Views

Reconnection

Issue 53 Autumn 2016 Views

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. ‘ William Shakespeare’ Reconnection

Issue 53 Autumn 2016 Editorial information Guidelines for contributors

Views is compiled and edited by Jacky Ferneyhough. Credit and Views is intended as a free exchange of ideas, experiences and thanks are due to Anthony Lambert for his efficient proofreading. practices. Comments and contributions are welcomed at any time All queries associated with Views should be emailed to from the Views readership. However, if a contributor’s opinion differs [email protected] widely from policies and practices endorsed by the National Trust, The opinions expressed are the author’s own and not necessarily we may wish to discuss with the contributor the best way to those of the National Trust. represent their view, whilst also giving space for the Trust’s approach This publication may be freely copied for the Trust’s internal to be stated in the same or a future edition. purposes but, if directly quoted, acknowledgement of source should Articles containing what could be interpreted as negative references be given. Permission must be sought from the Editor before to a named or identifiable individual within the Trust, their work or reproducing articles in external publications. opinions, will be cleared with that person before publication.

Please email articles to [email protected]

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Front cover: The Intending Lines artwork by Red Earth at Berrington Hall. Printed on 100% recycled paper © Red Earth © 2016 National Trust. Registered charity no. 205846 Small images from left: Robert Hunter, one of the Trust’s founders. Designed by Blacker Limited © National Trust Images; A member of the Young Roots archaeology group Print managed by Park Lane Press connects to the past through a find. © National Trust/Rachael Hall; A demonstration of painting conservation at Attingham Park. © National Trust/Sarah Kay; Pond-dipping at Colby Woodland Garden. © National Trust Images/Chris Lacey Page 1: Child touching lichen at Trelissick. © National Trust Images/John Millar Page 3: Walker at Surprise View above Derwentwater, Cumbria. © National Trust Images/Paul Harris

2 Views Editorial

econnection lies at the heart of so Joining up nature through the provision of astonishing – who would have thought the much of the Trust’s work that it’s a better, more connected habitats is a key way unassuming corridors of our houses would Rgreat topic for Views to address. It in which we’ll deliver our objective of nursing have so many stories to tell? – and this issue has proved enormously popular with our the nation’s natural environment back to more than most has had authors digging contributors; hence this bumper edition. health, as enshrined in our strategy. deep into the largely unknown histories of As a society we have become increasingly And helping people to connect more our places. The challenge of finding a fresh disconnected in many ways. Technology, closely and become more engaged with their approach to engage and enthral our visitors digitisation, mobility, development, local green spaces and built heritage is is one that would seem both to be being economic growth and globalisation have all central to our strategy’s ambition to help relished and very often met. That it is done brought benefits, but some downsides too. people look after the places where they live. through carrying out our core purpose and In the Trust we can play an important role in All these aspects and more are covered in demonstrating conservation principles is all helping to reconnect people with places, this edition. This year’s articles testify to the the more rewarding. with our heritage, with nature and with each creativity and skill that exist at our places, other. We can also help to reconnect nature the teamwork that carries and achieves our Whatever your particular role or interest, itself – the habitats on which it depends ambitions, a focus on nothing less than the there is something for you here. Enjoy! have become increasingly fragmented over highest standards or best outcome, and a the last half-century through industrialised commitment to seeing a job through. Peter Nixon farming and infrastructure development. Reading Views is at once inspiring and Director of Land, Landscape and Nature

What a Views! The theme for Views 2017 is ‘Movers and Shapers’ – we want to hear about You can help us make the 2017 issue of Views the key factors influencing your management approach, shaping change on a fantastic reading experience! If you’re doing and off your property, the trends and the people you’re watching and what’s something you find interesting, we’d love to moving in/out. Whether your interest is nature, people, places or collections, hear about it. Tell us what you’ve tried, what share your stories! Deadlines will be between 21 May and 1 June 2017. you’ve learned and what you’ve achieved or However, articles and recommendations of authors/projects are welcomed at are planning to do next. any time; send them to [email protected]

Views 3 Contents

41 The Attingham Re-discovered project: reconnecting with Attingham’s visitors Sarah Kay, Project Curator 43 Reconnecting with Croome’s Landscapes retouched Growing connections collection: redefining a country-house experience 6 Reconnecting with our roots: 25 Lessons from Japan’s divine Amy Forster, House & Visitor Experience Manager helping urban green spaces gardens survive in the twenty-first Katie Croft, Gardener 45 Unlocking the National Trust’s century furniture: introducing a new Harry Bowell, Director of the North 28 Weaving echoes of Dyrham’s research project past into a twenty-first- Wolf Burchard, Furniture Research 8 A very capable year: century garden Curator celebrating the life and times Beth Weston, Outdoor Visitor and of ‘Capability’ Brown and the Volunteering Experience Officer 47 Sharing our history influence of his work today Sarah Kay, Project Curator Mark Lamey, Capability Brown 31 Growing gardeners: garden Tercentenary Project Manager training through the ages 48 Waddesdon Manor: the Kate Nicoll, National Specialist for Rothschild’s gift to the 11 Stowe Landscape Project Garden Training National Trust 2016: a focus on the 34 Room to grow: plant Linzi Grimwood, Visitor Services ‘Capability’ Brown landscape Assistant Christine Walmsley, Consultancy recording in the National Manager; Tom Boggis, Curator; Fred Trust 50 ‘A much-loved family home’: Markland, Building Surveyor; and Barry Franklyn Tancock, former Plant reconnecting with the Beale Smith, Head of Gardens and Estates Collection Curator family at Standen Anne F. Stutchbury, Volunteer 13 Georgian glories Researcher and AHRC collaborative Ana Vaughan, Visitor Experience doctoral researcher, University of Sussex Manager 53 Reconnecting with the Edge 15 Lost in the woods: finding Christopher Widger, Countryside Attingham Park’s lost Manager, and John Prag, Co-ordinator, Pleasure Grounds Alderley Edge Landscape Project Bob Thurston, Countryside Parks and Revelation and Gardens Manager 55 Step into Brimham reconnection Stephen Lewis and Rupert Tillyard, Day 18 Room for gloom: restoring Maker Volunteers Kedleston’s eighteenth- century Hermitage 36 Rainham Hall: opening a 57 Kinver Edge and the Rock Simon McCormack, Conservation National Trust property in Houses Manager, and Danielle Westerhof, an urban and industrial Peter Hodges, Volunteer Researcher and freelance historian, librarian and writer landscape Writer Sally James, Creative Programme 20 Visions from the past: Manager 59 Related by water, unbroken by celebrating ‘Capability’ time: the River Wey family Brown’s legacy at Sheffield 39 Reconnecting Polesden Emma Goodwin, Lengthsman Park Lacey with its pasts Rebecca Steel, Retail Assistant and Katarina Robinson, Conservation and 62 ‘Belton Remembers’ freelance writer Engagement Assistant Rachael Hall, Archaeologist 22 Joining the dots, from present to past Tom Dommett, Archaeologist

4 Views 65 Touched by the past: 87 Eclectic, exotic and 106 Daring to be wild: a researching Ickworth’s definitely unexpected personal view on rewilding forgotten war stories Sash Giles, Assistant House & in practice Chloe Woodrow, House and Collections Manager Joanne Hodgkins, Wildlife & Collections Manager Countryside Adviser 89 Location, Location, Location 67 EvacQEs: a lost story from Jan Brookes-Bullen, House & 108 Finders, seekers: what’s Fountains Abbey and Collections Manager behind our deep connection Studley Royal with nature? Emma Manners, Learning and Access Matthew Oates, National Specialist Officer on Nature 69 The Battle of Berkhamsted 109 Ancient fraternity: what we Common can learn from the Emily Smith, Ranger, Ashridge Estate Borrowdale Yews Maurice Pankhurst, Woodland Building connections Ranger; Stuart A’Hara, Research Scientist, and Joan Cottrell, Programme Group Manager, Forest 92 Mitigating ‘disconnection’: Research the effects of HS2 on people, places and wildlife 112 Spreading out: growing the Ben Middlemiss, HS2 Senior Project & hanging woods of Wales Stakeholder Manager Gwen Potter, Area Ranger Revealing corridors 94 Using green bridges to 113 Nibbled nut project graze a landscape-scale Kate Price, Assistant Ranger 71 The case of the Dog-Leg nature reserve Corridor Lesley Jenkins, Volunteer Ranger, and 115 Creating wildflower-rich Ben Dale, House Manager Maddie Downes, Ranger grasslands and heath on former agricultural land 73 More than it seems: 97 A bridge too far: dealing Janet Lister, Wildlife & Countryside Montacute’s corridor with the aftermath of the Adviser Barbara Wood, Curator Boxing Day floods Andrew Marsh, Ranger 116 Moving to a more natural 75 The secret beneath a Yorkshire Dales corridor at Seaton Delaval 100 A guide to growing your Peter Welsh, Ecologist Hall own cabin John Wynn Griffiths, Conservator John Whitley, Lead Ranger 119 Coastal connections Emma Franks, Morecambe Bay 78 Corridors of light: the design 102 The restoration of Clytha Coastal Ranger and conservation of the oriel Park’s greenhouses 120 Forecast changeable: facing window at Castle Drogo Isabelle Marty, Collections up to climate change Bryher Mason, House & Collections Management Team Manager indoors and outdoors Mark Roberts, National Specialist, 80 Marching on: a most moving Water; Katy Lithgow, Head mosaic floor Conservator; and Lizzy Carlyle, Head of Environmental Practices Paul Holden, House and Collections Manager 124 Beyond floods and 82 Cragside’s tiled corridors droughts: linking communities and John Wynn Griffiths, Conservator Reconnecting to the natural world catchments 84 The Armoury Corridor at Stewart Clarke, National Specialist, Waddesdon Manor Freshwater & Estuaries; John Malley, Water Adviser; Mark Roberts, Phillippa Plock, Curator (Web Content) 103 How wild can we be? National Specialist, Water; and David Bullock, Head of Nature Christine Stevens, Catchments in 86 From club to corridor: a Conservation Trust Project Officer home for Grillions Denise Melhuish, House and Collections Manager

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Reconnecting with our roots: helping urban green spaces survive in the twenty-first century Harry Bowell, Director of the North

Just pause for a moment… So, whilst our internal rules on The challenges faced by green space acquisition of places and subsequent in urban environments What is the National Trust trying to achieve? declaration of inalienability have I don’t mean: what are our Key Performance understandably restricted us to taking on Octavia Hill and Robert Hunter were hugely Indicators, or what are the key ‘deliverables’ only the technically very exceptional, our influenced by the loss or lack of green space over the next year, or what do we do day-to- charitable mission extends to the vast for ‘everyday folk’ – whether it was Hill day; I mean, what does the organisation majority of places that we don’t take on. talking of the importance of ‘open-air sitting exist for? I invite you just to contemplate And while we are a huge organisation, rooms for the poor’ or Hunter’s fight against that question for a while. with hundreds of wonderful properties and the enclosure of the commons, declaring Our charitable/core purpose as defined thousands of hectares of land, we look after that common land should not be enclosed by our Acts of Parliament – which are well only a tiny fraction of the half million listed without due regard for ‘the health, comfort worth reading – extend to any place of buildings (in England alone), and just 1.5 per and convenience of the inhabitants’ of natural beauty or historic interest. And it’s cent of England, Wales and Northern nearby urban areas. not just the wording of the Acts that say this Ireland’s land. Even if we doubled our Today, that ‘accessible urban green – it was the very clear intent of our founders ownership (an unthinkable expansion), we space’ as we might call it, is again facing a too. The solicitor Robert Hunter, the great would still be tiny. huge and imminent threat of loss and architect of our ability to acquire and declare So, what can we do to help protect degradation. Since our founding, many cities places inalienable, said of the Trust: ‘Its deserving places that we do not own and and towns have developed fine networks of purpose is by no means confined to the won’t acquire? Given the breadth of the parks and green spaces, often as a result of purchase of Places of Interest and Beauty. It subject, I’ll focus here on green spaces in philanthropists bequeathing land for the fosters action to protect such Places, to urban areas, but the challenge of what role benefit of local people. In many ways, they ward off disaster and to stimulate municipal the Trust should play applies equally to took up the same cause as the Trust’s and private opinion...’. buildings of historic interest or land in the founders and delivered a wonderful and countryside. much-used asset; for example, visits to

Extract from National Trust Acts

The original 1907 Act: The National Trust (a) The preservation of buildings of national was established for the general purposes of interest or architectural historic or artistic promoting the permanent preservation for interest and places of natural interest or the benefit of the nation of lands and beauty and the protection and tenements (including buildings) of beauty or augmentation of the amenities of such historic interest and as regards lands for the buildings and places and their preservation (so far as practicable) of their surroundings; natural aspect features and animal and plant life: (b) The preservation of furniture and pictures and chattels of any description having In 1937, the purposes of the National national or historic or artistic interest; Trust were extended ‘… so as to include the promotion of (c) The access to and enjoyment of such buildings places and chattels by the public; and all such purposes shall be deemed to be purposes of the Act of 1907.’ Robert Hunter, a solicitor and founder of the Trust, who drafted the 1907 National Trust Act. © National Trust Images

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Real terms of percentage cuts in departmental expenditure limits 2010–11 to 2015–16

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Example of how funding changes might affect a local authority, in this case, Sheffield, where current forecasts of business rate growth will not cover the overall loss in core government grants from 2015/16 onwards. © Sheffield City Council, November 2015

Sheffield’s parks and green spaces are enormous, but it’s even more so for non- and wouldn’t have any effect anyway. We conservatively estimated at 50 million statutory services because, of course, these could fight any LA that looks to sell off its annually. For many years, we have been able areas are at the front of the queue for cuts. green spaces or parks, but that’s like kicking to pay little attention to these places: local Guess what? Parks and green spaces are not your team mate when he needs help. authorities (LAs) were doing a good job and a statutory service, and neither are museums So, we have been exploring different ways we had other things to worry about. Indeed, and provision of heritage even though they in which we can help – whether that’s we even leased some of our properties to collectively own a huge portfolio, arguably through sharing our experience and skills in LAs, secure in the knowledge they had the larger than our own. making places generate income, or through resources to look after them. So, in essence, a ‘brother in arms’ who devising new ways to tackle the issue, such But the ability of those LAs to continue has also been delivering the Trust’s as establishing a new city-wide parks trust. their caretaking role is changing very rapidly. charitable purpose is in severe danger of not It’s the latter approach that is the most The grant from central government which being able to do so in the very near future. radical and is explored a little more below. constituted the vast bulk of money they had How should we respond? We can’t buy every to spend has been drastically cut (see graph) park or piece of green space, but neither can and will cease entirely in a few years. This will we just ignore this very real threat to so City-wide charitable trusts modelled in future be slightly offset by allowing LAs to many important places of ‘historic interest on, but not part of, the National Trust keep their business rates, but for many or natural beauty’ which provide what Hill cities, this will not come anywhere close to called ‘physical and spiritual refreshment’ to The proposition is simple; if a LA can’t fund balancing the reductions (see graph of millions of people. We could campaign its parks and green spaces anymore, we need Sheffield as an example). against the cuts to local government a new organisation that can, but one which The scale of that change in financing is budgets, but that looks dangerously political will enshrine the ‘public benefit’ ethos.

Landscapes retouched Views 7 Furthermore, a new body to look after the An endowment, greater commercial income Acknowledgement entire portfolio of spaces means that – as and volunteering input, together with some we do in the Trust – places which make a cost saving, should mean that a city-wide Thank you to Matt Doran, External surplus financially support those places that parks charity is able to deliver the same (if Partnerships Team Manager (Midlands and don’t. Many of our most successful not better) public benefit as LAs have to North), for his help with this article. properties came with an endowment, and date, and thus safeguard one of the great we believe any new city parks trust would legacies of the Victorian era and one of the only be viable if it too has an endowment. key assets for the twenty-first century. Millhouses Park, one of Sheffield’s heavily used and much-loved parks. © Friends of Millhouses Who would provide such an endowment? Park https://friendsofmillhousespark.org/ In short – those who stand to gain from the new organisation delivering its purpose. This includes:

ⅷ The local council itself and central government; this solution both safeguards the benefit but also reduces the public sector’s revenue costs.

ⅷ Water companies, as green space acts as a giant sponge, reducing the need for them to invest in larger, expensive storm- water sewage infrastructure.

ⅷ Health bodies, as that sector knows how important green space is to physical activity, but hasn’t, to date, had the opportunity to both safeguard and then increase those benefits.

ⅷ Universities – which are big businesses permanently linked with a city and in part dependent on how attractive it is to prospective students.

ⅷ Heritage Lottery Fund, as this offers a means of safeguarding the capital improvements they have already poured into very many parks across the country.

A very capable year: celebrating the life and times of ‘Capability’ Brown and the influence of his work today Mark Lamey, Capability Brown Tercentenary Project Manager

t is 300 years since the birth of Britain’s Cultural significance practices that had exposed Chambers’s most prolific and famous landscape oversights at Hampton Court. Iimprover, or, in modern terminology, Brown’s career began with a Company of The next documented reference to landscape architect: Lancelot ‘Capability’ Gardener’s scholarship at Kirkharle, Brown’s career is his appointment as head Brown oversaw the implementation of a new Northumberland. This early experience later gardener to Lord Cobham at Stowe. gardening style referred to as the English fuelled Sir William Chambers’ published Cobham had been put out to pasture from landscape movement, which changed the disdain for England as a country ‘…where his political career by Walpole in 1733 and way we now view the setting of the country peasants emerge from the melon grounds to had since been creating one of the most house. commence professors…’ in A Dissertation on politically charged landscapes of the period. His genius and audacity continue to Oriental Gardening in 1772, a covert rebuke to Brown arrived at Stowe on 11 March 1741. amaze and inspire us, and to influence Brown who had become a competitor and Six months later, the estate steward garden designers today. held royal favour for his efficient working overseeing the works hung himself. His

8 Views Landscapes retouched solid earth…’. She preferred a Brown-style landscape setting for the Neo-classical architecture of the imperial palace at Tsarskoye Selo and commissioned Scottish architect Charles Cameron to design Pavlovsk Palace, St Petersburg, for her son in the Palladian style with an accompanying English landscape. In the early nineteenth century Prince Pückler-Muskau of Germany employed John Adey Repton, Humphry Repton’s son, to implement the largest English park in central Europe at his estate in Muskau. After a European tour taking in Brown’s work at Claremont, Stowe and Blenheim in 1785–6, the American politician Thomas Jefferson incorporated this style at Monticello, his Students at Stowe filmed an affectionate parody of Brown had he had access to modern advertising and Virginian home. celebrity marketing: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3dmWSnBwLY © National Trust replacement subsequently ran off with the [having] done no harm…’. This perhaps A celebration of Trust ownership estate coffers. So, at the age of 25, Brown explains why so few commissions were became responsible for overseeing the undertaken in Wales: nature had done the Compiling an accurate list of Brown’s works construction of the country’s most work already. He also declined the Duke of in Trust ownership has to rely heavily on ambitious and influential early to mid- Leinster’s offer of £1,000 to go to Ireland, secondary source information. With the eighteenth-century landscaping schemes. excusing himself by suggesting that ‘…he exception of his 1764–83 account books held The setting for many grand houses at the had not yet finished England…’. In 1775, by the RHS Lindley Library and his plans, time was formal in style and influenced by however, he did produce a plan for his friend which are often proposals rather than what the baroque, often emulating that most Rev. Thomas Dyer for a garden in France. In may have been implemented, he left no famous example at Versailles. John Rose was the accompanying letter he provides a rare records of his work, his design intent or Brown’s predecessor at Stowe and had insight into his design ideas and comments: principles. Documented evidence can be trained under Le Nôtre at Versailles. At ‘…I hope they will in time find out in France found in the archives of his patrons’ personal Stowe, Rose worked with garden designer that Place-making, and a good English and business correspondence or estate Charles Bridgeman to plant extensive vistas Garden, depend intirely [sic] upon Principle accounts. However, by far the most tangible and construct formal terraces for guests to and have very little to do with Fashions…’. and accessible resource are the landscapes promenade. By the time Brown arrived, In the later years of his career, the English themselves, which remain as testament to Bridgeman had recently died and it was landscape style began to influence design his skill and are lovingly conserved today. Of William Kent who was serving as landscape abroad. Catherine the Great became one of the 23 Trust sites with an attribution to adviser to Lord Cobham. Brown oversaw its greatest exponents in Russia: ‘…I am Brown, at 18 you will be able to see physical Kent’s schemes, which were of a more presently madly in love with English gardens, evidence of what he undertook: you could natural style, as well as the construction of with curved lines, gentle slopes, lakes hug a tree that he had planted in that place architect James Gibbs’s garden pavilions, formed from swamps, and archipelagos of or dip your toe in the water of a lake that he temples and monuments, eventually to total almost 40. Stowe exposed Brown to a young and wealthy new political class who were shaped by the displaced Cobham and were soon to become the political elite. In 1749 Cobham died and Brown began to accept his own commissions from the contacts he had made; by the time he died, these would number around 260.

International influence

While most of his work was in England, Brown completed four commissions in Wales: Talacre, Wynnstay, Cardiff Castle and our own Dinefwr. Brown wrote to George Rice, the owner of Dinefwr, in February 1776 referring to his visit the previous summer and describes what he saw as ‘…Nature Dinefwr is one of the rare commissions that Brown undertook in Wales, where perhaps he thought nature [having] been truly bountiful and Art had already done his work for him. © National Trust Images/John Hammond

Landscapes retouched Views 9 designed to be seen as if it were a river. does resemble those at Wallington. Lord Bute England funding has enabled the property Together, these landscapes capture a unique was a keen patron of Brown at Luton Hoo and teams to work with external artists to living chronology of his life and work Highcliffe Castle, and his son had interpret their landscapes. Wimpole has throughout a career of over 40 years. commissioned Brown to work at Cardiff installed a series of nine giant easels across It is essential for the information and Castle, which suggests that there could be a the north park on which are mounted huge understanding about his work to be as link. This information is being used at mirrors that reflect the landscape behind. accurate as possible, for it provides the basis Wallington to ask visitors to vote on whether These have had the intended effect of for interpretation through exhibitions, tours, they think the evidence is strong enough to encouraging visitors to wander beyond the talks and published materials, as well as suggest Brown’s hand, an imaginative way to usual close proximity of the house and ensuring staff and volunteers in the front line engage visitors in the process of research and gardens into the landscape and to look out are well-informed and confident. There is how its application can inform the across the whole prospect. also a need to manage the expectation of conservation of a place or feature. At Petworth House, visitors can, for the visitors so that when they visit a Trust place first time, experience a view of Brown’s work attributed to Brown, they know how much from an elevated position in the house. they might see: an example of where this can Interpretation and engagement Stowe has opened a pop-up tea-room in the be confusing is Lacock where evidence from Temple of Concorde and Victory to enable his payment book shows he was employed Trust properties have devised a programme visitors to sit and appreciate the Grecian by Talbot, but on-site evidence is largely of themed events that collectively provide Valley or the long ride to Cobham’s Pillar. At guesswork and revealed only by his over 250 consecutive days of activity for Prior Park, Petworth, Sheffield Park, association with the work of architect and visitors. A defined period of activity with a Wallington and Croome, visitors have been landscape designer Sanderson Miller. The strong theme allows for experimentation encouraged to make their own augmented alterations Miller made to the south façade and innovative approaches or pilots to be reality landscape in a box of sand using a of the house were probably in a landscape trialled, especially when testing new ways to projected image and an X-box Kinect. As that Brown would have proposed and which impart information, evaluating how this they change the form and depth of the sand, is, on inspection, distinct from earlier phases information is received and the benefits of the image changes to water at the lowest to the north and west. different approaches. point and tundra at the highest. This There is also evidence of indirect Mike Calnan, Head of Gardens, with centrally funded project is a collaboration involvement, where his advice only may have Experimentation in Interpretation funding with the University of Bath Computer been heeded, perhaps not always with the and in association with Panasonic corporate Science department. It will contribute to most gracious of intent. At Gibside, for partnership, captured aerial footage of the research for a PhD student who is studying example, Bowes’s agent requested some Trust’s 18 extant Brownian landscapes using a the response of visitors to new technology advice on the dimensions of the pillar at drone. American student Justin Kegley, using interactive devices as a tool to Stowe in advance of the Liberty column being through a Royal Oak Horan Scholarship, was interpret heritage. constructed there. Brown dutifully responded able to accompany Mike on his 3,000-mile with the required detail and with an offer of journey to retrace Brown’s footsteps and his services. No return correspondence is worked with Lisa Gledhill, Video Partnerships and legacy known after that, and the column was built, Communications Officer, to edit the footage. probably with his advice, but without his This is now being shown by individual The Trust is working with 20 organisations involvement or payment for it. properties at visitor receptions, as conference to promote the tercentenary as a national At Wallington, third-party correspondence films and as part of a series of three short festival. This has been funded by a £911,000 and a plan confirm a commission to design films about Brown’s life and works. Heritage Lottery Fund grant and is the lower lake at Rothley. However, Brown’s This innovative approach has also been administered by the Landscape Institute. hand is also attributed to the walled garden grasped by property teams who have The ambition behind this festival is to and the garden east of the house. In the Bute devised a series of ‘firsts’ in visitor improve the understanding of Brown’s work, archive, there is an enticing unnamed plan for experience at their places. At Wimpole and the importance of its conservation and the a pavilion and lean-to glasshouse range that Berrington Hall, for example, Arts Council relevance of such places for people today. Working as a united team on a single- themed project has helped share mutual insights and understanding of working practices between organisations, businesses and private owners in the heritage and commercial sectors. It is to be hoped that such partnership-working will encourage further sharing of skilled resources and a more collaborative approach to the conservation of and access to heritage.

Petworth’s landscape, as created by Brown, typifies the kind of setting that we now expect of grand houses. Aerial shots show off perfectly his artistry and design. © National Trust/Mike Calnan

10 Views Landscapes retouched Stowe Landscape Project 2016: a focus on the ‘Capability’ Brown landscape Christine Walmsley, Consultancy Manager; Tom Boggis, Curator; Fred Markland, Building Surveyor; and Barry Smith, Head of Gardens and Estates

towe Landscape Project is a £2.6m, to be mindful of the wall as a habitat and first of the sales in 1848 went to locations five-year programme of landscape wildlife corridor, and our volunteers are that included St Paul’s Walden Bury, the Srestoration within one of Europe’s helping us survey for wildlife. private house in Hertfordshire belonging to most significant designed landscapes. Lost The rebuilding of the ha-ha and removal the Bowes-Lyons, the family of the late planting, statuary and structures will be of the twentieth-century hedges in the deer- Queen Mother. Key statues from the reinstated and historic viewpoints and park have opened up the views from the subsequent sales of 1921 and 1922 were pathways opened up. The golf course, built Grecian Valley to Captain Wolf’s Monument. collected by Sir Philip Sassoon for his estate in the 1950s, will be removed and the at Trent Park in Middlesex. Western Garden restored, allowing our A series of sculptures of Hercules lined visitors full access as they were in the Reinstatement of the statuary the Grecian Valley, along with an urn and a eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. further group, the Circle of the Dancing And all this work, including rebuilding ha- The statuary in the Grecian Valley, along with Faun. The Hercules imagery is linked to the has, repairing lakes and dams and restoring the various monuments, temples and other associated messages of the triumph of cascades, will involve staff and volunteers in buildings throughout the gardens, was a key liberty over oppression, of good over evil learning new and traditional skills. It will also part of the intended iconography and and virtue over vice. help us to enhance Stowe’s meaning and an political meaning of the gardens created by The statues which formed part of this understanding of this place for our twenty- Viscount Cobham and his nephew Earl scheme in the Grecian Valley were Hercules first-century audience. Temple in the eighteenth century. The and Antaeus, Hercules and the Erymanthian Planning the work has had its challenges. sculptures were mostly dispersed from the Boar, Samson and the Philistine, and a The historic landscape has been the subject mid-nineteenth century onwards, a result of version of the Borghese Gladiator. The of benign neglect over the years due to lack the poor financial management of Cobham Gladiator, although not linked to the myths of resources, but the benefit to wildlife has and Temple’s descendants. Statues from the of Hercules, supported the martial theme of been significant. Most of the restoration needs to work with the ecology while ensuring that the historic integrity of the landscape is maintained.

The Grecian Valley

In the area known as the Grecian Valley, ‘Capability’ Brown built a garden in the natural style which extended seamlessly into the park. A depression was deepened and landscaped to accommodate a lake but a lack of water saw Brown redesign it as a dry valley with a Grecian-style temple (later named the Temple of Concord and Victory) as its focus. In 2016 much of our work has been aligned with the 300th anniversary of Brown’s birth and the changes made are most evident in this valley. The ha-ha around the Grecian Valley ensures the illusion of a natural landscape and was an important design feature. With some stretches now in need of repair, the Above: Back in the fray, a fresh Samson and the Philistine continue their struggle. work is being carried out in a way that © National Trust/Tom Boggis retains as much of the old stone as possible. Volunteers have assisted with the rebuilding Left: Hercules and Antaeus return to the Grecian Valley. © National Trust/Tom Boggis works under expert supervision and are playing a key role in other ways too; as well as being sensitive to the archaeology and historic nature of the site, we are also having

Landscapes retouched Views 11 A sketch of the Gothic the other statues. The Stowe Samson, along Cross c.1825; artist with Hercules and Antaeus, went to Trent unknown but is Park where they remain today along with the believed to have a connection to the urn. The location of Hercules and the Fremantle family, who Erymanthian Boar is currently unknown. were closely It has been a long-held ambition within associated with the Cobhams of Stowe. the Trust to reconnect the statues now © National Trust/ residing at Trent Park with their original Hughenden Manor home at Stowe. Changes of ownership have prevented this ambition from being realised. However, other options for replicating the statuary have been pursued to convey the original view and meaning of the Grecian Valley landscape. A mould of John Cheere’s mid-eighteenth-century version in lead of Samson and the Philistine has been used to cast a copy in composite stone, and a composite stone copy of Hercules and Antaeus has been made using a mould from the version of this statue in the Fairhaven collection at Anglesey Abbey. Both copies are now installed and these heroic figures again stand sentinel over the Grecian Valley. A copy of the Gladiator will join them later this year. The Circle of the Dancing Faun will also be reconstructed in 2016. An eighteenth- century Dancing Faun based on the much- copied classical example displayed by the Medici in the Tribuna of the Uffizi in Florence was placed at Stowe on the Saxon Altar. Stowe’s Dancing Faun is now lost but a version within the Trust’s collections, this Temples and monuments century and the recovered pieces have time at Kedleston Hall, is providing a suitable gathered dust in a barn used for storing source to copy. The faun was surrounded by The Temple of Friendship, a notable building fragments. pastoral figures, two of which were returned in the garden, is also being restored. Inside There is little information of note in the to Stowe in 2007 through the generous gift was a banqueting room over a basement archives except for a couple of unattributed of Mrs Barbara Edmondson. Three further kitchen, decorated with murals by Francesco nineteenth-century images. Research is figures of shepherds and a shepherdess will Sleter (1685–1775) and lined with busts of being carried out with Oxford University as complete the grouping this year. Cobham and his ‘Patriot’ friends. This was part of a knowledge transfer partnership. It This group of statues links the park and the setting for their convivial meetings. is hoped that this exciting collaboration will garden: the shepherds from the real world The Temple’s slow decline now provides enable us to reconnect the Coade (the park) and the faun from the mythical opportunities for the natural world. The monument with the space and share the world (the Grecian Valley). They meet and voids, holes and pockets within the unroofed story of its lost history with visitors. dance all night, and then, during the day, the stone walls have become bat roosts for more faun turns to stone and the shepherds return than one species of bat. The repair strategy to their flocks. will protect these roosts and where possible, The landscape if not detrimental to the historic fabric, enhance the ecology of the ruins. There are 14 lakes and ponds at Stowe that The work will also enable the Temple of contribute to the eighteenth-century illusion Friendship to be opened up to visitors, and of the natural rivers, the Thames and the through storytelling and interpretation, Great Ouse. Over the centuries the original reveal its former use and the strong link of intention of water bodies linking to form this romantic ruin with the gardens and the rivers has been lost and will be restored by wider landscape. reinstating the water bodies, rebuilding A prominent feature in the gardens, and cascades and careful replanting to hide located in a quiet corner of William Kent’s dams. During 2016 we will be reinstating the Elysian Field, was the slightly unusual Copper Bottom Lake, part of the monument built in Coade stone, the Gothic Buckingham River (Great Ouse), and starting Cross. The Cross was destroyed by a falling the repairs and reinstatement of the dam tree some time in the early twentieth and rock work of the Worthies River.

Volunteers begin work on Copper Bottom Lake. © National Trust/Paul Stefanovic

12 Views Landscapes retouched Georgian glories Ana Vaughan, Visitor Experience Manager, Berrington Hall & Croft Castle, Herefordshire

hat is distinctive about Berrington Hall is its sheer WGeorgian-ness! Even the Cawley family, who acquired Berrington in the twentieth century, were faithful to the original Georgian colour scheme. It’s less obvious or well-known that Berrington is a rare surviving ‘set piece’ of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. That claim can be made confidently because he designed the majority of the estate, save for the mansion which was designed by his son-in-law, Henry Holland. Holland’s design is reputed to be one of his most sophisticated experiments in space, light and colour, and some consider this, Brown’s last landscape design, to be his best work. In recent years the Berrington team have been reviewing the parkland, pleasure grounds and walled garden in a bid to encourage more visitors outdoors and to Caitlin of Red Earth gathering reeds at Berrington Hall. © Red Earth show the estate in its entirety. Our aim to return Berrington to its Georgian heyday forms the basis of the Parkland Restoration replanting. This study, alongside funded from Trust New Art and Berrington’s Plan and is what initiated the Walled Garden consultation with National Trust specialists, own reserves. Rather than just removing the and Pleasure Grounds Project. forms the basis of a parkland plan that will conifer plantations and carrying out routine For all the team, but particularly General see the replanting of over 350 trees over a thinning in line with the plan, Red Earth have Manager David Bailey, 2016 was an three-year period, starting this autumn. created Genius Loci from the very timber anniversary which could not be missed; it Since spring, Iain has been working closely being extracted. provided a fantastic motive to unveil this with consultants and specialists to deduce hidden gem which displays almost perfect the original locations of trees that require Georgian grandeur on a human scale. The reinstating. Planting will be undertaken Shifting perceptions national CB300 festival, led by the alongside other work to improve the ecology Landscape Institute and supported by the of the parkland, such as the reduction of Genius Loci invites visitors out into the Heritage Lottery Fund, was a perfect carp numbers and reeds in the lake and the landscape and challenges perceptions about opportunity for Berrington to show its thinning of some dense plantations along the landscape. Red Earth have also stepped Brownian worth. Morton Ride and George’s Plantation. into unknown territory and brought their And so thinking began in 2014 about a In addition to the restoration, visitor landscape work indoors, with ‘Calling in the programme dedicated to Brown’s work feedback identified the need to encourage Country’ in the Oval Room of the mansion which would showcase Berrington and visitors outdoors to engage with the park which is where visitors begin their Genius everything it has to offer. But how to do this, and experience the hall and park as the Loci experience. Installed during February and where to begin? Like Brown and entity their designers intended. Something half-term, it features a hand-crafted Berrington’s original owner, Thomas Harley, different, challenging and innovative was contemporary desk made from English oak who commissioned him in 1775, the team needed for CB300 to share and celebrate which is inspired by Brown’s own work-table. had a vision. It was clear a bit of research was this story. And so ‘Capability in the Visitors are invited to lift the lid of the desk needed to realise this vision and inform the Berrington landscape’ was born which saw to reveal an artist-drawn map of the park decision-making process. three bespoke and engaging exhibitions and trigger a sound journey comprising an showcasing Brown throughout 2016. evocative compilation of the sounds of The headline act for CB300 took us into Berrington’s wildlife and clocks ticking. It Planning the work the world of contemporary art. engages visitors’ senses and deepens the Environmental artists Red Earth were connection between landscape and house. In 2015 the Herefordshire Country Manager, commissioned to create ‘Genius Loci’, a Out in the park is a series of Plane Tables Iain Carter, commissioned historic landscape series of outdoor artworks designed to which are located at some of the best consultant Chris Gallagher to undertake a highlight the hidden genius of Brown’s viewpoints. The Plane Tables represent the study of the parkland’s history and provide design. The project received a generous essential tool of eighteenth-century proposals for its management and grant from Arts Council England and is also surveyors, enabling them to map accurately

Landscapes retouched Views 13 plan. Visitors can take a short stroll from the house to the plantation to experience the Opening Glade, which is a pinpoint for hidden views. An area has been cleared and thinned and echoes the shapes within the house. It features a series of ash pillars and living trees which represent the shape of the Oval Room. The ash pillars have been processed on site by Red Earth and interpret some of the natural charcoal-making processes that would have happened during the construction of the landscape park. ‘Telling the Waters’ is an artwork set within the man-made 5.6ha (14-acre) lake which hints at the illusory river effect that Brown was trying to create when designing the lake and echoes the topography of the landscape. During the summer holidays, visitors were able to add to the installation during three weeks of reed-cutting and binding to help make the physical structure. They were able to work alongside the artists Calling in the Country in the Oval Room of the mansion. © National Trust and really understand the story and magic of Brown’s design at Berrington and its lasting legacy today. any given landscape. Built on a wooden story that Brown was the first to reshape the This contemporary art project marked tripod, they would move their plane table contours of the land aesthetically through the start of celebrating Brown’s work at from place to place to give a complete huge earth-moving projects, using only a Berrington and our parkland restoration; in impression of the land. Our Plane Tables are labour force armed with spades, barrows 2017 we’ll move our focus to the Walled made from the wood of native trees and carts. They are testament to the physical Garden and Pleasure Grounds Project. common to those Brown planted in the park effort it would have taken to shape and open – ash, elm, oak and beech – and visitors are up the landscape at Berrington, which, now invited to draw their own view of the mature, provides visitors with a romantic Turning round the Walled Garden landscape just as he and his surveyors would setting of uninterrupted and sweeping have done. vistas. The Walled Garden was also part of Brown’s The Plane Tables lead the eye further out Following on from the Intending Lines, 1781 design for the parkland and pleasure to the Intending Lines. Built from green and incongruous to the intended view of the grounds. It is a significant example of a wood extracted from our woodland, the landscape, is George’s Plantation, a small Georgian kitchen garden to have survived in Intending Lines, at almost 150m long, run area of nineteenth-/twentieth-century its entirety. At present this walled area of the west to east along Brown’s re-contoured hills planted woodland which is due to be estate is tenanted by a member of the within the parkland. The lines interpret the gradually thinned in line with the parkland historic family, Lord Cawley, who farms the estate with a mixture of sheep and dairy livestock. We’re embarking on a three-year project of planning and fundraising to return the Walled Garden to its Georgian heyday. This will help unify the estate so it can be appreciated as a whole. What makes Berrington’s Walled Garden unique among Brown’s previous designs is the introduction of a curved wall for the purposes of cultivating soft fruits such as peaches, apricots, grapes, etc. This structure cleverly utilised the natural heat and movement from the sun to stagger exotic fruit production for the estate. We shall also explore the close proximity of the Walled Garden to the mansion, a location which suggests the Harley family’s desire for a visible walled garden as part of the late Georgian fashion for ferme ornée (ornamented farm). Restoring this vast part of the estate will enable our visitors to see and sample an The Intending Lines artwork. © Red Earth array of historical and contemporary

14 Views Landscapes retouched gardening processes such as fruit and with local, contemporary artists to engage well as our core work to safeguard and vegetable cultivation. Some of this produce visitors in the Walled Garden restoration protect these beautiful places. is finding its way into our tea-rooms and is whilst embedding the Trust’s principle of For more information about the Walled also being sold to visitors, raising further working sustainably by using materials from Garden project or Red Earth, get in touch funds for continued conservation work. We the estate, in much the same fashion as our with Berrington’s Project Manager, Ellie are developing a flower garden of historic Georgian ancestors. Jones, or follow our progress on varieties, enabling us to create Georgian- Ultimately the Walled Garden restoration www.nationaltrust.org.uk/berringtonhall style arrangements within the house. All will enable the Georgian estate at Berrington these activities present us with new and to be appreciated in the round using the creative volunteering opportunities in the technologies and processes of the past to Restoration plans are underway at Berrington gardens and in the house. Throughout the engage people and promote the importance Hall’s Walled Garden. lifespan of the project we will be working of sustainable production for the future, as © National Trust/Mike Calnan

Lost in the woods: finding Attingham Park’s lost Pleasure Grounds Bob Thurston, Countryside Parks and Gardens Manager, Attingham Park, Shropshire

ttingham Park near Shrewsbury was furrow field. Whether the land was still being a little-known designer, Thomas Leggett. We given to the National Trust in 1947 used in that way or had already become have some of the nursery bills for the plants Aby the 8th Lord Berwick. When his ‘frozen’ by conversion to pasture is that Leggett ordered, and the ‘before’ ancestors, the Hills of Hawkstone Park, unknown. Probably it had, but there is images in Humphry Repton’s Red Book acquired land here in 1700 they bought what intriguing evidence in a 1746 map by the presented to the 2nd Lord Berwick in 1798 was to become the core of the estate at early cartographer John Rocque of the give a good idea of what Leggett had Attingham and built the first house, Tern neighbouring estate where it appears that achieved nearly 30 years earlier. Hall, on the site that Attingham Hall now some form of strip farming was still being Repton was employed at Attingham occupies. LiDAR mapping (see image practised in the river meadows. working with his partner at the time, John overleaf) reveals that what they had bought The Hills prospered and by 1770 Noel Hill, Nash, and together they created the was essentially a medieval open-field who was to become the 1st Lord Berwick, magnificent park we see today, as well as landscape and where they built Tern Hall was embarked on a major parkland and pleasure- such distinctive buildings as Cronkhill, an slap-bang in the middle of a ridge-and- ground development under the guidance of Italianate villa on the estate, picturesque

Landscapes retouched Views 15 LiDAR survey reveals medieval open-field and ridge-and-furrow systems underneath the park. © National Trust

Stables

Characteristic reverse Mansion S-shaped ridge and furrow

Repton’s West Drive cutting across medieval ridge and furrow

The ‘old’ London road and bridging point, which were moved so that Mr Hill could have a bigger park in 1780!

cottages in Atcham village and possibly even given way to a more homogeneous, woody winter to use as a nursery for the Pleasure Attingham’s Grade II-listed Bee House. The and darker ‘Mile Walk’. With advice from the Grounds Project. (And the Walled Garden fact that the park survived almost intact is Trust’s Garden Historian, Richard Wheeler, itself is another story: empty only seven ironically because the 2nd Lord Berwick was and Gardens Consultant, Pam Smith, we years ago, I venture to suggest it must be so lavish in his spending that he bankrupted commissioned a management plan from one of the Trust’s best now.) the estate by 1827, so there was no money to Landscape Architects Cookson & Tickner. commission significant alterations to the This, combined with a Visioning Day where park or Pleasure Grounds since that time. we drew upon external as well as internal Raising sunken hedges expertise, allowed us to formulate a ten-year plan to roll back the centuries to revive An interesting aspect of Leggett’s approach Recovering what was left of Leggett Leggett’s vision. was his ditches, many of which survive at The physical work started last winter by Attingham. These were designed to have Of course, time stands still for no living taking down 130 trees that were clearly ‘sunken hedges’ in them to give the same thing. The trees planted by Leggett are now ‘weed trees’, either self-setters or those effect as a ha-ha, providing an invisible nearly 250 years old and Repton’s design planted as a group with the intention of later barrier for keeping stock out yet not made use of trees left in the open-field thinning that never happened. All this took obstructing the view. The first beds to be headlands and along abandoned medieval careful consideration and gaining replanted are along a section of the Mile roads, some of which are now well over 500 permissions from both internal consultants Walk between the Stables and the Walled years old; all are good, picturesque and and external agencies. The result is that we Garden where there is a Leggett ditch either venerable. The park is designated Grade II* can begin to see ‘the wood from the trees’ side of the path. This was designed to and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest for and reveal a bit more clearly the structure provide views out into the park on both the dead-wood invertebrates living in and on and opportunities to recreate the Leggett sides, but in the intervening centuries the all those ancient trees. Working with English Pleasure Grounds. This will not be the last of land to the west has become a car-park so Heritage, Natural England and the Trust’s the tree removals, but will allow a more we are actually creating a shrubbery to block own specialists, we have begun a programme considered process on a tree-by-tree basis as that view, one of the pragmatic of planting replacements for the ancient we replant the shrub layer that has largely compromises often required. trees to ensure continuity of both the been lost. On the eastern side, however, landscape’s appearance and its nature The first of these shrubberies was planted archaeology enabled us to establish the conservation value. this spring. Peat-free plants were bought original profile of the ditch (4ft/1.2m deep) In the Pleasure Grounds the effect of time from Boulton’s, guided by Leggett’s nursery and it has been dug out to remove the 200- has not been so positive. Research showed bills and Pam’s expertise to obtain the right year-old leaf mould that had collected, ideal that what was originally conceived by plants. A quarantine area was created in our for helping condition the soil for the new Leggett as a carefully contrived series of newly acquired Western Slip to the Walled shrubberies. A new hedge has been planted distinct ‘rooms’ with floriferous shrubberies Garden. This had been lost to farmland in just above the bottom of the ditch (to keep and specific views had, over the centuries, about 1960, and we negotiated it back this the thorn out of running water) in order to

16 Views Landscapes retouched restore Leggett’s original intention. On this Above: the first side the view was key: through wood pasture Pleasure Ground beds at Attingham Park, with grazing cattle to the famous Wrekin hill which will help screen in the background. the car-park. All this work has been done in full view of © National Trust/ Bob Thurston our visitors, and we have done our best to take them with us on the journey, including Left: A Leggett ditch, agonising over what to do and sharing with newly cleared and planted. © National them the aims of the project. This has been Trust/Bob Thurston in the form of temporary interpretation panels wherever the work is taking place and guided walks. So far they, and we, seem to be enjoying the journey and recognise that we are taking the park and Pleasure Grounds back to a better place.

