Tag Archive | Devon

1955 University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour of the West Country

In the 1950s the University of Bristol Dramatic Society had a tradition of undertaking summer tours of West Country villages, performing one of two plays in schools, church rooms, and village, town and Women’s Institute halls. I don’t know when this tradition started, nor when it ended, but I do know that such a tour took place both in 1955 and 1956. My parents became engaged while they were on the 1955 tour, when my mother was 21 and my father about to turn 24.

1955 UBDS Players Tour programme

I know little about these tours, but during my riffling through family papers and photographs I have been able to piece together a small account of the 1955 tour. I’ll try in the coming weeks to do something similar with the 1956 one, for which I have less information. But right now the focus is on 1955.

The two plays that were performed were As You Like It by William Shakespeare, and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. The first performance of the tour was on Friday 8 July 1955, at Wells Town Hall in Somerset, and the final performance was possibly at the Town Hall, Dulverton, also in Somerset, on Thursday 4 August 1955. In between the tour travelled mainly through Somerset, but also ventured into Devon and Dorset. On Friday 29 July my parents got engaged, while they were at the Somerset village of Hardington Mandeville.

Luckily a typewritten itinerary for the tour survives, annotated by my father, as well as my mother’s diary for 1955. There is a very slight discrepancy between the two for places and dates, but I would be inclined to follow the itinerary as I think the diary entries might represent the preliminary dates given to the cast and crew, before being refined into what was presented in the typewritten itinerary. Certainly my father didn’t amend any of the dates or places on it.

The 34 photos that survive are very small black and white prints, but they can tell a lot about the life on the tour. Two lorries were packed up by the side of the Victoria Rooms in Bristol: it seems the whole production was carried in these two vehicles. The students roughed it, sleeping in the halls after the performances, or if the weather was clement, sleeping out under the stars. Each day the production had to be unpacked from the lorries, the stage, backdrop, sound and lighting, and seating for the audience set up, the costumes and make-up and wigs put on often in makeshift dressing rooms (again, sometimes outdoor ones), and the performance given. Then everything was taken down, packed up and ready for the next stop on the schedule. Sometimes there were two performances in a day, a matinee and an evening performance, in different places. Sundays were a day off.

My father’s annotations of the itinerary mark three open-air performances, and that there was no audience for the evening performance of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Women’s Institute hall in Beer, Devon, on Monday 1 August!

The photos as found were in a muddled pile, with no negatives to help with ordering them, and no annotations on the backs. I have put them in some sort of order here, but as many of the places shown are unknown to me, I almost certainly haven’t placed them in the right order.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Packing the lorry outside the Victoria Rooms, Bristol, ?8 July 1955. Photo 2264.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Packing the lorry outside the Victoria Rooms, Bristol, ?8 July 1955. Peggy Riddel at left. Photo 2265.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Travelling in the lorries. Photo 2266.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. A stop in a town. Squinting at the original with a jeweller’s loupe I can see the pub/hotel is The Old White Hart or less likely The Old White Hare, and that the street opposite the pub/hotel is South Street. Photo 2267.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. I assume the students are buying some food from this gentleman. Photo 2268.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. ?Roger Montague having a snooze in the back of one of the lorries. Photo 2269.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. A stop for candy floss and lollies. Photo 2270.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Shenanigans. This camp site with its distinctive wall was used again during the 1956 tour. Photo 2271.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. On the swings. Photo 2272.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. One of the camp sites. Photo 2273.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Two nymphs and onlookers. Photo 2274.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. I think this lady is Prudence Knowers. Photo 2275.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Night time relaxing – after a performance? ?Roger Montague standing at right. Photo 2276.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Camping in a village hall. Photo 2277.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. I think this must be in one of the Town Halls that the tour visited. ?Peggy Riddel. Photo 2278.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Camp beds in one of the halls. Roger Montague and Peggy Riddel at the pole. Photo 2279.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Constructing the stage. Photo 2280.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Hanging the backdrop with a cuppa. Photo 2281.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. A painted backdrop for As You Like It. Photo 2282.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Getting ready for a performance of As You Like It. Photo 2283.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Backstage at an outdoor performance of As You Like It. Roger Montague seated at front right. Photo 2284.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. An outdoor performance of As You Like It, at a school. Roger Montague at right. Photo 2285.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Drumming up publicity in Somerton, by the Butter Cross, for that evening’s performance of The Importance of Being Earnest: Eric Stevens, (Rev. Canon Chasuble), pushing Pat Whitehouse (Miss Prism) in a chair. Photo 2286.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. A poster for the performance of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Memorial Hall, Merriott on Tuesday 19 July 1955 at 7.30 pm. Photo 2287.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Getting ready outdoors for a performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. John M Cann standing in foreground, Roger Montague second right. Photo 2288.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Waiting for the performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. Eric Stevens in costume as Rev. Canon Chasuble. Photo 2289.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. L-R: Algernon Moncrieff (Roger Montague), Hon. Gwendoline Fairfax (Lesley Coleman), Lady Bracknell (Margaret Stallard), Lane (the butler – Wallace Weaving), John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing (John M Cann). Photo 2290.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. L-R: John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing (John M Cann), Hon. Gwendoline Fairfax (Lesley Coleman), Algernon Moncrieff (Roger Montague). Photo 2291.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. L-R: Hon. Gwendoline Fairfax (Lesley Coleman), John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing (John M Cann). Photo 2292.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. L-R: Algernon Moncrieff (Roger Montague), Cecily Cardew (Peggy Riddel). Photo 2293.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. L-R: L-R: Miss Prism (Pat Whitehouse), Cecily Cardew (Peggy Riddel), Algernon Moncrieff (Roger Montague), John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing (John M Cann), Rev. Canon Chasuble (Eric Stevens). Photo 2294.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. L-R: Algernon Moncrieff (Roger Montague), John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing (John M Cann), Hon. Gwendoline Fairfax (Lesley Coleman), Cecily Cardew (Peggy Riddel). Photo 2295.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. L-R: Lady Bracknell (Margaret Stallard), Hon. Gwendoline Fairfax (Lesley Coleman), John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing (John M Cann), Rev. Canon Chasuble (Eric Stevens), Miss Prism (Pat Whitehouse), Algernon Moncrieff (Roger Montague), Cecily Cardew (Peggy Riddel). Photo 2296.

