Stumbling across Edwardian Lady Country

Depending upon how old you are, you might remember the late 1970s publishing sensation, The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.  Edith Holden wrote the diary, illustrated with charming watercolours, over the course of 1906. When it was published 70 years later the tremendously popular book inspired designs for household furnishings, a TV programme and so much more.  In fact, we still have the book and one of these covers in our Sussex home.

The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.

Since March 2015, I have been working and staying in hotels near Birmingham International Airport and the NEC. The last thing I expected was that this would reunite me with a favourite book from my teenage years.

Holiday Inn, Birmingham Airport

In the summer, while I was staying at the Birmingham Airport Holiday Inn, I discovered Elmdon Park, which is just the other side of the duel carriageway. The park is next to the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust Elmdon Manor nature reserve. This contains a lovely old walled garden, which reminded me strongly of the one in the Secret Garden novel.

An intriguing walled garden in the Elmdon Manor nature reserve.

Intrigued, I did a little Googling and found a reference to Edith Holden walking in Elmdon Park and the surroundings. I could hardly wait to get home and dust off our old copy and find out more. Sure enough, she mentions Elmdon Park a handful of times. In her entry for the 18th of January 1906 she says "Today I saw a curious Oak tree, growing in a field near Elmdon Park. From a distance it looked if half of the tree were dead and the other half covered with glossy green leaves." It feels strange to read these words almost 110 years to the day after she wrote them especially as I have looked over those fields. They may have aircraft flying over them but they still grow crops, just as they did in Edith's time.

When writing her 1906 diary, Edith was a school teacher who lived in Olton. She would often walk or cycle from her home, recording what she saw. Over the course of 2016 I hope make some posts inspired by what I read in her diary and what I find while exploring Birmingham and its outskirts.