A connection to the workers in Leggett’s time?

The project is being led by our Gardener Duncan Threadgold and his assistant Matt Saddler with the help of over 30 volunteers. Although the project has only just begun ‘on the ground’, they are making a big difference already. In passing it is worth noting that Duncan is nephew to Mike Threadgold, who was Gardener and Head Gardener at Attingham for 50 years until 2003 and that Mike’s father, grandfather and great grandfather, as well as numerous uncles, all worked for the estate. Thus the Threadgolds have as strong a link to the life of the estate as anyone alive today. Key to the project has been the knowledge passed down the family, a continuous ‘thread’, to help us understand what we have today and how it came to be the way it is.

Landscapes retouched Views 17 Room for gloom: restoring Kedleston’s eighteenth- century Hermitage Simon McCormack, Conservation Manager, Derby Portfolio, and Danielle Westerhof, freelance historian, librarian and writer

‘The walls to be built of flints or rough stones …’ (William Wrighte, Grotesque garden buildings, 1767)

Kedleston is fortunate to have a rich archival collection on site, which contains much valuable information about the creation and construction of the mansion and the landscape. In 2013, Danielle undertook documentary research into the garden buildings, including the Hermitage, and Hilary Taylor Landscape Associates were commissioned by the Trust to write a conservation management plan for Kedleston’s southern landscape. The documentary research revealed some interesting information about the origins of the Hermitage. For example, there is a small drawing from c.1760, attributed to Lord Scarsdale, of a three-chambered design comprising a ‘great Room’, a ‘Bedchamber’ Robert Adam’s imposing south or garden front of Kedleston Hall, inspired by the triumphal Arch of and ‘Chappel [sic] & study’. It also references Constantine © Danielle Westerhof ‘Sadeler’s prints’ which Hilary identified as an edition of Johann Sadeler’s prints of hermits in their cells. There was indeed a French edleston attracts a great variety of small building, a piece of sculpture or a fine edition of this work in Kedleston Library in visitors. There are those who come specimen of tree or plant. Their main 1765, which could have formed the Kfor the eighteenth-century purpose was to draw the visitor’s attention inspiration for Scarsdale’s drawing. extravaganza that is the mansion, with its to a particular aspect of the landscape or to Scarsdale’s early plans for the garden were spectacular interiors and imposing south invoke a special mood. also inspired by John Milton’s poems L’Allegro front; all were designed by Robert Adam to and Il Penseroso. In one of his tiny notebooks, realise the vision of Nathaniel Curzon (later he scribbled down his thoughts on 1st Baron Scarsdale), who inherited Once upon a time … melancholy (the subject of Il Penseroso) to be Kedleston in 1758. represented as a small three-chambered Others come to take their dog or children When the Trust took on Kedleston in 1987, ‘temple’ with a hermitage, with suitably for a walk in the park or to picnic in the the structure of the Hermitage was in a very downbeat frescoes and classical statuary. garden. But how many people come to poor condition. It had lost its roof, glazing, There was nothing new about the notion Kedleston specifically to admire the views plaster walls and floor; the interior bricks of introducing hermitages into a garden. across the Arcadian landscape that the and exterior gypsum blocks had deteriorated Across the eighteenth-century English magnificent eighteenth-century Long Walk substantially or had fallen down. landscape, great landowners were has to offer? After an archaeological survey was constructing solitary rustic buildings out of When it was first created in the 1760s– conducted, the building was mothballed wood and rough stone – some even 70s after a design attributed to Adam, awaiting the availability of funds to repair advertising for a hermit to occupy the visitors were led on a journey of discovery and restore it. For 20 years, the Hermitage finished structure. But most of them appear and sensory delight. Helping them along was was covered by a corrugated-iron shed. to have seen the hermitage as an antidote to a series of ‘incidents’, ranging from a simple During this time, burrowing animals the pressures of modern society – a reminder bench under a special tree to a now long-lost contributed to the instability of the building, that life wasn’t just about having fun or ruling canvas Turkish Seat and a rustic Hermitage thereby complicating the challenge to find a the country. The Hermitage at Hagley, hidden among the trees. solution for its condition. Another hindrance Worcestershire, had lines from Il Penseroso Incidents were a common feature on was the presence of a very vigorous plane inscribed on a lintel, and John Boyle, 3rd Earl eighteenth-century circuit walks. Very often tree, believed to have been planted as part of of Orrery, relished the opportunity to retreat they would consist of a view with a seat, a the composition. to his hermitage at Calendon, Co Tyrone, in

18 Views Landscapes retouched Northern Ireland to read a good book. ‘And may at last my weary age, find certainly secured for Kedleston’s visitors to At Kedleston, nothing came of Scarsdale’s out the peaceful hermitage’ enjoy and to reflect on the Arcadian initial fanciful plans. However, as Hilary (Il Penseroso) landscape around them. argues, it would have been possible in the eighteenth century to catch a glimpse of The restoration of the Hermitage provided Miltonic poetry in the contrasting moods at great opportunities to talk about a different References the Hermitage and the frivolous Turkish Seat, side of Kedleston, one which is less The project page for the Hermitage restoration the next incident on the Long Walk. concerned with formality and is more works can be found on Kedleston’s public website playful. Interpretation boards were placed at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/kedleston- the site to tell people about the origins of hall/projects/room-for-gloom-restoring- kedlestons-hermitage. Social media updates were Deciding the future the building, and demonstrations of building tagged #KedHermitage. techniques were organised. Simon helped set up a restoration project for The project also offered a way to give Gordon Campbell, The Hermit in the Garden: From the Hermitage, co-ordinated by Danielle in Kedleston a more substantial online Imperial Rome to Ornamental Gnome (OUP, the design and planning stages. By 2014, the presence. Facebook and Twitter were used 2013). first members of a project team had come for quick updates, soundbites and Hilary Taylor Landscape Associates, Kedleston Hall: Southern Landscape CMP (National Trust, June together to discuss the future of the milestones or events. A project webpage was 2015). Hermitage. Taking advice from a range of set up to share the journey with a wider Danielle Westerhof, Kedleston Hall Garden Buildings internal and external experts, a number of audience. We commissioned a local film Historical Analysis (National Trust, 2013). options were considered, including maker to record the building process to relocating the building away from the plane create a permanent archive and a visual story tree. However, it was clear that the tree and to show our online audiences. Acknowledgement the Hermitage formed a whole that would be And what does the future hold for the We thank Andrew Barber, Curator for the Midlands destroyed by moving the building. We also Hermitage? Perhaps no resident hermit, but (East) for his feedback on a draft of this article. had to ensure that burrowing animals were excluded from the site. A small sketch of a While many hermitages were built from three-chambered perishable materials, a number of stone building attributed to structures survive to provide a good source Lord Scarsdale. A possible early design of comparison. Although we discovered the for a hermitage from Miltonic element in the archives, the Kedleston’s archives documents had little to tell us about how the © National Trust/ Danielle Westerhof Hermitage was built or exactly what it looked like on completion. Here the archaeological record provided vital evidence. Wood and plasterwork Kedleston’s Hermitage in September 2014 fragments were surveyed and compared with when the shed was what we found in the documentary sources. removed for Nick Cox Architects, who have been inspection and surveys. © National involved with Kedleston for many years, were Trust/Simon the obvious choice for helping to scope out McCormack the design and technical elements of the restoration. Stone, mortar and paint samples were taken for analysis and a 3D scan of the structure was made. Alan Wright, formerly with Bidwells, now Wright Consulting, and Lesley Adams of Symbiosis Consulting were contracted to provide expert advice on structural engineering and arboricultural issues. With the setting being so essential to the mood of the building, we asked Deborah Evans, Historic Landscape Consultant, to create a visual impression and to advise on future planting. No other buildings at Kedleston have ever been thatched and we were in the dark about the original roof finish in the absence of documentary evidence. After some searching, we found Keith Quantrill, a thatching consultant. Through him we managed to secure a master thatcher and we were able to make an informed decision about the roof finish.

Landscapes retouched Views 19 Visions from the past: celebrating ‘Capability’ Brown’s legacy at Sheffield Park Rebecca Steel, Retail Assistant and freelance writer, Sheffield Park and Garden

o celebrate the 300th anniversary of reunite the garden with the parkland and whereby several trees have been planted in the birth of Lancelot ‘Capability’ give an impression of how the grounds one hole, fusing together over time. It is also TBrown, Sheffield Park and Garden would have looked during the days of likely that Brown introduced seasonally has been revealing the significance of his ‘Capability’ Brown. The development of a themed walks, especially spring, summer and influence on this East Sussex landscape. The landscape park first began in the mid- winter walks, to entertain the 1st Earl’s family aim has been to reconnect the garden with eighteenth century, but was refashioned by and friends. the parkland by restoring historic views, but John Baker Holroyd (1735–1821) who was to One of the more dramatic changes to the also to reconnect with Brown’s vision for the become the 1st Earl of Sheffield. He landscape was Brown’s manipulation of two whole estate by providing interpretation and summoned Brown, and later Humphry lakes known as Upper Woman’s Way Pond events for visitors. Repton, to redesign the landscape, and he and Lower Woman’s Way Pond. They were called upon James Wyatt to remodel the created using two dams in a stream that house in a Gothic style. weaved through the estate on its way to the History River Ouse. In true Brownian fashion the lakes were designed to look like a large Sheffield Park has a rich history, which is Brown’s influence meandering river when viewed from the reflected in the landscape seen today. Early garden above. Brown often used a records from the Domesday Book refer to Brown worked on designs for Sheffield Park combination of trickery and cleverly the site as a sheep clearing, or ‘Sheffield’. in the later years of his life. His assistant, designed vistas to impress visitors to the Over the centuries the estate has been John Spyers, visited the estate in 1776 to Earl’s estate. Not only did he trick guests owned by many prominent families and survey it. Although no contracts exist from into thinking there was a giant river at the adapted to their needs. The manor house, the time, experts have been able to use bottom of the garden, but he also enticed garden, deer-park, farmland, estate maps and correspondence to identify them into the grounds by offering them buildings and woodland have all been Brown’s plans at Sheffield Park. It is also glimpses of what lay beyond. One of the key subject to major change. The National Trust possible to observe Brownian features in the views was that from the house to the church bought the garden in 1954, but other parts current landscape – mature trees indicate his lying a mile away in the village of Fletching. of the estate were sold off, including the preference for oaks grown in clusters of Brown created a strong axis that drew eyes house. It is only since the acquisition of the three or five. In addition, there is evidence of to the spire of the distant church, softened parkland in 2006 that it has been possible to his method of bundle-planting beeches, by trees in the middle ground.

Sheffield Park in 1778. © Sussex Archaeological Society

20 Views Landscapes retouched Bank clearance underway at Lower Woman’s Way Pond. © National Trust/Chris Roe

Walk Wood created new habitats for species such as the Involving visitors hazel dormouse. Careful removal of the Much of the evidence for Brown’s work undergrowth has also introduced more The recent restoration work at Sheffield Park exists in Walk Wood, now owned by the sunlight, encouraging wildflowers to flourish. was recorded using photography and time- Trust. In among these trees, on the northern lapse filming. An exhibition by a community edge of the estate, are the remains of a ha- group called Nature Corridors for All ha, informal paths and ‘seats’ that would Restoring parkland documents the restoration work and have been used as rest spots for walkers. provides artistic interpretations of the Many visitors are unaware of this beautiful The 265 acres (107ha) that make up South changing seasons around Lower Woman’s patch of woodland, as it is currently Park give a greater indication of how the Way Pond. Visitors can learn more about navigable only on guided walks, such as the landscape would have looked during Brown’s Brown through reading the specially popular bluebell walks. This will be rectified time. Clusters of trees sit upon wide annotated map, going on themed guided as soon as 2017, once targeted woodland expanses of pasture grazed by sheep and tours or attending talks by the Trust’s garden management allows Walk Wood to be cattle. Since the Trust acquired the parkland, historian Richard Wheeler and writer/garden opened to the public. it has been managed under a Higher Level historian Sarah Rutherford. Brown’s legacy is Stewardship scheme. This has involved the also being celebrated with the opportunity restoration of grassland after the ground had for individuals to create their own landscape Reconnecting with Brown’s landscape been altered by decades of arable farming. In designs using a digital sandbox. the past the site was also used as a training The appearance of the garden has changed ground for the Home Guard and as a Second considerably since Brown’s time. Repton is World War base for Canadian and other thought to have worked on the lakes nearest Allied troops. It is now an important home the house between 1789 and 1790. In the for wildlife associated with pasture and nineteenth and twentieth centuries the water meadows. Running alongside the garden was filled with exotic trees and parkland restoration scheme is the River abundant flowering shrubs, for which it is Ouse Restoration project, which aims to now renowned. In contrast, Brown was as revive the natural river habitats as part of a interested in removing plants at Sheffield wider partnership to improve ecology and Park as he was concerned with growing broaden access to the river. them. Illustrations from the time show far The gardening team has recently mowed fewer trees than there are today, and grazing a pathway along the top of South Park to taking place much closer to the house. His indicate the route of an eighteenth-century plans for the grounds attempted to create raised walkway. The walkway and Gothic one continuous landscape, merging the Seat had been installed to enhance views of garden with an idealised version of the Fletching village and the surrounding English countryside. countryside. The gardeners have made plans Trust staff, volunteers and the Southview to transplant a semi-mature oak to the Close local group have been working hard to original spot of the Gothic Seat. They hope reconnect the garden with the Brownian to use technology from the eighteenth landscape. Around the lower lakes they have century to explore the methods Brown opened up views from the garden to the would have used when moving mature trees parkland and vice-versa. Hazel, alder and to new locations. Once the oak has been ground flora have been cleared from relocated in the late autumn, a circular woodland, leaving behind mature trees to bench is to be installed around the tree made with wood from the grounds and Fused beeches in the garden, a sure indication produce finger views of the landscape that they were part of Brown’s scheme. beyond. Coppicing of the hazel and alder has engraved with the story behind the project. © National Trust/Nina Elliot-Newman

Landscapes retouched Views 21 Joining the dots, from present to past Tom Dommett, Archaeologist, Surrey, Sussex and South Downs

A hidden past scale – his plans for the park marked a truly canvas of monumental buildings and radical shift in its design and its size, ornamental gardens, by turns a landscape of Looking out across the parkland surrounding involving the demolition of villages, the industry and of opulence. Petworth House in West Sussex, it is easy to construction of enormous dams and the The key to reconnecting with these lost imagine that it is a natural, timeless movement of millions of tonnes of earth to landscapes, and to understanding the landscape, that it has looked this way since create what he felt were pleasing lines. magnitude of Brown’s influence – before the park was first created around 800 The end result is exactly what Brown particularly pertinent in the year of his years ago. But nothing could be further from intended – that most visitors do not even 300th anniversary – has involved a the truth. recognise his influence, instead seeing only a programme of archaeological survey, delving The reality is that everything here, from beautiful ‘natural’ landscape. The irony, of into the archives and probing beneath the the wide lawns and gentle hills to the course, is that Brown’s skilful execution turf to reveal Petworth Park’s hidden past. sinuous expanses of water and scattered makes it difficult for visitors to conceive the clumps of trees, is the result of the hand of scale and significance of his work, let alone man. More specifically, it represents the gain an appreciation of the earlier Lost landscapes vision of the famous English landscape landscapes which he masked (or occasionally gardener Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. obliterated). The history of the park before Over the course of three years, professional Petworth is one of his great masterpieces, a Brown is one of expansion and changing archaeologists and a small army of dedicated superb work of fiction executed on a grand fashions and fortunes, a constantly shifting volunteers have worked across the 700-acre

Aerial shot of the park. © National Trust/Mike Howarth (MHMVR Opposite: The extent of Services) Petworth Park in 1200, 1700 and the present day (from left to right) showing a gradual expansion over the centuries. © National Trust

22 Views Landscapes retouched (283ha) parkland to uncover its secrets, sizeable lodge, which was uncovered by placed planting and cleverly orchestrated through documentary research, field survey, excavations in 2014. views of ‘Capability’ Brown. geophysics and excavation. During the seventeenth century Geo-archaeological surveys, looking at Our project began by bringing together Petworth House became established as a cores through the soil, have shown how evidence from the archives, maps and family residence. The original house, laid out Brown smoothed slopes, removed ridges paintings, combined with a survey of the in an L-shape and extensively remodelled by and raised valleys. Geophysical surveys have landscape using airborne laser-scanning 1702, was partly excavated in 2013. This was shown that traces of the buildings he technology, capable of picking out subtle surrounded by small informal gardens and removed, such as the malthouse, carter’s lumps and bumps which hint at earlier grounds – the Rose Garden and Hoppe stables, keeper’s lodge, dovecote and landscapes. Then over 100 volunteers helped Garden, Bowling Green and orchards – and kennels which all once stood within the to undertake field surveys, geo- complemented by an enormous, parkland, still survive under the surface. archaeological investigations, geophysical internationally renowned set of stables which The extensive archaeological work has surveys and careful archaeological stood on what is now the mansion lawn. shown the incredible depth and complexity excavation. All of this research allowed us to By the early eighteenth century this of the landscape which lies beneath Brown’s piece together dramatic changes in the layout had been swept away, replaced with ‘natural’ façade. The challenge now is how form, function and design of the park, and elaborate formal gardens, inspired by the we bring this past into the present. the effect this had on the wider landscape. ideals of geometry and symmetry Old field boundaries and lines of the ‘park epitomised by the Palace of Versailles. The pale’ show how the park has expanded since Parterre and Orangerie, Canal Gardens and Making connections it was first established in around 1200, the Great Greenhouse, the ‘Iron Court’ and gradually engulfing the surrounding the terraced walks of the ‘Rampires’ were all The involvement of volunteers, visitors and medieval landscape of roads, villages and created at this time. It was a landscape local communities has been an incredibly agricultural fields, fossilising their remains designed to awe and impress. But no sooner important part of the archaeological project, within the park walls. had this layout been completed than it was allowing us to share our findings and our Near the modern village of Tillington, in an replaced by the sinuous curves, carefully enthusiasm for the stories to be told. area of quiet paddocks in the west of the park, archaeological excavations revealed the sunken lanes, garden walls and building Excavations at Tillington made many footings of the medieval settlement – a hive finds including of activity turned to green fields by Brown’s building footings and expansion of the park in the eighteenth sunken lanes. © National Trust/Tom century. Artefacts such as gaming counters, Dommett clay tobacco pipes and broken tankards give a sense of recreational pastimes while loom weights (for weaving wool) and ox shoes speak of the working landscape which existed here from at least the twelfth century. Elsewhere our archaeological surveys have allowed us to reconstruct the shifting layouts of the parkland. Originally known as the ‘Conygre Park’, it was the site of small- scale industry as a rabbit warren. During the sixteenth century it expanded under the influence of Henry VIII, and later the Earls of Northumberland, into a deer-park used for hunting and entertaining nobility, with a

1700 2016

1200

Landscapes retouched Views 23 Excavations of Petworth’s hunting lodge in 2014. Archaeology enables us to involve volunteers and engage visitors in conservation and its challenges in a very direct way. © National Trust/Tom Dommett

The actual process of archaeology has been the first route to reconnecting with the past, no more so than for our team of volunteers. The act of discovery – the thrill of finding something which has lain untouched for hundreds or thousands of years – is what drives most of us in archaeology. Even what might be considered mundane personal objects can create an incredibly emotional response which breeds a passion for the subject and real connection with the sites we work on. Throughout the lifetime of the project, the team has strived to engage visitors to Petworth by ensuring that all the excavations archaeology of the park straight to the excavations of the Elizabethan hunting were fully accessible to members of the smartphones and tablets. Because the lodge or the old north wing of Petworth public. Artefacts were processed and network doesn’t connect to the internet, and House. And using Near Field Contact (NFC) displayed on site, guided tours of the doesn’t make use of a phone service, it is technology, visitors will be able to hunt for trenches ran daily, local school groups took completely free, safe and secure to access location-triggered content out in the park, part in a range of activities alongside the on-the-go. seeking out eighteenth-century letters or excavations, while living history re-enactors We have amassed a huge quantity of recreating historic views. demonstrated the crafts, clothes and digital information on the park, and the This approach promises to deliver far cooking of the period. hotspots will deliver everything from stop- more, and far more engaging, information to Now that the fieldwork has finished, the motion animations, cartoons and 3D digital Petworth’s many thousands of visitors than Trust is looking at an entirely new and reconstructions of former landscapes to an would be possible through a traditional innovative way of interpreting the landscape. aerial tour of the park shot from a small exhibition. But for me the biggest draw is Working with the Heritage Lottery Fund- drone. As visitors explore the grounds they being able to let people learn about the supported Capability Brown Festival 2016, will be able to digitally discover lost landscape within the landscape, to explore we are establishing the ‘Park Explorer’ archaeological sites such as the Earl of the archaeological sites beneath their feet network – a series of wi-fi hotspots, Northumberland’s monumental stables or and hopefully as a result develop a deeper discretely placed in the park and pleasure the Duke of Somerset’s elaborate formal connection with this much-loved parkland, grounds, which can deliver a huge range of gardens. ‘Dig Diaries’ and galleries of the joining the dots between the past and the digital content on the history and unearthed artefacts will allow users to re-live present.

From guided tours to wi-fi hotspots and Near Field Contact technology that covers the park, walking through the history of a place helps bring it alive and keeps people coming back. © National Trust/Tom Dommett

24 Views Landscapes retouched Growing connections

Lessons from Japan’s divine gardens Katie Croft, Gardener, Bodnant Garden, Conwy

Garden viewing in the ancient tradition. © Katie Croft

When I travelled to Japan in January, I was development of an intricate underpinning nowhere to eat and no benches! I also looking forward to seeing beautiful gardens, philosophy dictating the purpose of gardens, noticed that many gardens had not much or gaining new practical skills and learning what they should represent and how they no website, very little marketing and basic about the landscape design techniques for should be used. Of course, I cannot claim interpretation. In general, the environment which Japanese gardens are so famous. I expertise in this after a mere four months and atmosphere for garden visiting are quite didn’t realise that my study would require working in Japan – particularly once you different from the UK. In Japan, it is common me to develop an understanding of the consider that a basic apprenticeship for a for historic gardens to prohibit photography, complex philosophy underpinning Japanese professional gardener, or niwashi, lasts food and drink and sometimes even entry to horticulture, and how it connects all three: somewhere between three and 15 years. the garden: you are permitted only to view it. garden design, maintenance and the garden However, I will share the most important When I spoke to a mentor about how visiting experience. lessons I learnt and highlight where I think it surprised I was at this, and described how The history of gardening in Japan applies to our work in the National Trust. we eat and play games in historic gardens in stretches back uninterrupted to AD700 and the UK, he was horrified! beyond.1 The most famous Japanese Once you think about it, this culture is gardening text – the Sakuteiki – was written Gardens as sacred spaces unsurprising: many of the most beautiful almost 1,000 years ago2 and in Kyoto you and famous gardens in Japan are part of can visit gardens that were created in the I visited over 65 gardens during my time in working Buddhist temples or Shinto shrines; fifteenth, fourteenth or even eleventh Japan, from the very small to the very large. garden design is interwoven with religious centuries.3 This magnificent gardening I was surprised to find that what most had philosophy and therefore taken as seriously lineage has been accompanied by the in common were limited visitor facilities: as fine art. A garden visit requires the same

Growing connections Views 25 level of respect as visiting a church or a great fantastic experience to stop, rest and view In the UK, most of our extant historic gallery, and it was refreshing to see gardens the garden from the location intended by gardens were designed for the purpose of treated with reverence by locals – although the designer, while sampling a traditional research, presenting collections or, more not necessarily by tourists! drink, in exactly the same way that people often, for displaying wealth. It is only more Despite the low-tech facilities and have been doing for hundreds of years. recently that the idea of making gardens to inflexibility of the experience, a visit to a Lastly, one feature of visiting a Japanese inspire feeling or promote wellness has traditional Japanese garden can feel special garden that I particularly loved was that emerged – in fact, the point of a garden isn’t and precious in exactly the way we aim to most had an ornate commemorative stamp something we consider too much beyond a facilitate in the Trust. This is partly due to which you can stamp inside beautiful books lovely day out, some nice views and a cup of the nature of the garden: Japanese gardens that are specially made for the purpose – or, tea. In Japan, on the other hand, purpose, or are very subtle, and a quick wander through if you’re like me, in a scrappy old notebook! what the garden represents, has been vital will not be enjoyable; instead you have to The stamps are unique to each garden and since the days of the Sakuteiki. take time to stop, sit and look to gain any have intricate designs that show the famous Of course there are many different design value from your experience. If you are lucky features. It is also common for people to concepts in Japanese gardens (balance, flow, enough to be garden-viewing on a quiet day, collect calligraphy and stamps from the movement, integration of garden and this can be a transformative experience. monks of a temple when they go to pray, building, and empty space to name a few), A second factor is that you usually have particularly if on a pilgrimage: these are but I am not knowledgeable enough to deal to take your shoes off to visit a temple beautiful and very precious mementos. with them here. The two most significant garden and are provided with slippers in points that I can explain is that firstly, the return. In one garden I visited, Toji-in, there ancient gardens were constructed for a are a set of slippers for the building and a certain purpose, such as meditation and separate set to wear in the garden. It may What’s the point of a garden? religious study, conducting the tea sound bizarre but this simple act of ceremony, strolling and so on. The design of removing your shoes effectively signals that Before I came, I knew that Japanese gardens the garden focuses on facilitating that you are entering a special place, where you have a specific function, and that the design purpose. Secondly, Japanese gardens aim to have to behave differently. And it is quite fun is linked to the function. I knew it, but I emulate the natural landscape in an elevated to walk around a garden in slippers! didn’t understand how important it is! In and pure form; they are not concerned with Thirdly, although most gardens offer fact, I consider that the most fundamental creating fantasy landscapes. If that sounds limited or no refreshment facilities, many difference between British and Japanese reductionist, it’s because I’m not explaining offer matcha tea and a traditional sweet gardens is not the presence or absence of it well! Slawson writes that ‘the Japanese served on the engawa, the veranda from clipped pines, pagodas and lanterns, but the landscape garden is an art that, like which the garden should be viewed. It is a difference in purpose and inspiration. landscape painting, is rooted in the beauty

Women in traditional kimono walking through Kennin-ji temple gardens. © Katie Croft

26 Views Growing connections of the natural scenery,’ later clarifying that feeling (e.g. certain atmosphere for small thing, but I believe that it is ‘one of the most important ideals of the meditation). When maintaining the garden, fundamental to the power of Japanese classical Japanese garden was to re-create one must constantly focus on the aim and gardens and can make a huge difference in the effects of the natural scenery’.4 The idea, carry out every task in a way that the way we care for a garden. essentially, is to recreate the most strengthens that original purpose. For exceptional parts of nature, including the example, not just automatically sweeping up accompanying sense of awe and wonder. the fallen leaves or blossom, but instead Further information These factors result in gardens with considering whether it is better to leave powerful conviction that are firmly rooted in them for a certain time, to enhance the If you’d like to find out more, go to society, culture and the natural environment. sense of the seasons passing. I saw this first http://triadfellowship.wordpress.com or you I believe that this is a vital source of the hand when I worked in Murin-an garden: can read about my experiences at powerful heart and sense of spirit in great after we had swept debris from the moss http://theadventuringgardener.com. Japanese gardens. and the paths, our mentor picked up some Applications to the TRIAD Fellowship open of the Camellia blossoms from the bucket in the autumn to start in May 2017. If you and scattered them back on the area we have any questions, please email me at Gardening with intention had just swept. This made a big difference: [email protected] or contact rather than the garden feeling austere and the team at Hidcote Manor Gardens, who The concept of purpose is not limited to overly neat, the petals created a pretty, organise the UK section of the Triad garden design; it is also fundamental to the relaxed feeling which emphasised the Fellowship. niwashi who maintains the garden. During coming of spring. my experience working with gardening Such focus is applied to every task in the company Ueyakato-zoen in Kyoto, I heard garden. Pruning is another obvious example: References how they reject the term ‘maintenance’ and we often automatically prune all individuals 1. Keane, M.P., Japanese Garden Design (North instead focus on fostering gardens. This of a species in exactly the same way (how Clarendon, USA: Tuttle, 1996). sounds a little strange in English but is an the Royal Horticultural Society says!), 2. Keane, M. P., and Takei, J., Sakuteiki: Visions of excellent ethos which could subtly change regardless of where it is or what its role is in the Japanese Garden (North Clarendon, USA: and improve the way we care for historic that particular garden. But of course, the Tuttle, 2008). 3. Slawson, D. A., Secret Teachings in the Art of gardens. way you prune has a big effect on Japanese Gardens: Design Principles, Aesthetic In each garden I worked in, I heard how atmosphere, so we should prune each plant Values (New York: Kodansha America, 1987). the design was created to display a certain according to the spirit of the garden. 4. Spencer-Jones, R. (ed.), 1001 Gardens You Must image (e.g. replicating a certain kind of The connection between purpose and See Before You Die (London: Quintessence, landscape), or create a particular mood or general garden maintenance may seem like a 2007).

Camellia petals on the steps of Honen-in Temple. © Katie Croft

Growing connections Views 27 Weaving echoes of Dyrham’s past into a twenty-first-century garden Beth Weston, Outdoor Visitor and Volunteering Experience Officer, Dyrham Park, Gloucestershire

etween 1692 and 1710, Dyrham Park house was built and its gardens laid Bout by the diplomat and politician William Blathwayt. As a young man at the English Embassy in The Hague, and later as a politician in London, Blathwayt would have visited some of the most glorious formal gardens of seventeenth-century Europe. He actually started work on the garden before his house, which illustrates how important it was to him and also how the house and garden were seen as one entity. His ambition to have his own and very extensive garden was fulfilled at a time when such formality was being swept aside by the picturesque landscape style originated by Charles Bridgeman and perfected by ‘Capability’ Brown. Within years of Blathwayt’s death in 1717, Dyrham’s parterres were grassed over, the fountains stopped and the stone sold. Blathwayt’s grand vision was lost…but not quite.

What we know of Blathwayt’s garden

Although the garden itself disappeared, we Above: The Johannes Kip engraving of have a clear idea of what it would have Dyrham Park. looked like in Blathwayt’s day. A © National Trust contemporary (1710) engraving by Johannes Left: Much of Kip shows its structure and layout. We also Blathwayt’s grand have an incredibly detailed account by the garden was turned to garden designer Stephen Switzer, published grass; when the Trust took over, this area in 1718, a year after Blathwayt died. Switzer was used to graze describes everything, from the style to the donkeys. plants, and paints a picture of seventeenth- © National Trust century garden design at its zenith. Blathwayt was often away on royal campaigns acting as a temporary Secretary of State whilst his garden was being created. This, coupled with his style of working, which we would call micro-management, led to a phenomenal amount of such as Ham House, Westbury Court Garden paddock’ into a garden. This west garden correspondence. In hundreds of letters to his and Hanbury Hall. With all this knowledge, was split into different courts to recapture head gardener, Thomas Hurnall, and his we can be confident on the layout and in the the structure shown on the Kip engraving, project manager, ‘Cousin Watkins’, plants we are introducing such as but modern cultivars were put in to provide Blathwayt demands to know precise details, seventeenth-century species of larkspur, instant appeal. By 2005 our funds allowed such as exactly how much fruit is on his hesperis, alyssum and aquilegia. plans to be drawn up to show how the areas trees, the cost of the stone for the fountains could be further restructured to capture and how many staff are in his employment. even more of the original design and style. We are in no doubt as to what was in the The transformation begins These were useful in introducing visitors to garden and what Blathwayt was aiming to the idea of future change. create. We also have secondary historical In 1997, Dyrham’s garden team began the By 2014 two significant elements had sources on the plants available at the time, process of transforming the area to the west come into play: Spirit of Place and the by- and contemporary gardens still in existence side of the house from a grassed ‘donkey now established west garden, which was

28 Views Growing connections Below: This photo of Right: After mowing an unknown lady by a the outline of the sundial shows the formal beds on to the unremarkable west lawn to introduce garden in 1905. This is visitors to our plans, the site of one of the we cut the turf, which most significant became a visitor transformations so far. attraction itself. © National Trust © National Trust/ Beth Weston

providing year-round interest for visitors; this meant we would always have a garden offer whilst other new areas were being redeveloped. Dyrham Park’s new Spirit of Place document focused on the seventeenth-century period of its history, giving strength to plans to re-imagine the garden’s presentation in this period.

Why not a complete restoration?

This is the big question! Firstly, there is the matter of funds: we are concentrating on only a small area, but Blathwayt’s garden was vast. We are working mainly on the west side of the house because of our budget and the seasons change so we want to keep that Moving forward, looking back because we have something there we can horticultural interest and exploration work with; the east front is now part of the element whilst telling the story of our past. Further grant funding in 2015 enabled the deer-park and it would take an extraordinary We enjoy demonstrating the process of latest phase to begin last November. Over investment to recreate its seventeenth- change: to see a garden that has the the next five years we want to structure the century appearance. structure of the past with some heritage garden and plant it in a way that re-captures Secondly, we want to incorporate a really plants mixed in with a twenty-first-century the spirit of our seventeenth-century origins; strong year-round seasonal offer for visitors, makeover gives a real timeline feel. We have for instance, visitors can now walk up one that engages children and adults in brilliant archive photos of the garden Blathwayt’s carriage drive to his front door, gardening and our special plants. Planting through its Victorian period to its decline just as visitors would have done 300 years true to the seventeenth century could not and then recent renewal; displaying these ago. The formal structure we are putting in offer a constantly changing garden to the brings visitors on a journey with us, and place will weave the past into a beautiful standards we need. Many visitors return as helps them see how the garden has changed. twenty-first-century garden.

Growing connections Views 29 Left: The original cobble stones revealed in Sphynx Court. It took its name from a sphinx statue that can be seen in the Kip engraving. The statue no longer exists but we would like to put a replica back one day. © National Trust/Beth Weston

Right: The carriage drive, Sphynx Court and some of the formal beds begin to reappear. The sundial in the earlier picture would have stood in the foreground. © National Trust/Beth Weston

We started by mowing our designs on to gardens of Het Loo Palace, in The research which has supported the the lawns earlier last year to introduce Netherlands, which was visited by, and development of the designs and planting. visitors to our proposals. Initially we had one would undoubtedly have inspired, Having an archaeologist, Paul Martin, on or two negative reactions to digging up Blathwayt. We returned with hundreds of site has also been fantastic for visitors who these areas. However, the team asked photos and ideas, from the colour of trellis have been fascinated by discoveries such as visitors and volunteers to open their minds to parterre designs. the hidden cobbles. Archaeology has been to the past and the stories we could tell – used to test the soils to see where the original and their enthusiasm for the project has flower-beds would have been. After Paul gave been inspirational. Engagement a presentation to local residents, we received We cut out the carriage drive last funding for more archaeological work. November, through the original Sphynx Senior Gardener Sarah Jones took design The level of engagement shared by staff, Court. When we started to strip turf in the planning in her stride, creating from scratch volunteers, visitors and local property teams Sphynx Court, we made an incredible some incredible designs of our visions. We has been exceptional. The team has been out discovery: the original cobbles, still in situ! used our Christmas raffle to fundraise for chatting to visitors about the project every We also cut out the eight strip beds down ‘golden orbs’ to grace the top of the topiary on day and we’ve seen a dramatic increase in our the avenue and transplanted a lot of the west terrace: decorative painted orbs were ‘warm and friendly’ Visitor Experience score. herbaceous plants from the borders and often arranged on spires of yew box and can Everyone has worked tirelessly giving planted conical bay trees into the centres of still be seen in other formal gardens such as presentations, guided walks, producing the beds for immediate effect. The avenue Hanbury Hall. Our gardener Tim Jones turned newsletters and so much more to keep people has been instantly transformed into a much out to be a fantastic raffle-ticket seller and we on a journey with us as the project unfolds. more formal space which enriches the whole completely sold out of all of the tickets, raising This year we are taking an outside-in look and feel of the garden. We have started the funds needed to do the work. approach by bringing the garden into the research on espaliers and seventeenth- Our volunteers have been very committed house while physically working on it outside. century topiary, and we are even considering and just wonderful! They have produced a We are hosting an entire garden exhibition setting up a special ‘hedge fund’ (geddit?!) brand new tour about the project for visitors, inside that will tell how Blathwayt built his The team visited the seventeenth-century and committed a great many more hours to magnificent garden, his influences and political ambitions. In May we finished planting 10,000 plants, many of which are seventeenth-century cultivars, in the new beds which gave a spectacular display in summer. This winter we’ll begin stage two of the project by laying the boundary paths to mark the new formal structure and, subject to funding, will investigate planting trained fruit trees, a popular practice in the seventeenth century, so that we can champion heritage varieties. If funding allows, we will also start work on new topiary. Come and see our progress!

Reference This article is based on a summary published in Seasonal Times (National Trust, Spring 2016).

The formal beds replanted and thriving, giving some impression of the beautiful garden that Blathwayt created. © National Trust/Beth Weston

30 Views Growing connections Growing gardeners: garden training through the ages Kate Nicoll, National Specialist for Garden Training

Garden Training Strategy for the research hat of my previous career, I decided There is one subject which, more than National Trust! Aren’t all our to find out how gardeners have been trained everything else, will tend to improve gardening ‘Agardeners fully trained already?’ in the past, and whether that history offers and agriculture, – the better education of This was one of the responses I received any lessons we can learn for the future. gardeners. … As gardening has advanced, as its when I took up my secondment as National production and province have extended, the Specialist for Garden Training. The general situation of head gardener has become more assumption is that gardeners are born with A potted history of garden training and more important. … The knowledge of the green fingers primed for propagation, management of a garden … is only to be pruning and identification of all the 30,000 From the late eighteenth century to the acquired by the utmost perseverance and the plants known in cultivation – not to mention outbreak of the First World War, horticulture most unremitting industry, and by reducing the garden design, soil preparation and enjoyed enormous growth and development principles of theory to the certain and infallible machinery maintenance. Having switched in Britain. As a way of displaying the wealth of test of practice.1 careers from radio production to aristocrats and nouveaux riches alike, country horticulture a mere 15 years ago, I am only estates and their increasingly elaborate The firm principle of practical training was too aware that gaining the skills, knowledge gardens blossomed. Head gardeners, charged established, underpinned by a good level of and experience to manage a complex garden with ‘nurturing such displays of one- general education before the apprentice left is both hard-won and never actually upmanship’,1 were in great demand and their school: writing, arithmetic, geometry, completed. In horticulture there is always numbers grew from just over 1,000 in 1867 to drawing and some rudiments of Latin were something more to learn. over 4,000 in 1914. How were so many all expected. Once the apprentice began in Outside the Trust, sadly, training trained in less than half a century? the garden – with his first year spent opportunities for gardeners are shrinking A system of educating likely school washing pots and stoking boilers from 6 fast. Colleges in Shropshire – home to leavers from the age of 12 as ‘garden boys’ – o’clock in the morning to 6 o’clock at night – Attingham Park, the property where I garden they were invariably male at this time – or he was expected to continue his education – no longer offer career-based professional apprentices evolved in the early nineteenth in the evening by studying horticultural horticultural training. Elsewhere, too, land- century as demand grew. John Claudius tomes and attending classes or ‘Gardeners based skills seem to have mysteriously Loudon, an influential garden writer who Improvement Societies’, the precursors of metamorphosed into hairdressing or sports produced some six million words in his our local horticultural societies. The topics studies. We see the effects of this decline lifetime, started a lively debate in the first they discussed were more varied and erudite when we try to recruit new gardeners from a issue of The Gardener’s Magazine in 1826 than we tend to find these days: ‘Eradication smaller and smaller pool. So, wearing the about how this training should be delivered: of Garden Insects; Protection of Wall Fruits;

Digging over the walled garden at Attingham (date unknown). © Unknown

Growing connections Views 31 Trainee women gardeners from Swanley College in 1926. © Unknown

Formation of Character; Certain Trades and Left: Attingham’s head Professions as Causes of Disease; Cultivation gardener, Mr Carter, and his apprentice in of the Cyclamen; Cultivation of the Azalea; the 1930s. © Unknown Progress in Australia; The Pansy; Cultivation of the Strawberry; The Conservatory; Temperance; Forcing of the Fig; Government by Party…’1 The second year of a typical apprenticeship took the young gardener into the kitchen garden, where he picked up heavy work such as shifting manure as well as the finer skills of pruning and propagation. Year Three finally let him loose in the flower garden, when learning to identify plants became a huge task. In 1821, Andrew Turnbull, an 18-year-old ‘Journeyman Gardener’ – the grade up from apprentice – stayed late after work to take advantage of ‘the excellent collection of herbaceous plants’ at Dalkeith Park near Edinburgh and undertook to learn 50 plant names a night!1 That makes the 10–20 names a week required by Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Level 3 students today seem positively lackadaisical in comparison. Indeed, just a few years after young Turnbull’s exertions, the RHS started to standardise the curriculum of garden training. But it took them another 30 years before they arrived at a two-tier level of examinations ‘to provide a more efficient and widespread means of bringing out the theoretical talent in the rising generation of gardeners’.1 Not that take-up was very swift to start trained gardener could expect to earn On-the-job training remained the norm with. Head gardeners were sceptical that between £50 and £100 per year, whilst those for most gardeners well into the twentieth employees already working a 60-hour week in ‘trade’ could earn several times that century. Arthur Hooper’s entertaining would have the time to study for such amount with far less investment in training. memoir, Life in the Gardeners’ Bothy, exams. It was also recognised, even in those The placing of horticulture firmly in the describes a three-year apprenticeship under days, that financial incentives to study social shackles of ‘service’ clearly has his head gardener father in the 1920s. At 18, horticulture were meagre. In the 1860s, a repercussions to this day. he left home to become a journeyman

32 Views Growing connections gardener on a nearby Wiltshire estate. There he describes life in the bothy with his fellow gardeners, all adhering to a strict hierarchy according to their length of service. Self- improvement, however, seemed rather less in evidence than in the previous century. There was a ‘fair collection of books in one corner of the room, mainly gardening books, a few novels and a pile of The Gardener’s Chronicle’,2 but Arthur’s evenings (when he was not on glasshouse duty) were spent mainly playing cribbage or walking the two miles to the King’s Head. Still, the principle of learning from a wide range of gardens remained as the trainee ‘journeyed’ around the country. Gardeners were still as well- travelled, if not as well-read, as their nineteenth-century forebears.

