King Charles and his gardening staff

Yes, and granite quarries exist, I think around Launceston 🤔 and maybe further west?

I thought the Cornish coast was granite?

Or are these china clay slips?

As far as I know there's no new mining in Cornwall. Any land slides are mines from the distant past, though of course the Duchy will be responsible for the risks.
Here on the South West Coast we are experiencing many land slides due to the extreme heat we had after the extreme wet weather earlier.

duchyofcornwall.org/article/nansledan-celebrates-completion-of-well-over-800-homes/

duchyofcornwall.org/article/addressing-homelessness/

Prince William has promised to upgrade the private rental properties he operates via the Duchy of Cornwall after reports over the weekend revealed one in seven of the homes are below the EPC minimum and dozens feature severe mould and damp.
November 2024

Where is there danger of land slides due to mining?

I think republican reporters will always find the negatives but not the positives.

mumstheword86

I saw the TV programe about the duchy of Cornwell and the bad state of repair the houses they rent out to normal citizens like us who might read and write on Gransnet
Also they are mining in places around the coast where its dangerous and land slides have happened
To sad am sure the programe was telling the truth

Well, if you always look for the negatives I'm sure they can be found.

If you look for the positives too, you might be pleasantly surprised.
I am sure you'll find other truths.

Have your children’s exam results on front pages of newspapers,

Being called “porky” in the press,in hospital and the press saying you are having a facelift but your having surgery.

Must have a desperate want of money to endure the above, and much much more

silverlining48

Would I want that job?
The money, the castles, being driven around in a nice car and not an old fiesta woukd be a nice change, especially as I don’t like driving any more , everyone bowing and scraping might be odd but I could probably get used to it.
Everything has its drawbacks not having to worry about money is a big plus so in the scheme of things I would be willing to give it a try if he wants to step aside.

I don't have to worry about money either. If I need a ride there's no shortage of taxis. I can do pretty much what the hell I like.

They are never alone; every aspect of their lives is timetabled and managed by other people, observed and commented on by millions of strangers. I would find that utterly unbearable.

I saw the TV programe about the duchy of Cornwell and the bad state of repair the houses they rent out to normal citizens like us who might read and write on Gransnet
Also they are mining in places around the coast where its dangerous and land slides have happened
To sad am sure the programe was telling the truth

eazybee

I know a number of men who were 'let go'. just after fifty, by Banks and Accountancy firms..
And they can get another job easily, like teaching?
Really?

If an accountant was 'let go' at 50 and couldn't get more work I would question how competent they were.

Why teaching? Who would want to go into teaching at 50? Too stressful! When they had a good pension and cushion of a lump sum as a retired bank manager?

silverlining48

I had a quick look on google, couldn’t spend a lot of time on it as was busy.
Hope that answers your question. I have no more to say.

Me neither.

I had a quick look on google, couldn’t spend a lot of time on it as was busy.
Hope that answers your question. I have no more to say.

Ok so where did you get the figures you quoted?

I didn’t make anything up, lathyrus.

My dh was in the police and retirement was at 50 or after 30 years service. While most public servants paid about 5% towards their pension the police had to contribute much more of their salary into their retirement fund which allowed for their retirement at 50.
My dh chose to work until 55, but that meant he worked 5 years on half pay, but he enjoyed it.
As with the forces, , fire brigade and police, etc you have to be physically fit to serve.

Allira

I despair at some of the misconceptions I read on here sometimes.

😫

Two of my cousins were cops, one friend was a fireman, and two others were in the Navy. They were all in high-stress roles with a pay scale that offers retirement with some pension at 50.

They all retired at 50 because the tough physical nature of their work and service had taken its toll on health and body. They all had transferable skills that enabled them to find other paid work of a relaxing kind; one had an art gallery, another taught creative writing. One of them became a father for the first time and was the SAHP looking after the children while younger wife pursued her career.

silverlining48

The figures I quoted were before the king had his cancer diagnosis. I know about cancer as my dh and my dd have both had cancer in recent years.

I don’t offhand know when he got his cancer diagnosis.

But I looked up the same week for July 2023 and again several appointments including again four on one day.

Come on, admit you just made it up.

Maybe having had the superb and prestigious experience of gardening at Highgrove they find 'the world is their oyster' full of keen employers with lovely estates to work on?

I suspect this hits the nail on the head 😉

When meeting people, attending an event, giving an address
surely he has to gain knowledge of who, what and why before hand

The King’s Foundation, Charles' charity, which is the custodian of Highgrove Gardens, oversees public access to Highgrove through its ticketed garden tours.

