ASA Briggs Secret Days - Codebreaking in Bletchley Park

The Bletchley Park memoir of Lord Asa Briggs will be one of the most important documents to be published in 2010. Lord Briggs has long been regarded as one of Britain’s most important historians.

He has never, however, written about his time at Bletchley Park.

The publication, which will coincide with Lord Briggs 90th birthday, is a meticulously researched account of life in Hut Six, written by a codebreaker who worked there for five years alongside Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman.

In addition to discussing the progress of the Allies’code-breaking efforts and their impact on the war, Lord Briggs considers what the Germans knew about Bletchley and how they reacted to revelatory memoirs about the Enigma machine which were not published until the 1970s.

Briggs himself did not tell his wife about his wartime career until the 1970s and his parents died without ever knowing their son’s contribution to the wartime effort.

The book will be launched at Bletchley in May 2011, in the presence of other Hut 6 veterans and part of the proceeds will be donated to the fund to restore Hut 6 to its former glory.

More information >> ASA Briggs Secret Days – Codebreaking in Bletchley Park

The Lune Aqueduct has been awarded  a £1million grant to help restore the 200 year old Grade I listed structure.

The grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) will be match funded by British Waterways, to renovate a remarkable engineering structure which carries the picturesque Lancaster Canal over the River Lune.

British Waterways submitted detailed plans to the HLF in September 2010 following two years of studies and surveys.

Restoration work will also include restoring the historic masonry and brickwork and improving access between the aqueduct and the River Lune.

There are also plans for a lighting scheme.

Funding will also provide for the employment of a full-time project officer on site to oversee the works.

Relining the Lancaster canal

Work is due to commence in January 2011 with construction including relining the canal channel, carrying out leakage repairs and structural embankment works.

The access and improvements works will be completed over the next two years.

Sara Hilton, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund North West, said:
“The Lune Aqueduct is a masterpiece of engineering, and a striking example of the impact the industrial revolution had both on the local landscape and the development of the region. This award from HLF will mean that the historic features of the aqueduct will be conserved, and public access improved so that more people will be able to explore and enjoy this heritage treasure, whilst ensuring it is preserved for future generations.”

British Waterways will be hosting a stoppage open day on 9 February where members of the public are invited to experience a ‘behind the scenes’ tour of repairs to the Lune Aqueduct on the Lancaster Canal. For further information visit www.waterscape.com

Lancaster canal

Around £2m will be spent on the project to restore the viaduct

The UK canal system was key to the industrial revolution, with the Lancaster Canal being the main conduit for the economic development of Cumbria and Lancashire for over 100 years.

The Canal was built during the 1790s with John Rennie being appointed as its Chief Engineer.

Built between 1794-97, and possibly the singular best piece of Rennie’s work, the Lune Aqueduct is the most impressive feature of the whole canal, carrying the canal 15m (50 feet) above the River Lune.

The Punchard Gill toll house in the Yorkshire Dales National Park has been restored.

Punchard Gill toll house - before restoration

Built beside the Reeth to Tan Hill road in Arkengarthdale it was used to collect tolls from passing traffic after the road was turnpiked in 1770.

Used as an agricultural store for the last 100 years it was badly in need of major repair work, according to Robert White, Senior Historic Environment Officer at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA).

“Thirteen toll houses are recorded in the National Park but their road side positions make them very vulnerable and most have been demolished or converted almost beyond recognition,” he said.

The toll house is a Grade 2 listed structure and has been described as “a rare and relatively unaltered survival of the turnpike road era in Richmondshire”.

It was on the Buildings at Risk register because of its poor condition.

Punchard Gill toll house history

Extensive work was required including re-roofing, partial underpinning and rebuilding of stonework, repointing and renewing external joinery and guttering.

Dr Margaret Nieke, Natural England’s Historic Adviser, said:  “There is so much history linked to this building – it’s fantastic to see it restored to its former glory. ”

The Reeth-Tan Hill-Brough road was turnpiked in 1770 and was improved to cope with increasing traffic, particularly from the coal field at Tan Hill, and the need to make it easier to transport smelted lead from Swaledale.

The building was sited at the edge of the enclosed land in Arkengarthdale, just as the road opens out onto moorland, in order to make it difficult to avoid paying tolls.