A woman’s place too Our current batch of trainee gardeners at Chelsea. Those entering the horticultural profession today are predominantly female. © National Trust This ordered life was rarely disturbed by any female incursions, unless it was ‘Mum’ who new generation of gardeners – yet even as engagement, volunteer management and prepared the trainees’ meals. But elsewhere the vocation became more professional over customer service: after escaping high- women were beginning to make some the following decades, with horticulture powered careers in the financial, inroads into what many hoped might degrees replacing apprenticeships, the educational, health or service sectors, many become the profession of horticulture, and a status of gardeners declined and numbers of of our new garden staff can deliver on those viable means of earning a living for both students and courses declined with ease. We need to offer more practical respectable young ladies. At the turn of the accordingly. skills – summer pruning, soil cultivation, last century, there were three newly created plant health and machinery maintenance – colleges for female farmers and gardeners: to ensure that we can deliver the high Swanley in Kent, Waterperry in Oxfordshire Areas for growth horticultural standards our gardens deserve. and Studley in Warwickshire. The First World We also need to persuade school leavers War is often thought to have sounded the The one growing field in horticultural that horticulture is a rewarding career. I death knell for high horticulture, but in fact education is that aimed at the ‘amateur’ or certainly wish my Careers Officer had offered it opened many doors for women gardeners. ‘hobby’ gardener – a cohort that has kept me advice of that nature 40 years ago. But The Women’s Farm and Garden Union – the three-tiered RHS system of garden with salaries for trained gardeners still so soon to become the Women’s Farm and courses and examinations afloat. The age of much lower than almost every other Garden Association, which to this day runs such students is necessarily greater than graduate career, we are likely to see the WRAG Scheme3 – set up a training their eighteenth- and nineteenth-century increasing numbers of mature trainees scheme as food shortages began to threaten forebears, as they have acquired the applying for any schemes we offer. That is the Home Front in 1916. The National collateral of their own garden and the leisure why, if the Trust is to grow its own future Women’s Land Work Corps was formed, later time in which to develop it. Alongside this gardeners, it must arrange for the practical renamed the Women’s Land Army, and was ageing population of students, the gender skills of experienced gardeners to be handed responsible for training over 200,000 land discrepancy has been totally reversed. Most down before retirement. Whether it be girls in 1917. trainee gardeners are now female, a trend through informal master-classes or highly After the war ended, most women that is now manifest among trained structured schemes such as the Historic and returned to the home, while the young men professional gardeners: in London and the Botanic Garden Training Placement (HBGTP who returned from the front were often less South East, women make up 60 per cent of or Heebie-jeebies for short), head gardeners likely to accept the strictures of poorly paid Trust garden staff. must be allowed out of the office and back work in the garden. A recruitment crisis How, then, should the Trust adapt to this into the garden to hand on their skills – similar to today’s ensued, triggering an social phenomenon? Overt prejudice against before it is too late. expansion of new horticultural and women gardeners has (mostly) disappeared agricultural colleges. On-the-job training but there is still some reluctance to take declined as students studied botany in the second-career gardeners seriously. While References classroom rather than out in the field. Work their horticultural skills might be more 1. Toby Musgrave, The Head Gardeners (London: placements got shorter and shorter, theoretical – increasingly based on distance Aurum Press, 2007). although this was often compensated for by learning – the skills they bring from a 2. Arthur Hooper, Life in the Gardeners’ Bothy the splendid gardens run by students in previous career often more than (Suffolk: Malt House Press, 2000), p.11. college grounds. In something of a historical compensate. That is why the Trust’s 3. Work and Retrain as a Gardener Scheme, previously known as the Women Returners to irony, the very country piles that were no continuing professional development for Amenity Gardening Scheme. longer economically viable in the twentieth garden staff has to adapt. We no longer have 4. Peter King, Women Rule the Plot (London: century became the training grounds for a to concentrate on ‘core’ skills such as visitor Gerald Duckworth, 1999), p.91.

Growing connections Views 33 Room to grow: plant recording in the National Trust Franklyn Tancock, former Plant Collection Curator

ccording to the plantsman Roy threatened or endangered stock should be Annual reports were given on the progress Lancaster CBE, the National Trust available for propagation and distribution to of the work undertaken, the number of new Ahas the largest collection of suitable sites throughout the British Isles. plants recorded and the number of plant cultivated plants in Europe, if not the world, The principle of subdividing gardens and deaths, etc. over its 250-plus sites. This article is on how parks into numbered zones has also Linked with this work was the opening of the Trust began, and how it continues, to remained the same, although today’s the Plant Conservation Centre (PCC) in 1982. record its distinguished plant collection. subdivisions are much smaller so that finding Concern that cuts at major nurseries were the plants is much easier. reducing the range of material available, this In the first year over 2,000 trees were designated nursery would provide new and In the beginning was the conifer recorded across 18 gardens, from Anglesey rejuvenated plant material to replenish the Abbey to Winkworth Arboretum, and by Trust’s gardens and parks. It particularly In 1976 American botanist Michael Zander 1978, 55,000 trees had been recorded on 52 proved its worth after the devastating was engaged for a new scheme to catalogue of our properties in England, Wales and storms of 1987 and 1990 when 75 per cent of plants in Trust gardens. His role was the Northern Ireland. storm-damaged stock sent to the PCC was result of funding from the Thomas Phillips A tree-cataloguing system was successfully propagated and returned to the Price Trust and the involvement of the Royal introduced in the early 1980s with funding properties of origin. It was recognised how Botanic Gardens, Kew, which provided a from the Manpower Services schemes. defenceless our plant collection was and a venue to store the captured data on both a Michael’s work was amalgamated into what ‘Priority Propagation List’ was produced that card index and a computerised system. The became the Woody Plant Catalogue which became the ‘bible’ for the PCC. Ford Motor Company donated a caravanette concentrated on gardens with prominent to the project which allowed him to visit plant collections and continued until 2003. properties for prolonged periods. Michael Developing apace began initially by recording conifers only – you might still find the small round Adding narrative to the record In 1994 Melissa Simpson was appointed to numbered disks attached to conifers today – the new post of Horticultural Taxonomist. which were selected because they could be In 1980 Michael Lear took over, and the She took over the running of the surveys, identified all year round. criteria changed to cover a more diverse and Michael was retained as a contractor. By It was felt then, as it is now, that any range of plants but still only woody plants 2000, more than 90,000 records had been plant record system should provide were surveyed. The work was co-ordinated recorded and a large number of gardens and information on wild collected plant material centrally, including record-keeping and parkland had been mapped. The maps were of known provenance, and that rare, updating, etc., and the records kept at Kew produced using a cut-down version of until the Trust developed its own database AutoCAD called AutoSketch, which some system in the mid-1980s. Part of Michael’s gardeners still use. work was to analyse the collections at each When Melissa left in 2003, the difficulty in National Plant Collections are held by many Trust garden or park surveyed to report on the finding a replacement taxonomist led to the gardens; Mottisfont in Hampshire has two: pre- 1900 shrub roses and plane trees. type of collection, provide a brief history and role being changed to Plant Collection © National Trust/Marianne Majerus recommend a policy for future replanting. Curator, with a fresh focus on finding a user- friendly system for properties to take responsibility for their own plant recording. The Trust was involved in the early stages of the Demeter project along with the then National Council for the Conservation of Plants & Gardens (now Plant Heritage) and English Heritage. The Trust ended its involvement, however, as it wasn’t then being developed as an intranet-based system, and the Trust’s IT department was unable to maintain it. After much investigation, it was felt that an in-house purpose-built database system would be the best solution. The first version went live in November 2004 and by 2007 over 50,000 plants had been recorded. The biggest differences between this and the old recording system were that all types of plant were recorded, including bedding and wild flora, and it was the responsibility of the property to add and update the records.

34 Views Growing connections A major leap forward 2010 saw the latest version of the GPS enables us to record and produce accurate database released with new features such as maps of plant positions and overall planting schemes. © National Trust Images/Paul Harris In the years before the banking crisis of linked individual browsers. For example, the 2008/9, the Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks Taxa Browser allows anyone to find plants generously sponsored various outdoor within the system at other Trust sites and projects in the Trust for £3 million over three therefore provides a new source of free and requires some fixes. One issue that needs to years, including £450,000 for plant surveys. peat-free material. The database also now be addressed is the integration of maps The aim of that project was to undertake 80 allows properties to add documents and within the database so that it’s a smooth surveys over the three-year period; we images to create an archive of their garden transition from one to the other. achieved that figure but it took us another or park. Help information has been built in I would like to think that everyone year. Some of the funds were also used to on how to do most of the common understands the importance of knowing improve the current database. We were able procedures, from adding a plant to what they are looking after and how it plays to introduce GPS mapping into the plant- uploading documents and images. its part in the bigger horticultural picture. A recording process, using the latest technology By the end of 2015 over 500,000 plants wider gardens review sparked a new lease of to capture the position of each plant and at were recorded in 380,000 plant records life into the world of gardening within the the same time record its details. A process covering more than 25,500 different taxa. Trust, so the future is looking… well, rosy. was also developed to upload this basic plant Plant surveys have been undertaken at 118 Hopefully the database will be part of that record automatically to the database. properties with 104 having digital maps to vigour and move forward in a positive way to By 2009 our database held over 130,000 accompany their plant records. We also have make it a system that befits such an plant records. The system was now available over 10,500 images and 1,300 documents. exceptional and diverse plant collection. It’s for anyone in the organisation to view so One other interesting statistic is that out of still the aim to complete plant surveys at all that properties could see how others had the immense variety of plants recorded, the Trust’s garden and park properties. achieved certain tasks – a sort of self- almost 9,000 are recorded at only one Resources to undertake this work is an training approach. property, making some of these the ‘jewels important consideration, and the In 2009 Chicago Botanic Gardens invited in the crown’. introduction of new Conservation the Trust to be the first European partner in Performance Indicator criteria will help its Plants Collection project and provided tackle this. $100,000 (around £67,800) to add So what of the future? additional information fields to the database to coincide with its system. Unfortunately, The world of technology has moved a long after a few years, the Chicago system was way, ever more so in the last five years, disbanded because of the lack of suitable continually improving help for users. The storage space and funding. current plants database is not perfect and

Growing connections Views 35 Revelation and reconnection

Rainham Hall: opening a National Trust property in an urban and industrial landscape Sally James, Creative Programme Manager, Rainham Hall, London

n 7 October 2015, Rainham Hall, a A jewel in Havering’s crown architectural merit was weighed up against Grade II* listed eighteenth-century the fact it had no source of income. Ohouse in the London Borough of Built in 1729 for an enterprising sea Eventually in 1949 the Trust took over Havering, opened fully for the first time. merchant, Captain John Harle (1688–1742), ownership, after the Society for the Considered to be a fine example of an early the hall has been home to nearly 50 different Protection of Ancient Buildings suggested Georgian merchant’s house, the hall has inhabitants and families, including coal several of its supporters would be willing to undergone a £2.5 million two-year merchants, a scientist-vicar, a Vogue take up tenancy. Public access during the programme of conservation and photographer and local children who tenancy era was extremely limited, and the redevelopment, with £1.5 million funded by attended a wartime nursery in the 1940s. last residents moved out just a few years ago. the Heritage Lottery Fund and supporting When the last private owner died in 1945, the Situated at the heart of Rainham village grants from Veolia North Thames Trust and property was offered to the Trust via the for nearly 300 years, today the hall is Biffa Award. The Rainham Hall project has National Land Fund, a government scheme surrounded by thriving industry and bleak challenged the way the Trust thinks about which refunded the Treasury for properties it marshland. It appears modest against a urban audiences, resulting in a pioneering had accepted in lieu of death duties, skyline dominated by towering pylons. multi-layered approach to conservation and provided they were of sufficient merit to be London buses regularly rattle past, just offering a new way to interpret the historic opened to the public. A period of uncertainty metres from the front door, and council- houses we look after. followed as the building’s unquestioned housing flats overlook the walled

Rainham Hall. © National Trust Images/Sophia Schorr- Kon

36 Views Revelation and reconnection Right: Community ribbon-cutting moment. © National Trust Images/James Dobson

Below right: Visitors enjoying the original eighteenth-century staircase. © National Trust Images/Sophia Schorr-Kon

garden – a stark contrast to a typical Trust mansion setting, yet this context makes the property all the more remarkable. During consultation sessions we discovered many local people weren’t aware of the hall, its history or the work of the Trust. We worked closely with the borough council, and our project came to form their ‘jewel in the crown’ for regeneration in the area.

Learning as we went

As a local resident, I was delighted to join the team in summer 2014, just a few months after the major capital works programme had begun. I had visited before when it was tenanted, and the potential for its redevelopment was clear to me then. New facilities, services and systems were required to create a safe, functional and welcoming site. Changes needed to be sympathetic to time and taste, yet ultimately respectful of ‘Everything Harle Left Behind’ is the first the building and suitable for long-term the inherent qualities of the building. The co- exhibition, deconstructing the life of operations. There is no handy ‘how to open a existence of the layers and alterations Captain Harle, his sea journeys and activities new National Trust property’ guide, and as a combined with the modest scale of its rooms as an eighteenth-century merchant trader. team we worked our way through an makes visitors feel “I could live here”.’ The Exhibits include sound installations, exhaustive list of things to decide: where to significance of historical layers is amplified by interactive displays and unique objects, with sell tickets, whether to serve cake on paper the fact that there is no indigenous collection many located in quirky spaces such as plates or china, where the bins should go, nor a surviving inventory from the early cupboards and even in a historic bathtub and so on. period. The building lacks furnishings but is (which has particularly captured the public’s Rather than a straightforward Georgian rich in stories. We viewed an empty house as imagination). With no set visitor route, we restoration project, we carefully considered an opportunity, allowing us to create encourage people to explore three floors, historical layers and questioned whether innovative exhibits for display in partnership open doors and cupboards, and use the social or architectural significance should be with local makers and to borrow items from small interconnecting closet spaces to walk the more prominent influence. Our new other organisations, such as the National between rooms. One object on display is approach to conservation decision-making is Maritime Museum. Harle’s will made in 1741, which was providing invaluable lessons for the Trust. Our collaborations with students at discovered at a car-boot sale by Rainham We’ve conserved and restored a variety of Central Saint Martins and Studio Weave, an resident, Pam Lincoln, who kindly donated it paint schemes dating from the 1720s, 1920s, award-winning RIBA chartered practice to the Trust. We recorded a film about this 1960s, 2000s and many more eras in based in London, resulted in an original extraordinary discovery, which plays on a between, based on how individual spaces interpretation scheme with changing tablet device attached to the will display were altered over the years. Our Spirit of programmes that last 18–24 months. This case. It surprises and delights visitors daily, Place embraces this approach, noting: ‘a approach enables us to illuminate the lives of challenging them to think about how objects series of residents have called the hall home, former residents and tell a variety of may be acquired and how exhibitions are leaving a decorative imprint redolent of their compelling stories about the hall’s history. curated in the Trust.

Revelation and reconnection Views 37 model collier ship for a seascape diorama. Our highly skilled volunteer team has grown to over 120 today with people fulfilling a variety of roles. The majority are local people, with many living within walking distance or a bus ride away. The transformation of Rainham Hall has played a significant part in the major regeneration of this previously forgotten area of London. Led by Julian Harrap Architects, a key achievement of the capital works has been to remove the dilapidated stable block from the Historic England Heritage at Risk register. It now offers new facilities including a fully accessible café, with community activity space and a new toilet block. The nearly three-acre garden, which had been formerly hidden from view of the street, now offers an oasis of free-to- enter green space. The interpretation inside has received overwhelmingly positive feedback, and while some visitors will always expect to see original historical furnishings at our properties, the presentation decisions we made stay true to the spirit of this continually evolving house, and our audiences are enjoying a fresh approach to storytelling. Nearly 5,000 people visited between October and December 2015 – a much higher number than anticipated for this small building and which included a surprisingly high proportion of members. Yet success at Rainham Hall needs to be measured by more than the standard Key Performance Indicators if we are to stay relevant to our audiences and facilitate meaningful community engagement. The following comment by a visitor demonstrates the difference the Trust can make: ‘If like me you live in Rainham you should definitely go and take a look. It’s something to be proud of in a town that for too long felt like it had nothing going for it… Under the floorboards displays. © National Trust Images/Sophia Schorr-Kon I feel the care taken in the renovation is an honest attempt at encouraging a community to come out and appreciate the local history. We wanted to appeal to both families Inclusive approach I hope it succeeds as it could become a great with young children and adult learners, while focal point to the village.’ also considering the experience for autistic Extensive consultation with advisers, We are proud to share this special place audiences. The tone of the exhibition is both community groups, a heritage steering panel with the public and look forward to finding playful and scholarly, with an open and our funders shaped the nature of the new ways to engage with the community. acknowledgement to just how little is known project. Volunteers and members of the local The site is open all-year round, offering a about the Harle family’s brief 40 years living community contributed significantly by brand new cultural asset to local people, at the hall. Harle’s story alone does not conserving all historic floorboards following members and visitors from across the define Rainham Hall, and we are busy specialist training sessions, transforming a country and beyond. planning for the second and third wilderness into a garden and by creating or programmes now which will explore the co-curating over 60 per cent of the 23 1940s day nursery era and the life of 1960s exhibits on display. For example, Havering tenant and Vogue photographer, Anthony Adult College tailoring students spent nearly Denney, respectively. Visitors are always two years hand-sewing a replica Georgian intrigued to hear that the exhibition content dress for display, a local artist carved small will be refreshed, and this should give many sculptures out of coal, and a member of a compelling reason to return. Romford Model Engineering Club built a

38 Views Revelation and reconnection Reconnecting Polesden Lacey with its pasts Katarina Robinson, Conservation and Engagement Assistant, Polesden Lacey, Surrey

Unlocking Polesden

2016 is a special year for Polesden Lacey – it is when our exciting new ‘Unlocking Polesden’ project is officially rolled out. The project sees Polesden Lacey, the weekend party house of the Edwardian hostess Margaret Greville, open for 363 days of the year. We are ‘unlocking’ the property through a changing programme of new visitor offers, spaces and stories, which will reconnect our visitors with the many hidden layers of Mrs Greville’s fascinating past. Since the property came to the Trust in 1942, a number of rooms had been off the visitor route and so their history was dormant. Even until 2014, much of the upstairs was offices for the London & South East regional teams. With Above: East façade of Polesden Lacey, Surrey. © National Trust/Eddie Hyde their move, these sleeping rooms had the chance to be reinstated to their original, pre- and that of her family, the many royal guests successful McEwan beer company, still in 1942, ‘Grevillian’ splendour. she entertained, the relationship she production today. With this in mind, our title Why open for 363 days of the year? More maintained with her servants, and her for the first of our offers is ‘Beer to spaces and longer opening hours surely passion for increasing her collection. Champagne: the making of a sparkling means more work? It certainly does, but it These facets played a part in our society hostess’. also means new research, fresh discoveries traditional offer, but with the opening of and more visitors enjoying exciting stories family bedrooms, royal guest suites, servants’ from the past. Our main driver for going ‘363’ quarters and a brand new exhibition suite, we Christmas offer After ‘Beer to Champagne’ was to create a year-round experience that were able to develop these themes in their closes at the end of November 2016, we will would always offer our visitors something original historical context. launch our popular Christmas offer when new and exciting and encourage repeat visits. 1930s house parties will be the order of the day, with vintage decorations, mulled wine, Unlocking Polesden: five offers carol singing and 1930s attire. Connecting with the past The themes will drive a rolling yearly Servants and Exhibitions offer This takes With our Spirit of Place in mind, ‘a glorious programme, starting this autumn. place between January and March 2017 setting for bringing people together’, the first during the period traditionally used for deep step of our project was to group the various ‘Beer to Champagne’ This September we conservation work. New servants’ attic aspects of Mrs Greville’s life into themes. focus on Mrs Greville and her family. The bedrooms will be open for view, as well as These then informed the way we structured often forgotten stories of her husband off-limits back staircases to never-before- our opening across the year, and which Ronnie and her father William McEwan will seen spaces. themes should hold focus at certain points. come to the fore with the opening of their In our brand new exhibition suite we shall Delving into the layers of Mrs Greville’s bedrooms. Her sharp rise to fame and riches curate an annual array of items from Mrs life threw up themes around her private life was a result of her father’s extremely Greville’s collection, including some that have not been seen before. This is arguably the offer that will reveal most hitherto unknown stories as we aim to include items that were sold off after her death in 1942. More on the exhibition in a moment, as this is the offer I am closest to, and therefore best-placed to relay our excitement!

A house party at Polesden Lacey in 1909: Mrs Greville, third left, has Edward VII on her left, and her father, William McEwan, stands behind her. Among the group are the Austrian ambassador, a Portuguese minister and the king’s mistress. © National Trust. Original photographer unknown.

Revelation and reconnection Views 39 Rosalba Carriera, Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, 1700–57, pastel on paper. Returned to Polesden Lacey from Peckover House, Cambridgeshire, to be displayed this autumn in the newly opened McEwan bedroom. © National Trust/Polesden Lacey

Easter offer A time where Polesden’s fresh also because it is one of the strongest ways drive the Unlocking Polesden project: flowers, rabbit objets d’art and innovative in which we can connect visitors with gardeners, caterers, retailers, conservation children’s trails really bring spring to life. Polesden’s pasts – our first exhibition in assistants and marketers joined together to January 2017 will focus on the journey of Mrs present Mrs Greville’s story in strong, Royalty offer Here we are in April 2017, Greville’s collections. property-wide offers. when until the end of August, Polesden will As mentioned, some of Mrs Greville’s Despite over 45 different volunteer roles at be in its fifth and final offer of the yearly collections were dispersed after her death Polesden Lacey already, the project has cycle. If Mrs Greville were to be summed up and ended up in auction houses or other facilitated the creation of new roles, including in one word, it would be ‘collector’. Her Trust properties. After extensive work by our collections management volunteers, more interest in broadening her material wonderful volunteer research team, we now interpretation and research volunteers, and collections will feature in our January know the location of 105 ‘lost’ items. We are even ‘Door Detectives’! exhibition, but it’s her avid interest in people gradually returning some to their former that inspires our Royalty offer. home and are looking to link these objects Perhaps as a result of losing her parents with their historical past. Challenges overcome and her husband so early on in her life, Mrs This first exhibition will also focus on Mrs Greville took pleasure in surrounding herself Greville’s London house in Mayfair’s Charles The recurring challenge for every historic with high society and collecting the social Street, which was remodelled, like Polesden house open to the public (especially when stars of the day. Our fifth offer focuses on Lacey, by the fashionable architects who planning to extend opening hours) is how to the exotic, and sometimes scandalous, royal refurbished the Ritz Hotel in London, Mewès balance increased public access with the personages whom she entertained. & Davis. Her collection at Charles Street was maintenance of conservation standards. Now we have come full circle, and in brought to Polesden Lacey after her death, Opening more collection spaces means September 2017, we will return to ‘Beer to as per her wishes, and so this exhibition will adding to the number of areas you have to Champagne’. Reconnection will have link to her life at her London home. look after, and so we had to create a yearly happened on all fronts. We will then begin rota of conservation work that will conserve with new familial characters close to Mrs all of our present and future opened spaces, Greville, with other scandalous stories Team involvement while allowing each to rest for a period. behind her house parties, with the generous attitude she had towards her many servants Reconnecting Polesden with its pasts could and her varied collecting legacy. only succeed if our staff and volunteer teams A lasting connection felt a connection with them too. With any new initiative there are many challenges to Mrs Greville intended us all to connect with Exhibition: January 2017 consider, but with constant communication her past. Her will stipulates that her ‘house and involvement through project meetings, gardens and park of Polesden Lacey Returning as promised to the exhibitions drop-in sessions, tours and brainstorming aforesaid be open to the public at all times offer – not only due to my work on it, but ‘change rooms’, all teams soon helped to and that arrangements be made for the largest number of people to have the 1 Ballroom at 16 Charles Street, enjoyment thereof.’ A collector of art, a London, Mrs Greville’s collector of society and now a collector of principal residence, visitors: Mrs Greville’s original intentions for remodelled by Mewès & Davis. © National Trust/Eddie Hyde Polesden Lacey to be open ‘at all times’ have inspired the connection of ‘the largest number of people’ with her legacy.

References 1. Polesden Lacey archives, will of the Honourable Margaret Helen Greville D.B.E. (Charles Russell & Co., 22 Rutland Gate, SW7, 27 March 1942), p.4.

40 Views Revelation and reconnection The Attingham Re-discovered project: reconnecting with Attingham’s visitors Sarah Kay, Project Curator

ttingham Park is a vast Palladian had grown substantially to over 154,000 a ‘Such an exciting project! I must tell mansion, yet when it was first year, visits to the mansion had declined to my friends about this’ Ahanded to the Trust in 1947, visitors just over 35,000. At the beginning of the were able to see only a comparatively small twenty-first century, with greater visitor As well as revitalising the mansion’s interiors, proportion of its rooms and had no access expectations and increasing transparency in our aim was also to encourage repeat visits to the first floor or basement. Lady Berwick the way the Trust showed and explained its and breathe new life into people’s continued living in the east wing until 1972, properties, it became clear that there was a relationship with the house and collections. while an Adult Education College occupied need to refresh the way in which Attingham’s Designed to impress, the house, bereft of its the west side of the house, leaving behind a interiors were presented and interpreted. occupants, instead felt cold, austere and rather institutional atmosphere when it To address this, a detailed paper to the intimidating. In handing Attingham to the closed in 1974. This meant that, for the Arts Panel was drawn up in 2000 to set out Trust, the 8th Lord Berwick repeatedly relatively small number of visitors, given the a proposed Philosophy of Approach and referred to his gift as ‘for the public benefit’. scale of the place, the development and recommendations. Initially conceived as a We needed our visitors to connect with the historic use of the house was very difficult to long-term programme of improvements to house and realise that this huge place had grasp, and there was a sense that much the mansion’s interiors, the actual been home to five generations of the seemed to be hidden behind closed doors. In Attingham Re-discovered project started in Berwick family, and that ‘Attingham has addition, many of the rooms that were 2006 after several years of thorough always been a home as well as a repository of shown had lost a convincing feel of ever research and consultation. The main aim was works of art; that on the gilt Neapolitan having been lived in; they were soulless and to refresh the way that Attingham’s Regency chairs people sat, and on the inlaid marble there was a sense of stagnation. rooms were displayed in order to reveal and tops left their books and knitting. Clocks Until around 2000, the Trust’s focus had enhance the significance of the place, its ticked on the mosaic-encrusted chimney- been on securing the fabric of the building, fabric, contents and human stories. This pieces and little dogs frisked, when they did leaving the interiors largely unrestored involved the conservation, restoration and not relieve themselves, on the Axminster following college occupation and a backlog re-creation of the mansion’s historic carpets. Attingham was not built as a of conservation work on the collection. Our decorative schemes and collections. museum…’1 visitors (94 per cent of them) were travelling However, the project quickly became much At the same time, a new Trust strategy from within a 50-mile radius and having more than that and developed a ground- with an emphasis on engagement once seen the mansion saw no reason to visit breaking approach to engaging visitors encouraged the Project Team to redefine the it again. While visitor numbers to the park through conservation. original scope of the project to reflect the new ‘triple bottom-line’ approach. Two further documents were prepared for the Arts Panel and Regional Committee in 2006 and 2007 to set out the next proposals for the interiors, with conservation-in-action and supporter engagement at the heart of our approach. The Property Business Plan’s Vision was that this awe-inspiring mansion, and indeed Attingham as a whole, should become ‘full of life and locally-loved’, valued and ‘owned’ by the people of Shropshire as the place that they returned to for beauty, inspiration, tranquillity, fulfilment and enjoyment. In particular, we wanted to be renowned for our inspirational and stimulating mansion offer, a place where the visitor experience went beyond the merely transactional and resulted in a deeper, more fulfilling relationship, where people regularly returned because they felt connected to it and wanted to experience more.

Painting conservation carried out in front of the public by Annabelle Monaghan, with interpretation panel and display of pigments. © National Trust/Sarah Kay

Revelation and reconnection Views 41 Showing the passage ‘I think the way you’ve done it makes of time: Mark it feel as though we, as members, are Sandiford and James involved – if that makes sense.’ Finlay uncover a decorative distemper scheme on paper from The Attingham Re-discovered project beneath five layers of delivered this in spades. What it did later oil paint. © National differently was to carry out conservation-in- Trust/Sarah Kay action, in full view of the public, rather than behind closed doors. By so doing, it broke new ground in engaging the visiting public with the details, skills, dilemmas and cost of conservation. Re-discovered guided tours were particularly effective: dedicated volunteer guides entered into deep debate and detail, avidly lapped up by our (then) predominantly Curious Minds audience. Closely involving our volunteers and the conservators themselves, it was one of the first conservation projects to invite visitors to join in the debates and discussions that the project team were faced with, asking them the question –‘What would you do?’ By not just passing on facts, but encouraging debate, we put visitors in the conservator’s and curator’s shoes. Year after year, room by room, Attingham Re-discovered has put the slow and painstaking processes of conservation in front of the public and drawn them into its fascinating, detailed micro-world of mixing rabbit-skin glue, couching silk damask threads, taking apart crystal chandeliers piece by piece and cleaning entire decorative schemes with cotton-wool buds. This is not just to give the visitors an enjoyable day out, but to provide a more meaningful, memorable experience. In order for Attingham to survive, and to be full of life and locally loved, visitors need to care about it and support it. Witnessing our detailed, ‘This is the third time I’ve been back Walled Garden and the Pleasure Grounds quality conservation work and being asked this year to see what’s going on!’ (see page 15). In fact, the principles of to consider what their approach, decision or transparency and engagement are applied to priority might be, is a compelling way of Since beginning the project, visitor numbers everything we do: it is not confined to the achieving this and builds a relationship to the house have more than doubled: mansion, but is an on-going process in the between people and place. We turned 35,000 in 2006 rising to just over 90,000 in gardens, parkland, estate buildings and passive visitors into active supporters, many 2015–16. The success of Attingham Re- natural habitats. Such is its success that the of whom are still coming back again and discovered has been the major reason for project has no end date, but has become our again to see how we are getting on and this increase. The Visitor Enjoyment score normal way of working. We have developed a what’s happening now. has also increased to an all-time high of 96 repeat visitor business that is rooted in Spirit Since the Re-discovered project began, per cent in the mansion in December 2015, of Place, helping people connect with the breakdown of Attingham’s visitor more than fulfilling the Business Plan’s vision Attingham in particular and the Trust in segments has evolved to reflect a more even of emotionally connecting local people to general. Here’s to the next ten years of balance between Curious Minds, Out and place. Our pioneering approach of brilliant conservation and visitor Abouters, Explorer Families and Live Life to conservation-in-action has been presented engagement! the Full. This has meant that our approach at national and international conferences has also had to evolve, not to reduce the and recognised within the Trust by winning References transparency and the conservation-in- the Director-General’s Award for action, but to bring other, more robust Engagement through Conservation and, 1. James Lees-Milne, People and Places (John spaces to life such as Below Stairs. We have more recently, an ‘Everything Speaks’ award. Murray Publishers Ltd., 1992), p.67. developed more active, hands-on Now celebrating its tenth anniversary, The sub-headings in this article are quotes engagement opportunities for families, such Attingham Re-discovered’s engaging and from visitor comment cards. as cooking in the kitchen with a real fire in transparent approach is being rolled out the range. across the property and applied to other projects such as the restoration of the

42 Views Revelation and reconnection Reconnecting with Croome’s collection: redefining a country-house experience Amy Forster, House & Visitor Experience Manager, Croome, Worcestershire

ur places seem more open than ever before as we welcome visitors Ointo once hidden spaces, sharing fascinating stories which have remained secret for many years. People are encouraged to interact with our places in entirely new ways, creating experiences that visitors find both enjoyable and stimulating. This all encourages repeat visits, but how do our collections fit in with this bold vision? Taken as a whole, the significance of our collections is second to none, as we share the stories of thousands of extraordinary objects on any given day. But how can we ensure they are relevant to our audience? Do visitors remember each tale of every wondrous item once they leave our mansions, or simply sleep-walk past another dining-table laid out for yet another make- believe dinner?

Re-imagining lost splendour

Finding ways for inanimate objects to engage people and tell our stories has been a major challenge for Croome Court, seat of the Earls of Coventry in Worcestershire. Once furnished by the finest names in eighteenth-century design, all was seemingly lost when the court and its collection were put up for sale following the death of Lt George Coventry, the 10th Earl, during the Second World War. Emblematic of this period of loss was the 1948 relocation of Croome’s Tapestry Room to the Metropolitan Museum of New York. The room was packed into 62 crates and shipped across the Atlantic, its ceiling, The arresting Chair Play art installation by Will Datson. © National Trust/Amy Forster-Smith floorboards and furniture joining the fine Gobelins tapestries, which were sold to cover family debts incurred half-a-century called George, who experimented at Croome spaces, just as the 6th Earl did. Over the last earlier. Four-fifths of the historic collection from the 1750s until the dawn of the two years, thanks to Heritage Lottery left Croome during a four-day auction. The nineteenth century. The Earl employed a Funding, the house has been put in a state of remaining pieces were kept by the Croome visionary team of young architects and good repair, creating a stage fit for the Estate Trust and put into store at the craftspeople at the start of their careers launch of new exhibitions and innovative Coventry family’s new home on the outskirts (Adam and Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown contemporary installations. of the park. being the most notable) to create his new Since then, Croome Court has been house, with its collection of the best and largely empty, with the remaining Robert most fashionable furniture, and set these A collection returned Adam interiors bereft of their historic within a ground-breaking landscape design. fittings. When the National Trust opened Deprived of showing a house crammed Now, after an absence of nearly 70 years, the this bare house in 2009, we sought to fill the full of possessions, we have been fifth of the collection which the Coventry vacant space by taking inspiration from the experimenting, testing out new ideas of how family saved from auction is back home. This trend-setting 6th Earl of Coventry, also best to share and present a stately home’s amounts to over a thousand items including

Revelation and reconnection Views 43 The Tapestry Room and Library exhibition A walk-through treasure chest in 2015. © National Trust/Amy Forster- Croome’s remaining collection of porcelain Smith is particularly rich and varied. In order to re-present the Dining Room, we picked an artist who has a brilliant reputation for the innovative display of ceramics, as well as a strong background in conservation. This time, the brief was as follows:

We will create a highly colourful, visually striking presentation which will introduce the Walking through The taste of the 6th Earl. In keeping with other Golden Box by Bouke de Vries in the Dining areas of the house the ceramics will not be Room. © Jack Nelson displayed as a traditional country house dining-room layout. Working with an artist, lighting designer and 3D designer we will create a presentation which has flair, artistry and beauty and which is also conservation- sound. This will incorporate the major Sèvres services, Meissen and other Rococo-period ceramics.

Bouke de Vries created The Golden Box, reminiscent of a glittering bejewelled grotto. The beautiful ceramics are displayed in a newly formed reflective golden space, encrusted on the inside with items from Croome’s porcelain collection. It captures the eye, merging reflections of the ceramic plates, bowls and jugs with the surrounding colourful Krishna-inspired decoration of the room’s historic interior. Visitors are naturally encouraged to glimpse within and move through the display. The Lord’s Dressing Room displays some Adam furniture, Sèvres porcelain and family This is the first space visitors will enter so [it] has of the most significant items from the portraits by Allan Ramsay. However, true to to function as an orientation space – our collection, as ‘objects in focus’. Highlighted Croome’s spirit of place and rich legacy of presentation and interpretation of the collection by dramatic lighting, two Adam-designed creative design, we knew we couldn’t simply will therefore be light touch but will need to set commodes are presented with detailed present the collection in a ‘traditional’ way! the scene for ‘expect the unexpected’. interpretation explaining how they were With only a fraction of the original We will present the original Coventry hall originally made. An accompanying video collection, it is not possible to display chairs, which were displayed against the walls in shows the drawers being opened to convey a Croome Court’s rooms as full and faithful re- this space, and which all survive, as an artistic sense of their original use. There are no ‘do creations of any historic scheme. installation rather than traditional display. It will not touch’ signs, as a heightened circular Furthermore, the house gained other create a striking visual statement which will platform for the pieces forms another subtle periods of interest in the twentieth century, immediately surprise and delight visitors. The conservation barrier. The shutters are kept first as a boys’ school and then a centre of display will draw attention to not only their closed to reduce the light levels on these learning for Krishna devotees. Croome Court traditional use against walls but also highlight sensitive pieces, while enhancing the has never been a static place, and our task is their form, materials, design and significance in exhibition-style lighting. to interpret Croome’s stories creatively, a way which will create a talking point for The room will show off a changing cycle bringing new meaning and relevance volunteers and visitors about the collection and of star items over the next few years, and through the innovative use of the collection. the innovative approach being taken at Croome. other spaces will be updated regularly, The Main Hall has very little of its original refreshing the presentation for our growing decoration, the key items being a set of ten We then selected an artist, Will Datson, who number of repeat visitors. Following the lead hall-chairs. Similar chairs are typically found developed design ideas to meet our criteria. of the adventurous 6th Earl, we hope to have around the edges of rooms in historic Chair Play is the result: an ascending flurry of created an eye-catching display of Croome’s houses, often with teasels, signs or ropes to replica steel and plaster chairs, turning historic objects, which provokes thought prevent visitors from sitting on them. At around three of the original chairs at its and connects people in new ways with the Croome we sought to present our chairs in a centre. This approach is focused firmly on return of this nationally significant unique and different way. The project team, the core historic objects, highlighting the collection. comprising staff, volunteers and Croome craft and artistry of their design, while also Estate trustees, first wrote a brief setting out creating an effective conservation barrier the vision for the space: that doesn’t feel restrictive.

44 Views Revelation and reconnection Unlocking the National Trust’s furniture: introducing a new research project Wolf Burchard, Furniture Research Curator

ne of the UK’s major contributions Trust’s furniture, spread across some 150 with the kind assistance of part-time to the world’s cultural heritage is properties in England, Wales and Northern Volunteer Cataloguer Michael Shrive – is Oits country houses, many of which Ireland; the output of this endeavour will be updating records for every piece of furniture remain filled with extraordinary works of art updated catalogue entries on our collections in every Trust property. In many cases this that have yet to be researched and website www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk. means writing completely new entries, understood. Indeed, only a small proportion Visitors to Trust properties can now easily identifying the materials and country of of the National Trust’s world-renowned explore the entire furniture collection online, origin of a piece, suggesting its date of collection of around 50,000 pieces of using their tablets and smartphones, or their production, and clarifying its provenance. furniture has received the scholarly attention computers at home. Short and concise Over the last seven months, the four team it deserves. The Furniture Research Project, entries summarise the history and explain members have started their work on eight instigated by Christopher Rowell, the Trust’s the significance of a piece, and how it found collections of capital importance – Hardwick Curator of Furniture and Chairman of the its way into a property – this makes the Hall, Knole, Ham House, Uppark, Petworth, Furniture History Society, and Philip Claris, website a fascinating and extremely useful Sizergh, Saltram and Nostell Priory – Head of Collections Management, is being resource both for specialists and the general creating and updating some 4,000 entries. generously supported by the Paul Mellon public all over the world. Christopher is writing a book, Furniture in Centre for Studies in British Art and the To ensure that online information is National Trust Houses (due for publication by Royal Oak Foundation. It seeks to improve correct, the Furniture Research Team – Yale University Press in 2019), which will also our understanding and appreciation of the Megan Wheeler, Camille Mestdagh and I, explore the subject of picture frames and for which broader research needs to be undertaken. Over the last two months, Christopher and I have focused particularly on Knole, which is famous for its seventeenth-century upholstered furniture of royal provenance – mostly acquired by the 6th Earl of Dorset, Ambassador to the Court of Louis XIV in 1670 and later Lord Chamberlain to William III. To mark the tercentenary of the Sun King’s death last year, we have drawn attention to some of Knole’s French highlights in a Country Life article.1 Because of their international importance, these pieces have often

Left: An ebony and mother-of-pearl cabinet (NT 563765), attributed to Herman Doomer (c.1595–1650), c.1645, in The Argory. © National Trust Images/W. Anderson- Porter

Right: Dutch School after Rembrandt van Rijn, a portrait of Herman Doomer, known as ‘Rembrandt’s frame maker’, Erddig, Wrexham. The original, in reverse, by Rembrandt is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. © National Trust Images.

Revelation and reconnection Views 45 The ‘Congress of outshone the house’s no less significant Vienna’ desk, Mount furniture dating from the late eighteenth Stewart (private and early nineteenth centuries. John collection), purported to have been used for Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset and Charles, the signing of the 1st Earl Whitworth were ambassadors to Treaty of the Congress Louis XVI and Napoleon Bonaparte of Vienna in 1814/15. On the chair on the respectively, and acquired furniture and left are the arms of decorative works of art in Paris. Thanks to Robert Stewart, ample archival sources, we were able to Viscount Castlereagh, and on the right those disentangle some of their purchases and of the Duke of relate the documents to pieces that still Wellington. © On loan survive at Knole. The research is to be from the Estate of the Marquess of published in articles in the National Trust Londonderry Historic Houses and Collections Annual 2016 and in Furniture History.2 In April, Christopher and I travelled to the Rijksmuseum, can be dated to around headquarters – may shed light on the Northern Ireland with Simon Swynfen Jervis, 1645.3 Professor Baarsen, who has published manufacture of these chairs. Originally a former Historic Buildings Secretary of the research on several other pieces by Doomer, covered in typical Empire emerald green, National Trust and Director of the is convinced by this attribution, given the the chairs were reupholstered in the 1930s. Fitzwilliam Museum, as well as Chairman of high quality of the piece;4 he is currently Each chair now features the arms of one of the Furniture History Society, and Professor preparing an exhibition on the ‘Auricular the congress members (on the back) paired Reinier Baarsen, the Rijksmuseum’s Curator Style’, which will seek to borrow the cabinet with the arms of the country which he of Furniture. At The Argory, we examined an from The Argory. represented (on the seat). A mistake seems extremely rare and important cabinet Another remarkable piece of continental to have occurred with the arms of Prince attributed to the Dutch cabinetmaker furniture we examined in great detail when Hardenberg, which have been matched up Herman Doomer. By tradition, the ebony in Northern Ireland was the so-called with those of Austria rather than Prussia. cabinet, with its extraordinary auricular Congress of Vienna desk at Mount Stewart. By tradition, the needlework is said to have cresting and mother-of-pearl inlaid flowers, This mahogany-veneered desk features gilt- been carried out by nuns in Nantes. Whether had been thought to have been made in bronze mounts of exceptional refinement. this is correct or not has yet to be India and brought to Northern Ireland in the It is said to have been used for the signing established, and unfortunately information mid-nineteenth century. As Jervis has of the Treaty of the Congress of Vienna in supplied by the French nunneries has so far shown, however, it is actually Dutch and, 1814/15 – when plenipotentiaries from all proved inconclusive. based on its close resemblance to a piece at over Europe gathered at the Austrian capital The Furniture Research Project is in full to reorganise the Continent politically – and swing and the research is bearing fruit, both brought over to Mount Stewart by Britain’s online and in print. It is to be hoped that representative, Robert Stewart, Viscount updated and enhanced records on the new Castlereagh (later 2nd Marquess of collections website will create more Londonderry). The provenance of the desk awareness of the importance of the Trust’s remains a true puzzle that will require further outstanding furniture collections, and investigation in Viennese archives. This is encourage fresh audiences to appreciate equally true of a set of 22 Neo-classical their significance. giltwood chairs said to have been used by members of the congress. They appear to be References very similar to a set of chairs supplied for the Audience Chamber of Empress Carolina 1. C. Rowell and W. Burchard, ‘In the Sun King’s Augusta, fourth wife of Emperor Francis I of Shadow’, Country Life (11 November 2015), pp.82–5. Austria, in 1816. The Imperial chair-maker 2. C. Rowell and W. Burchard, ‘From Paris to Gregor Nutzinger and upholsterer Michael Knole: The 3rd Duke of Dorset and the 1st Earl Remele are likely to have produced the Whitworth as Diplomatic Patrons and chairs for the Empress, and those Collectors’, National Trust Historic Houses & used for the congress. New Collections Annual 2016, published in association with Apollo (2016; forthcoming) research at the Haus-, Hof- und and ‘François Benois, Martin-Eloi Lignereux Staatsarchiv (‘House, Court and and Lord Whitworth: Leasing, Furnishing and State Archive’) at the Dismantling the British Embassy in Paris during Minoritenplatz – a stone’s throw the Peace of Amiens, 1802–3’, Furniture History away from Castlereagh’s Viennese LII (2016; forthcoming). 3. S. Jervis, ‘Ebony at The Argory’, Apollo 147 (April 1998), pp.42–4; see also Baarsen, Reinier, ‘Herman Doomer, ebony worker in Amsterdam’, Burlington Magazine 138 (1996), pp.739–49. 4. R. Baarsen, Nederlandse meubelen 1600– Neo-classical gilt-wood chair with the 1800/Dutch furniture 1600–1800 (Amsterdam, arms of Prince Hardenberg of Prussia 1993) pp.38–9 and Wonen in de Gouden Eeuw: (back) and Austria (seat); one of 22 chairs said to have been used at 17de-eeuwse Nederlandse meubelen (Amsterdam, the Congress of Vienna. 2007) pp.71–4. © National Trust

46 Views Revelation and reconnection Sharing our history Sarah Kay, Project Curator

t Dudmaston, Shropshire, visitor Geoffrey Wolryche- Whitmore, owner of feedback has shown that visitors Dudmaston, bought often feel disconnected with its tricycles for his staff so A that they could get history, people and stories. In response, a around the estate new exhibition this season aims to connect more quickly. This, the visitors via quirky, almost random objects, to only surviving one, was the property’s long (875 years) history. It’s bought in 1900. © National called ‘Ancient Meet Modern’ and takes its Trust/Claire Reeves lead from key aspects of the property’s Spirit of Place: Dudmaston is a surprising place ‘of history with a twist’ where innovation and creativity lie within its ancient heart.

