Elisabeth Whittle


Elisabeth Whittle is a garden historian from Wales. A former president of the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust and a trustee of the National [Botanic Garden of Wales], her published works include studies of the historic gardens of Wales and of the history of Glamorgan and Gwent. She is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Career

For twenty-one years Whittle worked for Cadw, the Welsh historic environment agency as their Inspector of Historic Parks, Gardens and Landscapes. She retired in 2014. She is a former president of the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust and is a trustee of the National Botanic Garden of Wales. Whittle, the holder of a Master of Arts degree and a fellow of the Society of [Antiquaries of London], lived in Usk, Monmouthshire for many years, but moved to Wilburton, Cambridgeshire in 2019. Following her relocation, Whittle took on the chair of the Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust.
Whittle was a member of the Garden History Society from the early 1980s and between 1989 and 1997 co-edited, with Jane Crawley, their journal Garden History. She has a particular interest in Tudor and Stuart gardens. In 1991 she re-created the 15th-century garden of Sir Roger Vaughan at Tretower Court in Powys, Wales. She also discovered evidence of the 17th-century appearance of the gardens at Raglan Castle, now destroyed, which has been published in the Cadw guidebook.
In 1994 Whittle led work on the compilation of the Cadw/ICOMOS [Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales] to assist owners, developers and planners to manage the country's landscape heritage. She became a trustee of the Hobson's Conduit Trust in 2018 and vice-chair in 2020. John Newman, author of the Gwent/Monmouthshire volume in the Pevsner Buildings of Wales series, recorded his debt to Whittle in the foreword to his work.

Selected works