Sockburn Hall

Today I went back to the house where my mother lived from about 12 years old to 22 when she was married and my Grandparents lived until 1952. My grandfather died in 1947 and my Grandmother moved in 1952. I used to stay there when my parents went off fishing before the War, so remember it mostly as an under 9, but the house downstairs till I was 22. The garden was going backwards fast from the beginning of the war. The double tennis courts were ploughed up to plant potatoes and the rest was too much for the elderly gardener who was left after the 'call up'.

The first purchasers in 1952 were known as the Forty Thieves and they sold off the timber. Then it was bought by a man who really did want to live there but his wife didn't. During those years pigs were kept in the down-stairs rooms. the next purchasers were the parents of the present owners. As can happen to anyone, things moved against them. The mother died young of breast cancer and the house had been her dream. It was a house designed to be lived in by a family with quite a large domestic and outside staff and the post-war situation did not support that. The place gradually went backwards, the house as well as the garden.

Many years later, a member of the next generation came to see the place for the first time and fell in love with it. She offered her Aunt help to try to improve the situation. Once given permission, with all the enthusiasm of youth, she ran with it. She raised all sorts of funds, not to restore it but to do some preliminary work. What was the task?

Probably the most important was the Conyers Chapel - All Saints. It was "a sacred place of coronation and consecration, where Higbald was crowned Bishop of Lindisfarne in 781, followed, in 796, by Eanbald as Archbishop of York." (The Legend of the Sockburn Worm, the Dragon of the Tees by Paul Telfer.) It contains the most incredible collection of ancient decorated stones. There is also the effigy of Sir John Conyers, from the 13th Century. He "lies recumbent, his legs crossed, as though resting after his heroic duel with the 'monstrous and poisonous worm'. But while good Sir John takes his well-earned rest, the battle between Good and Evil, continues at his feet, where a winged serpent, or wyvern, and a dog, or lion, are locked in perpetual mortal combat." Sadly, I did not take a picture today. I grew up with him as a very important item in my consciousness. This building is Grade 1.

Apart from clearing the brambles, thistles and nettles from around it, there was little to do. It is now easy to approach.

The site of the old medieaval manor is in a field to the south of the current house. This is a registered site and is preserved because the field is grazed, not ploughed. It remains in the ownership of the owners of the house. All the rest of the Estate has passed into other hands.

The house itself is listed 2* It was built in the 19th Century by the Conyers, I think, though it may have been the Blackets, who followed them. It was not lived in for a number of years after my Grandparents left and by the time the current family bought it, there was already some deteriortation. Gradually since then things have gone from bad to worse and now it is uninhabitable, though the entrance hall (a large room) is still mostly usable and today, we had a picnic lunch in there with a roaring wood fire in the grate. I also went into the library. Sadly the drawing room, the dining room and the billiard room were out of bounds. There are patches of rot in the floors and in the hall a large area has collapsed into the cellar, so is fenced off. This prevents entrance to the bottom of the stairs and also the back quarters.

Coming in from the double back door, the roof has fallen in over the passage which leads straight to the hall door. I was able to see the kitchen. In Granny's day, the windows were all at a great height but the current owners altered that so that you can see out. (Not at all proper that the servants might possibly see the owners in their garden!) I also saw the Butler's pantry where he cleaned the silver and washed the glass. I was not able to see into the Servant's Hall - a fairly small room where they ate and where the parrot Joey lived or the sewing room beyond. I saw the bottom of the stairs that led to the butlers room and the lady's maid's room. Further along there was staircase that led up to the second story where the rest of the domestic staff had their rooms.

Tomorrow I shall talk about the gardens.

Three days in the life of..........

Up till a few days ago, there were two Bird Cherries outside our back gate, that looked like magpie's nests and came to the ground. They were dying back and we feared that we would lose them. A man from the Council came to see them and decided that if they were given a thorough hair-cut, they might get a new lease of life. The picture shows them as they are now. The one on the left is still rather a birds nest and only a couple of feet have been trimmed off the bottom, though the hight has been considerably reduced as well as the diameter. The one on the right is the faintest shaddow of its former self. They formed a solid barrier before!

Yesterday, I walked round the garden early and found this violet out. It is so tiny I did not think I would manage to take its picture, but the macro setting worked its magic. And then I found the first of the Cellandines. We are inundated with them but have to admit that they have a lovely flower. Also the very first of the Aubretia is showing colour.

