Happy New Year, 2020!
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| Poor old Betley Court!! |
I’m not one to wish away time, but I’m quite glad to see the end of 2019. Its been a tough couple of months for everybody at Betley Court, and we are all aware that we are at the beginning of a long, long struggle to rebuild after the fire.
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| Debris in the hallway, up to 5-6 feet in places |
I mentioned in a post before Christmas that Nigel had purchased PPE (personal protection equipment) for all, and I mean ALL of the family visiting over the holidays. They may have preferred Amazon gift vouchers, but safety boots, hard hats and hi-viz jackets is what they got. As good as his word, he had all of us shifting ash and debris over the holidays. He ordered two huge skips and had them delivered to the forecourt, and I’m proud to say that the Ozzie and Scots wings of the family helped us fill those skips. We estimate that around 24 tonnes of debris was moved by hand by the eleven of us. We earned every one of our achy muscles!
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| One of the huge skips |
Now whilst that sounds impressive, and it felt like a huge achievement, we cleared the porch, and a metre and a bit into what was the hall. There’s a bit to go, the debris is 5-6 feet deep in places! [members of the West Midlands wing of the family – we know you read this (thanks by the way) – be warned, we have safety boots in all sizes, if you should visit!!].
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| Burnt back to the brickwork - this was the study - once! |
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| Nigel's first floor office, once upon a time |
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| The bloated metal lump in the middle of the photo was once a central heating radiator in the hallway. Just goes to show how ferocious the fire was! |
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| Our digger here is standing on a mound of ash of about 5-6 feet deep from the floor level! |
As far as the garden project goes, the order for the hard-won visitors’ hub has been placed, so somewhere in a wood shed, far, far away, our new building is being constructed in kit form. In a few weeks, it’ll arrive on trucks to be assembled onsite. Tentatively, we plan to have the visitors’ hub up by the end of April. The foundation system is a lower-impact one. It uses many small concrete pads rather than one enormous slab. Its innovative in that it uses a fraction of the materials, and importantly as Betley Court Gardens is in a conservation area, it has a greatly reduced impact on living tree roots.
We have permission in place from the local authority to take down certain trees to clear space. A tree surgeon will start work soon, which will dramatically change the outlook of that area. I first saw the gardens over a quarter of a century ago, and this area was scrubby grassland with a few mature trees. Over the years it has filled in and become quite gloomy, so it’ll be interesting to see how the light levels change, and what effect that will have on the plants we can grow there.
The Christmas break was timely for both me and Nigel. Having a three-day break gave us a chance to forget everything and relax. It was wonderful. Coming back, we have a new, refreshed outlook. We’re adjusting our timetable of future events, but we are going ahead with them. Nice to start the New Year with a positive outlook!
All the best for 2020!
Ladybird Su
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