POTATOES LEEKS & ONIONS

In 1839 the Chartists marched for a more equitable society and when we think

of their legacy we think of representation in parliament, education, health,

employment and housing. In this talk at the Rising Hub, Graeme extends the

discussion to include gardening, a topic not usually thought of in political

terms. The situation in Gwent in the 1830s will be compared to the situation

now, to show that the class divide the Chartists confronted persists.

Biography

Graeme Moore BA(Hons) LLM

Contracts Manager: Garden, Landscape and Environmental Projects (Retired)

Graeme Moore was born at Tiverton, in Devon in 1953. He trained in amenity

horticulture at Cannington College, Somerset, and Writtle College, Essex, and

gained early experience in the gardens on Garinish Island, Co.Cork (Office of

Public Works), designed by Harold Peto in 1910, and at Nymans in Sussex

(National Trust), where Peto had previously worked as an architect and

decorator. In 1983 he was awarded a Summer Fellowship at Dumbarton Oaks

Research Library and Collection, Washington D.C. (Harvard University), to

work on a study of Peto.

From 1985 to 1988 he studied art history and literature at the University of

Essex and from 1987 he advised the university on the redesign of the historic

garden at Wivenhoe House which was being extended to create a conference

centre (Architect: Bryan Thomas). From 1989 to 1991 he worked for the artist

Ian Hamilton Finlay in his garden at Little Sparta, Dunsyre, South Lanarkshire

(Ian Hamilton Finlay and the Little Sparta Garden Trust). In addition to routine

gardening work, he thinned the crowns of woodland trees to let the light

through to the ground flora, excavated the middle pool which had filled with

silt, installed new sculptural works and re-opened the garden to the public

under the ‘Scotland’s Gardens Scheme’ in 1991.

He studied law at the University of Strathclyde, and from 1991 to 2021 he

worked on the contract management of garden, landscape and environmental

projects in the heritage sector. In his spare time, he shared his legal

knowledge with conservation groups and amenity societies. For instance, in

2009 he applied Section 11A of the National Parks and Access to the

Countryside Act 1949 to prevent the demolition of ‘Brockhole’, the Edwardian

country house at Windermere which serves as the visitor centre for the Lake

District National Park.   

In 1988 he published an article in Country Life magazine on Harold Peto’s

work in France (‘Renaissance d’Azur’, July 7, 1988), and since then he has

published numerous articles on Harold Peto and his contemporaries in various

journals, most recently ‘Maesruddud Transformed 1900-1914’, The

Monmouthshire Antiquary, 2018), about Thomas Mawson. He has shared his

knowledge of Peto with numerous authors including Brent Elliot (The Victorian

Garden, 1986); Ernest Boursier-Mougenot (Jardins de la Côte d’Azur, 1987),

David Ottewill (The Edwardian Garden, 1989), and many others including

most recently Julian Orbach (Buildings of England: Wiltshire 2021). 

Graeme Moore BA(Hons) LLM, is a former member of the council of the

Institute of Horticulture, and a current member of the Association for Art

History, and the Cumbria Gardens Trust. He lives and gardens at Argoed,

near Blackwood in Gwent.