The former county of Avon possesses superlative historic parks, and gardens, both urban and rural, which brilliantly illustrate the history of gardening in England. From the Middle Ages onwards, fuelled by wealth emanating from the Court and the Church, and later from Bristol, garden makers in Avon have explored the full repertory of garden styles - monastery gardens; the elaborate formal creations of the Tudor period; great baroque layouts of the seventeenth century; landscape parks in the eighteenth century; fine Public parks and botanic gardens, as well as Regency Gothick, formal Victorian revivals and informal villa gardens, in the nineteenth century; and, in our own time, a continuing inventiveness that often builds on the past. Virtually all the places described in this book still exist in some state of preservation - many of them accessible to the public.

Through Avon Gardens Trust's active role in conservation, and through much historical research, the Trust has amassed a great of documentation about its historic gardens. The book provides an important and fascinating record of the historic development of these threatened sites, while urging the importance of preserving them for their intrinsic interest and beauty, and suggesting how many of them may be used for public benefit in the future. It describes the successes - and problems - of conservation, and shows how local authorities, trusts, groups and individuals can work towards this aim.