The exhibition has several aims:

ⅷ to reflect these aspects of Spirit of Place and communicate Dudmaston’s deep- rootedness in Shropshire, its long history and family continuity; ⅷ Less is more: this involved being very thread is that they all have a connection to ⅷ create a gallery exhibition which is selective and choosing a small number of the people and history of Dudmaston, and inclusive, appeals to different visitor powerful, iconic and varied objects from each has multiple ways of connecting with segments and, in the spirit of the collection to tell the stories. the viewer.

Dudmaston, both surprises and stretches ⅷ Emotional connection: we needed to Building on the first person ‘audition’ our audiences, provoking curiosity; draw out the universal, human themes approach, the interpretation has the object talking ‘directly’ to the viewer, telling them ⅷ connect our visitors with more of wrapped up in our stories to ensure that what is unusual, interesting and quirky about Dudmaston’s history, exploring the they are relevant, meaningful and themselves and explaining their connection stories of the people who lived and memorable for our visitors. to Dudmaston. They have also been used as worked at the house and across the wider guinea pigs in ‘The Curiosity Project’, piloted estate and local community; and In order to earn their place in the gallery, the at four properties in the Midlands, looking at ⅷ in turn, help re-connect visitors with their objects had to ‘audition’ to the project team, ways of connecting people with objects by own past. each setting out the reasons why it should sparking their curiosity. be selected. The shortlist was whittled down For visitors, this exhibition will provide further by being put to volunteers and not only greater understanding of the people In order to achieve these aims, the following visitors, voting on the basis of which objects and history of the property, but hopefully guiding principles were drawn up: sparked their curiosity. The result was a some really memorable encounters with diverse collection of 12 objects spanning ‘random’, quirky objects. ⅷ The Power of the Object: to highlight eight centuries. They range from a coin to a For the research volunteers, an even key objects from the collection to reveal tricycle, an ancient parchment deed to an greater sense of connectivity will be felt, as traces of the past, enabling us to focus on abstract modern painting. But their unifying they each chose three of the objects on the details and tell the stories with clarity. which to carry out some in-depth investigation. Their findings have directly fed into the interpretation and they drafted the The Deed, which dates from c.1127, first versions of the text. As Project transfers ownership Champions, this means they have a greater of ‘Dodmaneston’ sense of involvement in the way the property to Harlewin de Butailles. It also is presented and the thought processes that obliges him to are involved. provide a knight for 40 days ‘should there be war between the lord Acknowledgements king and North Wales’. © National Trust Thank you to Tessa Lovell, Visitor Experience & Conservation Manager, for information on Ancient Meets Modern, and Nicky Boden, Visitor Experience Consultant, for The Curiosity Project.

Revelation and reconnection Views 47 Waddesdon Manor: the Rothschild’s gift to the National Trust Linzi Grimwood, Visitor Services Assistant, Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire

The south front of Waddesdon Manor. © National Trust/Waddesdon Manor/Studio

A brief history of Waddesdon Manor Too French, too modern and too generous? The Waddesdon estate was bought in 1874 naturalisation in 1920 and was elected as by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, the great- the Member of Parliament for the Isle of Ely Within the Trust, there was some grandson of Mayer Amschel von Rothschild, in 1929, a position he held until 1945. James hesitation about accepting Waddesdon due founder of the banking dynasty. and his wife, Dorothy, split their time to its relative modernity and the fact that it Ferdinand employed the services of between Waddesdon and their other home was seen as an architectural pastiche. The Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur (1822–93), a in London. ‘Frenchness’ of the building and collection French architect, who made plans for a Like Ferdinand, James was concerned was also thought to be problematic. French-style château to be built. Although about what would happen to Waddesdon Dorothy remarked that Lord Esher, an the house was slept in for the first time in after his death. Owing to James’s ill health, influential member of the Trust, declared, 1880, further modifications and extensions and the fact they had no direct heirs, ‘I hate French furniture’.4 The feelings of meant that it was not completed until 1896. Dorothy recalled that ‘the solution of the unease took the best part of a decade to Waddesdon was used by Ferdinand National Trust began to germinate in my dissolve. Had it not been for Lord Crawford, between May and August to host weekend husband’s mind and I cannot say how the Trust’s Chairman, in persuading his parties. Notable house guests included the thankful I am that it did’.2 The Second World colleagues that the contents of the house future Edward VII and Winston Churchill. War was the end of an era for many grand and beauty of its grounds might With no direct heirs – his wife and child had country houses such as Waddesdon, in part compensate for the foreign style, the died in childbirth – Ferdinand feared that due to the changing economy, but also a Waddesdon bequest might not have been ‘Waddesdon will share the same fate of most shortage of people to keep estates running accepted. Crawford noted, ‘I don’t see how properties whose owners have no effectively. Dorothy noted that ‘the idea of anyone who has seen it can fail to be quite descendants, and fall into decay’.1 reinstating Waddesdon for two old people overwhelmed by the beauty of the objects Following the death of Ferdinand in 1898, seemed out of the question’.3 James had and the arrangements unless of Marxist the estate passed to his unmarried sister hoped to pass Waddesdon to the Trust principles he disapproved of luxury, Alice, and on her death in 1922 to their great- during his lifetime, but he died on 7 May splendour and glitter.3 nephew James de Rothschild. Although 1957 before arrangements were completed. The terms of the bequest were set out in French by birth, James was an active member As he had wished, Waddesdon was left to James’s will, dated 16 August 1956. Clause of the British government following his the Trust by bequest. Six granted the Trust the manor, no more

48 Views Revelation and reconnection than 200 acres (81ha) of surrounding land Conclusion contemporary, most recently Lafite, a work by (later set at 166 acres/67ha by the trustees), Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos in the the contents of 11 ground-floor rooms, all Following the bequest to the Trust, there was form of a pair of giant candlesticks made of the arms and the garden statuary. great demand from the public to view magnum wine bottles from Château Lafite James also stipulated that the house Waddesdon Manor and gardens. It was Rothschild: a celebration of the great should be run by a management committee opened to the public in 1959 and, as Dorothy traditions of entertaining and hospitality at chaired by Dorothy. He provided an noted, ‘After a tour, he [Minister of Works] the manor, and the Rothschild family’s role in endowment of £600,000 to be used kindly told us not to be disappointed if the the world of wine. specifically for maintenance and later attendance of visitors dropped dramatically added a further £150,000 in a codicil as he following the interest a new venture attracted. Acknowledgements feared that he had not left enough to ensure I am thankful to say the reverse has the safe upkeep of the manor and its happened.’6 It is clear that the bequest of Kind thanks to staff at Waddesdon Manor splendid grounds. Waddesdon was made to the Trust to preserve for their help, in particular Catherine Taylor, The addition of the codicil caused some and protect an incredible building and its Head Archivist, and Jo Fells and Catherine issues regarding the passage of Waddesdon collection for future generations to enjoy, as Conisbee of the Marketing Department. to the Trust. In most cases, endowment was desired by both Ferdinand and James. funds were exempt from tax by HM Treasury; Waddesdon remains a popular place to References however, the addition of the further visit. In 2015 we welcomed 390,129 visitors £150,000 to the original endowment led the and 523 coaches. Visitors come to see the 1. ‘The Waddesdon Manor Companion Guide’ (Waddesdon, 2008), p.13. Treasury to believe that it was larger than wonderful collection of French furniture, the 2. Mrs J. de Rothschild, The Rothschild’s at necessary for the maintenance of a building Sèvres collection and contemporary works of Waddesdon Manor (London: William Collins, that was less than 100 years old and that tax art, and to enjoy the wonderfully kept 1979), p.126. would therefore be payable. At a meeting gardens. Since Dorothy’s death in 1988, her 3. 28 July 1957, Esher Letters, in J. Jenkins and P. between Lord Crawford, Lord Esher and cousin Lord Jacob Rothschild has managed James, From Acorn to Oak Tree: The growth of the National Trust 1895–1994 (London, 1994), p.175. Peter Thorneycroft, the Chancellor of the Waddesdon as Chairman of the Rothschild 4. Michael Hall, Waddesdon Manor: the Heritage of Exchequer, it was noted that ‘if exemption is Foundation. He initiated a major restoration a Rothschild House (New York: Abrams, 2002), not granted; the collection will be lost to the between 1990 and 1994 that saw the house p.256. public’.5 Fortunately, it was decided that and gardens restored to their former beauty. 5. Notes of points to be discussed between Lord the whole £750,000 fund would not be This included the creation of wine cellars and Crawford, Lord Esher and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Waddesdon Manor Archive. taxed; the importance of this was new spaces to exhibit the collections. The 6. Mrs J. de Rothschild, The Rothschilds at immeasurable as the rate of tax due at that Rothschild Foundation continues to acquire Waddesdon Manor (London: William Collins, time was 80 per cent. objects for Waddesdon, both historic and 1979), p.148.

Lafite by Joana Vasconcelos. © National Trust/Waddesdon Manor/Mike Fear

Revelation and reconnection Views 49 ‘A much-loved family home’: reconnecting with the Beale family at Standen Anne F. Stutchbury, Volunteer Researcher, Standen, West Sussex, and AHRC collaborative doctoral researcher, University of Sussex

or the past three years I have been fine example of late nineteenth-century Arts stay at the new house in 1894: Edwin and his researching Standen, the late and Crafts architecture and William Morris family visited for a few days in May and Fnineteenth-century country house interiors. Today, Standen is admired not only William and his wife were there in late July.1 near East Grinstead designed by Arts and for its architecture and decor but also for its Throughout the Beale years, family and Crafts architect Philip Webb. Using texts, qualities as a comfortable, ‘lived-in’ home friends gathered at Standen to relax and photographs, objects and the building itself, where Beale family connections are valued enjoy sporting activities and musical my focus has been on the Beale family, the and celebrated. evenings. In their Memories of Standen, the original owners, and the part they played in Worthingtons, descendants of Amy, the the creation of the house and garden from eldest daughter, described how family 1890 to 1914. Family home amusements and leisure activities revolved Standen was built between 1892 and 1894 around the younger generation: ‘From 1894 for James and Margaret Beale and their Standen was initially the Beales’ country to 1902 when the family marriages began, it seven children, and they were the only family holiday retreat and became their main was the seven Beale children, Amy, Maggie, to live in the property until it was residence when James, a London solicitor, Jack, Sydney, Dorothy, Sam and Helen, and bequeathed to the National Trust in 1972 by retired in 1905. From the very beginning, it their many cousins (Beales, Fields, Helen, their youngest daughter. Though was a place where family relationships were Nettlefolds, Kenricks, Chamberlains, etc.) many of their possessions were distributed nurtured and renewed. Entries in the visitor plus school and university friends, who were among family and friends at this time, the books record that James’s brothers, Edwin the centre of splendid parties, excursions property was prepared for public display as a and William, were among the first visitors to and celebrations.’

50 Views Revelation and reconnection Reconnecting with family memories Opposite left: The Beale family at Standen, 1902; Since my research project began in 2012, it standing, from left to has not only facilitated a connection with right: James, Edgar many family descendants, some of whom Worthington (Amy’s husband), Amy, have made additional archive material Sydney and John; available, it has also regenerated interest in seated, left to right: Standen from later generations of relations Samuel, Margaret, Helen, Algernon Field and close friends. Reconnecting Standen (Margaret’s father), with Beale family history has taken many Maggie, Daisy, baby forms since the house was bequeathed to Marjorie and Dorothy. © National the Trust, from the recording of memories of Trust/Standen visiting descendants in 1999 to the staging of a family reunion in 2006. As my project Left: The Beale family and friends in the has progressed, general interest in the social Conservatory at and cultural context of the Beales’ life at the Standen, c.1898. Taken house has grown, more donations of family from one of the glass- plate negatives archives have come back and another family converted into a digital reunion held this summer welcomed over image by Simon Lane, 170 guests. University of Sussex. © National To focus in more detail on one aspect of Trust/Standen reconnecting with the Beale family, this article showcases a few of the significant family objects which have recently been reunited with Standen. They represent a lasting material connection with the Beales’ early time at the property. The grand piano, for example, which was generously donated in January 2015 by one of Dorothy’s descendants, originally stood in the bay window of the Hall and was always at the centre of family entertainment. It is a between 1885 and 1905. The existence of the scheme of the room. The fender was Broadwood Grand Piano No. 4, ‘Drawing these plates and negatives reveals much designed by Webb and crafted by eminent Room’ model, ordered when the hall was about the family’s interest in amateur Arts and Crafts metalworker John Pearson in enlarged in 1898. This instrument was once photography. Mrs Beale’s Store, a room in 1894. Helen gave it to Philomena Tas, the at the heart of family life, symbolising the servants’ wing, also known as the Flower nurse who looked after her before she died harmony and merriment, as the Worthington Room, was originally adapted by Webb for in 1972. Last year it was kindly donated back memoirs recall: ‘Between the wars was the use by family photographers. As Amy’s to Standen by Philomena’s husband and era of family holidays, big parties at youngest daughter, Phyllis Wager, Helen’s farm manager, David Tas. It is now Christmas and during our summer vacations, remembered when she revisited this room in displayed in its original position in the musical evenings with ’Cello (Priscilla), flute 1999: ‘… there were the original shutters Drawing Room fireplace. (Barton), Violin (Phyllis), and Piano (Amy, which had special arrangements for letting a Webb’s account journal for Standen our mother, or Betty); Helen or Amy sang, certain amount of light in, because it was my records that he paid £8 for the fender when Sam gave a good Scot’s imitation of Harry mother [Amy Beale] who was a very keen he collected it from Pearson on 21 December Lauder and Maggie performed a slow photographer, and all the rest of the family 1894.4 Alongside Charles Ashbee, Pearson rhythmic scarf dance, swinging her long followed suit, and they did all their was one of the founding members of the string of uncut emeralds …’.2 photography in this room …’3 Guild of Handicraft in 1888. However, his Simon Lane, University of Sussex, has relationship with the Guild became tenuous converted some of the negatives into digital once it was discovered that he was supplying Contents reunited with Standen images. Many match the photographs which his work to other firms such as Morris & Co. the Beales carefully arranged in family Besides that, he had a preference for signing Another recent donation, this one from photograph albums. There is an image, for the pieces he produced, a practice frowned Sydney’s family, included a box of nearly 100 example, of the Drawing Room fireplace upon by Guild members because it was glass-plate negatives, many corresponding dated 1899 which shows a copper fender against the spirit of collaboration, one of the to photographs taken by the Beale family resplendent with sunflowers to complement Guild’s core principles.5 Clearly, this did not

Revelation and reconnection Views 51 Right: The Drawing Room at Standen, c.1899. © National Trust/Standen

Below right: The copper fender back in situ. © National Trust/ Sally Robertson

deter the Beales from approving Webb’s choice of craftsman to produce the Drawing Room metalwork since Pearson was also responsible for making the copper fireplace cheeks and the seven electric light sconces that were designed by Webb and integral to the original aesthetic accents of the room. These objects not only exemplify the Beales’ preference for quality craftsmanship and individuality but they are also a fine example of Pearson’s repoussé work, referred to by Webb as ‘embossed copper plates’. It was a metalworking technique which consisted of beating up the copper metal from behind while it rested against a firm surface and then finishing off the design using more delicate tools from the front.5

Conclusion

I hope that this article has briefly illustrated how the Beale family and their experience of Standen is integral to the cultural and social history of the property. As a References 3. Mrs Wager’s memory of Standen (Transcript consequence, connecting and reconnecting Oral Archive SOSTSO 3A), September 1999, with the original owners of the house either 1. Visitor Book 1 1894–1910, Standen, p.1, Standen Standen Archive, p.34. through archive texts, their past possessions Archive. 4. Philip Webb, ‘Account for Holly Bush House or through the family descendants of today 2. Worthington family, Standen Memories Part I, 1891 to 1896 (Photocopy) – (A Record of should continue to be a crucial element of Standen Digital Archive, p.8. (The quote in the Accounts and Fees Paid)’, 1891, STA09/File 3, Standen’s interpretation agenda to ensure title and at the end of the article, ‘Standen has Standen Archive, Regional Records. its enduring status as a ‘much loved family always been a much-loved family home’, is 5. Alan Crawford, C.R. Ashbee: Architect, Designer & home’.2 from p.1 of this archive.) Romantic Socialist (Yale University Press, 2005).

52 Views Revelation and reconnection Reconnecting with the Edge Christopher Widger, Countryside Manager, Cheshire and Wirral, and John Prag, Co-ordinator of the Alderley Edge Landscape Project

his is a tale about how a wooden There is more to Alderley Edge than its shovel and some Roman coins archaeology and history. Geologically, it is of Tgenerated a 20-year journey of outstanding interest for its mineralisation, discovery into the history of a special and and for the relationship of this inspiring place. It shows how related mineralisation with the Triassic rock strata in research provided a glimpse into its past and which it occurs; indeed, it has been an understanding of its present. identified as the most important British Alderley Edge is a sandstone ridge rising occurrence of the enrichment of 180m above the Cheshire plain south of sedimentary rocks by ores of copper, lead, Manchester. Beneath it lie ancient copper and cobalt and other metals. As a geological Site lead mines – and, according to legend, a of Special Scientific Interest and a Regionally sleeping king (Arthur?) and his knights, ready Important Geological/geomorphological to save England in the last battle of the world. Site, the unique combination of geology, Narrowly rescued from a housing geomorphology and human impact has development plan, Alderley Edge was given created an unusual and mystifying to the National Trust in 1948 by two topographic environment and given the flora redoubtable sisters, Margaret and Dorothy and fauna a special identity and interest. Pilkington. The Edge has since become a honeypot for Mancunians, and the village at the foot of the escarpment, formed by the Coming together railway as a commuter dormitory for Manchester cotton-kings, is now nicknamed To make the Landscape Project work, several England’s champagne capital and is home to things needed to be done: a scheme as The pot containing the hoard of Roman coins, in the hands of Rachel Bailey, immediately after its latter-day businesspeople and footballers. complex as this needed proper management discovery by her father in April 1995. structure; topics to be studied had to be © Photograph by Ian Roberts; courtesy of Ian defined; and a chief surveyor appointed Roberts, Malcolm Bailey and Rachel Bailey. Following ancient lines together with a support team. From the outset, the Landscape Project’s work was Aerial view of Alderley Edge taken in 1997, As a schoolboy in 1953, the novelist Alan guided by a steering group comprising a broad showing the erosion at Stormy Point. The village Garner, a native of Alderley Edge, range of stakeholders and often implemented of Alderley Edge lies in shadow, with the spire of St Philip’s church clearly visible. © Courtesy of rediscovered an ancient wooden shovel that through a series of ‘working’ groups. Manchester Museum. Photograph by Barri Jones. had been found in the mines in the late nineteenth century; nearly 40 years later Alan – by now a world-famous author and the shovel having been radiocarbon-dated to the Middle Bronze Age – presented it to Manchester Museum in the University of Manchester. In 1995, while members of the Derbyshire Caving Club were making safe an old shaft that had begun to cave-in beside Engine Vein Mine, they found a clay pot containing a hoard of over 500 Roman coins. Combined, these exciting discoveries attracted funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Leverhulme Trust and others for a research project which ultimately was to employ every discipline in the museum’s armoury and many more besides. The Alderley Edge Landscape Project, a joint venture by the Museum and the National Trust, set out to study every aspect of Alderley’s story. What drove this project for the Trust was the need to collect evidence to inform forward-looking management of this complex place.

Revelation and reconnection Views 53 West Mine, the largest mine at Alderley Edge. © Ed Coghlan

Cover, The Story of Alderley: Living with the Edge. © A.J.N.W. Prag

The range of topics and questions which encyclopaedia, for thanks to its relationship the project proposed to investigate was so to the university the project could call on wide that, as time went on, many other specialists of the highest calibre, and many people also became involved because of of the approaches and techniques used, such their interest or their connections. And no as GPS, were ground-breaking at the time matter how detached, how scientific, how but have now become routine. academic, almost everyone came to agree that in some way, Alderley Edge was a special place with a ‘spirit’ all of its own. Connected to people While it was hardly unexpected that the project brought together people from a There is no question that the place appeals variety of walks of life who shared a deep on a variety of levels and people come from interest in the Edge, a remarkable by- far and wide to experience its special product was the way it reunited and character. As with any site, one’s reasons for galvanised some who over the years had visiting and the response one feels to a place reached a point of misunderstanding and will be personal, but visitor surveys indicate non-communication, impeding further that the main purpose for visits isn’t for the research and preventing practical on-site co- outstanding geology or archaeology but for It cannot be said too often that the operation. A year after the launch of the the availability of ‘safe’ countryside walks Alderley Edge Landscape Project was about project’s first volume, The Archaeology of close to people’s homes. The facility for people as much as about a place. No other Alderley Edge, a steering group member walking the dog is also highly valued. project or book has covered the entire, founded the Alderley Edge History Group, The term ‘safe’ is relative, as compared complex story of a single village and its which has gone from strength to strength, with a walk in the nearby Peak District landscape in such detail. It will be read not recruiting members both from ‘old locals’ moorland, but we must recognise the social just by landscape historians but by students and from younger incomers. value of such a site. In easy reach of the and scholars in all those disciplines and at all The second volume, The Story of Alderley: Manchester conurbation and several north levels, and by anyone interested in any Living with the Edge (2016), covers everything Cheshire towns, it appeals to those who wish aspect of history and of the countryside – else: the natural world, the story of the to experience and to ‘connect’ with the and the volumes provide a resource for mines, social history and conservation. countryside in a way in which they feel managers of the site of a quality and depth The list of chapter-headings reads like an comfortable and can reach without the need that most would envy. for expedition-like preparation. Though many visitors do not appreciate the full range of interests on the Edge, the appeal of recreation Reference is enhanced by connections to the past. The Story of Alderley: Living with the Edge, edited by A.J.N.W. Prag and published by Manchester University Press (ISBN: 978-0-7190-9171-1) is available from bookshops at £50. For National The Alderley Edge Trust members there is a special discounted price shovel. © Courtesy of £40 plus p&p when ordered directly from the of Manchester distributors, quoting the discount code OTH717: Museum Orders Dept., NBN International, 10 Thornbury Road, Plymouth, Devon, PL6 7PP. Tel: 01752 202301; fax: 01752 202333; email: [email protected]; or www.nbninternational.com

John Prag, its editor, is Honorary Professor at the Manchester Museum and Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Manchester.

54 Views Revelation and reconnection Step into Brimham Stephen Lewis and Rupert Tillyard, Day Maker Volunteers, Brimham Rocks, North Yorkshire

he Day Maker volunteer team, so together of numerous map segments and the same way, leading the visitor to where named because they make our editing using the power of Photoshop. the plant and, when being co-operative, Tvisitors’ day a good one, wanted to Using our map and walking slowly along animal species could be seen. Or something improve the experience for visitors. We’re a the path, we marked key points while trying on surprising facts: did you know the terrain large open site with many significances that to bear in mind that this walk, though is kept arid and that the heather is actually are substantial and in full view – yet they’re familiar to us, would be new to many visitors. Brimham’s most important feature, remarkably easy to miss. Our visitors range As we picked out features and landmarks, we scientifically speaking? from those simply enjoying a walk to others fixed them on the map, gave them a number But also, and what is prominent in with a professional or academic interest. and wrote a description. We tried to follow a information around the site and in the We’d like to be able to tell the first group why logical pattern of introducing the facts exhibition area, is the social history – the the second group are so interested in us. about how the rocks came to be and what fact that people have been coming for 200 the ridges, gaps, fissures, holes and curious years and have constantly and imaginatively shapes apparent in such profusion are been inventing names and stories for the Starting at the beginning thought to signify – there is a lot to see and rocks. Perhaps there was scope for a kind of to say! fun walk, one that didn’t stress the geology Our car-park is a distance from the visitor A leaflet cannot answer questions or or natural history but the more fantastical. centre. Between the two points there is discern how well the audience is responding So we came up with the idea of a walk much of interest but, of course, many new so we had to guess what was most aimed at younger visitors where they could visitors reach the centre where we have the important and what level of language to use. follow a list of rocks named after their information, unaware of the significance of Also, unless you already know what you are shapes, ticking them off as they found them. what they have walked past. Clearly visitors looking for, a description of a rock feature The first step in compiling this walk was to needed some kind of introduction that can be hard to spot precisely. identify all the named rocks. In looking into started from the car-park and took them to Another idea was to include photographs this we discovered that some time ago a the centre from where they could explore of the items mentioned. It would then be visitor had brought in a copy of a guidebook further, perhaps taking a mini-tour with a easier to check one’s location and to identify published in 1925. These days tracking down volunteer guide. This overview could stress the particular feature being described, so copies of old out-of-print books is made the underlying geological and the brief became a map, words, descriptions easy by the internet, and no sooner had we meteorological facts that have given rise to and photographs. found a copy of the 1925 book than we the rocks – a sort of scientific starting point discovered another guide to Nidderdale for for enjoying what’s here. With this in mind, 1863. There were 42 named rocks or features the first item we planned was an Where to end – and begin in the 1863 guidebook and 40 in the 1925 introductory walking leaflet giving the basic book. About half overlapped and some had facts about the site. We started putting an But now we became conscious that there are the same or similar names as we use today. accurate map together based on the Trust’s other ways to appreciate Brimham, for which Some shapes had more than one name as GIS mapping system. This involved help from alternative leaflets might be needed. For the aspects suggested different things to the rangers followed by some careful slotting instance, a natural history walk could work in different ages. A rock that had seemed like a

The Rhinoceros. © National Trust/ Stephen Lewis

Revelation and reconnection Views 55 writing desk to the Victorians looked like the head of E.T. to more recent visitors, and what had been previously known as ‘Pulpit Rock’ looked like a meerkat to us. There were riches here. But spotting them and mapping them proved harder than expected. Where, in all these bumps and protrusions on the cliff known to all ages as ‘Lover’s Leap’, was the ‘Climbing Frog’ so confidently mentioned in the 1920s, and where exactly was the ‘Mushroom Rock’ vaguely mentioned as being ‘some distance from the house’? Disputes about whether the ‘Rabbit’ or the ‘Tiger’s Head’ are very fancifully named or have significantly eroded in 90 years remain unresolved.

Above: Lizard’s Footprint. © National Trust/Stephen Lewis

Left: The Druid’s Profile. © National Trust/Stephen Lewis

Narrowing down the need set it up as a challenge; for instance, ’Can background. This should help the searcher you spot ten named rocks?’ This time the find their way round and locate the shapes. We had completed our walking guide from route started from the visitor centre, and So the guide developed into a map with ten the car-park but there was a dilemma about copies were handed out to youngsters or photos with names and a tick box to check how to present it to visitors. A printed paper families for them to follow the trail and find them off as they were found. We have called map would incur costs, would perhaps the rocks. They needed to be different rocks this one ‘Spot the Rocks’. compete with mini-guides selling in the shop from the volunteer-led mini-guided tour and So how to present this? This time we and maybe add to the litter problem. A sufficiently obvious so that spotting them went for a laminated double-sided A4-sized laminated version ‘lent out’ would seldom would be achievable. Walking around sheet with a map on one side and photos on come back and again might be left as litter. ourselves, we had failed to find some of the the other. This will be handed out at Our solution was to produce an electronic shapes mentioned in the old guidebooks, so reception to families and youngsters who’d version that could be downloaded on to a the first rule was to choose those like to go round on their own rather than smartphone either at home (where visitors recognisable by anyone. take the mini-guided tour, and it will be could also print out a paper version if One particular shape was known as ‘The collected at the same point to avoid losses preferred) or in the car-park from a QR code Druid’s Profile’ because from one angle it or litter. posted on the noticeboard. We have called it looked like a face – once seen you’d be Our next challenge is to devise a more ‘Step into Brimham’. convinced. But how to help the searcher lock difficult trail for repeat visitors using more Next we had to devise the walk for on to it in all the myriad of shapes? The ideas from the old guidebooks to present a younger visitors, i.e. for fun rather than answer was to include thumbnail photos kind of then-and-now view of what has been information. We had the map and decided to with bigger identifiable features in the a popular site for visitors for over 200 years.

56 Views Revelation and reconnection Kinver Edge and the Rock Houses Peter Hodges, Volunteer Researcher and Writer, Kinver Edge, Staffordshire

Left: Postcard showing inhabitants of the lower houses dated c.1910. © Unknown

Below: The inhabited houses in 1940, now the tea-room. Graffiti in the sandstone enabled the two images to be joined, fixing the location of the window opening where the girl is posed. This section of the rock had been lost by 1990. The girl is possibly the younger self of a lady we know as Mrs Harris. © Peter Hodges

’ve volunteered at Kinver Edge and the the midst of the First World War, it was for remained tight-lipped about having lived Rock Houses since 1993. Just 20 years the prospect of ‘open space for all’ that there or about their connections with people Ibefore that, it was seriously suggested Kinver Edge was accepted: heathland and who had. that the rock houses – comfortably tucked woodland, wildlife, walks and well-being. But there came a change in attitudes. The under the sandstone cliffs of Kinver Edge – Rock houses, it has to be said, were 1970s had seen much of Kinver’s heritage be blown up. Or filled with concrete and something of an embarrassment, although swept away, and there was mounting forgotten – simply erased from the record. It the teas served by rock-house dwellers to disenchantment with so-called ‘new was a sheer act of faith that saved them. those who came to tramp the Edge were development’. The act of faith was a coming- 2017 is the centenary year of Kinver Edge very popular. together of local people and the Trust to being gifted to the National Trust. Included Yet there remained a stigma. The last restore the houses embedded in Holy Austin in that gift were the rock houses and the occupants left in the 1960s and with few Rock. Work began in 1989 and a custodian families that occupied them, but in 1917, in regrets. Even when I became involved, folk installed in the Upper Houses in 1993. In 1997 the Lower Level was opened to the public by volunteers. It was all very low key, and no one was quite sure how all this was going to work.

Revelation and reconnection Views 57 Right: The Upper Houses as they were c. 1980. © Peter Hodges

Far right: The Upper Houses were restored in 1993 for a custodian, and later became the tea-room. © Peter Hodges

But it did, and in many unexpected ways. It may have been coincidence, but at from the site. Suddenly it looked cared for – My wife well remembers one Kinver Country about this time unexpected sources of yes, bricked-up but not tumbledown. Access Fair on the Trust stall and an elderly lady information began to appear. One such was was built. People visited, at first, casually but whispering to her, ‘I was a Miss Martindale, a visitor to the rock houses who declared a interest quickly grew. So much so that the you know.’ The Martindale rock house at connection to a postcard they had with volunteers appointed one of their number to Holy Austin was restored in 2004. them. The postcard was of a small child and show visitors around. The next stage was a lady with goats posed outside the Lower obvious: restore the Lower Level and open Level rock houses. We knew the postcard to the public. Searching the archives well (one of hundreds gathered by Kinver This was more than showing folk around, collectors over many years). We knew the interested as they were. This was the When I set out to write the Centenary Guide people depicted but the visitor went on to beginning of reconnection. Not that we to Kinver Edge and the Rock Houses, I was fill in a whole history of which we knew realised it at the time but now, looking back, aware of the sparsity of written material.1 nothing. Shortly after, another visitor this is exactly what was happening. The There were many photographs and claimed to be the son of that same little stigma of once having lived there, of being postcards stretching back to the early days child. Suddenly, doors opened: I interviewed associated with rock houses, was slowly but of photography, and an audio archive the son, now in his 80s. I visited others also surely being lifted. existed of reminiscences of folk who either with connections to the rock houses. I had My own association had nothing to do once lived or had relatives in the rock emails and phone calls: did I know this or with any such connection. I never lived in a houses. What documentation we had was had I seen that? Each door that opened rock house. I was an incomer who based on transcriptions of the audio archive revealed yet another waiting for its latch to volunteered his skills as a photographer. or letters and records gathered over the be lifted and nudged open. And inside were When the opportunity came to meet people years. Much of this had already been gone folk ready and willing, often for the first time who were connected, my interest went only through by various individuals for research in their lives, to talk about what life was like as far as the images they had. Indeed, one or an academic thesis. Whilst useful, such in a rock house. lady handed me original negatives which, material was often angled towards specific upon careful printing, revealed a childhood aspects and therefore had to be treated with visit to the rock houses she no longer caution. It was clear that original research Renewed interest remembered but which has proved invaluable was required so an archive group of to our understanding of the property. volunteers was set up to gather and then All this came about because the rock houses The project grew. More people became organise this material. It proved – it still were being seen again. Following restoration connected: volunteers and visitors who does! – to be a steep learning curve, but of the Upper Houses, the volunteers set simply wanted to stop and talk, sometimes enthusiasm won through. about clearing 30 years of scrub and rubbish to pass on valuable information. Or just to

58 Views Revelation and reconnection ask, ‘Did they really have glass in the has a fine Iron Age hill fort. Were the rock References windows?’ ‘Where was the loo?’ All of it houses here then? Again, we don’t know. 1. Peter Hodges, Centenary Guide to Kinver Edge added to our own strengths and There is still so much to research, so much and the Rock Houses (in press). This book will be understanding and so our confidence as to reconnect. available from 2017; contact the National Trust office at Kinver Edge by emailing volunteers who simply ‘got interested’, Now, in this digital age, I prepare images [email protected] for details of gradually grew. for the centenary guide. I go back through stockists or how to order. thousands of slides of the latter half of the 2. Held at Staffordshire Record Office, dated 1799, twentieth century. As the scanner slowly is a plea by one Eleanor Doughty for support Coming full circle reveals what was done and who was doing it, by the parish of Kinver. It is based on evidence she has of her father’s request to make a ‘rock I wonder at those first tenuous connections habitation’ on Kinver Edge, and we calculate But what of Kinver Edge? This wonderful and where they might lead. Well, over 30 the date of this as being some forty or so years landscape that was so valued a hundred new volunteers came forward last month. earlier, hence c.1750/60. years ago it was purchased and given to the And one of them… yes, it’s true, the smile Trust. Only recently the archive team on his face said it all: the last child to be Below left: The Lower Level houses after scrub discovered the earliest written reference of a born in a rock house now volunteers there. clearance in 1993 before restoration. © Peter Hodges rock house which dates it to around 1750.2 Surely that says something about But where it was no one knows. The Edge reconnection. Below right: Visitors admiring the Lower Level houses. © Peter Hodges

Related by water, unbroken by time: the River Wey family Emma Goodwin, Lengthsman, River Wey Navigations, Surrey

The only image we have of Alfred Wye. © Wye family

he River Wey Navigations in deepest and managed by the Trust, they enable Surrey are a rarity. It is one of the boaters, walkers and wildlife to enjoy this Toldest navigations in the country, picturesque green (and blue) corridor predating the ‘canal age’ by some 200 or so between the towns of Weybridge and years. The River Wey Navigations were Godalming. established by an Act of Parliament in 1651 The world of waterways in Britain and opened in 1653; had the Civil War not generally is a small one. As any of you with got in the way, it might have been sooner. boats will no doubt know, the six degrees of Much of the timber for rebuilding London separation in the outside world is reduced to after the Great Fire in 1666 came along the one or two degrees on the waterways. The navigations, which used to form part of a towpath telegraph for gossip runs faster route for transporting goods by water than wi-fi and any boater can strike up a between the capital and the south coast. conversation with another boater at the Now, as the only working navigation owned drop of a hat. And they usually do.

Revelation and reconnection Views 59 Left: Papercourt Lock in 1959. © National Trust

Below left: Papercourt Lock Cottage 2016. © Emma Goodwin

Below: Alfred’s grandfather Henry, a lock-keeper like his son Alfred senior, outside Papercourt Lock Cottage c.1900. © Lesley Watson

census, however, gave us invaluable information and a place to start. We could trace all cottage residents and their families at the time, and follow their stories. During the war, large parts of the waterways network were taken over by the government’s Canal Control Committee as part of the war effort, and some waterways jobs became listed as Reserved Occupations, meaning workers were exempt from military service. This wasn’t the case for the River Wey. Despite this, the search revealed that most workers here went on to live long (often prolific) lives away from the horrors of the war.

Finding Alfred

In the past, the life of canal folk would The search The search then took us to Papercourt Lock have been pretty much entirely linear. Life Cottage. It is rural and fairly isolated even was lived on or very close to the water, and Like many other properties, in the run-up to now: mains electricity was not connected those who lived on the River Wey Navigations events commemorating the First World War, until 2000, and you can drive to it only if the would have been completely tied to it. Lock- we were curious to find out the forgotten resident cows feel inclined to let you keeping, barge-building and many associated history of how the war impacted the lives of through. trades were kept in families for generations our predecessors living and working here. This is where Alfred Wye was born and with everyone knowing everyone else. Many of the lock-keepers’ cottages were, grew up. He was one of five children, all It is still run today, as it has always been, as they are now, lived in by navigation baptised at the local parish church and for by a small team. Past and present alike, all workers, so it seemed logical to find out a whom a trip to nearby Guildford was probably of us connected to the navigations have a little more about who they all were. Our an exotic adventure. He was the son and connection to each other. We’re a family. archives gave up very few clues. The 1911 grandson of lock-keepers at Papercourt who

60 Views Revelation and reconnection had lived, worked and grown up on the river. previously made pilgrimages of their own to Papercourt Lock being rebuilt in 1907. Alfred’s His family can be linked to the river for at see the place where Alfred had grown up and father and grandfather would have helped and are probably the gentlemen in the middle left of this least 100 years and four generations. As the were pleasantly surprised to see how little it photo. © National Trust oldest son he might have been expected to had changed. carry on the family tradition. That wasn’t to be. War broke out when Alfred was 15 years old. He later enlisted as a A fitting memorial Planting Alfred’s oak with members of the Wye private in the 8th Battalion of the Queen’s family. © Emma Goodwin Royal Regiment (West Surrey) and died in While he is remembered on the local war France in 1918, five months before the end of memorial in Send, it seemed right to have the war. He was 19 and is buried in Mont some sort of commemoration of his Huon military cemetery in Haute- connection to the river he lived on. He was Normandie. While I don’t underestimate the family after all. culture shock of the trenches to all teenagers We chose to plant a tree opposite the like Alfred, and grown men for that matter, I lock cottage where he grew up. The cottage can’t help but look at the idyllic place where is not quite the same as he would have he grew up and wonder whether wartime known, for it was rebuilt four years after his France could have been more alien if it were death, but the tree has taken its place in a another planet. view he would have known intimately. The red oak will blend in with its tree neighbours in the summer, but in the autumn, in the Finding family run-up to Armistice Day, its leaves will turn a beautiful shade of red before falling. The course of our search led us to current Representatives of the Wye family came to family members on searches of their own. help us plant it on Remembrance Sunday last Through the magic of the internet we were year, and poppy seeds were scattered around able to contact other people with an interest the tree to remember Alfred and all those lost in our Alfred. We found Wyes from in the First World War. In years to come we Birmingham and Kent who were thrilled that hope to be able to gather more Wyes we were looking to do something for Alfred together at Papercourt with members of the and happy to fill in any gaps. Some had current and past National Trust river family.

Revelation and reconnection Views 61 ‘Belton Remembers’ Rachael Hall, Archaeologist, East Midlands

015 marked the centenary of the front of you. Given the pastoral scene of The birth of the corps formation of the Machine Gun Corps today, with deer grazing and their young 2(MGC). Until fairly recently the MGC fawns bouncing across the grassland, it is At the outbreak of the war the tactical was a somewhat ‘forgotten’ corps of the difficult to imagine that 100 years ago a potential of machine guns had not been British Army, and the significance of the small town comprising barracks, cook appreciated by the British military. However, training camp at Belton was little realised. If houses and mess halls, a hospital with a early clashes and the First Battle of Ypres all you were to have asked a local person about mortuary, recreational facilities (including a too clearly demonstrated the need for a the MGC and camp, they would have looked ‘kinema’), three YMCA huts, and a railway revision of organisation and tactics. A well- at you in surprise. Over the last ten years, line sprawled out across the parkland. We placed and protected machine gun could cut the property team, along with the MGC Old are fortunate to have three surviving military great swathes into attacking infantry. A Comrades’ Association, has been piecing plans that show the layout and the machine-gun school that would train new together the history of the MGC to record adaptations made during the first couple of regimental officers and machine gunners was the very significant and vital role that it years of the camp’s existence. quickly established at Wisques, France, on played during the First World War and in the 22 November 1914. years that followed. Few other corps typify A year of warfare on the Western Front the industrialisation of warfare between 1914 No military pomp attended its birth or proved that, to be fully effective, machine and 1918 as the MGC did. decease. It was not a famous regiment guns needed to be used in larger units and What we have is rare – similar sites with glamour and whatnot, but a great crewed by specially trained men. On 2 elsewhere have been lost through twentieth- fighting corps, born for war only and September 1915 a proposal was made to the century development and agricultural not for parades. From the moment of War Office for the formation of a single practices. Belton Park Camp’s archaeological its formation it was kicking. It was with specialist Machine Gun Company per survival has been largely due to the much sadness that I recall its infantry brigade, by withdrawing the guns management of the site as parkland disbandment in 1922; like old soldiers and gun teams from the battalions. The following the camp’s closure in 1920. The it simply faded away. Machine Gun Corps was created by Royal earthwork remains are subtle, but on a George Coppard, Warrant on 14 October 1915. By the end of winter’s day, with the sun lying low in the former Machine Gunner the war, the MGC would comprise infantry sky, the plan of the camp stretches out in machine-gun companies, cavalry machine-

A plan drawn up in March 1915 of the 11th Northern Division’s camp which later became the MGC’s training camp. © National Trust

62 Views Revelation and reconnection Above: The MGC battalion at Belton in August 1916. © National Trust. Photographer unknown.

