SEVENOAKS and district is abundant with glorious gardens, many of them constructed and planted by our Victorian ancestors more than 100 years ago.

The old generation gave us ornamental trees, flowering shrubs, created garden walls, formal enclosures and even moats.

They left a heritage, much of which is gradually being lost due to the changing social conditions in which we live today.

There are too many examples of disappearing gardens to mention here, but one was the magnificent garden of the Royal Crown Hotel – demolished in 1936 to make way for the Majestic Cinema (now Stag Theatre).

The well-kept gardens had the added advantage of a lovely view across to the North Downs and to the Kippington Ridge.

The gardens today are submerged beneath the Odeon car park.

But historic gardens do still exist and with this in mind I learn that the Kent Gardens Trust is about to embark on a research project in collaboration with Sevenoaks District Council.

Volunteers are being recruited to help compile a chronology of 34 historic gardens

The volunteers will be trained and their work will enable the Trust to establish a methodology for the review of the Kent Compendium and to provide an example of good practice across the country.

Many of the 34 Sevenoaks and district gardens already have a place in history.

Chartwell, for example, where, during his 'wilderness years' Winston Churchill built a wall and cottage and created a lake.

Squerryes Court, Westerham, Emmetts Gardens, Ide Hill, Riverhill House and Long Barn, Weald once the home of Vita Sackville-West, are all in the registered list of historic parks and gardens and will all benefit from the review's findings.

Less known are those on the unregistered list, the majority privately owned.

Chart Cottage, Seal, Otford Court, Ringfield, Knockholt and Tanners, Brasted are among them.

They are famous gardens and it is up to the volunteers to discover when they were planted, the names of the designers and the features which make them special.

Tanners in Rectory Lane, Brasted has a garden laid out in 1928 by Harold Hillier, including rare and unusual varieties of plants.

Features include a pond, clipped yew hedges, a rose garden, a row of Scots pine and a cherry avenue.

In recent years the lower rock garden and pool have been restored.

Chart Cottage in Watery Lane, Seal is a 16th century, or earlier, timber framed cottage with a garden of equal antiquity and Ringfield is a new £3m house built on the site of an 18th century manor, once tended by a team of gardeners.

Each garden will provide an interesting challenge for the volunteers involved.

One of the most unusual is Bradbourne Lake gardens, now a public park and recreation ground managed by Sevenoaks District Council, but once part of the Bradbourne Hall estate, which was built by Leonard Bosville when he inherited the property in 1682.

Another on the Trust's unregistered list and one known, (but rarely used) by the hundreds of people who walk past, are the Upper High Street Gardens in Sevenoaks.

This tiny area of land (0.14 acre) was once a vegetable garden and then a flower garden given to Sevenoaks in 1949 by Miss Constant who lived in the Old House on the other side of the road.

In 1949 it was given to Sevenoaks in memory of 'JC' 1855-1935 and 'SLC' 1861-1948.

Bordering Six Bells Lane it provides a scenic break in the line of shops in this part of the town.

Today it is the responsibility of Sevenoaks Town Council.

This week I spoke to Pat Connolly, a member of Kent Gardens Trust about the Sevenoaks project.

He tells me that more volunteers are required and they should contact Elizabeth Cairns of Knowle Hill Farm, Ulcombe, Kent ME17 1ES.

"We will provide the training," he said, "and adopt a mentoring system to help new volunteers gain the necessary skills for both research and recording techniques."

The primary aim of the Trust is the protection of gardens in Kent.

The lost gardens of Sevenoaks have gone for ever but here, with the help of people who care, is an opportunity to help owners, developers and the local authority, to know more about the history of those that still exist.

The present has a duty to look after the past.