A Bittersweet Moment

 

Almost as soon as I pressed ‘publish’ on last week’s post from Betley Court Gardens, a flurry of phone calls took place about the temporary roof being dismantled.  I’m afraid to say, that after much discussion, the removal of the top part of our huge scaffold structure won’t be starting on Monday (7/11/22) as stated. When Nigel and I had a look at progress on Friday (28/10/22), it was clear that finishing the tiling is a good few weeks off. Everyone agreed, so we've decided to keep the temporary roof on a little longer. We’ll update every one via social media when we know a new date for the big reveal of our new roof; fingers crossed later this month!

The two conical roofs, coming along nicley

Underneath the temporary roof, it is the conical sections that are being worked on. On Friday, these had been tiled to about half way up the cones. I’m not a tiling expert, but as the tiles go higher, and smaller, it looks like it becomes increasingly more complex task to fit the tiles. Lightweight aluminium ladders carefully rest upon the roofs on leftover foam insulation, and then secured to the scaffolding decks. It still looks like a precarious position to work!

 

Tools of the trade - tile cutter and bucket (Nigel's collecting the slate to use as decorative mulch around the garden)

The conical roof over what was Caroe Corner - note the green Vermont slate (left) against the Festiniog grey slate (right)

Internally, many of the crash decks have been removed, allowing us to see the shape of the house again. It was a bittersweet moment when I walked into the hall of the main house on Friday. Midlands Conservation Ltd have rebuilt supporting archways; it is recognisably the entrance to Betley Court. We can see the ‘bones’ of the house again, which is a joy. Yet, what exists now is in stark contrast to a snapshot taken in happier times, of my late father-in-law, Godfrey, on display in the visitors’ hub. He’s caught in a candid pose, dressed in a zip-up cardigan and slippers, at Christmas. His figure is framed by the ornate plasterwork of William Douglas Caröe’s design for the hallway created just over a century ago, and he is surrounded by the furniture and nick-nackery of Brown family life. Whilst all of that has gone, it is not so much of a far-off dream to see the rooms being habitable once again. Simultaneously daunting and exciting!

The hallway of Betley Court now

Godfrey (Prof Brown) in the hallway one Christmas, against a backdrop of Douglas Caröes' ornate plasterwork

Around the grounds

Finally, this week I was out in the gardens wit
h our volunteer, Tanya, when I spotted what I thought was a carelessly discarded orange peel on a path. I made a mental note that we perhaps needed to provide more bins for the contractors, but on closer inspection, it turned out to be a brightly-coloured fungus nestling in the gravel. The colour I would describe as ‘B & Q orange’ but Tanya thought more of a hi-viz jacket orange. When I looked it up later, it turned out to be the brilliantly named orange peel fungus (Aleuria aurantia). The orange peel I’d spotted was actually the fruiting body of the fungus.

An unusual find - orange peel fungus (Aleuria aurantia)

It’s the first time I can recall seeing this in the garden. Good old Wikipedia tells me it’s edible (please check with an expert before tucking into foraged fungi as it is easily mistaken for other toxic fungi), but not really worth harvesting as it is difficult to remove intact. It grows on disturbed ground, which makes sense as where I found it was greatly disturbed during work to install the visitors’ hub. After more than a quarter of a century enjoying the gardens at Betley Court, it is lovely to find a new species to marvel at.

All best wishes

Ladybird Su