Elmdon Park - Walled Park Nature Reserve

As I am no longer working in Birmingham, I will plunder last year's photos to continue my journal.

St Nicholas - 28 July 2015

In 1908 Edith mentioned three visits to Elmdon Park in May, June and October. 109 years later, I visited Elmdon too. After work, I checked into the Holiday Inn, dumped my luggage and walked briskly through the Nature Park that I visited in June this year and past St Nicholas.  According to William Dargue's page on Elmdon, the church that I saw was built in 1781, replacing the dilapidated one that previously stood on the site. It was rebuilt by Abraham Spooner, the owner of the long since demolished Elmdon Hall.

Old walls - 28 July 2015

My aim was to visit Elmdon Hall's old walled garden, which forms part of the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust's Elmdon Manor nature reserve. Dargue's page on Elmdon tells us that "Measuring a hectare in area, the walled garden was reputedly in its day the largest in the country. Some of the walls and the ruins of greenhouses survive." Just before I reached the wall, there was a tangle of wild plants including delicious wild raspberries.



Ferns and mosses on brickwork - 28 July 2015 

Yellow loosestrife - 28 July 2016

In Edith's time, it's likely that the garden would have been immaculately kept and extremely productive. As I followed the footsteps of long-dead gardeners, I found ferns growing out of the steps and a mixture of wild and garden plants spilling over the paths.

Apples - 28 July 2015

Someone has clearly been hard at work here. There are fairly young fruit trees to remind us of the garden's former purpose, which was to produce fruit and vegetables for the big house. 

Campanula - 28 July 2015

According to the SEAG community blog:

The head and under gardeners had cottages close by at Elmdon Farm with as many as 20 men and boys working in the kitchen and pleasure gardens. The walled garden was intersected by wide grass paths with neat box hedges, and after the removal of the glass tax in 1845, extensive greenhouses and cold frames. Around the walls espalier and fan shaped apple trees with the more tender fruits such as nectarines and apricots occupying the south facing walls.

Sadly many of the gardeners who would have been tending the gardens in 1908 are likely to have left Elmdon for the First World War. Also the house changed hands a number of times and went into decline. Now long grass and wildflowers catch the low evening sun and provide a feast for insects and other wildlife.

Airport buildings seen over crops - 28 July 2015

Having explored the garden, I looked round the rest of the nature reserve. There is a lake and trees including old Yews.  Intrigued by glimpses of gold, I peered out from between the trees. I was greeted by the rather surreal sight of airport buildings and hotels beyond ripening crops. The golden evening sun had been replaced by sulky clouds.

Holiday Inn Hotel with rainbow - 28 July 2015

As I walked back to the hotel, the inevitable drizzle started. As I got back to the hotel, the sun came out again and I captured a rainbow.

Meadows were Golden with Buttercups

According to Edith Holden's The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, June 1906 started with heavy thunderstorms. In 2016, I was fortunate to avoid delays to my journey to Birmingham as overnight storms in Sussex, where I live, had brought down trees and blocked roads.

Bright buttercups on a dull evening.

Edith's entry for June 2 said ...

"Many of the meadows are golden with Buttercups, and some of the fields are showing quite red, where the sorrel is coming into flower."

This week, I stayed at the Birmingham Airport Holiday Inn, just across the road from Solihull Council's Elmdon Nature Park. I discovered this park during last year's #30DaysWild and finding out that Edith Holden had walked in Elmdon Park inspired me to start this blog. I am rather nervous about using the iron bridge to cross the road but was pleasantly distracted by finding pretty tree blossoms at eye-level.

June 1st - A form of Whitebeam?

I passed the eccentric-looking old lodge and followed a path through some woodland, which gave way to a large grassed area.

June 1st - Woodland giving way to buttercups.

There were Buttercups everywhere - the flowers bobbing in the gusty wind. Above my head, swifts were gathering a late meal and the clouds were getting heavier and darker.

Only nature could get away with this colour combination.

A path divides the field into two, I followed it for a little way before finding the shocking pink flowers of Red Campion.

Cow Parsley, almost glowing in the gloom.

The lovely froth of Cow Parsley formed a lacy screen between me and the Buttercups. The sky was getting darker and I decided to turn back as there was little point in trying to take more photos.

Watercolour sketch.

Before leaving the buttercups, I perched on a handy seat and used watercolours to sketch the scene.  Surrounded by trees and wildflowers, and with rabbits grazing nearby, all the workday busyness and stress fell away. I felt that only the thunder of aeroplanes separated me from the artist and teacher who diligently made her nature notes over a hundred years ago.

In a later entry, Edith speaks of going out with a large party of friends. Although the passing dog walkers may have thought I was alone, my party of friends is much larger than Edith's. I am one of more than 25,000 people who have registered for the Wild Life Trusts' #30DaysWild. The plan is to do something wildlife related every day. We are keeping each other company by blogging, tweeting and sharing images and videos.  As soon as I had finished my sketch, I shared it using that 21st Century essential - the Smart Phone.

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.