What a difference a year makes!

The brilliant warm weather around the gardens at Betley Court is certainly lifting the mood. Somehow things look better, with a backdrop of azure blue skies, and fluffy white clouds. Now the main house is covered with the temporary roof, the thick Georgian walls, sometimes 30-50cms in places are drying out thoroughly in the late spring warmth. The specialist contractors from Midland Construction Ltd are busy taking back the top of the walls to the sound brickwork. They’re replacing missing brick courses as they go, creating a solid base for the new roof when the time comes. The tops of completed bows sections are looking sharp and clean, and its exciting to imagine the roof reconstruction happening later this year/early next year.

A section of levatating wall about an old doorway. Note the black char of the burnt out lintel

Top of an arched wall, looking sound

One area of wall being tied into another. Also missing bricks are replaced with a mixture of modern and reclaimed ones.

Around the internal walls, patch repairs replace bricks destroyed during the fire. And there are other repairs, such as tying in walls to each other, making masonry secure. In certain places, wooden door lintels were burnt out during the fire, and bricks have been left levitating about door voids. Gradually, new concrete lintels are being expertly slid in to take the weight. More wooden batons have appeared with floor levels marked on them. The complexity of replacing internal walls is becoming more and more evident!

Wooden baton with floor level markings on.

Over the main staircase - a beautiful carved wooden staircase that we lost in the fire, there used to be a huge window. We called it ‘The Grandchildren’s’ Window’, because Godfrey and Freda commissioned illustrative windows for each of their seven grandchildren. Other significant events were marked on the remaining windows, such one commemorating Freda’s death. Sadly, the window was completely destroyed, and the window arch, and what remains of the wall about are in a precarious position. A wooden frame is now in place to hold up what’s left. It would be quite an achievement to replace those windows one day, and add one in his memory for Godfrey too.

Top arch of the the Grandchildren's Window

Wonderful progress on the windows of the main house, facing Main Road

In the gardens….

What a difference a year makes! The English mix of sun and rain this spring has really brought on the grass and flowers. Down by the visitors’ hub, the wildflowers look as if they’ve been there forever. It was useful for me to go back in the photo archive and remind myself how raw the scalped earth looked a year ago, and how lush it looks now. I need to get in to remove the couch grass before it sets seed. It really is a bully boy of the plant world, and crowds everything out.

June 2021 (top) compared with May 2020 (bottom)

I also need to make headway with the weeds in the formal flowerbeds. They become a little overgrown now they’re enclosed behind Heras fencing. I’ll be gardening in hi-viz when I get in there, as this area is part of the construction zone, and managed by the contractors now building work has started. This will be cleared with them before I start, but there can’t be many gardeners in a situation like this, with a little caged garden! The dahlias are ready to go in, and we’ve had an excellent display of irises this year. I’m so pleased I divided them last year. It’s given them such a boost.

The little caged garden - our formal flowerbeds, complete with Heras fencing

Nature seems to take no heed of all the human activity, and a wealth of insects can be spotted hovering around the Geums and poppies in the flowerbeds. Birds fly in and out of the scaffold wrap in a carefree manner, tending to their young in nest hidden inside of chimneys, and crevasses in the walls, ignoring the builders completely. It feels like a hopeful sign to me, validation from our winged friends.

All best wishes

Ladybird Su