EVENTS IN 2020
Garden Visits, Study Days and lectures
Each year SGT organises a programme of garden visits, study days and lectures to help our members and their guests learn about garden heritage and enjoy the opportunity to meet likeminded people. These events can be booked individually. Details of Winter 2020 events can be found below. Details of events later in the year will be confirmed in due course.
Corona virus
Since mid-March, the impact of coronavirus has become significantly more serious and widespread. Our planned events and visits are inevitably affected, not only at the request of garden owners but, as coronavirus continues to develop, from the perspective of you, our members. We have decided, regrettably but inevitably, to cancel or postpone all our lectures and garden visits arranged for April and May. Other events later in the year will be reviewed individually as the coronavirus situation develops and bookings will only be accepted if and when it safe to do so. In the meantime, we will continue to publicise details so you can at least make a note in your diaries. We will post further news as and when we are able.
Many have already booked and paid for tickets for the fourth lecture of our winter series on 4th April. Our lecturer, Anthony Archer-Wills, was traveling from the USA and, given the US ban on travel has now been extended to the UK, he is unable to make it. We hope that it can be rescheduled. If you have already booked for this lecture, we will be contacting you separately to offer the option of a credit against future events this year or a refund.
Annual General Meeting
Our Annual General Meeting is also scheduled to take place on 4th April at 4pm at the Wesley Hall in Haywards Heath. This meeting is not being cancelled. All SGT members are entitled to attend, but we advise you to consider government policy and your own safety. Only one of the fourteen Council members will be present and it is likely that the number attending will be less than the necessary quorum (12 members). If this is the case, the Council member will record the fact and adjourn the meeting to a later date and another venue, which will be notified to all members by post in due course. When the adjourned meeting is reconvened, our constitution allows a lower quorum of those present (if necessary, a single person) allowing the formal business to be completed.
This process allows us to comply with our constitution with minimal disruption. The alternative of simply cancelling the scheduled meeting and setting a new date is problematic because that meeting might itself need to be cancelled, and so ad infinitum.
SGT WINTER LECTURES 2020
Designed Water: A history of water in garden design
A series of four lectures on water in garden design has been put together for 2020, exploring its symbolism, its evolving design, its techniques and how technological advances created new design possibilities. The subject will be approached chronologically from the Islamic water garden, through the moving and still waters of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, to the designs of the nineteenth and twentieth century, and finally to the contemporary water gardens of a leading designer. The speakers are experts in their fields, and the series will appeal to members at all levels of interest.
Dates in 2020: Saturdays 25 January, 22 February, 7 March and 4 April 2020. Time: 2pm – 4pm.
Please note that our AGM will take place immediately after the lecture on 4 April
Location: Wesley Hall, Haywards Heath Methodist Church, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath,
RH16 3DN. Free parking/5 minutes’ walk from the station.
Individual lectures can now be booked for SGT members (£15 per lecture) and non-members (£16 per lecture) .
This new booking system should be more efficient and convenient, but if you have any difficulty please contact our friendly organisers by sending an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Our team will be there at the lectures to welcome you and serve tea/coffee with home made cake.
SGT GARDEN VISITS - SPRING EARLY SUMMER 2020
The following two garden visits have been cancelled (but we hope they can be rearranged at a later date)
- High Beeches, Handcross, RH17 6HQ 10.30am Fri 17th April - cancelled
- West Sussex Borders visit to two gardens (all day) Thurs 21st May - cancelled
No decision has yet been taken on the following two garden visits. Full details of these are shown below but we are not taking bookings at this stage
- Denmans Gardens, Mon 8th June (afternoon)
- East Sussex Borders visit to two sites Wed 15th July (all day)
Event cancelled due to corona virus
Event cancelled due to corona virus
Ticket price and timing for this event will be confirmed later
Ticket price and timing for this event will be confirmed later
