The Majestic Oak At A Glance
The legendary Major Oak in Sherwood Forest is reputed to have been the haunt and hiding place of Robin and his Merry Men. The oak’s acorns have been roasted and ground to make acorn coffee and its bark has been used to make a decoction for medicinal purposes. In the New Forest, commoners have the rights of Pannage, this means they are allowed to turn loose their pigs to gorge on the fallen acorns in the Autumn. Trees similar in appearance to the Oak first appear in the fossil records, the Cenozoic era; the age of mammals who filled the gap left by the extinction of the dinosaurs. Man has used the oak for many and varied purposes. It has been used for building homes (the Tudors built oak framed houses and barns) and making barrels and casks. Its bark has been used for tanning leather. Oak galls were crushed and mixed with water and iron solution to produce an indelible ink to write on vellum. Being indelible it was much prized for writing legal documents; the Magna Carta and the American Declaration of Independence were signed with such ink. In 1651 an oak tree hid a young Prince Charles, the future King Charles II following the battle of Worcester and in turn gave its name to many pubs. Countries have waged war on the strength of the oak; its timber being used to build Massive Warships like Henry VIII’s Mary Rose. England prided herself in her Navy and oaks were specifically chosen from the forests to provide the correctly shaped timbers needed to produce these big warships. The River Hamble had the necessary shelter and resources to facilitate the building of these ships between the 14th and 19th Centuries. A naval dockyard was then established at Portsmouth where building then took place, repairs being carried out on the Hamble. At Bucklers Hard on the River Beaulieu in the New Forest you can see for yourself the 18th Century ship building village where the ships were constructed for Nelson’s Fleet at Trafalgar. Having considered how we have made use of the oak for our own purposes, we should now focus our attention to what it gives back to the environment it lives in. Over 350 species of insect feed on the oak, and 30 lichens can be found on it. This makes it one of our most important trees. Little wasps lay their eggs on the developing buds and acorns causing a reaction from the tree. This is how oak apples and marble galls form. Inside these growths little wasp grubs munch merrily away safe from predators. One of our native butterflies , the Purple Hairstreak feeds on oak in its larval stage. If you want to see the adult insect though you will need a strong neck and a pair of binoculars. During July the adults fly around the tops of the trees, seldom venturing lower down. They feast on aphid dew secreted on the leaves by these sap suckers. They can occasionally be seen in the evenings coming down to flowers if there is not a lot of dew to be had. One of our biggest and most spectacular butterflies, the Purple Emperor feeds on Sallow, but having hatched tends to fly high up around the oak canopy looking for a mate and sparring with rivals. Fermyn Woods in Northamptonshire is a good place to see this magnificent insect. Another quite impressive insect to make use of the oak is the Oak Bush Cricket which roams around the tree looking for a tasty snack. Many moth larvae feed on oak providing food for the local bird population, as the tree gets older its broken branches provide nesting sites for all manner of birds. Woodpeckers and Nuthatches will hollow out rotten trunks and branches to provide a home for their chicks. Spiders and other insects live in the crevices and behind the peeling bark, in turn also providing a living larder for the birds to feed to their young. Even in death the tree provides for its surroundings, beetles lay their eggs in fissures in the bark and their grubs make short work of the dead wood, recycling it to provide nutrients for the next generation of trees. The Stag Beetle is the largest and most well known of these “recyclers”. Fungi also help to break down the dying trees, returning nutrients to the soil. The majestic oak tree has not only hidden Royalty, vagabonds and thieves, it also hides its own secret little world that we may be privileged to see and experience if we only have a little time and patience. 00
A Weekend Visit to Bergen
With short breaks becoming popular, Brian Spencer takes a two-day trip to Bergen, Norway’s Hansiatic sea-port link with an early version of the E.U. Gateway to the Fjords of Norway’s west coast, Bergen is classed as not only a European City of Culture, but a World Heritage City and UNESCO City of Gastronomy, as well as serving the needs of North Sea oil and gas installations. Despite being a vibrantly busy city, both commercially as well as historically, Bergen offers something for everyone, be it sight-seeing, cruising along the nearby fjords, or enjoying the readily accessible seven hills surrounding this fascinating city. An ‘on/off’ bus service runs round the city, giving an ideal way to get to know the place before actually starting to explore the place in detail. We began our visit by exploring the vibrant quays of a harbour that reaches right into the city centre. Being careful with our kroner because, let’s face it, Norway is expensive, but we found there are ways of keeping expenses in check, so we armed ourselves with Two-Day Bergen Cards that gave us free access or reduced prices to a wide range of places and activities. We bought these at Bergen Information Office down on the old fish market. Nowadays fresh fish is no longer sold from outdoor stalls, but from a modern indoor affair where everything that swims or crawls beneath the waves is on offer. Another cost-saving deal, at least for the over sixties, gives much reduced prices on public transport as well as cable cars and some buses. Simply asking for an ‘honor rabatt’, makes fares quite cheap. No need for an expensive rail card or bus pass, simply saying the magic words has the desired effect; I was once politely told off for not asking for my reduced fare. Following the quayside leads into to the oldest part of Bergen. Known as the Bryggen, the gabled frontage of steeply gabled timber old warehouses were once