Newsletter – June 2014

June 9th, 2014 by JCope

Joe Hawkins is becoming one of the best known names in Hagley. His passion for the landscapes of England and his enthusiasm for the task of managing the restoration of the Arcadian features of Hagley Park is quite infectious. This was his topic for our June meeting and I suspect that for many of our members, this will not be the first time they have heard Joe’s talk during the past year. However, this is not a problem because, as the restoration work has progressed in the Park, so the story has evolved. Even with much of the work complete, lost features are still being rediscovered and reinstated.

With the Park reopening in 2015 we will once again be able to see the follies, features and landscape which were largely the creation of George, 1st Lord Lyttelton. Hagley Park once considered one of the finest landscape gardens in England was visited by the nobility of the time. Its creation was inspired by ideas from ‘Grand Tour’ paintings and the works of some of the great poets of the period, especially John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained.

Our next meeting on Tuesday 2nd September at 8pm, sees Ellie Targett presenting ‘Another Man’s Shoes’. She tells the extraordinary story of her father’s flight to freedom from the Nazis, after she and her sister retraced his steps and reclaimed the shoes he wore on the epic 200-mile trek. Visitors are most welcome at all our events – see hhfs.org.uk for details and contacts.

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