One For the Record

There’s an autumnal feel around the gardens at Betley Court. Broadleaf trees, under stress from the hot, dry summer have started shedding crisp leaves already, and Shane’s been out and about keeping the paths clear with the blower.

Following Nigel’s recent interview with BBC Radio Stoke’s Stuart George, Chris Steers, their social media journalist joined us for the day at Betley Court to find out more about the rebuild. He arrived dragging a wheelie suitcase, suggesting he was planning a long stay, but it turned out it contained a very impressive amount of kit; an iPhone, sound recording equipment, body mic, and complicated- looking tripod.

In the visitors hub, Nigel shows Chris photos explaining the events of the night of the fire

Chris started by asking about the history of the house, the fire, and getting some background information by looking at photos in the visitors’ hub. Then, we kitted him out in hard hat and hi-viz jacket and took him up onto the scaffolding to show him some of the sites of the rebuild in person. 

Up on the roof

First stop was the top of the house. Chris got Nigel to talk through some of the work that’s happening; the new masonry on the five urns on the eastern side, the crafted moulding around the eaves, the clean Vermont green tiling, before recording started. Then Chris mic’d Nigel up and began the interviews.

Surveying the new tiled roof

The interviews serve a number of purposes for the BBC; one, for the local news as a ‘drop in’ feature, an audio-only version for the radio, and another suitable for social media. Chris explained that many people, especially younger ones get their news via apps on their phones, rather than traditional news programmes on TV. News organisations are increasingly looking to how to reach those audiences, hence the move towards social media journalism.

Camera, action!

These interviews aways feel a bit awkward and artificial! It felt like Nigel was saying the same thing over and over again, repeating things until they stopped making sense. We also knew from previous experience that a fraction of the recorded material would be used.

In the Nash Room, as it is today

Filming in the hall

Chris explained that these short videos are really useful for the BBC at Stoke to drop into news programmes on a ‘light’ news day, to fill a news bulletin’s run time. For that reason, we don’t quite know when the videos from Betley Court will come out exactly, but you can see the one for social media on BBC Radio Stoke’s Facebook page:

Click here for the video

From our point of view, it’s been wonderful to have these videos made by BBC Stoke, over the last three years, marking our progress from the terrible night of the fire to the stage we are at now – approaching the completion of the external envelope. A snapshot of how it’s all going – one for the record, so’s to speak!

Thank you, Chris Steers and BBC Radio Stoke

All best wishes

Ladybird Su

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