The Institute aims to develop a major role on the international stage, disseminating information about gardens and designed landscapes and facilitating the exchange of ideas between scholars, consultants and professionals in the field. This will be achieved through study days, conferences and practical courses from which will flow intellectual activity. It will also promote the development of practical horticultural skills and crafts.

The Institute is intended to be Britian's equivalent of other centres of excellence recently set up at Versailles, France and Hanover in Germany. The link between Bristol University and Hestercombe Gardens gives the institution a rare interdisciplinary and cross-cultural base where both academic and more practical elements can combine to further knowledge in the discipline.

The initial emphasis will be on academic and practical delivery to invited audiences and educational groups at both centres. With secure funding, this will broaden to include the setting up of a major reference library of garden and landscape history, which will build upon the holdings of the Garden History Society Library at Bristol. The Institute will:

	Provide a publishing arm to produce scholarly and more accessible publications deriving from courses, study days and conferences
	Provide a repository for archival collections
	Host research projects conducted with funding from major trusts and academic bodies
	Run practical courses and workshops that promote and teach horticulture and related traditional skills

Photo: The Yew Garden at Beckley Park, Oxon (by kind permission of Lady Amanda Neidpath)