University of Bristol Dramatic Society Players’ Tour 1955. Performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. L-R: Lady Bracknell (Margaret Stallard), John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing (John M Cann), Hon. Gwendoline Fairfax (Lesley Coleman), Rev. Canon Chasuble (Eric Stevens), Miss Prism (Pat Whitehouse), Cecily Cardew (Peggy Riddel), Algernon Moncrieff (Roger Montague). Photo 2297.

A lovely story I remember being told was that my parents were so deliriously in love that they kissed during a scene in The Importance of Being Earnest when they weren’t supposed to.

A member of the tour was Wallace Weaving (‘Wally’). He married Anne Lennard, my mother’s good friend at university, on 6 July 1957, just a couple of weeks before my parents married. The Weavings had three children, including Hugo Weaving, who went on to become a rather more famous actor than his father …

We took many of our family holidays in the West Country, and my parents often commented on the large Wellingtonia that grew by the old road by the village of Norton-sub-Hamdon, (now the south side of the A303, just near the turning for Crewkerne), remembering it from their time on the tour. In later years they moved to West Dorset, and I would pass this tree every time I drove to see them. For me, it will always be the tree that marked their falling in love.

A stock photograph in my parents’ photo collection of St Audries School in Somerset. The tour visited here on Thursday 14 July 1955 for an open-air evening performance of As You Like It. I wonder if the cast camped out here? It’s a very romantic setting … Photo 2356.

There are also photos from the 1956 tour, though I think only my mother took part in this (just after she’d graduated) as my father graduated in 1955 and was working by then, and I can’t see him in any of the photos. I don’t have a programme for the 1956 tour, but I do have an itinerary. I will try to put together a piece on what I know of it.

I pulled together a list of everyone I know from the programme that was involved in the 1955 tour: there may be others missing.

Players (some backstage positions as well):

John Barrett: AYLI; 1955 Tour Committee electrician
Carolyn Blackmore: AYLI
Roger Bull: AYLI
Edith Burke: AYLI; assistant producer AYLI; 1955 Tour Committee property mistress
John M Cann: AYLI; IBE; 1955 Tour Committee assistant director
Lesley Coleman: IBE; dance arranger AYLI
Michael Gibson: AYLI; stage manager IBE; 1955 Tour Committee stage director
Jean Goffe: AYLI
Diana Greenhalgh: AYLI
Brian Ives: AYLI; stage manager AYLI; assistant producer IBE
Jill Marshall: AYLI; 1955 Tour Committee catering officer
Roger Montague: AYLI; IBE
Mary Nowell: AYLI
Peggy Riddel: IBE
Margaret Stallard: IBE
Eric Stevens: AYLI (x2 parts); IBE; settings and production AYLI
Ian Turner: AYLI (x2 parts)
Peter Wagstaff: AYLI; IBE
Wallace Weaving: AYLI; IBE; 1955 Tour Committee assistant business manager
Pat Whitehouse: IBE; 1955 Tour Committee property mistress

