Every Day's a School Day

It has been a bright and breezy start to March at Betley Court Gardens. The majority of the daffodils have wisely decided not to make an appearance yet. Who can blame them? Whilst many of the days have been bright, a keen wind makes the temperature feel much more wintery. Nevertheless, there are signs that spring is coming. A robin is marking out his territory along the old garden wall, and treating us to his pretty songs. A wren has made its home for this year in one of the least used garages, squeezing in and out of the tiny slot at the top of the up-and-over door. Elsewhere the squirrels engage in what I assume is Sciurus flirting, by chasing each other and engaging in furious tail wagging displays.  There’s an air of life beginning.

A rather self-conscious looking daffodil in the breeze.

We’re keeping our fingers crossed for good weather this weekend, as we have a couple of activities happening in Betley Court Gardens. On Saturday, we’re holding a volunteer session in the gardens. We’ll be dividing daffodils ‘in the green’ to spread out our collection of Victorian cultivars. Admission is free, but please book, as numbers are limited. Hot drinks will be available in the visitors’ hub. If you prefer to bring your own tools, please do. We’ll provide isopropyl alcohol spray, so tools can be cleansed before and after the session.

BOOK HERE for Volunteer session - 12^th March, 2022, 2-4.30pm

On Sunday, Nigel will be conducting a heritage tour of the gardens, looking at some of the historic features in the garden, and talking about some of the notable landscape gardeners associated with these 18^th century pleasure grounds. It’ll be a nice intimate group, so you get the chance to talk to us about the gardens personally. Tickets £10 pp. Come to the visitors’ hub after for a warming beverage.

BOOK HERE for garden heritage tour – 13^th March, 2022, 2.30-4pm

The slot the Hiab operator has to guide the massive roof frames through. This is skilled work indeed!

Finally, an update on progress on the rebuild. It’s been a thrilling couple of weeks up at roof level, behind the scaffold wrap. Nearly a fortnight ago, three of the roof panels were removed, opening a slot just wider than an arm’s span to the sky. Over the last ten days or so, the Hiab has carefully lifted massive roof frames up into the air, and gently fed them into the slot.

Roof frame being fed into the temprary roof structure.

Inside the temporary roof, the Hiab operator, guided by one of the fabrication team on a walkie-talkie has been navigating numerous chimney stacks, and scaffolding, and turn the roof frames 90 degrees before the team of five fabricators fine-manoeuvre each piece into position. They’ve worked along the attic area, from front of the house to the back, and as each piece is fitted, it is bolted to its neighbour using shorter (6-10’) lengths of steel I-beam. You might think there’d be a lot of shouting, to-and-fro as they moved each frame into position, but actually, the scene was very calm, each fabricator rapt in concentration, checking back and forth with their colleagues to get the job done. Piece by piece, the new frame for the roof has taken shape.

The roof frame taking shape. It's been descibed as 'massive Meccano' by one relative!

Our site manager, Derrick has kept a watchful eye on proceedings. He’s a ‘measure twice, cut once’ kind of man, even double-checking lazar measurements taken at the beginning of the build with a tape measure, just to be sure. He told us, “Every day’s a school day” as we watched fabricators knock out a brick to ease the latest frame into position, acknowleging the unique nature of every heritage rebuild.

Teamwork - whilst the weight is being held by the Hiab, our team of fabricators inch the frame into position. Note the tight angles between chimneys - these guys have skills!

We were lucky enough to have Sarah Peart and Darren Washington, from Centre Space Arts on site again to make a photographic record of this special time in Betley Court’s history. As things are changing so quickly, we were really pleased to capture some of the hidden details of the rebuild.

What will be the attic, taking shape.

I had a really interesting question from my dad when I showed him the pictures from the roof. What is the big frame for? Well, the steel structure takes the place of the massive oak beams that were lost in the fire. To use oak in the rebuild would have added years to the rebuild (sourcing, cutting, seasoning etc). Indeed, sourcing timber as huge as those lost in the fire is like finding hens’ teeth (the rebuild at Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral is consuming a vast amount of the world’s supply of this kind of material, following the disastrous fire there). In a process of discussion with conservation planners at local level and Heritage England, it was agreed to use alternative materials where they couldn’t be seen. Hence the roof steel frame structure. From the family’s point of view, a steel framework, painted with fire retardant, intumescent paint will provide enormous peace of mind after the trauma of the fire.

Incidentally, here’s a little fact for you. The painters who apply the fire retardant paint will take over a week to do so, such is the surface area of the framework. It’ll be transformed from the rust-red to brilliant white!  

All best wishes

Ladybird Su