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Parkmasters - John Claudius Loudon and Derby Arboretum

September 2nd, 2008 by Russell Davies

OK. I admit it. This is partly here because of fierce East Midland pride. It’s not often Derby gets on Radio 4. So I fired up the Audio Hijack as soon as I heard there was going to be a programme about the splendid Derby Arboretum; the first municipally-owned public park in Britain. But it’s worth listening to even if you’re not from Derby: especially the stories of JC Loudon, an early advocate of public parks. He constantly dictated thoughts and articles to his amanuensis, even while waiting for his arm to be amputated. Apparently. MP3 here.

Presenter: Tristram Hunt
Producer: Erin Riley
Listen: [MP3]

This entry was posted by by russell on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 9:03 pm . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Parkmasters - John Claudius Loudon and Derby Arboretum”

  1. Steve Bowbrick Says:
    September 8th, 2008 at 10:51 pm

    And I think practically the best thing about this series is the way presenter Tristram Hunt stops passers-by in the park and asks them to read out passages from the history. Brilliant.

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