Some Guidelines on Setting up a Research and Recording Project

SOME GUIDELINES ON SETTING UP A RESEARCH AND RECORDING PROJECT

Introduction

The Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust had been aware for some time that a project to formerly record the historic gardens of Bucks was well overdue it had been one of their aims from the time the trust was set up.Efforts had been made to get it off the ground a few years previously but these had floundered in the early stages. The project was a considerable under-taking and with little experience of how to get started it could have been rather daunting. These notes aim to give other trusts an idea of our methods and to address some of the problems we encountered along the way and how we went about resolving them.

People

The key to success is a very obvious one and that is having the right people on board. The project leader/motivator being essential, we were fortunate that the Vice-chairman of the Trust, Dr Sarah Rutherford with her considerable experience at English Heritage andin Conservation Planning was prepared to be in the driving seat. Sarah was also a trustee and would oversee financial matters, reporting back to the BGT Treasurer. The other members of the team were Rosemary Jury, who has been a key member of BGT for a number of years and is an excellent organiser and myself who despite having recently gained a Masters in Garden History was rather thrown in at the deep end. Julia Wise, the Buckinghamshire County Council HER officer (and BGT member) was also keen to be involved and her help was to prove invaluable, providing a room for meetings and unlimited access to the HER.

We knew from the outset that we needed to recruit at least 20 volunteers, the best place to start seemed to be the membership of the Trust, there were over 160 at the time and we knew how to contact them. We held our first volunteer meeting at the beginning of 2012 and about 15 members came along, probably just to see what we were up to. Although a few of them made it through the initial training, most dropped out as they felt they could not commit the time or it was not for them. We then realised that we would have to recruit from outside and started to put the word out among other like-minded historical groups, Bucks Archaeological Society, Chiltern Society, High Wycombe and Marlow societies. We were fortunate to recruit a core group of about sixteen volunteers who have stuck with the project.

We have tried to keep the project fun, by organising social events and outings as well as the more serious training sessions. Inevitably the team tend to come and go and we currently have a few members taking sabbaticals, particularly over the summer months (we have one who is a line judge at Wimbledon). During the autumn they hopefully return to the fold and get back to researching and visiting sites, weather permitting. However as with any project dependent on volunteers we are always looking for new recruits. The volunteers themselves have been very good at recruiting friends and spreading the word about our work. We have also taken display boards to a number of local events, including The Buckinghamshire History Fair and Heritage Weekend events.

Funding

If the project was to be successful, funding was vital and initially we approached BGT Council and they allocated £1100, however we knew this would not cover the training costs, let alone volunteers expenses, report editing, printing and stationary etcetera. It was then suggested that it may be worth making an application to The Heritage Lottery Fund. We all know that they give money to ‘good causes’, but were we the sort of project they were interested in and how did one go about securing a slice of the cake? It turned out that if we wanted to apply for around £10 000 the ‘Sharing Heritage’ route was the one for us. I had never applied for a grant before and the forms looked extremely daunting, in fact it took about six months to fill them in with considerable input from Sarah and VirginiaHinze, who were familiar with the terminology required, it was important to get it right. HLF do have people to offer help, but this is fairly general and not specific to your project.

It was at this point we had to define the project and draw up plans for HLF. We decided that this was a long term project for the trust and that this would be a pilot scheme lasting from April 2014 to May 2015 (we managed to extend this to July) in which time we planned to record 20 sites mainly in Wycombe District and Aylesbury Vale. For the application we had to state what we intended to spend the money on. The major costs were as follows: it was decided to ensure the smooth running of the project we would employer an administrator for two days a month (Rosemary took on this task), we would also pay for the reports to be edited (this however was actually done in house) and then there were training costs (trainers fee and hire of venue etc.). We heard in December 2013 that our application had been successful.

Training

It was decided that we would base our methodology on similar successful projects in Kent and Sussex and that Virginia Hinze would be the most experienced person to carry out the training, however the volunteers were briefed before the training days and given packs containing archival material they would need for the training sites. I also carried out a site walk with them a few days before training days. Our first training venue, Green Park, Aston Clinton turned out to be too complex for the volunteers to get to grips with in two days. So the next group worked at the smaller St Katherines, Parmoor which proved more manageable. This venue was also less expensive to hire than Green Park and they provided excellent cream teas!Lunch was provided at the full training days, but we did not pay travel expenses. Not all the volunteers could make all sessions, but they were encouraged to join the next group to catch up.

I also took both groups of volunteers to The Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies on two occasions, one morning was spent in the local studies library and the other in the county archives, everyone found these sessions most useful. We also held tree ident days, the first was at Christ Church Oxford with Sarah Couch. Subsequent ones were held at Hartwell House with Sarah Rutherford leading. As most of the volunteers had not been involved in anything like this before training took rather longer than we had initially planned and we carried out another site visit to Hughenden manor and also looked at Aylesbury Cemetery as cemeteries are designed landscapes and some of the volunteers would be researching them.

We have run two full training courses to date and plan another for this autumn. Following the training the volunteers were put into pairs and suitable sites were found for them to work on during the summer of 2014.

Report Writing

As with all aspects of the project we were uncertain how we would engage the volunteers in writing up their findings using the format that we had decided upon. Progress was slow at first, the tendency being to want to write pages about the history of the house and not enough on the garden and landscape. The initial plan had been to send the reports to be edited externally, however so many drafts were required that this was done by Sarah Rutherford. The volunteers would also visit Sarah at her garden office (landscape HQ) for what have become known as ‘shed sessions’ during which she would help them with the write up. Without this backup and also support from Rosemary in organising visits by writing to owners, we would not have been able to complete the 20 reports we had promised the HLF.

The format of the dossiers although based on that used by other counties evolved as we went along, the addition of aerial photographs and current OS mapping showing historic views and features gave the work a more professional image. We were able to achieve this with considerable help from Julia Wise at BCC. Julia had also helped volunteers with maps and other information at the research stage, as we don’t have an OS licence this was extremely helpful. Originally we had not planned to include any images apart from one on the front cover, however the volunteers had amassed considerable numbers of interesting photographs so a selection was included at the back. The most important section of the report was the Statement of Significance, as this would act as a summary for planners etc, we developed our own guidelines for this.

We also hold monthly meetings in a room at County Hall, these are very good for keeping momentum going, as things could easily drift apart with volunteers all over the county. At the meetings the volunteers update each other on their progress and other issues are discussed and events arranged.

Conclusions

The most rewarding aspect was seeing the printed copies of the reports that were presented to the owners and the volunteers were delighted to see the fruits of their labour. The owners were asked for feedback and we have had some excellent compliments.

“Many thanks to the volunteers for preparing the Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust report on Brands House. We very much enjoyed reading it and found it extremely illuminating. It was well written and I was impressed with the amount and depth of research you had accomplished. All in all I congratulate you as a team for producing such an interesting and comprehensive document. I hope the other gardens of the county receive such excellent treatment.”

It has been hard work over the last couple of years, but overall an extremely successful exercise. I think that everyone involved has gained a tremendous amount from the experience and had fun along the way. We have now secured further funding, from two horticultural trusts and we shall be rolling the project out across the county over the next two to three years.

Claire de Carle September 2015