owned by merchant members of the German Hanseatic League. Wandering darkly into a warren of storage dens and box-like bedrooms, the place must have been hardly the pleasantest place to live and work, for the main trade was in dried cod. Still a popular ‘delicacy’ in some parts of Equatorial Africa, in days gone by dried fish was traded with Baltic countries in exchange for corn and timber. This organisation covered almost the whole of north-eastern Europe, extending even as far as East Anglia. A World Heritage Site, the very first buildings in Bergen were situated around the Bryggen, and soon became the most vibrant part of the city. Being mainly timber built the district was ravaged by fire many times, especially in 1702 when the whole area was reduced to ashes. Rebuilt on the old foundations, the Bryggen is virtually unchanged despite the passing of centuries, but where dried cod was once stored this has now become a popular museum, shopping and restaurant district. A stroll through Bryggen’s dark and narrow alleyways with their overhanging galleries is to step back in time to a bygone era. Continuing along the old wharf, past the mooring of the sailing ship ‘Statsraad Lehmkuhl’ which has visited Britain more than once as part of the Tall Ships Race, you will soon reach the fortress and its sixteenth-century Rozenkrantz Tower that once guarded the entrance to Bergen’s harbour. In 1665 during the Anglo-Dutch War, the Bergen Festning (Bergen Fortress), was inadvertently involved in a skirmish with ships of King Charles II. On 1st August 1665, the British fleet chased a Dutch convoy laden with gold and spices into Bergen Fjord. Thinking they were going to capture the Dutch fleet without any further problems, the English admiral was dismayed to find his fleet being fired at by the Norwegian fortress. Apparently King Frederick III of Denmark (Norway was then part of Denmark), had broken his treaty with Holland and given the English permission to attack the Dutch. Unfortunately his message never reached Bergen in time and so the Norwegians went to the aid of their Dutch allies. It was only after an emergency conference was held between the English admiral and the fort’s commander that the only war between Britain and Norway came to an end. Rather than walk back round the old quayside, a small ferry plies its way to and fro from beneath the castle walls over to the southern quays. Old streets of colourful timber-clad houses lead to one of the finest aquariums in Europe. Every marine situation is there from the underwater harbour-side scene, to a penguin pool where you can watch the underwater sporting antics of these active birds through reinforced glass. Composer Edvard Grieg’s home Troldhaugen stands on a southern headland away from the aquarium. Now a public museum to this great composer, concerts are held there and at Troldsalen in the city centre throughout the summer. The house is at Hop overlooking a beautiful forest glade, the perfect setting for his work. Grieg is probably the most well-known of a trio of composers who did much to put Bergen on the cultural map. Ole Bull and Harald Sæverud although not so well known internationally, became famous in their own way. Continuing round the aquarium headland, a side inlet with a series of sheltered anchorages is where the ferries to Denmark rest before returning south. Nearby is the quayside where Hurtigruten ferries turn every day before journeying back to Kirkenes on the Russian border in the far north. Carrying out a service which has run for well over a hundred years, the Hurtigruten (it means ‘fast route’), acts as a lifeline for the scores of places, large and small, that dot the frequently inaccessible length of Norway’s coast. We stayed at the Clarion Admiral Hotel on the southern side of the main harbour, directly opposite Bryggen and it couldn’t have been handier. Small local ferries plied from a stone’s throw from the hotel door. Had we the time we could
Taste Derbyshire – Rachael’s Secret Tea Room
‘Good afternoon Ms Volley, your mission – should you choose to accept it – is to drive to a secret location in the lush Derbyshire countryside and liaise with an operative bearing an orange teapot. Should you injure yourself in a rush to get up the garden path to eat buttered scones; the organisation cannot be held responsible. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds…’ Permission to eat baked goods in a mysterious location? Now that’s what I call Mission Possible. If there’s one thing I love more than tea and cakes; it’s a good mystery and putting them both together really tickles my fancy. Which is why I don’t want Rachael Hands – owner of Rachael’s secret tearoom – to tell me where she is located. “Can we meet in a car-park and you can blindfold me before you take me to your tea-room?” I ask when Rachael sensibly offers to send the address over on email. She has the patience to humour me; “Er, blindfold you? People may give us funny looks,” she says hesitantly before characteristically looking on the bright side. “But it’d be a good marketing ploy; why not?” The simple fact is there are hundreds of quaint, country tea-rooms in Derbyshire but what gets my juices really flowing is the ‘secret’ part. The exact place where Racheal’s guests will end up slurping their Lapsang Souchong is revealed only on booking. “I take a stall every year at The Roundhouse Christmas Market in Derby and people are always fascinated by the idea of a ‘secret’ tearoom,” she smiles. “But their next question is invariably – where is it?” Not that Rachael is falling for that one; ‘I do get people trying to get me to reveal my secret. The only thing I’ll say is it’s in Belper,” she explains. “I have to say this because guests sometimes imagine they might have to journey into the wilds of Scotland and they don’t want to drive too far. But most people love the idea of keeping the secret and – even if they’ve been – they won’t divulge it, even to their closest friends.” True to form, I will not reveal any clues about the location. The most I will tell you is that the quaint, vintage-inspired tea-room is situated in the home Rachael shares with husband Matt and that this cosy venue adds to the charm. “Like a lot of people, I’d always