Summary of the impact

Paul Elliott's interdisciplinary studies of landscape and arboricultural history have had a considerable impact upon public and professional knowledge and perceptions of historic green spaces. For fifteen years, through his academic studies, publications and community activities, Elliott has expanded the audience for landscape history through public engagement with historical research and forged close working relationships with organisations including Derby and Nottingham City councils, local museums, media organisations, the Chartered Institute of Foresters and friends groups of public parks.

This work has achieved four key impacts

1. Increased and enriched public awareness and engagement with historic green spaces and woodland
2. Increased public understanding of the relationship between place, landscape and the sciences
3. Fostered community history projects on historic green spaces and woodland
4. Informed the preservation, restoration and management of public green spaces

Underpinning research

(2.1) Elliott's research began with his PhD at Leicester in the 1990s, then as Research Fellow in the School of Geography at the University of Nottingham (2001-7) and developed more extensively as a member of the history team at the University of Derby (Lecturer, 2008-11, Reader, 2011-13, Professor, 2013-). Underpinning Elliott's research is the idea that historical analysis of place benefits from approaches from cultural and historical geography, landscape history, the history of science and urban history. Part of this work has focussed on the cultural and historical geographies of arboretums including an AHRC-funded project on arboreta in collaboration with Professor Charles Watkins and Professor Stephen Daniels at the University of Nottingham (2003-7). Elliott has explored the science and culture of nineteenth-century British arboretums, or tree collections, and demonstrated how the development of these was fostered by a variety of factors including global trade and exploration, the popularity of collecting, the significance to the British economy and society, developments in Enlightenment science, changes in landscape gardening aesthetics and agricultural and horticultural improvement. Arboretums were idealized as microcosms of nature, miniature encapsulations of the globe and as living museums. The work critically examined different kinds of arboretums in order to understand the changing practical, scientific, aesthetic and pedagogical principals that underpinned their design, display and the way in which they were viewed. Elliott's research into arboretums has also had an important international dimension and compares the development of British and Irish arboretums with those in Europe, the USA and other countries, whilst the ecological impact of tree collections and the interface between heritage, conservation, restoration and the management of tree collections was also been addressed in an international conference at the Linnaean Society in 2006 and a series of publications. These have included `The Nottingham Arboretum: natural history, education and leisure in a Victorian regional centre', Urban History 35 (2008), 48-71 and The British Arboretum: Trees, Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century (2011), the first comprehensive study to address this aspect of Victorian science and culture, most of which was written by Elliott.

(2.2) Elliott has taken the research on urban green spaces and arboretums forward in various studies. In The Derby Philosophers (2009) and Enlightenment, Modernity and Science (2010) he has explored the relationship between landscape, place and scientific culture with case studies of urban botanical gardens, Erasmus Darwin's gardens, meteorology and electricity and urban science. It is also evident in two community history projects on urban green spaces that he has helped to facilitate between 2011 and 2014. Elliott was invited by the Friends of the Nottingham Arboretum to give an anniversary lecture in the park in 2012 which inspired an application by them to the Community Heritage Project Challenge Fund in 2012. This led to the more ambitious AHRC Nottingham Green Spaces Community History project (2013-14) co-directed with Professor John Beckett of the University of Nottingham. This was a joint application between Nottingham University, Derby University, Nottingham City Council, Friends of the Nottingham Arboretum, Friends of the Forest and Nottingham Women's History group. The project was assessed by the AHRC panel as grade 5: `a proposal that is internationally excellent' in term of scholarship, originality, quality and significance which should be "funded as a matter of priority". Using a community history model, the Nottingham Green Spaces Project adopts the urban history approach utilised by Elliott in his essays on the Derby and Nottingham arboretums.

References to the research

Research Grants:
Assisted the Friends of the Nottingham Arboretum with their application to the AHRC Community Heritage Project Challenge Fund scheme in 2012 which received £500.

