We Meet Again

It been and exhausting week at Betley Court. We had two visitors’ days to prepare for, and one of the surviving apartments to make ready for the arrival of family members. In the end, the apartment wasn’t as finished as we would like, but it was at least serviceable enough to use. 

The gardens were putting on a good show, with our daffodils at their peak around the visitors’ hub, along with woodland plants like Brunnera, hellebores, primroses and oxlips blooming in the flowerbeds by the door.

Primula vulgaris

Brunnera, a forget-me-knot type flower with these amazing patterned leaves. This variety is 'Jack Frost'

Hellebore

Oxlip

We held two visitors’ days and the first was for our extended family, not having seem many of them since the start of the pandemic (or indeed, since before the fire in 2019).  It was an oddly emotional day, simply because ‘Betley Do’s’ hold quite a special place in Brown family life. My late in-laws, Freda and Godfrey aways had the space to host large family gatherings, so they did. Usually, every year, there would be a gathering of the clan. Cousins, aunties, uncles, old university friends, those special work colleagues that became true friends, and other ‘randoms’ (as my children would say) assembled and filled the house and gardens with laughter and love. Over the decades, we welcomed new arrivals to the family, and marked the passing of others. This ‘do’ was no exception, as we welcomed Big and Little, who joined the extended family during lockdown, and lifted a glass to Godfrey, who died 7^th April last year. Godfrey cherished these gatherings, and adored the opportunity (and the audience) to tell a tale or two about life at Betley Court and family life.

In side the house, in the drawing room.

I think Godfrey and Freda would have been pleased with our first gathering since the fire. We dressed everyone up in hard hats and hi-viz and took them on a tour of the rebuild site. On the one hand it was it was emotionally difficult showing the wider family around a house they knew quite well, now stripped of everything back to the bare bricks, devoid of anything that might make it recognisably the Brown family home. On the other hand, it was wonderful to show them how far we’ve come in the two and a half years since the fire. They have some idea of where we’re heading with the rebuild. And from day one, their support has been resounding.

One of the public groups, with Nigel explaining why the fire was quite so bad 

Looking at the roof rebuild

On Sunday, there were three tours for the public, and we were joined by Mark, our conservation architect to field any difficult questions. These were lovely, lively groups, and asked some great questions. Our sister-in-law, Bridget, visiting all the way from Australia heckled Nigel from the back, much to the amusement of our visitors. Anyway, these are some of the interesting facts that came to light on the tour (along with some comparisons I found on the internet):

• The roof frames are 13.4m across. That’s over 44’ in imperial, and about as long and one and a half London buses.
• The completed steel roof frame structure weighs in the region of 40 tonnes. That’s roughly the same weight as 11 adult hippos (a useful unit of measurement, I think you’ll agree).
•  It took a week to paint the steel roof frame with white intumescent paint (a coating that helps retard fire spread and protect steel beams).
•  Somewhere in the region of 25,000 roof tiles will be used to tile Betley Court, roughly in the proportion of 50% Vermont green slate from the US, and 50% Welsh slate from Penryn quarries.
•  As in the olden days, when the roof was first conceived, green Vermont slate will cover the ‘posh’ bit of the house, and the Welsh grey the former servants’ quarters when the roof is complete.
•   99 windows will need to be replaced or repaired. Around 60 will be new windows, 20 of them with handmade curved glass. I had no idea Betley Court had so many windows. From an insurance point of view, curved glass windows are a very silly idea.
•   Approximately 200 tonnes of ash and debris were removed from the house in the months following the fire, about the weight of an average sized locomotive train.

On the subject of the roof, Nigel’s been doing some digging. We originally believed the green slate we lost in the fire originated from Cumbria – it is known as Westmorland slate. However, Nigel’s been reading a couple of books, and also chatting a lot with our architect, Mark about Georgian country houses and found out this little gem of information. In the Georgian era, lots of goods were being exported to north America as it was colonised by Europeans. Unloaded ships are not only less stable (remember, this was the age of the mighty wooden ships powered by wind and sail), but it was economically expedient to fill the holds of the vessels with useful materials (often minerals or timber) or products for the return journey.

A sailing ship of the Georgian era

For example, ships that came back from China loaded with tea, returned filled with pottery and other consumer goods. Similarly, Vermont slate was quarried and used to fill ships as ballast for the journey back from north America. So, there’s a good chance Betley Court’s green tiles originally came from across the Atlantic Ocean! Who’d have thought it?

All best wishes

Ladybird Su