Dorset Archives Trust Summer Gala

Dorset Archives Trust invites you to their Summer Gala at Larmer Tree Gardens, Tollard Royal, by kind permission of the Rushmore estate.
Tickets include strawberries and cream and a glass of fizz.  Thursday 3 July 2025 - from 6pm (picnics weather permitting) talk at 7pm.  

Tickets £30 for members and £35 for non members (to include a glass of fizz and strawberries and cream) booking via ticketsource.

You are welcome to bring your own picnic (weather permitting) from 6 pm and enjoy a summer evening in these beautiful gardens in the outstanding landscape of Cranborne Chase. Now recognised by English Heritage as a Garden of National Importance, they were created by General Pitt Rivers in 1880 and were the first privately owned gardens to be opened for public enjoyment.

The General's third daughter, Agnes Fox-Pitt, Lady Grove (1863-1926), was a diarist and writer who supported women's suffrage. In 1895 she met the author Thomas Hardy who became her literary mentor. After her death Hardy recalled both Agnes and Larmer Tree Gardens in his poem "Concerning Agnes". Appropriately, therefore, our speaker tonight at 7 pm is Dr Ruth Burton, archivist for the Thomas Hardy project at Dorset History Centre. Cataloguing of this world-class collection has been generously supported by Dorset Archives Trust, and others. As she nears the conclusion of the project, Ruth will share her insights into the Hardy collection deposited at Dorset History Centre by Dorset Museum and Art Gallery.