11 men, 9 women = 20 actors / actors and backstage

Non-acting involvement, might not all have been on the tour:

Sylvia Alexander: music composer AYLI
Helen Floyd: 1955 Tour Committee wardrobe mistress
Prudence Knowers: production, costume and setting design IBE
Jay Parry: 1955 Tour Committee director
John Pople: 1955 Tour Committee business manager
Anne Simon: costume design AYLI
Barbara Somerville: costume design AYLI

2 men, 5 women = 7 non-actors

If all  those listed went on the tour, 13 men and 14 women = 27 total. There might have been yet more people on the tour that aren’t mentioned in the programme.

If any readers have any memories or knowledge of the tour, or recognise any of the people or places in the photographs, I’d be delighted to hear.

Saturday stroll: Mount Edgcumbe and Kingsand / Cawsand

A few weeks ago when we were staying with my sister in Devon, we decided to go for a walk through the Mount Edgcumbe Estate in Cornwall to the twin villages of Kingsand and Cawsand, and back.

Our walk route is the white line: we headed south along the coast and then northwards on the way back.

Our ferry/walk route is the white line: we headed south along the coast to Kingsand / Cawsand and then northwards on the way back to Cremyll.

We left late morning, catching the Cremyll Foot Ferry across the Hamoaze (the estuary of the River Tamar) from the delightfully named Admirals Hard in Stonehouse, Plymouth in Devon to the tiny village of Cremyll on the beautiful Rame Peninsula in Cornwall. The main entrance to Mount Edgcumbe House is in Cremyll, and our walk took us through large parts of the estate of this impressive country house.

Heading south we followed the coast, stopping frequently to admire the view and drink the pre-mixed chilled Pimms that my sister had cleverly brought. The twin villages of Kingsand and Cawsand are very pretty, with tiny narrow lanes barely wide enough to take a car. It’s hard to tell where the one village stops and the other starts: they merge into each other. We had a couple of drinks in one of the pubs and then sat on the beach to eat our lunch and collect sea glass and take in the view.

The weather was mild and with a strong sea mist blowing in as the day went on. The foot ferry journey at either end of the walk was an extra treat, giving as it does beautiful views of the Regency period naval buildings on the dock fronts.

I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Click on all to embiggen / bigify.

Setting out in some seriously comfy shoes.

Setting out in some seriously comfy shoes.

The beautifully kept gardens at Mount Edgcumbe House.

The beautifully kept gardens at Mount Edgcumbe House.

A folly in the estate being conserved / renovated.

A temple folly in the estate being conserved / renovated.

We watched the ferry come in as we drank our first Pimms of the day. The breakwater has a lighthouse on the end of it.

We watched a ferry come in as we drank our first Pimms of the day. The breakwater has a lighthouse on the end of it.

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First sight of Kingsand / Cawsand.

First sight of Kingsand / Cawsand.

A beautiful fuchsia hedge.

A beautiful fuchsia hedge.

Getting closer.

Getting closer.

Pimms o'clock. Second of the walk. Lushes, us?

A Pimms with a view. Second of the walk. Lushes, us?

Looking back towards Plymouth. Fort Picklecombe is in the middle distance, now converted into apartments.

Looking back towards Devon. Fort Picklecombe is in the middle distance, by the rocky shore, and is now converted into apartments.

The beach at Cawsand.

The beach at Cawsand.

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Looking across to Kingsand.

Looking across to Kingsand.

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Beautiful footpath walk out of Kingsand.

Beautiful footpath walk out of Kingsand.

Looking back at Kingsand / Cawsand with the sea mist rolling in.

Looking back at Kingsand / Cawsand with the sea mist rolling in.

Love this. Like an impressionist painting.

Love this. Like an impressionist painting.

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A War Department marker from the Second World War sea defences.

A War Department marker from the Second World War sea defences.

The WW2 military installation above the marker.

The WW2 military installation above the marker.

Big skies.

Big skies.

My sister doing her best Maximus Decimus Meridius impression in the barley field.

My sister doing her best Maximus Decimus Meridius impression in the barley field.

