ALEX WIGLEY, HEAD OF GARDENS AND ESTATES AT HISTORIC ROYAL PALACES – WRITTEN EVIDENCE (HSI0074)
Evidence for the inquiry into the challenges faced by the horticultural sector in England
1.1 Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) is a charity which looks after 6 Historic Royal Palaces under Royal Charter with 5 (Hampton Court Palace, The Tower of London, Kensington Palace, Hillsborough Castle and Kew Palace) having garden and parks under our care. All of gardens and parks are listed landscapes, within Scheduled Ancient Monuments or World Heritage Sites and at risk to the effects of climate change.
2.1 The key challenge for us in adapting to climate change is the complexity of the heritage and archaeology both above and below ground, and also the historical significance of plantings and built features. It is clear that summers will get hotter and drier, and winters milder and wetter and as an organisation largely funded by visitors, we will have to adapt our planting to encourage repeat visits, and physical infrastructure of paths and drainage, however at many of our sites the sensitivity of buried archaeology makes this extremely difficult.
2.2 Hampton Court Palace is home to oldest puzzle maze in the world, and the longest grape vine in world planted in 1768, and at Kensington Palace the iconic Sunken Garden has been copied the world over. The threats are both in the tolerance of plantings to drought and water logging, but also in the increased risk of pests and diseases in warmer damper conditions.
2.3 The other challenge we are working on across all these sites is how we retain the significance of character of historical designed landscapes whilst making them more resilient. It is clear we will need to accept some change. Home Park at Hampton Court Palace was laid out with a Patte d’Oie of lime tree avenues in 1690 with a replacement program of replanting begun in the 1990’s. Climate change resilient planting would suggest adopting a mixed tree species selection or even leaving the trees to naturally decline as standing deadwood to maximise biodiversity. However, changes to the structure of these avenues and the form of individual lime tree species would greatly impact their appearance and deviate from the historical design intent.
2.4 Another opportunity for heritage gardens is to allow for parts of them to be less manicured where appropriate to the setting, to support greater biodiversity and engage with visitors to explain why this conscious decision has been made. Less frequent mowing will result in grass drying out slower in drought and supporting more diversity of invertebrates.
2.5 At the Tower of London in 2022 we sowed the moat (which was traditionally mown) with 20 million annual flowers creating a Superbloom for pollinators and an important tool to engage with schools and community groups on how they can improve biodiversity, and the benefits of horticulture to wellbeing. Our challenge going forwards on a World Heritage Site is how we can use and adapt the historic water storage and management systems so that we protect the built heritage and archaeology from the effects of climate change, and also provide a sustainable water resource to support our plantings on site. The Tower is a Palace but also a fortress and the moat as part of this must still read as a defensive structure to visitors but can also be a biodiverse landscape.
2.6 Hampton Court Palace was opened up for visitors to enjoy by Queen Victoria and has been famous for its bold and flamboyant bedding displays ever since. These planting schemes are not sustainable going forwards with the heat, water and (peat free) compost requirements to grow 100,000 plants a season, so our biggest challenge is moving to more sustainable planting schemes which are perennial, drought tolerant but still evoking the same high horticulture flamboyant effects.
2.7 Our parks and gardens have been invaluable to our local communities as a space for recreation and wellbeing and have been designed with this intent. Going forwards appraising how visitors will use these spaces will be key as this will inform any changes we need to make. As summers get hotter the behaviour of our visitors will change. We may see a need to for earlier morning and evening opening as the middle of the day will be too hot, and provision of shade from trees will be more important. Congregation under trees which are exhibiting stress from drought or disease has increased risk of shedding of limbs and deadwood, and increased footfall or provision of seating will increase compaction and stress further. We need to look at the gardens and parks of southern Europe to see how we need to adapt our approach. The urban heat effect at the Tower will mean some parts will be even hotter and so we are investigating whether the landscape in the moat with some pools of water to aid cooling will provide an important space for wellbeing.
2.8 A key opportunity for heritage gardens is the huge supporter base and our ability to engage with our supporters on the challenges and solutions we are adopting. This gives us the opportunity to also influence the management of their outside spaces by sharing our learnings. At HRP every project is accompanied with an explanation of the reasoning and helps visitors how precious the sites are that they are visiting and the need for new approaches.
2.9 Our management of our parks and gardens is guided by Conservation Management Plans to ensure we fully understand the significant features and take informed decisions about how to steward them carefully into the future. We are currently reviewing our plans to ensure sustainability is at the heart of each of them and ensuring all of our features are doing all that they can to reduce the impacts of climate change, and that our management operations are as environmentally responsible as possible. Through work with The Thames Landscape Strategy, we are looking at how our riverside parkland at Hampton court Palace can help with mitigating flood risk to the built heritage by restoring the historic flood plain.
3. Skills and recruitment challenges, particularly in relation to skilled jobs
3.1 The entry level pay grades in horticulture are too low for the level of qualification we expect from an applicant but addressing this would need to collaborative across the sector. The green skills training in sustainability does not really touch on horticulture and would be good to include us in this scheme to show the part the sector can play in responding to climate change. Horticulture especially gardening is often seen as a role that anyone can do, so better promotion as a skilled career through its importance and wide range of roles being better highlighted in the schools’ curriculum.
4. The availability of funding for science, research and development to enable innovation
4.1 Heritage gardens contribute significantly to the tourist economy in the UK. Heritage gardens also face significant threats from climate change, as set out above. It would be helpful to have more grant funding available to support research, tests and trials into adaptation in these environments, with learning shared across the sector. The move away from peat for example has been left for the sector to find the best alternatives with little support from the government or sharing of learning.
4.2 There is funding through Woodland Countryside Stewardship for our parkland as it is classed as grazed wood pasture with capital grants for environmental works, but there are no grants or incentives to do this within large gardens and parks and move to more sustainable management.
5. Resources and guidance available to organisations within the sector to i) implement new technology; ii) reduce their environmental impact
5.1 At present there is not a clear single depository for resources and guidance for the heritage gardens/parks sector and we feel this is a gap. There are small groups of heritage organisations who share learnings through webinars.
6. Horticulture’s contribution to mental and physical health
6.1 Gardens and Parks play a significant role in mental and physical wellbeing. This comes in many forms. Our parks and gardens give access to nature in urban areas and space for recreation and exercise. Our opportunities for volunteering are important for mental health through social and environmental connection. Our charitable aims take our cause out into schools and communities and help deliver our conservation and wellbeing messages, with our Superbloom schools campaign working with 1500 schools across the UK to create gardens and grow wildflowers in their grounds.
6.2 Outside of my professional role I am a trustee of a garden delivering horticultural therapy. Groups suffering from dementia, recovering from strokes, those with physical or learning difficulties, through to green school children with behavioural challenges, all benefit from gardening, and NHS GPs are increasingly prescribing horticultural placements rather than medication to treat mental health.
7 April 2023