Happy New Year, 2023

I know I’m a bit late saying it, but everyone at Betley Court wishes all our readers a happy New Year. It has been great to get a proper break over Christmas, and Nigel and I, along with the wider Brown family are enjoying planning the year ahead at Betley Court Gardens.

In the gardens...

Sweet peas, autumn sowings, ready for later in the spring

After the cold snap before Christmas, the weather has been comparatively mid, with temperatures in our part of North Staffordshire up into the teens! Snowdrops are already bursting through the surface of the soil, heralding the spring. Autumn sowings of annuals like sweet peas are developing well, ready for me and Tanya to plant later in the year. For the time being they are protected in tough plastic storage boxes in lieu of cold frames.

Tough storage boxes make excellent cold frames!

Rebuild Latest...

Building work on Betley Court paused over Christmas, but locals in Betley will have noticed we’ve removed a fair amount of scaffolding, which allowed our main contractors, Midland Conservation Ltd to get in and install much of the guttering. The removal of the temporary roof has allowed us to see how the roof performs in the rain, and so far, its looking very good! No major water ingress (one drip!) on a roof that size is quite an achievement! Phew!

The new roofscape, keeping Betley Court dry (photo: Washington & Peart)

What has been lovely is receiving several comments via social media from villagers saying how pleased they are to see Betley Court emerging from the scaffold wrap. Once we knew rebuilding the Court would be possible, one of the Brown family’s aims for the rebuild is to return its familiar silhouette to the street scene; and we’re nearly there!

Newly installed windows, installed tail-end of 2022 (photo: Washington & Peart)

We’ve had a slight delay in the installation of the new windows. The manufacture and supply of curved glass has been held up. As we have somewhere in the region of 18 such curved windows, it is a bit frustrating, however, we are where we are. Curved glass is not something that can be bought off the shelf, and is being made especially for our window units.

Our curved window apertures, awaiting their frames and glass (photo: Washington & Peart)

Every single pane starts as a flat sheet and is ‘slumped’ (gently heated so it melts and bends) into a curved mould, in a kiln fired to 700˚ C. Sometimes heated rotating elements are used to achieve the curve. Derek, our site manager pointed out, glass, especially when it is curved is quite unforgiving to work with, and won’t flex at all if there is a bad fit. It’s all in the hands of the craftspeople making it now, so hopefully, we should some progress soon. 

Betley Local History Society talk...

Finally, for those readers living locally, I’m giving another talk to the Betley Local History Society on the 19^th January 2023, at Betley Methodist Chapel at 7.30pm. The talk will be based around some aspects of the history of the garden, and what we have planned for the future. There is a small charge for non-members, I believe. Nigel will bring some copies of his father’s book “This Old House” if anyone would like a copy (£10). Hope to see some of you there!

All best wishes

Ladybird Su