As Co-Investigator with Professor John Beckett of the University of Nottingham, the Friends of the Arboretum, Friends of the Forest, Nottingham Women's History Group and Nottingham City Council, `The Social World of Nottingham's Green Spaces' 2013-14 (AHRC £96,489).

Details of the impact

(4.1) Public green spaces are regularly visited by millions of people and make a major contribution to local economies and the health and happiness of urban citizens and visitors. Increased understanding of the historic importance and heritage value of these underpins their vital social and economic functions and helps to promote social and civic identities. Professor Elliott has made considerable efforts to disseminate his work on landscape history beyond academia and to engage with community groups, local government bodies and other external organisations. This work facilitates better understanding of the cultural, historical and scientific significance of green spaces and their social functions, enhances public enjoyment of — and engagement with — these and informs management plans and development. His studies have helped to shape the restoration, re-interpretation and management of parks and have reached a wider audience through public talks, museum exhibitions, community projects and publications. For instance, a special issue of Garden History (2007) on the cultural and historical geographies of the arboretum co-edited by Elliott has been widely distributed. 1,600 copies were sent to members of the Garden History Society, subscribers to Garden History and additional purchasers, whilst many copies were also distributed by the conference speakers internationally and through Institute of Chartered Forester's website (from 2011) and by other digital means. Elliott's research has informed the restoration and management of public parks in Derby and Nottingham and he was consultant and contributor to the BBC Radio 4 `Parkmasters' series presented by Dr. Tristram Hunt (2007, repeated). In 2010, at the invitation of BBC History Magazine, Elliott nominated the Derby Arboretum as one of the hundred most important British historical places and was interviewed for a companion volume published by BBC Books in 2011 which reported in the Derby Evening Telegraph in November 2011 and Elliott was interviewed by BBC Radio Derby at the Derby Arboretum.

(4.2) Elliott's studies on landscape history have also impacted upon the education and development of the arboricultural profession and campaigns for the conservation and management of historic tree collections. In October 2011, Elliott was invited by Institute of Chartered Foresters to lecture on `How Britain's Great Arboreta have shaped Forestry and Arboricultural Knowledge' as part of their annual National Study Tour at Kew Gardens. The ICF is the royal chartered body for forestry and arboricultural professionals in Britain which provides support to members, guidance and information to the public, as well as training and educational development for members of the profession. In 2013 Elliott was again invited by the ICF to lecture at Kew on `The History of British and Irish Estate Arboretums'. This conference was entitled `Castlewellan Arboretum: the last great garden restoration?' and highlighted the heritage and botanical importance of Castlewellan Arboretum and Annesley Garden, Co. Down, Northern Ireland, aiming to foster academic and community-supported restoration projects. The conference attracted a large audience and the proceedings (including Elliott's lecture presentation) have been widely distributed through the Barcham's Tree Company website.

(4.3) Elliott's studies of landscape and the history of science have also had a significant public impact through the work of Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, Derbyshire museums and Derby Local Studies Library. He is a member of the DVM World Heritage Site Research and Publications Committee which advises the Partnership on educational and cultural matters and publications and has overseen the establishment of an educational trust. He is also a member of DVMWHS Research Steering Group which is currently defining research priorities for academics, local history and heritage groups across the Valley and beyond. As a member of the Joseph Wright of Derby National Steering Group, Elliott has assisted the in interpretation and development of the Wright collection and the foundation of Derby Museums Trust. For the HLF-funded `Enlightenment! Derbyshire Setting the Pace in the 18<sup>th</sup> century' project, Elliott has provided support and advice to museum curators concerning the choice of scientific instruments and other objects that ought to be acquired and supplied pre-publication copies of chapters from Enlightenment, Modernity and Science book to inform the acquisition strategy. The project has also encouraged volunteering opportunities, workshops, special exhibitions, summer walks and other activities involving Elliott and Derby University students. Elliott was invited to speak at a public conversation on the impact of the British Enlightenment at a `Lunar Society Museums at Night' event at Buxton Museum, 13 May 2011 alongside Dr. Kim Sloan and Dr. Frances Carey of the British Museum and Jonathan Wallis of Derby Museums. Over 70 people attended this event, which exceeded the gallery capacity whilst over 87,000 visitors have visited Enlightenment exhibitions in the county, over 5,000 people have benefitted from related educational activities and events and there have been over 30,000 blog hits. Elliott also contributed material on `Provincial Museums and Cabinets of Curiosity' to the exhibition The Visual Poetry of 1001 Objects (January 2012-January 2014) at Derby Museums which re-discovers and reinterprets some of the reserve collections, whilst the one-day interdisciplinary conference that he co-organised at the Enterprise Centre in Derby on the East Midlands Enlightenment (June 2013) in co-ordination with Derby Museums Trust brought together members of the general public, museum, library and heritage professionals and academics, helping to forge closer links between universities, external organisations and the general public and to engage new audiences in the regional history of Enlightenment.