wanted to open a tea shop,” Rachael (45), explains when I ask her how the idea came about. “It may always have remained a pipe-dream but for an article in a woman’s magazine back in February 2012. I’d gone to have my hair done and I read this article about a lady called Lynn Hill who, at the time, was doing a secret tea room from her home in Leeds. I thought ‘I can do that’ and went straight home and emailed her.” Rachael was amazed to get a reply almost straight-away; “If I recall, she just told me to ‘go for it’,’ she laughs. “On a more practical level, she told me to start with family and friends just to see if it was something I really wanted to do and refine my ideas and recipes.” By September 2012, Rachael was ready to host her own event. “I do remember Matt asking if I’d be okay with strangers coming into the house. It wasn’t a worry as I love meeting people. I was more anxious about getting everything right,” she recalls. “That’s why the idea of the ‘secret’ tea room appealed. It’s not that I am a fan of mysteries – I just thought it would lower the risk. If I set up a tea room on a high street and it didn’t work, it would be devastating. As it’s a ‘secret’ tea room I could try it for six months without anyone knowing.” Rachael had no reason to be so worried. She started off with a full-time job in local government with the idea of hosting her secret shin-digs once a month. The events were so popular, Rachael cut down to part-time work so she could do them twice a week. In May 2014, she was finally able to leave her job and concentrate on the tea-room full-time. “I think when people first come they are intrigued by the secret location and not getting the address until the last-minute adds to the excitement,” Rachael says when asked about this success. “When they arrive at my door, I can see them almost thinking ‘I didn’t think I’d be coming here’ as it’s our home. But they love it for being so comfortable and cosy. I get a lot of repeat business. One mum and daughter have been around ten times. They’re always being asked about where the tea room is but they never tell as it would ruin the surprise. In fact, in six years – no one has ever revealed the location. They all buy into the fun of it.” The praise for her food is quite incredible for someone who admits that, while she was a keen cook, she hardly did any baking before launching her business. “It might be in the DNA. My parents used to own a bakery in Cromford until they sold it in 2006,” Rachael smiles. “I did help in the bakery and went on some of the delivery rounds and working in the shop but – other than having a few 5am starts – I had nothing to do with the bakery side.” Rachael turned to her favourite bakers, chefs and amateur bloggers to collate recipes and started experimenting to see which ones would work. She still devotes a lot of time to testing and tweaking recipes to delight her guests – making bubble gum flavoured macarons for instance – and adapting according to the seasons. “I love Autumn as it’s a time for using fruits like plums and berries in my recipes and I
Product Test – Boost Your Skin with Evolve Beauty
HYALURONIC EYE COMPLEX With Active Botanical Cells & Hyaluronic Acid 10ml £16 For all skin types Exotic Tuberose flower plant stem cells help to reduce the appearance of eye bags, fines lines and puffiness while firming and brightening the delicate eye area. Hyaluronic acid (known for its ability to hold up to 1000 times its weight in water), helps to reduce the appearance of wrinkles, making the skin look younger with an improved skin tone, whilst cucumber extract cools and soothes. The metal roller ball applicator helps to correct puffiness and signs of fatigue. ———————————————————- Directions: Roll gently to delicate eye area. Shake well before use. Great as a cooling pick me up throughout the day. (Note: Make sure you “shake to wake” in order to activate the rollerball). RAINFOREST RESCUE BLEMISH SERUM With Willow Bark, Acai & Copaiba 30ml £22 For oily and combination skin This natural yet powerful skin treatment can be used on blemish prone and congested skin at any age as well as oily and combination skin. Our Amazonian blend of Acai and Copaiba is proven to decrease sebum production and reduce the appearance of blemishes and open pores, leaving skin clear, calm and matte. Willow bark, a natural source of salicylic acid, helps to boost cell turnover and exfoliate without irritation, for a smooth and healthy looking complexion. ————————————————— Directions: Apply gently on clean skin morning and evening. DAILY RENEW FACIAL CREAM With Hyaluronic Acid and Argan 60ml £24 For normal to dry skin This moisturiser has intense nourishing, hydrating and effective anti-ageing properties and restores normal to dry skin with a blend of pure organic oils. Argan oil nourishes whilst natural hyaluronic acid soothes and hydrates. Delicately fragranced with soothing hypoallergenic vanilla & coconut natural fragrance. 99.75% NATURAL 32% ORGANIC TRIED & TESTED Rainforest Rescue Blemish Serum. This product is perfect for oily and combination skins. Its really light texture goes on easily and absorbs straight into your skin so you can apply makeup instantly. Its smells divine too. You can use it every day morning and night for more problem skin or just when blemishes appear. CB Hyaluronic Eye Complex This is a really handy product which glides on easily and sinks in really quickly. I can tell after a few weeks that my fine lines are less visible. Great. VP Daily Renew Facial Cream. This has the consistency of a mousse but is really rich. I had to leave it on a few minutes before I put my makeup on, but any dry patches soon disappeared which was lovely. I think this is a great cream for the winter months. JP 00
Walk Derbyshire – A walk around Ilam Hall
