Kate Felus

Kate Felus (born 1971) is a designed-landscape historian. She studied at the University of Warwick and the University of Bristol. Her specialist subject area is the social history of 18th-century gardens and their buildings.

From 1996 to 2001 Felus was Garden Historian at Stowe, the 18th-century landscape garden, where the National Trust is undertaking a massive restoration programme begun in 1990. Her role included being part of the Stowe Restoration Team, providing specialist research to aid with the production of a series of Conservation Plans that addressed the individual character areas within the formal gardens and wider parkland. The historic research directly influenced and guided a programme of archaeological investigations that were critical to ensuring that the restoration of each character area was accurate and appropriate.

She was a trustee of Hestercombe Gardens surrounding Hestercombe House and has also been involved with buildings conservation both at Stowe and as Project Co-ordinator for the National Trust’s first restoration of a Modernist building, the Erno Goldfinger House at 2 Willow Road, Hampstead.

Recent publications on garden conservation have discussed the landscapes of Blenheim Palace, ^[1] Dunster Castle, Croome Court and Westbury Court. ^[2] Her doctoral thesis (University of Bristol, 2009) is entitled "Beautiful objects and agreeable retreats: Uses of Garden Buildings in the designed landscape in 18th-century England".

She is the partner of British sculptor Jon Edgar. She has two sons.

References

1. authors, various (2005). HISTORIES OF GARDEN CONSERVATION. Case-studies and critical debates: The Landscape of Blenheim Palace. Three Centuries of Conservation? Colloquio internazionale sulla storia della conservazione dei giardini. Firenze: Olschki. ISBN   88-222-5430-9.
2. "Looking beyond the Boundaries: Seeing Parks and Gardens in their Wider Landscape – Understanding and Protection", in Giardini Contesto Paesaggio Sistemi Giardini e Architetture Vegetali nel Paesaggio… ed. by L. Pelessetti & L. Scazzosi, (Florence, 2005) ISBN   978-88-222-5483-2

Publications

• 'The Furniture of Erno Goldfinger at 2 Willow Road', Apollo, Vol CXLIII No. 410 (new series) (April, 1996) ISSN   0003-6536
• authors, various (2005). Consuming Passions: Dining from Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century - Eating Alfresco: The use of garden buildings for dining in the eighteenth-century English pleasure ground. UK: NPI Media Group. ISBN   978-0-7524-3445-2.
• ‘Boats and Boating in the Eighteenth Century Landscape’, Garden History, (2006) Vol 34, No. 1. ISSN   0307-1243
• Felus, Kate (2007). Danbury Park - A Guide to the Historic Landscape. UK: Essex County Council. ISBN   978-1-84194-078-6.
• Ed. Eyres, Patrick (2010). The Proceedings of 'Painshill Park and Beyond' Conference: Painshill Park - The Pioneering Restoration of an Eighteenth Century Landscape Garden. UK: New Arcadian Journal. Kate Felus - Charles Hamilton's Buildings: Speculation on the Social Use of Painshill Park pp. 41–50 ISSN   0262-558X
• Ed. Eyres, Patrick (2009). The Grenville Landscape of Wotton House: The Proceedings of the Wotton Landscape Conference October 2009. UK: New Arcadian Journal. Kate Felus - Using the Pleasure Grounds; Their social History pp. 101–111 ISSN   0262-558X

External links

• Hestercombe Gardens website
• Website giving more information on Kate Felus
• Portrait head of Kate Felus, 2003