Not so Picturesque

Sherborne Broadwaters as part of a Picturesque landscape

Athena reports in Country Life this week that the National Trust has neglected the eighteenth-century Sherborne Broadwaters in Sherborne Park, Gloucestershire and allowed the Picturesque landscape to become overgrown. The estate was given to the National Trust in 1982 and restoration work was done in 1998-9.

‘Since that time, however, the proper management of Sherborne Brook has seemingly lapsed. To the annoyance of locals, the Broadwaters have effectively ceased to be treated as designed features in a Picturesque landscape. Photographs show the shocking extent of the physical change that has taken place over the past two decades, with the open water now silted up and filled with reeds. Simply expressed, they no longer appear to be ‘broad waters’, as they are named.

It’s not quite clear why the National Trust has not yet acted to improve the situation, but it has a statutory obligation to maintain an important feature of a registered historic park. No less significant, however, until it acts here it’s also failing to deliver on one of its own central boasts: to preserve places of historic interest for everyone, forever.’

Sherborne Brook today

Find out more on the Facebook page of the Sherborne Brook Support Group.