A Royal Visitor

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales paid a visit to the Gardens on a very foggy day earlier this week. Prince Charles toured the Gardens in the company of the Trust Director and Estate Manager, chatting to the gardeners and volunteers to find out more about their work and about the historic follies that give the site its uniqueness. The Prince spent the day visiting the Barnsley region and came along to the Gardens to unveil a plaque commemorating the start of the project to restore our Victorian Conservatory. The Trust was granted funding by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the European Regional Development Fund, English Heritage and the Country Houses Foundation to undertake a complete restoration of the glasshouse first built in the 1880s. The volunteers also raised the magnificent sum of £25000 to go towards the project. Work now starts in earnest and it's hoped to have the Conservatory open to the public in the summer of 2013.

Another visitor this week was this Robin who popped into the office to say hello. He seemed to take a fancy to my cheese sandwiches.

The bird-feeder in the Gardens has been very busy this week with plenty of Nuthatches, Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Great Tits and Long-tailed Tits all competing to get to the seed. The Tawny Owls are making lots of noise as the light fades in the evenings and are wonderful to hear when the Gardens are quiet.

Exciting news!

At long last we are about to start work to restore our Victorian Conservatory. Built around 1885 the cast iron Conservatory was bought from Chelmsford company Crompton & Fawkes and featured a geometrically patterned tiled floor, complex heating system and a rare luxury at that time - electric lighting. Also innovative for the time was a rainwater collection system which diverted the water from the glass roof into an underground storage tank via the cast iron columns.

Now in a sorry state, the conservatory is to be fully restored and is scheduled to be open to the public in the summer of 2013. The garden team have already carried out preparatory work on the site, moving and replanting some of the Rhododendrons and the contractors will begin work very soon. I'll post regular updates as project moves forward.





Elsewhere in the Gardens, the mild weather has been a bonus. The native primroses (Primula vulgaris) are in bloom alongside Lady Lucy's Walk and in the Union Jack Garden. Purple Cyclamen are still flowering and looking beautiful in the low winter sun.

The early flowering Rhododendron Nobleanum with its lovely scarlet blooms is showing well in the Victorian Flower Garden and the first Hellebores are starting to flower, bowing their heads in the breeze. There's still a long way to go until spring but the Gardens have a lovely feel to them as the days once more begin to lengthen.