2024 will mark 40 years since the creation of The Friends of The Savill Garden in 1984.
Looking back on the last 40 years, much has changed, but some things, for good or ill, have hardly changed. Here we look back on what sort of a year 1984 was.
- The average house price was £37,182
- A gallon of petrol cost £1.83
- The average salary was £10,100 per annum
- The Bank of England’s interest rate at the end of the year was 9.50%
- The yearly inflation rate was 5%
Notable events in the UK include:
- A year-long miner’s strike began in March
- Prince Harry was born on 15 September
- The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale and Sony and Philips introduce the first commercial CD Players
- The bombing of the Grand Hotel Brighton on 12 October
- Top pop musicians gathered in a Notting Hill studio to form Band Aid and record the song ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’
In autumn 1984, The Friends of The Savill Garden was founded by John Bond, the then Keeper of the Gardens. The friends have fulfilled their role in the Gardens ever since.
In the constitution of the Friends, it states that the aims of the Friends are:
‘To create and sustain an enjoyable social group for those who have an appreciation for all gardens and especially The Garden. When possible, through various activities and projects, to generate funds to support the Keeper of the Gardens to continue to enhance the Garden.’
It is good to know that as we approach our 40th birthday, we are still keeping to those aims. With our monthly coffee mornings and talks, visits and walks throughout the year, we help to raise funds, which we put back into the Garden in various ways. These funds also come from the garden tours, given by our volunteer Friends Guides, for which we are all very grateful.
Over the years the Friends have provided a number of items for the Garden, including:
- The stone benches in the Rose Garden
- Seats in the Jubilee Garden
- Charybdis, the water feature in The Queen Elizabeth Temperate House
- The cherry tree avenue along with the bulb planting beneath it
- Exchange visits for some of the garden team, as well as John Anderson’s recent visit to India.
The 30th anniversary of the Friends was celebrated on 1 April 2015, with a welcome drink and finger buffet at the York Club, followed by a keynote talk from Lyn Randall, a former Supervisor of The Savill Garden.
The talk was entitled ‘A Bond of Friendship’ and celebrated all the developments in The Savill Garden over the 30 years since John Bond started the Friends.
The Friends of The Savill Garden’s 30th anniversary
