Bolton Abbey:

Bound by high moorland, the wooded valley of the river Wharfe at Bolton Abbey has been a popular beauty spot for over two centuries. The place began to attract visitors once the Reverend William Carr opened up Bolton Woods as a landscape garden, during the 1790s, by introducing paths interspersed with seats that offer a series of surprise views. Hackfall, on the river Ure, was the notable Yorkshire precedent. The seats were named to invoke the landowning dynasties, and were placed to reveal views of natural spectacle, such as The Strid and High Strid, as well as the historical ruins that framed this stretch of river: Bolton Priory and Barden Tower. The talk will focus on the representation of the place by artists and authors. In his History of Craven (1805), Dr Whitaker hailed Bolton Abbey as a Picturesque tour de force that combined natural splendour with historical associations, as did the numerous guidebooks that followed. The artist, J.M.W. Turner, and poet, William Wordsworth, made several visits, inspired both by the place and by the financial benefits of the tourist market. Wordsworth’s poetry dramatized the history of the ruined priory and the mortal hazards of The Strid. Turner’s watercolours were engraved for poetic and topographical publications. Unbeknown to most visitors today, Bolton Abbey remains a Picturesque landscape garden.

Dr Patrick Eyres is editor and publisher of the unique New Arcadian Journal, in which artists and writers explore the landscape garden. The current, 56th, is the penultimate edition. On behalf of The Gardens Trust, he set up the annual New Research Symposium and chaired it for the first ten years.

Image: The High Strid at Bolton Abbey, ©Patrick Eyres

This event can be booked through the Gardens Trust eventbrite page.

Ticket sales close 4 hours before the first talk

Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (If you do not receive this link, please contact the Gardens Trust), and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 2 weeks.