I know that those who live in the South will be bored by these flowers by now - only 60 miles south of here today, all sorts of things are blooming - daffodils fully out and such like. But, hey-ho, we have to be happy with what we get and enjoy them regardless.

And so we reach today. I drove down to my old home and had lunch with my brother who lives there. Later I walked up the village to the brand new Village Hall, which was to be opened by Tanni Gray-Thompson. It is a very handsome building and very green. It is heated by a borehole - brother explained how it works but I am not a lot wiser! I can just tell you that there are 2, (or was it 3?), bore holes over 300ft deep, in which a liquid is heated. It circulates up and down and heats the water that heats the building.

The hall was opened by Tanni Gray-Thompson, who lives in the neighbourhood and knows people in the village. What a lovely person she is! I had a long chat with her, which was a great pleasure for me.

I can't show a picture of the main room in the Hall as it was full of people who are recognisable in pictures I took. I will put up this one though. It is of two old things who used to play together, with others, in the village 70 years ago! We had not met for many years, even though Mary has lived in the same house all these years. What a time we had with "Do you remember........?" Oh, so nostalgic! And now she is 79 and I am 78

The Camelia

Having failed abysmally to put these two pictures up in the Common Room of Purple Coo, I am putting them here.

I went to visit a lovely old lady of 94, whose grape vine I have been looking after. She has a large Camilia which she brought to Northumberland about 20 years ago. It was then in a fairly small pot and she planted it in a hole in the ground in her Conservatory. As you can see, it is now a good sized shrub. The macro picture of the 2 flowers give an excellent idea of the colour. She had rung me to say it was just about at its best and that I should go and look at it - hence the visit.

March 1st flowers

Here are the plants that are in flower on March 1st.

This is one whose name has escaped me -

And this is Viburnam Bodnantense New Down, in flower since September

A Polyanthus

Mahonia aquifolia.

Iris sibirica, outside

The pan that I have put up before is still in flower with the Iris.

Helibore - of the 'Purple' colour

This Hebe goes on and on.

Erica carnea and snowdrops make a good combination

Garrya eliptica is still going strong, though it will soon be very 'hung-over'






Hamamelis mollis is also still going but showing signs of ageing.

These Daffodils have just crept in!

The Aconites are the last bastions of early spring and the Crocus is a harbinger of later spring.

Another garden Development

Today, we took an evergreen out of one of the beds in the garden and planted two more Betula ermanii pendula. There is one Betula there already and this year, for the first time, it has a ceamy white stem. It is in the bed where the lilies grow from which I took my avatar.
There use to be an old cherry in this bed, with a stem that went round and round. Difficult to describe. And there was also an Ash which was self -own. One year when we were away, it pushed down the 2* listed wall because it had got too fat, so it was summarily removed. Things around there grew much better after that, but the cherry still inhibited things with its shade. About four years ago, it decided to turn up its toes - old age. I took the chance to change things more than somewhat. I increased the size of the bed and planted lots of shrub, the lilies and other bulbs. I had put in a conifer near the wall soon after I arrived and after the cherry went, it took off and would have achieved a good a good size, given half a chance.It is in the background of this snowy picture. Today, we took it out and there is no doubt in my mind that it should never have been there! I had bought 2 more Betula ermanii pendula afew days ago, and after removing the conifer, we planted on to the left and one very close to where the conifer was, As they develop, I plan to clear stuff round them and plant bulbs etc underneath. This is an example of a garden developing, as it should.
The top picture is rather dark I am afraid but it does show the bed without the conifer and if you look very hard you can see the two labels on the new trees, well to the left of the old one and a little to the right.
Below, you can see the 3 stakes of the 2 new and 1 old tree.
If I live long enough I will put up a picture of the patch after it has developed to how I imagine it will be!

Conversation with Dr Stuart Burgess

Yesterday, about 13 of us gathered in Wooler, in Northumberland, to discuss Rural problems and the ecumenical Church's place in the countryside with Dr Stuart Burgess.
Stuart is the Government's Rural Advocate and Chair of the Commission for Rural Communities. He reports directly to the Prime Minister and works closely with Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He is also a practicing Methodist with a deep faith.

The group consisted of The Archdeacon of Lindesfarne, The Diocesan Rural Officer (who is also our Vicar), 3 or 4 other vicars, a man who is working in the field of farming problems and deprivation, 2 Methodists, also with interests/responsibilities in the field, and an ex head teacher who is also involved with the Church, the wife of one of the Vicars and two or three others. Stupidly I did not note down everyone.