The Sunday Times reported that in late 2023 one member of staff at Highgrove complained about the gardens’ management, adding the team was overwhelmed, under-resourced and struggling to fulfil the many requests from Charles.

Following this, The King’s Foundation commissioned an external investigation and, according to the report, it found evidence of “staff shortages” and “poor” management practices.
It recommended “management training for all managers”, “mental health support and counselling” and a pay review, the Sunday Times said.

Staff at the gardens have received pay rises each year since 2022 totalling between 15% and 19% cumulatively, it is understood.

A King’s Foundation spokeswoman said: “At The King’s Foundation, we take staff welfare extremely seriously and strive to be an exemplary employer. We are proud to regularly report very high satisfaction rates in our annual staff survey.

"Our staff turnover is well below the national average, as is the number of formal grievances raised. For the gardening team at Highgrove specifically, we regularly review guidance from the Professional Gardeners Guild for pay benchmarking.

"Highgrove has also seen many positive developments since The King’s Foundation became the charitable custodian of the gardens. Since 2022, the operating profit has more than doubled, a new education facility teaching traditional heritage skills to hundreds of students has been established, and visitor numbers continue to reach over 40,000 annually."

I know a number of men who were 'let go'. just after fifty, by Banks and Accountancy firms..
And they can get another job easily, like teaching?
Really?

So where did you get those?

The figures I quoted were before the king had his cancer diagnosis. I know about cancer as my dh and my dd have both had cancer in recent years.

silverlining48

I had a quick look and Charles can go weeks with only one or two appointments. That’s ok, he’s not on the go everyday and has plenty of down time, so won’t be deprived of boiled eggs and soldiers, and the 📺

Where were you looking?

I had a look at the Court Circular for last week and saw many instances of ‘appointments”.

On the 21st of July he had four in one day as well as a walkabout to meet the public. On the go from morning to evening.

Granted he did then seem to have a day off the next day.

Still, I expect some people will believe you, if the want to.

silverlining48

That’s quite a staff turnover though. 11 out of 12.

Famous gardens, like professional kitchens, often have a very high turnover of staff. That's been my experience working in both (many years volunteer gardener for National Trust at a high profile garden. By my tenth year, I'd worked there longer that any of the paid gardeners. We'd had three Head Gardeners.

. Lots of reasons. Professional kitchens are a very high-stress working environment; Hot, long hours, unsocial shifts, tempers can run high.

Professional gardening also has stresses. It's not all roses and birdsong on a sunny day. Highgrove garden has 40,000 visitors a year. That is a lot of wear and tear on the garden (that it wasn't originally laid out for) , and some, on the staff
trying to get the work done and answer questions and be polite whatever the provocation.*. Gardening for a wealthy owner (especially one who is often away at other homes, abroad etc) can also be very frustrating. Almost every aspect of gardening, operates on a longterm plan. Yet the absent owner wants everything to be perfect on the day he arrives. Even though there's recently been no rain or too much rain; that spring was very early or there was a late frost in June . So the planned program for that year is not running on time. Someone I know gardens for an American millionaire who has properties all over the world and bottomless pockets. He knows nothing about plants, or gardening in the UK climate; but he expects his UK garden to be perfect when he turns up once a year. He never spends more than 2 weeks in uk per year. The rest of the year, the house is unoccupied and the garden unseen and the gardener working alone. I said to the gardener; "Sounds like the job from heaven" , he replied " I thought that. It isn't; just a different set of problems. ".


The payrates for professional gardeners are not high; but the job often comes with a free house and use of vehicle. The member of staff is paying no rent, no insurance, not responsible for upkeep and repairs. Those are a huge tax free perk of the job and to my certain knowledge, many head gardeners live in the free "house with the job" and in addition, are buying a private home which they let out until they retire.

People think of Highgrove as the private garden of a very keen and knowledgeable gardener who's given free rein to his imagination. But in fact it belongs to the Duchy of Cornwall, which is no longer Charles's title. It's William's. Charles now rents it. It's now managed for the Kings Trust whose remit includes the training of young people into work skills. This means a steady through-put of trainees; some of whom with "Highgrove Trained" glowing on their CV then move on to permanent jobs elsewhere; and some of whom leave because they find out gardening is not the life for them. So yes, there is a turnover, and green trainees are at the bottom of the national pay scale. And no doubt some longterm staff find gardening Highgrove has changed a lot or don't see eye to eye with the new management and can take their pick of jobs elsewhere.

I don’t suppose many horses are allowed near his swimming pool!
Maybe posh horses get to do hydrotherapy in the pool?