The Camellia House

On Tuesday we went over to Nottingham to visit a friend who is in hospital there after heart surgery.  We were early so we dropped into Wollaton Hall and Deer Park for a look around as it seemed a long time since our last visit.

 After looking inside the Hall where the Natural History Museum is housed and lunch in the coach house we wandered into the formal gardens drawn in by the sight of the glass house.

The Camellia House at Wollaton Hall in Nottingham is one of the earliest cast and wrought iron glass houses in the country.

It was built in the early 19th century c. 1823 for the Willougby family, owners of Wollaton Hall.

Until recently it was in a poor state of repair, the low pitched roof lights were so fragile they couldn't withstand the weight of heavy snow, or harsh gusts of wind.  It was in such bad conditions that it was listed on English Heritage's 'Buildings at Risk' register.

To complete the repair and renovation of the Georgian Camellia House the restorers completely dismantled the structure when 6,500 panes of glass were removed.

The iron framework was cleaned to remove years of dirt and corrosion, the floors were lifted and underfloor heating ducts rebuilt using traditional methods.

It is all looking very splendid now

The camellias are looking well and happy in their new home.

The Camellia House was built with a special heating system which is no longer used as at the time the family were collecting Camellias it was thought that they needed heat but in fact they are quite hardy.

I'll show you what we found inside this wonderful building, completed in 1588  from designs by architects John Thorpe and Robert Smythson for Sir Francis Willougby,  in my next post.

In the Garden

The sun was out this morning so after a quick trip to the supermarket to buy a few items - mostly for the cat - and whilst biscuits were being made in the kitchen, I decided to do some clearing up in the garden.

I pulled the garden wheelie bin from out of its winter hibernation place where it has been tucked away behind the garage next to the water butt.  Collections start again next week and we had plenty of leaves, twigs and cuttings to fill it with.

I managed to take all the brown heads and stems from the Sedums which had been left in situ all winter.   Also the straggly, damp and decaying tendrils from the hardy geraniums. 

It is still quite flooded around the pond and parts of the lawn are still waterlogged but there were little signs of Spring and new growth around the garden.

 Some of the little Tete a Tete daffodils were coming into flower. 

 The Marsh Marigolds were in flower in the pond

 Wild Garlic was appearing under the hazel tree

whilst up above the Wild Garlic Hazel Catkins were dancing in the breeze

In the raised bed the bright red sticks of the Rhubarb could be seen

The Heather is looking lovely at the moment

as are the little Violas in their hanging basket

The leaves of the poppy Patty's Plum have appeared, I thought we'd lost this during the winter.

I love the delicate colours in the Lungwort

and also in the unfurling petals of the Wallflowers

All too soon the sun disappeared and the Spring like warmth went with it. Time to clear up and go back inside but it was good to get out in the garden again, just for a short while.

Five on Friday

It's Friday again and time to join in with Amy at Love Made my Home for the Five on Friday gathering.

I've been doing bits and pieces of family history again over the last few weeks and I've also been looking back at things I've found out over the years and places I have visited since I started researching my family tree.  I've usually managed to photograph the churches and churchyards we have visited that have connections with ancestors so I thought I'd share five of them with you.

1.  All Saints church, Aston on Trent is a pretty church and we were lucky that there was a key holder on hand to show us around the interior.  In the churchyard we found a memorial inscription to both John (d.1830) and Keturah Webb (d 1826) who were the parents of my 3x great grandfather Francis Webb.   Francis moved to Nottingham for work and there, in 1816, married Mary Palmer.  Francis's occupation on the 1841 census was lace maker and the family address was Park Square in the St Nicholas District of Nottingham.  Francis and Mary's daughter Rebecca was my 2 x great grandmother.  She married Alexander Young whose father John Young moved from Kirkaldy in Fife to Loughborough in the 1820s, both father and son were tailors.  Alexander and Rebecca's daughter Celia Palmer Young was my great grandmother.

 2.  St Peter's Church, Awsworth. My great great grandparents on my Mum's side of the family tree, Joseph and Alice Limb were buried here although there isn't a memorial stone.  This couple moved around quite a bit for work and can be found on census returns living in Shipley Wood in Derbyshire, Awsworth in Nottinghmashire, Staveley in Derbyshire and Shirebrook in Derbyshire.  Alice died in Shirebrook in 1903 but was brought back to her birthplace to be buried.  Joseph died in 1914 on Lace Street in Nottingham at the home of one of his daughters and was brought to Awsworth to be buried with Alice.  He was born in Shipley near Heanor in Derbyshire in 1837 and baptised at the Shipley Wood Primitive Methodist Chapel.

3.   All Saints, Dilhorne, Staffordshire.  My 3x great grandmother Mary Chell was born here in 1794, the daughter of Joseph and Mary Chell.  At some point she moved from Staffordshire to South Derbyshire.  For ages I didn't know where she was born but on one census return she gave her birthplace as Dillon, Staffordshire.  Dilhorne isn't very far away from where we live now and it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps her accent or way of saying Dilhorne sounded like Dillon to the Census Enumerator for Newhall, who wouldn't have been familiar with either place or accent.  Equally it could have just been a misspelling.  We went to look at the church and found many Chells in the churchyard but not any that related to my direct line.

