Scaffolding, Bricks and Bigotphones

It’s a treat to pop into Betley Court these days. Since Midland Conservation Ltd started their building work in April, each time Nigel and I have popped into the shell of the house, there is something new to look at. We find ourselves looking forward to it, rather than dreading it as in the past. This week, the new brickwork courses on the bow sections that give Betley Court its distinctive appearance have risen above the scaffold platform. The pleasing freshly pointed Cheshire red/Staffordshire blue checkerboard pattern (Flemish bonding) is very satisfying to behold. Other sections of internal walls that fell during the fire in 2019 have been replaced too, and one or two rooms are starting to become defined again.

Internal walls are being rebuilt on the right hand side, and you can see rooms becoming defined again

The window apertures on the façade facing Main Road are looking really good! Brick courses have been laid on top of the new lintels installed earlier in the month, creating sharp strong-looking openings.

Ground and first floor window apertures, looking out to Main Road

In what was the grand stairwell, a scaffold tower has been erected, and the scaffolders secured an aluminium ladder in the centre so they can nip up and down.  It’s a far cry from our beautiful staircase, but it’s a step [ahem] in the right direction.

The new temporary main 'staircase'

A further scaffold platform has been installed in the hall too, transforming the void-like appearance I described in a previous post. The scaffs almost look like a new floor level and it is not difficult to picture how that part of the house will be reconstructed.

And in the gardens.....

Plants by post!

One of our residents, Annette, kindly gifted us a bargain pack of six dozen flowering perennials she spotted in a magazine, for planting in the garden. An A4 package (surely there couldn’t be 72 plants in a box that size?) duly arrived, with the strict instructions to ‘open immediately’ printed on the packet. Inside were 66 tiny pots containing 66 equally tiny plant plugs. A credit note explained that one of the plant types had failed this year, but the other plants looked healthy, if a little shocked by their travels.

Thumb-sized pots

After digging around the house and gardens for enough 3” pots, I spent an evening potting them on, and I’ll let them grow a little bigger before I plant them out at in the gardens. They’re perennials, so they should give us flowers for years to come.

Recovering in the greenhouse. These plantlets will be grown on and hardened off before planting in the garden.

This week, I’ve been delving into the British Newspaper Archiveagain, and found a story about a Betley-wide celebration that took place in 1911 – the Coronation of King George V and Queen Mary on 22^nd June. A local paper, the Staffordshire Advertiser sent reporters to various communities to convey the festival atmosphere around the county, and included Betley in their write up. It begins,

“Coronation Day was celebrated here right loyally. The village was gay with flags, bunting and arches, and in the evening fairy lamps. The proceedings commenced 1 30 p.m. when a long procession, headed by the Silverdale Old Brigade Military Band, left the centre of the village.”[1]

The parade featured an impressive quantity of entertainers and locals in addition to the band. It included the school children, statue dancers, and performing marionets (whose puppeteers were trained by Mr. H. Lyons, of Crewe, we learn) decorated bicycles, ‘persons in fancy dress’, girl dancers (trained Miss Butterworth of Newcastle), and two troupes of Pierrots performing on bigotphones.

I’d never heard of a ‘bigotphone’ before, and putting it into an English to French online translator only told me it was an arcane word for a ‘merlitone’. Since I have no idea what a merlitone is either, I decided to consult a friend from the arts scene in Stoke, Eve Donnadieu. She also happens to be a gifted linguist, a French national who teaches languages to children and adults. Eve came up top trumps, providing me with not only a description, but images!

Examples of bigotphones, also known as merlitones.

The bigotphone was very fashionable in the early 20^th century for popular entertainment. Essentially, it’s a musical instrument made from a kazoo, amplified by a lightweight metal horn. Eve tells me they were often played comically in style, and she found me a YouTube video so you can experience the unique noise they produce. In numbers, they must have produced quite a racket as they performed along Main Road. What a spectacle it must have been to draw in the crowds!

Typical costume of a Perriot, a comical caracter

,

An example of a bigotphone troupe - the Excentric Bigotphone Club of Blerois

The procession headed down towards Betley Court Farm, and convened on a field for the next stage of the festivities. On arriving the field at Betley Court Farm, all the inhabitants of Betley, Balterley and Wrinehill were entertained to tea, ‘the school children sitting down first’. During the evening, besides a programme sports, the assorted troupes danced, and two concerts were given by the bigotphone playing Pierrots.

To commemorate the occasion, a suitably decorated china beaker was later presented to each child a souvenir of the occasion, together with a bag of sweets. The festivities ended with a torchlight procession. The reporter notes that, “the whole expense was borne by voluntary subscription. Mr. F. E. Grosvenor acted as hon. secretary.”

I wonder if any of those commemorative beakers still exist? And what did the rural folk of Betley make of the Pierrots, dancing marionettes, and the sounds of the bigotphones. I imagine the festival spirit was not unlike what happens today at village events. We took our children along to Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002, held just as then, in a marquee on the field at Betley Court Farm. Our son, a feisty toddler at the time, loaded up a huge plate of delicacies, from a buffet of food brought by families all over the village. He sat at the table, contented polishing off his feast, oblivious to the tables being cleared around him. After tea, an older gentleman sat all the younger children down (very wise, after they had eaten all that food) to tell them stories in silly voices, which all the children found hysterically funny.

It always amazes me that whilst many things move on, we choose to keep occasions like these still; the coming together, sharing of food, and entertainment.  Although, I have to point out, we seem to have left bigotphones in the past! Perhaps that's for the best?

All best wishes

Ladybird Su

 

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[1] Staffordshire Advertiser, 24 June 1911, British Newspaper Archive collection.