Glorious Vandalism?

Posted on July 13, 2017 by johnshortlandwriter

Croome Court, ancestral home of the Earls of Coventry, has seen many changes in its more recent history. Perhaps none were quite so colourful as the five years that it was the UK headquarters for the Hare Krishna movement.

The earliest parts of the building date back to 1640 but in 1741 the sixth Earl commissioned Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown to transform the house and grounds. Better remembered for his lakes and parkland landscaping, the house, rotunda and church are important, early examples of Brown’s architectural work.

The Rotunda designed by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown

Inside, there is decorative plasterwork by Vassalli, designed by Adams, and by Joseph Rose Jr, designed by Brown, all self-coloured white. However, in the latter’s dining room the Hare Krishna have left their vibrant mark.

Lord’s Dressing Room

Dining Room

It is, I believe, National Trust policy to leave Croome to reveal all its various uses and ownership changes by leaving much as they found it in 2007. This is almost a necessity for most of the house’s contents were sold over the course of the last century. The most well-known example of this was the sale of the entire contents of the Tapestry room where fine, French wall hangings were sold in 1902. These were later donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York where they are now on display leaving the original room bare and forlorn.

Lady Coventry’s Boudoir

The naked walls of the Tapestry Room

Painting of the Tapestry Room c.1900

Croome is a fascinating place to visit. It’s rooms devoid of furnishings allows the mind, unfettered by their distraction, to concentrate instead on their size, scale and the glories of their plasterwork and outlook. In places, the fabric of the building is stripped bare to reveal tantalising glimpses of voids, old beams and unsafe rooms. These, in themselves, are a reminder of the shocking loss to the nation’s history when any historic building falls into disrepair or is demolished.

It will be interesting to see if the Krishna coloured plasterwork remains for posterity. Should it be preserved as it is now? Is this a refreshing interpretation of traditional, high quality plasterwork or sheer vandalism, an abhorrence that ought to be erased? Whatever your opinion, nothing quite prepares you for the visual ‘shock’ you experience when you first enter the room.

Dining Room plasterwork detail

Dining Room plasterwork detail

To visit Croome Court or to find out more click here

A Hidden Exmoor Walk

Posted on March 20, 2016 by johnshortlandwriter

I have misgivings about sharing this walk for it is a favourite of mine: in the 48 years that I have known it I have rarely met anyone other than those that work the land here. Do I want to encourage others to discover its beauty? I’m not sure.

This circular walk begins with the open expanses of Brendon Common but follows more sheltered winding lanes before descending through beech woodland to Rockford and the East Lyn River. A steep climb past Brendon church returns you to the moor. How long does it take? There’s no easy answer to this – allow two hours although experience tells me there are so many distractions along the way, including the Rockford Inn, that it can take much, much longer. Whether you want a quick sprint or a leisurely amble good supportive footwear is essential as is the ability to climb hefty hills.

Brendon Common

There is plentiful parking at Scobhill Gate, the cattle grid on the B3223 that denotes the westernmost boundary of Brendon Common. From here walks radiate across the 2000 acres of heather moorland but our route takes us over the cattle grid into farmed country and turns right by the hairpin bends at Brendon Manor Stables.

Scobhill Gate

After a few hundred yards the road, which is flanked by hedges of hazel, ash, furze, bramble and bilberry (known locally as wurts), meets Gratton Lane. This is very much ‘home’ territory for me, for it is here at Brendon Barton that I arrived as a lad to work and play in 1968. Opposite the farm there are fine views of Brendon church and in the far distance Countisbury Common and the sea.

Brendon Barton 1968

Brendon Church 1968 (2) copyright.jpg

Walking along Gratton Lane is lovely at any time of the year but is at its best in spring when the beech hedges are bursting into leaf and primroses and bluebells nestle at their feet. These banks are an ancient method of providing shelter, as well as a barrier to livestock, from the fierce gales and snowstorms that sweep in from the Atlantic. The banks stand about five feet in height, lined with stone with the beech planted above.

