Gardens, Archaeology & Resistance

Stephen has carried out a series of archaeological investigations into landscape features of the park at Farnborough Hall revealing aspects of the design and features that were commissioned by the owners to enhance their enjoyment of the landscape. The preponderance of written sources have tended to record their interests and enthusiasms. By contrast those who actually worked on the estate have largely been marginalized, leaving little or no trace in the archaeological records.  

 The talk is a light hearted foray into what is a serious subject: Namely the way in which some in society may have felt antagonistic to the established order of garden ownership and management. All hovered on the fringes of legality and largely carried out actions in secrecy. This talk reveals some seven examples from the early nineteenth century onwards of illicit activities revealed during recent studies of the engineering works in the garden and park at Farnborough. These range from the Farnborough zebra and  a Lovers Tryst,  to Gentleman of the Road, Italian Prisoners of War through to a Rock and Roll tribute tree. 

 Probably most historic estates have evidence of similar irregular activities, but they are hardly ever recorded and by their nature are frequently ephemeral. The Rock and Roll tribute tree, for example, has now been felled. Stephen concludes with a plea that this type of evidence is a neglected field of garden history that deserves to be studied more widely.

Dr Stephen Wass has an MA in Historical Archaeology from the University of Leicester gained during work with the National Trust on a major archaeological survey of  Farnborough Park, Warwickshire. As part of a programme of D. Phil. research at the University of Oxford, he has investigated the extraordinary seventeenth century 'theme park' in the gardens around Hanwell Castle. His thesis has recently been published by Oxbow Books under the title of Seventeenth-Century Water Gardens and the Birth of Modern Scientific Thought in Oxford. He is an accredited member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (MCIfA). He is the principal of Polyolbion Archaeology.

 The Apple Store at Farnborough. Photo © Dr. Stephen Wass

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