4.  St Peter's Church, Stapenhill.  Lots of my ancestors have associations with this church.  My 5 x great grandfather Thomas Gough was married to Sarah Boddis here in 1789 and my other 5x great grandparents were married here too. Robert Bridge and Mary Shaw were married two years earlier in 1787.  Robert and Mary's daughter Hannah married my 4 times great grandfather Benjamin Gough, son of Thomas and Sarah at the church in 1813.  Thomas Gough died in 1812 and was buried in the churchyard of St Peter's Church.  There are no Goughs recorded in the church records before his marriage to Sarah Boddis and the family always said that he came with a gang of men from the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire prospecting for coal.  Although others think he may have originally come from Shropshire. He worked with the Gresley family digging out bell pits to test for coal seams.  The records for this church were the first I ever looked at whilst researching my family tree.  I remember visiting the Archives at Matlock and looking at the actual register which was leather bound and presented on a soft cushion.  I had to wear cotton gloves and write only in pencil in my note book. I remember extracting anything I found useful at the time.  On later visits everything had been transferred to Microfilm and then later still to Microfiche.

5.  St John's Church, Newhall, Derbyshire.   Scene of the christenings, weddings and funerals of many of my ancestors on my father's side of the family tree. My 2, 3 and 4 x great grandparents are all buried in the churchyard as are some of their siblings.  Many of them were married and christened here too.


Click on the link below to find other bloggers who are joining in with Five on Friday this week. 

Don't forget that after the 24th March there will be a new host, Tricky and Carly at Fast Blog, for Five on Friday see the link below to find out more

Paint Monthly

Sydney Parkinson (1745 -1771) was a botanical artist and draughtsman who was employed by Joseph Banks to accompany him on the first voyage of Captain James Cook to Australia and South Seas on HMS Endeavour.

Sydney Parkinson, self portrait

He was born in Edinburgh in 1745 to a Quaker family and was originally a woollen draper.  He studied drawing especially the drawing of plants and flowers.  On moving to London he was discovered by a young Joseph Banks and employed by him to draw plants at Kew botanical gardens.

Bread Fruit Plant and Fruit.  Watercolour by Sydney Parkinson 1769

In 1768 he was hired by Joseph Banks to accompany him and topographical draughtsman Alexander Buchan, who died in Tahiti during the voyage.  Parkinson took on some of his work painting plant specimens on board ship often in the most difficult and trying conditions.  

Barringtonia Calyptrata by Sydney Parkinson, completed by F C Nodder

Poor Sydney never made it home from this voyage as he contracted dysentery and died at Cape Town on the return journey on 26th January 1771.  He was buried at sea.

Illustrations for Banks's Florilegium of Banksia serrata the one on the left is a watercolour based on Sydney Parkinson's sketch and completed by J F Miller under Banks's instructions.

 I've written about Sydney Parkinson because I found the catalogue above on the book shelves (whilst looking for something else, as you do) and then I remembered visiting the exhibition at the Natural History Museum in 1988 where I bought the book and several postcards.  I'd gone with a colleague from a Museum where I used to work when we were researching for an exhibition we were putting together about local adventurer and seaman Matthew Flinders.

Joining in with Barbara at Coastal Ripples for Paint Monthly follow the - link - to see other bloggers who are participating this month.

Welcome to March and White Rabbits

Did you remember to say 'white rabbits' this morning? As children we always used to try and remember to say 'white rabbits' which had to be the first words you spoke as you woke up on the morning of 1st March.   Some people also say 'white rabbits' or 'rabbits, rabbits, rabbits' on the first of any month throughout the year. Another saying is 'pinch, punch it's the first of the month' although I don't remember that one from my childhood, I've only come across it as an adult.

Anyway, whichever tradition you follow it's time to say 'Hello' to March and  share with you a few photos from yesterday's walk around the lake at Trentham. 

We didn't spot any white rabbits or any other rabbit but we did spot the black swans.

and these rather lovely carvings of rams, there were two but I only took a photo of one of them as there were people around the other one.

It was cold and there were still signs of winter around the lakeside

so I went into the garden centre to seek out some Spring flowers.

It is also time to think about sowing seeds and deciding what flowers we would like to grow in the garden as well as vegetables for the raised beds and salad stuff for the greenhouse.

As a final farewell to February and because it was also Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day we had pancakes for tea.

Five on Friday

 Five things that have happened this week, things I've spotted and things that have made me smile.

1.  A Grebe and what we thought was a female Merganser on Westport Lake, which is near Tunstall in Stoke-on-Trent.

It was the only Merganser we saw as we walked around the lake and it was a bit aggressive to the other waterbirds as if it was trying to claim its space there.

2.  The wonderful sight of the iron bridge built c.1779 by Abraham Darby III across the River Severn at Ironbridge in Shropshire. I love it here, you can feel the history and impact of the Industrial Revolution all around this area.  You can just see the Toll House chimney over the other side of the bridge.

The Toll House

Love the list of tolls and the N.B. at the bottom.

3. On Tuesday when we moved the recycling wheelie bin to take it down to the end of the drive this newt was underneath.  It was placed in an old washing up bowl with a bit of luke warm water for a while and then taken up to the pond.  It must have been very mild on Tuesday because when Paul took the newt up to the pond he startled a frog which launched itself into the pond, the newt slithered in a few seconds later.  Another month and the pond will be heaving with frogs.

4.  As I write this blog post storm Doris is howling around the house.  I tried to take an 'action' photo of the garden from the bedroom window as the trees over the back hedge are bending and whirling their branches around.  The conifer tree is doing a lone samba, its branches twisting and turning in the strong wind. 

The lawns are sodden and squelchy and there aren't many birds around on the feeders today but we did see a little group of long tailed tits visit the fat balls.  The buggy nibbles and seeds have been placed in ground feeders so it is easier for sparrows, blackbirds and robins.  Thank goodness we don't have to go anywhere today.

5.  It's a day to stay in, keep warm, cosy and safe and enjoy the simple things around us.

Joining in Five on Friday as always with Amy and Love Made my home.  Follow the link below to find other who are joining in too.

Have a lovely weekend.