Gratton Lane

Just as the lane starts to descend it enters woodland and it is here – just past the warning sign denoting the ford that crosses the road – that a footpath is taken to the left. The path follows a pretty stream as it tumbles over rocks down to join the East Lyn River. It is here that the unwary walker can also take a tumble as the path crosses outcrops of rock that become quite slippery when damp. This stream has everything a larger one would have – cascades, waterslides, ferns growing from niches – but all in miniature. Despite its diminutive size it once powered a sawmill. Waterfalls (2) copyright.jpg

The mill has long been a ruin and is now fenced for safety but the rusting ironwork is still visible. Just beyond the old building the path joins the road. Turn left and follow the lane to the hamlet of Rockford. You are now walking in the Brendon valley with its beechwoods clinging to the steep hills high above, home to a number of rare rowan trees (Sorbus) unique to the area. The East Lyn River is a major river; when water levels are low it is difficult to imagine its ferocity when in spate. In 1952 it destroyed bridges, houses and lives as it passed through the valley culminating in the flood disaster at Lynmouth where thirty-four people lost their lives and over one hundred houses were destroyed. The Rockford Inn is a good place to stop for a beer; they also serve cream teas. Just make sure that you put the cream on the scone before the jam in the Exmoor tradition! It is possible to extend the walk to Watersmeet (where there is a National Trust tearoom) by crossing the river.

The Old Mill nr Rockford

East Lyn River

Once past Rockford the road starts to climb until it reaches Brendon church. The hill is a killer – it’s not called Church Steep for nothing! The church which nestles into the hill and looks out across the combes looks as if it has been there for centuries. In reality, it was moved stone by stone from nearby Cheriton in 1738. It is simply decorated inside but has some attractive stained glass. Brendon Barton, passed earlier, can be seen from the steps of the church. Follow the lane back to the farm; from there retrace the original route back to Scobhill Gate.

Brendon Church (5) copyright.jpg

Brendon Barton, view from the church

Happy walking!

Exmoor is a National Park in the southwest of England and straddles the counties of Devon and Somerset. Apart from miles of wonderful moorland walks, it also has the highest sea cliffs in England, pretty villages and spectacular wildlife including the majestic Red Deer. Native Exmoor ponies roam the open moor. Now a rare breed they remain virtually unchanged from pre-history.

2015: A Year in Review July-December

Posted on January 31, 2016 by johnshortlandwriter

Oh dear! Not a good start to the year! January has whizzed by at such an incredible rate that this review may not be completed before midnight strikes and February arrives.
Has the month gone by more quickly because, with the exceptionally mild weather we have been having this winter and all the spring flowers in bloom weeks early, that it feels as if this review was (and should have been) written weeks earlier?

Crocus (2) copyright

Working on the premise ‘better late than never’ here it is now.

July: As a plantsman I’m very aware that some of the most beautiful blooms can disguise the more ominous aspects of a plants nature. Ragwort, a common weed of grassland and waste areas has cheery, bright yellow daisy-like flowers yet hides toxins that can be fatal to horses and cattle. Control is usually carried out by hand pulling for poisoning the plant with weedkillers makes them even ore attractive to animals as they graze the dying foliage. However, pulling the plants put humans at risk as the sap is absorbed through the skin to damage the liver.

Always remove the pulled plants from the field

In Ragwort: A Curse or a Blessing? I looked at the controversy surrounding this plant for it has its benefits and uses too. Should you destroy it before it destroys you? Click here to find out.

Ragwort and horses - not a good combination

August: A different quandary was discussed in the post A Quiche or a Quad Bike? It isn’t often that you visit a restaurant that sells quad bikes. Or was it a quad bike showroom that sells the most delicious home-baked quiches? Either way, there was a dilemma: which did I want to have the most? Click here!

August is also the perfect month for planting daffodil bulbs – also toxic, by the way, although no-one would ever suggest banishing them from our gardens. Remembering Wordsworth’s immortal words on the subject, this post (click here) looked at how to create drifts of colour that look as if they have been growing there since the poet’s days.

September: back on Exmoor, my spiritual home and, to my prejudiced mind at least, England’s most beautiful National Park for another visit. The tiny village of Exford lies at its centre. Exford’s church pre-dates the Norman Conquest of 1066 and the post (click here) looks at its Celtic origin.

October: travelling again, this time to the south of France. Staying in the foothills of the Pyrenees it would have been easy to write about the magnificent mountain views, the gentle Blonde Aquitaine cattle or the fine dining in every wayside café.

Blonde d'Aquitaine copyright

However, it was on the drive home that we discovered the village of Aurignac and marvelled at its silent streets and historic houses that appeared untouched by modern living. It was only later that I discovered it was hiding an even more ancient secret – it was the place where man’s first footsteps in Europe over 40,000 years earlier took place.