Tucked away on a bend of the Manifold river, Ilam Hall village was built in the 1820s on the instructions of Jesse Watts-Russell. The original Victorian houses of the village echo the fairy-tale image of the hall, built at a time when skilled labour was cheap. It was also a time when tenants could be moved at the whim of their landlords if, as in this case, he wanted more space or privacy. The Ilam Hall we see today, with its Tudor-style chimneys and mock Gothic architecture, is only part of the original building; the central tower and most of the formal rooms were demolished in the 1930s. The rest of the building was due to suffer the same fate when it was bought by Sir Robert McDougall, a Manchester businessman. He had the remaining parts of the hall made habitable and presented it, together with the grounds, to the National Trust, instructing that the hall be used as a youth hostel. Hall and village replaced dwellings of a much earlier vintage, whose history can be traced back to Saxon times. St Bertram, an early Christian missionary, hid himself in a cell near where the river bubbles to the surface below the hall. By his pious example, he persuaded the locals to abandon their pagan beliefs. It is possible he preached at the foot of the rough cross which now stands by his church. Carving on the cross is Viking, dating from around AD900-1000. The church was ‘improved’ by Watts-Russell and its original 17th – century lines are broken by an octagonal mausoleum. The shaft of another stone cross, known as the Battle Cross, was found in the foundations of a cottage during the rebuilding of the village. It now stands to one side of the riverside walk and is thought to commemorate a battle in AD1050 between local Saxons and invading Danes. The walk starts by following a riverside terrace where the 17th -century dramatist Congreve wrote part of his comedy ‘The Old Bachelor’, then climbs above Hinkley Wood on the opposite bank of the river. Crossing pasture, the walk then joins the abandoned turnpike road from Cheadle (Staffs) to South Yorkshire via Thorpe. The barely discernable line of the old road is followed to Coldwall Bridge where a left turn follows the river back to Ilam. The Walk : From the car park walk down steps towards the river and turn right along a terraced woodland and riverside path, passing St Bertram’s Well along the way. St Bertram lived in the little cave below which the river bubbles out from a rocky overhang. The water, part of the River Manifold, has travelled about 5 miles (8km) underground from Darfur Bridge near Wetton to emerge at this point. The trees being mostly beech are magnificent in their autumn colours. Battle Cross is a little further on along the path. Ignore the footbridge on the far side of a field as you pass, but turn left and cross the next and which starts almost next to the path you have followed. Go over the small field as far as a stile. Climb this and bear left, steeply uphill on a faint path close to the side of Hinkley Wood until the path joins a grassy track. Turn left along this and follow a boundary wall on your right. Pausing for breath, look back for the view of Ilam Hall seen through its sheltering trees. Beyond it rise Bunster Hill and Thorpe Cloud at the southern entrance to Dovedale. Cross the dip of a dry valley and aim for a broad track which curves uphill around wooded Hazelton Clump. Climb over an awkward stile and turn left along the metalled by-road. Follow it across Blore cross roads to Coldwall Farm. Turn left away from the road; go through the farmyard and into a field. Walk downhill, tracing the curving route of the abandoned turnpike road. The 16th-century farmhouse, which is set back from the road, was formerly Blore Hall. Walk down to the bridge, but do not cross and turn left keeping to the west (Blore side), of the river. At first follow a fence above the hawthorn-covered slopes until a gap gives access to the river bank. Follow the river upstream from Coldwall Bridge. Sturdy buttresses show how this long-abandoned bridge over the River Dove has outlasted its need. On reaching the road into Ilam village, climb the short flight of steps beside the bridge and turn right, past the memorial cross and into the village. Ilam village. The elaborate cross is a memorial to Mrs Watts-Russell, a constant reminder to the villagers of this not over-popular lady. Admire the attractive cottage gardens of the ‘ginger-bread’ styled cottages of Ilam Village. Turn left into the drive leading to Ilam Hall, then left again past Dovedale House and along a path to the church where a right turn reaches the hall. There is a National Trust shop and café in the grounds. [wpgmza id=”44″] Useful Information 4½ miles (7.2km). 393 feet (120 metres) of easy woodland ascent, with fieldpaths throughout. Refreshments at Ilam Hall. Nearest pubs at Thorpe and Alstonefield. Parking in the grounds of Ilam Hall near the youth hostel. 00
Taste Derbyshire – Charlies Garden
Every so often I get the urge to become a self-sufficient Earth goddess, growing gigantic marrows and making jam from fruit I have nurtured from a pip. Sadly, the only things which get to munch on my apples are worms and, once again, the rhubarb has wilted all over the path. Which is why I feel humbled, fascinated and thrilled to meet Charlie Stayt; a home-grower who utilises every nook and cranny of her pretty cottage garden as a bountiful larder which supplies food for her family and forms the basis of a thriving food business, Charlie’s Country Garden. In a whirl-wind tour of the lush, multi-level garden on a hillside in Bakewell, Charlie tells me why her shrubs, trees and plants are more than their leafy, flowering parts. The plant pots by the door contain everything Charlie could ever need for an instant salad. The clump of hot pink daisy flowers is echinacea; used as a tincture to treat family colds. The over-grown shrub is not simply there as shade for the patio – it’s a rosehip which Charlie plunders for fruit and turns into a syrup which has become a must-have for her older customers. “They remember it from their childhood and love its traditional flavour,” Charlie (40), says while showing me a green, as yet unripe, Rosehip berry. “But some of my customers say it has a beneficial effect on their joints. It’s also a good source of Vitamin C, as is my raspberry vinegar. You can use a dessert spoon of it in boiled water and gargle. It’s also great on salads.” And if Charlie’s own garden cannot come up with the goods; she’ll take a trip to her allotment – currently home to 30 fine lettuces – or embark on a foraging mission accompanied by partner Lee Woodall and children George, who is three and Robin, who has just