Samuel the spaniel visits Woolbeding Gardens

Hi all, it’s me again. Today I’ve been out to visit the beautiful gardens at Woolbeding! I loved running around the grounds, and my new friend Pete took his camera out to get a few snaps of me enjoying the views! Pete has just joined the team and will be helping me to get some fun trails and activities out in the Park and Pleasure Grounds. And more trails to set up mean more walkies for me!

I loved walking around everywhere, but here were my favourite spots!

1) The waterfall
Although I love swimming I decided to give it a miss today, looked a bit cold. Best to admire from a distance.

2) The stream
Me and Pete had a really fun game of pooh sticks on this little crossing, he tried hard but my stick won!

3) Picnic bench
If you're like me you'll love eating outdoors.

4) Ruined abbey
The shell of this ruined abbey makes a fantastic place for hide and seek!

I hope you'll come and visit them during half-term! Woolbeding Gardens are open Thursdays and Fridays until 27 September. Booking for all visits is essential on 01730 811960, find out more on their website - here
 

Speaking of half-term, have you heard about Petworth Puppet Theatre on Tuesday 28 and Wednesday 29 May at Petworth House. Let me know if you're coming - book a place by clicking here. We'll help you make your very own puppet, then if you want you can put on a little show at the end. I can't wait!

A new team member

Hi all, Samuel here. I’ve been given the very important task of introducing the newest member of the Petworth team… meet Bella the cocker spaniel!

Bella is just 10 weeks old and will be living onsite with our Visitor Experience Manager and hopefully spending lots of time in the office with us.

I’ve been trying to show her the ropes, but so far her attention span is rather short. Bella's favourite activities involve exploring the offices and chewing cardboard boxes, shoes and anything else she can find, including torches and bags as you can see below.

Maybe when she’s a bit older I’ll teach her how to blog too! Right, I’m off to try out some ‘50 things to do before you’re 11¾’ I think I'm older than that in dog years, but definitely not in human years. Check out the Petworth website to find out more.

 

Geophysics in Petworth Park

If you went out into Petworth Park over the Easter Holidays, you might have seen a lot of red and yellow canes across the lawn in front of the House, and lots of people walking up and down between them.  This is because over the weekend of 6th and 7th April, the National Trust teamed up with Worthing Archaeological Society, Chichester & District Archaeology Society and Liss Archaeological Group to undertake geophysical survey as part of the Petworth Park Archaeology Project.

Geophysical survey is used to identify archaeological features and deposits preserved below the ground – we used the ‘Resistivity’ survey technique, which measures the electrical resistance of the ground using metal probes. The survey area is divided into 20-metre grids (that’s what the canes were for) and investigated by taking a reading every metre to build up a map of the measurements.  Archaeological features – like a wall or a ditch – will have a different resistance reading to the natural geology, allowing us to draw them out from their surroundings.

We looked at four archaeological sites on the West Lawn – the site of the medieval ‘lost’ North Wing of Petworth House, the 17th century 9th Earl’s stables and the 18th century 6th Duke’s stables that followed, and an area that was houses and fields - part of Petworth town – until they were cleared to increase the size of the Park (and improve the view!). We gathered a lot of information about all of the sites, proving that there are substantial remains buried beneath the ground, but some of the most impressive results came from the area of the 6th Duke’s stables, near the Upper Pond.

Geophysical survey of the 6th Duke’s Stables at Petworth (top) with interpretation overlain (bottom)

You can clearly make out the outline of the building (shown in blue), and even the individual stalls for the horses. It looks like the entrance to the stables was in the bottom right of the picture, possibly through an archway or gatehouse.  In the central courtyard was a large circular and rectangular feature (shown in red), possibly an ornamental water feature and a trough – the drains for this can be seen coming into the courtyard from the top-left of the picture.

A big thank you goes to all the volunteers from the societies who worked so hard to make the weekend a success.  If you want to find out more about how to get involved with your local archaeology society you can use the contact details below:

Worthing Archaeological Society (WAS):
Website - http://www.worthingarch.co.uk/
Email - contact@worthingarch.co.uk

Chichester & District Archaeology Society (CDAS):
Website - www.cdas.info
Email - davidr@cdas.info  

Liss Archaeological Group (LAG):
Website - http://www.lissarchaeologicalgroup.org.uk/

Why I volunteer...

Hello, I’m Vicky and I started volunteering last month at Petworth House helping Zoe the Marketing & Media Co-ordinator.  I’m really enjoying my time here meeting lots of friendly people and learning a range of new skills. The team have looked after me and so far I’ve had an induction and also been on volunteers training where I was given an overview of the house, learning all about its history and splendour. I can’t recommend volunteering enough, if you have the time it’s a great way to get involved, improve your CV or just give something back to a charity.  It’s a lovely feeling that I’m helping our heritage.  

Not only do I feel I’m helping a charity, I’ve been involved in loads of fun things from the team meeting, creating posters, writing a blog and helping find free advertising. I really look forward to that one day a week I’m part of the team here at Petworth.  Every time I leave the office I’m always trying to think of new ideas to entice more visitors.

