Miss Elaineous

Sunday 22 September 2024

WARLEY PLACE NATURE RESERVE YOUTUBE VLOG LIVE...

My Warley Place Nature Reserve vlog is now live!

Link:-

These gardens once belonged to renowned horticulturist Ellen Willmott (1858-1934), who moved into Warley Place in 1875. It was to become her lifelong home, and inherited wealth allowed her to indulge her passion for horticulture. Miss Willmott was considered as infuential as her contemporary, Gertrude Jekyll, and they were the only women to receive the Victoria Medal of Honour. The house was destroyed in 1939 and the area fell into serious disrepair, but strange and fascinating buildings that were once part of the gardens do pop up! The gardens have been managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust since 1977.

Ellen Willmott is believed to have cultivated over 100,000 species of plant, and this Edwardian garden was considered outstanding, and was even visited by royalty. This really is one of these places where you don't know what you're going to find, and I suspect that every time you come here you'll discover something new! There are lots of underground chambers; a conservatory; a gorge; several deep ponds; a walled garden and a headache tree.

Warley Place is considered to be the loveliest lost garden in England, so come into yet another of my secret gardens!

As you know, I will always be a writer before anything else, and I have blogged about Warley Place recently, link:-

https://elainerockett.blogspot.com/2024/09/miss-elaineous-visits-warley-place.html

Remember to like and subscribe, and don't forget to follow my blog as well!

TTFN

The Miss Elaineous

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Tuesday 17 September 2024

MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS WARLEY PLACE NATURE RESERVE...

If you don't like greenery, or photographs of greenery then perhaps you won't like this Warley Place Nature Reserve blog- but read on, and I think you'll end up liking both!

Warley Place is in Brentwood, Essex, and is easy to reach if, like me, you don't drive. Brentwood railway station sits on the Elizabeth Line and then it's a half hour walk up a (not too steep) hill to get there. Entrance is free, and the reserve is open from dawn to dusk throughout the year.

Can you see the algae-covered South Pond behind the trees/ shrubbery? It is a tad camouflaged (I told you this blog was green!)

The East Meadow is on the other side of the entrance lane. You can also see some saplings being propagated in frames.

This wooden bridge crosses over the Gorge.

The reserve is the site of a house; and gardens which were once famous.

Looking down into the Gorge, and these gardens once belonged to renowned horticulturist Ellen Willmott (1858-1934).

The other side of the Gorge, and Ellen Willmott moved into Warley Place in 1875, after her father acquired the house. It was to become her lifelong home.

Looking over the West Meadow, and inherited wealth allowed Miss Willmott to indulge her passion for horticulture.

The house was destroyed in 1939, but strange and fascinating buildings that were once part of the gardens do pop up!

The corner of the Walled Graden. Filmy ferns and alpine plants once thrived in the main gardens, but these probably ceased to exist when the gardens became overrun and derelict, with large trees blocking out all the light, and depriving smaller plants of sustenance.

Skirting the garden, and from 1934-1977 the gardens fell into serious disrepair.

The Conservatory. This was once part of the house and has been repointed and stabilised.

Here's a PDF of the house, taken from the back of the building. You can see the conservatory to the left.

The old tesselated flooring is still visible, and there's a blue plaque dedicated to Ellen Willmott inside.

Here's a closer view...

Come into my secret garden...

Miss Willmott was considered as infuential as her contemporary; Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932).

Ellen Willmott is believed to have cultivated over 100,000 species of plant.

Willmott's wealth also allowed her to buy gardens in France and Italy.

You can see where the garden walls have been stabilised...

This is an old conservatory pond...

Some kind of drain. This is really one of these places where you don't know what you're going to find, and I suspect that every time you come here you'll discover something new!

Tiled conservatory floors and a hot pipe cover...

Another algae-covered pond.

Willmott became a prominent member of the Royal Horticultural Society, joining in 1894.

This bit is the remains of the basement kitchen...

There are lots of underground chambers, and most of them are cordoned off, as they are too unsafe to wander into.

There is something almost majestic about this pond, which comes with a dire, deep water warning...

The foundations of the hothouses...

Foundations for cold frames, and it was said that Willmott was a demanding employer who would sack any gardener who allowed a weed to grow amongst her flowers, and apparently gardeners were not allowed an afternoon off, even to get married!

Could this brickwork be the foundations for a stream heading down this part of the garden? This Edwardian garden was considered outstanding, and was even visited by royalty.

Overlooking the Rockeries, and Willmott would only employ men in her garden, believing that women would "be a disaster in the border."

The Rockeries were a fairly recent discovery...

That stream foundation again. Ellen Willmott spent money like it was going out of fashion, and her house and garden was sold following her death.

Can you spot the squirrel scampering into the ivy here? The SuperDean also spotted a couple of dragonflies, and Warley Place is home to several species of bat, and many butterflies and other invertebrates.

Ovelooking the Ha-Ha. A ha-ha is a walled ditch designed to keep animals either in or out.

An iron gate, and Ellen Willmott received the Victoria Medal of Honour in 1897. The only other woman to receive this honour was the aforementioned Gertrude Jekyll.

