Historic Walled Garden Welcomes Visitors. Wiltshire’s Grade II-listed Bothy Gardens has launched its 2025 corporate season in style. They welcomed The National Trust, Europe’s largest conservation charity, for a day of training and team building inside its historic walled garden.
Owners Jules Gilleland and Mark Wheeler have poured their energy and imagination into reviving this once-forgotten Georgian walled garden. This horticultural heaven lies on the edge of the Burderop estate, at Chiseldon near Swindon.
Since taking it on in 2021, they’ve transformed the site into a living laboratory of creativity, conservation, and curiosity. There’s:
a restored Victorian greenhouse
rare plant nurseries
a garden library
and the historic Efford sand bed system, an ingenious Victorian irrigation method. In it, layers of sand and gravel allow water to rise evenly through the soil by capillary action. That keeps the beds moist and productive without overwatering.
Historic Walled Garden Welcomes Visitors – Mark Wheeler taking gardeners from The National Trust around Bothy Gardens recently.
Making use of a special space
Using this unique space, the training day with the National Trust combined workshops and garden tours, with sessions on climate resilience, soil regeneration, conservation and horticultural successes.
Among the speakers was Sheila Das, Head of Gardens and Parks, alongside other National Trust specialists. In the afternoon, Mark led a tour of the garden, showing how history and innovation combine at this unique site.
‘Hosting the National Trust felt like the perfect way to start our season,’ said Jules. “For us, it’s about more than growing plants, it’s about growing ideas, skills, and connections.’
They hosted the day in Thomas’ Tunnel. That’s a new 25m polytunnel within the walled garden named in honour of Mark’s father. Once, this walled garden relied on coal-fired furnaces and bothy boys. They slept beside them to keep peaches and pineapples warm. Today, the garden is again a hive of activity, this time buzzing with conservation, collaboration, and creativity.
Historic walled gardens can be up to 5°c warmer than the surrounding environment. Thus they create microclimates. In such environments, Victorians cultivated exotic fruits such as figs, apricots, and even pineapples, right here in Wiltshire.
Bothy Gardens is a passion and vocation for me and Jules. To see the beautiful gardens used for so many different events is astounding. Whether we host a volunteer day, a community open day or a corporate event, seeing the place come to life is exhilarating. It feels like we’re honouring the history of the space,’ concluded Mark.
With a 60-person classroom now in planning, Bothy Gardens’ Living Lab programme is open for bookings. Thus offering businesses the chance to connect with nature, history, and each other in one of Wiltshire’s most unusual event spaces.
Technology Business Supporting Best Mates. Calne-based Black Nova Designs, a well-known provider of web design, hosting, and IT, uses their birthday celebration to forefront mental health charity, Best Mates.
In a recent interview, Black Nova Designs’ founder, Kyle Holmes opened up his own mental health struggles. And about what lay behind the decision to raise money for Swindon-based charity Best Mates, at their 10th birthday bash.
Best Mates is a mental health and community charity. It supports people when they’re in a crisis through practical support and by providing a ‘mate’ for them to talk to. And all in confidence.
In a recent interview between Black Nova Designs and Best Mates, Kyle Holmes shared the effect of mental health on men.
‘Throughout the first twenty-three years of my life I didn’t have anyone to turn to. Someone who, when I was in trouble, would support me or just take me on a walk. That’s the great thing that Best Mates does. They provide that voice for people. A voice that listens.’
‘A lot of people don’t know where to turn to – I didn’t. If our birthday bash can give people a place to go and we can raise money for a charity that can literally save someone’s life, I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate it.’
Technology Business Supporting Best Mates – Kyle of Black Nova and Jeff from Best Mates
Supporting Best Mates
Black Nova Designs’ birthday event will support Best Mates with a raffle and fundraising effort. They’re encouraging guests to donate as much as they can for the charity’s life-saving work.
