A Rose for my True Love

This week Nigel and I marked the 24th anniversary of our marriage. As I garden the flowerbeds at Betley Court, I took advantage of my privileged position, and cut a lovely rose from the formal beds to present to him. I like to think I’m following in a tradition of former head gardeners of old like Mr Mulliner and Mr Leith, cutting a choice bloom for their loves, surreptitiously, before the Lady at the ‘big house’ received her cut flowers.  The flower was taken from one of the stunning Rosa ‘Red Flame’ climbers that cover two wooden obelisks.

This bush bears velvety red blooms, has a decent flowering period, and the most pleasing raspberry-rose scent. In fact, if you walk between the flowerbeds in the late afternoon on a summer’s day, the air is filled with perfume that reminds me of the smell of the luxury Turkish Delight Professor Brown’s sister Maureen bought for him on his birthday every year.

The roses are doing incredibly well this summer. I can take none of the credit. I’m not really a ‘rose person’; whilst I love a bouquet of roses, actually growing them requires too much attention in the scheme of things. I’m drawn more to flowers that just get on with it; daffodils, bluebells and all the wildflowers, that pop up with no fuss, year after year. I have bought a large box of rose food by way of apology to these two magnificent rose plants, that treat us with blooms, despite my less-than-dedicated attention.

The Rebuild in the Main House...........

New crash decks in the first floor landing as was.

In the main house, the scaffolders have been back to rearranged the internal scaffolding platforms, moving them round to the next area to be rebuilt. New ‘crash decks’ have popped up around the internal area of the house. These, as their name suggests, catch debris as it falls, keeping anyone who happens to be below safer.  And god forbid, should anyone trip, they will only fall to the crash deck underneath them, not the whole way to the cellar.

A partially collapsed wall - worrying to behold! First floor level

The new arrangement of scaffolding platforms has allowed the family to inspect areas we haven’t been able to access before. It is quite sobering to see the state of some of the upper walls. Often walls down below are not much better. In places, three storeys of brick wall teeter on a window lintel that was reduced to crumbling charcoal during the fire. Its frightening to look at, and every week, I become more impressed with our conservation builders’ skills as they restore areas of concern.

Talk about precarious! This wooden beam has had a wall built over it some centuries ago.Only its charred remains are holding the wall up. The scaffolders have created a scaffold support since this photo was taken.

New lintel installed, and wooden inserts hold the wall up until new brickwork is laid. This is the top of a ground floor window, so you can guess how much masonry is ubove this. We feel the building is in safe hands with Midland Conservation Ltd!

The new scaffolding arrangement has allowed us into the Nash Room for the first time since the fire. The Nash Room was the Brown family’s posh sitting room or drawing room. It had been remodelled in 1810 by notable Regency architect, John Nash, who re-oriented the focal point fire place to face the windows, and created an elegant plastered ceiling. The Nash Room was also a hot-spot during the fire, and was delivered the most destructive blow when a central chimney collapsed into it from above, dropping burning roof material all the way down to the cellar, and reoxygenating the flames as it went. Nothing survived the fire. At least now a new temporary floor of scaff planks covers where the floor once was, it feels like a room again.

What's left of the Nash Room

Another view of the Nash Room

The Nash Room in better times

We’ve been on the lookout for new – or old – chimney pots to replace the ones lost in the fire. We popped over to Cherished Chimneys, an emporium of chimney pots and, randomly tea pots. Their expert advised us that we were looking for a ‘faucet’ type pot, also known as an ‘Edwardian’.

The 'faucet' or Edwardian chimneys at Betley Court. Note how deeply they are mortared in, and how protective roof tiles have been used to cover the top of the chimney.

The Edwardian reference certainly ties in with the era the current chimney pots were installed. We recon that from the evidence of postcards taken, the chimney pots were an Edwardian addition. Interesting the chimney pot expert also observed from our photos that the pots are buried by cement and tiles to a depth of about 4”. He found that unusual, and had not seen this in 40 years in the business. Perhaps it was a style preference during that period of times?

More recent chimney pots. buff pottery. Prof Brown once told me they have the same kind of chimney pots on Buckingham Palace

Barn Books, Norbury, out towards Whitchurch, almost hidden in a barn at Pear Tree Farm.

Finally, Nigel and I got a little bit of time off over the weekend and popped out to Norbury to Barn Books, an eclectic second hand book emporium. Whilst it may be possible to take Nigel out of Betley Court, it is not possible to take Betley Court out of Nigel. His eyes quickly alighted on a copy of Portrait of a Community, Betley, Balterley & Wrinehill, edited by Mavis Smith et al, and published by Betlwy and Balterley Parish Council to mark the end of the Millennium.

What a find!

It is a marvellous collection of oral histories, photographs and information that provides an incredible snapshot of the three communities in 1999. There are even a few references to Betley Court, including a poster for a garden party that the WI held in the gardens.

Poster for the Diamond Jubilee WI Garden Party

For a moment, I couldn’t work out why this event had evaded my memory. The I realised I was in hospital as I’d just given birth to our first child. It was so lovely to see the poster, especially given Betley WI's association with Betley Court, and their recent gift of friendship in the shape of two fine plum trees. 

We lost our copies of this fine book in the fire, so, naturally, we bought one of the two copies available in the shop. It would not surprise me one little bit if we pop back for the other copy sometime soon. It just such a fascinating read!

All best wishes

Ladybird Su