Even if you’re not too interested in pre-history it is well worth clicking here to look at the photographs on the post of this enchanting place.

Wind Hill (10) copyright

December: It wouldn’t be Christmas without a bunch of mistletoe hanging somewhere in the house to catch visitors for the traditional kiss. This month’s post (click here) looks at the tradition which is now spreading worldwide. It also explains how to grow your very own mistletoe plants so that you never have to be unloved in the years to come.

Mistletoe (7) copyright

A rather belated Happy New Year to you all!

2014 in Review: July – December

Posted on January 3, 2015 by johnshortlandwriter

Christmas has been and gone, even the New Year is a few days old. A time of old traditions and also some new ones – one of which is the review of the year past. The first six months can be found by clicking here; now for the next six.

This is the time of feasting, of plenty but in days gone by the essential time of year was harvest. Without a successful gathering of the corn life during winter would be tough for country folk. Harvest, which starts here in July, is still one of the busiest times of the farming year and despite modern machinery replacing many of the labouring jobs in many ways the task remains unchanged. As a young man I helped on what must have been one of the last farms to harvest in the ‘old way’. Working from dawn to dusk, it was hard but we didn’t stop until we knew “all was safely gathered in”…

I tend to avoid Exmoor, England’s smallest National Park, in August for it can become quite busy with visitors (I’m selfish and don’t want to share it with others). This year was different and I arrived in glorious sunshine, the perfect time to see the heather moorland which is in full bloom this month, a purple haze. To keep it looking as perfect as in the image below, the moors are set alight, an ancient practice known as ‘swaling’. The resultant new growth provides food for the sheep, the wild ponies and the other wild birds and animals that roam the moor…

Horses play an important part in my life and in September the Burghley Horse Trials take place. The trials feature three elements of horsemanship: dressage, show jumping and cross-country. It takes a brave horse and rider to tackle the latter element for the course is very testing and some of the jumps huge. Accidents do occur, fortunately rarely seriously but when there is a problem with perhaps a fence needing repair, part of my job is to prevent other competitors from running into them. Stop That Horse! lets on what happens ‘behind the scenes’…

The story of Lorna Doone and John Ridd, the man who saved her is a well-known and much loved tale of romance and treachery, set on 17th century Exmoor. Many of the places and people – but not all – that feature in the book do or did exist. In October I explored what is fact and what is myth? Click here to find out…

There can be fewer more bizarre buildings in the world than The Pineapple in Scotland. In November I was lucky enough to stay there and to explore the other fascinating and ruined buildings associated with it. I also found time to travel further afield and take in the spectacular scenery around Loch Lomond…

Rummaging in a cupboard at home in December I came across some old photographs that had been inherited many years earlier. Noticing a signature and doing some research turned into something far more exciting than I ever could have imagined – it turned out to be ‘a great game’…

2015 looks to be a good year with a number of exciting projects and travel ahead giving plentiful topics for blogging. May it be a good one for you too. Thank you for your support and may the New Year bring you all health and happiness.

2014 in Review: the first six months

Posted on December 21, 2014 by johnshortlandwriter

So another year is almost over and it certainly has been a busy one for me. Living and working in the spectacular Cotswold countryside, a classified area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is a great treat and one of which I never tire. It’s also nice to go off exploring other places so 2014 found me in other parts of the UK and Ireland too. One of the first places I visited, however, was only twenty miles down the road but light years apart in reality!

typical Cotswold countryside

Like many people that live close to tourist attractions I don’t often visit the ones on my doorstep but last January found me walking the streets of Oxford. I hadn’t come to explore the colleges but the covered market which dates back more than two hundred years. The history of the market and the building is fascinating and is well worth making the time to visit – especially if you like a bargain. To read more about it and to see other photos click here.

One of the fathers of ecological writing died tragically young and in February I matched quotations from his work to images I had taken (to see them, click here). My favourite was noticed by the Society that bears his name and reprinted in their journal. I felt very honoured!

Wild and rugged scenery is often best appreciated over cake and coffee and at Watersmeet in Exmoor National Park you can do just that. Two rivers collide spectacularly besides the Victorian fishing lodge that is now owned by the National Trust and run as a café. March found me walking through beautiful scenery as well as indulging myself and the link to this remote but very accessible place is here.

