The archive consists of oral history interviews with staff, students, volunteers and people associated with RHS Garden Rosemoor, RHS Garden Wisley and the School of Horticulture, and photographs of interviewees.
The Lindley Library oral history project was set up by Barbara Collecott, librarian for RHS Gardens, in 2000. The aim of the project was to record the memories of those who had specialist knowledge of a particular aspect of the development of RHS gardens. The interviews contain personal information relating to the interviewee's time at Wisley or Rosemoor, other staff and students, accommodation and social and sports events
Interviews were conducted by David Batt, an experienced oral history volunteer, at a variety of locations. David Batt was assisted in the interviews by his wife Margaret who took notes, contributed additional questions and compiled summaries post-interview
Some interviews were edited to remove discussions not related to the interview topic and any extraneous pauses. It is indicated on each individual interview record whether the summary was compiled from an edited or unedited version of the audio
Original audio interviews were recorded onto minidisc. Most of the recordings relating to RHS Garden Rosemoor and RHS Garden Wisley were edited and transferred onto CD. Most of the recordings relating to the School of Horticulture were digitised in 2019. Some audios were recorded across more than one disc and were reunited into a single audio during digitisation, others were recorded several on one disc and were separated out. All of the audio recordings were subsequently uploaded onto the RHS server