Newby Hall is seeking to boost its gardening team with a new trainee, as well as enthusiastic volunteers to work alongside head gardener Lawrence Wright and his team of seven.
The 12-month placement will see the trainee involved in all aspects of maintaining and developing Newby’s award-winning gardens.
Lawrence Wright said: “The new trainee will join the team as part of the Historic and Botanic Garden Training Programme (HBGTP) which has made a significant contribution towards securing the future of the country’s historic gardens. They will have hands-on experience of a wide range of horticultural tasks in the 25-acre garden, enabling them to develop a broad set of professional skills which will make an excellent foundation for a future horticultural career.”
The HBGTP is managed by English Heritage. The scheme enables passionate individuals wanting to establish a career in horticulture to earn a salary while working alongside professional teams to learn technical knowledge and high-level practical skills at some of the best historic gardens throughout the UK. To date, the scheme has benefited more than 300 trainees, with many students going on to top jobs within the industry.
The present-day gardens at Newby Hall are largely attributed to Major Edward Compton, who inherited Newby in 1921. The current owners, his grandson, Richard Compton and his wife Lucinda, continue to drive the family’s vision of conserving and developing the garden for the future.
Newby’s gardens attract more than 100,000 visitors annually and offer a wide range of horticultural interest with mixed herbaceous planting, shrubs, historic orchards and annually planted displays. The garden has twice won the Historic Houses Association ‘Garden of the Year’ and is home to the longest double herbaceous borders in a private garden and the National Collection of Cornus, as well as a vast collection of rare and unusual plants. The historic rock garden is in the fourth year of a comprehensive five-year restoration plan.
Traineeship applications open on 1st March and close on the 23rd March.
Applications should be made directly to Placement gardens for the HBGTP