Left: The Belton Remembers team. © National Trust/Rachael Hall

decisions and contribute in a meaningful way to research and interpretation. The project was managed by Melissa Maynard, Learning and Community Manager at Belton House, and myself. Funding was provided through the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Young Roots scheme and enabled us to buy in the help of professional archaeologists who provided training and guidance in research, field survey, geophysics, excavation, post-excavation and interpretation. The team more than gun squadrons and motor (cycle and car) During the war 170,500 men served in the successfully achieved the aims of gaining the machine-gun batteries. MGC, 62,049 of whom were killed, wounded skills and confidence to undertake their own By the end of 1914, 1,186,357 men had or missing. The MGC gained a record for research and the ability to produce volunteered, caught up in the wave of heroism and earned themselves the interpretative material at the end of the patriotic fervour sweeping the nation. To nickname of ‘The Suicide Club’. The corps project. They worked together brilliantly, cope with the numbers coming forward, saw action in all the main theatres of war: learnt new skills, contributed towards new training camps, sometimes known as France, Belgium, Palestine, Mesopotamia, research and produced some fabulous Kitchener Camps after Lord Kitchener who Egypt, East Africa and Italy. interpretation material, including a short film had led the recruitment drive, had sprung up about the project and their experiences at all over Britain. The 3rd Earl Brownlow had www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocCO9Hbils4 offered up the use of Belton Park early on, Young Roots project The project interpretation and exhibition and a training camp for the 11th Northern took an unusual and innovative approach. Division had already been established here. During 2015, 17 teenagers aged between 14 Artwork created by the team used some of This became the training school for the MGC and 19 years old were recruited to investigate the artefacts recovered during the in October 1915. All those who passed its the MGC training camp as part of the ‘Belton excavation: a replica of a Vickers machine selection criteria would pass through the Remembers’ project. The project’s overarching gun, made from nails recovered during the Belton Park Camp for six weeks on intensive aim was to provide a fully participatory excavation of the officers’ barrack, has training. This was where members of the archaeological experience for the group, particularly caught the attention of many of MGC learned to fire the Vickers machine gun. enabling them to make key archaeological our visitors. The team planned, wrote and led

Revelation and reconnection Views 63 Far left: Learning the art of magnetometry. © National Trust/Rachael Hall

Left: Proudly showing off a coat-hook that would once have hung in the privates’ barrack, while excavations continue in the background. © National Trust/Rachael Hall

‘remembrance walks’. The walks, which during the investigations and walks. Our Camp, with Belton being the ‘model’ for all contained elements of performance, took local newspaper, the Grantham Journal, successive training camps. It would also place around Armistice Day to give a very provided regular reporting on the project appear that it is the most intact survival, and powerful link between Belton Park today and and the latest discoveries. therefore one of the most significant UK one hundred years ago. A shortened version sites of the First World War. can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch? v=dh4nzWC3jZ4 It was great when people told you that they were grateful for our excavation Acknowledgements as it brought them closer to the I loved bringing the site to life for people that they had lost to the war. The following are thanked for their support the visitors in the same way that the Young Roots team member during the project: Archaeological Project archaeologists brought it to life Services; Professor Stewart Ainsworth, for me. University of Chester; Alistair Oswald, Young Roots team member It was been a wonderful and most rewarding University of York; Julia Damassa, Storyteller; experience to work with the Belton Matt Lee, Young Journalist Academy; James Remembers team. The Young Roots Sutton, Sculptor; Jan Osbond, Artist; Sarah Throughout the project the local community members have been great colleagues and a Grundy, Lincolnshire County Council played an important support role. Many took huge amount of fun to work with. Our Cultural Heritage Team; Natural England; part in the guided excavation tours, investigations revealed much more than Heritage Lincolnshire; and, of course, the remembrance walks and visited the expected. Research currently being wonderful Melissa Maynard who managed exhibition. The project gave an opportunity undertaken by Professor Stewart Ainsworth the project. for the sharing of stories, with many relatives (which will be published in Fields of Fire) has of those who had served in the MGC visiting revealed that ours was the first Kitchener

Far left: Stars in the making; a member of the Young Roots team is filmed by BBC Midlands. © National Trust/Rachael Hall

Left: In commemoration of those who trained at Belton, the team created a Vickers gun from nails recovered during the excavation. © National Trust/Rachael Hall

64 Views Revelation and reconnection Touched by the past: researching Ickworth’s forgotten war stories Chloe Woodrow, House and Collections Manager, Ickworth, Suffolk

ur story starts on 2 September remembered among the 72,000 dead at 1916, when the first recorded Thiepval, and awarded the 1915 Star, the Odestruction of a German airship Victory Medal and the British Medal for over Britain took place at Cuffley in great bravery. This is a stark reminder that Hertfordshire. Souvenirs of the wreckage out of the 188 men from Ickworth and the were made into mementoes and sold: one community who enlisted, around 39 did not such souvenir made its way into the make it home. Ickworth collection. In 2014, the Cuffley It became evident that the stories of the airship disc was stumbled upon at Ickworth, families living and working within Ickworth shedding a glimmer of light onto a forgotten cum Horringer provide a glimpse of the part of the property’s story that was waiting universal tragedy and loss that was suffered to be told. in the Great War, as well as the joy for those Sparked by their interest in the Cuffley who returned. There were many stories of souvenir and the opportunity to reconnect ordinary men at the front, whether winning with a forgotten story, a group of volunteers medals for bravery or whose stories gave a delved deeper into this period of our history. picture of the man, like ‘Scribbling Billy’ Made up of five to six volunteers, the First The Cuffley airship disc: World War sub-group became part of the ‘Part of Zeppelin L.21 destroyed at Cuffley property’s larger core Research Team, led by Sept 2. 1916.’ senior team members and myself. Our aim © National Trust/ was to use the training and skills of our Ray Dale volunteer team to guide their groups in supporting several property projects. Over the last year, the team have worked diligently to build up a vast amount of knowledge on Ickworth and the Great War. They set about sifting through national, local and online archives, period newspaper reports, oral history recordings, and the inventory of artefacts within our collection. From the outset, the team decided to use the whole Ickworth estate community in 1914–18 as the focus for research, and as work progressed, some descendants were traced and valuable stories and treasured family photos were shared with researchers. During the process, they made connections with the local church, schools, social history societies, community centres, regional and national archives, and individual academics. All saw great benefit in us highlighting this element of our history.

Telling stories

Repeatedly, the team came upon incredibly poignant stories of the families living on the estate and in nearby Horringer village: in September 1914, Charles William Kitcatt, Charles then coachman at Ickworth, joined the 9th Kitcatt, Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, serving as a coachman at sergeant in France in August 1915. Like many, Ickworth before the war. © National his life was cut short when he was killed in Trust/Ray Dale; original September 1916 on the Somme aged 30, photographer unknown.

Revelation and reconnection Views 65 Rowles, who continued to write horticultural families and local communities of Ickworth. press articles would be shown on articles for the newspapers while in the This successful application was followed by a interpretation boards at poignant locations trenches. It is the tales of these people that further full bid for £10,000. The aims of the across the site, and previously unseen yet we want to tell. project were to offer development and important keepsakes would present an training opportunities to build the skills of intimate portrait of life at Ickworth during our volunteers and staff. We also wanted to the war. This would all be supported by a Funding our work enhance our dialogue with our local property map/leaflet to guide visitors community by building upon extensive oral through the story. Inspired by the volunteer drive and passion archives and finding ways of engaging and Working with Fiona and design for engaging the community in this subject, eliciting a response from local villagers and consultant Ian Drake, the volunteers have in May 2015 we investigated funding our wider visitor audience on the subject of delivered text, stories and imagery for the opportunities. The Heritage Lottery Fund Ickworth in the Great War. We were also boards, as well as supporting photography (HLF) ‘Understanding the First World War’ particularly keen that our research and requirements. They have also worked with was suggested by our Fundraising conversations should culminate in the the House and Collections team to curate Consultant as having great potential. The creation of an exhibition within the estate the display of relevant artefacts, as well as HLF is offering grants to community projects and house, as well as a programme of talks, collaborating with members of the local hoping to find out more about the war, reflecting on stories and memories from the community in the loan of further items for uncover its stories and explore what it Suffolk home front. display, including a letter sent from means today. This was a great fit for the In December 2015, we were incredibly Buckingham Palace to the Crack family Ickworth project, as a chance to share the pleased to hear that this bid had been whose five sons enlisted. experience of soldiers, the people affected approved and we instantly began work. While by the war, and the role of the country the team continued to delve deeper into this house during this time – all key parts of our aspect of our social history, we also felt it Engaging visitors and our teams First World War heritage. essential that they be involved in the whole In September 2015, a project team design process of the exhibition and the Across the project period, it was agreed that consisting of myself, House Steward, creation of inspirational talks. Led by Fiona the Research Team would lead on delivering Outdoors Manager, Curator, Visitor Terrington, House Steward, the volunteers a public programme of exciting workshops Experience Manager, Research Team and quickly decided that this exhibition should and talks, both at Ickworth and locally, Fundraising Consultancy submitted an not sit within just one space on the property, sharing our new-found knowledge with the Expression of Interest to the HLF. Our but rather take visitors on a journey through community and wider audiences. Thus far, ultimate goal was to highlight the impacts of the footprints of those during the war these have been incredibly well received and the First World War on the individuals, period. Photographs, letter extracts and spurred us on to do more, including walking tours of the property and talks to put the spotlight on particular collection items. Significantly, the Research Team has also developed a template research pamphlet (fully edited and printed) for online distribution to the wider volunteer/staff team, as well as for use in writing interpretation materials and delivering talks. This has been an essential resource throughout the process, and has spurred them on to produce further pamphlets on other topics of interest to the property. The walking trail began in July 2016 to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of the Somme. On the anniversary one of our volunteer researchers, Patrick O’Mahony, travelled to Thiepval Memorial near Albert, one of the largest memorials to British and Empire troops who have no known graves. No less than ten Ickworth fatalities are inscribed on the memorial. Patrick joined thousands of invited visitors and dignitaries for a most moving event and used the opportunity to lay a poppy wreath on behalf of the National Trust and Ickworth.

The war memorial in Horringer church includes men who lived and worked on the Ickworth Estate. © National Trust/Ray Dale

66 Views Revelation and reconnection EvacQEs: a lost story from Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Emma Manners, Learning and Access Officer, Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, North Yorkshire

n 1939, as war drew nearer, the redoubtable headmistress of Queen IEthelburga’s School in Harrogate was given some worrying news: if war were to break out, the school’s buildings were to be requisitioned by the Government and she was told that ‘the information was an “Official Secret” and must be strictly regarded as such’. Despite being sworn to secrecy, the school began to make plans; fortunately Commander and Lady Vyner, the owners of the Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Estate, offered Studley Royal House and a wing of Fountains Hall to the school, and a local farmer supplemented this with quarters at nearby High Lindrick Farm. The school moved on 8 September 1939 and would not move back to Harrogate for over six years. For Studley Royal House it was to be the final chapter; in April 1946, just weeks after the school had left and before the Vyners had a chance to move back, the house burned to the ground, never to be rebuilt. though each story is valuable, we know that A picture of Studley Royal House taken during the we can’t tell them all. In 2015, however, as war. The house was built by John Aislabie after the previous house burned down in 1716. Fire had Planning our reunion the 70th anniversary of VE day focused many earlier brought tragedy to Aislabie’s family in 1700 on the Second World War, we were when his wife and daughter died in a fire in London. Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal has approached by one of the ‘girls’ who had © National Trust. Photographer unknown. almost 1,000 years of recorded history, and been at Queen Ethelburga’s, who wanted to within that are almost limitless stories; tell her story. The time felt right to reconnect with this part of our history, while Talking history we still had the opportunity to speak directly to the women involved and hear their stories Our initial approach to Queen Ethelburga’s first hand. was met with great enthusiasm, and the The story caught my imagination, and I Head of History Liz Roden was a hugely was joined in the project by Josie Campbell, supportive colleague throughout the our Project Support Co-ordinator. The story project. Liz decided to form a group of sixth- clearly wasn’t central to our Spirit of Place form historians to work with us on the oral and was not an obvious fit for the Visitor history interviews, while Old Ethelburgian Experience team, so Josie and I thought hard Co-ordinator Gemma Inchboard was able to about how best to make this project work. provide us with contact details of the Old We settled on two priorities in the research Ethelburgians of the war period. We worked phase and two key outcomes. For the with the students both at their school and at research we wanted, as far as possible, to Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal. We gave gather oral histories – we wanted to give them all the background information that these women a chance to speak for they needed and supported them with oral themselves about their experiences. We were history interview techniques. Between us we also determined to involve fully the current developed questions and drew up a list of students of Queen Ethelburga’s in both the interviewees. In total we carried out eight research and presentation. Our outcomes oral history interviews, each of them were to be a small stand-alone microsite conducted by one or two students displaying the research results, and a launch supported by Liz or Gemma and either Josie event in November 2015 to give all the or myself from the Trust. All the histories A pyjama parade by ‘Bulwark’ girls! ‘Bulwark’ was participants a chance to meet and for us to were recorded and videoed, and transcripts one of the school houses. © Unknown display the contributions. were produced.

Revelation and reconnection Views 67 The interviews were wonderful in many been explored. The interviews and the many Reconnecting over tea and buns ways, but one of the most rewarding aspects written memoirs we received were was seeing the students connect with the complemented by photographs, many of Once the research phase of the project was past of their school. In common with many which showed Studley Royal House, both complete, we had collected a wealth of schools, Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate has inside and out, which we hadn’t seen before. material, including recorded interviews, maintained many of its traditions, including This ‘missing house’ diminishes our written memoirs, photographs and such the school birthday traditions (involving knowledge of the estate’s history, and these artefacts as a school uniform, ‘confirmation cakes, swords and students carrying the photographs, along with surveyors’ floor cards’ and a can used to hold hot water for letters of the school motto Luce Magistra1), plans which one of our contributors had in washing in the mornings. The students had the house system and house plays. Both her collection, have really helped us also produced a variety of work on the war current and past students were thrilled to understand the house and the way it was context. We decided to hold an exhibition discover the continuities in a time of such used. The project also helped us reconnect and celebration event at Queen Ethelburga’s great change, for the school and society with the last private owners of the estate, to which the current and wartime school as a whole. The Head Boy of Queen the Vyner family. communities, along with community Ethelburga’s worked on the project and The war brought great tragedy to the representatives and Trust staff, were invited. remarked, ‘I think that it’s important that as Vyner family: they lost their eldest son and The event was a fantastic success: the you move forward, you don’t forget what daughter on active service, and then, of catering team produced war-themed food, you’ve left behind.’ The students were course, they lost their house. It is often the including spam fritters and the buns that the fantastically committed to the project, and small details that bring a story alive: the girls remembered having at break-time, the worked extremely hard to research the war elaborate play-house that the only surviving students displayed their work to great effect, context, motivated by the very personal child, Henry, played in, which the schoolgirls and we were able to present many of the connections they were able to make. were banned from exploring (but did memories and photographs. Sandbags, anyway); the bread and jam which Lady military uniforms, ration cards and an Vyner offered to one of the students to original fire-engine bell all added to the Bringing home the war supplement the dire school food; or the time atmosphere. The space thronged with many the King and Queen came to visit the Vyners visitors, three mayors and the local media, While the school connected with its past, we and had to step over the old milk which the but by far the most precious aspect of the at the Trust were also able to reconnect with girls had thrown out of their sick-room event was seeing the women whose stories an aspect of our great estate that has rarely window in Fountains Hall. we were telling meeting one another again, sharing stories over tea and buns and reconnecting with what was clearly a very important part of their personal stories. The exhibition was so popular that we decided to take it, in part, back to the estate, where we put it on display in Fountains Hall. The story of reconnection continues; this spring a spry gentleman in his nineties came into the office to talk to us. In one of the photographs in the exhibition he had spotted an old friend, a girl he had taken to dances, before his army posting had taken him away from Yorkshire and they had lost touch. Was it possible that she was still alive he wondered and did we by any chance have an address? The ‘girl’ in question was one of our contributors and happily we were able to put them in touch with each other again. Another reconnection made by this very special project.

The school’s last nativity play in the Reference house at Christmas 1. Luce Magistra ‘Light being the test’ comes from 1945. This shows the the preface of the poet Claudian’s Ode to the main staircase of the house. © Unknown Emperor Honarius.

Some of the filmed interviews and archive recordings can be found on www.evacqes.org

Studley Royal House on fire in 1946, a few weeks after the school had left. Only the large stable block, now a private house, remains. © Unknown

68 Views Revelation and reconnection The Battle of Berkhamsted Common Emily Smith, Ranger, Ashridge Estate

t is the middle of the night on 6 March wanted to take complete control of the Meanwhile the news spread, and the 1866 and 200 men armed with hammers common. His agents had been out in the inhabitants of the adjacent village and Iand crowbars board a train in London. town cajoling people into selling off their district flocked upon the scene. In carriages, They have no idea where they are going or rights. There had been rumours but no one gigs, dogcarts, and on foot, gentry, what their task will be when they get there. had expected him to take any action for shopkeepers, husbandmen, women and At 1.30am they arrive at Tring station from there were still many commoners who had children, at once tested the reality of what where they set out on a three-mile walk by refused to sign their rights away. they saw by strolling over and squatting on moonlight up a steep Chilterns hillside, Nonetheless the entire central section of the the Common and taking away morsels of through the wood-pasture of Aldbury common, some 434 acres (175.6ha) in size, gorse to prove, as they said, the place was Common, finally to arrive at their destination had been completely fenced off, leaving no their own again. on the edge of Berkhamsted Common… way through from one side to the other. Only when they reach the fence are the It took many years in court, but eventually London men made aware of the purpose of the commoners’ actions were completely Rights and wrongs their journey – to tear down the fences and vindicated. Their evidence was judged to be liberate the common from its enclosure. comprehensive and conclusive: the fences For centuries, local people had used the Their employer was ready to take the blame were illegal and the common would remain common: it provided countless generations – he was a local commoner and believed that open to them in perpetuity. with wood for their fires, clay and flint as he was entitled to remove the illegal building materials, bracken for animal obstruction that prevents him from bedding, and grazing land for their livestock. exercising his common rights. The common today In more recent times, people had enjoyed Working in groups of a dozen it took until the land for recreation. The annual Whitsun 6am to level the fences to the ground. When The Chiltern landscape is covered with a Fair was and is held here. the agent arrived an hour later, he was patchwork of commons where the soils are On that March night, a metal fence, six- confronted with neat piles of fencing and poor and unsuitable for agriculture. They foot high, barred the way. The fence had could do little but protest energetically. A once covered all the higher ground but have been erected a month earlier. Everyone had quote from the Buckingham Advertiser been gradually eaten away by successive known that the landowner, Lord Brownlow, describes the reaction of local people:1 encroachments.

Berkhamsted Common at the turn of the nineteenth/twentieth century. © National Trust. Photographer unknown.

Revelation and reconnection Views 69 Left: Sunrise through the trees; the common was not always so peaceful. © National Trust/Colin Sturges

Below: While some visitors to the exhibition were hearing about the battle for the first time, others were recounting stories told to them by their grandparents. © National Trust/Lawrence Trowbridge

Of those that remain, Berkhamsted One of the first causes that the society To hold a fitting commemoration for the Common is the largest. The gorsey heath of championed was Berkhamsted Common, events that left their mark on both the 150 years ago has largely disappeared and providing the legal advice and support which landscape and local legend, we organised been replaced by birch woodland and open eventually won the day. In time the National walks, talks and an exhibition to bring grassland, but it remains dear to the hearts Trust was born from this movement as a history back to life. Many turned out on the of local people. It still retains the ability to body that could protect land through 150th anniversary of the fences being torn inspire, just as it did when the great Swedish ownership, while the society continued to down, along with representatives from the botanist Carl Linnaeus, visited in 1736 and campaign for the protection of commons. two organisations that had played their part, fell to his knees to thank God for showing The Ashridge Estate was to become one of to celebrate the common and its stories. him so glorious a sight.2 Trust’s earliest acquisitions; it was bought in In this way we hope to have inspired a Along with its four neighbouring 1925 by money raised for it through public new generation with the knowledge that our commons and the historic parkland once subscription. access to wild places cannot simply be taken owned by Lord Brownlow, the land now for granted. They exist today thanks to the forms part of the Ashridge Estate. As you actions of those who fought to protect walk through this landscape, you can’t fail to 150 years on them. We all have a part to play in ensuring come across one of the many wood banks that they remain for the future. which criss-cross the woodlands. Each tells The story of the Battle of Berkhamsted its own story of enclosure spanning 400 Common was once passed down through years. Many were disputed and violence was the generations. There are still local References narrowly avoided several times. On residents who can remember being told the 1. Whybrow, George H., The History of Berkhamsted Berkhamsted Common fences were torn tale by their grandparents. Sadly, as with Common (Commons, Open Spaces and down more than once. many oral traditions, this one too had Footpaths Preservation Society, 1934). started to fade. 2. Mabey, Richard, Beechcombings: The Narratives of Trees (Chatto & Windus, 2007). The tide turns

It was during the second half of the nineteenth century that the tide started to turn in the fight to protect common land in England. A new social movement valued the commons as open spaces for recreation, particularly for those living in the cramped conditions of the cities. In response to a threatened enclosure on Wimbledon Common in London in 1864, which raised questions about the future of all the London commons, Lord Eversley founded the following year Britain’s first conservation body, the Commons Preservation Society (now the Open Spaces Society). Its founders and early members included the triumvirate who established the National Trust, Octavia Hill, Canon Many joined us in ‘marching’ across the common to commemorate the anniversary. Hardwicke Rawnsley and Robert Hunter. © National Trust/Lawrence Trowbridge

70 Views Revelation and reconnection Revealing corridors

The case of the Dog-Leg Corridor Ben Dale, House Manager, Standen, West Sussex

between family and servant life as the Background William Morris-designed Trellis wallpaper abruptly ended and a white painted finish In the 1970s when the Trust first acquired began. Most of our visitors didn’t give this a Standen, the Service Wing, including the second thought and accepted it as the usual Dog-Leg Corridor, was not opened to the above-and-below stairs etiquette, but this public but was converted into flats to help was not historically the case. Webb was a pay for necessary repairs. This necessitated progressive socialist architect whose views a number of alterations to the spaces to chimed with those of his employers. Mrs accommodate modern living. As we Beale’s account book reveals that Morris gradually open up more of the house, many papers were installed throughout the service of the alterations made at this time are now rooms and corridors. So what happened? being reversed.

The Dog-Leg Corridor before work began, showing its 1970s alterations. © National Trust/Ben Dale

search of the Collections Management System will reveal that Athere is just one space registered as ‘Dog-Leg Corridor’ in National Trust buildings, so the space at Standen is unique – and in more ways than you might think. This year we’ve completed a five-year project to return the corridor back to its former ‘glory’, reconnecting the space with the architect’s original intentions. Built in the 1890s for James Beale, a wealthy solicitor, and his family, Standen was designed by pioneering architect Philip Webb and is considered to be one of the most important examples of domestic Arts and Crafts architecture. The interior displays collections by big names of the Arts and Crafts Movement, including a fine collection of wallpapers by Morris & Co. The Dog-Leg Corridor connects the main house to the Service Wing and was designed to prevent the smell of cooking wafting through the house (well-boiled cabbage has never been a popular fragrance, even for the Victorians). Until recently, entering the corridor seemed to signify a contrast Preparing to install a false fire-compartmentalising ceiling beneath the original. © National Trust/Ben Dale

Revealing corridors Views 71 Stage one: sealing the ceiling The first stage for the corridor was to remove the false ceiling that had been inserted to make the space warmer. Not only did this reveal the height of the corridor as Webb had intended, but also some of the original hand-block printed Trellis wallpaper, dating back to 1895 when the house was first decorated. For fire-precaution purposes, we could not leave the space in this condition, and so another false ceiling was installed just below the original, and suspended so we did not have to make further holes in the walls. It provides a necessary fire break for the floor above and will expand in the event of a fire to sit very tightly against the walls.

Stage two: taking down walls A wall/doorway that was added in the 1970s to divide the corridor from the Morning Room corridor and the rest of the house open to the public was removed in January 2015. Two alcoves that had been added later were also boarded and plastered over. We also removed a modern radiator, pipework and boxing and put back historic-looking light switches to match those in the rest of the house.

Stage three: wallpaper – block, roller and digital Wallpaper conservator Mark Sandiford cleaned and repaired the original wallpaper where it existed, and the skirting was repainted the original green colour, matched through paint analysis. Modern Trellis The restored Dog-Leg Corridor. © National Trust/Ben Dale wallpaper was digitally printed by Morris & Co. to match the size and colour of the original and was hung in February 2016 by high up in the Dog-Leg Corridor and at The future George Knibb & Son, decorators. head-height and above in much of the The corridor shows three types of Trellis Morning Room corridor. The paper below We hope in the next few years to open up wallpaper. The original hand-block paper is head-height in the Morning Room corridor is further rooms in the Service Wing that are roller-printed and was put up in the 1970s. currently being used as offices. This will On removing the 1970s wall/doorway we launch all kinds of exciting opportunities to extended the roller-printed paper to the breathe life back into these spaces, display corner to make a neat finish and natural original items that are currently in store and break (fortunately we had some in store). tell the stories of those who knew them. The remainder of the paper in the Dog-Leg This year we’re raising money through Corridor is digitally printed, enabling our property raffle to reveal more of the accurate colour and scale matching where it original Morris & Co. paper in another adjoins the original hand-block paper. When service area that has been covered over (this deciding what paper to use on the bare time Mallow, designed by Kate Faulkner in walls, we asked for our visitors’ thoughts – 1879). We are also working with Morris & Co. hand-block (about £400 per roll), digital in their 155th anniversary year to replicate (about £90 per roll) or roller-print (about this paper in areas where it has since £30 per roll)? Overwhelmingly they liked the been lost. idea of digital print. Spotting the differences You can keep up to date with what’s in the papers from different eras made with happening at Standen in the house, garden different techniques has created many a and estate on our website which is at wallpaper detective! www.nationaltrust.org.uk/standen, on The work was made possible thanks to a Facebook and Twitter (search for Standen Putting up the digitally printed Trellis wallpaper. generous donation by the Beckenham & NT) and on our weekly house blog: © National Trust/Ben Dale Bromley National Trust Association. https://standennt.wordpress.com/

72 Views Revealing corridors More than it seems: Montacute’s corridor Barbara Wood, Curator, South West

Montacute seen from the west front with the two-storey Clifton Maybank Corridor perfectly blending in between the two original wings. © National Trust Images/ Robert Morris

uilt by Edward Phelips (later Sir it. Those inside would have been able to look television and film. Their most significant Edward) in the last years of the out to both front and back when in any room change to the building itself was the Bsixteenth century, Montacute in of the house. addition of that most modern of Somerset, as with other houses of the time, From the outside, Montacute would conveniences, a corridor. was designed without corridors. In an era of indeed have been a ‘lantern’ with sunlight little personal privacy when life was often streaming through the glass from one side to not only communal but public, this soaring the other as the sun moved from the east to Early flatpack? lantern-like building had no need or west or as light streamed out from the allowance for personal rooms as we might candles and fires within and into the The corridor was purchased complete, a part recognise them in the modern era. Although darkness of the night beyond. of Clifton Maybank Hall in nearby Yeovil. a full three storeys of glittering glass and Despite the great public success that Sir Built between 1540 and 1560 the house was Ham Hill stone, there was therefore no Edward demonstrated in the original being dismantled and, as often happened, architectural requirement for the kind of building, and the ambition that it displayed, building materials were sold off. Cheaper passages which form connecting spaces and succeeding generations of the family were than buying new, Edward’s purchase corridors in the buildings we use today. The not in a position to continue to embellish or included a chimneypiece and windows as Great Hall would have been the central hub alter the building for some time. It was the well as stonework. Transported to its new of the house, where most people met, ate, fifth Edward who in 1785–6 was able to make site, it was re-erected on the west front, talked, transacted business and even slept. significant alterations and ‘modernise’ the fitting neatly between the projecting wings Doors opened directly from each end of the family home to a limited extent. Until this at each end of the original, narrow structure. Hall, one to the service quarters and the date the original sixteenth-century entrance Despite being almost half a century older other into the semi-public Parlour and on the east front, leading from the main than Montacute, the two parts, both of local increasingly private spaces above. roadway and through courtyards now lost, honey-coloured Ham stone, created a Moving across the ground floor meant had remained in use. Edward and his wife harmonious exterior although obscuring the walking through each room in turn. Similarly Maria Wright undertook major works to the by-now old-fashioned transparent view on the first floor, the doors to each room park and estate, creating a new front and through the building. simply opened into the next, while on the entrance way on the opposite west face. This Externally the corridor provided the focus second floor, the entire space was given over became the iconic view of the later of an updated and more fashionable to a single gallery with rooms opening from Montacute which is now so familiar from entrance way, with a sweeping drive offering

Revealing corridors Views 73 but also access for both general and the cutting edge of design when it was built. specialist visitor, and the upper Clifton The narrow construction, walls of glass and Maybank Corridor has been an effective the weight of three storeys on minimal space for this. However, in 2014 the release foundations all add stress and create of rooms previously used as offices offered movement within an ageing building. The the chance to test a new exhibition approach changes of the eighteenth century were which would concentrate the collection in probably the first major interventions which one room, allowing us to improve lighting began to compromise the structural and also to hang a greater number of items. integrity of the building. Later removal of For the upper corridor, this was also some internal walls, nineteenth-century transformative. The great floor-to-ceiling changes in the Long Gallery and the windows, which had remained shuttered in installation of the heating system in the early order to protect the samplers, have been twentieth century all contributed to the reopened returning light to the passage, and structural fragility which the property team A closer view of the corridor added to the west front visitors are now once again able to look out manage so carefully today. The addition of of Montacute. © National Trust Images/Stuart Cox on the western approach to the house the corridor is one alteration which has stretching before them. literally added support. The corridor also offers more than circulation or space to hang pictures and glimpses of the house rather than the provide pleasant views. Added to the Acknowledgement structured and formal, direct, entrance of original narrow range and abutting the wings the previous Elizabethan arrival. (The of the house, it has also helped to provide With thanks to Sonja Power, House & distinctive straight drive seen today is a later structural support. Edward and Maria may Collections Manager, Montacute House, phase of alteration.) Internally, the addition not have been aware, but Montacute was at for her help. also transformed the house, providing an entrance which could be separated from the Great Hall and Cross Passage with a door and a passageway separate from the Great Hall. Circulation was thereby created from service areas alongside the hall, allowing servants to move without passing through main rooms. At the first floor, the purchase transformed the layout of the building, providing at one stroke a corridor beside the range of existing rooms. This enabled the separation of rooms and it also responded to the growing need for privacy and personal spaces. Within the original rooms most of the interconnecting doorways and the windows in the original west wall were blocked and plastered over or, as was the case in the Hall, blocked and covered with panelling. Traces of these alterations can still be seen in many of the rooms, with the outline of doors visible through later wall coverings. On the upper floor a section of the ‘new’ build has been glazed by the Trust to show the original outside walling. On the ground floor it is easy to recognise the external face of the earlier ‘back’ door now contained within the corridor itself and to see the heraldic beasts, probably an original part of the external decoration, now re-sited inside the building.

Supporting role, in so many ways

In recent years the corridor has been used as display space for the internationally significant collection of samplers bequeathed to Montacute by Dr Douglas Goodhart. Such sensitive items require a high level of care, notably low light levels, The Clifton Maybank Corridor at ground-floor level. © National Trust Images/Nadia Mackenzie

74 Views Revealing corridors The secret beneath a corridor at Seaton Delaval Hall John Wynn Griffiths, Conservator, North

eaton Delaval Hall is one of the finest Vanbrugh built Castle Howard. And it is from The imposing Seaton Delaval Hall was designed by buildings by Sir John Vanbrugh (I may thence I hope to carry him. I intend to Sir John Vanbrugh. The west wing is on the right. © National Trust/Dennis Gilbert Sbe biased!), and one of the most persuade Sir John Vanbrugh to see Seton if important eighteenth-century country possible & to give me a plan of a house, or to houses and designed landscapes in the UK. alter the old one, which he is most excellent pulling down Seaton Delaval Old house as well The building is a central hall with east and at; and if he cannot come, he’ll recommend a as building new Mansion House’. west wings. The east wing houses the man at York who understands these Vanbrugh himself notes: ‘The Admiral is amazing stables and the west was the matters.’ (‘A man at York’ may refer to very gallant in his operations, not being hunting hall and service wing, comprising William Etty (c.1675–1734) who was disposed to starve the design at all. So that kitchen, laundry and bakehouse. employed at Seaton Delaval Hall as surveyor he is like to have, a very fine Dwelling for Following the Norman Conquest, the De or clerk from 1719 onwards.) himself now, and his Nephew thereafter.’ Laval family were given lands in the region, Perhaps the admiral had second thoughts In June 1723 plans for the estate came to including the village of Seaton which as a couple of months later he wrote: ‘I an abrupt halt when George died after falling subsequently took their name. In a survey consider my estate will not bring much from his horse. The estate passed to his of 1353 a manor house is mentioned, and superfluous money, and I would be glad to nephew, Captain Francis Blake Delaval. by 1415 Seaton Delaval Hall is included in a divert myself a little in my old age in Vanbrugh returned to Seaton Delaval Hall at list of Northumbrian fortresses, but no repairing the old house, making a garden least once more, in 1724, probably licence to crenellate seems to have been and planting forest trees.’ overseeing the admiral’s memorial, an granted so how defendable the building It seems that Vanbrugh was a good obelisk in the west avenue. Vanbrugh died in was is unknown. salesman, however, as he convinced George to 1726 which meant that neither he, nor his employ him to knock down the old building patron, saw the completed hall. and create a wonderful new mansion in the Creating the new hall latest style. The scale of the groundworks necessary for the new building came to light ‘A perfect fairyland’ Admiral George Delaval bought the house in during recent work to lay a new drain, the lack 1718 from a distant cousin of his, Sir John of finds testifying to the extensive levelling Initially Francis does not seem to have been Delaval, enabling Sir John to extricate and creating of new ground. keen to complete the house, but he did, and himself from a dowry claim. George’s Surviving accounts for the period 2 April to he and his wife Rhoda moved in in 1728. On brother, Edward, looked after the estate in 2 October 1720 show that demolition and new his death in 1752 – after falling down the 1717–18. The admiral wrote to Edward in build were concurrent: ‘the several charges steps on the South Portico – the estate February 1718: ‘I should tell you that Sir J. and expenses of mason work and labourers passed to his son, Sir Francis Blake Delaval.

Revealing corridors Views 75 Within three years of inheriting his father’s estates, Sir Francis owed £45,000. However, an advantage of being an MP was that he avoided being sent to jail. As a consequence he expended lots more time and treasure in being re-elected at Berwick, including using a mortar to fire 500 gold pieces across the market square!

Later chapters

The hall suffered a terrible fire in 1822 when lead ran like water down the walls and the flames were seen far out to sea. In the 1860s John Dobson, the noted architect who designed Newcastle’s dramatic and splendid Central station, re-roofed the central hall and stabilised the building. It would seem that the original plan had been to restore the central hall fully, but perhaps fortunately this idea never came to completion, leaving us with the dramatic building we have today, with the bones of the structure visible. During the twentieth century, the hall survived being requisitioned by the army in both wars, and even a scheme to knock it down and build 383 semi-detached houses in 1937. In the 1950s the 22nd Baron Hastings started work on restoring the hall and preparing it to be opened to the public.

Closing the passage

It is during this phase of work that the west wing was more fully remodelled as a domestic space, with marble floors laid in three of the corridors. And it is one of these marble floors that is of interest. Beneath what is now the Dining Room but what used to be the laundry is the wash-house. Looking towards the old kitchen, with the Dining Room, formerly the laundry, behind. Below this floor Complete with corner well and wash copper, were the stairs to the basement. © National Trust/John Wynn Griffiths the wash-house would have been a hot and steamy place, with only small half-windows along one side for light and ventilation. And Sir Francis was a dissipated character. His almost perpetual crowds of company it is these half windows that are now the reckless lifestyle was legendary and tales of entertained; the fêtes given, when this only way into this subterranean world. his exploits abounded. He spent a great deal beautiful house and gardens became in truth Access used to be via a wooden staircase of time in London at the theatre with the a perfect fairyland of light, and beauty, and from the corridor along the front of the similarly dissolute Samuel Foote, actor and music; with floating throngs of gay and wing. When Lord Hastings made a doorway playwright, whom he met at Oxford. The lovely creatures, that were ready to rush into through a wall and opened up the corridor writer William Howitt described the estate the most extraordinary frolics and scenes of into the dining room, this staircase, during Sir Francis’s time: ‘… the vast and mischief imaginable.’ presumably rotten and full of woodworm,

76 Views Revealing corridors was broken up and thrown down into the the staircase that has disappeared beneath old wash-house beneath, and the floor Lord Hastings’ marble floor. Apparently it’s continued over the opening. Now access is unusual to have a well built into the possible only via a ladder posted through basement of an eighteenth-century building, one of the half windows, armed with a torch. the difficulty of preventing contamination of The legend ‘Trap to Cellar Under’ can be seen In a building survey carried out by John the water from domestic activities being one in the lower centre of this extract from a 1956 Dobson in 1816, six years before the fire, the reason. The well and several oddities of the electrical installation plan. This is the access that was closed off by the marble floor. laundry can be seen, then a passage and, stonework outside may suggest a survivor © National Trust closed off by a wall, a small staircase; this is from an earlier building phase.

Future plans

The property is about to embark on a major project which will see bastions and ha-ha walls repaired, and many of the other important buildings on site consolidated. These include a lovely little Vanbrughian garden pavilion, later converted into a toilet and still known as ‘the netty’, a name we can hopefully shake off. The west wing will be re- roofed and the heating system replaced. During this work we hope to get into the spaces underneath and explore them fully. I have seen photos of the rooms beneath this wing; they have stone-vaulted ceilings and seem to be largely intact, complete with wash copper and fittings. Obviously I intend to get into the spaces as soon as I can – an ambition shared by the entire team at Seaton Delaval! How we ultimately use these intriguing spaces hasn’t been decided, and certainly the access issue complicates things, but at the very least we should film the rooms beneath and offer a glimpse into them this way.

Our only access to the rooms below are through small half-windows level with the ground. © National Trust/Leigh Boyd

Right: A glimpse into the past. The circular construction in the far corner may be the well. © National Trust/Leigh Boyd

Revealing corridors Views 77 Corridors of light: the design and conservation of the oriel window at Castle Drogo Bryher Mason, House & Collections Manager, Castle Drogo, Devon

he construction of Castle Drogo fell Castle. This abstraction resulted in what Corridors of air and light at a key moment in the life of the could be considered a foray into Modernism Tarchitect, Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869– by an architect renowned for, and sometimes When considering the dramatic design of 1944). The commission came when he was derided for, his historicist style. Gradidge Castle Drogo, it is impossible to overlook the 40, when many of his major commissions described Lutyens’ later work on Drogo as Piranesi-esque circulation spaces. Indeed, were behind him and he was seeking to fulfil abstract sculpture and related it closely to the corridors and staircases contain some of his ambitions to become an architect of his designs for war memorials. He went so far the most dramatic architectural features of great public works. He had left his vernacular as to state: ‘It is one of the great disasters of the building. Lutyens placed a great deal of style and was entering into his classical the history of twentieth-century architecture importance on movement through his phase. This transition may have made him in England that architects have continuously buildings, and at Drogo he demonstrated his reluctant to return to an earlier aesthetic, been blinded by what they think of as the mastery of three-dimensional space. As even to design a castle embodying the historicist style of Lutyens’ architecture, and architect and Lutyens expert Peter Inskip dynastic ambitions of the self-made are thus unable to see what he has to offer wrote: ‘At Castle Drogo the organisation of millionaire Julius Drewe. Indeed, Lutyens them in his mastery of architectural the house both in section and plan ties the wrote to his wife in 1910: ‘…I do wish he composition and balance of parts.’2 whole building together so that the visitor is [Drewe] didn’t want a castle – but just a controlled both internally and externally and delicious loveable house with plenty of good there is always a continuity of space. Walking large rooms in it.’ through the building one has a feeling of However, the lure of the substantial natural progression.’3 commission for Castle Drogo and the Designing Castle Drogo was a protracted freedom to design a ‘castle’ from scratch for process which continued throughout the the first time proved too great. In fact, as 20 years it took to construct; and when Pevsner commented in 1952 ‘[Lutyens] was presented with the challenge of redesigning no doubt the only architect then alive who the southern end of the castle in the early could be trusted with such an extravaganza 1920s (when the plan for a Great Hall was in granite, because he still believed in pomp abandoned4) Lutyens was forced to innovate. and circumstance.’1 He created a stunning oriel window, whose The architect and writer Roderick soaring height lends grandeur to what could Gradidge felt that the freedom to design have been a compromised space. Internal Castle Drogo from start to finish enabled windows allow light into the northern end Lutyens to push the blocky forms and of the Drawing Room and the stairs are abstract mass much further than he had wrapped around a private staircase which been able to when adapting Lindisfarne gave access up to the bedrooms and down to the Chapel.

An opportunity to improve on the original

The major conservation building project to make the castle watertight for the first time in its history has also addressed the issues of water ingress through the windows and their structural stability. The huge oriel window suffered from structural cracks in the granite transoms as well as the opening up of mortar joints. The movement was caused by the slender structural members being too weak for its great height. Two repairs were therefore tackled. The cracks through joints have been stabilised by inserting stainless-steel rods in the mortar beds across the cracks to stitch the structure together. Each stainless-steel rod has a bend The window before work began; and detail. © National Trust Images/Dennis Gilbert at each end to key it into the mortar and

78 Views Revealing corridors After work was completed; and detail. © National Trust/Bryher Mason prevent further movement. The rod was then mortared in using hydraulic lime pointing. Where there were cracks in the stone itself, particularly in mullions and transoms, the cracks were repaired by pinning with stainless-steel pins drilled and resined across the crack in a pattern to stabilise the stone. They were then concealed with resin mixed with granite dust to blend with the granite and ensure that the repairs do not interfere with the crisp lines of the architecture. While the work was being undertaken, temporary propping was installed to ensure that the window did not collapse as the pointing was removed or as the steel rods were inserted. The vast window was supported by a grid of high-grade timber props strengthened with steel straps. Again due to the slenderness of the structure, the windows had to be removed in a careful sequence to ensure the window did not become unstable as the work progressed. As well as the structural works, each window was removed and refurbished to using an ingenious winch mechanism much References ensure that they would be watertight. The like that used in greenhouses of the period. frame of each opening casement is being These mechanisms have also been cleaned 1. Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England; cleaned to remove the layer of tarnish. The and refurbished to full working order. South Devon, (Penguin Books, Middlesex, 1952), frames are an alloy of brass, and the cleaning Solving the issues of water ingress into p.75. returns them to their original golden-bronze Castle Drogo is allowing the architectural 2. Roderick Gradidge, Edwin Lutyens Architect finish. The leadwork is being replaced with beauty of the building to shine through once Laureate (George Allen & Unwin, London, 1981), fresh lead, with each pane of glass being more. The removal of lime deposits from the pp.40–1. carefully retained and returned to its original windows lets light enter, which allows the 3. Peter Inskip, Castle Drogo 1910–1930 (Gonville & place in the frame. The windows are then freshly cleaned granite to sparkle in the Caius College, Cambridge, 1968). sealed into the granite reveals using nut- sunshine and the brass frames to glow 4. Apparently this was down to the structure brown, self-coloured mastic which replaces gently, as was originally intended. Nowhere blocking the views of the moor, rather than the lime putty originally used and provides a is this more apparent than on the main funds running low and time running out watertight seal. Because the window is so staircase lit by the soaring heights of the (Conservation Management Plan). vast, the opening casements are operated oriel window.

Revealing corridors Views 79 Marching on: a most moving mosaic floor Paul Holden, House and Collections Manager, Lanhydrock, Cornwall

etween 1881 and 1885, after a Left: Cracking in mosaic pavement east disastrous fire, the architects to west across the Richard Coad and James MacLaren Inner Hall. © National B Trust/Paul Holden. refurbished Lanhydrock house in Cornwall. Their client, Lord Robartes, wanted his new Below: Crack beneath home to bear some resemblance to the granite arch. Picture Jacobean house that was partially lost in the shows missing tiles and two white dots on conflagration, though incorporating all the the floor that modern conveniences that the high- are datum points for Victorian period could offer. One such levelling survey. © National Trust/ feature was the installation of an Paul Holden aesthetically styled mosaic pavement that covered the ground-floor corridors and stairwells in the west range and a Minton- tiled floor that runs the length of the south. Mosaic pavements are relatively unusual for country houses, the hard-wearing properties making them the automatic choice for hotels and banks. As the design does not feature in any of Lanhydrock’s architectural plans, it is fair to assume that the pattern was selected from a catalogue; unfortunately the names of any external contractors who supplied and installed the floor are not recorded.

Built-in problem?

