Library
The Garden Library
I am building a Garden Library. This is additional to my main library in the house which now comprises several thousand items.
I have always loved books and started collecting them when I was a child, spending my pocket money in second-hand bookshops and brica-brac shops in Stroud, inspired and guided by my Uncle Terry who engendered in me a love of learning and a passion for books and for history.
The Garden Library is also for the benefit of the students and volunteers of The Trust. The books are in the Summerhouse which affords a place of study, rest, calm, and shade.
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Library Study Room
The Garden Library is located in the large summer house on the other side of the pond and beach. This is used as a reference place and tutorial base to help our students and volunteers. It is fully equipped with a desk, lighting, chairs etc and is about14ft. x 10ft.
PurposeThe purpose of the collection is to provide specific reference tools for teaching and horticulture in general as well as wildlife audits and study. It also enables investigation for various projects and community activities. Another use of the library is to enhance understanding of the heritage and traditions of gardening, landscape, design, conservation etc. (this, of course, includes the work of the great gardeners, landscapers, designers, botanists etc of the past).
The scientific and social aspects of horticulture is not ignored for there are sections on the social history of gardens and landscape. And also such matters as ecology, conservation, botany, ornithology, soil science, arboriculture, etc.
In the area of culture and art there is a collection of books dealing with how artists, poets, and writers have responded to the landscape and the idyll of the garden and nature.
Access & Use: Access to the Garden Library and Study room is restricted to our Trustees, Council of Advisers, Society of Friends, Volunteers, and Students. It is a reference library and no books are loaned out.
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Library Sections
The GARDEN LIBRARY comprises related categories (all within the broad themes of gardening/landscape/nature/ heritage etc) which are:
1. Great gardeners.
2. Great gardens.
3. History of the English landscape.
4. Landscape design.
5. English country houses & parks.
6. Garden wildlife.
7. Botany.
8. Propagation.
9. Greenhouse gardening.
10. Garden design & decor.
11. Architecture.
12. Trees & Shrubs.
13. Encyclopedias.
14. Butterflies & moths.
15. Amphibians.
16. Birds.
17. Insects & Bees.
18. Water gardening/ponds.
19. Garden d.i.y. & crafts.
20. Wild plants/flowers.
21. Dartmoor.
22. County gardens.
23. Herbs.
24. Rural social history.
25. Wayfinding.
26. The English village.
27. Mammals.
28. County Landscapes.
29. Photography.
30. Astronomy.
31. British Wildlife.
32. British landscape painters.
33. Literature and the landscape
34. Art and the landscape
35. Archaeology & Landscape.
36. Rivers and Landscape.
37. Woods & Landscape
38. Town/urban Gardens.
39. Sacred Landscape.
40. Gardens & spirituality
41. Garden Lore/legends/myth
42. Ecology.
43. Environment.
43. Geology/soil/geography.
New sections and subjects will be added. So far the garden faculty of The Library comprises several hundred items. It is of course always growing.
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Conditions of Use
The Trust Library is not open to the public. Access is by prior written appointments for individual scholars only.
1. The library is free for students of Derry Hill & Studley villages. Others are asked to male a donation.
2. It is not a lending library but a reference library.
3. No eating or drinking in the library. Food & drink may be consumed on the patio or verandah.
4. No talking or music etc.
5. No photography.
6. No phones or bags can be taken into the library.
7. Study/access is by prior written appointment.
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Donations
Donations to the Library are always welcome. Books you no longer need for example. Or perhaps you have noticed a gap in the range of subjects covered and would like to start a department.
Publishers are also welcome to send review copies.
For anyone wishing to fund a sizeable batch of books (for example a new category) then your name will appear here as the Sponsor.
Please contact:
stephencox.gardentrust@gmail.com
(NB: Only enquiries directly about the work of the Trust are accepted)
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STEPHEN COX GARDEN TRUST
is a Registered Charity (number: 1174239) in England & Wales
PURPOSE: To advance education in horticulture, conservation, wildlife, and heritage by providing study courses, training placements, talks, and workshops and other means for the enrichment of society and improvement of human well being in general based upon the Founder's garden, library, writings, teaching, and philosophy. Including skill enhancement for the young unemployed or those facing learning difficulties or other barriers to employment or self-advancement.
stephencox.gardentrust@gmail.com
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