Actor Toby Jones and celebrity gardener Adam Frost are to become patrons of the Lngdyke-supported John Clare Countryside Trust.
The announcement demonstrates growing national support for the project’s ambition to create a large and accessible heritage landscape west of Peterborough, a destination for visitors, home to thriving farming and wildlife and a place for quiet relaxation and regeneration for the people of Peterborough.
Adam and Toby join Dame Fiona Reynolds, former chief executive of the National Trust and ex-Master of Emmanual College plus BBC journalist Martha Kearney as new Patrons, adding to the list that includes writers Tony Juniper, Mark Cocker, Michael Warren and Nic Wilson; artist Carry Akroyd and Tom Naylor-Leyland, managing director of Fitzwilliam Estates.
Toby Jones is a long-time Clare-fan, introduced to the poet’s legacy when his father played Clare in a BBC production in 1970. Later Toby and his father acted alongside each other in “By Ourselves”, another film about Clare’s life, playing the poet at different stages of his life. Since then, Toby has recorded a series of You Tube videos in which he reads Clare’s poems.
Toby said, “The life and poetry of John Clare have had a profound and unexpected influence on my life. I look forward to exploring and extending this influence as Patron of the John Clare Countryside Project. I am excited and proud to share the adventure of this project as it pursues such worthwhile goals Toby has already visited the area to learn about the project.
Adam Frost lived and worked locally for many years in the heart of Clare country. He has won seven Gold Medals at the Chelsea Flower Show and is a regular presenter on BBC’s gardeners world. He is currently writing a book of walks in Clare Country. He is already a Langdyke patron.
Photo: Jason Ingram
Martha Kearney said, “I have loved John Clare’s nature poetry for a long time so I’m delighted to support The John Clare Countryside project which celebrates and protects the landscape he loved. “I found the poems in the fields and only wrote them down.”
Dame Fiona said, ‘In my years as Master of Emmanuel I spent a lot of time walking in the Cambridgeshire countryside. It was magical to explore Helpston and Barnack with their traces of history still visible; to discover the work of the John Clare Countryside Project and the revelations it is bringing about; and – most meaningfully for me – to read Clare’s evocative words of loss and enclosure as I walked the fields. I’m proud to be a Patron and keen to see the project progress.’
Chair of the John Clare Countryside partnership, Richard Astle, said: “We are so privileged to have Toby, Adam, Martha and Fiona join our Patrons – it’s a real demonstration of just how much support there is for the ambitions of John Clare Countryside and how this has the potential to build Peterborough’s profile as a visitor destination. The project combines nature recovery, sustainable farming, literature, and communities. It can be the perfect companion to the city’s growth agenda – demonstrating that heritage, beauty, literature and nature can, if carefully planned, go hand in hand with housing and economic growth.”
Toby Jones is widely recognised for his appearances on screen and in the theatre. Most recently he has completed a successful run as Iago in OTHELLO (Haymarket Theatre, London). He has recently returned to reprise his role as Colin Tattersall in the hugely successful Paramount Plus show MOBLAND written by Jez Butterworth with Tom Hardy and Helen Mirren, which will return for a second season. Toby will also soon return to screens in FLAVIA, an adaption of Alan Bradley’s best-selling mystery novels. Last year he played the eponymous Philip Burton in the BAFTA nominated film MR BURTON, and returned to TV in THE HACK by Jack Thorne also starring David Tennant. He can currently be seen in the Apple series HIJACK opposite Idris Elba and this Spring, can be seen in the Sky film FLAVIA with Martin Freeman.
In 2024 he appeared in the BAFTA winning drama ALAN BATES VS THE POST OFFICE in which he played ALAN BATES and for which he was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Actor. Other screen performances include INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY, JURASSIC WORLD, HUNGER GAMES, CAPTAIN AMERICA, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY. He played Truman Capote in INFAMOUS, Swifty Lazar in FROST NIXON and Karl Rove in Oliver Stone’s W. On television he was nominated for a BAFTA and an Emmy for his performance as Alfred Hitchcock in THE GIRL and won a BAFTA for Best Comedy Performance as Lance Stater in DETECTORISTS. Other television includes THE LONG SHADOW, DANNY BOY, CAPITAL, WORZEL GUMMIDGE, SHERLOCK and as Neil Baldwin in the BAFTA winning MARVELLOUS. He voiced Dobby the House Elf in the HARRY POTTER films.
