Help to save historic parks and gardens across the UK

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By Frankie Taylor, Engagement Officer, the Gardens Trust

The Gardens Trust is the only national charity whose sole aim is to research, protect and conserve parks and gardens and other types of historic designed landscapes in the UK.

We’re a small organisation with broad reach, having more than 1200 members, mainly in the UK but also across the world, and a further 7000 supporters through 35 County Gardens Trusts across England, and the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust, for whom we are the umbrella organisation.

Our role in the planning system under threat

We undertake research of historic parks and gardens as a way of protecting them in the present. Currently we are a statutory consultee in the English planning system and are required to respond to applications that may affect sites on Historic England’s Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. To do this, we rely on the research of volunteers from our County Gardens Trusts and a small team of Conservation staff who each year write many hundreds of detailed responses, offering advice to local planning authorities.

However, in March 2025 the Government announced it was considering removing our statutory consultee role as a means to speed up the planning process – a proposal we strongly disagree with and are fighting against. We do not view ourselves as blockers in the system, instead we are an organisation that offers practical and pragmatic support, advice and guidance to developers in the hope that our historic parks and gardens can be better protected and incorporated into our built future. Last year objections made up only 6.6% of our responses to planning application consultations.

A public consultation on our role is due to launch soon and we will need everyone’s support to ensure we can continue protecting our historic designed landscapes for future generations to come. If you would like to help, please look out for announcements on our website, social media and e-bulletin - @thegardenstrust.

Whatever the outcome, the Gardens Trust is committed to continue celebrating, educating and sharing with everyone the history and stories of our designed green spaces. We will continue our campaign to demonstrate just how important these spaces are to us all as well as our economy, communities, health, wellbeing and culture but we need more support than ever to do this.

How you can help save parks and gardens

Many of us are guilty of taking our local public parks, gardens and green spaces for granted. They have existed for decades or in many cases centuries, but in large part only because of determined local people, communities and campaigners who have fought for their protection and survival. We want to continue to help but need support to not only help raise awareness of the threats that our green spaces face (from lack of funding, to neglect, mismanagement and even climate change) but also to continue campaigning to ensure the green spaces we all know, love and use on a daily basis survive for decades and centuries to come.

To achieve this we also need help to respond to an ever increasing amount of planning applications which provide developers with the information they need to make better and more informed decisions – a task which helps to protect our parks and gardens every day.

You can also help us by:

• Becoming a member from just £45/year
• Taking up organisational membership - offering your team of staff and volunteers access to a nationwide network of garden history experts, academics and professionals, the opportunity to attend exclusive Gardens Trust events like our annual conference and to receive our magazine and respected academic journal Garden History
• Volunteering to help with our research, conservation or outreach work including social media or helping out at events. We can match your interests and experience to create a tailored role for you
• Donating to a small charity that makes a big difference
• Following us on social media @thegardenstrust, signing up to our free monthly newsletter and telling others about our important work protecting historic parks and gardens
• Consider joining your local County Gardens Trust, our network of independent charities who focus on researching, conserving and campaigning for historic designed landscapes in their county

   
Reaching out

Like many other heritage organisations, the Gardens Trust has an aging core supporter base, with most of our members being over the age of 65 and largely from White British and retired backgrounds. We love and greatly appreciate our amazing supporters, without whom we simply wouldn’t have been able to protect and champion parks and gardens over the last 10 years (and the decades prior when we were The Garden History Society). However, this also means we face a challenge in the near future – we must reach out to younger and broader audiences, because without their support we won’t be able to stand up for our historic parks and gardens and many might not survive another generation. At a time when there is more pressure than ever to build, this is a real and present danger our green spaces face, and those in urban areas are at more risk than ever.

We are therefore keen to reach out to those under the age of 50, including families and people living in urban areas and are increasingly delivering a range of programming, events and volunteering opportunities to encourage these audiences to support us now and long into the future.

If you’re interested in helping to make sure our parks and gardens survive for the next generation please do consider joining, volunteering and supporting the Gardens Trust.

We can help those already supporting, working or volunteering in the sector

In 2026 we will be piloting a new Gardens Trust Emerging Professionals Network, aimed at those looking to explore options or change careers to one that helps to protect our historic green spaces. This network is in response to overwhelming demand in the sector to: learn more about garden history and how best to conserve and care for historic designed landscapes; and to provide opportunities to connect with other volunteers, academics, professionals working in fields related to garden history, landscape architecture, heritage, gardening and more. The network will be a group managed by members, for members, and will offer opportunities to meet up in person, attend online events and talks, access mentoring and to collaborate and share knowledge with others across the country.

If you are interested in finding out more, joining and shaping our pilot network please contact Engagement Officer Frankie Taylor via email

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