turned one. “The Peak District is such a great location for us; we practically live outdoors,” Charlie says. “There are around four or five places along the Wye Valley which, in the Spring, are great for picking wild garlic. My customers cannot get enough of it. But we’re responsible foragers – we only take what we need and only a few leaves from each plant. Using this method, rather than taking from a few plants, can sometimes take up to two hours to collect five kilograms of wild garlic which is enough for a two-litre batch of pesto or salad dressing.” Talking to Charlie, you sense how important it is for each and every ingredient to be home-grown, foraged or donated by willing friends and neighbours (often in exchange for a jar of chutney or bottle of dressing). “We used to live in Devon but I can’t see us moving south again because people have been so friendly and supportive. For instance, I have a friend near Chesterfield who has an orchard and she lets me pick apples, pears and blackberries in return for a few lifts as she doesn’t drive,” Charlie explains. “I also have neighbours and customers who let me have their apples or rhubarb. I try to give them some of the finished products as a thank you – but they’ll usually only take one. I think they can see I’m just running a small company and people are happy to help.” Charlie is also keen to pass on support to other local businesses; “Lee and I hardly use the car as we like to support independent local shops. “I like to use local suppliers. My herbs come from Hathersage, I’ve picked berries at a nursery in Dronfield and the cold pressed rape seed is by Brock and Morton, who are based in Ashford in the Water. They don’t spray the crop and it’s got a lovely earthy, nutty flavour.” It’s clear Charlie puts her all into each and every product. Charlie’s jars and bottles are crammed with good stuff – her jam is 65 per cent fruit – and low in cheaper ingredients like vinegar and sugar. This explains why some customers arrange their holidays to the Peak District around Charlie’s appearances at local markets and food festivals. “I’d say 60 per cent of my customers are regulars – both locals and tourists. One lady plans her holidays around the wild garlic season in the spring so she can buy my pesto and dressing,” Charlie says. “The feed-back we get has been amazing.” Charlie has always had a fascination with the countryside and cooking; “My mum and gran inspired my love of cooking.” “I was the youngest of three and, when my mum went back to work part-time, I’d stay with my gran who lived in a picture-perfect Cotswold’s village called Laverton. My grandparents were farm workers and lived a traditional country life. They didn’t have a TV, telephone or car so we’d cook for hours often using berries we’d foraged on our walks.” Charlie’s gran died in 1996; “I inherited one of her cook books.” “It’s a National Trust cookery book and must be one of the first of its kind. It’s full of traditional recipes like the one for the rosehip syrup and something called ‘Imperial Pop’ which is a drink using ginger and spices made just after the war. It also shows you how to make jams, preserves and chutneys using ‘old fashioned’ fruits like quince and meddlers. I cherish this book so much, it’s full of her hand-written comments.” Charlie used her gran’s recipes as a basis for her own cookery; “I worked as a nanny for 18 years. One of the couples I worked for were big foodies and I’d help them cook for dinners and parties,” she explains. “They also had a huge orchard so I’d make things with the fruit like stewed apples, tarts, pies and sloe gin. I couldn’t bear fruit going to waste so I’d even take apples and pears to give out when I collected the children from school.” Charlie also
The Dahlias of Biddulph Grange Garden
A little way beyond the northern limits of the Potteries, just off the Congleton road, Biddulph Grange Garden is one of those places where each season has something to offer. It is this special changing of interest and variation of plants looking their best which draws us back, time after time. This year our visit coincided with the dahlias at their flamboyant best, but while admiring them we discovered a hidden secret in the history surrounding their position in this unique garden. Biddulph Grange Garden was created in 27years from 1842-1868 by James Bateman, a local businessman and his wife Maria, together with Edward Cooke, a marine artist friend. The garden was dug out of the side of a valley that flows down to the River Trent and by constructing ‘compartments’, microclimates were created to make homes for the trees and shrubs collected by famous plant explorers commissioned by Bateman. With differing areas created by the microclimates, the garden was divided into small, inter-connected zones, some warm, others damp and cool and sometimes almost shadeless. Each ‘compartment’ became home for magnificent trees, shrubs like rhododendrons, azaleas and ferns as they settled into a copy of their original environments. In this way it is possible to walk from country to country without travelling more than say, half a mile. Within the space of a few yards inter-connected rocky paths lead from Italy, to Asia, then onwards to a Scottish glen. Beyond a rocky tunnel the garden explorer will find themselves inside the tranquillity of a Chinese temple complete with tinkling bells and a bamboo shaded pond full of golden carp; a Willow Pattern bridge completes the effect of being on the other side of the world. Passing beneath the gaze of a magnificently gilded buffalo, the path climbs past a short section of the ‘Great Wall of China’, by way of a ‘stumpery’, inverted trees roots, to arrive at a half-timbered Cheshire cottage. Beyond the ‘cottage’ Egypt is described from the imagination of some Victorian sculptor who, it must be said had obviously never been to that ancient country. Round the corner from the rather strange reproductions of the sphynx and the ape god, Thoth, is the long double-sided avenue lined with Deodar Cedars, backed by Red Horse Chestnuts. Although still known by its original title of the Wellingtonia Avenue, there are no specimens of this most ancient of trees. They were removed by Robert Heath, a later owner of Biddulph