Hemel Hempstead Water Gardens are getting worse and worse and worse
Is this a lawn, a rose garden or a slum? No. It is one of Susan Jellicoe's favourite planting designs - as 'managed' by Dacorum District Council
Geoffrey Jellicoe was an optimist. Susan, who did the planting design, was a pessimist. Their friend, Brenda Colvin, was even more of a pessimist. Remembering how many of her planting designs had been wrecked, Brenda Colvin remarked that ‘landscape architecture is a depressing profession – and the older you get the more depressing it gets’. As an optimist, I believe the Water Gardens will be restored. The Garden History Society held a 1-day conference about them last year. But the management needs to change. Why doesn’t Dacorum District Council use volunteers? Three of the truths to be universially acknowledged are (1) a volunteer is worth ten pressed men (2) two old ladies can maintain a garden more effectively than 10 well-equipped youths in green sweatshirts – because they know WHAT to do (3) in this world, you get more for love than you get for money.
Why don’t UK parks departments make more use of volunteers? It is very common in the US; it works well in Chiswick Park; it is normal practice in National Trust gardens. The reason, I wearily suppose, is that our trades unions do not like volunteers. They want more jobs for their own members. So the Hemel Hempstead Water Gardens can go to hell – or, better, they can extend the hellish car parks which have become the main ‘feature’ of the park since DDC took over from Hemel Hempsted Development Corporation. Parking costs about 60p/hour and they have 750 spaces, open 24 hours/day. If one assumes an occupancy of 30% then the weekly income (7x24x0.3×0.6×750) is £22,680. My suggestion is to give the £680 to the two old ladies, who would probably give it to a good cause.
Hemel Hempstead have muddled the ideas of 'car park' and 'public park'. Since this place is called a Water GARDEN the mistake should not have been made.
The water gardens by Jellicoe are characterised as ornamental. [ http://images.francisfrith.com/c10/450/19/H255041.jpg ] Taking inspiration from Paul Klee, Jellicoe’s intention was “to create a place for pleasure and relaxation, by way of a sophisticated, well-arranged linear public park to create certain illusions and impressions.” [ http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/component/option,com_parksandgardens/task,site/id,6949/tab,history/Itemid,292/ ]
Garden management is every bit as important as garden design to garden history, and ultimately to the experience of garden heritage.
[ http://www.flickr.com/photos/33299771@N05/3103801013/ ]
Comment by Christine — July 12, 2011 @ 4:37 am
I love the b&w photograph – and what a contrast with the 2009 and 2011 photographs. The optimism and idealism of the 1950s can be seen to have given way to the sleazy materialism of the early twenty-first century. Perhaps one can also say this of the Bauhaus. The healthy bright ‘crystal new world’ they envisaged gave rise to a million now-decrepit blocks inhabited, one imagines, by families who would rather live at ground level and salarymen who, one imagines, are looking forward to their next game of golf. They should give some of their spare time to working as volunteers on the maintenance of public gardens!
Comment by Tom Turner — July 12, 2011 @ 5:58 am
Yes. It does seem that the early twentyfirst century is a difficult era, yet perhaps there are signs of optimism that here too. [ http://www.buga-2009.de/en/garden-festival/the-buga-site/the-seven-gardens/21st-century-garden/ ]. See slideshow [ http://www.flickr.com/groups/buga2009/pool/show/ ]
Comment by Christine — July 13, 2011 @ 4:45 am
mmmm need a ‘friends of…’ for this Park. there are a lot of successful societies in and around London (including avery Hill) so precedents have been set. Just needs local enthusiastic ‘Old Ladies, keen students and and a busy body to organise it all (think Linda Snell of the Archers R4).
Comment by Grant — July 16, 2011 @ 9:18 pm
Definitely, the Water Gardens needs friends. But they could also benefit from the local parks department giving some up of its power and resources to the people (including old ladies and enthusiastic students).
Comment by Tom Turner — July 17, 2011 @ 4:53 am
Unfortunately ,Cameron has hijacked this with his big society push , so the park staff are probably (and rightly ) suspicious. So it needs to be handled with wisdom, so the budget and jobs remain with volunteers seen as a bonus…Call me Red Grant!