This California bay laurel is nicknamed "the headache tree" because if you rub the leaves and inhale them then you're likely to get a severe headache!

After the house was knocked down there were plans to build a housing estate here. Fortunately, the Second World War followed by green belt legislation put paid to that idea.

The gardens are 25 acres in size and consist of two loops- here we are heading down the steps around the second loop. The nature reserve has been managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust since 1977.

Certain parts are out of bounds for safety's sake, and new features are being uncovered all of the time. The Trust's volunteers have worked hard to turn what had become a wilderness into a nature reserve safe for all to enjoy.

This section contains a bog garden...

I also spotted a couple of hides around; so that keen birdwatchers can spend some time here on the lookout for different feathered species.

This garden is fascinating, and it's good to let your imagination run away with you and daydream about what it once was. Here you have an unexpected set of steps just popping up amongst a blanket of plants...

Overlooking another algae-covered piece of water, and this is the North Pond.

Warley Place is considered to be the loveliest lost garden in England. I'll certainly return, and I'd like to come at different times of the year, to get some idea of the different species of plants growing on the reserve.

Until then,

TTFN

Miss Elaineous

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Monday 9 September 2024

BROMPTON CEMETERY YOUTUBE VLOG LIVE...

My Brompton Cemetery YouTube vlog is now live!

Link:-

https://youtu.be/r_Eo3VNsahM

I went to an open day at Brompton Cemetery, London, and got to walk down into the rarely open catacombs.

During the Victorian age local cemeteries were becoming increasingly overcrowded, with burials taking place on top of former burials. Horror stories abounded: gravediggers jumping up and down on old corpses to fit new ones in; the cutting through of mistakenly exhumed limbs whilst digging new plots; accidentally digging so deep that corpses fell into the sewers and were flushed away. The Victorians believed that the rot and mildew caused by these unsavoury actions led to miasma (bad air) which was considered very unhygienic and the transmitter of disease. In London this crisis led to the creation of the 'Magnificent Seven'. The term refers to the seven large, private London cemeteries which were established in the 19th century to alleviate overcrowding in parish burial grounds. Brompton Cemetery is in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and is the only cemetery in the country to be managed by the Crown. Come and take a walk in my shoes in this magnificent museum of the dead, and I'll show you the graves of some notable people. It is said that Beatrix Potter took the names for some of her characters from gravestones here!

As you know, I will always be a writer before anything else, and I have blogged about Brompton Cemetery following my last open day visit, link:-

https://elainerockett.blogspot.com/2019/08/miss-elaineous-visits-brompton-cemetery.html

Remember to like and subscribe, and don't forget to follow my blog as well!

TTFN

The Miss Elaineous

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Thursday 5 September 2024

ALL DAY LONG by JOANNA BIGGS

ALL DAY LONG

JOANNA BIGGS

A PORTRAIT OF BRITAIN AT WORK

THE BLURB:

What do people do all day? How does work affect our lives? And what happens when we don't work? From Westminster to the Outer Hebrides, Joanna Biggs travels the country to find out who we are through what we do.

THE REALITY:

This piece of non-fiction serves as learning material for something I'm really interested in. Unemployment always gets a mention in society, and underemployment has also become a big issue in the past 20 or so years. I'm also investigating whether underemployment and overeducation can actually be a blessing in disguise, as a failed career does have the potential to push an individual onto a different trajectory, possibly resulting in happiness- or not. It's my job, as I see it, to investigate this.

I have long recognised the fact that the hiring process nowadays is flawed to the state of being egregious- with many online applications simply falling into the ether. And don't get me started on processes such as unpaid internships (or modern slavery, as I prefer to call them...) But that's an investigation for a different day. Back to the book and I love that this gives an insight into what we do at work and how rewarding it is from an entirely unbiased perspective, and hats off to the author for doing that. I have strong opinions on employment in Britain and what it means today, but when I do write about it I will have to make sure that my passions come across as coming from the head and not the heart. I now fully understand what Gillie Bolton (she lectures on using writing as therapy) meant by “the writer's bleeding heart must be kept off the page.” Before I didn't, and insisted that the writer's bleeding heart must be kept on the page, as we connect via emotions. But, in fiction, the emotions must come from the character, not the writer. And, in non-fiction, whilst it's excellent that the piece is driven by the heart, it must be written from a head point of view. I'm so glad that this book gave me the chance to think and unpack my previous thoughts.

This book will make you understand the background to what drives some people and the hard work involved in real success. You also pick up the various motivations involved across the board, and everyone needs that motovational element, no matter what the job. But it will also make you very angry when you see how badly those employed in “lowly” work or the unemployed are treated. It's always fascinated me that stupid employers expect people to be “passionate” about the most shitty job. Why can't these daft clowns realise that in many jobs people are simply there to do the work, earn the money and go home? (Actually, in the notes at the end, it would seem that one employer has certainly learnt this...) My God, it would appear that the working world is full of bullies, and insecure bullies (in the future, let me be the one to speak out about them- this author certainly does, very subtly and cleverly).

It's the quite matter-of-fact yet humane approach to this book that makes it so interesting. It's a book that should feature on every school curriculum.

