Open Garden Squares Weekend (OGSW) is the Trust's major summer promotion in London. It takes place this year on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th June 2008 and over 170 sites are taking part.
As always, friendly, enthusiastic volunteers are urgently needed to staff the gardens. Main duties are to welcome visitors, check and sell tickets and ensure that the squares and gardens are treated with respect.
No one will have to be on duty for more than half a day and every volunteer will receive a free ticket to the whole two-day event. With a record number of gardens participating this promises to be a really good weekend.
If you or any of your friends would like to be involved, please email lynjacobs at btinternet.com or leave a message for Lyn Jacobs on 07968 538064.
Could you join the team that hosts the Trusts's Winter Lectures? We need someone to help with taking and selling tickets for the lecture season at The Museum of Garden History. Imogen Magnus, who has nobly done it for many years, now has a new timetable at work, and it's difficult for her to get to the museum in time. Since I do the drinks and look after the lecturer, and John Goodier mans the bookstall, we really do need someone else to sell tickets.
The person would need to be at the museum if possible by 6pm: the lectures start at 7pm, and officially people don't come for their glass of wine before 6.30pm, but some turn up earlier. All lectures are on a Monday, between October and April.
The person would be responsible for checking tickets for ticket-holders, selling them to those who don't have tickets and keeping a record and sending receipts to Duck Island Cottage. If you would like to fill this role you need to be able to come to most though not necessarily all of the lectures.
If anyone volunteers, I can give them the dates.
Katy Myers
katherinemyers at waitrose.com
Would you like to help London Landscapes, the Trust's award-winning newsletter, reach a wider audience? LL needs a keen volunteer to help develop the professional services element of our current circulation into a professional services directory and to expand the newsletter's reach in relevant sectors.
This is a new position working with LL editor Hazelle Jackson. You need to be computer literate with access to a PC and the internet, a good eye for detail and a good telephone manner. Work from home. Reasonable out-of-pocket expenses paid.
Interested? Contact Hazelle Jackson
hazelle.jackson at dial.pipex.com
or tel: 020-8892 9429.
Are you interested in research on historic gardens and open spaces? The London Parks & Gardens Trust is looking for volunteers to expand the information in its Inventory of Historic Green Spaces.
The Trust needs more volunteers to help with research on the sites included on its Inventory of Historic Green Spaces, which covers the whole Greater London area. Some have already been thoroughly researched, but in many cases more work is needed. For these, the volunteers undertake historic research using various sources, and make site visits to record what can be seen on the ground. No previous experience of research is required, although some knowledge of garden history is useful. Training is offered in all aspects of the work: the use of libraries, the most appropriate books, maps and archives to consult, and how to record what is on the ground. There are visits to local history libraries, national libraries and record offices, talks from experienced historians and discussions of research in progress. Assistance and advice is available from the co-ordinator.
At present there are two groups of volunteers: one in Bromley, and one in central London. Meetings are held regularly, and volunteers chose the sites they would like to research. They devote as much or as little time as they have available.
If you would interested to know more, please contact the research co-ordinator, Dr Sally Jeffery, by e-mail or telephone: sally.jeffery1 at btinternet.com or 020 8545 0282.