Comment by Grant — July 17, 2011 @ 8:14 pm
The problem with maintenance undertaken by councils or by their contractors is firstly cost, whoever has the contract has to cut costs to the point that only basic maintenance will be undertaken, for instance, mulching, spraying and weeding go out the window. Secondly, the men or women that turn up each morning have their daily round or targets which leaves no time to undertake a proper job, and they get into their trucks with second rate tools and little knowledge of horticulture. Give them a lawn mower and they will mow all day, give them pruning tools and they do untold damage. In my experience of this kind of maintenance I have rarely found a worker truely knowledgable (roses deadheaded by just clipping of the flower heads is common) and proud of what they do.
What to do, instill pride by the knowledge that the gardeners are maintaining our heritage and what they do is of worth, instigate a policy of professional development allowing time out for horticultural courses and allow the correct amount of time for maintenance and the correct amount of funding. If the workers see that the council values this park and puts in the proper support things will change. Its a shame that councils hold the purse strings and are happy to take the lowest tender. If this park is restored it will just be a circle around to the next time, once the work is finished its count down to the next restoration due to the same maintenance regime still in place.
I dont hold out any hope of change, most parks and gardens maintenance contractors are more than happy to pay poor wages and take anybody off the dole queue and plonk them in a truck and send them off to look after our parks and gardens. The gardeners are doing mainly as instructed, its not there fault that the council is only interested in token input, another case of cost over what is really important. I suppose blaming the council is also a little unfair when the last goverments must also take the blame.
Comment by Stephen Harmer — July 17, 2011 @ 8:59 pm
Stephen, true we live in a privatised world thus the ‘buck of blame’ is passed around.
Training and Pride good observation.
So as usual a lot of grey for government to side step.
The whole system of funding needs a re-think.
Any idea’s?
Comment by Grant — July 17, 2011 @ 9:08 pm
Stephen’s account of how parks are maintained co-incides exactly with my observation of Hemel Hempstead’s Water Gardens. The current system is not working and it therefore has to change. I entirely agree that there is no point whatsoever in undertaking an expensive ‘restoration’ and then following it with 25 years of neglect.
Grant, I have an idea: involve volunteers in park maintenance. This is normal practice in the US. Why shouldn’t it work as well in Britain’s public parks as it does in Britain’s National Trust gardens? You could even call it a Big Society initiative to make it politically correct.
The current park maintainance and management arrangements have to change if they are not working. Greenwich Council has improved its system in the past decade but still lacks responsiveness and, so far as I know, does not involve volunteers. Why shouldn’t Dacorum District Council change its ways? Have they commissioned a parks strategy in recent years? If not, why not?
Comment by Tom Turner — July 18, 2011 @ 6:41 am
Don’t expect councils to do any more than the basic minimum – they don’t have the money – especially Dacorum. Remember that “the council” is only your representative, doing things for the ‘public good’ on your behalf. If you want to make improvements to your environment, you should be able to do it – after consultation – by yourself (or through a ‘Friends’ group). I’m a firm believer in ‘driect action’ and I would support the ‘Friends of the Water Gardens’ if such a group was set up.
Comment by Paul — August 22, 2011 @ 10:58 am
I agree: the best hope for the Water Gardens is for volunteers to take over the work. Anyone who does not have their own garden is likely to find the work a great pleasure.
Comment by Tom Turner — August 22, 2011 @ 11:08 am
Is there a historical plan of these gardens available anywhere?
Comment by mark Bell — February 8, 2012 @ 11:44 am
I do not have a copy to hand, but there must be a plan in Michael Spens’ book The complete works of Geoffrey Jellicoe
Comment by Tom Turner — February 8, 2012 @ 2:22 pm
Tom, thank you…. I’m sitting in Australia, and feel your frustration and passion. I would want to volunteer to activate the human energy needed for this garden, to create the feeling of love and connection the water gardens were created. Water has a metaphysical connection with the human energy. The space of our surroundings is just as important as a Picasso that rests on a wall. Keep up the passion!
Comment by Jane berry — April 8, 2012 @ 9:33 pm