I have been a supporter of Perennial, the horticultural charity, for some years now and one of the programme of events to raise funds that they run is the ability to visit amazing gardens that you might not otherwise get the chance to see. You usually get a nice lunch and the company is always good, so when the garden visit programme came out earlier this year I did my usual look to see which of the gardens I could get to. This year there was the chance to visit Biddulph Old Hall, a place I admit I had not heard of and that was reason enough for me to pay my money and book my place.
My oh my what a good choice this was. Let me take a breath and try to give you a small flavour of this incredible place.
Biddulph Old Hall is close to Leek and Congleton and beautifully situated in the Staffordshire Moorlands. You wind through roads, up and down hills and then you go through a fairly ordinary gate, past a farm and then nestled in a dell there is this delightful home. The origins of the current building date from the 1400s. It was owned by the Biddulph family who owned the Biddulph estate including Biddulph Grange a few miles down the road. The Old Hall was originally a hunting lodge and the tower you can see was built so that the 'ladies' of the house could watch for the men processing towards the lodge with their hunting kills. Time moves on and in 1530 the family decide to create it more into a home they could live in and work began on creating a larger mansion. The family were loyal Catholics which meant they came under a lot of financial pressure during this period. This restricted their ability to complete the mansion as they had wanted it to be. Fast forward to the Civil War and the family were Royalists in a very Parliamentary area. The house was attacked (evidence of cannon ball damage can still be seen) and the men imprisoned and the woman cast out. The woman eventually after much hardship were allowed to return, but their finances were kept low. The mansion had been destroyed and so they returned to live in the original part of the house. The very picturesque ruins of the mansion now form the outer walls of the white courtyard garden.
Bryan Vowles, who bought the house with his late partner Nigel Daley and Nigel's brother David, told us this story with great affection and great knowledge. We were all hooked on his every word. As the story moved on we moved around the garden. They bought the garden in 2004 and it was in quite a state of neglect by that point.
Bryan and Nigel set to work restoring the hall, ensuring that its histories were not lost. There is a Madonna in front of the wing of the house that was built to house the Catholic chapel when catholicism was allowed to be worshipped again in England.There is a shining gold Buddha to remember when the Hall was owned in the 1960s by a leading Buddhist organisation. What Bryan and Nigel had been using as a 'coal hole' had been used previously as a buddhist meditation cell. When they were told this they restored the 'cell' so that this moment in time would not be lost.
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