‘When the biting North Sea winds blows across Norfolk in the depths of Winter, it can sometimes be hard to imagine the beauty of the county’s gardens at the height of Summer. But … Norfolk is home to some of the most wonderful gardens in the country’.

These were the first two lines written by HRH the Prince of Wales, in his Foreword for the Norfolk County Gardens Trust’s gazetteer published in 2013. Of the 320 gardens included in the book, four have been selected to form the September series of Unforgettable Gardens talks. The gardens include the grand and beautiful gardens at Houghton; Great Yarmouth’s Venetian Waterways beloved by generations on holiday and recently rescued from decline; Norwich’s secret Victorian gem, The Plantation Garden; and lastly the Royal gardens at Sandringham, a garden fit for a Queen.

This ticket is for this individual session and costs £5, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions via the links below, or you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 4 sessions at a cost of £16 via the link here.

Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

Week 1. Sep 8. Houghton: Part of a series of 4 online lectures, £5 each or all 4 for £16.

Week 2. Sep 15. Venetian Waterways, Great Yarmouth: Part of a series of 4 online lectures, £5 each or all 4 for £16.

Week 3. Sep 22. The Plantation Garden, Norwich: Part of a series of 4 online lectures, £5 each or all 4 for £16.

Week 4. Sep 29. Sandringham: Part of a series of 4 online lectures, £5 each or all 4 for £16.

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Week 3. Sep 22: The Plantation Garden, Norwich’s Secret Garden by Dr. Lesley Kant Cunneen

The Plantation Garden is a three-acre, highly eclectic, Victorian garden in Norwich. The garden nestles in the shade of the Roman Catholic Cathedral on the western outskirts of the city walls and is open daily to the general public. This idiosyncratic garden was created in a former lime quarry by Henry Trevor, a prosperous furniture maker and Baptist minister, using local materials and employing a mixture of styles. The talk will trace the history of the garden from its 1850s origins and high Victorian heyday, its gradual deterioration over the twentieth century and its rediscovery and successful restoration by dedicated volunteers from 1980 to the present day.

Today this Grade ll registered urban garden is managed by a charitable trust (The Plantation Garden Preservation Trust [PGPT})

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Dr. Lesley Kant Cunneen is a keen gardener with a particular interest in public parks. Following a career in education, she studied garden history at Madingley College, Cambridge and recently completed a doctorate in public green space at UEA. She lives close to the Plantation and for a number of years was a speaker and garden guide for the PGPT.

Unforgettable Gardens - Plantation Garden, Norwich