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Looking up the Hamoaze to where Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Royal Albert Bridge crosses the Tamar. If you click and then click again you can just make out the double arch of its lenticular iron spans.

More big skies.

More big skies.

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Looking across to Torpoint on the Cornwall side of the Hamoaze.

Beautiful house and quay at Empacombe

Beautiful house and old stone tidal quay at Empacombe.

The Edgcumbe Belle, our ferry. Drake's Island is to the right.

The Edgcumbe Belle, our ferry at the pier at Cremyll. Drake’s Island is to the right.

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The Royal William Victualling Yard, Stonehouse, Plymouth. These impressive buildings were built between 1826-1835.

Parts of a favourite film of mine, Mr Turner, were filmed in Kingsand, with the village standing in for the Kentish seaside town of Margate.

Smeaton’s Tower

Last weekend we were in Devon, and visited Smeaton’s Tower on Plymouth Hoe. Now landlocked, this lighthouse once stood on the distant Eddystone Rocks, the third incarnation of the Eddystone Lighthouse there. Designed by John Smeaton, it is an important and historic lighthouse, the first in the world to have the now-iconic curved profile that we all know, with the first modern use of hydraulic lime (a form of concrete that sets under water), and the first lighthouse to use dovetailed granite blocks that locked together and gave the structure added stability. It was built between 1756 and 1759.

Smeaton's Tower in June 2009.

Smeaton’s Tower in June 2009.

Smeaton's Tower on Plymouth Hoe on a rainy May day.

Smeaton’s Tower on Plymouth Hoe on a rainy May day 2016.

The Eddystone Rocks lie 14 km (9 miles) off the Plymouth coast. Plymouth has been a historically important port for centuries, and many ships had been lost on the rocks of the reef. The first lighthouse, made of wood and designed and built by Henry Winstanley, was built there between 1696 and 1698, the first ever off-shore lighthouse in the world. The 60-candle light was first lit in 1698, and the lighthouse operated until the Great Storm of November 1703 completely destroyed the lighthouse and killed the six men in it, Winstanley included. The second lighthouse, John Rudyard’s Light, operated from 1709-1755. This lighthouse was built of wood and stone, stood 21 metres high and was lit by 24 candles. It burnt down in 1755.

Smeaton's Lighthouse.

Smeaton’s Lighthouse.

Smeaton's Lighthouse.

Smeaton’s Lighthouse.

Smeaton’s Lighthouse was the third iteration on the site. Smeaton built the lighthouse with a treetrunk-like shape to give it a low centre of gravity, and used fireproof materials: Cornish granite blocks on the outside and lighter Portland stone masonry on the inside, held with the hydraulic lime concrete he developed and cleverly interlocked for additional structural integrity. The curved shape had the added benefit of dissipating some of the energy of the waves which struck it.

It stood 22 metres high, and was first lit with 24 candles, and later replaced by oil lamps and reflectors, and later still a lens replaced the reflectors, intensifying the light emitted. Going on the number of beds inside, it had a crew of two or three, and the living areas were small and spartan.

Smeaton's Tower: the kitchen. Lead sink, eek!

Smeaton’s Tower: the kitchen. Lead sink, eek!

Curved furniture.

Curved furniture. Hope they had some cushions.

Access in the lower parts is by central spiral staircases like this, and in the upper parts by ladders.

Access in the lower parts is by central spiral staircases like this, and in the upper parts by ladders.

Original table from 1789.

Original table from 1759.

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The beds were tiny - my 5'8" sister just fitted inside this one, but at least you could close the doors for some privacy!

The beds were tiny – my 1.68 m (5′ 6″) tall sister just fitted inside this one, but at least you could close the doors for some privacy!

Heavy-duty shutters to keep the weather out.

Heavy-duty shutters to keep the weather out.

Looking up into the lantern.

Looking up into the lantern. You can walk around the outside by the lantern, but my not very good head for heights kept me firmly inside.

Gradually heavy weather eroded the rock base on which the lighthouse stood, causing it to shudder in storms. The lighthouse was dismantled in 1882, apart from the bottom few metres which were too solid to be removed and remain to this day as a stub on the rocks, and the lighthouse was transported to Plymouth and rebuilt on the Hoe. Work on the replacement lighthouse out at sea, Douglass’s Lighthouse, started in 1879, was operational in 1882 and continues to work to this day.

The stump of Smeaton's Lighthouse on the left, with the present-day Eddystopne Lighthouse on the right. Photo by Steve Johnson.

The stump of Smeaton’s Lighthouse on the left, with Douglass’s Lighthouse, the present-day Eddystone Lighthouse on the right. Photo by Steve Johnson.