Dublin, the capital city of Ireland is a favourite place of mine and in April I visited the Casino Marino, one of the most impressive and perfect neo-classical buildings in Europe. Everything about it was designed to deceive so although you only see one window on each side you actually have – well, click here to find out what plus all the other deceptions the Georgian architect managed to fit in.

Planting trees is a long term project for they rarely mature during the life of the planter. Of all the hundreds I have done in my professional life none has given me as much pleasure as this particular one. I have waited for years for it to flower and in May it did so for the first time. I felt quite emotional – it was a case of finding a handkerchief. Take a look by clicking the link here.

The Cotswolds are world renowned for their ‘chocolate box’ village scenes and Lower Slaughter must be one of the contenders. Despite its name it is a beautiful and tranquil place to visit for it has everything from crystal clear trout streams to olde-world stone cottages to a mill complete with working water wheel. If you choose the right time to explore you can have the place to yourself. To learn more click the June link here.

The Scottish Pineapple

Posted on November 15, 2014 by johnshortlandwriter

The statement “I have been living in a Pineapple” may give cause for surprise but is, in fact, quite true for I have just returned from a brief trip to Scotland. To stay in a building that puts a smile on your face whenever you catch a glimpse of it ought to be on everyone’s ‘to do’ list – if it is, The Pineapple is the place to go.

Originally part of the Dunsmore Estate, it was gifted to the National Trust for Scotland in 1974 and leased to the Landmark Trust who undertook its restoration. Neglected for very many years, the Pineapple proved to be in remarkably good condition for every ‘leaf’ was designed to prevent water collecting within it and damaging the stonework. The remainder of the property was very unstable and derelict.

When the two walled gardens were enclosed at Dunsmore in the mid 1700’s there was no ‘big house’ attached. They were purely used for producing a supply of fruit, vegetables and flowers to be sent to the Earl of Dunmore’s home in Argyll. It was some years later (it is thought) that the Pineapple was added as a folly and summerhouse, probably after the Earl’s return from Virginia and the Bahamas where he was Governor.

Why a pineapple? In the eighteenth century, pineapples were a rare luxury that had become associated with wealth and hospitality. They began to appear on pillars, railings and weather vanes and, indoors on fabrics and wall coverings. The building of The Pineapple was, perhaps, the grandest of all grand gestures.

Although the building is of such high quality in both its materials, cratsmanship and design it was barely recorded in contemporary writing and its designer remains unknown. One possible reason for this is that it may have been just a little too ‘over the top’ even for flamboyant Georgian taste. It is even quite probable that the Pineapple may have been painted. The doorway of the undercroft is a very accurate timber carving of Ionic pillars beyond which stone steps lead to the raised northern lawn. From this lawn there is level access to the summerhouse.

Either side of the Pineapple are two small cottages, formerly gardener’s bothys. These have been fully restored by the Landmark Trust to create holiday accomodation with living room and kitchen in one and bedrooms in the other. The north garden and the Pineapple room are for the private use of guests, the south lawn and gardens are open to the public.

To be able to grow pineapples required specialist knowledge and skills as well as additional warmth. Glasshouses flanked the south wall and were heated by the use of specially constructed hollow walls. At the foot of these, fires were lit and flues within the wall drew the heat upwards, warming the brickwork. The four decorative urns to either side of the Pineapple conceal chimneys and because of there similarity to those at Casino Marino in Dublin (to read about this extraordinary building click here), it has been suggested that the designer could be Sir William Chambers although there is no documented evidence to suggest this. At intervals on the southern side of the walls I found sliding stones which could be removed presumably to allow the heat to escape.

In 1820 William Wilkins, architect of the National Gallery in London, designed a house in the Tudor Gothick style. Dunsmore Park’s glory was, however, short-lived for by 1911 the family had left although it remained occupied until 1964 after which it was abandoned. It is now a ruin visible across the fields from the Pineapple. Another ruin, now very unstable, and also visible from the Pineapple, is the Elphinstone Tower. Of earlier origin, built about 1510, it became the family vault of the Dunmore family in 1836 with a church built alongside a few years later. This was demolished in the 1960’s. Their fascinating stories will be subjects of this blog in due course.

With so much history and beautiful scenery close by – Loch Lomond is only a short drive away – the Pineapple makes a great and intriguing place to use as a base for exploring the area. The grounds are open free to the public all year but the building is at its best during the hours when you are alone to enjoy its eccentricity and splendid isolation.