This residential short course will be led by Dr. Paul Stamper at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Upperville, Virginia.
Overview: Until the early twentieth century England’s countryside was shaped in large part by the great estates ranged around country houses. This course, which will be highly visual and will include examination of material relating to English landscapes in the library of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, will take the great estates as a point of departure for a wider exploration of England’s historic landscapes and buildings over a thousand years, including how the working countryside - fields, woods, meadows, and commons - was laid out and exploited. The course will examine the country houses themselves, and especially their parklands and designed landscapes. The farmhouses and villages through which the land was worked will also be considered, along with how their architecture reflects the country’s many and varied regions.
Throughout, the evidence of contemporary writers and artists will be used to reflect on how they saw their surroundings.
Eligibility: This field course is ideally suited to professionals and others with an interest landscape architecture and design. Landscape architects, landscape designers, land managers and other professionals, as well as artists, historians, educators, students and garden enthusiasts are welcome to apply. This course will be limited to 12 participants.
About OSGF: The Oak Spring Garden Foundation (OSGF) is a philanthropic foundation based at the former primary estate of the late Paul and Rachel Mellon, who were major philanthropists in the U.S. of the arts, humanities, and sciences in the second half of the twentieth century. OSGF is located in the northern Virginia Piedmont and Blue Ridge Mountains region (ca. one-hour drive from Washington, D.C.). Led by Sir Peter Crane, the Foundation’s inaugural President, OSGF supports residencies for artists and scholars. It is becoming a new center of excellence and stimulation of all things botanical, from fundamental research in plant evolution and conservation, to horticultural and plant conservation practice, to the history and art of plants gardens and landscapes.
Instructor: Dr. Paul Stamper has been employed in researching and managing England’s historic landscapes and buildings since 1981. For 20 years he was with English Heritage, the UK heritage service, and for the last five years he has been a freelance consultant working with the owners of UK historic landscapes and buildings, especially historic parks and gardens. He has published extensively on the history of the English landscape and is a Visiting Fellow at Leicester University’s Centre for English Local History. He has taught regularly on the English landscape at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Leicester and Bristol. Dr. Stamper was joint editor of the standard overview Medieval Rural Settlement (2012), and of the award-winning Legacies of the First World War (2018) in which he wrote on the impact of the war on the English countryside. Dr. Stamper lives in Northamptonshire, in the English midlands, a county which popular guidebooks call ‘the county of squires and spires’, reflecting its many fine medieval churches and great estates and country houses.
Dates and Duration: The course runs for four (4) days beginning 9:00 am Monday, June 24, 2024 and ending by 12:00pm on Friday, June 28, 2024. Participants are responsible for arranging their own travel to the Washington, D.C. area. If flying, please book flights to Dulles International Airport. Closer to the start date, our Programs team will assist with coordinating travel arrangements to the Oak Spring Garden Foundation site, as necessary.
Course Fee: $850 (includes course content and all meals and accommodations). Four (4) partial scholarships of $250 may be awarded.
Selection Process: Application review will be done by Paul Stamper and OSGF staff.
Application Deadline: March 29th, 2024.