An Old, New Build

 

Autumn seems to have arrived all at once this year at Betley Court Gardens, with colour on trees changing and a continuous stream of leaves fluttering down onto the footpaths. We’ve spotted skeins of geese flapping noisily in formation over the gardens, as they begin their annual flight south. A multitude of fungi erupt from tree stumps, heralding the march towards winter.

View from the dam at the fish pond

Nigel, readying the gardens for visitors. This is the lifebouy for the lake.

We had a lovely weekend opening of the gardens. The weather held surprisingly well on the Saturday and we had a steady flow of visitors. Some lingered in the visitors’ hub to ask questions about the rebuild, which was really interesting for us. Nigel even produced a sample tile from the office to illustrate what a difference the new materials will make. One visitor pointed out that, “well, of course the new tiles will weather in, with moss and lichen and bird droppings. Every bit of that building looked like a new build once, when the bricks were first laid”.

Our visitor has a point. Whilst perusing a second-hand book shop on a recent steam train trip from Crewe to Carlisle I came across Arthur Mee’s Staffordshire, one of his “King’s England” series of books that surveyed the English counties.

Arthur Mee (1875-1943), best known for his 'King's England' series of books, and The Children's Encyclopaedia

It attempts to give a flavour of the county of Staffordshire, with descriptions of places and building of note. Betley Court gets its own brief mention;

“Betley Court is a long modern house snug behind its high wall”

A modern house? How could this be? The book was published in 1932, making Betley Court 216 years-old at the time of publication. Hardly “modern”! Had Arthur spent an extended lunchbreak enjoying enough beer at The Swan to impair his faculties? Highly unlikely, as he was involved in the temperance movement. So, why is his description quite so adrift, given this author was famous for producing learned volumes such as The Children’s Encyclopaedia, and valued as an author of factual information. He worked with a small team of researchers, so perhaps one of them was responsible for Betley Court’s odd entry. However, I think there is a much more probable reason.  

Caroe's portico (photo taken shortly after the fire in 2019). Could this possibly explain Arthur Mee's description of Betley Court as 'modern'?

George Fletcher-Twemlow, the penultimate Squire of Betley employed the architect William Douglas Caroe to make improvements to Betley Court in the early decades of the 20^th century. He’d first engaged Caroe to redesign another property he owned, Aqualate Hall in Shropshire; strangely enough, after it was extensively damaged by fire. Caroe was commissioned to create a new portico to replace the triumphal arch of the Victorian era, a bathroom and a “gentlemens’s WC”, amongst other works.

William Douglas Caroe, architect (1857-1938)

Professor Brown estimated that work on the portico was finished, “as late as 1923”, so when Arthur Mee passed by Betley Court as he researched his book, the frontage he saw facing the road was in parts less than ten years old. Perhaps that fact accounts for Betley Court’s ‘modern’ description? A sort of 'new, old build' or an 'an old, new build'

All best wishes

Ladybird Su