What now? Not another big deluge!!!!

Tinkering with the sluice, in the dark during Storm Dennis. Photo: Su Hurrell 2020

Storm Dennis brought a bit of drama to Betley Court Gardens this weekend. Nigel and I had planned a research trip to Allan Bank, a National Trust property in Grasmere, in Britain’s Lake District. Although the winds and torrential rain did not stop us reaching our destination, the weather did mean the house and its grounds were closed to the public. We’d wanted to visit as the house suffered a fire in 2011. Restoration has begun, but there is an ongoing dialogue with the public about how the house is to be used, and some artifacts from the fire are on display. We thought it might be quite interesting.

Photo curtesy of Adrian Colston give you an idea of the kind of displays they've mounted in the wake of the fire at Allen Banks. Its a novel idea.

Just as well we got home in daylight on Sunday. Nigel wanted to check the water level on the pond after all the rain. It’s a good job he did! Once again, the water was rushing over the top of the dam, washing soil from the retaining bank away.

These 'exceptional events' are becoming more regular than we would like. It took a bit of late-night tinkering with the wrench and the sluice gate to get things back to normal. It was worth the spooky torchlit walk down to the dingle in the pitch black to see everything was OK.

Spooky walk through the wood by torchlight. 

Thankfully, given all the extreme weather we’ve had, the visitors’ hub is now a watertight, secure building. Daryl and the team from Timber Building Specialists Ltd worked hard to get the insulation and tiles on. The painting is finished too now, with the windows picked out in a rather striking black paint. We’re surprised at how well the new hub fits in with the modern houses over the wall in Court Walk.

This will be the main door into the Visitors' Hub

Patio doors on the far side will allow visitors out into the garden with their purchases.

We’ve started thinking about the interior too. We’ve measured up and have got quotes for a log burner that will keep the place nice and toasty. It’s interesting starting to lay out the rooms. We’ve adjusted some of our ideas simply as walking around the new space, it is much easier to see better layouts, and anticipate how the rooms will flow. The log burner will now sit in the corner, rather than in the middle of one wall to ensure we have a flexible space for a variety of uses, for example, talks or tea parties.

Finally, for this week, the results of the lazar survey dropped into Nigel’s inbox. A few weeks ago, a team of surveyors, working on behalf of our insurers set lazars and sent in drones to give us an accurate survey of what we have left of Betley Court. Its pretty sobering! The vast areas labelled as ‘rubble’ were rather depressing. Hearteningly, we have one room’s worth of original ornate plaster ceiling, in the housekeeper’s room (part of one of the modern-day apartments). Let’s hope we can salvage it! The survey is going to be invaluable to the professionals we need to consult, to help them cost removal of rubble, and of materials for the rebuild.

One of the images from the lazar survey. Photo: Su Hurrell 

My sister made a great suggestion for the images from the survey, and messaged, “You gonna get tea towels printed? Good mark up on that kind of merch. Recon you could do a fab design.”

It’s a thought……

Fingers crossed that the next named weather event leaves all those affected by Storms Caira and Dennis well alone.

All best wishes

Ladybird Su