Lanhydrock’s decorated pavement is a conventional mosaic made up of pieces of marble tesserae fixed within a grey Despite several more well-intentioned backed this up. To get meaningful cementitious mortar and set in a pink mortar advisory visits, the next course of action was information from the survey we subdivided bed of Portland cement with crushed brick. taken in 2002 when archaeological core the pavement into smaller components, We believe that movement of the substrata sampling was carried out. The results thereby looking at four specific areas: has occurred from the time of installation, showed that the substrata was made up of a although it was first highlighted as a problem 2in. fine cementitious bedding layer of brick 1. The foot of the oak staircase which in 1983 by Michael Trinick, the Trust’s rubble and Portland cement on top of a 7in. extends via a short corridor into the Regional Director for Cornwall, when layer of coarse concrete. It was evident that Inner Hall; remedial works were immediately some migration of sulphates from the brick undertaken. Substantial surface repairs were (activated by moisture wicking up from 2. The Inner Hall itself; made by Alpha Marble & Terrazo Ltd in 1984 below) was causing the brick, and therefore and 1988, and a full investigation into the whole floor, to expand. The considered 3. The foot of the teak staircase, including movement was addressed in 1997 when the opinion was that the screed would continue another short corridor that abuts the risk was considered ‘insignificant’. The to swell until the sulphate source had been Minton-tiled floor; engineer noted: ‘Most distortion is very long depleted, an assumption supported in an term and gives every indication of having earlier investigation by English Heritage 4. The geometrically laid Minton-tiled floor significantly ceased’, suggesting perhaps which stated that salt readings were medium that runs the full length of the south range. that any movement was the consequence of to high in some areas of the floor. normal settlement over the course of a At this point an annual levelling check century. Some concern was expressed about was commissioned which monitored annual Oak staircase and cloakroom the two stairwells that had ‘moved movement across fixed datum points. The considerably’ under the pressure of the results can, at times, be difficult to interpret, This area has caused most concern over the mosaic heave, as a consequence of which an largely because the movement is minor and years, in particular the twisting of the old 4in. fire mains embedded within the floor fluctuates both positively and negatively. historic (pre-1881) oak staircase which has was drained in anticipation of it leaking and Initial thoughts were that the fluctuation loosened and dislodged pieces of mosaic. saturating the substrata, thereby causing might relate to variations in seasonal rainfall. Not surprisingly the levelling data reflects further movement. However, year-on-year assessment has not these problems: between 2004 and 2006

80 Views Revealing corridors pressure on the newel post. The rise is most have become more stable. We suspect that prominent along the centre of the walkway this might be a direct result in changes in from a constructional granite arch that exits moisture content beneath the floor, which is the Inner Hall and leads into the small hall at why we have looked very carefully at the foot of the staircase. When the staircase subterranean rainwater removal and water carpet was taken up in 2004, we found some courses during the quinquennial survey. of the treads were out of level, cracks were Another factor may well be condensation appearing in the timberwork and there was beneath the floors caused by heating distortion/failing of constructional joints on conduits in the cellars below. the balustrade, newel posts and banisters. Second, the highest recorded movement There is wide fluctuation between the appears in areas that are restricted by the bottom two treads and the floor at the foot granite arches and internal walling. Some of the staircase. consideration will be given to cutting relief channels in the floor to allow expansion joints to take up any movement. Minton-tiled corridor and Lobby Third, both staircases, the pre-1881 oak staircase and the post-fire teak staircase, are When the carpets were taken up in 2004, at risk of further damage if the swelling and the damage to the Minton-tiled floor and contraction continues. As the oak staircase Oak staircase. These stairs twist across their width Lobby was visible. A noticeable split had takes our whole visitor load, some as pressure is exerted from below. The mat at the crossed the Lobby from the north window consideration has to be given to relieving the foot of the stairs hides mosaic damage and takes towards the Smoking Room door which pressure, perhaps through expansion joints up some of the height as the bottom tread is now higher than those above. © National Trust/ predominately followed the grouting line of or simply by trimming back the newel post, Paul Holden the tiles, but in some places had split the following agreement with the local body of the tile itself. Cracking on the conservation officer. the bottom two treads of the historic Steward’s Room wall may or may not be Fourth, we must consider the impact of staircase have twisted between 2.1mm and linked to the movement of the floor. undue stresses from floor heaves on the 1.6mm respectively. The cause of this is the structure of the building. For example, is the upward pressure exerted by the heaving floor movement responsible for other pavement, sometimes raising the stairs by Conclusion structural defects in the property, such as up to 2mm per year. Consequently this is cracks in the walls and ceilings and some causing significant splitting of the oak stair- The problem of the mosaic floor movement obvious twisting of the upper floors? treads, some inconsistency in the height of has been highlighted in our 2016 Last and perhaps most central to the the steps and piecemeal tile loss at the foot quinquennial survey. The floor has most issue of movement is the question of what of the stairs. Another concern is the ability likely been moving since 1884 when it was to do next. When modern levelling surveys of the pavement to expand, particularly installed; however, since 1983 we have are compared to rudimentary sketches made where constructional features such as attempted to understand the problems by Cliveden Conservation in 1983, it is clear granite arches or internal walls prevent such through surveying rather than enter into that the cracking and tile loss has worsened expansion. This causes significant cracks in reactive works that are either ill-informed or through constant positive and negative the pavement that in turn leads to loss of unnecessary. movement of the floor over time. This is tiles. Where the corridor opens into the The conclusions of this body of work are supported by visual decline with cracks Inner Hall via a large granite arch, the several. First, the floor is inconsistent in its opening up and getting bigger, leading to a movement in the floor is substantial and not movements. Between the years 1997 and loss of mosaic tiles. We will continue to surprisingly the mosaic tile loss is high. 2003 the floor generally lifted while between monitor movements, and our quinquennial Overall, however, levelling readings over the 2004 and 2006 it settled down once again. survey will inform us of other options to past three years show less movement and Over the past five years the floor appears to take. The case continues… more stable conditions.

Mosaic pavement showing trauma, lifting Inner Hall and early repairs that do not sit well aesthetically into the Through the levelling survey and by tracking original design. surface cracking, we can make some sense of © National Trust/ the movement in the Inner Hall; for instance, Paul Holden there is a significant twist from east to west, i.e. from the Dining Room door to the Inner Hall windows.

Teak staircase and corridor

The later teak staircase shows signs of movement and twisting, a result of the floor rising at the foot of the stairs and putting

Revealing corridors Views 81 Cragside’s tiled corridors John Wynn Griffiths, Conservator, North

ragside was built by and for the The making of an architect The visitor to Cragside will quickly spot remarkable Victorian industrialist some of the themes that were key parts of the Cand innovator Sir William George So what began as a modest house in 1863, Arts and Crafts movement: the use and Armstrong. He was one of the most started to grow and expand, and indeed for celebration of native materials – stone and successful industrialists of his day and the the rest of their lives the Armstrongs wood, decorated with carved and moulded principal founder of Newcastle upon Tyne’s continued to add to the building. The surfaces, cosy spaces relying on the superb nineteenth-century prosperity and its architect Richard Norman Shaw was first quality of their materials and the workmanship advances in education and health provision. involved at Cragside in 1869 when he took applied to them for decorative effect. The very In his Elswick Works he employed a quarter over the design and building of the stone Cragside was built from was cut from of the working population of Newcastle. extensions that Lord Armstrong wanted. He the fellside against which it stands. In 1863 he decided to take an angling trip used unadorned timber and stone in the Arts to Rothbury. His first holiday for 15 years, the and Crafts manner of the time. His designs trip reminded him of how he had always featured medieval elements such as Exploring the tiled corridors loved the area. He and his wife decided to mullioned windows, battlements, decorated build a small holiday home on a few acres of barge boards, shouldered gables, steep roofs Two corridors in the house are lined with tiles the Debdon Valley. Over time, however, the and, of course, the towering chimneys. on the walls. On the ground and first floors, creation of Cragside and its estate become When Lord Armstrong asked Shaw to work these corridors are unconnected except by the couple’s main personal expenditure. for him, the architect was not then well- the main stairs, though both date to the same With the extension of the Northumberland known, but Cragside would be among the period of alterations to the building. Central Railway to Rothbury in 1870, the assignments that were to make his name as a The unusual use of tiles for lining these vision for the house changed, and it became fresh and brilliant architect, and a creator of corridors is worth investigation. There seems the Armstrongs’ principal home. comfortable and picturesque houses. to have been two phases of tile, or possibly a

A view along one of the tiled corridors. © National Trust/Simon Alexander

82 Views Revealing corridors The two phases of tile can be seen here, with the Garrard tiles on the right. © National Trust/ Simon Alexander

a plaster or carved wooden mould which had been incised with the outline of the design, in much the same way as the original Spanish tiles, although Garrard tiles are readily distinguishable as they lack the “pips” on the surface where the original tiles were stacked on small balls of clay for firing. The general palette is very much that of the original Spanish tiles, utilising tin for white, cobalt for blue, copper for green, manganese for brown and iron for amber.’

But why in the corridors of a mansion house?

The question arises of why Shaw had these corridors lined with high-quality hand-made tiles. Frustratingly what information there is about the building of Cragside is held elsewhere, so a definitive answer is impossible to make without further research. Lord and Lady Armstrong were very involved in the building of the house so it can be assumed that they made the final choice. Presumably Shaw suggested the tiles, since he had worked with Garrard before. The Armstrongs did not stint on their home at all; on the contrary, the exceptional quality of its materials, design and workmanship are very evident: stained glass by Morris & Co., carved panels by James Forsyth, a beautiful hand-made, made-to- measure chenille carpet in the Dining Room Mitred corner tiles give a crisp straight edge. © National Trust/ Simon Alexander (probably one of the last hand-woven chenille carpets) and the fireplace in the Drawing stage of repair. Literature within the house lots of filler had been used in cracks and other Room reputedly made from 10 tons of finely implies that the tiles used in the first phase damage, and there were areas of retouching. carved marble and alabaster. were by Maw & Co. at Jackfield near The work consisted of removing this surface Beyond the use of high-quality materials Ironbridge and the later larger ones were poor dirt and paint, consolidating loose and and fine workmanship, informed by the imitations by a local company. However, cracked tiles and stabilising the damaged aesthetics of the day, we can’t really say why examination and research cast doubt on the corners. One interesting point is the way the the tiles were used by Shaw in meeting the attribution to Maw & Co. and suggest the tiles are joined at right-angled corners: rather standards set by Lord and Lady Armstrong. more likely candidate is Frederick Garrard of than one tile overlaying the other, resulting in Millwall, London. Supporting this conclusion a very obvious edge, the Garrard tiles have is that Garrard was a manufacturer favoured mitred edges and so meet in a nice clean line. Reference by Shaw, and indeed the colours are entirely Tile expert Chris Blanchett, in an article for typical of his work. Whereas a Garrard tile has Glazed Expressions, a periodical of the Tiles Chris Blanchett, ‘The Decorative Tiles of Frederick a rustic feel from its rough terracotta-type and Architectural Ceramics Society, states Garrard and John Lewis James’, Glazed Expressions body to its rich speckled glass-like glaze and that ‘Garrard’s earliest tiles are copies of (Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society, 2013). firing faults, a Maw & Co. tile is much more Spanish cuenca-style designs similar to those Accessible on The Victorian Web at cleanly produced, the design shallower and made in Seville between 1500 and 1700 with www.victorianweb.org/art/design/index.html more intricate on a pale clay body; overall it the designs staying faithful to the originals.’ under ‘ceramics’. lacks the charm of a Garrard piece. Another Most of these tiles were made for churches factor in identifying the tiles in the hall at either restored or newly built to designs by Cragside is the colour scheme and particular Shaw or another leading architect George Acknowledgements shades of blue, green and yellow/orange- Edmund Street. Cuenca tiles are created when brown that Garrard used. a raised line is moulded onto the face to My thanks are due to Emma Cooper, Conservator, The tiles in both corridors were conserved create separate areas which are then flooded for her report following the conservation work, in February 2010. They were all dirty to with lead-based coloured glazes. As Chris and Simon Alexander, Conservation Assistant, varying degrees, some had been overpainted, explains, ‘they would have been pressed onto for the images.

Revealing corridors Views 83 The Armoury Corridor at Waddesdon Manor Phillippa Plock, Curator (Web Content), Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire

A small example of the extensive armoury collection at Waddesdon. © National Trust/ Waddesdon Manor

he Armoury Corridor at Waddesdon The wing’s accommodation for single entries prepared on nineteenth-century Manor is perhaps a typical male guests and the Billiard Room were fakes were not included in his 1974 Tthoroughfare. Since its creation in reconfigured in the early 1890s. It was then publication.1 Small associated pieces like two 1880 as a passage to connect the main house that Ferdinand developed his famous bird-hunting whistles have never been to the Bachelors’ Wing, it has often been Smoking Room collection in his old researched. This piecemeal approach has led subsumed conceptually into the principal bedroom, now the Waddesdon Bequest at to confusion over the identification of some rooms at its end. At the same time, it has the British Museum. objects, resolved during the project. functioned as a theatrical space of brief These named rooms – Smoking, Billiard – encounter or scholarly absorption. have dominated descriptions of the corridor. I’ve frequented the corridor over the past In turn, the shifting importance of the arms Ferdinand or Alice? four years, working on a project cataloguing has also influenced how this space has been around 200 pieces of arms and armour perceived. Unfortunately, we do not know exactly which displayed on its walls. This is part of a wider pieces were acquired by Ferdinand, and which project to enable greater access to by Alice. In the inventory dated 2 February scholarship about Waddesdon’s collection Arms on walls 1899 made after Ferdinand’s death, the first through our website which is at item listed in ‘The Billiard Room Corridor’ is www.waddesdon.org.uk. The arms were collected by Ferdinand and simply ‘TROPHIES OF ARMS and various his sister and heir, Alice. They were displayed articles on the walls’.2 Much more is made of originally in various corridors throughout sculptures, furniture, paintings and even 360 Male connections the manor, but now they occupy only the yards of crimson felt. Clearly in this 1899 Bachelors’ Wing or are in store. thoroughfare to a more important place, It was in the Bachelors’ Wing that Ferdinand The pieces on the wall are now wired, other items were far more valuable than the de Rothschild, Waddesdon’s creator, alarmed and displayed behind ropes. The easily overlooked arms and armour. originally had his bedroom. Arms were an security works, but the significant time taken Indeed, such quick dismissal has allowed obvious choice for the corridor outside: they to remount pieces means we try to keep an inaccurate picture to emerge. Since 1961 recall the chivalric, martial and hunting handling to a minimum. when the Bachelors’ Wing opened to the values that nineteenth-century gentlemen Most of the pieces were catalogued by public, the story has been told that it was wanted to emulate. the renowned expert Claude Blair, although Alice who collected all the arms and armour.

84 Views Revealing corridors The collection includes Dorothy de Rothschild, Alice’s great-niece by this ceremonial helmet marriage, who oversaw the transition of (burgonet) and elbow- Waddesdon to the National Trust after the pieces dating to 1539, which once belonged death of her husband James in 1957, certainly to Charles V of Spain. believed this to be the case. In her 1977 article © National Trust/ on Waddesdon, she describes how Alice filled Waddesdon Manor/Mike Fear the ‘bare walls’ of the corridor leading up to the equally empty Smoking Room.3 We do know that Alice did buy at least 90 pieces of arms and armour between 1908 and 1913 as they appear in her receipts. Dorothy must have remembered Alice buying these vast amounts of arms (she was courting James at the time), but she also assumed Alice was acting only in response to the departure of the Smoking Room collection in 1899. However, Ferdinand’s inventory shows that there were arms and armour here before Alice began collecting. There was also a small number of objects that remained in the Smoking Room after the Bequest had left, Adolphe at Prégny.4 This set-up recalls pieces was added before or after Ferdinand’s contradicting Dorothy’s account. Horace Walpole’s neo-Gothic mansion at death. On reflection, I think it is more likely Strawberry Hill, finished in 1776. Down that Ferdinand and his designers decided to gloomy corridors designed for mystery and make this space, rather than Alice. The ceiling Ferdinand’s theatricality intrigue, inhabitants encountered a trophy light with its decorative surround makes an of arms and armour outside the main arresting feature as one enters the wing. Soft One piece that Claude Blair established was bedroom door and a suit of armour in a lighting encourages careful looking, purchased by Ferdinand is the gruesome niche on the landing. Walpole claimed that thoroughly in keeping with the drama of punishment mask. Its theatrical nature in the the inspiration for his early Gothic novel The approaching the ‘Renaissance Museum’ display recalls the neo-Gothic fashion for Castle of Otranto, where a fateful falling housed in the New Smoking Room beyond.6 hanging sinister pieces of arms and armour helmet begins the story, came from a dream Indeed, it is possible that Ferdinand in corridors and stairways that might of a mailed hand seen on the uppermost planned to extend the collection of arms and provide an amusing scare to a guest when bannister of a great staircase.5 armour as part of the remodelling of the they were moving about. The 1899 inventory Bachelors’ Wing, but was unable to finish his tells us that Ferdinand had a trophy of project due to his untimely death. And so it shields, arms and skins in the Bedroom Alice’s absorption was Alice who purchased the outstanding Corridor in the main part of the house – pieces which transformed a decorative perhaps intended for the same effect. From 1908 to 1913, Alice probably doubled passageway into somewhere worth stopping. Ferdinand probably admired the the arms and armour collection. She also arrangement of arms on the landing and acquired three museum-quality specimens: stairway in the Swiss castle of his cousin armour made for the Spanish king, Charles V, References in the 1530s. In contrast to 1899, 46 pages are dedicated to the arms and armour in the 1. Claude Blair, The James A. de Rothschild inventory taken after Alice’s death in 1922. Collection at Waddesdon Manor: Arms, Armour Each piece of armour and weaponry is and Base-Metalwork (Fribourg: Office du meticulously detailed: its type, decoration, Livre, 1974). date and value. 2. Charles Davis, Inventory of Waddesdon Manor, Reflecting this new emphasis on plans of Bucks, 4 vols. 1899, p.198 (Waddesdon Manor: the house drawn up in 1922, this section of acc. no. 171.1997). the corridor is called the Armoury. It had 3. Dorothy de Rothschild, ‘The Feminine Line at now become a display space in its own right Waddesdon’, Apollo (1977), 105, p.418. rather than just as a route to more important 4. Pauline Prevost-Marcilhacy, Les Rothschilds, rooms. The atmospheric associations of bâtisseurs et mécènes (Paris: Flammarion, Ferdinand’s arms collection enjoyed on the 1995), p.136. move had become subsumed into a 5. Maev Kennedy ‘Strawberry Hill’, Guardian museum-style display that necessitated (25 February 2015). lingering for a closer look. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/2 5/strawberry-hill-horace-walpole-gothic-castle- otranto-open-again [accessed 23 May 2016] Absorption as theatricality? 6. Dora Thornton, A Rothschild Renaissance: Treasures from the Waddesdon Bequest (London: The punishment mask from Germany which dates to the seventeenth or eighteenth century. One mystery is whether the alcove in the British Museum, 2015), pp.31–2, 51. © National Trust/Waddesdon Manor/Mike Fear corridor that accommodates these extra

Revealing corridors Views 85 From club to corridor: a home for Grillions Denise Melhuish, House and Collections Manager, Killerton, Devon

The drawing of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland by Joseph Slater. © National Trust Images/Andreas von Einsiedel

books of the drawings which must have been pleasing reminders of entertaining dinners and of the friendships that were at the heart of the club. These books are also in the collection at Killerton. Slater continued as the club’s official artist until 1847 when George Richmond took over. He was succeeded by Henry Wells in 1871. The drawings in the Long Corridor are all originals and our collection continues with prints of some of the drawings by Wells and other artists in the Entrance Hall. The drawings are delicate and need low light levels so the corridor is an ideal place to hang them. As a trial, a volunteer is now placed in this area to encourage visitors to have a closer look at these unassuming drawings of the men behind the key decisions that shaped life in Britain, who interacted not only through Parliament but perpetuated friendships made in school and university. It is interesting to point out the View of the Long Corridor from the staircase looking towards the original front door. friends and contemporaries of Sir Thomas, © National Trust Images/Dennis Gilbert for the drawings include William E. Gladstone as a young man (long before his illerton is one of those houses that from both sides of the house (men only, of four terms as prime minister), Lord John does not shout about its charms; it is course) with the aim of bringing Whigs and Russell of the Reform Bill and Lord Ashley, Kunderstated but homely. The Long Tories together. After a day spent later Lord Shaftesbury, the great social Corridor is a lovely part of the house that confronting each other in Parliament, they reformer. The range of moustaches, haircuts connects the bottom of the stairs with the would dine in good humour in Grillion’s Hotel and the different styles of collars and stock Drawing Room. The proportions are good and in Albemarle Street, now Brown’s Hotel. are fascinating. it has an elegant feel with curves and fanlights Killerton’s owner, Sir Thomas Acland, This modest corridor, running from stairs over the doors which are typical of the late 10th Baronet and the MP for Devon, was a to Drawing Room, provides a narrative of eighteenth century when Killerton was built. founder member of the club. He had long British political history of the nineteenth Once the entrance hall when the front of been in the habit of having the artist Joseph century. The Grillion’s Club was a powerful the house was on the south side, the Long Slater ‘take likenesses in crayons of such of meeting place for politicians and men of a Corridor has low light levels which can be his friends as consented to sit for the certain class; it still exists but the challenging as you walk towards the Drawing purpose.’1 From 1826, the club decided that membership is unknown. Room with the light coming in from the having a portrait should become a condition glazed old front door. However, this dimness of membership. These were sketched mainly has enabled us to use the space as a gallery. in pencil with some body colour, before Reference On the walls, double-hung, are drawings being engraved and used to decorate the of members of the Grillion’s Club. This was a walls of Grillion’s Hotel. Engravings were also 1. Grillion’s Club: a chronicle, 1812–1913 (Oxford dining club established in 1812 for politicians given to each member and the club printed University Press, 1914).

86 Views Revealing corridors Eclectic, exotic and definitely unexpected Sash Giles, Assistant House & Collections Manager, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire

he completion of the Newmarket Fairhaven’s neatness, his eye for colour and that we had lost something of Lord Corridor project has seen the insistence on precision. The rest of the Fairhaven, a direct connection with him in Treinstatement of a suite of rooms at house’s interiors are seamless: tapestries, these most personal rooms, and our aim was Anglesey Abbey. Two bedrooms and their polychrome sculpture, Old Masters and silver to recapture his spirit. In tracing the en-suite bathrooms, a study and a corridor all sit in a complex, yet familiar narrative. The development of the décor, we could plot his have been restored to the state in which the abbey, as he left it, represented his vision of changing tastes and speculate on what these donor, Huttleston Broughton, the 1st Lord the English country house fused with the changes meant for the development of the Fairhaven, enjoyed them. The project Long Island lounge-style familiar to him from house as a whole. Researching the changing encompassed redecoration, new carpets, his childhood in America. appearances of the corridor from 1926 to conservation of marble and enamel surfaces, 1966 allowed us to reconnect with him. and painting, textile and clock conservation. Unlike the rest of the house, the After Lord Fairhaven’s death in 1966, the The Newmarket Corridor project Newmarket Corridor was never house was occupied from the early 1970s by photographed for Country Life nor any other his nephew, the 3rd Lord Fairhaven, his wife The primary intention of the project was to publication, and no personal photographs or and young family. Lord and Lady Fairhaven research and restore the spaces using paint drawings exist of the spaces. However, we occupied the Newmarket Corridor and sampling and archival research to return the do have several inventories dating from 1926 naturally redecorated according to their rooms to their former appearance, and for (including annotations added in 1937) and a tastes. Furniture was moved around and the them to appear as new. The underlying ethos few remaining textiles. Researching the suite became very different from its 1966 was to do everything we felt Lord Fairhaven textiles for the five rooms off the corridor appearance. When they moved out in 2005, would have done, and this guided the gave an unexpected insight into Lord the rooms were immediately opened to the decisions of the project board. Fairhaven’s pick of what were, at the time, public, but the décor and arrangement jarred The interregnum between 1966 and 2014 modern tastes. The only other way to with what we tell visitors about the 1st Lord when the project began in earnest meant explore this element of his personality is through his clothes, but, as might be Left: The Newmarket expected, his tweeds, dinner suits and Corridor leading to brogues, whilst of the best quality, are Lord Fairhaven’s suite. conservative and in the best possible taste, © National Trust/Chris Lacey the uniform of a man of social standing.

Below: The Newmarket Bedroom before restoration. The What the fabrics told us faded carpets, shiny drag-effect walls and We have around 30 different fabrics in store random furniture and objects detracted from and still hanging in the abbey. Some were historic features such supplied by Turner Lord but the greater as the fireplace. number were purchased from G.P. & J. Baker © National Trust/ Sash Giles over a 30-year period. The Baker archive had a number of records and receipts which

Revealing corridors Views 87 The Newmarket upholstered chairs. This was accented with a Bedroom following stuffed cat! After Henry moved into his own restoration to Lord Fairhaven’s colour home, Lord Fairhaven changed the suite to a scheme. © National blue and yellow scheme. Trust/Chris Lacey As project manager, one of my favourite moments was sharing the research behind the decisions the project team made, when I had the chance to do a ‘so you think you know Lord Fairhaven’ big reveal of the modern fabrics to staff and volunteers. Even accompanied by the caveat that, of the fabrics he bought, we could only be certain that those matched to inventory descriptions were actually used; the fact that they were purchased by him, perhaps for his other homes, led to wild speculation about the detailed Lord Fairhaven’s purchases, and to We found we had several colourways not décor for some of those places! narrow down which of these were bought for in the Baker archive. This is not so unusual as Lord Fairhaven’s wish when gifting the the abbey rather than any of his other clients often specified colours as ‘one-offs’. Abbey and its gardens to the National Trust homes, we compared these textiles with We were able to contribute to the Baker was to ‘preserve a way of life quickly passing’. inventory descriptions. archive by adding new colourways in ‘Basket As well as ensuring the interiors he lovingly For instance, we matched an inventory and Drapery’, ‘Tropical Leaf’ and ‘Tropical and knowledgeably created survive, our description of ‘galleons in full sail’ with a Floral’ designs. interpretation of this wish encompasses the piece of fabric from the Baker archive In bringing together all the elements to continuation of Lord Fairhaven’s patronage ‘Santiago’. As fabric is now produced in restore the 1966 scheme, it was also of craftspeople with traditional skills, smaller widths than when the design was necessary to trace the development of the including tapestry weaving, passementerie originally created, we needed to reduce the suite from 1926, when Lord Fairhaven first (decorative trimmings) and bookbinding. pattern size by ten per cent in order to lived at Anglesey. His original scheme was a We worked with over 40 contractors, reduce the waste we would have had, had we cool chrome and blue scheme with stone- advisers, specialists and craftspeople for over copied the fabric like for like. Textile coloured walls and a Saxony blue carpet. He two years to re-present these spaces. Using archivist Sue Kerry was able to guide the liked the original textiles so much that he the materials and information available, we production of the textiles and offer practical retained these and simply moved them into have interpreted what we think were Lord solutions to ensure the end results were of his en-suite bathroom; these have also been Fairhaven’s intentions. In doing so we have the best quality but also cost effective. She reproduced, again in a colourway unique to been able to question some of the decisions was able to offer insights into historic textile the abbey. he made, in order to understand better his production and interior design; the heavy In contrast to Lord Fairhaven’s suite, his vision for the abbey as a whole and use this linens that the bedroom textiles were brother, Henry, who occupied the other end to set down an ethos to use for future originally printed on were not entirely by of the corridor, had a crimson-painted projects to ensure that his gift survives and is choice – a cotton blight at the time of bedstead, gold carpet and orange- appreciated for another 50 years. production meant a rise in the use of linens, dictating fashion out of necessity. We could not always be so exact: ‘Garden and Pool’ was chosen for a room known as the Queen’s bathroom from a selection of six possible fabrics. The original fabric was simply described as ‘floral’ but the production of ‘Garden and Pool’ coincided with dates the Queen Mother is known to have stayed in the suite, which seemed a strong enough reason why Lord Fairhaven might have purchased the newest fabrics.

Learning more about Lord Fairhaven’s tastes

What we discovered from Lord Fairhaven’s purchases from Bakers is that his tastes ran to the eclectic, the exotic and most definitely the unexpected, such as ‘Segoia’, ‘New York Yacht Above: ‘Garden and pool’ reinstated in the Queen’s club’ and ‘Dog Flower’. He also acquired some bathroom. © National Trust/ Sash Giles of the more experimental of the firm’s designs and several literally rotted where they hung Left: ‘Segoia’, one of Lord Fairhaven’s wilder choices. © Sue Kerry due to very unstable dyes.

88 Views Revealing corridors Location, Location, Location Jan Brookes-Bullen, House & Collections Manager, Blickling Hall, Norfolk

would be the first to admit that I am fascinated by programmes on houses, Iinteriors, makeovers and any that involve restoration of properties, both exterior and interior, which is useful given my role as House & Collections Manager. In historic properties there are rooms favoured not only for their significance and grandeur but for their location. This perceived status, the position and ease of access can and does have an influence on their popularity with visitors and volunteer guides. Visitors often single out a favourite room, whether for its spectacular collection, interesting décor or simply a window onto the formal garden or wider landscape. Whatever it is that appeals, we would expect most historic rooms to be admired, but there are rooms and spaces that are not and even some which are disliked. The attraction of a room to visitors is wide-ranging, yet for the guides, a room’s appeal or lack of it can be fostered by the distance from their colleagues and by visitors’ reaction to the room. If there is a negative reaction to the space, it can become an issue which you’ll want to address, although that may be impossible and the guides, but some spaces remain for physical or architectural reasons. difficult for both. Often it is a small detail that prevents the space from working, such as not easily fitting into our access A room with a view arrangements; houses were not built with visitor routes in mind! After many years of managing volunteers and Since the 2005 Conservation for Access having a volunteering background, I have toolkit, house staff can substantiate their personal experience of unloved or impractical visitor flow, dwell time, etc., but we can still spaces. My first duty as a volunteer room be guilty of making random decisions to solve guide at a property in Lincolnshire was to be immediate problems of visitor management placed in its eighteenth-century library and transferring the problem elsewhere. This overlooking the parkland. I felt very privileged is what has happened with our Lothian Row – and happy to be in such an interesting room a corridor that performs as a corridor should, and so were the visitors. In the same property yet a seemingly poor relation in a procession there was a very large dining-room painted a of fine rooms. dark green close to the exit of the house. This In Britain the corridor became the north-facing room was far from even waving popular way of accessing individual rooms, in distance of a colleague, and visitors entered contrast to the more continental style of and walked quickly through, scarcely glancing consecutive rooms running enfilade, so that at the large and noteworthy Melchior de each room was also a passageway. The Hondecoeter painting or even appreciating author of The English House, Hermann Top: South Drawing Room, a pleasant example the view of the garden. As a volunteer it didn’t Muthesius (1904), wrote favourably on the of a room that is loved by visitors and guides. matter where you stood; the room possessed manner of having bedrooms off a corridor ‘in © National Trust/Kenny Gray its own gloom and defeated the very best which the inmate is entirely cut off from the Above: View along Lothian Row. National Trust smile. next room’, which gave the occupant privacy © National Trust/ Kenny Gray Now as a House & Collections Manager and seclusion. Yet this very arrangement has of a similar-sized property, it is easy to spot added to the downgrading of the Lothian the problematic areas, and I endeavour to corridor and its bedrooms in terms of make these locations function for the visitor architectural importance.

Revealing corridors Views 89 Halcyon days and Constance Lothian, the 8th Marquess The small but pretty corridor was again and his wife, began the work of modernising revamped in the 1930s by the 11th Marquess In 1860 this bedroom corridor in the west and redecorating the house. When they had of Lothian, Philip Kerr, who was the last wing of Blickling Hall was redecorated using finished refurbishing the first-floor private owner of the Blickling estate. Names the latest colour palette to set off the fine bedrooms, each of the rooms echoed the such as Astor, Ribbentrop and Grenville filled portraits hung along its walls. The whole of style of the second floor by having a letter the visitor’s book, and the Lothian Row the west wing is part of an earlier Tudor spelling out their name, LOTHIAN. bedrooms were used for these well-known building and was initially fitted out by Lord Lothian Row was the main access for the and other not-so-well-known visitors. Buckinghamshire in 1773. Its second-floor smaller bedrooms; these were delicately Disregarding the unsettled days of the bedrooms were each known by a letter of his furnished with ‘white enamel’ pieces lined in 1940s when the estate was requisitioned to title, BUCKINGHAM, and thus became bird’s-eye maple with chintz panels, lily-of- house officers from nearby RAF Oulton, we known as Buckingham Row. the-valley wallpaper and matching carpet move forward to 2016 to find that Lothian In 1856, after returning from their from Duppa & Collins of London, and would Row has lost status, and room guides have honeymoon, Blickling’s new owners, William have been delightful. given it the name of Loathsome Row.

N

Plan of the first floor of Blickling Hall. © National Trust

The Grand Staircase. © National Trust/ Kenny Gray

90 Views Revealing corridors Stairs roped-off to Goosey Goosey Gander, whither will prevent people going you wander? down need a steward on hand to allow people to come up. Along with its remote location in relation to © National the other show rooms, part of the challenge of Trust/Kenny Gray Lothian Row and its small bedrooms is that, on the visitor route, it has developed into a dead-end corridor. Visitors reach the bedrooms and then retrace their steps along the corridor against the flow of other visitors, reducing the room guide to a human signpost. Another drawback for the guide is that the corridor is not a room even though their area includes the ‘O’ bedroom, a sewing room and an exhibition room. We tried moving the guide location to the Grand Stair gallery next to the corridor but many prefer to ensure visitors ‘go the right way’ and return to their signpost duties along the corridor to ensure that no places are overlooked. Prior to 2009 visitors entered one end of Lothian Row by a staircase which had been the family access from the bedrooms to the ground floor and west garden. The corridor was a one-way free-flow route, a small but pleasing space to walk along and admire the selection of superb Kniep drawings. This ease of access came to a halt when a major building project reinstated the Grand Staircase that had been off-limits to visitors for at least 20 years owing to restrictions on its load-bearing capacity. After an entirely successful project it is back in action, but its return to use means visitors now enter Lothian Row halfway along. When we first observed the issue, we felt it was a choice of natural flow, but, just before they enter the either altering the route back to how it was or final room, they see a corridor which, of offer a choice of ascending either staircase. course, people wander down only to find it We discounted the first option as the Grand leads nowhere, so they double back. Again I Staircase was more popular with visitors who am happy for people to wander but thought the smaller staircase looked like a sometimes they complain that they cannot servants’ access. find their way out and would appreciate a We decided to leave both stairways open, sign or a rope, so we have now sprouted but some visitors using the Grand Staircase signs in this area which, to my eyes, are not a found it confusing to retrace their steps good look. But this is work in progress. along the corridor, and instead continued down the smaller stairs that we had left open for those ascending. A rope soon prevented Duck into a swan? visitors going down but then, of course, visitors coming up found a rope barring their Back to the unloved corridor. We can either way. So we have temporarily closed the old accept that this space will always have a staircase. This minor but significant issue has foot-traffic problem and consider placing led to discussions about more arrow signs, extra signs or we could let visitors explore which I really don’t wish to use as I prefer to and accept that some will find this present the house as naturally as possible frustrating. Perhaps the better choice would without too many written instructions. be to worry less about whether visitors are A similar problem arose in another going the right or wrong way and allow corridor on the ground floor. This year we them to spend time with a roving guide. were fortunate to be able to open two new Whichever solution produces a better result, ground-floor rooms and change the exit of I hope that we will soon be able to remove the house straight into the garden, which the stigma from ‘Loathsome’ Row and see it has been wonderful for our visitors. regain its status and become an attractive Without a guide, the alternative is more signs. We have been successful in directing and necessary part of the house, appreciated These are to our Morning Room on the ground visitors to these new rooms and there is a by the visitors and room guides once again. floor. © National Trust/Kenny Gray

Revealing corridors Views 91 Building connections

Mitigating ‘disconnection’: the effects of HS2 on people, places and wildlife Ben Middlemiss, HS2 Senior Project & Stakeholder Manager

Connection, reconnection and opportunities for us to influence the rail teams, who are also mindful of the potential disconnection scheme for the better. economic opportunities from HS2 in their In HS2’s Phase 1 the railway will cut region. The Government’s business case for this through countryside with high amenity, A Whole Trust project team has been major, long-term piece of national heritage and environmental value, often with working on HS2 since 2012. Growing from infrastructure is focused around connection little or no ‘payback’ from the economic considering Hartwell House alone, we now through faster, more frequent and higher case. Communities around the line will know that the route of HS2 is to cross our capacity rail travel between the economies temporarily or permanently lose access to London and South East, Midlands and North and business communities of the Midlands, their neighbours, and be too far from HS2 regions. We work hand in hand with directly the North and London. With stations stations to make use of the railway. An issue affected properties and Trust regions that planned at Euston, Birmingham, Crewe, for the Trust, concern over this situation may feel ripple-effects of the development, Manchester, Manchester Airport, East seems less polarised around the Midlands in order to reduce the impact of the railway Midlands, Sheffield and Leeds, and with and northern parts of HS2’s Phase 2, than cohesively across the regions and coherently connections to the West Coast Main Line, south of Birmingham. The economic case for with our Strategy. Liverpool, HS3 and other east–west routes HS2 is easier to argue further north, where being considered, HS2 could connect our the urban/rural landscape type and urban centres better than ever. In the Trust’s demographic mosaic make the Trust’s Connecting with communities HS2 project team, we keep a close eye on protection of its places equally important, the Government’s business case for HS2, but sometimes more challenging to achieve. While there is excitement about HS2 in the and connected transport infrastructure, This achievement becomes all the more business communities that would be because the political atmosphere around important in the context of over-burdened connected by it, this isn’t shared around the this expensive scheme (£55.7 billion at last local authority planning departments, route in rural areas such as Buckinghamshire, forecast) is febrile, and provides archaeologists, ecologists and heritage where the first phase of HS2 is going to pass through the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Our ‘Green Banks’ Natural Beauty (AONB), close to Hartwell scheme at Hartwell House, Waddesdon Manor, Claydon House House. © National and Coombe Hill. The sense of concern is Trust/DCLA also strong further away from the railway where roads will become routes for construction lorries, including in our villages at West Wycombe and Bradenham. Consultative engagement with communities around our properties has been crucial to identifying and negotiating the best and most rounded proposals to mitigate the negative impacts of HS2, and to secure benefits for these communities and their cherished landscapes.

Connecting landscapes

The route of HS2 is controversial. Peter Nixon, Director of Land, Landscape & Nature, appeared in Parliament to object on behalf of the Trust to the route through the

92 Views Building connections Left: Design brief for the HS2 Landscape Integration at Hardwick Hall. © National Trust/Landscape Institute

Below: Monitoring the bat roosts in the woods of Calke Abbey, which may be affected by HS2. © National Trust Images/Susan Guy

Chilterns AONB, unacceptable because of its identified and negotiated the right solution certain: HS2 needs to be designed to intrusive and disconnecting nature. Around to retain the Grand Lodge’s connection to account for these constraints early, so that half the route in the AONB is planned to be public rights of way and to improve its its design runs with the grain of the built in cuttings and on viaducts, and the setting. The Grand Lodge, rather than being landscape and avoids creating barriers to railway line will introduce a permanent, alien isolated from its purpose as a herald for the people or wildlife. linear feature in the landscape, as well as the great house, will be on a less major road, With local, regional and national wildlife intrusive noise and view of trains passing at with a new avenue, designed to encourage groups, statutory and independent experts, up to 400kph. While ‘fully bored’ tunnels walkers, cyclists and horse riders. Members we are a founding member of the aren’t the only way to maintain or reconnect of the public travelling up the Aylesbury Vale independent HS2 Ecology Technical Group, the landscape, it is still our view that this is will, as they always have, be able to connect which shares best practice and resources in the only appropriate way of managing a with the grand château on the hill, whether considering HS2’s technical approach to high-speed railway through this particular they visit Waddesdon Manor or not. wildlife. We have highlighted lessons for the protected landscape. As the Government prepares to affirm the House of Commons HS2 Select Committee, Hartwell House is the most severely route of the railway, which we know will including the need for connectivity mapping affected Trust property south of impact on Shugborough and understand will around HS2 earlier in design, and for Birmingham. The railway will clip the edge of impact Calke Abbey, Dunham Massey, Tatton biodiversity metrics to be used to leverage our land, passing perilously close to the Park, Nostell Priory and Hardwick Hall, we net gain for wildlife. registered park and garden and, unless well will keep working with experts to assess the It is safe to say that HS2’s developers mitigated, in clear view of the residential severity and work out solutions to protect aren’t yet at the enlightened stage of rooms of the Historic House Hotel. By our places and their surrounds. At the creating a valuable corridor for wildlife along working with communities near Aylesbury, moment we are ready to address the really the route. We think that beyond just the local wildlife trust, county and district significant challenge at Hardwick and have mitigating the impact of the route, such as councils, as well as the owners of the prepared our multi-disciplinary advisory by protecting bats from the physical effects Hartwell freehold, The Ernest Cook Trust, we team to tackle the detail of HS2 here. of the line, HS2 must improve existing have negotiated far superior mitigation for habitats along and across its length. Two the house and gardens from noise and the million trees will be planted around HS2, on view of HS2. Connecting by design 1,000 hectares of landscaping, which should Developing this mitigation proposal took be used to connect wildlife corridors across care, and the advice of our team of We’ve paid close attention to public rights of the north to south orientation of HS2. With consultants, which included structural, rail way, working with local authorities, at the railway due to run into the 2100s, its and acoustic engineers and landscape Waddesdon, Coombe Hill and Hartwell development needs to be compatible with architects. The resulting sympathetically House, and further north at Hardwick. HS2 our natural as well as economic future, and designed ‘Green Banks’ scheme includes a will disrupt many rights of way that are used through sensitive design it must contribute false cutting, relocated footbridge and to connect our properties with their to local and national heritage. wildlife culverts that will allow people, surrounding countryside. There isn’t a ‘one wildlife and historic views to retain size fits all’ approach to maintaining connections over the Hartwell estate. connections, and it isn’t possible to say that At Waddesdon Manor, the most severely a green bridge, tunnel or underpass is always affected part of the historic estate is the the best option because engineering, Grand Lodge. With the Waddesdon Estate ecological, visual and community factors and Rothschild Foundation we have apply differently in each case. One thing is

Building connections Views 93 Using green bridges to graze a landscape-scale nature reserve Lesley Jenkins, Volunteer Ranger, and Maddie Downes, Ranger, Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire

icken Fen, the first nature Managing such a large area over a long fenland environment year-round. After careful reserve to be owned by the timescale calls for an environmentally consideration, the two breeds chosen that WNational Trust, is one of the sustainable approach. To this end, a both fulfilled these criteria and would most important wetlands in Europe with management regime based on extensive combine well in a mixed grazing regime were many designations for wildlife conservation. grazing by suitable breeds of ponies and Konik ponies and Highland cattle. The even- Ecologically unique, this area of undrained cattle has been developed. tempered Konik originates from eastern fen is home to over 9,000 species of plants, Europe and thrives in wetland habitats. It has animals and fungi, including many that are been widely used to manage nature reserves extremely rare. Choosing the right grazers in the UK and across Europe. Highland cattle Since taking it on in 1899, the Trust has are tough and robust but have a placid nature gained an in-depth knowledge of the fen Extensive grazing is key to habitat so, they too, are well-suited to the presence through careful management and scientific restoration on the wider reserve. It reduces of humans which is vital where public access research. Over the years it became human intervention, avoids highly is an important consideration. Regular increasingly apparent that the protection of prescriptive, intensive management, is contact with staff and volunteers means that all the species present was impossible while viewed as more natural, cost effective and the animals are fairly indifferent to humans the reserve remained totally isolated. This flexible, and is likely to be more adaptable in and, with a large area to roam, they will realisation led to the launch of the Wicken the face of environmental change. Such a generally move away if they feel Fen Vision in 1999. This ambitious 100-year low-intensity strategy should allow for the uncomfortable or threatened. The Koniks plan aims to increase the reserve to an area formation of constantly changing linked prefer nutritional, rich, soft, sweet grasses, of 53km2, providing a landscape-scale habitats, determined by the water, soil, seasonally moving on to tougher plants, and mosaic of habitats for the benefit of both natural regeneration of vegetation and forming short-cropped ‘lawns’ amongst areas wildlife and people. grazing animals.1 of taller vegetation. The cattle are not as Already the reserve has more than For a minimal intervention grazing system selective and their grazing leaves a more doubled in size, with various parcels of land to work, the breeds of animals chosen have to tussocky landscape. Together these species at different stages in the restoration process. be self-reliant, hardy and adapted to the offer the diverse grazing characteristics

94 Views Building connections needed for this type of habitat restoration. diversity. Being in social groups and left to be dispersal of viable seeds from a wide range The self-reliance of these breeds has allowed self-reliant promotes natural behaviour, of fenland plant species by ponies and cattle the Trust, with the help of its veterinary leading to more evenly spread grazing which may occur throughout the year and, by adviser, to establish a more hands-off herd also has a positive effect on the diversity of linking to other areas, the herds can be used management style. Within the guidelines of both vegetation and landscape. The animals as a tool to diversify restoration vegetation an Animal Health Plan, close monitoring are not routinely treated with drugs as over the Vision land.3 enables the maintenance of high standards of domestic animals are and, consequently, their animal welfare. Minimal human intervention dung is a valuable resource for many species encourages the herds to determine where of beetle and provides habitats for a range of Future plans they go, what they do, who they want to be other invertebrates and micro-fauna. with and what they eat – in fact, to behave in Monitoring over a five-year period At present a herd of Konik ponies, with some the most natural way possible. (2007–12) was carried out by Anglia Ruskin Highland cattle, is confined to land on one University2 to study the effect of the side of a public highway (Baker’s Fen to the extensive grazing approach on the east) while there are small herds of cattle Benefits of natural grazing restoration land vegetation. Exclosures were and ponies on the other (Adventurers’ Fen to set up by fencing off areas to prevent the south). Uniting the herds on both sides In contrast to the uniform results produced grazing, which showed a change from an would establish a significant area to be by machinery, the effect of the free-ranging open to a closed sward dominated by a few effectively managed by extensive grazing. To grazing animals varies according to their competitive species, such as stinging nettle create free movement of the grazing density and feeding behaviour. Free-roaming and greater willowherb, with lower-growing animals, the two areas had to be connected. means that animals will, on the whole, favour herbs shaded out by tall herbs such as To achieve this, a way of allowing more palatable plants and graze some areas hogweed. This decrease in diversity would freedom of movement for the animals across more heavily, affecting the abundance of eventually result in a more scrubbed the drove and for people along the drove different species and improving structural vegetation. Continued monitoring of the had to be found within the framework diversity. An increase in the structural development of habitats and range of provided by the Highways legislation. diversity of vegetation enhances plant/insect species across the wider reserve helps to Several ideas were put forward including associations and, as a result, increases chart how the restoration is progressing. cattle grids and gates but, after consultation invertebrate, small mammal and bird Animal movements between fen plant with local users, parish councils and visitors, populations and the new wetland areas are, it was decided that an arched bridge would Opposite: Konik ponies at Wicken Fen. potentially, important vectors for allow the free-flow of livestock with the least © National Trust/Carol Laidlaw maintaining and restoring vegetation impact on traffic. Below: Highland cattle at Wicken Fen. through natural colonisation and gene flow The design of the bridge was crucial to © National Trust/Maddie Downes from surviving plant populations. The ensure that it was cost effective, animal-

Building connections Views 95 The first half of the new bridge being lifted into place. © National Trust/Martin Lester

Construction underway, looking across to Adventurers’ Fen. © National Trust/Martin Lester

friendly, caused the least disruption to the livestock and wildlife in the long term. The References highway and had minimal impact on the bridge has created a dynamic management 1. Stroh, P.A., Hughes, F.M.R., Sparks, T.H., landscape. The bridge height had to allow a method determined by the herds with their Montford, J.O. (2012), ‘The influence of time fire engine to pass underneath, and the sides different preferences and varying grazing on the soil seed bank and vegetation across a had to be high enough to prevent a horse and trampling pressures. Finding a landscape-scale wetland restoration project’, from jumping off but not so high that they successful solution was important for driving Restoration Ecology (Vol. 20), pp.103–12. 2. Hughes, F.M.R., Stroh, P.A. (2011), ‘Monitoring felt enclosed. the Wicken Fen Vision project forward and and evaluating landscape wetland restoration In order to begin construction, Baker’s has implications for other areas of land. projects – The Wicken Fen Vision Project and Fen had to be drained by controlling the Creating connectivity between Trust land the Great Fen Project’, Journal for Nature water level with a sluice. Once sufficiently holdings in the wider reserve, now and in the Conservation (Vol 19), pp.245–53. dry, borrow pits were dug in the underlying future, is essential in order to manage it 3. Stroh, P.A., Mountford, O., Hughes, F. (2012), ‘The potential for endozoochorous dispersal of clay to provide the soil to build up the ramps, effectively. This, in turn, will enable suitable temperate fen plant species by free-roaming with the top layer of peat being replaced to and diverse nature conservation habitats to horses’, Applied Vegetation Science (Vol. 15), help reduce carbon loss. As the water be established and maintained in a pp.359–68. returns, the borrow pits will become meres sustainable manner and, ultimately, protect which will be important for wetland wildlife. the rare fenland species currently restricted Linking the two parcels of land benefits to the old fen fragments at Wicken.