You can be involved in inspiring visitors too, by helping them to discover more about Petworth House in an interesting and enjoyable way.  Whether you get in to a costume from Petworth’s past and bring a character back to life or you assist in the new second hand book shop there is always something exciting to be involved with as a volunteer.

Volunteer interpreters having fun in the Historic Kitchens.

There are many opportunities to match your personality and  fill your day.  Whether you lead visitors on a journey of discovery and adventure through the landscape as a pathfinder or help run workshops and family events as a volunteer learning assistant.  You could even learn about Petworth’s history as one of our tour guides or help with the fundraising for restoration projects.  Any idea big or small I feel is always valued here at Petworth, I’m finding it a fun and exciting learning experience and you too can also be part of something rewarding.  For more information email susan.rhodes@nationaltrust.org.uk.

Richard and Barbara James have been volunteering at Petworth for nearly five years.

A snapshot of the past

After a long winter the signs of Spring are starting to show, the days are getting lighter, the flowers are starting to blossom and even more exciting it’s the first Friday we have ever been open. This means we’re now open seven days a week (the house is closed on a Thursday and Friday) come and visit us for an unforgettable experience and join one of our snapshot tours.

These exclusive new tours, only available on a Thursday or Friday offer the opportunity to see different areas of the Petworth estate; some not normally open to visitors. You could find yourself climbing the staircase to venture into the rarely seen attic rooms, last used as servants’ bedrooms or exploring the history of the Pleasure Grounds (you may even spot Samuel the spaniel taking a stroll in the park!). Our dedicated team of volunteers will take you on a journey of discovery.

All tours are 45 minutes long and are allocated on a first come first served basis. Tickets for afternoon tours will be released at 1pm.  Tickets cost only £5 per person and you can even see the Pleasure Grounds, Shop and Restaurant for free! Tours are free for National Trust members.

Whether you would like to muck around in the stables, see scrumptious delights in our Historic Kitchens or visit one of Turner’s masterpieces, there is a tour for everyone. Find out more on our website.

Core Principles : A Geoarchaeological Survey in Petworth Park

To many visitors, Petworth Park can appear - at first glance - to be a ‘natural’ landscape.  This was, of course, the impression which Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, and the English Landscape Garden tradition in general, wished to portray.  Brown’s changes to Petworth were on a grand scale, sweeping away the formal gardens of the early 18th century to replace them with vast expanses of lawn, gently sloping hills and serpentine bodies of water. The accounts relating to Brown’s association with the park (held in the Petworth House Archives) between 1752-1763 are littered with references to this landscaping; “lowering the land in front of the House”, “Infilling the stone pits near the Ice House”, “lowering the hill where the stone was dug”, or simply “levelling in the park”.  The 3rd Earl of Egremont continued this tradition, and in 1795-96 spent around £4000 (the equivalent of around £250,000 today ) on further levelling of the lawn in front of the House, moving over 65,000 cubic metres – the volume of 26 Olympic swimming pools.

All of this work has implications for the archaeology within the park and how we can interpret it – what did the landscape look like before; how was the landscaping undertaken; what has been removed during the levelling; where was the material moved to; and what might have been sealed beneath the moved material?  Looking at the landscape now, it is difficult to tell what is man-made and what is not.  To help us investigate some of these issues, geoarchaeologists (archaeologists who are interested in soils and sediments) from Wessex Archaeology recently came to Petworth to help us undertake geoarchaeological survey.

  Geoarchaeological Survey – ‘Window Sampling’ in progress

Window sampling 'cores'

This involved a technique known as “Window Sampling” so-called because the clear tubes containing the soil from the borehole give us a window into the soil profile.  By looking at the changes in the type of soil, the colour and texture, and any inclusions (like bits of brick, or charcoal) we can start to interpret how the landscape has been formed, and used.

The survey showed the complexity of the changes to the landscape, particularly in front of the house, and it also gave us information about how the landscaping was done - we might expect to find a rich organic layer in the soil profile, representing the buried turf underneath redeposited material, but at Petworth the turf and subsoil appear to have been removed and later replaced on top of the levelled ground to give an instant finished look.

Petworth volunteers were able to get hands-on with some hand-augering as well - a manual method of sampling the soil which can be pretty tiring! Looking at areas of potential buried archaeology, we came up trumps with evidence for parts of the old formal gardens, post-medieval settlement at Tillington and a possible ancient droveway.  We’ll be focussing on these, and a range of other features, in our forthcoming geophysical surveys over the Spring.

Petworth Archaeology Project Volunteers undertaking hand-augering

Recording the results

Footprints in the snow

Hi all, Samuel the spaniel here. 

I was a bit surprised to see the return of all that snow yesterday, I don't know about you but I was rather looking forward to spring... walkies always seem to get longer when it gets warmer!

Anyway one good thing is that it gives me an excuse to share one of my favourite games with you - animal tracking! And it's so much easier in the snow, especially if you're not blessed with my excellent sense of smell.

So here's a few footprints in the snow... can you guess which animals they belong to?

I'll reveal the answers in my next blog post. Happy tracking.