Punchard Gill toll house - after restoration

In 1841 it was occupied by David Raine, a toll gatherer, who was described as a roadmaker in 1851.

In 1861 the census reveals that John Calvert was a cattle jobber as well as a toll bar keeper but in 1871 the head of the household was a coal merchant and in 1881 a coal miner.

The building is not mentioned in the 1891 and 1901 census returns which suggests it was then uninhabited.

Turnpike trusts were generally wound up in the second half of the 19th century and responsibility for the roads passed to the County Councils in 1888.

More information about the Punchard Gill toll house can be found on the National Park Authority website .

The ‘lost garden’ of Elford Hall, near Lichfield in Staffordshire, is to be saved for the local community, thanks to a confirmed grant of £248,400 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the efforts of dedicated volunteers.

The walled kitchen garden and gardeners cottage is all that remains of the Georgian Elford Hall Estate, built in approximately 1825 by Henry Bowes, Earl of Berkshire and Suffolk.

Elford Garden Wall - Pic HLF

Remaining in the family until 1936, the hall, garden and outbuildings were then donated to Birmingham City Council (BCC) as a gift for local residents.

After falling into disrepair the hall was demolished in the 1960s and now the remaining garden wall and associated outbuildings are Grade II listed.

Half a mile of trees

The 12ft high wall, measuring 350ft by 300ft, encloses a space that has been largely neglected for the past 50 years and once housed half a mile of fruit trees.

The Elford Hall Gardens Management Committee is a voluntary community organisation formed in 2007 by local people determined to rescue it for community use.

They will now be able to start work restoring it to its former glory, giving local people the chance to get involved in the work and to cultivate allotments there.

Anne Jenkins, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in the West Midlands, said:

“The community has come together in support of this project to conserve an historic walled garden that will be brought back to productive use after so many years of neglect.

Volunteers will be able to gain new skills and schoolchildren learn about nature, local heritage and the environment.”

Allotments

The HLF funded project to restore the walled garden is part of a larger initiative that will see the former head gardener’s cottage restored to provide space for a coffee shop, toilets and a classroom.

There will be educational activities linked to local schools who have already expressed interest in using the garden for visits.

The Victorian gardens, herbaceous borders and orchard will be re-created, and allotments – a feature of the original gardens – will also be established giving the community an opportunity to take an active part in ensuring the site’s sustainability.

A bowling green and tennis courts will also be constructed within the garden walls, original structure and pathways restored, and routes made accessible to picnicking areas along the adjacent River Tame.

Local people have expressed their enthusiasm for this approach. Just some of the exciting volunteering and educational opportunities that the HLF project offers are:

• training and opportunities for participants to learn skills including path laying, fencing, horticultural planning, and learning about environmentally friendly methods of food production
• a gardening club for all ages with talks, events, and workshops
• a series of lectures on rural crafts from hedge laying to basket weaving
• creation of a local schools heritage trail
• working with three local schools to produce new site interpretation
• a 12 week Princes Trust training programme for fifteen young people who will help plant the orchard and herb garden

Dave Watton, Chair of the Elford Hall Gardens Management Committee said:

“We are all delighted to receive such substantial backing from the Heritage Lottery Fund which will enable us to deliver this exciting project to maintain an element of Elford’s rural heritage for the benefit of so many people in the years to come.”

When completed it will be an amazing asset not only for Elford but for the whole of Staffordshire and the wider region.

After securing funding last year from the Heritage Lottery Fund, work started on the Thomas Mawson designed, Eden Bridge Gardens in Carlisle in Autumn 2008.

Work in progress

Preliminary work at the end of 2008 saw the removal of much overgrown vegetation and some of the older trees which had compromised the stonework. This has resulted in a clearer view of the gardens from the main road and chances for the bulbs and smaller plants which have not seen daylight for many years, to show their faces.

Daffodils reach for newly discovered light

The tidy worksite currently has scaffold erected on the pavilions to allow for retiling of the roofs and repointing of the stonework.

Damaged pillars on the lower pergola have been skillfully replaced with gently tapering sandstone blocks to match the existing.

Timbers have been renewed on the upper pergola with painstaking restoration of the masonry.

