Discovering Betley Court's History

I mentioned last week that Nigel was invited to give a talk at Betley Local History Society. This duly took place on Thursday (19th May 2022). Nigel chose his title, “Betley Court – Discovering its History” some months ago, and he hoped that the title was sufficiently broad that it gave him some scope to encompass a number of disparate discoveries we’ve made during the rebuild. As tends to happen, time flew by, and suddenly the date of the talk arrived. 

Nigel marshalled his stories, made up of some of his favourite discoveries from the last two and a half years, into what he felt would be an interesting talk. So, on Thursday evening, just as the sun set to the west of the village, we walked up The Butts (a picturesque, cobbled back lane leading from Main Road to St Margaret’s church) to the Methodist Chapel. I’m not sure what Thomas Fletcher Twemlow (who despised Methodism so much he bricked up windows in Betley Court that the chapel could be seen from) would have made of family from Betley Court frequenting the nonconformist building!

Betley Methodist Chapel, in The Butts, Betley village. (photo from St Margeret's Church website)

Tony and Shirley from BLHS reorganised the chapel to create a lecture theatre, with rows of socially distanced seats, along with a projection screen and AV (audio/visual) technology for Nigel’s slide presentation. Tony loaded the slides into his laptop, and reassured us that, “everyone will arrive all at once at 7.25”. Pretty much everyone had arrived by 7.25pm, membership subscriptions renewed (including ours) and exchanges of personal news given. As if to remind this small-town girl that we were in the countryside, there was talk of escaped livestock, the impregnating of cows, and to complete the picture, as the talk started, a horse clip-clopped past the open doors of the chapel. It was a picture-perfect snapshot of the English rural idyll! 

As I said, Nigel’s talk pulled together some of the interesting things we’ve found out during the rebuild of Betley Court. A wealth of new information has come to light, primarily due the fire we suffered in 2019. No one in their right mind would pull the plaster off a Georgian country house to discover how the thing was built. However, as we lost practically all of ours, we can see the interior brick walls in all their glory, throughout the majority of the house. Nigel shared photos of rediscovered doorways and windows, and a new theory of house the house was developed over three-hundred-years. Much of this goes against what was understood to be how Betley Court was built (including the Royal Commission of Historic Monument’s assertion that an oval staircase was once installed within in Betley Court ). We ended the evening with teas and coffees, and Shrewsbury cakes, a sort of biscuit made to a Georgian recipe. 

With the plaster off the walls, we are discovering new facts about how the house was constructed

One of our unanswered mysteries, scrawled into the brick - who was "EJ"?

Why are some historical plans, like this drawing by Francis Randle Twemlow's book "Twemlows, Their Wives and Their Homes" at odds with what we've found under the plaster during the rebuild?

Many people had questions for both for me and Nigel, and we were touched by the positivity shown towards our efforts to rebuild Betley Court. Through the wonders of technology, we’re able to share the talk with you through YouTube, [LINK TO VIDEO] and you can see if you agree with Nigel’s theories or not. From my point of view, many of the new theories Nigel, our conservation architect, Mark and our builders are coming up with certainly make sense of some of the inconstancies that have come to light during the rebuild. But I still like the idea that an old lady like Betley Court keeps some secrets to herself! 

All best wishes Ladybird Su 

This Old House by Godfrey N Brown is available as a facsimile copy from Betley Court at £10