Grange who possibly could not wait until the Giant Sequoias, Californian Redwoods, mature in 3,500 years. The beds where the dahlias we had come to see are grown, disappeared beneath a mountain of rubble during a less prosperous time for the garden. Throughout its life, Biddulph Grange and its garden has had several owners, many of whom could not afford, or be interested in its upkeep. Almost from the start, Bateman almost bankrupted himself with the cost of developing such an imaginative project. Other owners did not have quite the drive or interest as he had and to cap it all, the house was almost totally destroyed by fire in 1896. With the passing of time, two wars and sundry recessions, Biddulph Grange Garden became a vandalised wilderness. In 1923 the house was turned into a cottage hospital, then in the 1960s the NHS took over the hospital, but with the inevitable demands on finance the NHS could only afford to pay one gardener to care for the 15acre garden. Vandalism and neglect took its toll and it was at this time that the Dahlia Walk as it is called, was filled to the brim with rubble from building work on the hospital. What had been one of James Bateman’s pride and joys simply disappeared. When the National Trust took over the garden in April 1988, it embarked on its most ambitious restoration project: to return Biddulph to the glory of its Victorian heyday. Fortunately the garden despite its neglect was resilient and over the intervening years James and Maria’s vision came back to life. One of the major projects was to open up the Dahlia Walk, rediscovered in 1988, and this meant removing the tons of rubble and junk dumped there by builders. Beds making up the ‘Walk’ follow a gentle slope rising to the east towards the vantage point of the Shelter House. A series of neatly clipped yew hedges create small interlinking beds, each filled with what is possibly the most exotic plant to flower in British gardens. Dahlias similar to now extinct cultivars that were popular in Victorian times, together with herbaceous plants of which Mrs Bateman was especially fond make a pleasing spectacle in late summer, almost until the first frosts. Tight-headed pompoms vie with flamboyant larger flowered varieties, all in the brightest of colours bring the ‘Walk’ to life. This would surely have met with the Bateman’s approval, especially if the stroll leads up to the Shelter House, another result of the National Trust’s successful knack of restoring something for which only plans and old photographs remain. When the dahlias finish in autumn, the garden has one last explosion of colour as leaves on the deciduous trees turn to different shades of reds and yellow. 00
Restaurant Review – The Dovecote, Morley Hayes
As the year drifts slowly in to Autumn the chill in the air indicates that it’s time to put away the short sleeve shirts and shorts and consign the thoughts of dining al fresco to next Summer. The longer nights need a cosy atmosphere, pleasant surroundings, attentive service and, of course, excellent food. One Saturday evening, in search of this quartet of goodies, we made our way to Morley Hayes. The hotel and golf complex is home to three restaurants, The Dovecote, Roosters, and The Spike Bar, offering a range of dining experiences from fine dining to informal bar snacks. Our destination was the Dovecote; a restaurant that has earned a reputation as one of the finest in Derbyshire. We were greeted with a warm welcome as we stepped in to the stylish, contemporary surroundings of the Dovecote’s bar and without any fuss our pre-dinner drinks order was taken and canapés served. These were a selection of green and black olives and 2 bite sized tomato shortbreads toped with cream cheese and diced black olives. Ideal savoury accompaniments to the first drinks of the evening. We relaxed in the bar, chatted, read through the menu and with a little advice from restaurant manager Simon, made our choices. The chefs use seasonal, locally-sourced ingredients to create the mouth-watering menu, so local that the Dexter ribeye is from a farm in the neighbouring village. Just as we finished our drinks our waitress appeared and showed us to our candlelit table in the restaurant. The Dovecote’s interior has been designed in such a way that it doesn’t hide the original structure but still creates a variety of spaces and, with the creative use of lighting and fabrics, a cosy atmosphere. As we waited we nibbled on a selection of warm breads. For her starter Susan chose the duck liver parfait with cherries and whole wheat crackers. The fruity black cherry cut through the rich, silky-smooth parfait and, along with the crisp texture of the cracker, it created a perfect first course. I selected the cep mushroom velouté. The velouté was rich with mushroom flavour. It was served with pickled mushrooms and egg yoke on a lightly grilled piece of sour dough. This added a sweet note and a crisp texture in contrast to the earthy, smooth bowl of tasty mushrooms. Our mains arrived picture perfect. Susan’s was the dry aged duck breast which she’d asked to be served just a little pink. It was soft and perfectly pink. The sliced duck was served with crispy edged panhaggerty potatoes and French beans that had retained all their flavour and still had a little ‘snap’. A revelation was the elderberry sauce. It enhanced the duck with its floral taste; it was not too sweet and not too fruity. My main was the rare breed belly pork with sweetcorn, roasted shallots and char grilled baby leeks. This was served with a generous slice of Spanish morcilla sausage. The shallots and leeks complimented the melt in the mouth pork which had the ‘just right’ balance of meat to fat ratio. Susan chose a pleasant Sauvignon Blanc to go with her meal and I opted for a glass of Malbec; with its inky dark colour and robust tannins it was an ideal partner to the pork. We decided to end the evening with a dessert each. For Susan it was the Dovecote’s baba. A calvados soaked yeast cake; topped with fresh black berries and a quenelle of fruity ice cream. The treacle tart was my choice. An incredibly thin, crisp pastry case was filled with a toffee flavoured, treacle mixture that only attained its full sweetness when it warmed and hit the back of my mouth. A pudding from my childhood served with clotted cream. We thanked Simon and his staff for their faultless, professional service throughout the evening and made our way out to the well lit car park. It was a mild September evening and I wondered if perhaps Summer hadn’t quite said ‘goodbye’ to 2018. The Dovecote deserves its fine dining status. Within easy reach of Derby and Nottingham and set in the Derbyshire countryside with delightful views over the golf course, the restaurant is ideal for family celebrations or enjoying a quiet candle-lit meal for two. With set lunch and dinner menus along with an a la carte menu, you’ll be spoilt for choice. It also offers indulgent afternoon teas and champagne breakfasts for that special celebration. +10