Workers use the fine weather to dig out the overgrown flower beds ready for replanting and clean the wrought ironwork with wire brushes.

Hard work is soon to start on the repointing of the crazy paving paths.

New timbers adorn the upper pergola

Both the gardens and structure which have previously been overgrown are starting to breathe a new lease of life.

With the imminent onset of spring and the promise of warmer, longer days to come, it will be interesting to watch the gardens take on their former glory.

View from lower garden

Rydal Hall is situated in the heart of the English Lake District with stunning views over the Rothay Valley, with the Fairfield Horseshoe and Nab Scar as a backdrop. Most of the building was constructed in the 19th century with certain parts dating back to the 16th century.

Now the Carlisle Diocesan Retreat and Conference centre, together with being home to the international Rydal Hall Community.

Seat of the Le Fleming family for more than 400 years, Thomas H Mawson was commissioned at the beginning of the Twentieth Cebnury, to create a series of Italianate terraces sweeping down from the main house.

The gardens fell into dereliction after the Second World War and in September 2005, with grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and others, work began to restore them to their former glory. The repairs to all the stone work, urns and finials are now complete whilst the herbaceous borders, vegetable garden and landscaped grounds are undergoing long term development.

Simple in layout with little area set aside for planting, the concrete balustrades and staircases take centre stage.  A large inset fountain dominates the terrace garden with five pergolas situated around the edge utilising the existing breathtaking landscape of the Lake district beyond.  

These features are typical of Mawson, who’s grand Italianate designs had become very popular at this time.  Simple looking though this may seem, the Italian attention to detail becomes evident almost immediately.  All of the spherical finnials around the balustrades appear the same, but closer inspection reveals a slightly different design on the corners and stairways.

A pair of Lions heads flank the stairway to the terrace garden from the side garden on the left.  This smaller garden also has its own herbaceous borders.

From the main terrace garden are stunning views into the landscape beyond, but go through the iron gates and descend the diagonal stairs and you are brought to a beautiful structure resembling a roman shrine, reaching the full height of the terrace.  Its columns adding a welcome break to the towering walls.

Attention to detail is even evident in the latch on the iron gate.  This design echoes that already existing on the house and keystones of the terrace walls.

A unique feature to the coping stones is the joint structure used to anchor them in place without the use of mortar.  Perhaps somebody knows if there is an architectural term for this and indeed if this a unique to Mawson.

Herbaceous borders are few but well planted, whilst vines and roses climb over one of the pergolas creating a tranquil seat below the main house, from which to view the surroundings.

Situated just outside of Penrith in North Cumbria is the now derelict castle at Lowther.

Lowther castle

The 120 acre, Grade II listed site contains the remnants of at least three significant buildings and much of its 17th century gardens remains intact, although very overgrown and neglected.

The grounds were once opened to visitors in 1938 but after being used to test a secret tank weapon during the Second World War, the area has become a relic of its former glory.

The Castle and its Gardens have been closed for 70 years and now stand inaccessible and buried in vegetation.

The Trustees of the Lowther Castle and Gardens Trust plan to transform the imposing remains of the Gothic Castle, its massive stables and over 20 hidden gardens into a destination that will return some of the grandeur and pride to the fallen Cumbrian gem.

Stonework stored in a now leaking shed

The history of the site, its occupants and the notable names that have worked at Lowther is minutely recorded in an archive of over 2,700 steel trunks.

The Castle ruin will be stabilised but it will not be re-built. The ruin will tell the story of the houses that have occupied the site, the surrounding landscape and the stories of the people who have lived and worked at Lowther.

The record of the 130 acre gardens is extensive. The layout dates from the 17th Century but the present gardens are Edwardian and all lie buried under spruce and sycamore planted in the 1960′s.

There are over 20 different gardens at Lowther including a Japanese Garden, a Scented Garden, and an Iris Garden. Some gardens will be restored but visitors will also be able to see the remains of the Edwardian structures, lying derelict, covered in moss and lichen.

An Energy Centre will power the 130 acre site using woodchip fuel derived from the management woodlands on the Lowther Estate. The Energy Centre will house a viewing gallery and education space.

The £15m project will be carbon neutral and will be implemented over four years. The first phase is planned to open to visitors in Summer 2009.

Gallery

More information