Supporting The National Trust

The proceeds from events that we organise are used to support the National Trust. The following gives a summary of the results of our efforts at Shugborough in recent years.

2024 Donation Update

Preparations for the hedge- laying training and research into the weather station that the Centre is funding are both well under way and Lead Ranger, Greg Williamson and garden team member Lizzie Pellowe have given us this progress report.

From a Mansion Volunteer

Keith Alldritt, a member of the Staffordshire Centre and a long-time volunteer at Shugborough, has provided us with this insight into the work being done by the Shugborough teams at this time of year.

As a ‘mansion volunteer’, you realise just how quickly time passes. The ‘Summer of Fun’ for visitors (which my grandkids loved) has now been replaced with an autumn ‘Folklore’ themed search in the house (for fairies). Congratulations to the Visitors Experience, Visitors Reception, Parkland and Countryside teams for all their hard work over the summer.

The house, apartment and servant’s quarters will close in November, before reopening for the Christmas display. The Mansion Team have been ‘grime busting’, and working their way through the farmhouse ready to open up for a Christmas ‘look-in’ display.Read More

2024 Donation

Our donation of £2,500 for 2024 will cover £800 for a new weather station in the Walled Garden and £1,700 to fund hedge laying training for staff and volunteers. Read More

Shugborough Update

The Touch To See tactile guide for the mansion, donated by the Centre in 2023, has now arrived at Shugborough and the Yew garden has come on in leaps and bounds and has been renamed the Serenity Garden.

Shugborough has given us detailed uodates on the progress with these two projects – to find out what’s going on Read More

The Serenity Garden

Work on the former Yew Garden is now complete and Marc Brown, the Apprentice Gardener at Shugborough who managed this project, has given a detailed update.

The old herbaceous long border in the formal gardens was tired and no longer suitable for the challenges of climate change. It was initially called the Yew Garden but as the design came together, it has been re-named the Serenity Garden, and a garden is being created that will benefit visitors across all seasons.

The idea behind the Serenity Garden is to have a space that has dual use. In the spring and summer the garden will be awash with white flowers and luxurious green foliage, a perfect calm and cooling space to be surrounded and hugged by nature. In the Autumn and winter, when the garden will mainly be viewed from the path, a decadent display of winter colour will be on offer.

In order to achieve this, the old bed has been dug over and three new beds have been created, two around the urns and one around the Sweet Chestnut.

The benefit of these locations is that the beds will protect the urns, highlight them as a focal point and create a root protection zone around the chestnut.
In the urn beds Cornus and Camellia have been planted together with a wide variety of bulbs, including Nerine, Gladioli and Alliums, all with white flowers which will bloom in succession throughout the season.

On order but yet to arrive, are Hydrangeas, Choisyas and Vinca. The Vinca will be used as ground cover whilst also providing small white flowers from spring to early autumn. Lastly, an orange toned Willow will be planted, which will be pollarded at 1.5m every year to get a magnificent spray of golden orange stems shooting out and above the shrubs below.

The bed surrounding the Sweet Chestnut, has been planted with Cyclamen which will be added to with some single and double Snowdrops.

A small grove of Birch trees has been planted between the beds to create a relaxing space to sit in the warmer months but also as a celebration of colourful bark in the winter.

The trees have all been planted in pairs so that as they mature they will fuse together to create one multi-stemmed tree. The colours of the bark range from purple to red, and pink to creamy apricot.

To complete this show of winter colour we will also be adding an Acer griseum as specimen tree, sited just to the fore of the Birch grove.

The garden will have flowers from January until November, winter colour will come from the leaves, stems and bark, meaning that at whatever time off year the garden is viewed, there will be interest and a place to stop and appreciate the wonder of nature.

The remaining plants should be on site by early next year and the final planting completed in early spring. The beds will then be mulched with a layer of wood chip to supress weeds and to conserve moisture in the soil for summer.

Marc Brown – Apprentice Gardener, National Trust Shugborough Estate
“On a personal note, I would like to thank the Staffordshire Centre for its donation and support for this project. As an Apprentice Gardener this project has provided me with a learning opportunity like no other and I will be eternally grateful. I feel I can honestly say that because of this support you have made me a better student and ultimately a more skilled gardener. Thank you.”

Plant List: Click here to see the plant list.

50th Anniversary Donation Helps Visually Impaired Visitors

In its fiftieth year, the centre has donated £3,500 to the Shugborough estate. The bulk of the money funded the creation of a Touch To See tactile tour book and map, pictured here, of the mansion, in conjunction with the RNIB, for visitors who are blind or visually impaired.

Planting Trees and Wildflower Meadows

The benefits of planting parkland trees and the creation of a wildflower meadow will be seen for years to come, creating a bright and beautiful, wildlife friendly, part of the garden, and another wonderful legacy of the group.

Sponsoring The Shugborough Bookshop

See how an initial donation can generate significant fundraising rewards and make a big difference to conservation and restoration efforts.

Nationally, second-hand bookshops raised £1.5 million for the Trust in 2021, so we were delighted to be sponsors of the new Shugborough bookshop when it opened. This is its story – so far.

In late 2018, the old storeroom was renovated by a volunteer project team and new bookshelves installed. There were no books to sell so requests were placed on the Shugborough Facebook page. The Staffordshire Centre sent out requests to all members for book donations. Those members actually donated more than 2,000 books in the first two months!

The shop opened in March 2019 and was an instant success. In that first year the sales total was a remarkable £38,400, astonishing when the two price levels were £1.50 for a paperback and £2.50 for a hardback. This was due to the efforts of the Shugborough volunteers who ensure the bookshop is manned every day.

Lockdown
For obvious reasons 2020 was not a good year for the bookshop! Lockdown closed the shop and when it reopened towards the end of September it was only open for a matter of weeks before a second lockdown closed it again, this time until mid-April 2021.

Despite that, the sales figure for the year March 2021 to February 2022, was £37,500.

New Cabinet For Rare Books
This figure includes over £600 from sales of rare and collectable books held in a cabinet that was donated by the Centre and installed in October 2021.

David Goacher, Lead Volunteer for the bookshop, has thanked the Centre for its commitment and hopes that support continues for the future.

Shugborough’s General Manager, Hayley Mival: –
“Last year we used the money raised by the bookshop as match funding to unlock a bigger grant which together then paid for the repairs and redecoration of the Tower of the Winds.

This is a brilliant example as to how one donation (to set the bookshop up), leads to a bigger amount raised (the bookshop income), leads to a bigger grant that makes such a big difference to conservation and what we are able to achieve on the estate, keeping Shugborough special for ever. “

And Next?

This year the revenue will contribute to the restoration of the Chinese House, shown in the picture.