Different Times

Last week’s post seemed to cause some hilarity! I think it was the thought of the village Squire, George Fletcher Fletcher-Twemlow pouting about the construction of Betley Methodist Chapel to the extent he felt compelled to brick up the two windows he could espy it from. Reader comments ranged from, ‘behaviour of a toddler’ to ‘I wish I had the money to throw a tantrum on that scale!’

We have another story in a similar vein from the Betley Court archives. It was one of Prof Brown’s favourites, when he held court at family get-togethers. This one takes place a bit earlier, during the ‘reign’ of Thomas Fletcher Twemlow, George Fletcher Fletcher-Twemlow’s uncle. Thomas Flecther Twemlow (or TFT as I like to think of him) did rather well with his inheritance, and started on a huge spending spree around the Court from 1865 to 1894. Employing a notable Staffordshire architect, Robert Griffith, he set about remodelling the north part of Betley Court.

Robert Griffith's spire at St Paul's Church, Stafford.

Griffith was responsible for the striking spire of Stafford’s St Paul’s Church along with numerous Victorian asylums, and villas for the well-to-do. At Betley Court, he had a markedly different task. Prof Brown retells the story in his book This Old House, beginning;

Crowning the stables, the clocktower at Betley Court

“Using Robert Griffiths….as his [TFT's] architect, he rebuilt the stable blocks on a rather grand scale, using the polychromatic brick neo-Georgian architecture sympathetic to the rest of the house. He crowned his new stables with a clocktower in which he installed a scaled down version of Big Ben. The result, although somewhat obscured by high surrounding walls, harmonised well with the rest of the building. The clock tower in particular contributed an item of interest to the Betley skyline.”

For readers living in the village of Betley, you can verify the next part of the story for yourself. The clocktower is a handsome looking architectural expression of wealth, and back in Victorian era Betley must have impressed the country folk. The more observant passer-by would note that the clocktower, with its four sides, actually only possesses THREE clock faces. The northern facing ‘face’ is filled not with a clockface but a family coat of arms. How odd!

The north face of the clocktower - minus a clock!

Prof Brown used to relate that there was a very good reason for this. Well, perhaps not a good reason, but a reason nonetheless. The history of Betley village has been shaped in many ways by its two ‘big houses’; Betley Hall in the north, and Betley Court in the south. At times the families have got along famously, even inter-marrying. At others, not so much, with quarrels about religion (the Hall were ‘chapel’, the Court, Anglican), water rights, and your common-or-garden family squabbles cited as reason for disharmony, and this was the case when the clocktower was constructed. In fact, relations were so bad that TFT would not even give the folk at Betley Hall ‘the time of day.’ Hence the omission of a clockface looking towards the north of Betley, and the Hall.

I’m rather struck by how much money and energy was expended being cross at other people by the gentlemen of Betley Court. It all seem so exhausting!

Meanwhile, back in the 21^st century, we are sizing up where to start the rebuild. We are looking at building a temporary roof using scaffolding and coverings. The main benefit of this is that this would help dry out the brickwork before we start the rebuild. It would also stop frost damaging the walls any further. And, it has to be said, scaffolders are cheaper at this time of year, so there is another benefit. Of course, before we can start any of this there are a myriad of regulations to navigate and permissions to be sought, and don’t get me started on Health and Safety! A tiny part of me envies the Squire of old’s inalienable power to do as he pleased, ride roughshod over those humbler than him. Oh to be a Squire!

All best wishes

Ladybird Su

Robert Griffith's inspiration, the clocktower at the Palace of Westminster -or Big Ben as most tourists refer to it!