Seeing in the dark

Its boiling again in Betley Court Gardens, with temperatures up towards the thirties and higher temperatures on their way. There’s a general languor in the grounds. The squirrels are keeping to the leafy canopies of the trees, safe from the harsh rays of the sun. Parched pigeons struggle to take off when I approach with my squeaky wheelbarrow, their wings flapping wildly in the thick summer air.

Betley Court, under cover in the heat

There’s no respite from the sun’s heat under the temporary roof, where our roofers are keeping up the pace. The tiles on the southern elevation are almost complete on the flat areas. The challenge of tiling the conical roof areas begins!

Individually sawn battons, following the curve of the conical roof

Around the top of the walls, beautiful handcrafted wooden facias skirt the eaves of Betley Court. This is where our uniquely-cast heritage iron guttering will hang, eventually.

New facias around one of the bow sections

Restoration Tours

The former kitchen, part of the Restoration Tour. Photo Washington & Peart

We’re inviting people to have another chance to look around the ground floor rooms of Betley Court and see how we’re getting along. There’s the Nash Room, where you will find John Nash’s ‘iron-arch’ installed in 1810. We’ll also be taking visitors into the housekeeper’s room, the only room in the house where the ornate plasterwork survived the fire and the silver-safe. As Betley Court is still a working site, we’ll provide a hard hat and hi-viz jacket, and members of the Brown family will be on hand as guides. If you’d like to join us, there are some places still available. Over 12s only, and please wear stout footwear and suitable clothing. The tours are over the weekend of 20/21st August 2022. TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE

Going Batty!

We have had to extend the delay on replacing the tiles on the Royds House section of the house. Our second evening of bat surveying has confirmed there is a small roost to the northwest corner. Our ecologists have applied for a ‘Low Impact Bat License’ on our behalf, and when it is issued, we will have to add a few extra steps to the process of re-roofing. For example, we’ll need to hang bat houses in the trees, so that bats have an easily available alternative to roost in.

Bat-hunting outside Royds House

Talking to our ecologists from Rachel Hacking Ecology Ltd as they surveyed was fascinating. Andy explained the kit our three bat surveyors were using. There was a hand-held electronic device, an echolocator, about the sized of an e-book that picked up the sounds the bats made as they used echolocation to hunt their food; moths and midges on the wing. Every so often, an alien noise would be emitted from the device, as the screen lit up with a graph representing the passing bat’s call. Different bats vocalise at different frequencies, and this is how the ecologists distinguish what bats are present.

The hand-held echolocator

A number of bat species were detected during our visit by the audio frequency of their calls; brown long-eared bats Plecotus auratus, common pipistrelle Pipistellus pipistrellus, soprano pipistrelle P. pygmaeus, and the UK’s largest bat, the noctule Nyctalus noctule.

Bat waves! At this frequency, 55kHz tells us a brown long-eared bat has been detected

The other piece of equipment the ecologists brought was a heat sensor. Andy explained that this bit of kit was essentially a sight from a rifle, developed to aid game hunters and soldiers in their aim when shooting.

A rifle sight, like the one used to find our small bat roost.

Conservationists have repurposed it for a gentler pursuit, namely seeing in the dark.  Andy invited us to view through the device; it is held up to the eye like a telescope, and any warm-blooded creature within line of sight lit up with a ‘Readybrek’ glow. Heat sensors are really useful where light levels are low. Many bat colonies have been discovered in dark barns, or in roofs where they have wriggled intbetween the membrane layer and roof tiles to roost, outed by the heat of their bodies.

Bats in a roost, hanging from a roof, with their 'Readybrek' glow. Photo: unknown source.

Using this device helped the ecologists pinpoint the bat roost hidden in the eaves of Royds House. There may only be one bat roosting there, but it is protected by law, and now we know for certain where it is, we can work with ecologists to make sure no harm comes to it.

All best wishes

Ladybird Su