Meeting 24th September 2019

Talk by Timothy Walker

History of Harcourt Arboretum

Many people enjoyed an earlier entertaining talk to the Society by Timothy Walker, when he spoke about the history of the Oxford University Botanic Gardens where he was Director for many years.

Harcourt Arboretum, founded in 1835 at Nuneham Courtenay, was annexed to the Botanic Gardens in 1964.  Timothy Walker’s talk will look at the hostory of the site and will include a walk in pictures around the 130 acre Arboretum which is open to the public.

Venue: Sutton Courtenay Village Hall

Tuesday 24th September 2019 7.30 pm

Free for SCLHS members; visitors £3.00

About the speaker

Timothy Walker was born and brought up in South Buckinghamshire and went to school in Abingdon.  He read Botany at University College Oxford and, upon graduation, worked for two years as a trainee at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden.   In 1995 he was awarded a Master of Horticulture by the Royal Horticultural Society of London.

From January 1986 to July 2014 he worked at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden & Harcourt Arboretum, firstly as General Foreman, then as Horti Praefectus (from 1988) and finally as Director (from 2002).   

Since 1986 he has been giving lectures to gardening clubs, horticultural societies, WIs, and many other types of group.  He has given more than 1,500 talks in Britain, Ireland, North America, and Australia to more than 100,000 people in audiences ranging from 20 to 350.  He has also presented a series on BBC TV.

Since 1992 he has been a research lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences Oxford, lecturing to all three years of the Biological Sciences course. Some of these lectures are the basis of his public lectures.  

SInce 2014 he has been a stipendiary lecturer in Plant Sciences at Somerville College Oxford.  

He has previously given a talk to the Society about The Oxford Botanic Gardens: the first 393 years.

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