Hello, my name is Linden

Children in the historic environment are a favourite subject of mine, from researching the ways that children played in past, which I’ve done with organisations from the Royal Parks to the National Trust, to helping engage them with outdoors today, for clients from English Heritage to the Chiswick House Trust. You can read more at www.outdoorchildren.co.uk

Historic parks and gardens have been places for playtime for hundreds of years. I have a small business, HahaHopscotch, which runs Traditional Garden Games and Giggly & Greenfingered gardening activities in heritage venues and other places too. Take a look at www.hahahopscotch.co.uk

I work part-time for the Gardens Trust, the only UK national charity devoted specifically to historic designed landscapes. Over the years, my work here has ranged from conservation casework, to training and supporting volunteers, to leading audience development work, to designing research and recording projects, to heading up operations and strategy. Please visit this special organisation at www.thegardenstrust.org

Sharing the heritage love only works if people understand a little about it, so I’m passionate about good interpretation. I’ve worked on projects from introducing playful interpretation (or interpretative play!) to the 1066 Anniversary at Battle Abbey, to producing the Interpretation Plan for Brighton & Hove Museums’ ‘A Garden Fit for a King’ Stage Two NLHF funded project, to an online resource for the Land of the Fanns Landscape Partnership to provide the interpreative and educational tools for self-led school visits with Paul Tranter, to www.experiencingarcadia.org with landscape and medical historian Dr Clare Hickman which is a simple online interactive map to demonstrate how even properties with minimal budgets, skills and confidence could make better use of digital interpretation to bring alive garden history and historic garden visiting.

Communication helps the world go round and I love to lecture, write and whitter away in the media. I can lecture on topics from 200 years of playgrounds ,to ways to achieve family engagement, to a skip through playful historic gardens, to my (mis)adventures doing couch to Marathon through the UK’s loveliest historic parks and gardens.

I have written:

Playgrounds: An Affectionate History, author,  (due soon!)

The Gardens of English Heritage, co-author (Frances Lincoln, 2010) - winner of The Garden Media Guild’s Inspirational Book of the Year

Historic Parks and Gardens of Cheshire, author (Landmark Publishing, 2004) 

I have also been published in magazines such as Historic Gardens Review, The Garden, and the Landscape Institute journal.

Quite the jabber box, I have appeared on the BBC's One Show and ITV News talking about slides, South Korean TV on the UK’s historic parks, Swiss TV on the history of lawns, and spoken on Georgie Tonight, and BBC Radio Kent.

Research

Communication

Interpretation

Guidance

I like to be busy

I'm powered by passion, and my grubby fingers are in many pies

Do get in touch, I’d love to have an adventure together!