Merry Christmas 2022

Dear Friends of Balintore,

welcome to the annual Christmas blog entry! 2022 has been quite a year for most people as we distance ourselves from Covid, and this is equally true for everyone involved with Balintore Castle.

The restoration work has continued, but my personal involvement is very limited in terms of time as I am working full time for the UK Meteorological Office. I do my best to attend to "castle admin" in the evenings. This shortage of time explains the limited blog entries: 28 this year compared to a record 56 last year. Far too much time has been taken up attending to the unnecessary problems created by Angus Council.

My builder Gregor is still doing good work at Balintore, but he is now moonlighting part time at another architecturally impressive Victorian shooting lodge in Glen Isla, called Knockshannoch. Knockshannoch is just 6 miles from Balintore. As Gregor has been working for me for ten years, I understand that a little bit of a change is good for him so I do my best not to pout too much. :-)

One of the highlights of this year, was a guided tour round Knockshannoch by the new owners. They also have a huge restoration project ahead of them, though not quite as daunting a one as Balintore. The building has very definitely gone into the right hands, as the couple have an understanding and appreciation of the architecture that means they will do the very best by the building.

Strangely enough, I thought my days of seeing other restoration projects were over, but over the course of the year I was invited to see Park Hall Manor outside Manchester, Llwyn Celyn in South Wales and Gwrych Castle in North Wales. All these visits got me very excited and enthusiastic, which is confirmation that despite the enormous hardships involved, Balintore is the right path for me. Park Hall Manor and Knockshannoch are private residences, so naturally I am discreet and did not blog about these.

My Belgian friend and friend of Balintore, Karel came to visit in the autumn. We decided to turn up on spec for lunch at the Fife Arms Hotel in Braemar. Unfortunately, they were fully booked, but a staff member said if we could wait an hour, they could fit us in. An hour was just the right amount of time to see the flowers outside the gates of Balmoral Castle. To witness the massed ranks of flowers laid by the public was a special thing, and somehow we became part of history in doing so. I am so glad we made this diversion, even though I would never have planned a dedicated trip just to see the flowers. 

I was also grateful that I had held a special castle open day on the Platinum Jubilee weekend, as my instinct was that Her Maj would not be with us for much longer, and this was my little gesture of homage during her lifetime. I am not a Royalist as such, but I am a close observer of history and history in the making, and believe by reconciling ourselves with the bigger picture, we can become better human beings.

"In Memoriam" flowers for Queen Elizabeth at Balmoral Castle

After my usual Christmas with friends in Norfolk last year, I decided that to spend my first Christmas at Balintore, and my Norfolk friends joyfully agreed to come up. This was on the principle of "I have a castle so I should use it!". It helps that my Norfolk friends are fantastic cooks, and won't let me anywhere near my own kitchen - heavenly! :-)

Driving back to the castle for Christmas was an unexpected adventure. Although the weather was bitterly cold, the roads from Oxfordshire to Balintore were clear and the long journey passed without incident. However, just five miles short of the castle, snow and ice appeared on the roads, and my ABS started cutting-in with its characteristic judder on icy bends. Extreme caution was required while driving.  

I started up the castle drive in 4 wheel drive in first gear. After 20 yards there was a strange man standing on the side of the drive with a torch. Aha, I had been phoned a couple of times during the drive by a German chap wanting to visit the castle. I had explained that  I would be back at the castle around 7PM if he was prepared to wait until evening. 

After establishing that the stranger, Lin, was the chap who had been phoning, I invited him into my passenger seat, so we could continue up the drive. However. we could make no progress on the snow and ice, in fact we were going backwards down the drive, no matter what I did with gears, brakes and steering wheel. I decided to reverse back onto the road at the bottom of the drive. Lin shouted at one stage "the road goes the other way" but in the dark and white-out conditions I had missed the sharp bend in the drive and was now dangling and rocking over the edge of a precipice with back and front wheels spinning in mid air.  "Beached" is the correct technical term Lin used. My car was well and truly stuck: it was just very good luck we had not gone over the edge. My neighbour Rob was able to pull me out later in the evening with his powerful Defender with special tyres - huge thanks to Rob.

dangling over the edge in the bleak midwinter

By an amazing coincidence, six Chinese AirBnB guests arrived just after Lin and I got to the castle. They can only have made it to the kitchen wing on foot via a long trek through the snow. Later I found a message from them "It's very dark, and we are very frightened.", which they must have sent before I turned up.