Collecting Vintage Fountain Pens
When I was first sent to school it was de rigeur that one wrote in ink with a pen. As six and seven year olds we had cheap dip pens with a ceramic ink-well inserted into our desks, but by the time I reached prep school at ten one had to be equipped with a proper fountain pen along with a bottle of ink from which to refill it. Consequently, I was sent off on my first day in September 1955 with a blue Swan pen and an angular bottle of blue Waterman’s ink. Had I realised it, I should have kept that old pen (which I didn’t really like – I much preferred my friends’ Parker 51s), for vintage fountain pens (those made prior to 1960) are highly collectible. After centuries of writing with goose quills and later, pens with steel nibs dipped in ink, pens with internal ink reservoirs that were filled with eyedroppers called fountain pens slowly came into fashion from the mid-19th century. Yet they were notoriously fickle, routinely leaked and the flow of ink onto the writing surface was uneven. This changed in 1889 when Louis Waterman, an insurance salesman, developed a new type of ink feed that allowed air to flow into the pen as ink flowed out, reducing the number of ink blots and making the ink flow more reliably. Pens were at first of hard rubber but the discovery of Bakelite (followed by celluloid and plastic) made the mass production of such pens simple. Soon, firms like Waterman’s own, Parker, Shaeffer, Wahl-Eversharp, Conway Stewart and others (at first mostly American) began producing pens of increasing quality, and embellishing them with gold nibs, gold or gilt metal inlays and plastic bodies using increasingly diverse surface colourings and patterns. Other fountain-pen manufacturers from this era include Mabie, Todd & Company, whose top model was the Swan, like the one Mama pressed into my hand in 1955, and the Moore Pen Company, whose Maniflex pens (£70 and above today) often had gorgeous tiger-eye bodies. Aiken Lambert made pens with engraved, gilt or silver bodies; Gold Bond and John Holland made pens with equally beautiful plastic bodies; and Wahl ranged from metal to hard rubber, both of which featured Greek key patterns on their handling surfaces; its Doric pens from the 1930s are considered some of the handsomest ever made. The most elite category of vintage pens, include Dunhill-Namiki maki-e (Japanese lacquer). The urushi lacquer barrels were painstakingly decorated with layers of fine gold dust and other pigments, in a time-consuming process by a master artisan. First-rate early examples are notoriously rare, and have sold for over a quarter of a million dollars; a fine such pen was recently sold on E-bay for £138,346. Another prestige firm was German, founded in Hamburg in 1908: the Simplo Filler Pen Company whose Montblanc, with its built-in inkwell has survived the years in production. Montblanc first placed a white tip on the pens’ caps in 1910, this evolving in 1913 into a rounded star. A 1960s Monterosa version was sold at Bamfords for £195. The most collectable pens include the Waterman Ideal No. 52, a lever-filled pen that continued to be made between 1910 and 1934 with a hard rubber (or ebonite) barrel even after other manufacturers started making their barrels out of celluloid, later plastic. The nibs were both flexible and fine. Shaeffer’s were the first firm to turn to celluloid bodies, and used lever filling reservoirs from 1908. Like Conway Stewart, they also pioneered colour effects and overall shape, pioneering a move away from the strictly cylindrical, like their Balance pen. George Parker founded his company in 1888, later inventing a new type of feed called the ‘Lucky Curve’ that returned ink to the sac when the pen was stored, instead of drying in the feed and causing an ink blot when the pen was used again.1921 saw the first Parker Duofold, so named because it was claimed to be twice the pen that any other company could offer. The Duofold was originally available only in red hard rubber (the ‘Big Red’) and was also over-large – almost 51/2 inches long. The other of Parker success was the Parker 51, that was introduced in 1941 – a simple pen with clean lines, a hooded nib, not ornate, but one of the most popular of pens, being made in various degrees of ornament and quality for over thirty years. Prices used from £20 to as much as £300 – with gold trim and original case. We encountered Messrs. Wahl-Eversharp when I wrote about their Eversharp propelling pencils earlier this year. As a result, the firm didn’t begin manufacturing fountain pens until 1917. In 1931 the Doric was released, a twelve-sided pen inspired by ancient Greek architecture, later coming with their adjustable nib. They were later taken over by Parker. There are two areas of collecting, the vintage one (up to about 1960) as discussed here and modern, often limited edition, one, a chancier matter entirely. The two are very separate. In collecting, condition is, as ever, everything, especially with regard to nibs and filling mechanisms. Discolouration is a problem especially with early pens with bodies of hard rubber, bakelite and celluloid. Nibs should not have been bent and straightened. Whilst pens are rarely if ever going to be forgeries (there are reproductions, though but they are usually obvious) well concealed repairs are to be looked for – keep a loop handy. As with most things, the rarer a pen is, the more expensive it will be. Restored pens will command a higher price than pens in need of restoration. Gold nibs and furniture will be pricier than stainless steel and nickel-plated alternatives. Many excellent restored pens can be picked up for around £5-40 whilst for other good quality models you will be looking at £75 to £100 or more. A Parker Duofold Senior, for example, will usually an expenditure of over £160 when in good condition. Even
The Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Romeley Hall, Clowne
At Romeley, one gets two lost houses for the price of one. The early history of Romeley (or Romiley) in the extreme SW of the parish of Clowne, but often erroneously listed under Barlborough, is obscure to say the least, but the first we hear of a capatial mansion there is in 1455 when one on site was in the possession of Stephen atte Wode, (Wood), a member of the same Eckington family whose name later mutated into Sitwell, as of Renishaw. A descendant, William Wood sold the estate in 1604 to William Routhe of Birley and Waleswood (now Wales) both just over the county line in Yorkshire. They seem to have rebuilt the house in coursed rubble of High Hazels Coal, quarried locally, of which the main surviving doorcase is carved from a single block. Unfortunately, this house was abandoned towards the end of the nineteenth century, having been described as an ‘ancient farm house’ since the mid-18th century, in favour of a new house built contiguously, of which more anon. No illustration of the old house survives, but the L-shaped surviving portion has two storeys over a high basement, suggesting a house of some pretension, the more so for Thomas Bulmer in 1895 recorded a lost first floor long gallery of some sixty feet, a four yard (12 foot) square rannel balk and chimney and a kitchen fireplace boasting a twelve foot wide cambered bressumer, the latter still in situ (or was when Mick Stanley and I visited in 1980). The house under consideration today, however, is its successor, Romeley House, occasionally and confusingly also called Romeley Hall. This was built by Thomas Wright Bridgehouses, in Sheffield (1679-1741), who bought the estate from the heirs of Francis Routh of Brenley, Kent, whose father, Sir John, had left Yorkshire and had been financially hammered for loyalty to the King during the Civil War. This villa, built possibly as a place to which he could retire from the smoke and pollution of Georgian Sheffield, seems to have been erected immediately after his purchase in 1711. The need for a new house being that the Clayton family had a three-lives lease of the old hall and were still in occupation. In 1741 this new house passed to Wright’s nephew, Revd. Thomas Wright, who lived in the rectory at Birley, Yorkshire and did not use Romeley House, which fell into some disrepair by the 1780s. Thus in 1788 he sold house and estate to Daniel Thomas Hill. He was the well-heeled son of a London distiller, living near Aylesbury, Bucks., but had business interests locally, living at Chesterfield, where he died in 1811. Daniel Hill clearly had no desire to live at Romeley either, so he let the new house and estate for life to Dr. Thomas Gisborne (1725-1806), a member of a prominent local dynasty, a noted physician, Fellow of St. John’s Cambridge and President of the Royal College of Physicians in 1791, 1794 and 1796 to 1803. He had also been appointed Physician in Ordinary to George III on the recommendation of Erasmus Darwin, FRS, made when the latter had been approached but was keen to avoid being appointed himself.1 Although a bachelor, Gisborne decided to put the house into good repair and to improve it as a fashionable country seat for himself and to improve the setting to create a modest Elysium around it. The brick building he acquired was nothing if not architecturally quirky. It was of five closely- set bays facing south, with side elevations also of three bays, and boasted two storeys and attics. The main façade was notably arresting, rising from a prominent podium and approached by a full width set of stone steps with end and central balustrades. The ground floor was enclosed by angle pilasters rising above the plat band into plinths (or chimneys), whilst at first floor level the façade rose at a slope in a series of reverse curves separated by steps to attic level where they ended against two further full height pilasters which enclosed the central three bays and all of the attic, forming a sort of giant shaped gable. The attic itself consisted of a single sash flanked by a pair of blind lights. The windows had stone lintels and those on the ground floor moulded brick labels beneath the sills, although the sashes one sees on the only view of it, drawn by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (1733-1794) in 1774, probably replaced stone mullion-and-transom cross windows. There is a naive sophistication about this extraordinary provincial Baroque façade, and its impression on the viewer of a giant shaped pediment is very reminiscent of a group of south Yorkshire houses, one of them, Hellaby Hall, only some ten miles away at Maltby on the east edge of Rotherham, just north of Junction 32 of the M1. This was built on the same scale, with similarly shaped gable (albeit resting upon volutes) and banding, although its façade, of smooth local stone, is not broken up by odd pilasters as is Romeley’s. Another house, Grimethorpe Hall, just NE of Barnsley, is, like Romeley, in brick with stone dressings, and again of five bays. The pediment was once shaped but got simplified in a Georgian rebuild that led to the installation of sash windows. Both houses seem to lack the odd plasters, but in fact Grimethorpe does have attenuated ones to first floor level, flanking the entrance. Both houses have lain derelict and at risk for decades, although the former has been rescued and is now a thriving hotel. Hellaby was built in 1692 by West India merchant Ralph Fretwell (a remote descendant of the Freschevilles of Staveley), whilst Grimethorpe dates to a similar period – at least between 1670 and 1713 , being the adult lifetime of its builder Robert Se(a)ton. This trio probably owe their inspiration to Robert Trollope of York an architect who revelled in the provincial Baroque and who died in 1686 having designed a very similar but
