One Year On

 

Sunday (23^rd August) marks the first anniversary of the Betley Court fire.

I’ve had to sit back, a minute, and let that sink in.

Its not a position any of us in the Brown family expected to be in, or would ever choose to be in. Nor our residents, who were made homeless that night. And although the fire was terrible, we lost no one, largely due to the bravery of the four residents, who went into the house while the fire was well underway to rescue our pater familias, Professor Brown. Through the wonders of technology, we’re still in touch with our former residents, who have made new homes elsewhere - all reasonably locally. Five residents have even been able to return to the least damaged flats back here at Betley Court.

We will forever be indebted to Betley villagers who helped out on the day, and following weeks. Our friends that donned Hi-viz and directed the crowds and traffic. To all the villagers who offered beds, clothing and help to the residents. To those that donated to the Just Give appeal, raising thousands for the residents to help them through those early days. Also, Dr Patel, for opening up his surgery on the night of the fire, the Oakleys, Lorraine and Steph, and the staff from Alpha Care, who continue to look after Prof Brown.

We are grateful to the emergency services, for whilst Betley Court could not be saved, they prevented our neighbours’ properties from alighting. 

I will have missed people, but if you helped on the day, or in the days after, thank you! To mark the anniversary, our local paper the Sentinel has caught up with us, and although we have a long journey ahead to rebuild Betley Court, it was lovely to share some positive news too. Click HERE to see the article.

It’s been one of those weeks where several things that have been long in the making suddenly come together. The Brown family are approaching the rebuild in phases, and Phase 1 is putting a roof back on to keep the weather out. Our conservation architect, Mark has given us the first draft of the roofing plan, before we submit it to the local authority for planning permission and what an interesting document it is! We’ve had to learn new architectural terminology; RAL colours (an international system of paint colours), and my favourite ‘Warns’ Overflows, for example. More of that anon.

Any owner of a building with a large roof area will tell you, management of water off it is problematic.  Betley Court was built in phases, and as a result had a complex series of roofs and valley served by an equally complicated set of guttering. There was a large foot wide channel running INSIDE the attic to carry away water from hidden roofs. When this got blocked, it flooded and produced a waterfall over the staircases more times than any of us cared for. All part of the fun of Georgian country house living! Of course, all this was lost in the fire, but it has given Mark the opportunity to create a more rationalized system with greater capacity. He’s also introduced us to a wonderful product, the afore mentioned ‘Warns’ Overflow. This is a clever gutter head, which in normal use, guides water down the downspout. However, in the event of a heavy cloudburst, or blocked down spout, resulting in the water level rising, water will bridge a weir inside the gutter head, and pour out of the spout away from the building, like a gargoyle spout. That will help us enormously from damp problems and internal flooding in the future!

Detail of the new spout for the foot wide attic channel.

A Warns overflow gutter head in situ

Outside in the garden, everything is looking lush because of the plentiful August rain we’ve had this year. Shane has started topping (rather than heavy mowing) the grass on the formal lawns, and it is having a wonderful restorative affect.

Our native woodland grasses

We’ve found a young builder, Dan to clad the end of the garages – an ugly breeze block wall – with mellow red bricks recovered from the demolition works on the house. He’s was once a classmate of our son, and we’ve known him since he was a toddler. He’s come along way from building with Lego bricks as lad. I’m looking forward to seeing how his construction skills have developed!

The ugly breeze block wall.

We're hoping Dan will turn it into something like this.

We’ve also met with Alan, a lecturer from the local land-based college, Reaseheath College in Nantwich. He works with arboriculture students – the tree surgeons and countryside managers of the future. Its possible we might be able to offer students experience of tree surveying, soil testing, conservation planning and tree work, in a working country estate. The prospect is quite exciting, getting fresh ideas about how to manage our woodland. I’m eager to find out what they come up with!

Alan, from Reaseheath College and Nigel discuss the trees over the path.

On the high path there's lots of potential learning experiences to be had.

Finally, thank you to those of you asking to see photos of Nigel, when he channels his inner ‘Poldark’ and gets around to scything our wildflower areas. I’m not sure the Poldark actor, Aiden Turner is going to be too threatened by Nigel’s presence on the haymaking scene, but your comments did make us laugh!

Image ruthlessly taken from the BBC Radio Times

All best wishes

Ladybird Su