Jeff Tucker, co-founder of Best Mates, said:
‘We want to hold people’s hands, and we want to make a difference. Through what Black Nova Designs are doing for us; we can focus on helping people in their dark times. We can’t thank them enough for using their birthday bash to platform Best Mates.’
The event is ‘dress to impress’ themed. It’s an evening of celebration, networking, and entertainment while raising much needed funds and awareness of mental health support.
With tickets starting at £75 each, attendees are guaranteed an evening of celebration and joy all whilst saving lives with Best Mates. Booking ends on September 30. To book, visit: https://events.blacknovadesigns.co.uk/
I don’t use Twitter (it’s still Twitter to me) much these days – it’s all rather grim. But there’s a couple of local folk I follow on there so I pop on from time to time to engage with them. In a recent chat with them, the topic of Swindon in 50 Artists arose. I posited that, were one to write such a thing (and no I’m not), the challenge would lie not finding 50 artists, but in stopping at 50. One member of the conversation disputed that there’d be so many. So, in the space of three tweets, and off the top of my head, I came up with close to twenty-five. My point was made.
I’m not going to list all 25, fear not. But I will give you, and these are in no particular order, your starter for 10. They are:
Before I get on with talking about Cole, an observation. Over the years, Swindon art college has been a darn good breeding ground of successful artistic talent. Through its doors have passed, that I know of, Peter Waldron (Swindon-born, 1941), Ken White, Leslie Cole and Henry Orlik. I mean, one world-class artist passing through would be quite something. But four? That’s surely quite something else entirely?
Now, I can’t comment on the merits or otherwise of the current art departments. But it’s safe to say there once was a time when Swindon’s school of art had scale in its ambition. And out of that ambition came the artists mentioned here. Amongst many I daresay.
Anyway! Back to R Leslie.
Leslie Cole and his war artistry
There’s a reason for MAS naming the exhibition Leslie Cole: Recording Conflict. While other artists used the war as their subject matter, Cole (born 1910) became an official war artist. One of only thirty in the country, this is something to celebrate I feel.
From Swindon art college, Cole progressed to London’s Royal College of Art gaining a diploma in mural decoration, fabric printing and lithography before going into teaching art at Hull’s art college in 1937. Then, in 1939, came the Second World War.
With the outbreak of war, Sir Kenneth Clark, then director of Great Britain’s National Gallery, launched a scheme to get the nation’s artists involved in the war effort. The War Artist’s Advisory Committee (WAAC) resulted and started recruiting. In 1940 a willing and able Cole applied, without success, for enlistment. So, instead, he followed fellow students into the RAF, though the start of the war saw him discharged on health grounds.
Yet the RAF’s loss became the art world’s gain. Cole now made a second attempt to become a war artist. This time the examples he submitted of his figurative lithographs, reflecting both Swindon and Hull’s war situations found favour with the committee. The work he sent to them included a 1941 painting showing a team assembling a landing craft – the setting for which must have been the Swindon Works? He also painted women working on aircraft wings – most likely at a factory in the Swindon area. It’s interesting to observe that Cole’s pre-war paintings and drawings featured railway workers in Swindon – one of which is a lithograph of furnace workers in 1939.
Swindon Artist Leslie Cole – painting by Leslie Cole, manufacturing 250Ib bombs, GWR Yard, SwindonDescription of Leslie Cole painting
Recognition
With his talents now recognised, he gained acceptance as a salaried worker with the commissioned rank of Captain (honorary) in the Royal Marines. He obtained permission to record the war effort at home and the damage Britain sustained from enemy action.
In his determination to witness the events of WWII and to use his paintings to record them, Cole covered the theatres of war.
Cole’s first posting was to Malta. Here he recorded the island’s siege coming to an end. He covered too, the Allie’s invasion of Italy, fighting in Greece, the defence of Gibraltar and, following D-Day in 1944, the Normandy offensive. Later he visited Burma and Singapore.
