New Year, New View

Betley Court has been a hive of activity since the new year arrived. Our newest contractors, MD Scaffolding Services are specialists in large scaffolding projects, and have tackled both burnt out building and mansion restoration during their 40-odd-year history. They seem ideally suited for our -ahem- little project.

The scaffold footings, reaching out from the building

On the south elevation

MD Scaffolding started the footings before Christmas, and we began to get some idea of the scale of the scaffolding by gauging how much they grew out from the base of the building, to a distance of 4-5 metres (12-15 feet). Now the team have started their ascent, and the scaffolding has grown way above the roofline. The reason for this is simple. The temporary roof will provide weather protection for both the new permanent roof and the builders as they work, come rain or shine. The temporary roof also needs to be high enough to allow new beams and materials to be craned in, and you can imagine how large some of those pieces are going to be.

View of the south elevation, with the shell of the building being shrouded from the elements

The scaffolding comes complete with its own security system, including CCTV, movement sensors and a tannoy system, all of which are monitored 24/7 by a security team. Its all a lot more sophisticated than when Prof and Dr Brown restored Betley Court over forty years ago. They were different times, and I’d love to know if even one risk assessment or method statement was ever prepared during the first Brown family restoration project at Betley Court.

Round at the Peace Garden

I shared photos of the work to the wider family, and a comment came back, ‘that’s brilliant. Its good to see something happening.” And it is. The cloak of scaffolding is providing protection for our vulnerable chimneys, and will keep the rain and frost out of the walls preventing further damage. Drying those thick Georgian walls will take an estimated 10 months, after the 17 months of rain they’ve been exposed too since the fire in 2019 (most of that seemed to fall in August, as I recall!!).

Dramatic change in appearance at the front of the house

The garden wildlife is taking all the changes in their stride. At least one family of blue tits was raised in the ruins of Betley Court last year, and I spotted a banditry of blue tits patrolling amongst the scaffold poles this morning – possibly staking out potential new nesting sites for spring? They had not a care in the world and seemed oblivious to either the workers or the Latino musical stylings of Jennifer Lopez as she played out on their radio. A mistle thrush also used the scaffolding as a vantage point for hunting out snails. The crows that had moved into the chimney stacks after the fire, however are not impressed and have up sticks and moved back to the lime trees along the Wilderness. They’ll be back in due course, I’m sure.

Impressive progress as seen from the road

All best wishes

Ladybird Su