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The beautiful surroundings, wide range of plants and relaxed, informal classes make learning at Waterperry gardens a pleasure and an inspiration. We offer a wide range of short gardening courses and arts and crafts courses for beginners and the more experienced.

Originally designed as a teaching resource for the famous horticultural school, Waterperry gardens provides many examples of garden features both old and new. There are also working nurseries, a plant centre and orchards, all of which are used to enhance the learning experience. And the homemade produce in our excellent teashop will tempt you to treat yourself to lunch and perhaps tea as well.

All courses are available to book on-line

Advance Notice: Starting in September 2010 we hope to be able to offer a wider range of longer horticultural courses. These will include:

RHS level 2 - 22 weeks - new syllabus

RHS level 3 - 65 weeks over 2 years - new syllabus 3 units including practical

RHS level 4 Diploma - last chance to upgrade your level 3 passes before the final exam dates in February 2012, after which new syllabuses will be in operation.

City and Guilds level 2- Garden Design, Garden History and Decorative Horticulture - 36 weeks No previous experience necessary.

City and Guilds level 2- Gardening - 35 weeks evening class and Saturdays. No previous experience necessary

If you would like to register your interest in or find out more about any of these courses please e-mail Claire at cbeadon@waterperrygardens.co.uk.

Renting: Our rooms are also available for hire for corporate or private use. We can offer catering tailored to your requirements. Contact the office in the first instance on 01844 339254.

Course Tutors:

Gardening Courses

Mary Spiller M. Hort is well known in the area. She is one of the original lecturers for these gardening courses that began in 1963. Her enthusiasm and drive is infectious and her range of knowledge is wide.

Annete Pursey is an enthusiastic lecturer with experience of teaching RHS courses over a number of years. She also has an up to date working knowledge of the horticultural industry and runs her own gardening business

Jenny Woods an extremely well qualified horticulturalist who is able to communicate her knowledge to students in an easily understandable manner. She has experience of working at National Trust properties and lists garden design as one of her areas of expertise.

Steve Relton ex Waterperry manager now runs his own gardening company. He has plenty and varied experience in both teaching and horticulture. He has a passion for vegetable growing and is always interested in new innovations especially for improving organic gardening.

Ernest Bingham is a popular and dedicated lecturer with a varied career that includes working for the Parks Department throughout the UK. The majority of his teaching in horticultural topics since 1980 has been for Oxfordshire City Council.

Arts & Crafts Course Tutors

Keith Barnes is the founder of the Photographers Workshop, established in 1982 and has worked as a professional commercial photographer and teacher for 25 years. He has a passion for photography having picked up his first camera more than 40 years ago and has interests in architecture, flowers, gardens, travel and people photography.

Ella Clocksin has been a self-employed artist since 1998 and has several years experience devising and teaching adult workshops in watercolour, mixed media, and drawing. Her aim in her watercolour teaching is to demystify the subject and to encourage a looser, more contemporary, and abstract approach to this traditional medium. Ella graduated in Fine Art and is currently working on her Masters in Fine Art at Winchester School of Art.

Marc Fraser has his own pottery in North Marston, Bucks., where he produces a range of hand thrown work in stoneware and porcelain, glazed in blues, greens, turquoise, gold and red. He has extensive knowledge of making and glazing ceramics which he brings to bear on his teaching.

Clare Goodall gained her Diploma in Textile Design from Chelsea School of Art which she followed with a Postgraduate Diploma from Goldsmiths. Her interests were then directed to decorative painted finishes and into teaching following her City and Guilds qualification. Clare has experience in a range of teaching including Orthopaedic and Cancer patients and adults and children as well as pursuing her career making mosaic work for exhibitions and commission.

Kate Hole graduated with a degree in Fine Arts from Bristol, and a post-graduate art teacher's qualification from Goldsmith's College, London. She has taught Art History at secondary level and Art with Oxfordshire Adult Education for several years. She has always been a practising artist, mainly in oils and watercolour, and has exhibited regularly. Her favourite subject-matter is landscape, plants and flowers in both painting and drawing media.

Helen Lomberg has been a professional basketmaker and willow weaver for over 15 years, and her baskets are sold in Highgrove among other places. She grows her own willow and, as well as baskets and garden structures, she works on living willow commissions and sculptures.

Peter Massey graduated from the Royal College of Art, London in 1991 and worked for several years as a freelance illustrator. He is co-founder of Zantium, a creative partnership specialising in mosaic, whose activities include designing, making, teaching, and managing group projects. Varied commissions range from decorative panels and furnishings to architectural works such as shop interiors and pavements. Zantium's distinctive mosaics are featured in several publications including their own book 'A Beginners Guide to Mosaic' (Search Press.)

Paul Merry has been involved with craft baking for over thirty years, and in teaching for fifteen. He has run his own bakery in Melbourne using wood-fired ovens and has worked with Andrew Whitley at the Village Bakery in Cumbria as well as being associated with a number of well-known restaurants and bakeries in a consultancy role. He is one of a select number of teachers dedicated to the aim of preserving the finest breadmaking methods.

Zoe Preston is an established watercolour artist who, having initially trained in sculpture, subsequently found her natural medium in the field of painting. She is known for her flowing representational forms observed from nature.

Linda Proud has published nine books, including Consider England, Knights of the Grail and the award-winning novel, A Tabernacle for the Sun. For many years she has tutored creative writing for American students at Oxford University. She also works as an editor for a leading literary consultancy, helping aspiring authors to improve their chances of publication.

Lilian Shaw trained originally as a painter working in oils and pastels. Her passion for light and colour led her to pursue a career as a stained glass artist. She founded her own studio in 1986. Lilian has many varied commissions to her name both in the UK and abroad. These include pieces for private clients, churches and the National Trust. Lilian is an experienced and enthusiastic tutor.

Sally Spencer has been designing & making jewellery since 1995 and in 2004 became intrigued with Precious Metal Clay to which she now devotes much of her time, exploring its many possibilities. Sally is a qualified Precious Metal Clay instructor & guild member, a member of The Jewellery and Silver Society Oxford, The Oxfordshire Craft Guild & ACID (Anti Copying In Design).

Anna Steven is a qualified National Judge and Area Demonstrator with NAFAS (National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies) and has been successful in flower arranging competitions both locally and at National level gaining a first at the Nationals in Edinburgh, Silver medal at Malvern, Bronze medal at Chelsea for her club and Gold medals at Chelsea Flower Show 2000 and 2003 and a silver in 2005. She has been teaching community education courses for approx. 20 years and City & Guilds classes for around 10 years.

Sara Withers has been designing and making jewellery for several years. Her work concentrates on the use of beads - self-made, commissioned from glassworkers, or sourced from interesting suppliers. She has exhibited widely and her work is sold in a selection of shops and galleries throughout Britain.

Sara is the author of six and a half books of bead jewellery projects, the most recent being 'The Encyclopedia of Beading Techniques' co-authored with Stephanie Burnham and, a new departure, 'Button Jewellery'.

Rosalind Wyatt initially studied in Western Calligraphy. She has a life-long fascination with text, words and handwriting. In 2003, following a postgraduate course at the Royal College of Art studying mixed media textiles, she discovered 'writing with a needle'. This resulted in a seried of 'Hand-stitched Letters'. Since then, this aspect of her work has evolved, notably with her latest body of work entitled 'The Stitch Lives of Others Parts 1-3' at the John Martin Gallery. She has also been a regular demonstrator at Art in Action.

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