(4.4) Finally, the public impact of Elliott's research in this field is also evident in the AHRC-funded Nottingham Green Spaces Community History project which has reinforced engagement between academia, local government and heritage and community groups. In partnership with Professor John Beckett of Nottingham University, Nottingham City Council, the Friends of the Nottingham Arboretum, Friends of the Forest and the Nottingham Women's History group, and through the work of two research fellows, the project has encouraged greater public involvement in shaping the future development, management and uses of Nottingham green spaces and is having a significant community impact. The project has encouraged community groups and volunteers to research, identify and transcribe source materials which are being used to inform information boards, websites and an exhibition in new visitor centres at the Forest and the Arboretum. Community groups and audiences have been engaged by a variety of means including the creation of a project website, regular public meetings, public talks in the parks, the production of postcards, posters and other publicity material and the use of social networking sites. Elliott has given the annual public anniversary lecture at Nottingham Arboretum bandstand in 2012 and 2013.

Sources to corroborate the impact

1: Nottingham Green Spaces Community Project: http://exchange.nottingham.ac.uk/the-peoples-green-spaces/ and http://www.ng-spaces.org.uk Letter from Development Manager attached.

2a: Green Spaces and Arboretum Studies: `Parkmasters: John Claudius Loudon and Derby Arboretum' presented by Dr. Tristram Hunt, BBC Radio 4, first broadcast 29 January 2007 repeated 25 August 2008: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00773jh

3b: Report of the Study Tour: `Influence of Arboreta: ICF National Study Tour', The Chartered Forester (Winter, 2011), magazine of the Institute of Chartered Foresters, pp. 19-21.

4c: Copies of Institute of Chartered Foresters National Study Tour presentations by Paul Elliott in 2011 and 2013: http://www.charteredforesters.org/resources/download-library/cat_view/33-icf-events/35-national-study-tour?start=5

5d: Interview with Paul Elliott: `The Derby Arboretum', in D. Musgrove ed., 100 Places that made Britain: our Greatest Historical Landmarks Selected by Leading Historians (BBC Books, 2011).

6e: Paul Elliott, `Estate Arboretums Presentation', Castlewellan Arboretum Seminars: Glasnevin and Kew — http://www.barcham.co.uk/CastlewellanGlasnevin

7: Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site — Letter from its Director (contact below) describing the contribution and influence of Elliott's work on the project.

8: `[Derby] Arboretum Park is Celebrated in Book', Derby Evening Telegraph (2 December 2011): http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/Arboretum-Park-celebrated-book/story-14019064-detail/story.html#axzz2hmOpO7sk

9: Developing Joseph Wright of Derby as focus for city development. (see letter of corroboration) Paul Elliott, `Joseph Wright and the Derbyshire Enlightenment', history: West Midlands Magazine, issue 1, Spring 2013: http://historywm.com/editions/issue-1-spring-2013/

10: Local Studies Education: (see letter of corroboration) `When re-vamping Full Street, Why not reconstruct Erasmus Darwin's garden?', Derby Telegraph, soap box, 12 March 2012 — http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/Soapbox-Paul-Elliott-revamping-Street-reconstruct/story-15496682-detail/story.html#axzz2iFdcWAIi