Another view of the stump.

Another view of the stump. Photo by Pline.

The Eddystone Lighthouse is just visible in theois photo, taken from above the Lido in Plymouth. The lighthouse is on the horizon, to the right of the light on the end of the breakwater. Click on photo to enlarge.

The Eddystone Lighthouse and Smeaton’s stump are just visible in this photo, taken from above the Lido in Plymouth. The lighthouse is on the horizon, to the right of the light on the end of the breakwater. Click on photo to enlarge, and then click again to enlarge further. And then squint.

Smeaton’s Tower is a Grade I listed building, the highest grade.

And lurking in the background of a photos of the Beatles at the Hoe in 1967 is the tower, before its red and white striped paint job was reinstated.

The Beatles on the Hoe in 1967, with Smeaton's Tower in the background.

The Beatles on the Hoe in 1967, with Smeaton’s Tower in the background.

Smeaton’s Tower is well worth a visit. The opening times are on Plymouth City Council’s website. There is a small charge for entry.

Plymouth City Council website information on the four Eddystone lighthouses.

Sunny days in Devon

When the weather is gloomy and wet and miserable, I like to look through my photos to be reminded of sunnier days. Here are some I took of a garden in Salcombe in Devon, designed by fab garden and landscape designer Jo Stopher:

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My poor photography skills don’t do justice to this fab rooftop garden. Yes! Really! The garden is planted on the flat roof of a modern house: the last photo shows a hint of the garden ‘up top’, seen from below. It’s so clever in the way the garden borrows the landscape beyond, seemlessly merging the rooftop planting with the surrounding trees and plants and scenery.

Jo is a stunning designer, with a particular expertise in seaside planting. I met Jo when I was writing a feature for The English Garden on a garden she had designed; I was very lucky to be shown round a few of her creations in the gorgeous South Hams of Devon, including the one in the photos here, and will post some more photos of her creations soon.

Gardens I’ve made: Devon

An occasional series on gardens I have designed and planted. First up is a garden in Devon, made for my younger sister. In 2001 she moved into her present home, a Georgian house with a small, sloping, south facing stone walled garden at the front. Her brief was ‘jungly, exotic, subtropical’. She loves acers, hostas, bamboos and ferns in particular. She wanted a garden full of foliage interest: different shapes and colours and textures, and the bigger the better. Flowers weren’t the top of the list, but if they were to sneak in there, she wouldn’t mind …

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The main emphasis in the garden is on the foliage. The large-leaved plant is a Paulownia tomentosa which is cut right back every year to encourage the large leaves to grow. Other plants seen here include Aralia elata ‘Aureovariegata’, Euphorbia mellifera, Nandina domestica and Aruncus dioicus. There’s a banana lurking in the background too.

The garden had a few mature trees around the edge and a grand old apple tree on one of the terraces: everything else was old or diseased or unwanted, and so they went, leaving a daunting area of naked ground. After the cull, the first thing we had to do was weed, weed and weed, and then weed some more, and then leave the garden fallow for a whole year before we could plant anything. The reason? Ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria). It was everywhere in the garden, its roots reaching sometimes 50 or 60 cm deep, and getting into the stonework of walls and under the paths. The trouble with ground elder is it is highly invasive, smothering out other plants, and it can regenerate from the smallest fragment of root left in the soil. So we dug out as much as we could, and then waited to see what sprouted, and gave it another digging over. We preferred to do the weed control manually and organiicaly, rather than go the quicker chemicals-based route of zapping the lot with weedkiller.

After over a year, in spring 2003, we were able to start planting. The hard landscaping for the garden wasn’t too attractive, but it was too big (and expensive) a project to redo it as well as completely replant the garden, so we made do. We were lucky in that the garden was completely surrounded by a beautiful old stone wall, made from the local Devonian shillet.

My sister decided she wanted an alley of pompom trees (as we inelegantly call them) to flank the central path up to the house. We planted eight magnificent Elaeagnus x ebbingei trees from Architectural Plants in West Sussex. On either side of this I planted matching jewel beds that were inspired by the beautiful show-winning Evolution Garden by Piet Oudolf and Arne Maynard that I’d seen at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2000.

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The jewel beds, with Allium ‘Globemaster’, Cirsium rivulare ‘Atropurpureum’, Veronica austriaca subsp. teucrium ‘Knallblau’, Veronica spicata ‘Romiley Purple’, Convolvulus cneorum, Centranthus ruber var. coccineus, Persicaria microcephala ‘Red Dragon’, Alchemilla mollis, and others underneath the eight Elaeagnus x ebbingei trees.

