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The Gardens Trust is a small charity helping to protect and conserve historic parks and gardens in England and Wales.

29/09/2026

Fancy taking on 26.2 miles for a cause worth fighting for? 🌳

We're looking for runners to join Team Gardens Trust at the London Marathon 2027! We've got a handful of charity places left, and every mile you run helps us protect the UK's historic parks and gardens for future generations.

No running experience? No problem, we'll support you every step of the way, from training tips to fundraising help.

🔗 Visit our website to apply to run the London Marathon for the Gardens Trust 👇
https://thegardenstrust.org/support-us/join-team-gt/

25/09/2026

High-quality landscapes aren’t just nice to have, they're essential 🌿

This week we hosted our annual Historic Landscapes Assembly in Milton Keynes, focusing on New Towns and what the past can teach us about building sustainable green spaces for the future.

Some key takeaways:

🏗️ How important it is to build accessible, high-quality environments that are built to last;

🌱 Ongoing maintenance is as critical as initial design if we want to create places people love living in;

🤝 We already have the collective knowledge to create beautiful, sustainable environments and fostering deeper collaboration and partnerships is key to making our ambition of green spaces for all a reality.

A huge thank you to our incredible speakers, our partners FOLAR, the Landscape Foundation and Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust and our sponsor Institute of Historic Building Conservation for making this year’s assembly such a success. See you all in 2027! 👋

22/09/2026

📢 We're calling for trees, plants, gardens and parks to be recognised as essential infrastructure.

Together with HTA News, RHS - Royal Horticultural Society, British Association of Landscape Industries and Landscape Institute we're asking the government to recognise the vital role of parks, gardens, trees and green spaces in helping the UK respond to climate change, support biodiversity, improve health and wellbeing, and create stronger, more resilient places.

Our Chair John Watkins said:

🗣️ “Our nation has understood the value of greenspace for hundreds of years and has consequently created a wealth of parks and gardens, which are both beautiful and much-cherished by the millions of people who use them. Now it is time for this generation to step up and not only care for but grow this legacy, for the benefit of our environment, nature, today’s communities and the generations to come.”

🔗 Read more on our website
https://thegardenstrust.org/news/

21/09/2026

Fantastic to see the Green Futures exhibition on display! It highlights volunteer research on parks and gardens which may be impacted by large infrastructure development in the East of England.

The exhibition will be on display at various locations in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk in the coming months 👀 sign up to the Gardens Trust newsletter for updates: https://thegardenstrust.org/support-us/subscribe/

🌳Find out more about Green Futures on our website: https://thegardenstrust.org/green-futures

17/09/2026

A reminder: historic parks and gardens just lost a vital layer of protection. 💔

The Government has removed the Gardens Trust's statutory consultee role; ending our automatic right to be consulted on planning applications affecting registered parks and gardens and their settings, after three decades in that role.

We're not standing still.

Our new Adaptation Fund is helping us build new ways to monitor planning applications and keep fighting for vulnerable landscapes. 🌿

Once these places are lost, they can't be restored. Please consider a donation, big or small.

🔗 Donate today
https://thegardenstrust.org/support-us/donate-online/

11/09/2026

Come and see the results of the Gardens Trust and Mill Waters' Sutton Lawn History and Living Memories Project, tomorrow, 11-3 at the free to enter Mill Waters Festival in the park. Congratulations to all the wonderful volunteers who helped to uncover and remember the heritage of this much-loved public park.

03/09/2026

🚨 Last chance to book! 🚨

Want to hear how historic designed landscapes can shape future development, whilst supporting our work protecting and conserving these special places?

👉 Book your place at our annual Historic Designed Landscapes Assembly, this year taking place in Milton Keynes on 23rd and 24th September.

🔗 Book by 8th September here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-historic-landscapes-assembly-2026-tickets-1991306267651?aff=oddtdtcreator

🗣️ Speakers include representatives from the Landscape Institute, the Royal Town Planning Institute and Historic Environment Scotland as well as universities and design practices.

💚 By attending a Gardens Trust event you'll be directly supporting our work protecting and conserving historic parks and gardens, ensuring that they can be enjoyed by all.

27/08/2026

🚨 URGENT: Can you help us protect historic parks and gardens? 🚨

As many of you will have seen, the Government has removed the Gardens Trust's statutory consultee role, ending our automatic right to be consulted on planning applications affecting registered parks and gardens, including their setting. After three decades in this role, it's a seismic change for heritage protection.

Thanks to your advocacy, some protection remains: we'll still be notified of applications within parks and gardens, though not those affecting their setting.

Historic parks and gardens support biodiversity, boost local economies, improve wellbeing, and connect communities with nature and heritage. Once lost, they can't be restored.

That's why we're launching our Adaptation Fund, to help us build new ways of monitoring planning applications, support Local Planning Authorities and County Gardens Trusts, and keep fighting for vulnerable landscapes.

Please donate to help us secure that future. Your donation, big or small, helps us adapt and keep protecting the places that matter. 🌳

👉 Donate today — https://thegardenstrust.org/donate

📸 Festival Gardens, Liverpool by James Rudoni

17/08/2026

🚨 We are devastated by the Government’s announcement that our role as a statutory consultee in the English planning system is being removed.

Although we will be notified of planning applications within parks and gardens, this will *not* include applications affecting the setting of these special places. This puts the nation’s parks and gardens at immediate risk of harm through poorly-informed development that will impact the views to and from parks and gardens, something which will greatly affect the peace and tranquility in which they can be enjoyed.

🔗 Read our full statement:

https://thegardenstrust.org/removal-of-statutory-consultee-role/

We would greatly appreciate your support at this critical time so that we can continue advocating for our nation’s parks and gardens. If you would like to help, please consider joining us or making a donation today. Thank you 💚

🔗 https://thegardenstrust.org/support-us

📸 Belhus Park, Essex, by James Rudoni

11/08/2026

💰 Apply for up to £10,000 to help seed-fund a volunteer project that will support historic designed landscapes in the UK.

Previous recipients of the grant include Your Park Bristol and Bath, The Warneford 200 Gardening Group, Broomhill Community Trust and Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust.

🚨 Deadline: Friday 16th October

More info & how to apply 👇
https://thegardenstrust.org/what-we-do/gardens-trust-community-grant/

Address

70 Cowcross Street
London Borough Of Islington
EC1M6EJ

Telephone

+442076082409

Website

http://thegardenstrust.org/support-us/

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