Credited with an unflinching approach* to his subject matter, Cole became one of four official artists selected to attend the first liberation of a major Nazi concentration camp. The images he produced are explicit and chilling. He captured in every detail the hellish conditions he saw – including the deaths of those for whom the Allied liberation was a fraction too late.
A second commission with the Royal Marines command in Cairo came in 1944 followed by a transfer to the War Office.
Post war, Cole continued painting and teaching – though there’s some evidence to suggest that he struggled with his wartime experiences. A struggle that led him to drink heavily leading to a slow decline and an early death in 1976 aged only sixty-six. Yet, during the 1950s he produced some brilliant work and two paintings from that era, both showing pub scenes turned up on the Antiques Roadshow when it visited Bodnant Garden, North Wales.
*Visit the exhibition at MAS and you’ll see eyeball-searing examples of his unflinching approach.
The horrors of war and its effect on Leslie Cole
Where to find Cole’s works
The Swindon collection holds – not necessarily a comprehensive list:
Leslie Cole: A self-portrait
Mary: Young girl with a doll – one my faves is this one
Seated figure – the artist’s wife, Brenda Cole
Boy with a bird
Blind Woman
Shove half-penny
London’s Imperial War museum holds twenty-five of his works, many of them painted during his Maltese sojurn. There’s a further seventy in private collections and five are in the government art collection. Further, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich holds three and there’s one at the British Council.
The alternative history of Leslie Cole
Now we come to something that has nothing to do with Cole’s art and everything to do with salacious gossip – and who doesn’t enjoy a bit of that? It’s the somewhat surprising story of Leslie Cole’s marriage.
Some years before Cole married his bride in August 1938, she was the star witness in a sex scandal in which one Harold Davidson, the Rector of Stiffkey (apt place name), a sleepy Norfolk coastal village, stood accused of immorality. The Bishop of Norfolk accused him of liaison with prostitutes in London’s Soho – behaviour for which he was found guilty and subsequently defrocked.
Brenda Harvey – real name Barbara Price – instigated the trial by sending the Bishop a fourteen-page letter full of ‘helpful’ detail. She gave evidence for three days then quietly disappeared – to resurface as Brenda Harvey when she met and married our man Cole.
As for the transgressing rector, he came to a suitably sticky end. Sounding like a stanza from Stanley Holloway’s The Lion and Albert, the poor unfortunate suffered a fatal mauling by a lion in a Skegness fairground.
Swindon Care Show Revamped. Three entrepreneurs have come together to re-launch The Care Show (Swindon). And to take it into the future as a regular annual event to showcase the best services in social care and wellbeing.
Hannah Edwards, Kevin Griffiths and Janet Shreeve, all have their own businesses. Further they all have an interest in, and knowledge of, the confusing sector of social care.
They know too that many people will need care in their lives. And that there are many ethical providers of care and wellbeing services in Swindon, Wiltshire and the South West. But this show will also introduce other care services around general health and wellbeing. Something that’s becoming more and more popular for everyone in all walks of life.
Swindon Care Show Revamped – from left to right: Kevin Griffiths, Hannah Edwards, Janet Shreeve.
Experienced in care
Before I ran my own administration and social media company, I worked as a carer for several years,’ said Hannah Edwards, who lives in Swindon.
Working as carer means I saw the good, the bad and the ugly. For me, I loved my job. I loved working getting to know wonderful individuals who needed professional support to maintain their dignity and independence. I was proud to be a person who could help them live their best lives. Taking over this event is simply a natural step for me.’
Alongside her is Kevin Griffiths, who lives in Malmesbury, and has a background in food, hospitality and event management.
‘I’d come to a period of change in my life,’ he said. ‘This opportunity came to build something from the ground up which will make a difference to people. It will highlight the amazing care and wellbeing services that we have in the community and beyond.
For too long, too many have viewed social care and wellbeing have as second class services. When in fact they’re of the utmost importance for us all.’
