Sir Andrew Burns KCMG is the guest speaker at Hestercombe's annual Bampfylde Lecture, which this year will be live streamed for the very first time.
If you're planning to visit between Monday 9th September and Friday 13th September, please be aware that there is a diversion in place to get to the main entrance. This is due to Wessex Water works taking place and closing the road along Pitchers Hill in Cheddon Fitzpaine. To see where the road closure is and the diversion, please click here. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.
This event has ended
*Please note: this event is now fully booked*
For the first time ever, Hestercombe's Bampfylde Lecture - held each year on the anniversary of the birth of former owner Coplestone Warre Bampfylde - will be live-streamed.
Join us online to watch Sir Andrew Burns, Hestercombe's outgoing Chairman of the Board of Trustees, deliver a fascinating lecture about Hestercombe's past, present and future.
Entry to this online event is now fully booked.
However, a recording will be available following the event, so if you would like to be given access to this, please email us.
The access is free, with a suggested donation to Hestercombe Gardens Trust, an independent charity. Your contribution will help ensure that the gardens can be kept open to be enjoyed by future generations.
Sir Andrew Burns KCMG chaired Hestercombe Gardens Trust from 2004 to 2020, and under his tenure of the chairmanship Hestercombe enjoyed numerous successes. These included: the restoration of Mill and Barn in 2010; the acquisition of Hestercombe House in 2013 from Somerset County Council and the subsequent opening of Hestercombe Gallery and residency by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama’s Centre for Young Musicians; and the historic acquisition of 320 acres of the former Hestercombe estate in 2018.
In addition to his chairmanship of Hestercombe Gardens Trust, an independent charity, Sir Andrew Burns KCMG has been Chair of the Bar Standards Board, the regulator of barristers in England and Wales; the Council of Royal Holloway, University of London; and the national Committee of University Chairs. He was a Governor of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and International Governor of the BBC.
A career diplomat since 1965, with early service in India, Romania and the United States, he was British Ambassador to Israel from 1992-1995, Deputy Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1995 to 1997, British Consul-General in Hong Kong and Macau from 1997-2000 and British High Commissioner to Canada from 2000-2003.
