The weather’s been extraordinarily cold for the end of
April/start of May. The coldest April since 1920, according to meteorology
records. It’s meant the bluebells are having a better season this year, and the
cherry blossom display is the best I can remember.
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| Down by the dingle |
I haven’t been over to the gardens as much as I would
usually do. I started a new role this week. I was awarded a residency as ‘ArtistGardener for the Growing Season’ as part of Newcastle Common, an imaginative
art project that places artists in empty high street shops, to create projects
for a non-art audience, and hopefully draw people back into the town centre. I
shall be creating a pop-up garden in one of the shop windows (53 High Street,
NuL) as soon as we get the keys, and licenses are sorted.
Being away from Betley Court Gardens doesn’t mean I stop
thinking about them. We were out as a family, walking alpacas at HassallAlpacas over the Bank Holiday weekend. I thoroughly recommend it as an activity.
Alpacas have a calming demeanour about them, not to mention soft coats that are
lovely to cuddle. We wondered about the practicality of getting some to mow the
lawns at Betley Court, and what a curious sight they would make in the Georgian
landscape of our gardens. The alpacas have delicately munched the rough
paddocks they live onto into a very fine verdant sward. They also produce from
their other end a rather fine alpaca manure. I have enquired if we could have
some to fertilise the flower beds and borders at Betley Court, and have been promised
some if we bring bags. Alpaca manure for fertiliser - that must be a first for
Betley Court!
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| Our new alpaca friends Stan and Barney - potential fertiliser suppliers to the gardens! |
An interesting thread on Betley Local History Society’s Facebook
page created a flurry of responses concerning the Betley Window. This rather small
window, measuring just 96.5 x 39.3cm (38” x 15.5” in imperial) depicts 12 ‘Mery
Men’, or English Morris men and now resides in the V&A Museum. However, as
Prof Brown says in his book ‘This Old House’ the window is, “...the most famous
single object associated with the village.”
It was installed in the original Betley Hall, an ‘old half-timbered house
erected by the Egertons’.
It was retrieved when the old hall was demolished and positioned in the new Betley
Hall in 1783.
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| The Betley Window. Betley's 'most famous single object' according to Prof Brown |
I won’t attempt to go into the history of the window in this
post, the subject of which Professor Brown dedicates three chapters to in ‘This
Old House’. Suffice to say, that to bring a version of the Betley Window back
to the village, Prof Brown commissioned the artist Philip Knapper (who used to rent
a flat at BC) to create an accurate facsimile window. Philip, and his partner
Linda were often drafted into help Prof Brown and the Brown family with some
scheme or other during the first restoration of Betley Court.
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| The artist, Philip Knapper, in front of the Jubilee Window he created for the Brown at Betley Court |
After careful research Philip created a perfect copy of the original
window (minus, Prof Brown notes, damage that had occurred sometime in the 20th
century to the original). Stars or ley lines seem to cross at Betley Court, and
much to the Brown’s delight, the Post Office was to release a First Day cover
featuring, on the 18p stamp three of the figures featured in the Betley Window.
This was far too much of a portentous occurrence to ignore, and so the Browns
approached the PO about them issuing a commemorative cover to coincide with the
forthcoming May Day Festival and unveiling of the new Betley Window. And so, after
a huge amount of help from villagers, Godfrey and Freda resurrected the May Festival
at Betley Court, complete with Morris men, brass bands, maypole dancers
(curtesy of Betley School), and light refreshments. And for ONE DAY ONLY,
Betley Court became a post office, issuing First Day covers, bearing a postmark
dated 2 May 81, and the words “Betley Court A-Maying – Crewe Cheshire.
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| The postmark, unique to one day, and one place. 2 May 81 and Betley Court |
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| The 18p stamp |
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| The first day cover - one of the ones rescued from the ruins of Betley Court |
I don’t know much about philately, and I expect stamp
collectors don’t give a thought to the little postmark on the envelope, other
than it’s a novelty. But all those first day covers collected by strangers have
a link back to Betley Court, and the efforts Godfrey and Freda put into making
a special day in honour of a little window almost exactly 40 years ago. We have
a storage box of first day covers, virtually the only things we retrieved from
the house after the fire (I wish I was saying that for dramatic effect). They
were crammed into an ancient solid oak sideboard in the hall that smouldered
away, leaving a singed box under the ash. They bear watermark from the firefighters’
efforts to stop the fire, and in their own way mark another specific time in
Betley Court’s history.
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| Prof Brown, in his element, with Viscount Bridgeman (who gifted the original Betley Window to the V&A) |
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| Betley School's finest, performing a maypole dance for the May Festival celebrations. |
All best wishes
Ladybird Su
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