The third director of The Care Show is social care expert and professional care adviser Janet Shreeve, who has worked in the sector for over twenty years. ‘To have an event which is open to relevant businesses in all aspects of care and wellbeing and also for potential clients interested in all these services and products is wonderful. I’m proud to be supporting this event and to be part of the management team,’ Janet said.
Beginnings
It, the Care Show, that is, began earlier this year. But the original founder had to step away and was looking for someone to take on the concept.
The show is free to attend though it’s asked that you register to attend.
Who is the show for?
Anyone can attend. So if you work in the care or wellbeing sectors then this is for you. But also, if you want to find out more about what’s on offer in the world of social care and wellbeing in Swindon, Wiltshire and beyond.
Art Helps Overcome Illness. Two Swindon Open Studios Exhibitors Share Their Stories.
For centuries, people have used creative pastimes as therapy when recovering from grave illness. That’s because the creative act is so absorbing that it distracts the mind. Two local artists tell stories of how they found relief from physical suffering through creativity. They are Adrian Dent and Toni Foot. Both are opening their studios to the public during the 20th and 21st September, (the first weekend only) as part of Swindon Open Studios.
Adrian and Susan Dent
Adrian and Susan run Bishopstone Pottery, venue 56 – a little east of Swindon. Back in 2005, Adrian received a diagnosis of mouth cancer, from which, at length, he recovered. But then, in 2014, he developed head and neck cancer, meaning further major surgery and radiotherapy.
Art Helps Overcome Illness – Adrian and Susan Dent
During the 2020 Covid pandemic, the isolation of lockdown led them to join Grayson Perry’s Art Club. Together they created a conceptual piece of pottery using Adrian’s radiotherapy mask. The piece features the dark despair of cancer and the isolation of Covid on one side. And the joy of recovery, hope and survival on the other. The lighter side features images of the Wiltshire countryside. It has bright colours and well-known landmarks as the future opened up again.
Unfortunately, a disastrous kiln accident meant the piece needed repair, so they used the Japanese Kintsugi technique – that repairs cracks with gold. It symbolises how it’s possible to mend something so broken and still be beautiful and precious! They submitted the piece for consideration for Grayson Perry’s Covid Art Club exhibition in Manchester, alongside work from Anthony Gormley (The Angel of the North). Adrian and Susan’s piece entitled ‘It’s not just time that heals’, beat over 10,000 entrants! With not a little irony, Grayson Perry got Covid, so they didn’t get to meet him in person at the private view! Susan says ‘Covid, like cancer, is a journey. The road to recovery can be difficult. We need the support of family, friends and the NHS within a landscape that promotes healing. After all, it’s not time alone that heals!’
Art Helps Overcome Illness – Bishopstone Pottery
Toni Foot
Abstract artist Toni Foot (Venue 54) has neurological conditions and sometimes she suffers from intense pain in her spine. One particular oil painting represents this pain, and she says ‘It feels like people’s hands are grabbing me. It’s a biological pain that moves.’ It’s not all doom and gloom though.
Toni uses the name ‘Positively Rainbows’ as her moniker and much of her work is full of vibrant colours. She also writes powerful poetry that accompanies her paintings. She says ‘I have two types of work. The first is where I ‘work stuff through’ and the other is to escape from it all.’ She adds ‘Sometimes I plan things with great care to pinpoint what I’m feeling. Other times, the emotions seem to hit the page running! When I let it go, I can trap the emotion on the page, so I don’t have to feel it so much. It’s a huge release!’
Artist Toni footWork by Artist Toni foot
Exhibitors invite visitors to join the conversation to share what art means to them as observers, while artist’s share what self-expression does for them.
As Swindon Open Studios venues are open on different days and at different times, we advise visitors to plan their route with care.
NOTE: Artists in Wanborough and the East are ONLY open the FIRST weekend: 20th and 21st September. Entry is free of charge, and many places offer refreshments.
