Research, grottos, and a bit in the news

The parterre in July, looking lovely

One of the lovely things the Heritage Lottery fund grant is enabling us to do, is to conduct some research into the history of Betley Court Gardens. We’ve already visited the archives at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. We’ve been treated to a private viewing of the world’s last remaining example of a Barron’s tree moving machine. I’ve also visited some examples of gardens designed by landscapers who have left their mark on the grounds at Betley Court. It’s also helped us forge links with other historic gardens, such as Elvaston Castle and Dorothy Clive Gardens.

First passion flower (Passiflora caeruria)

Stunning lily 'Three County'

Betley Court Gardens are sending me off to London in a couple of weeks, so it’s an exciting opportunity to undertake some research. There will be a return visit to Kew to find out more about garden styles, and to look into the work of William Emes. And I plan to visit the Garden Museum, to find out more about the role of the gardener within country house estates.

Knifophis 'Vanilla Popsicle'

I’ll also be thinking about how we manage the gardens in the future, with a visit to the Centre for Wildlife Gardening to get tips. One area we’d really like advice on is on the management of wildflower areas. The tenants at Betley Court tell me that butterfly numbers have increased as we’ve left certain areas alone. That’s immensely gratifying.

Lemon marguerite 

By coincidence this week, BBC4 repeated a 2017 documentary entitled In Search of Arcadia, in which art historian Janina Romirez explores the influence of the 18^th century English Landscape movement along a 12 mile stretch of the River Thames. It is well worth viewing if you have access to the BBC iPlayer. One of the locations she visited was the site of the poet Alexander Pope’s (1688-1744) residence in Twickenham. All that remains now is an underground grotto, that runs under the road that separated Pope’s villa from his waterside gardens. Interestingly, there is a Betley Court connection. Alexander Pope is perhaps best known for his translation of Homer’s Odysey, and he earned a lot of money from it. However, he did not translate the Odysey on his own, and Elijah Fenton (1683-30), another poet, was one of his collaborators. The story goes that Fenton was just paid a notional fee for his work, and did not enjoy any of the financial windfall Pope gained. Elijah Fenton hailed from Shelton in Stoke-on-Trent and was also a relative of Elizabeth Fletcher who married Francis Twemlow and came to live at Betley Court 1814. It is believed she brought several family portraits with her, Elijah’s included. In 1943 Captain Fletcher Twemlow gifted a portrait of Elijah to the Borough Museum in Newcastle-under-Lyme. Elijah Fenton is still remembered in Betley Court today. In the 1980s, the Brown family restored the eight-sided room with oak panels at the bottom of the dovecote and it is named in his honour.

Elsewhere in the news…..

Someone (I’m afraid we’re not sure who – but thank you!) handed us a cutting from the Sentinel newspaper. It was from its ‘The Way We Were’ column (16 June 19)– or TWWW as it is known. It is a letter from Betty Nixon, whose husband, Bill was a patient at Betley Court Rehabilitation Centre from 1959-60, following an injury he suffered at Norton Colliery in September 1958. The photograph accompanying the letter shows a group of men outside the gymnasium (the former stable building on Court Walk topped by a clock tower – now divided into houses). It’s lovely to get these glimpses into the Court’s history as a hospital. It’s a period we know surprisingly little about! I’m looking forward to getting started on the oral histories, and we can put some of the tales on record.