It turns out Lin is half-German (mother from Berlin) and half-Chinese (father from Beijing) and he was able to talk to my guests in Chinese, when I gave everyone a tour round the castle. What are the odds of a Chinese reunion on a remote snow-covered mountainside in Angus? 

I made Lin some dinner and put him up for the night, as road conditions were shocking. He mentioned that today was turning into an amazing adventure for him. I said that I couldn't explain why, but somehow every day at the castle is like this, so this was the norm for me.

At 4AM in the morning water started pouring into the room I was sleeping in at the castle, so I had to abandon ship. The next morning, I understood why. After frozen conditions for a fortnight, the ice-melt has started in the middle of the night. The next morning the snow has largely gone, and by the following morning the 3 foot of snow round the castle, with the icy base that has caused the drive to be impassable, has completely vanished.

I had asked Gregor to take a look at the leaks in the castle roof while I was away, but ironically when I had been away, due to the freezing weather, there were no leaks. These only started up again when I got back to the castle.

Last Thursday, we had the first fire in one of the upper floor fireplaces for at least 60 years - this first fire is shown in the video. The last resident of the castle died in 1963, so the fireplaces have lain unused since then, until of course my restoration started in 2007. My builder Gregor swept the chimney earlier in the week, and removed 2 large rubble bags of grot. I don't normally have time to sit around a fire, but with friends staying over Christmas, fireside chats are just what the doctor ordered.

Anyhow, a Merry Christmas to everyone and best wishes for the New Year,

David

I've Been Framed

Conscious of leaks in the castle's rooves, which have damaged antique art works bought for its walls, my brain finally settled upon an artistic medium that would be hardy against water ingress:

Bronze plaques!

I had never investigated the world of the bronze plaque before, but I quickly found out that they were expensive - very expensive. So much for that idea! However, in the quest I came across a "bronzed metal plaque" on eBay that looked the part and that I bagged for a modest £25.

the bronzed plaque - excuse sawdust

It came without a frame, so I asked Gregor (being a carpenter by trade) if he could knock me one up from some of the mouldings we had got from Brechin Castle's carpenters' workshop when the contents were auctioned off. This is exactly the type of job Gregor loves, something that can be done very quickly and yet something that gives a good visual reward.

Gregor's new oak frame 

Naturally, I am not organised enough to actually have a picture of the bronze in Gregor's new oak frame, but I can report that, very satisfyingly, the frame looks like it could be the original one.

you too can stand around the piano and sing this jolly song 

Some German guests at the castle assured me the plaque is southern German rather than Austrian, on account of the language of the inscription. "Grüß Gott grüß Gott mit hellem Klang" is a lyric of a German folk song which doesn't really have an English equivalent but my school boy German yields: "Sing greetings, sing greetings in a bright voice".  My German teacher Mrs. Aitken instilled in us that a light beer was a "Helles" and a dark beer was a "Dunkles". This is where the adjective becomes a noun and so gets capitalised.

Anyhow, the plaque shows hearty types striding about the Alps and hailing each other joyfully. The modelling is in bas relief i.e. not fully 3D but coming out of a 2D scene. Indeed, the bas relief is further very cleverly done in "false perspective" where the more distant the object the more shallow the relief. This mimics the stereo perception of human vision, and gives the illusion of a fully 3D scene using the depth of just a couple of centimetres.

In fact, the head of the man in the foreground is the only part of the scene done "in the round" and looking at the back of the piece you can see it is a separate piece of metal that has been inserted. This effect could not have been achieved with a single (rigid) mould.

I would put the piece as late 19th or early 20th Century. Believe it or not, it is actually cast aluminium with a bronze patination, so it is not as heavy as you might expect. The musical staves on the plaque are devoid of notes. I can only assume the sculptor did not have the sheet music, or had expended all the available effort on their technical brilliance in modelling depth.

Llwyn Celyn

partial panorama of Llwyn Celyn: front (double click for full VR experience)

full panorama of Llwyn Celyn: rear   (double click for full VR experience)

Having visited Wales on Monday and Tuesday of this week for the first time in decades, I now seem to be attached to the country by elastic and today (Saturday) visited a mediaeval hall house called Llwyn Celyn near the Brecon Beacons National Park. This was my fourth ever visit to Wales!

