Enfilade

Political Gardening: Jacobites and Tories, Whigs and True Whigs, ca. 1700-1760
Wentworth Castle, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, 6-8 August 2010

The conference will explore political gardening in Britain, ca. 1700–1760, in order to identify the symbolism and meanings embedded within the country estates of Tory and Jacobite landowners. The papers will discuss whether these landscapes can be distinguished from those of Whig politicians, and whether Tories and Jacobites created an iconography of dissent from the Whig governments that managed Britain on behalf of the Hanoverian Kings George I and George II. The conference will be held at Wentworth Castle in the Palladian wing of the mansion (built 1760–65), and delegates will enjoy meals within the Baroque wing (built 1709–14). Wentworth Castle is also the home of the Northern College for Residential Adult Education which will provide delegates with catering and modern student accommodation.

The Wentworth Castle estate was created by Thomas Wentworth, first Earl of Strafford (second creation) between 1708 and 1739, and further developed by his son William, the second Earl. Although a Tory minister in Queen Anne’s government, Thomas Wentworth became a Jacobite conspirator after the accession of George I in 1714 and employed the Jacobite architect, James Gibbs, to design the interior of his new mansion. It is also likely that Gibbs designed garden buildings for Wentworth Castle. Booking information is available here»

Friday, 6 August 2010

10:00 Registration

Noon Buffet Lunch

1:20 Patrick Eyres (Wentworth Castle Heritage Trust), Restorations: 21st Century Heritage and 18th Century Anticipations

2:00 David Lambert (Parks Agency), Wentworth Castle Restored: The Heritage Lottery Fund Project and Wentworth’s reinstatement in the Heritage Canon

2:20 Tea Break

3:00 Tour of the Mansion

6:00 Tim Richardson (garden historian and landscape critic), The Tory Riposte to the Whig Ascendancy in Landscape Gardening

6:40 Aperitifs

7:00 Dinner

Saturday, 7 August 2010

8:00 Breakfast

10:00 Michael Symes (Birkbeck College, University of London), ‘Tis use alone that sanctifies expense’: The Politics of the Ferme Ornée

10:40 Carole Fry (AHC Consultants), Spanning the Political Divide: Neo-Palladianism and the 18th-Century Landscape

11:20 Coffee Break

11:50 Michael Charlesworth (University of Texas at Austin), The Need for a Past: Jacobite Strafford and National Identity

12:30 Terry Friedman (architectural historian), ‘An unbounded prospect of a very rich Country’: James Gibbs at Wentworth Castle

1:10 Lunch

2:20 Tour of the Gardens

6:00 Janine Barchas (University of Texas at Austin), A Big Name: Jane Austen and the Wentworths

6:40 Aperitifs

7:00 Conference Dinner

Sunday, 8 August 2010

8:00 Breakfast

10:00 George Sheeran (University of Bradford), Nunnington Hall Yorkshire: Living Quietly in Defeat

10:40 Susannah Fleming (The Temple Trust), Patriot Elysiums: The Shaftesburian Iconographies of Vauxhall in London and Wimborne St. Giles in Dorset (1732–51)

11:20 Coffee break

11:50 Jane Furse (Wentworth Castle Heritage Trust), The Gothic Landscaping of William Wentworth

12:30 Patrick Eyres, Conclusion/Plenary Session

1:10 Lunch

2:20 Tour of the Park

5:00 Depart