Visit to King’s College & Corpus Christi

The visits: After our 2024 Christmas Lecture, Steve Coghill, Kings College Head Gardener, kindly offered to show us the college gardens in the summer. He has proposed 5th August for the visit, as there will be a team of heavy horses cutting the wild-flower meadow in front of King’s iconic Chapel. We meet at the Porters Lodge on King’s Parade at 11:00am.

Following a self-organised lunch (suggestions below), we re-convene at 2:30pm at the Corpus Christi carpark near Leckhampton, where Corpus Head Gardener Andy Pullin, who guided us around the plantings at the main college site in 2024, will show us the gardens at Leckhampton. There is a very useful account of the history and development of Leckhampton by John Drake and Charles Malyon in the September 2005 Newsletter, issue 19, which can be downloaded by clicking here. It will be fascinating to see the changes over the 20 years since the article.

Times: 11:00am – meet at King’s College Porter’s Lodge on Trumpington Street.
2:30pm – meet at the Corpus Christi carpark near Leckhampton (exact location to be advised).

Logistics: Andy Pullin has kindly offered to open from 10:30am the Leckhampton carpark (exact location to be advised to those who have booked), where there is space for about 10-12 cars. This may be useful for anyone willing to get to King’s on foot (about 1 mile) or by bus (U1 from Selwyn College stop or U2 from West Road stop both serve the Pembroke Street stop, and then walk to King’s). As at 21 July, we have many more bookings than space available so please consider using Madingley Park & Ride (alight at Bridge Street) or Trumpington Park and Ride (alight at Fitzwilliam Museum).

To get to Leckhampton from King’s College, it is about 1 mile on foot. Otherwise catch the U2 bus from Pembroke Street to West Road, or the U1 bus from Silver Street to Selwyn. For U1 and U2 maps, click here.

Lunch: is self-organised: we can suggest either bringing your own, or dropping into Newnham or Robinson College cafeterias, or finding food places around the Mill Pond.

Bookings: CGT and Plant Heritage Group members £10, guests £12, by BACS transfer to our new bank account in the name of Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust (sort code 30-99-50, account number 80635768) using ‘Kings’ and your name as reference; please confirm payment by email to admin. Cheques, payable to Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust, may be sent to Judith Christie, Teal Cottage, Fen Drayton CB24 4SH. Please note that the event is now fully subscribed: further bookings will go onto a waiting list in case of cancellations.

We look forward to seeing you there!