What Might Have Been

Last Thursday, I gave a talk at Betley Local History Society talk. It was a good turn out, and there were some great questions at the end . One gentleman asked if the terrace and parterre at Rode Hall, a Georgian mansion about 10 miles from Betley Court and the seat of the Wilbraham family for many generations, was related to ours at all? His reasoning was that they shared a style; levelled lawns punctuated by geometric flowerbeds.

Giving my talk at the Betley Local History Society (photo: Nigel Brown)

Our audience member was correct in that both terraces are Victorian in style. However, our terrace and parterre were designed by William Barron in 1865. Rode Hall’s Rose Garden, a geometrical series of flowerbeds filled with Rosa cultivars was designed in 1861 by another notable Victorian garden designer, William Andrews Nesfield.

Rose Garden designed by WA Nesfield (photo : creativetourist.com)

The parterre and terrace at Betley Court were very nearly designed by Nesfield though. Plans held at Staffordshire County Records Office in the William Salt Library, Stafford show that Thomas Fletcher Twemlow (TFT) commissioned Nesfield to design a new scheme for the gardens in front of the house. Nesfield also reimagined the courtyard to the front of the house.

Nesfield's design for Betley Court Gardens (William Salt Library)

Had Nesfield’s design been adopted, Emes’ haha would have been replaced with a “low parapet wall” (the blue arc across the toprighthand corner), and he even provides a drawing giving a suggestion for brickwork patterns.

Proposed patterns in cloured brick for the low parapet wall (William Salt Library)

The terrace is centred on Betley Court’s drawing room with a similar raised terrace as is seen today, with steps down to a large gravelled circular area with “circumscribing beds for late flowers with box”. In the centre lies a “circular compartment of Beds for low flowers centred by a Tazza[1] on a grass circle (kerbed) – beds and embroidery in box and alleys top dressed with coloured gravels”.

Nesfield's design with a tazza in the middle for flowers

A Victorian tazza (photo: www.gardensdirect.com)

Where trees and shrubs are retained from the earlier garden, Nesfield proposes matching them symmetrically to balance the design. As for other planting, dwarf standard rhododendrons, Spanish juniper, Phillyrea and “Arbor Vitea” [Thuja occidentalis] indicate that evergreens were preferred for shrubs in this scheme. There were pyramids for roses to break up the green too.

Recognising that various extensions to Betley Court had interupted the Georgian symmetry, Nesfield also proposed changes to the fore court, which boasted a circular 'carriage sweep' and a central entrance gate, along with ornamental brickwork gateways

Nesfield's proposal for the fore court (William Salt Library)

Design for the fore court by Nesfield (William Salt Library)

Ornamental brickwork gateways (William Salt Library)

Sadly, for Nesfield, TFT seemed to prefer William Barron’s design, and with a few amendments, that was the scheme that was built in 1865. Nesfield’s vision exists only as a series of plans and sketches of what might have been.

The gazebo, Betley Court Gardens (photo: Su Hurrell/Ladybirdsu)

Bluebell Walks 2023

Our annual Betley Court Bluebell Walk is this coming weekend – 29/30^th April 2023. We’re open from 1-4pm. £5pp, children under 12 free. Pay on the gate on the day or book via our website: www.betleycourtgardens.co.uk/events . Well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome. Hope to see you there!

All best wishes

Ladybird Su

 

 

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[1] Tazza: a low wide cup-shaped planting container on a short stem