About 40 mins to the South of us, Biddulph Grange stands near the border of Staffordshire and Cheshire, quite close to The Cloud.
https://wizzley.com/the-cloud-1/
Landowner James Bateman developed the gardens at Biddulph Grange, on the Cheshire /Staffordshire border when he bought the house in 1840. He designed it with his friend Edward Cooke and used plants and ideas that he had gathered and had plant hunters and collectors ship plants back to England for him.
The gardens are landscaped in true Victorian style and have several themed areas including Italianate terraces, Egyptian and Chinese themed gardens. The house is privately owned but the gardens are owned by the National Trust who after decades of neglect, brought the gardens back to their Victorian beauty and elegance.
( The original house burned down in the 1890's and was rebuilt but kept the name Grange )
The photos are my own and taken by me.
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Comments
The Cheshire house was very spartan inside as it is a folly, a rich man's folly built purely to show how wealthy they were to be able to waste so much money.
Yes the little man is my pride and joy, my beautiful grandson 4 year old. my descendant. I love him more than I love myself.
Veronica, Thank you for the tour and particularly the pictures of the bug hotel, folly and withy work. What does the inside of Cheshire House look like? Is the intrepid explorer of the stepping stones and the withy work one of your descendants or relatives?
Don't over-rate me, but thanks anyway. There are subjects at which I am not wonderful, for example maths, but my real Achilles heel is my weakness at art, at which I am very poor.
Hello Sheila . TY It is a lovely place to visit.
Frank's a genius; he brightens any discussion. He's the oldest and I think he got all the brains.
Nice photos, Veronica. I enjoyed your article and the discussion with Frank.
BSG
Yes indeed. I was rather intrigued by it too. I had certainly never seen one like this before. It's great idea though. I could imagine his turmoil trying tor reconcile his beliefs with his desire to be scientific.
Regardless of what people's creation beliefs are, I felt it was worth recording on here as a discussion point.
I find the fossil wall interesting, and the attempts to make Genisis match would not be uncommon long ago.
One peculiar fact is that at Cistercian sites there will be no evidence of a mill, as the Cistercians were not allowed to own mills [I know not why] but the Sauvignacs were, and after the merger the Sauvignacs kept their mills as part of the deal.
The previous history of Biddulph Grange must be interesting then.
Some facts about the Cistercians. They are the quintessential silent monks, talking only when necessary. Unlike the Benedictines, who were gardeners,the Cistercians were expert sheep farmers, which is why they had the Granges, which were sheep farms some distance from the parent monastery. Monks would be sent to the Granges, as the abbot decided, but he or the prior would perform visitations to check on them.
Much of upland Britain is ideal sheep territory, so areas like Staffordshire, which consist of low hills, were used as sheep range to support England's immense mediaeval export trade in wool. The trade now has declined, but as man-made fibres decline as they are based on oil, which is running out, wool will come again to the fore, as will other natural fibres.