Llwyn Celyn was a prestige restoration project undertaken by the Landmark Trust between 2014 and 2018, and naturally I was following it very closely both online and on TV. There was a 2 part documentary series on More 4 broadcast in 2019 to which I was glued.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/4-million-restoration-historic-house-rescue

The restoration cost £4.2m and deemed worthwhile as Llwyn Celyn is an astonishing survivor from 1420. The project ranks alongside Belmont House and Astley Castle as one of the most involved restorations undertaken by the organisation.

The reason for my visit was that my friend Duncan invited me. He is helping out over this weekend's Open Days and knew I was only a couple of hours drive away. Duncan designed, printed and made the curtains at Llwyn Celyn.

I had concerns that Llwyn Celyn was over-restored as it has been much "smartened up" and there is a great deal new light coloured woodwork (contrasting with the surviving dark coloured woodwork). There was a serious danger that it could look like a sterile new build, and indeed some of the photographs I had seen suggested this was the case.

Thankfully, the moment I stepped in and walked around, the atmosphere was warm, historic, cosy and inviting. It is am important lesson that warmth and warmth alone makes any house feel inviting on a cold winter's day. :-) If a drafty historic building is restored to "modern standards" then it is inevitable there will be some loss of character i.e. the building needs to be stripped, then repaired, and then put-back. Things will never quite be the same after this process, but the important issue is how this is done. At Llwyn Celyn, this has been done impeccably with new top quality oak joinery being used to "fill in the gaps". Most people could not afford this.

new wood for old on the staircase

One intriguing question is whether Llwyn Celyn in 1420 was as "warm and inviting" as it is today. My suspicion is that it was not, even though the building fabric was new. I don't think open fires could ever have been a match for the current under-floor heating, and modern building standards and windows. In short, as building dwellers we have become softies :-), and this poses a considerable challenge for colder and older historic structures.

The sparse but choice items used to decorate the interior are perfect. There is a "shaker" quality to all Landmark Trust interiors: uncluttered to make then practical as holiday lets but with enough historic character to make them period credible/authentic. There is a minefield of debate between period credible and period authentic.

I was taken by this small, cosy and erudite study (double click for full VR panorama experience)

The bathrooms are a triumph: they are modern but have been made to fit in with the historic interior through the use of natural materials and period detailing.

bathroom

another bathroom

The decision was made to dress the house in a 16th Century guise when the building moved into private ownership after the dissolution of the monasteries. Getting hold of 16th Century furniture is a little difficult, but at least the style is a known quantity and it is possible to locate pieces that channel this spirit.

bedroom

another bedroom

A couple of beautifully costumed historic re-enactors were certainly 16th Century period credible. :-) The lady provided some music on historic instruments.The sound of the psaltery or lap heart was particularly evocative. The gentleman, a real upholsterer by trade, was demonstrating the sewing of late medieval garments. I thought I was taking a panoramic photograph of the upper hall but for some reason this turned out to be a sequence of stills with the last being a nice candid photo of the gentleman.

period re-enactor

The major debate in the restoration, as I recall, was whether to return the great hall to its original full height. When great halls first appeared, the smoke from a fire in the centre went up through the roof, so they had to be full height. Later chimneys were built on side walls, and great halls were often divided into multiple floors. At Llwyn Celyn, the floor was itself of significant historic character so this was retained and repaired. I think this decision was correct.

Interestingly enough, the best rooms are the bottom and top halves of the great hall. The bottom-hall is a dining space with a huge open fireplace. The fire was lit on the open day and created a special atmosphere. The upper-hall is, in my opinion, the nicest space of all. Because you are "in the roof", the magnificent timberwork is there for you to enjoy at close quarters and the lower ceiling means that the volume is cosier and easier to heat than it would have been in 1420. There is no doubt this is a fantastic space to chill with friends in front of the woodburning stove. In short, Llwyn Celyn, is very livable. Who would not want this place as their home?

lower hall

upper hall

On the drive to Llwyn Celyn, I spotted Raglan Castle at the side of the road. Oddly enough, I had just been researching Raglan Castle with no notion of its actual location. Perhaps, another trip to Wales is called for? :-)

And just for fun, a 1420 fly-though tour !