96 Views Building connections A bridge too far: dealing with the aftermath of the Boxing Day floods Andrew Marsh, Ranger, Hardcastle Crags, West Yorkshire

or many people around the country, dismayed to see that one of our bridges had I had to make plans to keep people safe Boxing Day 2015 will be remembered been ‘repositioned’ by the river. This was a and do an assessment of the damage. Apart Ffor the floods that devastated our bridge that we had replaced after the 2012 from the bridges, we have several sets of towns and cities. This is the story of how we floods so it was a devastating blow. The stepping stones, many miles of track and a were affected and what we have done since. riverside path was impossible to follow as it lot of footpaths; it was going to be a very was now a raging torrent and there were no busy day. safe places to attempt to cross. How it began I also received reports of flooding from our holiday cottage guests and a tenant in Damage report Months of wet and miserable weather had their cottages and on Widdop Road, which is left the ground sodden. Any rain that fell high up on the valley side. Two sets of stepping stones were now simply ran off and rivers responded quickly. missing some of their steps, one bridge was There had already been several floods in destroyed, about 2km (1.2 miles) of track Hebden Bridge before Boxing Day, but Sunday 27 December had been ripped up, two small landslips had heavy and persistent rain overnight saw the taken away sections of footpath, a large River Calder rise from 0.2m on Christmas Travelling to work on Sunday was dismal; crack had appeared on our main access Day to 3.6m at its peak. the roads through the town were covered in track, several gulleys were blocked and water Hardcastle Crags lies on Hebden Water, a mud although people had started to shovel was running along the track causing yet tributary of the Calder, and is one of the it up. The tide mark on the shop windows more damage. The holiday cottage, a main catchments in the upper reaches. As showed how high the water had come; converted barn, had water running though the rain began to ease, I ventured out to see people now walking through the town would the wall and the guests had to leave. The what, if any, damage had been done. I could have been up to their necks in the water at tenanted cottage next door was flooded all hear the river roaring in the valley and I was the height of the floods. through the ground floor and cellar.

Right: One of our first issues was access: roads and tracks had been rendered impassable in places. © National Trust/ Andrew Marsh

Far right: Despite being pinned into the river bed by iron rods, stones were moved by the force of the water. © National Trust/ Andrew Marsh

Building connections Views 97 It took a team of volunteers and a strong hand on the winch to right the stones. © National Trust/Andrew Marsh

This section of bridge was at least upright Opposite: Dismantling and intact – it just the bridge tested our wasn’t where it should Meccano skills. be! © National Trust/ © National Trust/ Andrew Marsh Andrew Marsh

Making plans deep gulleys to be filled and lots of stone them back upright was not enough. We that had washed down the track had to be needed to remove some of the sediment so We quickly made up some posters to warn removed. Not a job for me and my small we could get them to sit flat and not be too people of the dangers, closed off the main team of volunteers so we hired in a high compared to the others. That done, we access track, closed two footpaths and put contractor to do that. What we could do was then had to find a missing stone, which had diversions in place. I cleared some of the look at repairing the stepping stones, the gone 3m (10ft) downstream. gulleys to allow the water to flow where it bridge and the footpaths. I am fortunate in that I have a team of should and went to see what I could do to Once things had calmed down and the volunteers who trust me, and with a bit of help our soggy tenants. As this was the weather was a bit warmer (no one likes clever rope-work and a strong volunteer on holiday period and people were away, there working in a river in the snow!), we set to, the winch, we managed to pull the stone were no volunteers and few staff about. trying to work out what had happened to back up the river. It’s still lying on its side, I Those people who were about and lived the stepping stones, and how we might haven’t worked out how we are going to get locally were busy with their own problems – repair them. The ones by the pavilion were it upright and back in place yet, but it is just after all, we had lost some infrastructure, but the first ones we tackled; two stones in the about possible to cross the river without it. many were dealing with much worse. middle had been knocked out of place in an The other set of stepping stones After health and safety, the priority was earlier flood and were now lying at a crazy presented me with a wholly different getting the access track open. Apart from angle. Because they were already out of problem. Constructed of concrete they are our own traffic, it is a main route through to place, quite a bit of sediment had fixed by iron bars that have been driven into the farms at Walshaw. There were some accumulated around them so just pulling the river bed. Although I found the two

98 Views Building connections both are now lying in the river on their sides. These piers were secured to the river bed by iron spikes driven into the rock and probably weigh close to a ton apiece. With no way of moving them, they must be rebuilt in situ, in the middle of the river, 100m from the nearest vehicle access, down a steep slope. The next problem is how to get the bridge out of the river. One section was now 200m downstream and on the wrong side of the river. Fortunately it was high and dry, wedged up on a couple of rocks, and getting to it was straightforward. Once there, it was like dealing with a giant bit of Meccano: screwdrivers, socket set and spanners, plus a bit of muscle, was all we needed – volunteers to the rescue again! I wouldn’t say it was easy, those pieces are not the lightest, and it was a fair walk round to the other side of the river, but a good day’s work saw half the bridge in bits and back on the right side. The other section was more of a problem; we found it lying on its side and half underwater. We had some idea of the difficulties we would face from taking the first section apart so we waited until the weather had warmed up and the river was really low before we tackled it.

Returning to near normal

We wouldn’t have got so far without the help of a great bunch of volunteers and reliable contractors. Many were affected by the flooding themselves, and the contractors have been out helping people in the town so we still have a lot to do but we’ll get there. We are waiting for our contractors to be available to rebuild the piers for the bridge which should be done over the next few weeks. We will then co-ordinate with Hargreaves who will put the bridge back in its proper place. missing steps, it was impossible to move Lost connection Once we have the Ordinary Water Course and simply re-insert them. Looking at the consent approval, we’ll be able to redo the bottoms of the steps, it is clear that they The bridge is something of a conundrum. On concrete set of stepping stones, hopefully by were cast in situ. investigation with our contractor, Nigel Lord late summer. I have some ideas about how to A build-up of silt across two-thirds of the from Hargreaves Lock Gates in Sowerby stand the recumbent stone back up in the stones meant that the water flow through Bridge, we established that the bridge is other set, but at least those are usable. the gap was quite fierce, making that part intact and undamaged; it’s just not in the The footpaths and access tracks were all of the river particularly hazardous. Only right place. The nearest vehicular access is open by spring and we have completed the once the water level had dropped sufficiently 100m away up a steep slope and the bridge repair work to them. The holiday cottage is could we set about removing the silt by hand weighs a lot. I am not sure how much ‘a lot’ still having issues with damp which need to and building a small coffer dam to divert the is but we carried it down the 100m slope in be addressed by the buildings team, but we water away from the area with the missing bits. have made some alterations to field drainage stones. We have made up two wooden The first task was to ascertain what had and the local authority has remade the formers to cast the new steps, and we have happened and then find a solution. It seems drains so that water no longer accumulates re-bar and reinforcing cages ready. However, that something big, probably a log, knocked outside the tenanted cottage. It will be we must now wait until we receive Ordinary over one of the piers that holds the bridge several months before that building is dry Water Course consent from the local up. As the power of the water pulled that enough to allow for re-plastering and authority before we can get to work and unsupported section of the bridge decorating but the tenants seem to be finish the job. downstream, the other pier gave way and coping with the disruption.

Building connections Views 99 A guide to growing your own cabin John Whitley, Lead Ranger, Penrhyn Castle, Gwynedd

he National Trust acquired Glan discovered that it possessed a quality which permissions both from within the Trust and Faenol, 120 hectares (300 acres) of made it very interesting to us, namely externally, and secure funding to begin our Twood and parkland on the shores of extreme durability. More so – or so it is new build. the Menai Strait, in 1985. A small woodland claimed – than timbers such as oak, larch After sketching up a concept design, we estate team has been active on-site for 30 and sweet chestnut. This changed our built a model from bamboo and masking years carrying out restorative management opinion of it from being a problem to being a tape which managed to illustrate basic to the woodlands and parkland. The team valuable in-house resource. construction details, proportion, function has over the years been using home-grown We needed to experiment with it, and and ‘feel’. It was carted around meetings and timber for all aspects of estate needs, such luckily a fellow ranger from a nearby estate, I and my colleague, Alasdair Kilpatrick, as making gates, bridges, bird-hides, Dave Smith, was kind enough to lend us his managed to convince even ourselves that we fencing, shelters, benches, tables, etc. Lucas mill so we could plank it up to see how were capable of pulling this off. Some 15 years ago another woodland site it fared. The concept was to be one of low visual was acquired and taken under the same and environmental impact: it had to meld management. It had belonged to Bangor with its woodland setting, and transport University and as such was composed of The benefits of home grown miles were to be negligible. It was also to be many exotic and experimental plantings. off the ground, low budget, off grid, low Within it was a large stand of well-managed Meanwhile, back on Glan Faenol, the need energy and have no preservatives. Leyland cypress, more commonly known as for a permanent workbase was becoming Permissions were granted and support leylandii, which ultimately had to go as it did acute as our usual arrangements of relying given from senior management. Finance was not fit our vision for restoring a broadleaved on neighbours became less satisfactory. We fairly straightforward as we were able to use semi-natural woodland. started to develop a plan to build our own money from a bequest. The tree is a hybrid that has been in place. If we wanted to use leylandii though, We got together with the building team, existence for only 150 years so it is little we had to be sure it was suitable. We and Bryn Jones, Building Surveyor, worked understood. It originated not far from here decided to build a shingle-roofed bird-hide with us on our plans to add his professional on the Leighton Hall estate near Welshpool to test the timber. It turned out to be very experience to our more woody amateur so it’s possible that our trees come from successful, so much so that the hide was approach. A project team was established early stock. It is more usually an amenity tree shortlisted for a wood award for its design and Ben Roberts, who had previously been a and has a reputation for causing wars and innovative use of this ‘unknown’ timber. ranger, was appointed principal contractor. between neighbours as a fast-growing It greatly impressed us and proved that it A local firm of structural engineers was hedge, so is generally viewed negatively. It performed well under saw and nail. We had appointed to calculate dimensions to has no commercial value once grown but we the timber, but now we had to get conform to building regulations. The intention from the start had been to involve volunteers as much as possible to carry out the build, and we are very fortunate in having a great team. As word got out, other volunteers came forward to offer their services. We found we could not use leylandii for the load-bearing components because, being an unknown timber, there are no figures available for load-bearing. Instead, we used Douglas fir for the frames and roofing timbers and oak for the cruck frame. Fortunately for us, we were thinning our woods at the time which had Douglas fir within them. We used the leylandii for the floor, internal and external cladding and for the shingles on the roof – all the weather- facing surfaces which would exploit the natural durability of this interesting new timber. The window frames were constructed by Alasdair, Rich Jeffries and Will Westwood in an offsite workshop to produce a smooth finish; we used sweet chestnut as it is a hard wood with a finer finish than leylandii – and we happened to have some in our wood store Fixing the sole plate (joists) to the concrete piles. © National Trust/John Whitley that we could use.

100 Views Building connections Clockwise from top left: Decking done, we start work on the bents; Through the combined efforts of staff and volunteers, our flat-pack building begins to grow; Bracing the cruck frame; It’s not often you can call a workbase beautiful but this one is. All images © National Trust/John Whitley

Building gets underway The frames, known as ‘bents’, are an The process took five years from inception American idea: cross-sections of the building to completion but was only ever worked on The felling and milling process got underway are constructed on the floor, raised into one day a week as it had to be balanced with in earnest. Fifty-year-old leylandii were place and fixed to the wall sections which our many other work commitments spread felled, cut into 12ft lengths and dragged out likewise are built flat before being raised. across four sites. Throughout the build we by quad bike with a log arch and occasionally An oak cruck frame, for one gable end, always had a keen sense of the aesthetic and by horse which coped better with the steep was adzed and jointed beautifully by one of felt that looks were important. As a result, wooded site. The component parts were our star volunteers, Mike Bithell. We can also team members developed an immense sense then milled before being taken and stacked credit Mike for the roof, ably assisted by of pride in the project which intensified their in a drying shed on site. others. The structure began to take skeletal commitment to it. The site for the building was partially shape and soon rafters, battens and shingles levelled and 36 holes sunk to cast concrete began to be fixed. Cladding inside and out piles to which the sole plate could be followed with sheep’s wool inserted within More information attached. When this stage was complete, the the wall voids for insulation. floorboards were then fixed to form a large L- It has shown what can be achieved when Our Building Design Guide on the Glan shaped decked area. This was a momentous combining our two most valuable resources: Faenol workbase is available to Trust staff occasion for us as it meant we could get up home-grown timber and volunteers. We now and volunteers on out of the mud and work on the deck, which have a fit-for-purpose workbase which http://intranet/intranet/bdg_glan_faenol_ then acted as a workbench throughout the provides a presence on the estate and workbase.pdf project. It was an ideal platform to lay out the somehow defines what we are about as a frames and walls during their construction. team and as an organisation.

Building connections Views 101 The restoration of Clytha Park’s greenhouses Isabelle Marty, Collections Management Team

id you know that the National Trust A fitting home for old glass area, Clytha House (currently let to tenants), received 859 donation offers from which was built in 1821–8 for William Jones Dmembers of the public in the last This was the case last year at Clytha Park, the Younger, and Clytha Castle (leased to the financial year 2014–15? This resulted in more Monmouthshire, when the property received Landmark Trust), a Gothic-style folly than 280 objects of all kinds – furniture, a donation of 250 100-year-old glass panes, commissioned in 1790 by William Jones the household items, ceramics, books, musical which were reused in the restoration of two Elder as a memorial to his late wife, Elizabeth instruments, clocks and paintings – being derelict greenhouses in the Grade II listed Morgan of Tredegar. There is also an placed at our properties and holiday walled garden. eighteenth-century walled garden, other cottages. These have been used for display Acquired by the Trust in 1978, the Clytha estate buildings, such as kennels, and and interpretation, furnishing, but also, on Estate is set in the beautiful countryside of beautiful parkland with a lake. some occasions, for conservation and South Wales. It includes one of the finest The restoration of the greenhouses took restoration work. examples of Neo-classical buildings in the six months and was worked on by Sarah Hudson as part of a three-year building craftsperson apprenticeship with the Trust. One of the greenhouses This was an opportunity for her to use her in a poor state before joinery and carpentry skills to produce restoration. © National Trust/ made-to-measure frames that would fit the Isabelle Marty panes. The glass donation saved money and also gave a new impetus to the project which had come to a halt. This is a good example of how donations of reclaimed materials can support our conservation work and make a difference.

Sustainable partners

Last June the donor couple was invited to Clytha Park to see the results of the The greenhouse after restoration in 2015. conservation and building work that they © National Trust/ had supported. They were delighted by the Isabelle Marty new look of the greenhouses and found it rewarding to see that their glass had been put to such a good use and given old buildings a new lease of life. As well as contributing to the conservation work on the estate, the project has also proved sustainable, using recycled glass and locally sourced timber to reduce the carbon footprint. It provided a training opportunity for one of our apprentices and benefited our partnership with the charity Growing Space, whose members develop social and work skills in Clytha’s walled garden. All the connections that this one gift enabled – the restoration, the partnership, the work experience, sustainable working, etc. – are a good example of our work as a charity. It also shows that donations can be an opportunity to consolidate our relationship with our donors and their love for our special places.

102 Views Building connections Reconnecting to the natural world

How wild can we be? David Bullock, Head of Nature Conservation

Looking for what we’ve left behind; ecotourism is a likely benefit of rewilding. © National Trust Images/Joe Cornish

ewilding is the restoration of natural living world. Rewilding offers a chance to farming-focused and site-based processes for the benefit of nature, reverse declines in nature, to bring it back to management for certain species and Rsociety and the economy through a life and restore the living systems on which habitats? Rewilding focuses on process as reduction in human management.1 It can we all depend. opposed to product-led conservation, involve reintroduction of keystone species It is not just about bringing back wolves putting nature back in the driving seat and like the beaver and large carnivores, and the and nor is it replicating what was here before not locked into a state of arrested introduction of free-ranging livestock. The people started farming and clearing land. development, but unscripted and dynamic, removal of non-native ‘top’ predators such The first is, for some, impractical and with the emphasis on species as drivers of as rats on some of the UK’s islands has politically naïve; for others it is an exciting change rather than ourselves. allowed seabird numbers to recover, kick- and achievable prospect! The second is In the UK, rewilding discussions have starting a return to a wilder state. impossible because some of the leading mostly been played out in the uplands where Why should we want this process to take actors in the wildwood’s evolutionary land is marginal, relatively cheap and place? According to George Monbiot, author theatre have gone, forever. Rewilding unproductive. Monbiot rattled cages by of Feral 2 and stimulus for the recently perhaps ought to be called wilding – we arguing that our uplands are wrecked and launched charity Rewilding Britain cannot go back to the wildwood, but we can have been so for centuries by a (www.rewildingbritain.org.uk), the drivers of work with new ecological interactions that ‘Mesopotamian thug’, the domestic sheep. rewilding are the two great ecological develop and evolve. And it is also about Sheep (and goats) are not native to north- tragedies: the collapse of the living world, wilding ourselves. west Europe, not even in prehistory. and the collapse of our relationship with the How does this differ from the traditional Although they have been with us courtesy of

Reconnecting to the natural world Views 103 Neolithic farmers for at least 5,000 years, Typically, where people are in charge and the keystone species in the wildwood which some would argue is long enough to at their most destructive, wildlife loses out. (which, by the way, could have been quite become ecologically assimilated, Monbiot First to go are the biggest and most open in parts). It is globally extinct, brought argues that they are as close to ‘an specialised. These species usually need huge to its knees by habitat destruction and over- automated system for destruction’ of the areas of land or water to thrive, but the hunting and, possibly, diseases of domestic natural world as you can get. He is not habitats they need and migration routes have cattle. For at least part of their year, herds of against sheep per se but, like many a nature been broken up. You would need to go back a aurochsen would have grazed on vast flood- manager, against too many sheep. He is also very long time to visualise nature that is rich, plain grasslands, migrating to higher ground against the use of sheep to justify the beautiful, daunting and, at times, fearful. I as the winter rains came. Until 2,000 years biblical stewardship notion of the shepherd offer some examples of what we are missing. ago there were two million hectares of and his flock, i.e. that we have to look after Lost on land: The aurochs or wild ox, the floodplains in England and Wales alone. nature because it cannot look after itself. ancestor of the domestic cow, was one of Through a combination of draining, river

Ennerdale, Cumbria: at the dawn of a new era. © National Trust Images/Joe Cornish

104 Views Reconnecting to the natural world canalisation, farming and development, we statutory NTZ to the east of Lundy is a small have decimated them, and many of those but powerful example of a bit of sea that is that remain are no longer connected to on the rewilding journey. rivers or hold water, thereby reducing flood- risk downstream. Recreating, genetically, the aurochs (Daisy Economics of rewilding rather than Dolly?) might be possible someday (people are trying), but we cannot Rewilding might be good for society and the recreate the huge and connected lowland environment but what about its economic landscapes needed by its hungry herds. Or value? Reintroductions of groovy predators can we? In partnership with the Environment such as wolves in the USA’s Yellowstone Agency we are planning to restore several National Park and white-tailed eagle in river catchments by changing land use around Scotland have demonstrably increased them and improving water quality. Not all of ecotourism revenue. Paradoxically, NTZs are these rivers will end up like the River Liza in good news for fisheries. Lundy’s NTZ is Ennerdale, the only wild one in the Lake exporting high-quality fish and shellfish into District, but if this project gains momentum the surrounding sea. We know this, not just Manx shearwaters are one of the success stories they will all start a rewilding process. from marine biology surveys but because you of rat eradication programmes on islands around Typically, free-ranging domesticated can sometimes see its boundary by where the the UK. © Matt Witt (CC BY-SA 3.0) cattle and ponies are the substitute for fishing boats shoot their lobster pots! natural grazing by aurochsen. With few Yellowstone’s wolves create a ‘landscape exceptions, such as those at our Wicken Fen, of fear’, a no-go area for the deer and bison nature managers, including us, to let go; in these are herds of cows and mares and their that are their prey. The result is more nature conservation practice often the young; the bulls and stallions are absent – woodland where wolves are. This ‘trophic hardest thing we can do is… nothing. And it conservation grazing has been feminised! We cascade’ must have been more common in is also difficult for nature managers to think do not know the ecological impact of truly the past; for example, cougars do the same and act at the large scale; this involves wild herds of cattle and horses. Chillingham in wooded canyons, their scary presence working in partnership and beyond our Park (Northumberland), Swona (Orkney) and allowing trees to recover from deer- boundaries. But what if letting go leads to a Oostvadersplassen (Netherlands) have feral browsing. The trees cool the river water and richer natural architecture, more species, freely breeding cattle herds but they are prevent erosion, which benefits fish more encounters with species, some of enclosed and large predators are absent. If populations. Lynxes, reintroduced to which might be awesome or scary? we really want to restore natural processes, continental European woodlands, kill foxes We are committed through the Land, we probably need to move away from the and scare roe deer and other prey away from Outdoors and Nature Programme of our management of these big beasts as farmed some parts of forests, allowing the trees Strategy4 to working at the big scale, making animals and let them run wild. there to recover from browsing damage. it easier for animals, plants and ourselves to Lost at sea: As little as a century ago, Closer to home it is possible that pine move more freely through the landscape. cod, tuna and other fish in the seas around martens recovering their range in Ireland and Early days, but there are some emerging and the UK were many times bigger and there Scotland, and recently introduced to Wales, exciting projects to add to the existing were many more of them. In August 1933 the create a landscape of fear for non-native portfolio of Wicken Fen and Wild Ennerdale, 4th Earl of Egerton caught two huge grey squirrels. That the presence of martens such as joining up the whole of the south- northern bluefin tuna off Scarborough (they might reduce damage to important timber west coast. We are on the journey. are stuffed and on display in Tatton Hall). trees is being researched right now. These giants migrated from the south each Commercial foresters are very interested in year to feed on the vast shoals of herring in this possibility. References the North Sea at that time. Over-fishing of northern bluefin tuna and herring led to the 1. Parliamentary Office of Science and collapse of both fisheries, and the pulse of Conclusion Technology, Ecological Rewilding (in draft the North Sea became weaker. at time of reading [July 2016] and due for We are suffering from the shifting With nature’s decline comes our evident publication in 2016). baseline syndrome, a concept developed to inability to prevent species extinctions, www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and- describe models of fishing quotas based on habitat loss and climate change. With the loss offices/offices/bicameral/post/work- depleted fish stocks of the previous few of our connections with nature comes programme/environment/ecological- decades (as opposed to centuries) which dumbing down and domestication of our rewilding/ results in continued unsustainable fish adult, addled minds and those of our children. ‘mining’ rather than sustainable ‘harvesting’. What does rewilding mean for large land- 2. Monbiot, George, Feral: Rewilding the For the seas to recover their wildlife and, as a owning organisations like the National Trust? Land, the Sea and Human Life (Allen Lane, result soak up the excessive carbon dioxide We support rewilding and are applying 2013). from climate change, Callum Roberts some of its principles in Wild Ennerdale and reckons that a third of our oceans would in achieving the Wicken Fen Vision (see page 3. Roberts, Callum, The unnatural history of need to be in No Take Zones (NTZ).3 Marine 94). We have made Lundy Island wilder by the sea (Island Press, 2009). Conservation Zones around the UK’s seas removing the rats and allowing its seabird should allow some ecological recovery, but a colonies to recover, complementing a 4. Playing our part (National Trust, 2015): return to wild seas can probably only happen rewilding of some of the sea around the www.nationaltrust.org.uk/documents/ using NTZs as the starting point. The island. It is difficult, however, for many national-trust-playing-our-part.pdf

Reconnecting to the natural world Views 105 Daring to be wild: a personal view on rewilding in practice Joanne Hodgkins, Wildlife & Countryside Adviser, London & South East

am an unashamed nature geek. Rewilding their idea is the ‘top-down’ ecological and ideals vary, including that around top really interests me; it works as it satisfies interactions that are initiated by top predators, but I think we have to recognise Iboth my inner science geek and the predators – the trophic cascade – processes that the world has moved on, there are more naturalist that simply loves and values nature humans have largely removed by killing off people and the climate has changed; future for itself. I mention this for two reasons: most major predators. For example, when wild can never be the same as past wild. One wolves were introduced to Yellowstone might call some of the spectrum ‘wilding’, 1 There are very good scientific reasons for National Park in 1995 (see page 105), they rather than ‘rewilding’, but it is still valid. rewilding, which will be introduced below, allowed regeneration of woodland by creating European rewilding movements aim for a but there is another important element to a landscape of fear for bison and wapiti. continent that allows for much more space rewilding and that is connection – our In addition top predators usually require for wildlife, wilderness and natural connection to wild, to land and to nature large cores of protected landscape for processes, because we believe this is good and how that makes us feel. foraging and seasonal movements, etc., for man and nature alike. ‘Wild nature’ or which are connected because core reserves ‘wilderness’ is defined as large landscapes 2 Connection requires an open mind and are typically not large enough to ensure long- that are governed by essential natural an open heart; you need both to consider term viability of large carnivore populations. processes, which create the necessary space rewilding. You may well be provoked by These connected cores benefit lots of other for animals and plants, including man. what you read; hopefully you’ll be species and natural processes as well. So, in summary, rewilding is about the informed, but most importantly I hope it The American scientists also posed two non- large-scale restoration of ecosystems and makes you think! scientific justifications for rewilding: natural processes, including the re- introductions of key species, for the benefit ⅷ ‘the ethical issue of human responsibility’ of nature and people. What is rewilding? i.e. restore what we damaged

The term ‘rewilding’ has come to mean a ⅷ ‘the subjective, emotional essence of “the Why rewilding? whole spectrum of ideas, but appears to have wild” or wilderness. Wilderness is hardly been first coined by North American “wild” where top carnivores... have been The UK’s land is all managed and virtually all conservationists in the mid- and late 1990s. It extirpated. Without these components, our seas are commercially exploited. Even in was refined by conservation biologists Michael nature seems somehow incomplete…’ nature reserves, wildlife and habitats are Soulé and Reed Noss as ‘the scientific managed and natural processes controlled. A argument for restoring big wilderness based Rewilding in Europe and the UK is based on lot of what we are doing in modern on the regulatory roles of large predators’.1 similar thinking, with a spectrum of ideas conservation is not protecting ecological Their ultimate aim was to restore and action that reflects where we are, but processes, but traditional forms of land functioning ecosystems, and a key element of also where we have come from. Ambitions management, farming systems and cultural landscapes and the types of wildlife that can take advantage of those. That is not to deny Actively eroding soft rock coastlines on the the importance of farming or cultural Isle of Wight – prime landscapes, but we need to re-baseline what candidates for is regarded as ‘wild nature’. rewilding habitat on the cliff top and We need to do that because the baseline inland? © National has been shifting for generations. That is, Trust Images/ each generation feels that ‘normal’ or Joe Cornish ‘natural’ landscapes are that of their childhood or the recent past. Therefore, knowing what we know of environmental change and damage, each successive generation has a picture of ‘natural’ which has degraded from the last – the baseline gets worse and worse and we get further from any notion of what wild is, making it more unknown and scary. Rewilding offers practical and economic benefit for water, flood and soil management and elements of it would stimulate eco-tourism and income. Already in Scotland. nature-based tourism is estimated to be worth £1.4 billion; the beaver reintroduction trial in Knapdale Forest,

106 Views Reconnecting to the natural world Konik ponies grazing Wicken Fen as part of the Wicken Fen Vision. © National Trust Images/Paul Harris

Argyll, has prompted a massive growth in rewilding spectrum. A few examples are partnership with the Forestry Commission, eco-tourism in the area. But, I would be lying briefly described below. There is also now a United Utilities and Natural England on to myself and to you if I said the economic new charity, Rewilding Britain this project. More information is at reasons for rewilding are those that sway me (www.rewildingbritain.org.uk). www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/wild- – they don’t. Knepp Castle Estate in Sussex is a great ennerdale-cumbria I didn’t get into nature conservation or example of ‘rewilding’ in the English lowlands. The Carrifran Wildwood Project seeks to come to work for the Trust for economic This private estate contains several farms, restore habitats and natural processes of the reasons, it’s because I love it. Being which are now wilding following the removal Caledonian pine forest in the Scottish connected to nature and to wild is an of conventional farming. Large grazing Southern Uplands: important part of my life; so I also think animals in the form of semi-feral traditional www.bordersforesttrust.org rewilding is a massive opportunity for livestock breeds graze extensively across the There are both Scottish and English reaching people. Most people do not want estate which is developing important wildlife beaver reintroductions and plans for Wales. to conserve nature out of guilt when populations: www.knepp.co.uk Beavers are a keystone species, a wetland presented with human impact, it is because Alladale in Scotland is another private engineer which can naturally reduce flood of wonder, awe, fascination, beauty – love. estate with perhaps the largest and most risk and improve water quality with benefits So ‘rewilding’ is also about restoring ambitious rewilding projects in the UK. The to many other species. Find out more at passion and connection to the natural world estate is keen to bring back carnivores, www.scottishbeavers.org.uk – because we are part of it. Of course, not including wolf, but there are current www.devonwildlifetrust.org/river-otter- everywhere is obvious or appropriate for legislative interpretations which prevent this beavers and about Welsh plans at rewilding because of other types of right now: www.alladale.com www.welshbeaverproject.org/home significance, but all kinds of landscapes, The Wicken Fen Vision and the Great Fen Rewilding is ambitious, and not without including urban places and parks, can be Project are led by our Trust and the wildlife its issues, but alongside existing made more wild – all habitats can become trusts in East Anglia. Restoring natural conservation approaches, I believe it will add wilder by degree. processes, wetland restoration, connecting greater ecological, economic and cultural landscapes and the use of large grazing value to our landscape and reignite animals are key elements of these projects: connection with wild nature. UK rewilding in progress? www.nationaltrust.org.uk/wicken-fen- nature-reserve/features/wicken-fen-vision There are already ‘rewilding’, or ‘wilding’ and www.greatfen.org.uk Reference projects taking place in the UK, including The Wild Ennerdale Partnership is some on Trust land. Most do not call allowing the landscape of Ennerdale in 1. Soulé, M. and Noss, R. (1998) ‘Rewilding and themselves rewilding projects, but much of Cumbria to evolve naturally with reducing biodiversity: complementary goals for what they are doing is on the wilding/ human intervention. The Trust is working in continental conservation’. Wild Earth 8(3): 1–11.

Reconnecting to the natural world Views 107 Finders, seekers: what’s behind our deep connection with nature? Matthew Oates, National Specialist on Nature

Is our relationship with nature a form of escape or a home-coming? © National Trust Images/Paul Harris

he genre of ‘New Nature Writing’ but he wrote a blend of natural history and where we let Nature in, and start to live within (NNW) is burgeoning. It is producing spirituality which inspired many others – the moment of being, and experience the Tmuch brilliant writing, often blending there were numerous Jefferies imitators. He world as Jefferies did. NNW is heading for the science with an unobtrusive form of is coming back into vogue; for example, A Mind, Body & Spirit section in bookshops – spirituality. But why has it become so big? Blackbird’s Year: Mind in Nature by there’s money in it, and it moves minds. Some NNW is written by top conservation environmental psychologist Miles Richardson biologists who want to put their findings and (September 2014) is New-Age Jefferies. views out to wider audiences than narrow Hidden in much NNW are traces of a Whither the Trust? scientific readerships, and in a less restrained profound spirituality which would appeal language than the highly refined, strongly to Jefferies – and by that I mean a The issue of reconnecting people with mathematical language of science. A good spiritual or metaphysical awakening inspired nature is growing into a significant industry. example is Nick Davies’s Cuckoo: Cheating by by Nature. Take Simon Barnes’s new book The The Trust is impressively involved with the Nature (March 2015). Nick, a Cambridge Sacred Combe (January 2016), which argues Natural Childhood movement, primarily professor, conducted most of his research into that nature provides ‘experiences that literally through the ‘50 Things’ programme, and how cuckoos fool their hosts at Wicken Fen. alter the chemistry of your brain’. He shone at last year’s Nature Connections Much NNW is by English scholars. A describes several, in a non-religious way, and conference, organised by the University of leader here is Robert Macfarlane, whose believes that ‘secularism is killing our sense of Derby’s Psychology Department. We are latest book Landmarks (March 2015) seeks to reverence’. He is probably right that ‘we really more than doing our bit for the under-11¾s rediscover much of the (largely dialect) long for wildness’ – look at Attenborough’s and for young families, and are also heavily language of our relationship with places – or television viewing figures – and, with promoting the ‘outdoor gym’ for all, not in Trust-speak, the vanishing language of reference to the developing rewilding least through the walks on our new website. spirit of place. This group of writers are movement, believes that it’s people who need But can we do more, and are we only lyricists, or even poets, like Horatio Clare. rewilding, not nature (which is quite capable splashing about in the shallow end? Are we But little of this is actually that new. of rewilding itself, if we ever let go). Perhaps addressing the ‘spiritual’ side of all this, or Nature writing was kicked off by Richard secularism is holding back our relationship being restrained there by peer-pressure Jefferies (1848–87), who came from the with Nature? Barnes concludes that the secularism? And what does reconnecting outskirts of Swindon and was a journalist sacred combe can be a valley, the greenwood with nature actually mean? with the Swindon Advertiser for much of his – or anywhere where biophilia (love of Nature) But first, it’s worth remembering our short life. Swindon has largely forgotten him, and topophilia (love of place) come together – roots. Our founders, who had deep

108 Views Reconnecting to the natural world affiliations with the Christian faith and with that politicians and other leaders would read The need to escape (into) also suggests the developing humanist movement, were it – but they’re primarily interested in that the Trust’s role in providing profound, strongly motivated by the need to guide an economics, conveniently forgetting that life-altering vacation experiences might be increasingly urban people back into the great Schumacher himself was an economist. massive, and begs the question of whether outdoors – to reconnect Industrial we’re doing enough here? Where are our Revolution Britain with the natural world. wildlife and heritage holidays that guide Octavia Hill, in particular, understood this Some challenges people to the still point of the turning world? need acutely. She might be horrified by the And where are our sacred sites liaison staff, modern term for nature – biodiversity. But Last October, I had an ecstatic session on who communicate with the druids, pagans, this particular fall from grace is worse than NNW with an audience of 160 at the shamans, Christians even, who use so many that: nature used to have a capital N, and Cheltenham Literary Festival, when I of our special places, alone, and unknown to before that it was called Creation. Octavia challenged them on why they read this stuff. us? Are we in denial of something here? We might also be worried about other The answer was clear: people are seeking may not be able to lead on Nature environmental concepts so prevalent today, escape from an increasingly unreal world in reconnection, but we can on connectivity especially natural capital, fearing that they which they feel trapped, back into the real with special places. serve only to distance us further from world – of Nature; but they live such There was an interesting session at last Nature, by systematising it and turning it materialistic, pressurised lives that they can autumn’s New Networks for Nature into a by-product of bureaucratic processes. only spend one or two weeks a year in that conference at Stamford, which explored the As the American eco-poet Gary Snyder puts world, on holiday – so reading about it helps concept of belonging, or rootedness – or in it, ‘Nature is not a place to visit, it is home.’ the stranded, urbanised soul, to escape, Trust-speak, people’s relationships with All conservation can do is set a direction of home. The Trust is starting to recognise that special places. I spoke there on spirit of change, not targets. it has a role here, and in March 2016 place, but on deep-end spirit of place. I like The recent papal encyclical on the published Rain: Four Walks in English Weather being out of my depth, it feels like home. environment Laudato Si shows that the by Melissa Harrison – great NNW. But we Spirit of place certainly needs to go external, Catholic Church is deeply concerned about need to up our offer, and publish profusely probably via BBC Radio 4. the state of the natural environment (which, and profoundly on spirit of place and Above all, as NNW demonstrates, most basically, is becoming unnatural). The relationship with place – before someone people are seekers in this world, and they are encyclical was hugely influenced by E.F. else does. Surely we can capture the market not merely seeking tangible, empirical Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful, which was on love of place, and relationship with place; truths, but depth of experience and intensity published as long ago as 1973, and is so, where is our ‘I Love Langdale of relationship with place and Nature. The massively worried about climate change. Pikes/Arnside Knott/West Penwith’, etc. Trust has a major role to play in helping You’ll like it. It makes the right noises. Would love-of-special-place clothing? seekers here. Ask Octavia.

Ancient fraternity: what we can learn from the Borrowdale Yews Maurice Pankhurst, Woodland Ranger – North Lakes; Stuart A’Hara, Research Scientist, and Joan Cottrell, Programme Group Manager, Forest Research

ust south of Keswick, Borrowdale Ancient survivors remains one of the most wooded, oak- Jdominated valleys in the Lake District. Yew employs many different mechanisms Yew (Taxus baccata) is relatively rare here; associated with growth which result in great however, at the southern end of Borrowdale, longevity. The growth of yew is extremely near the hamlet of Seathwaite, are three quite slow and some years there may be no growth remarkable ancient yew trees, so remarkable at all. It carries literally thousands of deeply that the poet William Wordsworth penned Yew buried dormant buds on the trunk, branches Trees in homage to them in 1803. At that time and main stems, which are activated should there were four yews; his poem brought the the tree sustain damage. Unlike nearly all ‘fraternal four’ to public attention and they other evergreen and conifer tree species, yew have been on the tourist trail ever since. does not exhibit a growth form associated This article explains what we know of the with apical (top point) dominance, which trees’ history, age and condition, their means that any side limb or branch can connection to thousands of years of local assume the role of the crown. If the original livelihoods, and how we’re looking after trunk fails, the tree is not always lost and may Tree 1 of the Borrowdale Yews in 1997. them today. be replaced by younger outlying branches. © National Trust.

Reconnecting to the natural world Views 109 The remains of the fourth tree uprooted in 1866 are still on site. © National Trust.

The root systems of yews have been shown to exhibit extremely high vitality and this can result in vigorous regrowth.1 As long as part of the root system remains intact and in contact with the soil, the tree can survive. Yews are often recorded with multiple stems; for example, author Hal Hartzell mentions that the Fortingall Yew in Perthshire consisted of a single trunk in 1870 and measured 17m (56ft) in girth.2 Today, the centre has decayed and a pathway divides the remaining halves. Alternative Above: Loss of entire canopy from Tree 1 on developments may involve branch collapse 12 January 2005, the 110th anniversary of the and layering, whereby the partially broken founding of the National Trust. © National Trust. limb produces roots and the secondary stem Right: Regrowth on Tree 1 a year after collapse is formed; a fine example can be found in of its canopy. © National Trust. Ormiston, East Lothian. It is storms that have played a major role in the lives of the fraternal four; the first reliable reports of any further limb losses or further damage. After much discussion with recorded storm we have for this area from storms until 1998 when a major limb from Trust and external arboricultural specialists, 1866 is the one which uprooted the fourth another of the trees was torn from its it was deemed unnecessary. Its entire tree and caused its death, something rarely canopy. While unfortunate, it was this limb canopy was subsequently ripped off in recorded for yew. The remains of this tree that allowed for an accurate ring count January 2005, but despite such catastrophic are still present. A few years later another of which revealed 1,500 rings. damage, it is slowly showing signs of the yews survived severe damage, even At that time we seriously considered tree recovery and has developed the beginnings though it was reduced by half. There are no surgery for this yew to reduce the risk of of a new, albeit lower, canopy.

