrs Tolkien would take lodgings as near as possible to his current location while he was in the army. The first such lodging was at The Presbytery, Great Haywood, and Tolkien crossed Essex Bridge daily on his way walking to Brocton Camp, so there is a connection with Shugborough. The talk will cover Tolkien’s life, and the various places, people and incidents that influenced his work.

07 July 2010
Chris Copp, Staffordshire Arts & Museum Service
“Ansons and Artisans”
Chris Copp is a history graduate with over fifteen years of professional museum experience and is also an Associate of the Museums Association. After brief careers in journalism and retail management he completed the University of Leicester’s Museum Studies course in 1993. His museum career started at the Harborough Museum in Leicestershire before moving on to Staffordshire County Council as Documentation Officer. Chris has been Museums Officer for Staffordshire Arts & Museum Service since 1998 and his responsibilities include the care and interpretation of the County’s museum and art collection, much of which is on display in the Servants’ Quarters and the Park Farm at Shugborough, and managing an advisory and support service for all of Staffordshire’s museums.

The talk looks at the thousands of people over the centuries who have made the Shugborough estate their home, from the Bishops of Coventry and Lichfield, to servants, farmers, prisoners of war, the Land Army and the Anson family. In this talk you can find out about these people, the lost village of Shugborough, and the houses in Great and Little Haywood which replaced it.

04 August 2010
Dan Charlesworth
“IN the Walled Garden”
Shugborough’s walled garden (1805) was once a horticultural centre of excellence renowned across the country for its revolutionary gardening techniques. The Eden-like garden grew an enormous range of produce using the very latest in technology. Gardeners travelled from great houses across the country just to train at the estate’s cutting-edge facility.

The earliest plans for a walled kitchen garden at Shugborough date from 1800. By 1805 William Pitt described the gardens as “well stored with the choicest of fruit trees and many other varieties of hot-house fruits, flowers and plants”. A gardener's house was added and the walled garden was surrounded by a Ha-Ha, within which trees were planted. Today the gardener's house remains, and the garden is gradually being restored.

Dan will give us a conducted tour of the Walled Garden, and explain the philosophy of the work programme there and plans for the future. Meet Dan in the Walled Garden at 1330, and NOT in the Saloon.

01 September 2010
Stephen Dean, County Archaeologist
The Staffordshire Hoard: “Trusting the Ground with the Treasure of Warriors”
In 2009 a metal detector working on fields to the southwest of Wall uncovered the largest find of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver ever found in this country. The Staffordshire Hoard has become internationally renowned as experts from around the world develop a multitude of theories as to why it was buried there, what was its purpose, and whose hoard was it? Archaeologists from the Sustainability and Cultural Environment team at Staffordshire County Council were some of the first people on the scene and were closely involved in its excavation. In this talk one of those archaeologists gives a first-hand taste of what this was like and what it means for Staffordshire.

06 October 2010
Guy Corbett-Marshall, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust
“The Wolseley Centre: home of the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust”
Guy is Director of the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and is normally to be found at the new SWT Headquarters, the Wolseley Centre at Wolseley Bridge. The Trust manages 29 wild life reserves in Staffordshire, the nearest reserves to Stafford being Bickford Meadows, Allimore Green, Doxey Marshes, Radford Meadows, Pasturefields, Colwich Brickworks and George’s Hayes.