We made a pond, and a tree fern grove underplanted with ferns, and shrubby beds at the bottom end of the garden to provide some privacy from the street.

There's a pond in here somewhere, honest!

There’s a pond in here somewhere, honest! Plants include the massive Zantedeschia aethiopica ‘Gigantea’, Arundo donax, Darmera peltata, Cynara cardunculus and good old Geranium palmatum that self-seeds with wild abandon.

My sister opened the garden for a weekend in the end of May for three years (2005, 2006 and 2007) for the National Gardens Scheme: all moneys collected go to various charities, and over the three years she raised a truly amazing £3,300 from entrance fees, the sale of cakes and refreshments, and in the second and third years we ran a plant stall as well as so many people were asking for plants that were in the garden. I started potting up all the Echium pininana seedlings I could find, plus Geranium palmatum ones and splitting off bits of the Cirsium rivulare ‘Atropurpureum’ and potting on as well. They all went like hot cakes!

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The central jewel beds edged in box (Buxus sempervirens). The yellow plant is the lovely but thuggish Phlomis russeliana. The amazing plant in the pot on the terrace is Dasylirion acrotrichum.

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The left hand lawn surrounded by shrubs and trees including Cercidiphyllum japonicum (Katsura, a tree that smells of candy floss in the autumn when the leaves are colouring up), Euphorbia mellifera, with flowers that smell of honey, and Melianthus major, with leaves that smell like peanut butter when bruised and flowers that smell like honey! The Allium ‘Globemaster’ heads are just going over in this photo.

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View from one of the top terraces looking across the garden.

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Lots of pots everywhere, including beautiful fragrant Lilium regale looming in on the right.

The conservatory.

The conservatory. This is an Edwardian addition to the front of the house, and is a beautiful, restful space. The pale blue flowered plant is Plectranthus zuluensis, with a pinky purple-flowered passion flower growing above it, and of course there’s a grape vine.

National Gardens Scheme website.

Jersey tiger moths

I have been in Devon for the past week, and during my visit I saw a moth I have never seen before. It was flying during the daytime, fluttering around some water mint (Mentha aquatica) that was in flower. Its flight was very flappy and fluttery and lollopy, almost as if someone was bouncing it around on a string from above. I knew it was a tiger moth of some sort because of the red flashes of the hind wing, similar to those on the scarlet tiger moths which frequent our garden. It was very bold and unafraid, flying very close to me.

I didn’t have my camera with me, curses, so once it settled on a mint flower and started feeding I made an effort to remember the beautiful patterning on its fore wings. Google was my friend, yet again, and told me it was a Jersey tiger mothEuplagia quadripunctaria.

Jersey tiger moth (Euplagia quadripunctaria) on Hemp agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum). Photo by Rosenzweig.

Jersey tiger moth (Euplagia quadripunctaria) on Hemp agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum). Photo by Rosenzweig.

What surprised me was that the range of this moth is ‘widely distributed in Europe from Estonia and Latvia in the north to the Mediterranean coast and islands in the south. It is also found in West Russia, South Urals, Asia Minor, Rhodes and nearby islands, the Near East, Caucasus, South Turkmenistan, and Iran.’  So what on earth was it doing in south Devon?  I read on.

Settled with its fore wings covering its hind wings. Photo by Hamon jp.

Settled with its fore wings covering its hind wings. Photo by Hamon jp.

Until fairly recently, this moth’s only presence in the UK was in the Channel Islands. This raised questions—as northern France is not listed in its range (‘Mediterranean coast’ could possibly include southern France), how did it get to the Channel Islands? Was it an introduction there, either deliberate or accidental?  It takes its English common name from the largest of the Channel Islands.

In Victorian times, apart from its presence in the Channel Islands, it was very rarely known in the UK, occurring mainly in one locality in Devon. Since then it has spread to Cornwall, Dorset and the Isle of Wight, with an outlier population in Kent. Another breeding population became established in London in 2004. The moths are gradually spreading northwards and eastwards from their West Country base. Fabulous!

It was very exciting to see a new and such a beautiful moth species. I wonder how long until they arrive in Wiltshire?

Update: They’re already here! On 12 August last year (2013) the second ever recorded Jersey tiger moth in Wiltshire was photographed at Trowbridge, which is north of us. So we might well see one sooner than I had hoped!

Jersey tiger moths on UK moths website.