We had a wide ranging discussion about the difficulties facing Rural Communities. Stuart is leading an Upland Farming Inquiry, which he says must be wider than just hill farms and look into social and community problems. He is looking for evidence and during the 12 week consultation period is going to a number of parts of the country that come under the heading, including Northumberland. The official launch will be on February 11th and the Report will be out in the summer.

As we are going from a 3 tier Local Authority to 2 tier in May, so losing the layer nearest to the people i.e. the District Councils, (I am not counting the Parish councils here), there are a number of worries for everyone, not least the rural communities. The CAB is having funding problems as the Districts used to support them extensively but the new County is going to have severe financial difficulties itself. (Does Iceland ring any bells?) This means that the rapidly increasing numbers of people with financial concerns and debts, may not have that source of help. This led to a long discussion on how you define poverty and the hidden poor.

We moved on to important requirements for the Rural Communities.
The Rural Economy is very important for the future sustainability of the countryside. And that is dependent on good, fast Broadband to a large extent.
Affordable Rural Housing is essential to help prevent the flow of the younger population of villages to the urban environment. With affordable housing, you keep the younger people and also the shop, Post Office and First Schools. (In Northumberland we currently have 3 tier education, so the First Schools are much smaller than in 2 tier and therefore more vulnerable.)
There is often resistance to affordable houses. Most people agree that they are needed but "that site in the next village would be so much better" It is usually the incomers from the urban areas who have this reaction. It is Stuart's view that every village should have a dozen affordable houses and some system should be in place to prevent them being sold on into the ordinary market. Something such as a Community Trust can acquire the land and build the houses. When a person moves on, only the equity share can be taken out. Not sure what that means exactly but the result is that the house is there for another needy person. A Community Trust could also build a Care Home, to serve a smallish area so that the elderly can stay in touch with the community from which they come.

We ended with a discussion about the part the Church - of whatever denomination - should play in rural life. Stuart believes that all branches of the ecumenical Church should be getting their act together, stop worrying about the things like Women Bishops and sexual orientation (C of E) and restructuring (Methodists) and concentrating on what they can do for village communities. He believes that Church land should be used wherever possible for building affordable homes. As all other public buildings will disappear, if they have not done so already, the Churches, usually Anglican, should be used properly instead of once a week (or even once a month). They should become the focal point of the Settlement. They can contain a Post Office, a Shop, an Internet Café, and even a Doctor's Surgery. None of this will interfere with its original purpose of worship, but will make proper use of a building that is frequently listed.
We should also as congregations by trying to decide what contribution we can make to slowing climate change.

I am sure we talked about plenty more, but that is the extent of my notes. Tourism was another subject that was touched on as an important contributor to the rural economy, but bringing some conflict with rural dwellers/farmers.

It was a very worth-while day, spent with a highly intelligent man who was prepared to listen to everything we had to say, as well as share his views with us. And added to that, the drive to and from Wooler was through gorgeous Northumbrian countryside made even more beautiful by the snow.

Flowers out on February 1st

This morning I went out into a dark and gloomy garden to look for flowers that were blooming. It was necessary to do it today because there is heavy snow forcast which will put paid to some of these. The aconites above will press on under the snow, regardless and of course the somewhat late Christmas Cactus will be happy in the Conservatory.

There are a lot of snowdrops coming out, they too will survive happily under the snow, as will the Erica carnea.
The Garria elliptica catkins are lengthening well, though they never get as long as some Garria.

The Hebe is doing very well. I think it must be one of the really hardy ones, unlike the other, which was fine on New Year's Day, but has looked sadder and sadder since. Still there are these 2 flowers trying to come out.

The Helibore is trying hard and there are others that will be out soon. They too should not be bothered too much by the snow.

The Jasminum nudiflorum is a bit messy. It has not been a mass of colour - just odd ones coming out and the rest going over.

More snowdrops here, while the Mahonia

Bailii is really over but there are a few florets still out.

A bad picture of Viburnam bodnantense, sorry. It has been out since September, going off a bit if toooo cold but then coming back. It will go on till about May probably

And finally the Witch Hazel. It should not like this soil - on limestone - but lots of ericaceous compost and fequent talking to it telling it it is loved, seem to be working. It was planted last early winter, with a few flowers only. I am thrilled with it this time and the amount of growth too.