Sunday 1 September 2024

THE HILL GARDEN AND PERGOLA YOUTUBE VLOG LIVE...

My Hill Garden and Pergola YouTube vlog is now live!

Link:-

https://youtu.be/jsZSkR-Yyvw

The Hill Garden and Pergola stretches for over 230 metres, and is a raised walkway of more than one level; some 20-30 feet high. The house next door was once owned by Lord Leverhulme (1851-1925), who made a fortune manufacturing soaps from vegetable oils. He remodelled his house- called The Hill- extensively, even adding a ballroom. He created the Hill Garden and Pergola to offer extra space when entertaining his guests. It also added extra privacy, so that the riff-raff who traversed Hampstead Heath- which is, after all, a public right-of-way- couldn't see into his house! I can't believe that I didn't even know about this place until stumbling across it by accident a few weeks ago. Come and see (what I now call) my secret garden, in the centre of London's biggest cottage!

As you know, I will always be a writer before anything else, and I have blogged about the Hill Garden and Pergola recently, link:-

https://elainerockett.blogspot.com/2024/08/miss-elaineous-visits-hill-garden-and.html

Remember to like and subscribe, and don't forget to follow my blog as well!

TTFN

The Miss Elaineous

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Monday 26 August 2024

MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS THE HILL GARDEN AND PERGOLA...

We were walking to Hampstead Heath train station after visiting Golders Hill Park and were totally surprised to stumble upon the Hill Garden and Pergola. In all my years of living in London I had NEVER even heard of this, and wondered how this could be so!

Some of these photos also feature in my Golders Hill Park vlog, link:-

https://elainerockett.blogspot.com/2024/08/miss-elaineous-visits-golders-hill-park.html

The Hill Garden and Pergola stretches for over 230 metres...

The view from around the corner, and there is more than one entrance...

Here's the first photo I took from the upper storey; overlooking the lower gardens from the Stone Bridge over the public Right of Way.

This little "temple" is at the end of the upper walkway, and is called the Domed Garden Building.

From the end temple structure you take a flight of steps down, and I wish I'd walked further along, as I later found out that at the end to the right is a gorgeous pond.

Oh well- my excuse to come back was sorted...

...So that's exactly what I did! I headed towards the Belvedere at the end, and the photos in this blog are taken with two cameras over two trips...

Belvedere means a viewing building, but unfortunately I was too short to see through the window!

The Hill Garden and Pergola is on more than one level...

Graffiti on the outer Belvedere wall...

I loved this old knotty, gnarled tree...

The section containing the lily pond is actually an extention to the original raised garden...

The house next door was once owned by Lord Leverhulme (1851-1925), who made a fortune manufacturing soaps from vegetable oils. He remodelled his house- called The Hill- extensively, even adding a ballroom.

This part is the Hill Garden, created after Lord Leverhulme acquired neighbouring Heath Lodge and Cedar Lodge; knocking the houses down and adding this beautiful landscaped pond.

William Hesketh Lever was created 1st Viscount Leverhulme in 1922.

The upper terrace, with a recessed seat. This is a fabulous little nook!

The views down over the lawn and, trust me, these gardens offer privacy. From outside it's impossible to see in through the railings, as they sit atop a very high wall.

Walking back up to the Belvedere and the Hill Garden was starting to get a bit peopley- I made sure I went quite early, and it was still not quite 11am when this group appeared for their exercise class.

Building began in 1905- after Lord Leverhulme commissioned celebrated landscape artist Thomas Morson to realise his dream- and continued until Lord Leverhulme's death in 1925.

He used the Pergola as a spot to entertain guests, and raised the gardens by 20-30 feet...

It has been mentioned that he also created the terrace to offer some privacy; so that the riff-raff using Hampstead Heath couldn't peer into his house! Hampstead Heath is, after all, a public thoroughfare.

Obviously sensible with money, the gardens were created using the spoil from the construction of the extension of the nearby Northern Line.

His brand was called Sunlight Soap, and popular soaps manufactured include Lux and Lifebuoy...

His company is now part of Unilever; British multinational fast-moving consumer goods company.

I'm not sure what is going on here, with these people setting up a floral arch- maybe a music recital, given that the case looks like it could contain a guitar or cello?

Staring through towards Hill House, and you can just about make out a pond behind the railings. The house was bought by Andrew Weir, 1st Baron Inverforth after Lord Leverhulme's death.

He bequeathed it to Manor House Hospital following his death in 1955, and in 1998 the hospital closed.

The house was then converted into two houses and seven apartments, with iron trellising dividing the Pergola from the private apartments. The general consensus is that it's brilliantly done.

Here you can see where the terrace bridges over the Right of Way.

Stone Bridge was built after Lord Leverhulme acquired the neighbouring houses and, after knocking them down, expanded upon the Pergola, creating this bridged link between the different sections.

Plants such as wisteria and ivy cling to- and hang from- the majestic columns.

By the time London County Council took over the estate in 1960, everything was in a bad state of decline. The gardens were restored and opened to the public in 1963. Further restoration occured in the 1980s.