Elisabeth Whittle | |
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![]() The recreated Tudor garden at Tretower Court designed by Whittle | |
Education | Master of Arts |
Occupations | |
Years active | 1993–present |
Known for | Garden historian |
Notable work | Book: Historic Gardens of Wales: An Introduction to Parks and Gardens in the History of Wales |
Elisabeth Whittle is a garden historian from Wales. A former president of the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust and a trustee of the National Botanic Garden of Wales, her published works include studies of the historic gardens of Wales and of the history of Glamorgan and Gwent. She is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
For twenty-one years Whittle worked for Cadw, the Welsh historic environment agency as their Inspector of Historic Parks, Gardens and Landscapes. She retired in 2014. [1] [2] She is a former president of the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust and is a trustee of the National Botanic Garden of Wales. [1] Whittle, the holder of a Master of Arts degree and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, [3] lived in Usk, Monmouthshire for many years, [2] but moved to Wilburton, Cambridgeshire in 2019. [4] Following her relocation, Whittle took on the chair of the Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust. [5]
Whittle was a member of the Garden History Society from the early 1980s and between 1989 and 1997 co-edited, with Jane Crawley, their journal Garden History. [6] [7] She has a particular interest in Tudor and Stuart gardens. [8] In 1991 she re-created the 15th-century garden of Sir Roger Vaughan at Tretower Court in Powys, Wales. [9] She also discovered evidence of the 17th-century appearance of the gardens at Raglan Castle, now destroyed, which has been published in the Cadw guidebook. [10]
In 1994 Whittle led work on the compilation of the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales to assist owners, developers and planners to manage the country's landscape heritage. [11] She became a trustee of the Hobson's Conduit Trust in 2018 and vice-chair in 2020. [12] John Newman, author of the Gwent/Monmouthshire volume in the Pevsner Buildings of Wales series, recorded his debt to Whittle in the foreword to his work. [13]