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Published: January 11th 2021
Day 295 of Lockdown.
It is the first month of the year and it is me Gabby the motorhome . They have deserted me almost a month ago. They drove me up the potholed road on the 18th December . The driver has been up twice to check me over and that is it . Left alone in the cold . Unloved. Unwanted . Unused . I feel dumped. I am muddy . That is from the mud on the road when they brought me to the walled garden. They never bothered to wash me and get me clean again. They told me the walled garden was salubrious. I would enjoy it there along with the other overwinterers . Well that is not true . I am wedged up to a wall with a few bits of farm machinery to my right and another motorhome to my left . It too looks unloved . The gates are padlocked . No-one comes in and out . Barbed wire and electric fences kept me safe . The gate is covered by CCTV and the chain around the gate is the thickest I have ever seen.It is not cheap to keep me here . In fact for this price I would expect luxury. Luxury this is not . There is a large RV in front of me with a steering lock on to prevent anyone stealing it . And a green caravan . It is not really green. It has been there so long it has grown roots and is covered with green mould . I wondered if it had been abandoned by its owners . It reminded me of an Austrian or a Slovenian campsite where a caravan rolls up and pitches up . Over the years it acquires a tent , a lean to , a toilet , an outdoor area and a coating of green mould on its tarpaulin. Happy Days I thought and then I heard it.
A car had rolled up and stopped at the gate . It took a while for whoever was coming in to open the car door, walk to the gate and put in the code . I heard the gate opening and footsteps . It was the driver and the navigator coming to take me away . Welcome , Welcome I thought. I heard the clunk of the key opening my door looks and unalarming and in they climbed . I head them talking - yes I did look awful in all that frost and ice last week , Yes you would have cried navigator if you had seen the state I was in . Yes you have neglected me . Yes you should come up more often . Lockdown is no excuse . It will be reviewed later this week . perhaps it will be lifted . Sadly Gabby I dont think that will happen . It might be reviewed but it wont be lifted for at least another three weeks and that will be another month gone down the pan .
They started to rummage in my boot and took out the Remoska and a stool . The navigator tried my battery control . She sounded despondent . She let out a "Hey - never seen that message before !!!" Seems like it come up with some battery management system check . Hope nothing is wrong with me and my nice shiny Lithium batteries . I know they dont like icy cold weather . Perhaps it is that . Or maybe they just needed a wake up. The limited Winter sun is putting a charge in and my engine battery was full of life and started first time . My leisure battery was 100%!d(MISSING)ropping to 99%!a(MISSING)s it pushed a bit of power into my engine battery . They seemed pleased . But you never can tell can you? They emptied my fridge . A packet of long life milk and a few slices of mouldy bacon . And then they left me . Again . Alone in my walled garden .
Glenn drove me down the potholed and rutted road that was shared with a few isolated bungalow, the Emral Stud and the campsite . I wondered why they did not get together and keep the road a bit more in good order . Shared with sheep it was a mess . Ziggy bounced up and down in fear of her springs . Would I camp on this David Bellamy endorsed site ? Not in the winter that was for sure . In the summer it might be a different kettle of fish but today I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole .
I was dropped off at the lodge. Originally one of three lodges leading to the once impressive Emral Hall . It was the only one left in its original form . Grade 2 listed it was "sweet ". One lodge had been knocked down in 1936 at the same time as the Hall was demolished and the second had been knocked about so much it had lost most of its Jacobean form and function . Once there were impressive gates to the Hall - long gone . An ice house - in the grounds of the Emral Stud and a lily pond and moat . In its heyday it must have been an impressive hall but it fell by the wayside much the same as the Hunlokes home Wingerworth Hall. Here though it managed to survive the lack of manpower after the First World War and only fell into decline in the 1930s when the family began to die out. It was left sideways to distant relatives who chose not to live in it . In the end it was auctioned off . It seemed from the history that its demise did start when it was leased out in 1916 and bit by bit it was sold on. In its long life it had seen some history . Built first in 1270 for Emma who was the widow of a Prince of Powys . The Pulestons who owned it were connected in some way to Owain Glyndwr and during the Civil war it had changed sides often .
Rebuilt in 1726 it was described as one of the stately homes of England despite being in Wales . The Hall I read was built three sides of a square with a north and south wing coming off the west wing . It had a commodious hall with panelled oak and two staircases . One that lead down to the moated garden and the other ascending to the wide corridors with dining room with its bow windows and coat of arms of the family. Oak panelled library and drawing room with further staircases with a dog gate. Wainscoated corridors , bedroom and many dressing rooms. A further 9 bedrooms, bathrooms and banqueting chamber . What self respecting hall would be without a banqueting hall?
The regents room , the housemaids parlour, the Housekeepers room , the servants hall and the butlers pantry . The list of rooms went on and on. Spacious kitchen , Boot room and cellars plus the stables outside . It boasted a French stone garden, herbacious borders , a rose garden within the walled garden where Gabby now languished and a fine avenue of trees . Most long gone . I looked but saw nothing to give a clue on the grandeur of the hall.
Sir Clough Ellis did manage to save a plastered ceiling and moved it to Portmeirion where it still is in situ . He failed to save much else as the V & A had no room for such stuff at the time . A sad loss but gone now .
The lodge is pretty enough. Jacobean built in Flemish bond to a Flemish design . Stone mullioned windows giving it an English feel . Stone finials and pointed gables . I loved it and wished the National Trust had taken the hall over and preserved it , Sadly they were buying up houses at the time . So many of them that houses like Wingerworth Hall and Emral Hall were all so similar that some just had to go .
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
I feel bad for Gabby...
can't you find her a proper home?!