110 Views Reconnecting to the natural world Centuries of tree management are a minimum of 1,500 years. We know this at Seathwaite from the results of the dendrochronology carried out by Newcastle University on the In 1944 the Trust acquired much of the land fallen limb from the yew we know as ‘Tree 1’. at Seathwaite, including the lower slopes of Given that this ring count is from a limb in Lowbank Crags which support extremely the upper canopy, then the ring count for ancient wood pasture dominated by ash, oak the main trunk lower in the tree would yield and hazel. a much higher number of annual rings, Tracing the evidence left by pollarding, it possibly 2,000 or more. is clear that these ancient woodlands have Two of the trees are less than 4m apart been managed for centuries. The original and the architecture of the above-ground reasons for pollarding relate to grazing roots is highly suggestive of linkage. The animals and farm stock. By keeping the latest research has shown that with both subsequent regrowth above the browse line RAPD (Random Amplified Polymorphic of animals, material could then be harvested DNA) and microsatellite analysis, these two when required over periodic cycles. Once a do indeed generate the same DNA tree has been through several cycles, its fingerprint and can now be regarded as a growth form is such that if pollarding were to single tree which has undergone significant cease that regrowth may exceed the physical change over a very long period of time. How ability of the main trunk to support the ever- those changes have taken place is still a developing ‘sail area’. Pollarding has a major matter of speculation. Certainly the fellside Tree 1 in November 2014. © National Trust. effect on a tree’s life and, to some extent, above the yews was extensively mined for confers immortality: ash, for instance, has a graphite over many centuries, and falling normal life span of around 250–300 years, rock must have been a fairly frequent Sustaining a future but many pollarded ash trees in Cumbria are occurrence. This may have resulted in root believed to be in excess of 500 years. damage, potentially causing regrowth from The Borrowdale Yews are secure, their future As ancient trees, pollards are of great the original tree, i.e. the same tree, not a tempered only by natural processes. cultural importance. Another attribute is the new tree. Further examples of this process Enclosed, they are free from grazing stock very complex epiflora they support: rare can be found at Kingley Vale Nature Reserve, and browsing deer. Young seedlings from the bryophyte and lichen species that are Sussex; Benington, Hertfordshire; and three yews have been successfully grown on remnant flora from the ancient wildwoods – Cofton Hackett, Worcestershire.5 and are now planted close to their parents a living echo from the past – along with These results may be of interest to and at two other locations in the Borrowdale unusual fungi and an incredible richness of historians who will often question whether and Langstrath valleys. invertebrates. such ancient specimens are present via Conjecture regarding their past will While there is no physical indication that natural processes or have in fact been undoubtedly continue and perhaps we will the Borrowdale Yews have been pollarded, it is planted. Some speculate that the never have all the answers. However, these possible that they were in the distant past. arrangement of stones on the fellside may outstanding ancient trees will continue to Further evidence of man’s activities was suggest a place of ritual or worship. Toby fascinate and enchant visitors to Borrowdale revealed from research carried out in the Hindson, a founder member of the Ancient for many generations to come. 1990s when a number of wooden artefacts Yew Group, observed that these trees exist were recovered from peat layers along the on what appears to be some form of stone- banks of Seathwaite Beck south of Seathwaite built terrace.6 During the period of George References Farm.3 Radio carbon-dating for both peat and III, a guardhouse was built in the vicinity of the artefacts suggest considerable human the yews, its purpose to prevent theft of 1. Hageneder, F., Yew: A History (The History activity from 1400 onwards. graphite from the mines above. Below the Press, 2011), pp.128–31. Looking further back, analysis of pollen yews is a medieval saw-pit which provides 2. Hartzell, H., The Yew Tree: A Thousand Whispers data from nearby Johnny Wood at Seatoller more evidence of the ongoing activity in this (Hulogosi Communications, 1991). suggests considerable change in woodland area that could have led to a need for 3. Wild, C., Wells, C., Anderson, D., Boardman, J. canopy species some 900 to 1,000 years terracing or the moving of large boulders for & Parker, A., ‘Evidence for Medieval Clearance ago, around the time of the early Viking building purposes. in the Seathwaite Valley, Cumbria’, Transactions period.4 This was when oak increased, along of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian with grass species, as it was deliberately and Archaeological Society, 2001, pp.53–68. favoured by these early communities. 4. Personal communication with Professor H.J.B. Birks of Bergen University with regard to Johnny’s Wood, Borrowdale (1991). Fraternal history 5. Peeters, W., ‘Yew: A Survivor’, Bomen, Issue 20, 2012. Accessible from the Ancient Yew Group People continue to visit the Borrowdale website www.ancient- Yews, perhaps more than ever before, and yew.org/userfiles/file/Bomen%20article.pdf many ask the same questions: how old are 6. Hindson, T., The Borrowdale Yews, Taxus baccata they? Were they planted? Are they related? L: The ‘Fraternal Four’ near Seathwaite, The exact age of these ancient trees Borrowdale, 2012. Accessible from the Ancient Trees 1 and 2 in 2007; it is these two which have remains unclear. Putting speculation and the same DNA and so were originally one tree. Yew Group website www.ancient- mythology to one side we can say that they © National Trust. yew.org/userfiles/file/Borrowdale1.pdf

Reconnecting to the natural world Views 111 Spreading out: growing the hanging woods of Wales Gwen Potter, Area Ranger, Llanerchaeron & Ceredigion

ales has some of the most Lichens and bryophytes clothe the incredible woodlands in the UK, branches. © National Wwith hanging oak woodlands Trust/Gwen Potter surely near the top of that list. And a plan is forming to extend one of these woodlands on the Ceredigion coast. In late spring, the ancient, wind-stunted sessile oaks, hawthorns and small-leaved lime cling, twisted, above the roaring waves beneath. Upon their branches above the emerald-green, mossy ground, lichens grasp and bind themselves to the twigs and trunk, like drops of neon orange and drab grey paint on the stems. At head-height, there are mint- green cups of Cladonia, inky-black, leafy Collema, scraps of beard-like Hypnogymnia, Ramalina and Usnea in places, profusions of white-ish leafy Parmeilia and Physcia and ruby- beneath the bracken. Isolated patches of part of a good range of habitats at the site. red jewels of Caloplaca. The very tops of the gorse and blackthorn scrub, particularly at Often within the Trust, non-designated areas trees, usually so hidden to we ground-dwelling the Penderi end, shelter black bryony, become neglected or ignored as funding and apes, are visible, as they would have been to woodruff and honeysuckle. Sheep wander attention focuses on designated areas. our tree-swinging ancestors. Although there through, nibbling but rarely remaining in However, many places have huge scope for are no leaves on their distorted limbs yet, the these bracken areas. improvement in terms of habitats, with trees also protect the foxglove leaves peeping some being a blank canvas and others through, the unfurling English bluebell, showing you what they could become. delicate white wood anemone and wood No designations = more options? Thrift, harebell and common cudweed cover sorrel seedlings just starting to emerge from the rockier areas in a sea of pink and purple. the ground. In the summer and early autumn, Mynachdy’r Graig is not designated, but that In the marshy areas, the right cattle grazing the coconut scent of Western gorse mingles allows us to work with the tenant to try new produces a good sward including marsh with the salt air; below the cliffs the sea is ways of creating habitat. We hope to fence bedstraw, bottle sedge, devil’s-bit scabious, turquoise while above it, a pure white gull off the area to sheep grazing but it is likely bogbean and marsh lousewort within which wing tip is visible through the thinning ends of that a combination of seed collection and there are marsh specialists such as oblique sessile oak branches with an ocean of spreading, as well as some planting of native, carpet moth. Many of these species are woodland flowers beneath. local-provenance seed, will be required to typical of acidic lowland fen habitats. On the accelerate the area toward a wooded state. grassy slopes, betony, red clover, field Because the area is so windswept, the trees scabious and buttercups peep between the Hidden woodlands currently growing at Penderi will be most grasses on tussocks filled with yellow suited to the conditions here. We hope to meadow ant and in the heathy patches, Penderi Cliffs, owned by the Wildlife Trust of collect small-leaved lime Tilia cordata, sessile heathers, waxcaps and heath milkwort South and West Wales, are the last remnants oak Quercus petraea and hazel Corylus clothe the ground. of a habitat that would have been above avellana seed from Penderi Cliffs and join the The bracken areas have species that are many of the clifftops on the west coast combined garden and ranger volunteer force likely to have been here for thousands of before cultivation of these places. Now, to plant the trees within the fenced-off area. years, and restoring any woodland habitat is most of these habitats occur in Cornwall and There is some debate as to whether a of course an incredibly long-term process. west Wales in isolated pockets, surrounded ‘shelterbelt’ of the more salt-tolerant Recreating the soil, the intricate interactions by intensively grazed farmland. Our adjacent sycamore may be appropriate: as the slope between each species, the complex land at Mynachdy’r Graig, joined to the Site faces the sea, it is unlikely to provide much relationships between the aerial and ground of Special Scientific Interest at Penderi Cliffs shelter and, if and when removed, could flora is a truly long-term challenge and by banks of thick hawthorn and blackthorn expose the coddled trees directly behind it several lifetimes’ worth of work, but when scrub, is currently grazed by sheep, with a to previously unencountered winds. you see the habitat at Penderi and hear the steeper spine of bracken-covered slope blackcap singing and the waves crashing running through the centre of it toward the outside your hidden dwarf jungle, you know north end of the site. The bracken belies the Habitat mosaics it will be worth it. fact that there are still patches of woodland flora – the place wants to be woodland. The trees themselves will be an incredible Foxglove, English bluebell, enchanter’s frame around which all the other species nightshade and wood sage dominate build themselves, as well as being just one

112 Views Reconnecting to the natural world Nibbled nut project Kate Price, Assistant Ranger, Wenlock Edge, Shropshire

n October 2015 we started a long-term The goal is to see if signs of dormice can have large caches at the base of the tree. project to monitor numbers of dormice on be found in every area of Wenlock Edge Hazelnuts with tiny holes will have been IWenlock Edge by searching for hazelnuts where there is fruiting hazel. What data we eaten by insects, and shells cracked open bearing their distinctive nibbled marks. The had came from 2001 when Caroline Uff, indicate squirrels. We learned to differentiate project aims to survey thoroughly the entirety Land Outdoors & Nature Monitoring Officer, between the different nibble marks and of the Edge in National Trust ownership and searched every kilometre square of the Edge, practise our surveying techniques on a will therefore be undertaken over a number of so this new project was essential to bring our training day run by Andy Perry, the ecologist years between September and December, i.e. knowledge up to date. at Carding Mill Valley. when hazelnuts are available. The surveys got underway at the Much Wenlock end of the Edge, around Harley Finding dormice Bank. We walked circular routes looking in the leaf litter around fruiting hazel stands. Nut searches are the most effective method Using hand lenses borrowed from the of establishing dormouse presence where Shropshire Mammal Group, we carefully fruiting hazel is present. The hazel studied the teeth marks and when found to dormouse, as its name suggests, feeds on be a dormouse-nibbled nut, we marked it on hazelnuts to gain weight for torpor (a short- the map, took a grid reference and moved term version of hibernation). They leave a onto another area. All these nuts were then smooth round opening with teeth marks later verified by Andy. If we found a nut ‘spiralling’ around the rim of the hole. Wood nibbled by another rodent, it was also mice and voles also leave a round hole, but collected; if 100 nuts were collected in an their teeth marks go from the inside of the area, none of which were dormice nuts, then hole to the outside and are often quite there is a strong likelihood that dormice messy. Because dormice eat nuts up in the would not be present. This does not mean canopy, the discarded shells tend to be they are conclusively absent as they can have A dormouse-nibbled hazelnut. © National Trust/Peter Howsam scattered whereas voles and mice will often very sparse populations.

A Wenlock dormouse. © National Trust/Stuart Edmunds

Reconnecting to the natural world Views 113 However, on the other side of the main road we were unable to find any nuts nibbled by dormice which could mean that the population has been fragmented by the road. We plan to investigate further to see if we can find nuts in the hedgerows on that side and what the condition of the woodland is like adjacent to our landholding, as this would impact the dormouse population there also. There are a number of other potential reasons why signs were not found in some areas; for example, where hazel stands were quite sparse, stands which are too young to fruit or where the hazel may be shaded out by a dense canopy, restricting how much it fruits. However, even in an area where few hazelnuts were found because of a dense canopy above, we still found a dormouse- nibbled nut which suggests that as long as Happy volunteers after a successful days nut hunting. © National Trust/Kate Price there are productive hazel stands nearby, dormice will explore the whole area. In some places we found the dormouse We are still recruiting for nibbled nut The most informative results will come nuts quickly and easily, with two or more volunteers: anyone can participate who has a when we go to an area that hasn’t been found in quick succession in the same area. keen interest in nature, enjoys walking and surveyed before and once we have Not all searches were so rewarding. However, doesn’t mind rummaging in the leaf litter for completely finished the project. Once everyone remained very determined and nibbled nuts on quite a steep gradient. known, areas that do not seem to have eventually we managed a thorough search of dormice can be managed to improve their an impressive 23 hectares, with a total find potential as dormouse habitat. of 19 dormouse-nibbled nuts. We were The results so far In conclusion the project was a big generally very lucky with the weather, and success, providing us with reliable, useful only the most torrential rain forced us to Andy created the map below by inputting scientific data which will guide future cancel one survey and cut short one other! the grid references of dormouse-nibbled management, and engaging with a number nuts (shown by dots) into National Trust of people in the local community. mapping software (thank you, Andy). Areas Information about the project and survey Finding volunteers with no hazel were not searched. findings will be posted on the Wenlock Edge The results so far show that dormouse blog site at Many of the volunteers who participated signs were found in most areas, including http://wenlockedgenationaltrust.blogspot.co were already part of our National Trust team: areas of active coppicing, which is great news. .uk/ some were regular volunteers at the Long Mynd who wanted more diversity, and others had been recruited to Wenlock Edge through a public meeting and via the website. Although new, our volunteers have already started a number of other ecological projects, such as a habitat condition survey and archaeology monitoring. The local Wenlock Edge Community Wildlife Group is often looking for monitoring projects to get involved with, and when the opportunity arises, we are keen to work collaboratively with them. We plan to work with them on a swift monitoring project later this year at Wilderhope Manor. Over the course of the four survey dates and one training day, I had 22 different volunteers join me to search the woods with an average of 11 people on each survey. We had a mixture of Trust volunteers from Wenlock Edge and Carding Mill Valley and members of the Wenlock Edge and Strettons Area community wildlife groups. I owe a huge thank you to everyone who got involved and made the nibbled nut project such a success this year! Map of dormouse nut locations. © National Trust/Andy Perrry

114 Views Reconnecting to the natural world Creating wildflower-rich grasslands and heath on former agricultural land Janet Lister, Wildlife & Countryside Adviser, South West

he National Trust has a large amount species. The addition of nitrogen can Yellow rattle can colonise naturally if of former agricultural land in increase the speed of phosphate removal, by there is a nearby source but it is always T‘reversion management’, i.e. being increasing the rate of plant growth, but it is included in wildflower seed mixtures. Its converted from species-poor grassland or rarely used. This is probably because it seed deteriorates rapidly so should be sown arable to more wildlife-rich habitat. This seems counter-intuitive but it is readily promptly in autumn. Many failed meadow generally means that our farm tenants have taken up by plant growth so doesn’t have a creation initiatives are likely to have been to manage it as permanent grassland without long-term effect. caused by rattle seed that is in poor spraying with fertiliser or other chemicals, Projects of this type inevitably result in a condition or genetically unsuitable for the nor reseeding with more productive grasses. decrease in agricultural productivity so, site. Mild winters may also be a factor, The aim of reversion is to increase the long- unless supported by an agri-environment increasingly so as climate changes, because term biodiversity of previously poor land to scheme, there may be financial implications cold temperatures are required for its seed counter a general decline (around 60 per that need to be taken into account. Natural to germinate. cent of species in UK have reduced in England will normally provide grant aid only numbers over the last 50 years).1 if the soil phosphate level is low because The indications are that this type of slow success is much easier to achieve if this is Plant sources reversion is probably not enough to halt the the case. decline in biodiversity and that a more Where phosphates can’t be easily Potential sources of plants for creation radical approach is required. Because there stripped out of the soil by grass or arable projects are the soil seedbank present at the are few examples of this on the Trust cropping, the top part of the soil profile is site, natural spread from nearby habitats, properties where I work, last year I spent a sometimes removed to get down to a more material purposely collected from a nearby sabbatical learning from others’ experience, nutrient-poor substrate. While this can source or seed/plants bought from a both within the Trust and beyond. This achieve excellent results, it is controversial commercial supplier.2 While heathland re- article describes some of my findings. because it can damage the archaeological creation from the seedbank can be record and restricts options for future successful in places that were reclaimed agricultural use. from moorland within the last 40 or so Site choice and how to make the best A more acceptable alternative, widely used years, a high proportion of meadow plants of places that are not ideal in wildflower-rich grassland creation, is regenerate from the rootstock so an addition of yellow rattle. This is a alternative source may be required. The places we choose to recreate habitat are hemiparasite that obtains some of its Where lots of suitable wildflower seed is dictated by factors such as soil type, nourishment from grasses, severely impacting already available, there is no need to landscape-scale conservation requirements their growth and thereby providing space for introduce more material unless parasitic and strategic priorities. Often there is a need smaller, less vigorous wildflowers. plants are needed to repress grass growth or to be opportunistic, such as a farm tenancy coming back in hand, rather than having a free rein to choose the site with the most suitable physical parameters. Creating a species-rich grassland, such as a traditional wildflower meadow, requires repression of the tall vigorous plants that characterise modern agricultural landscapes. This is comparatively easy to do on sandy soils as these do not retain high nutrient levels for very long after the former agricultural use ends. You just need to take an arable or grass crop (in the form of hay or silage) for a few years without adding any more phosphate or potassium fertiliser. It is more difficult on other soil types, such as clay, where phosphate in particular can hang on for many years. High levels of wind exposure and coastal salt-spray can sometimes help the smaller, more stress-tolerant species typical of wildflower-rich habitats by restricting growth of the bigger, more competitive Heathland re-creation on sandy Purbeck soils. © National Trust/Janet Lister

Reconnecting to the natural world Views 115 if particular species that establish poorly Weed control may be required either by from seed are wanted, for example, devil’s- spot-spraying or topping at a height that will bit scabious where conservation of the avoid damage to smaller species. Apart from marsh fritillary butterfly is a priority. The this, new swards should be left undisturbed best and probably cheapest option will be a until late July to allow flowering and seed set, nearby area of good quality natural or semi- then cut for hay and the regrowth grazed natural habitat on similar soils. If that isn’t down. Spring and early summer grazing possible, Plant Link UK and Invertebrate Link should be avoided, at least until the desired recommend that material from a climatically sward composition is achieved. similar British region should be used.3 This should maximise success, thereby increasing resilience to changing climate more References effectively than planting less well-adapted 1. Burns, F., M.A. Eaton, R.D. Gregory, et al. stock from a more southerly latitude. (2013), State of Nature. Accessible from New plant material is usually introduced www.rspb.org.uk/Images/stateofnature_tcm9- either as seed or green hay. It needs bare 345839.pdf. The report suggests around 60 per ground to establish. This can be created by cent of species have declined over the last 50 years and that more than half of these have harrowing an existing grassland sward – at declined strongly. least 30 per cent is recommended. On 2. A list of contractors who follow the Flora Hedgebank in Trevean, Cornwall, with betony and former arable land any residual weed burden Locale and Plantlife’s Code of Practice can be other wildflowers blown in from nearby sources. should be treated and a bare seed bed found on www.floralocale.org.uk and should be © National Trust/Janet Lister created. The site then needs to be rolled or used to minimise the risk of being supplied with inappropriate plants. Specialist needs can grazed to work the seed into the ground. be met by the UK Native Seed Hub, Royal Key web sources include: Seed collected through brush harvesting Botanic Gardens, Wakehurst Place. National Natural England Technical Information Notes (on is favoured by those who work in the Trust sites can also contact the Trust’s Plant www.gov.uk though some are difficult to find); industry; it has the advantage that seed can Conservation Centre. www.magnificentmeadows.org.uk (with more be harvested at different times of year to 3. Plant Link & Invertebrate Link (2011), Creating being added through a Heritage Lottery Fund habitat for pollinators in Britain and Ireland: target the required species, and the hay can project); Statement agreed by Plant Link and Invertebrate Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust Hay Time be cut afterwards. Green hay must be either Link. Accessible from Programme (www.ydmt.org/programme- grazed off by stock or removed to prevent www.plantlife.org.uk/uploads/documents/ details-hay-time-14609). nutrient-enrichment once the seed has Planting_For_Pollinators_Statement.pdf dropped out. (NB it has to be transferred very quickly to prevent it getting too hot and Acknowledgements becoming infertile.) Other information sources I had a huge amount of help for this project from Flora locale, Go Native! Planting for biodiversity. many who devoted time to showing me sites and www.floralocale.org (2008). discussing them with me. I’d particularly like to Ongoing maintenance Flower, C., Where have all the Flowers Gone? thank Matt Sutton, from Wyndrush Wild Restoring wild flowers to the garden and (http://wyndrushwild.co.uk/), Steve Payne from Devon Wildlife Trust, Andree Dubbeldam of Manx It takes time for the new sward to settle down, countryside (Papadakis, 2008). Gilbert, O.L., and Anderson, P., Habitat Creation Wildlife Trust, and Professor Kevin Gaston who with some species taking two or more years and Repair (Oxford University Press, 1998). provided access to resources at Exeter University before first flowering. Often a single species Environment and Sustainability Institute, including becomes very abundant but then declines. online journals.

Moving to a more natural Yorkshire Dales Peter Welsh, Ecologist, Yorkshire Dales

The present The vision

The National Trust’s big estates in the heavy livestock grazing (e.g. only one per We’re not asking for a lot, we just want the Yorkshire Dales (Malham Tarn and Upper cent native woodland in the park). We have best of everything: great wildlife, fantastic Wharfedale) comprise over 8,000ha done a lot in recent years with tenants and views, fascinating archaeology and cultural (19,768 acres) in the centre of the National partners to conserve and enhance the histories, an environment that captures Park. They have similarities to the wider quality of habitats and species across the carbon, slows water flows and conserves park in having remarkably low levels of estate, but it’s clear we need to do more. soils, an inspiring place to visit and thriving tree and shrub cover and relatively This is a beautiful area but it could be local communities that include viable uniform habitats because of centuries of so much better! farm businesses!

116 Views Reconnecting to the natural world Longhorn cattle have replaced sheep on Fountains Fell. © National Trust/ Peter Welsh

In addition a core element of the team’s even some sheep!), to take the place of Starting change philosophy is that we think nature is best natural grazing in the new wood pasture looked after by trying to mimic more natural and scrub systems that we want to create We launched the Yorkshire Dales Appeal in processes rather than by managing in the uplands. And the economics of 2013, mainly to members, to help us tackle (gardening) for specific groups of species or farming in the uplands mean that very the changes required and were delighted habitats. While there’s a place for managing low-input systems with low numbers of with the response – well over £300k and lots for certain rare species and for examples of livestock actually makes financial sense! of supportive comments. We now have three valued ‘cultural habitats’, such as hay major projects up and running to make the meadows, we think the dynamism of a more ⅷ Continue to restore natural hydrologies. changes we want to see. The aim of these natural system will better allow for the whole projects is to create a more natural mosaic of range of our native species to adapt to the ⅷ Plant lots of trees and shrubs. habitats across major parts of the estate and challenges of climate change. (I was attracted to the idea put to me by a Natural Planting above 2,000ft England colleague, that we should expand to create a new area of 1 native scrub and wood the Lawton Review principles of ‘Bigger, pasture on Darnbrook Better and more Joined-Up’ by adding Gill. © National Trust/ ‘Dynamic and Messy’!) Peter Welsh Until recently I didn’t think all this was possible but I’ve changed my mind – it is, in our uplands at least. And the first things we need to do to make it happen are:

ⅷ Engage with our tenant farmers to convince ourselves that we can work together. We need extensive and ‘dynamic’ livestock grazing, especially with hardy cattle (maybe some pigs – and

Reconnecting to the natural world Views 117 to develop a new and constructive Malham and over parts of two large wood pasture and scrub within lightly grazed partnership with our tenant farmers. The commons in Upper Wharfedale); upland landscapes that are currently largely total cost will be over £700k (with other treeless and in developing the outcome- grants, etc.) but it is the changes to the land ⅷ complete restoration work over about focused agreements with our tenants. We and our ways of relating to it that we hope 3,750ha (9,266 acres) of blanket bog, have already had lots of very helpful advice will be more profound and significant! building on past drain-blocking work by from inside and outside the organisation but completing the reprofiling of eroding ‘peat would greatly appreciate other thoughts and hags’ on three large areas of bog habitat; opinions. Among the issues we are currently So what are we doing? considering are: the proportion of tree/shrub ⅷ work with the tenants and Natural cover that we might initially aim for; and A good number of our tenant farmers are England to refine livestock grazing whether or not to translocate species other working with us, some enthusiastically, (largely via agri-environment agreements, than the trees and shrubs. We concluded others with concerns and reservations, but although we have separately negotiated that we needed to jump-start to a significant willing to give it a go. Continued agri- some changes such as the move from scale of trees and shrubs by planting environment support is, of course, crucial to sheep-grazing to the grazing of Longhorn because of the relative lack of existing seed them, in addition to the smaller levels of cattle only on 450ha (1,112 acres) of sources and various other challenges to financial incentive that we want to provide, Fountains Fell); and natural regeneration – but should we also and so we are also working closely with move other less mobile species? Natural England over the planned changes. ⅷ implement our own outcome-focused agreements with our tenants to pay for Oh, and please do come and visit ... Work started on the ground last year and their time in working with us on shared over the next two to three years we will: objectives and on monitoring and refinements that go above and beyond Reference ⅷ plant over 100,000 trees and shrubs to their agri-environment agreements. create major new areas of native scrub 1. www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/mediafile/ and wood pasture (over significant areas A lot of the work is pretty experimental, 100077582/lawton-review.pdf of the limestone and acidic moorland at especially in trying to establish areas of

Volunteers are helping us with the planting and restoration of Malham Moor. © National Trust/Peter Welsh

118 Views Reconnecting to the natural world Coastal connections Emma Franks, Morecambe Bay Coastal Ranger, Cumbria/Lancashire

o celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Neptune Coastline Campaign, our Tlongest-running and most successful fundraising campaign, the National Trust made 2015 our year of the coast. I was lucky enough to be appointed as a Coastal Ranger for the south-east Cumbria and Morecambe Bay properties, a fixed-term post funded by Project Neptune. My role is to raise the profile of our coastal sites, conserve coastal habitats, work on access projects and create links with local communities.

Targeting those we most want to see

When the Trust ran its Coastal Connections survey in 2015, a startling finding was that ‘Now, only 27% of people consider their Ruby James bug-hunting with Wildlife & Countryside Adviser, John Hooson, at the Sandscale Haws Bioblitz. © National Trust/Emma Franks happiest childhood memory as being by the sea, compared with the 49% reported by our survey ten years ago’. Fewer people are obtaining good-quality species records. We park, boardwalks and building a new visiting the coast and gaining those approached this by creating a more refreshment kiosk. The results of our visitor memorable experiences. However, the specialist recording programme on the first survey suggest the availability of a café excellent effort by our coastal properties is day and ran family-oriented activities on the would improve visitor experience. The hoping to change this. second day. challenge for us is to balance the need for Sandscale Haws National Nature Reserve Overall the event was a success, even improved infrastructure and still preserve is an outstanding coastal dune habitat though fewer people attended than hoped – our Spirit of Place, as what visitors tell us supporting a wealth of unique wildlife, and the weather could have been a factor here! they love most is Sandscale’s views, peace boasts stunning views to boot. As a result Sandscale already had extensive species and tranquillity. We can also strengthen this site attracts thousands of visitors each records so I feel we benefited more from people’s relationships with the coast through year with many varied interests and needs. engaging with local audiences than the race stimulating interpretation, volunteering Part of the Trust’s coastal vision is to help to record wildlife. As a result of the BioBlitz opportunities and strong community people enjoy more coastal sites by providing we have improved our links with local wildlife engagement. We are currently working on an more access, well-maintained or new recorders and are hosting more recording interpretation plan to decide what stories we facilities and the space for relaxation and events this year. want to tell to our visitors as part of our adventure. Last year Sandscale hosted one Sandscale Haws is also embarking on a hope to promote Sandscale as a nature of the Trust’s 25 coastal BioBlitzes, a race new access project by improving the car- reserve, not just a beach. against time to collect as many wildlife records as possible, usually with the help of local people, wildlife groups and expert The Wheeler family naturalists. As well as obtaining records, it’s a castle at a Sandscale Haws ’50 Things’ way of connecting people with nature and event. © National encouraging them to protect our coast now Trust/Emma Franks and for future generations. Planning for the BioBlitz, we first had to deal with the issue of capacity; with a car- park that holds 35 cars at best, do we advertise far and wide to get the maximum number of attendees? Or invite a local audience? The priority for us was to create connections with local natural history groups, wildlife recorders and visitors so we decided to advertise locally and on site through posters, via email and press releases. We also had to consider the balance between engaging with our audiences and

Reconnecting to the natural world Views 119 There’s so much more people appear to be less connected to the encouraged more families to enjoy the coast than older generations: ‘67% of 55+ outdoors. Whilst attendance was fairly low Heysham Coast is a lovely strip of coastline say that visiting the UK’s coast is important last year, when we repeated the event this jutting out from Morecambe Bay, yet very few for a good quality of life – dropping to just year, attendance increased. We’re running people know it’s owned and managed by the 41% of 18–24s.’ another family fun-day event later in Trust. Probably most famous for St Patrick’s At Heysham we hosted a Big Beach Picnic partnership with Lancashire Wildlife Trust. chapel, a scheduled ancient monument, the in 2015, an event to celebrate our love of the It’s important to work with like-minded site is surrounded by myths and legends with coast. We ran a variety of coastal activities organisations to link our sites and not work a rich history leading up to the modern day. for children and families, from kite-flying to in isolation. A generation gap has come to light from rock-pooling. We succeeded in raising the The next step is to address the future of the Coastal Connections Survey; younger profile of Heysham as a coastal site and our coastal sites; we made a fantastic effort in 2015 to promote our coast by fundraising, hosting new events and recruiting new volunteers. How do we continue this momentum with dwindling resources? At Heysham we have created new ‘lone ranger’ volunteer roles. These volunteers tend to be local people who love the site and visit on a regular basis. On our behalf they act as ‘eyes and ears’ on site, reporting any issues with litter, fires and vandalism. On a more positive note they are ambassadors for the Trust, chatting to visitors, sharing information and providing a presence on site – rangers would struggle to find the time. With the coming and going of temporary staff, it’s also difficult to commit to running and organising lots of events; by creating links with like-minded organisations and running joint events, this can sometimes halve your work load and still The Harvey family rock-pooling at Heysham’s Big Beach Picnic. © National Trust/Emma Franks achieve the desired outcomes.

Forecast changeable: facing up to climate change indoors and outdoors Mark Roberts, National Specialist, Water; Katy Lithgow, Head Conservator; and Lizzy Carlyle, Head of Environmental Practices

he desire to ‘protect’ places of value places. We first set out our views on climate How are our places impacted? is usually triggered by a clear and change in 1995 and have since participated in Tcompelling threat. In the twentieth collaborative research to understand the All our buildings, gardens, land and other century the threats were of cultural loss, threat: in the cultural heritage sector we heritage assets are being affected by climate principally to country houses and from have worked with Engineering Historic change, some more strongly than others. development of the coast. Our landscapes Futures3 and Climate for Culture,4 and on Therefore we are well placed to see many of are now facing a new threat from climate land management with Durham University. 5 the impacts of climate change that are change that requires an innovative response.1 Since 1995 our work on climate change has already occurring in the UK. While our day-to-day ‘weather’ in the UK been reported in various ways, in A Call is notoriously changeable, there is a growing for the Wild (1999), Forecast? Changeable! ⅷ On our coast, sea levels are rising by body of evidence that shows our long-term (2006), From Source to Sea6 (2008), Energy around 3mm per year,10 with low-lying weather pattern – our climate – is changing2 – Grow Your Own7 (2010) and Shifting and soft-sediment coasts being most and is impacting on the condition of places Shores8 (2015). vulnerable. in our care. We have been seeing and Last year we set out to review our work reviewing the impacts of climate change on on climate change, its impact on our ⅷ Our gardens and parks are experiencing our properties for many years, primarily at organisational functions and to release more extremes of both drought and the coast but increasingly at our inland Forecast Changeable as an update.9 flood. There is an increase in diseases,

120 Views Reconnecting to the natural world such as box blight which threatens world- A warming climate means migration of ⅷ Our countryside and farmland are subject renowned historic formal gardens, or ash new species to our shore, including 109 to more frequent risk of flash floods and dieback and sudden oak death which new moth species and 390 new fly fauna storms, damaging habitats, crops and affect our designed parkland. A shorter recorded since 2000. livelihoods. Homes, businesses and roads and warmer winter climate also has are affected too, raising the risk to people implications for gardening techniques; for ⅷ Our historic buildings, their interiors and and the rural economy. We might need to example, the time available for grafting collections are also vulnerable: wetter adapt and change the crops we grow on has been cut in half, making the winters and more intense rainfall make our fields as the climate changes. procedure possible only in the cooler buildings more susceptible to flooding months from January to March. and water damage, which as well as the ⅷ Our finances are being hit by an upward immediate effect on their structure, also trend in the average number of insurance ⅷ Our habitats, and therefore the wildlife raises relative humidity, increasing the claims made per month, from three in supported by them, must adapt to risks of mould and insect pests. 2005 to seven in 2015. Our average changing conditions or be lost. Gradual monthly claim value has risen from habitat loss is forcing the most threatened ⅷ Our rivers are susceptible to both flood £25,000 per month in 2005, up to and vulnerable of the UK’s wildlife to living and drought, affecting water quality, £110,000 per month in 2015 (increased by in fragmented habitats. Storms, including erosion and the wildlife dependent on the winter storms of 2013/14). We also have damagingly strong winds and flash floods, the habitat. to spend more to prevent, mitigate or are predicted to become more intense. repair damage caused by weather events.

Above: The chalk cliffs at Birling Gap, East Sussex, erode by about 67cm each year. During the storms of 2013/14, seven years’ worth of erosion took place in just a couple of months. © National Trust Images/ John Miller

Right: Water from a flooded lake rushed into basements at The Vyne in July 2007, and wind-driven rain through windows caused £336,000 worth of damage to six eighteenth-century Soho tapestries in 2014. © National Trust Images/John Hammond

Reconnecting to the natural world Views 121 What are we doing?

Our experience of looking after the breadth ⅷ Continuing to drive innovation in ⅷ Identifying and pursuing research that of places in our charge is making it mitigating climate change both through enhances our ability to adapt to a abundantly clear to us that the impacts of meeting our energy reduction target of changing internal climate, such as climate change are already increasing and are 20 per cent by 2020 through energy alternative ways of preventing and treating a worrying threat to the fragile and venerable efficiency measures and behaviour mould growth, and better understanding places of natural and historic importance change, and through the management of the tolerance of historic collections to that we care for. As it is not possible to carbon stores on our land, such as those fluctuating relative humidity. preserve our properties, collections and on our peat moors, by improving the landscapes entirely unchanged from such stewardship of our soils. ⅷ Working on our own land and in threats, our conservation approach is about partnership with others through our the careful management of such change. ⅷ Building on the success of our renewable Land, Outdoors and Nature programme, While we will seek to minimise the impacts energy investment programme by to restore a healthy, beautiful natural arising from climate change, we can also aim pursuing new opportunities to use wind, environment which is more resilient to to optimise the opportunities, such as: solar, biomass, marine and hydro sources climate change. Partnership working on to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. large-scale catchment management

Changes in design and infrastructure at gardens, such as rainwater-harvesting tanks shown here, are required to help manage change. Drought issues meant water storage capacity at Nymans, West Sussex, had to be increased first to 80,000 litres, then to 150,000 litres. Because the system ran dry last summer, it is being increased again. © National Trust Images/David Levenson

Volunteers repairing a flood-damaged bridge at Hardcastle Crags. © National Trust Images/John Miller

122 Views Reconnecting to the natural world Solar panels have been installed on the Grade I listed Dunster Castle in Somerset. © National Trust/ Alan Watson

projects led by Defra has been beneficial Right: Planned work on for people, businesses and wildlife. When mansion roofs now includes an assessment of their the Somerset Levels suffered extensive capacity to deal with and prolonged flooding in 2013/14, intense storms. At Calke properties once prone to flooding in Abbey, which suffered damage from severe rainfall Bossington and Allerford were saved by in 2007, some of the ornate work undertaken to slow down and water hoppers have been manage river flows. adapted to cope better in future. © National Trust/ Sarah Staniforth ⅷ Ensuring the resilience of buildings to increased rainfall by repairing roofs and building fabric as has happened at The Vyne, Dyrham Park, Knole and Castle Drogo, for example.

ⅷ Futureproofing our investments, projects References and property business plans to make sure they adapt to reflect current projections 1. Stocker, T.F., et al (eds), Climate Change 2013: 7. Energy – Grow Your Own (National Trust, 2010): of climate change. The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/our-energy- Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of targets We are also challenging all our central the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 8. Shifting Shores (National Trust, 2015): functions to understand the impacts of a (IPCC, 2013). www.climatechange2013.org www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/living-with- changing climate, adapting and changing 2. Cassar, M. and Hawkings, C. (eds), Engineering change-our-shifting-shores their management processes accordingly. Historic Futures (University College London 9. Forecast Changeable (National Trust, 2015): Our strategy document Playing our part11 Centre for Sustainable Heritage, 2007). www.nationaltrust.org.uk/documents/forecast (2015) recognised that climate change now www.ucl.ac.uk/sustainableheritage- -changeable-report-2015.pdf poses the single biggest threat to the places save/ehf_report_web.pdf 10. https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ we look after and has committed us to 3. Climate for Culture: www.climateforculture.eu/ ar4/wg1/en/faq-5-1.html spending around £1bn over the next ten years 4. Land Management for Soil Carbon (National 11. Playing Our Part (National Trust, 2015): on the conservation of our houses, gardens Trust, 2010): www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ www.nationaltrust.org.uk/documents/national and countryside. documents/land-management-for-soil-carbon- -trust-playing-our-part.pdf We recognise that we have to adapt our at-wallington.pdf buildings to become more resilient and work 5. Jenkins, G.J., Perry, M.C., and Prior, M.J., The with natural processes to help our landscapes climate of the United Kingdom and recent trends Acknowledgement and nature accommodate a changing climate. (Exeter: Met Office Hadley Centre, 2008). By doing so, we are not only meeting our ISBN 978-1-906360-05-4. This article is based on ‘Forecast Changeable: responsibility to look after our own places, but 6. From Source to Sea (National Trust, 2008): the Trust’s Position on Climate Change’, which also meeting our duty to deliver wider public www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/from- appeared in the Arts, Buildings & Collections benefit. source-to-sea Bulletin (National Trust, Spring 2016).

Reconnecting to the natural world Views 123 Beyond floods and droughts: linking communities and catchments Stewart Clarke, National Specialist, Freshwater & Estuaries; John Malley, Water Adviser; Mark Roberts, National Specialist, Water; and Christine Stevens, Catchments in Trust Project Officer

f they didn’t already, residents of estimated costs of up to £500 million and control water are in vain, and the events in Cumbria probably felt very connected to both regional and national reviews of flood- Cumbria are an important reminder of how Ithe river catchments in which they live risk management policy and practice water in excess or deficit is still a over the weekend of 5–6 December 2015. underway. fundamental constraint on human activity. The extra-tropical cyclone named Storm Perhaps by better understanding our Desmond brought record rainfall to the connection with rivers, lakes and wetlands north west of England (341.4mm in 24 hours Paying attention we will become better stewards of not just at Honister Pass) and widespread flooding. freshwaters but also the wider land or Record river levels across the north of Such extreme floods, which are expected to ‘catchment’ in which those waters sit. England (one in 300 years for the Eden, one become more frequent with climate change,1 Too much (flood) or too little water in 150 years for the Lune and one in 100 remind people of the power of water to (drought) tends to get the most attention years for the Tyne) resulted in around 6,300 shape both landscapes and human from the media, but the quality of our homes, businesses and farms being flooded. livelihoods. Our ancestors would have been freshwaters is equally important, not just for More unusually, the intense and heavy much more aware of this than we are, living wildlife but for humans too. Many Trust rainfall resulted in rapid saturation of soils as we do, in a landscape in which rivers are properties are testament to the importance and many slope failures; in the National modified, water levels are carefully managed of water as a feature in the landscape. Trust North Lakes property, around 30 and many wetlands have been lost to Nevertheless, few people pause to think separate landslide sites have been identified. drainage. Nevertheless, there are times such about what goes on beneath the surface and The clean-up and repairs continue with as December 2015 when our attempts to as such are oblivious to the current state of

124 Views Reconnecting to the natural world Right: Learning about freshwater life is often a memorable childhood experience. Could it be a springboard for better understanding the importance and value of our rivers, lakes and ponds? © National Trust Images/Chris Lacey

Left: Storm Desmond in December 2015 flooded large areas of northern England. The Lake District was particularly affected with record levels of rainfall. © National Trust/John Malley

our rivers and lakes. The official figures from benefits of better catchment management So how can we strengthen people’s the Environment Agency shows that just and healthy freshwaters extend well beyond connection to rivers, lakes and their 17 per cent of our rivers are healthy2 (at good the typical groups such as anglers and catchments? One of the most important status in Water Framework Directive terms). conservation bodies. steps is to ensure that the true value of The reasons for our rivers, lakes and ponds Research has shown a link between healthy catchments, rivers, lakes and being in such poor health are varied but people’s interactions with open green space4 wetlands is at the heart of decision-making. result from a long history of exploitation and and aquatic environments5 and their health Our failure to do this has resulted in the loss manipulation for flood management, and well-being, with evidence emerging that of valuable floodwater storage areas such as drainage for agriculture and our use of water being by water is amongst people’s most floodplains, wetlands, meanders and as a means of disposing of waste. Industry, preferred places for restoration and woodlands, and a loss in the resilience of our agriculture and urbanisation have all relaxation. Although much of the work has freshwaters through pollution, drainage and contributed to pollution, and while toxic focused on coastal settings, there is a small modification with a total of 57 per cent of lifeless rivers are largely a thing of the past, body of work showing the ways in which freshwater and wetland species declining in nutrients, sediment and a more subtle mix of freshwaters in urban settings can affect well- the last 50 years. Linking people with water chemicals such as endocrine disruptors being in positive ways by masking road is particularly important when we consider (chemicals that affect hormone systems) noise, mitigating temperatures and the scale of change and investment required continue to affect freshwater life. providing places for relaxation, recreation to improve the quality of our water bodies. If and socialising. From a small survey we can get people to understand the links undertaken by the Trust last year (1,800 between land and water management and Making the connection adults) we know that people do care about their impacts upon freshwater quality and the state of rivers and other freshwaters: flood resilience, then perhaps we can Some people do care and there is a growing convince our politicians that they have a army of volunteers out monitoring and ⅷ 72 per cent agreed that being able to mandate to change policies and make the trying to improve our rivers. The adoption of access local rivers lakes and streams was necessary investments. What is more, the Catchment Based Approach3 in 2011 is important to them perhaps the public will start to ask questions transforming the way in which a range of about how the food they buy and the water local groups and agencies work together to ⅷ 84 per cent were concerned about the they use affect the water environment. This improve their water courses, and impact of pollution and litter for UK will not happen if the only time people think increasingly water companies and other freshwaters about water is when there is too much of it businesses are getting involved. The around, as we saw in Cumbria last winter, or development of Catchment Partnerships has ⅷ 91 per cent agreed it was important to when, as surely can’t be too far off, we are seen more and more groups getting involved them that UK freshwaters are kept facing a period of drought. in catchment management planning and beautiful for future generations to enjoy delivery, typically led by the local river trust, wildlife trust or other third-sector groups. ⅷ 86 per cent considered it important that However, there is a clear need to engage a we do more in the UK to help the wildlife broader community, particularly as the of our freshwaters

Reconnecting to the natural world Views 125 Conclusion References Coledale Beck, usually confined to the left of this picture, took over the road leading into Braithwaite, flowing straight into properties when The Trust’s strategy Playing our part is 1. www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/#.UlKaBGTF0kt it reached the village as well as along its route. The beginning to place the links between land 2. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32074953 beck itself was blocked by tree debris and further management and water management much 3. www.catchmentbasedapproach.org/ compromised by landslides originating in the more at the forefront of both routine 4. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23613211 upper catchment at the height of the flood. © National Trust/John Malley decision-making and in the way that we will 5. www.hutton.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/ work with partners. Our ‘Land Choices’ work snc/CREW%20Blue% will make sure that land is being managed 20Health%20project%20FINAL.pdf appropriately and for the right outcomes. Given the extent to which diffuse pollution from agriculture is a major pressure for freshwaters, this is an important step in ensuring we are not contributing to the continued deterioration of our rivers, lakes and wetlands. We are also looking beyond our boundaries and linking up our land management with that of others through landscape-scale projects such as our Catchments in Trust initiative. We recognise that others are already making good progress, and we will work with Catchment Partnerships to ensure our work adds value to the great work already underway.

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