Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

‘Challenges and Opportunities for Conserving Historic Parks and Gardens in the 21st Century’,

John Watkins, Chair of Trustees, The Gardens’ Trust

Parks and gardens are at the heart of our communities and national story but are often taken for granted or undervalued; historic parks and gardens have a critical role to play in nature recovery and helping combat the effects of climate change, by providing established habitats and being highly effective for carbon capture and sequestration.

John Watkins DHE, M.Hort(RHS), FCIHort is a professional horticulturist with some 47 years’ experience and was awarded the RHS Associate of Honour in 2016. He was Senior Lecturer at Hadlow College in Kent and worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Edinburgh and Kew, the National Trust for Scotland and the Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley and Hyde Hall. In 2000 John became Head of Gardens and Landscape at English Heritage (now Historic England). He has been involved in a range of restoration, conservation and interpretation projects: the Elizabethan Garden at Kenilworth, the Fountain Garden at Bolsover, recreating the oak pasture around the Boscobel Oak, complex Georgian landscapes at Chiswick, Wrest Park and Marble Hill, and walled gardens at Audley End, Osborne, Mount Grace and Battle Abbey.

Image: Mount Grace, North Yorkshire

Joint Lecture with The Yorkshire Gardens Trust and YPS

7pm in the Tempest Anderson Lecture Theatre in the Yorkshire Museum on Tuesday 28 April 2026.

FYGT and YPS Members and students free, non members £5.