His most recent stage performances include GLASS.BLUEBEARD.IMP (Royal Court Theatre), THE BIRTHDAY PARTY (Harold Pinter Theatre, London) and as Vanya in UNCLE VANYA (Harold Pinter Theatre) for which he was nominated for an Olivier award as Best Actor. He received an Olivier award as Best Actor in a Supporting Role for THE PLAY WHAT I WROTE (Wyndham’s Theatre).
He has received an OBE for services to drama.
Adam Frost began gardening as a child while growing up in Essex and was greatly influenced by his grandparents. Having started out training in traditional horticulture with a parks’ department in Devon, he went on to build and design gardens. A pivotal time in his career began when, aged 21, he began working for the great organic gardener and tv presenter Geoff Hamilton. He encouraged Adam to train with the highly regarded designer David Stevens. Following Geoff’s unexpected death in 1996, Adam set up his own build and design company, going on to create gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show. In 2016 Adam began presenting for BBC Gardener’s World. He has written 5 best-selling books and is a popular public speaker.
Today, Adam’s design practice takes on projects big and small around the world, including private, commercial and public gardens. It’s important to him that he continues to oversee every piece of design that leaves the studio. His aim is to create gardens that people really want to spend time in.
He firmly believes that we can find inspiration all around us and today, gardens provide him with a strong connection to the past, as well as a place to spend time with family and friends.
Martha Kearney is a British-Irish journalist and broadcaster. She was the main presenter of BBC Radio 4‘s lunchtime news programme The World at One for 11 years and more recently appeared on the Today programme. She continues to host a series called This Natural Life and episodes of Open Country, one of which featured the work of Clare and was recorded at Swaddywell Pit.
Dame Fiona Reynolds is a non-Executive Chair and Director, holding roles in organisations that align with her passions. Fiona is Chair of the National Audit Office, the Governing Council of the Royal Agricultural University, the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England, and Cambridge University’s Botanic Garden.
Fiona has lived in Gloucestershire, near Cirencester since 2002, and is High Sheriff for the county from 2026 – 2027. She is Patron of New Brewery Arts in Cirencester and President of the hugely successful Cirencester History Festival which was founded in 2024. She is President of the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust and a Vice-President of CPRE nationally and its Gloucestershire Branch.
Fiona was previously Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge (2012-2021), Director-General of the National Trust (2001-2012), Director of the Women’s Unit in the Cabinet Office (1998-2000), Director of the Council for the Protection of Rural England (now Campaign to Protect Rural England) from 1987-98 and Secretary to the Council for National Parks (now Campaign to Protect National Parks) from 1980-87. She has held previous non Executive roles at the BBC and the Grosvenor Estate. She has an MA and MPhil from Cambridge University in Geography and Land Economy and published a book The Fight for Beauty in 2016. She was appointed CBE in 1998 and DBE in 2008.
She is married to Bob Merrill; they have three daughters and a granddaughter.
John Clare Countryside patrons
Clare Countryside background:
The John Clare Countryside project is an ambitious initiative designed to create a large and accessible nature recovery area across the landscape areas west of Peterborough to the A1, south to the River Nene and north to the River Welland, designed, led and supported by residents, landowners, farmers, businesses and parish councils of the area. Working collaboratively the project partners want to ensure that we conserve the beauty of our landscape and conserve its rich local heritage and establish an area characterised by
- Outstanding natural biodiversity through major habitat restoration connected through a mosaic of smaller wildlife havens and corridors
- Prosperous and successful farming, profiting from a combination of environmentally friendly farming practice, sustainable tourism and recreational activities.
- Well-kept heritage sites, linked through the figure head of John Clare, accessible to all and working together to involve and attract visitors and to support literary and artistic work and literacy.
- An unspoilt landscape that is enjoyed sustainably by local people and the people of an expanding Peterborough, providing them with a large area of unspoilt countryside on their doorstep, rich with places to visit, cycle paths, footways and ‘quiet roads’ – a green transport infrastructure – where priority is given to walkers, cyclists and horse riders.