Biddulph Grange Garden

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We woke up this morning to another glorious day! That makes three days in a row of blue skies and sunshine which is a rare thing indeed here in England. Since the weather was so beautiful we decided to drive back down to Congleton to visit some more NT properties in that area.

Our first stop was at Mow Cop Folly - the ‘ruin’ that we could see last Sunday from Little Moreton Hall. Edna is still earning her keep as she managed to guide us to Mow Cop without any trouble. Unfortunately, Mow Cop is not a NT property that is in her database so she could not get us right to the folly - just to the village of Mow Cop. That was a bit frustrating as we could then see the folly up on the hill we just could not find the lane that would take us to it!! Eventually we decided to park the car and walk to the top of the hill.

We came at the folly from the back so Bernie promptly decided that we could scale that aspect like mountain goats!! I should have known better than to follow along - I should have headed for the sign post that I thought I could see to check if it was pointing out the correct route to take!! So, we clambered almost to the top of the bluff (without even being able to see the actual folly!), where we were confronted with a ‘Private’ sign. Not to mention that we simply could not climb any further without ropes and pitons!!!! Although Bernie reckons that he could have done it if he didn’t have to worry about how he would get me up there too??????

Needless to say we then had to pick our way back down to where we started from! I went over to the sign post and decided that the path it was pointing to looked like a much easier and more sensible route. This track was indeed much, much easier and delivered us to the top of the bluff - and the folly - in just a few minutes of easy walking. And when we got there we could see that we could have driven the car almost to the foot of the bluff and parked in the car park provided by the NT - if we had been able to find the right lane to enter from!!!
Anyway the important thing is that we finally achieved our objective and the views from the top were absolutely worth it. On such a beautiful day we could see for miles and miles in every direction. We snapped away taking heaps of photos of the folly itself and shots of the surrounding counties: north towards Jodrell Bank and Manchester (Lancashire), west towards Nantwich (Cheshire) and south towards Newcastle and Stoke-On-Trent (Staffordshire). Between us I don’t think we actually snapped any photos towards the east and Derbyshire???

We walked back to where we had left the car and re-programmed Edna for Biddulph Grange Garden - a NT property that she does have stored in her memory bank! So, it was an absolute breeze driving from Mow Cop to Biddulph where Edna delivered right to the car park at the gardens. We flashed our Aussie NT membership cards at the desk and picked up our information guide for the gardens.

James Batemen created the garden between 1841 and 1868 together with his wife, Maria, and friend, Edward Cooke. They designed the garden to be a series of gardens within a garden with a cleverly planned framework of hedges, rocks, banks and planting concealing each separately themed area of the garden. With such a huge garden at our feet we decided to follow the suggested route in our information guide so as not to miss anything!

So, we started in Italy which contained a variety of rhododendrons, azaleas and bedding plants then proceeded down Lime Avenue and then back into the Araucaria (Monkey Puzzle Tree) Parterre overlooking the lake. We had bought a bag of fish food from the gift shop on our way in so threw some of the pellets to the fish in the lake resulting in feeding frenzy of mature (orange) and immature (dark grey) carp!

From the parterre we ambled around the lake to the main rhododendron ground and the old tennis lawn. We were supposed to look out for the upside down trees that are a feature here, but we have no idea what those were?! The views from here back across the lake to the house were gorgeous with all the rhododendrons and azaleas in full bloom. The house is not actually part of the NT holding here it has been redeveloped into nine luxury apartments. Judging by the cars parked in the private driveway area that we passed on the way in - Porsche Cayenne, Mercedes Sports to name a few - the apartments are owned by people with some serious money!!!

Next we walked through the Pinetum (which included the old bowling green and quoits lawn) to the Cheshire Cottage which lead out into an Egyptian Courtyard. From here we walked to the end of Wellingtonia Avenue which was restored in 1996 with Wellingtonias planted alternately with Deodar Cedars. Back in the main part of the garden we viewed the Cherry Orchard and Woodland Terrace before venturing through the stumpery to China. The stumpery is a curious Victorian affectation where they planted their fern specimens amongst a jumbled arrangement of gnarly oak tree roots??!

China was laid out to resemble a Willow Pattern design with a temple, bridge and Joss House surrounded by a representation of the Great Wall of China complete with Watchtower and Bastion gate!! And, of course, showcased plants and trees (in particular Acers and Golden Larch) brought back from the Far East. A tunnel at the end of the temple led us through a grotto and ice-house and into a Scottish Glen. The drop in temperature between the two gardens was amazing and really demonstrated the way in which the designers of the garden were able to create microclimates to support plants from different origins!

From Scotland we took the path back around the lake and finished off with the Dahlia Walk (which apparently will look fabulous in August/September), Mosaic Parterre and Mrs Bateman’s Garden. These parterres were amongst the earliest parts of the garden and designed for small groups of plants and individual specimens that people could walk close to, to admire them.

We finished with a quick visit to the museum area under the steps to Italy. It had a very interesting display about the plant hunters who travelled to all the corners of the globe to bring back new plants to English collectors. It was a competition to see who could bring back the most exotic new plants and some hunters stripped the areas where they found plants (in particular orchids) bare so that other collectors would not be able to have any of that specimen!! They certainly weren’t concerned about preservation of habitat and conservation in those days, simply about having a more impressive plant collection than the next rich man with an interest in botany!!

Bernie said that Ian should have been born into a rich land owning family in this era as he could have indulged his passion for collecting plants to the full. On the flip side, I wondered what these plant hunters and collectors would think of Ian ordering seeds from all over the world using the internet!!?? I am going to quiz Ian when we arrive home to see if he has read all of this detail that I have included about the garden at Biddulph Grange for the benefit of any plant enthusiasts reading it???!

After our visit to Little Moreton Hall last weekend we came across a photo of the hall taken with the moat in the foreground. It was a really effective shot that we wished we had thought to capture for ourselves!! Since Little Moreton Hall is only about six miles from Biddulph we decided to drive back over for a couple more photos. With our photo of the moat and manor captured we went back into the house itself and discovered a minstrel performing in the courtyard this afternoon. He was playing a variety of mediaeval instruments which was very interesting to see - even if the stringed instrument did sound somewhat like a cat being strangled!! We took some video so we shall have to see if we can load that onto the blog?



From Little Moreton Hall, Edna took us back to Stalybridge via the A34 rather than taking us back on the M6 as she did last Sunday. It is good to know that she is really thinking about planning the quickest route for us and not just selecting the same route all the time just because she has been that way before!!!

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