Wellingore Hall

August 13, 2017

Wellingore Hall

Flowers and flower arranging have been part of my life since I was knee high to a gnat. My Nan always had flowers in the house even in the winter months. She also did the flowers at the local church you know the big display sprays that used to be set on pedestals. She also had a cutting garden of sorts although not to the same extent as my Aunt did. Its just something I grew up with.

My Aunt's kitchen garden was an enclosed Victorian Garden which was part of Wellingore Hall where she lived. My Great Aunt (Aunt Kit - my Aunt's mother amd also my Grandmother's older sister) bought the Hall - it was about to be demolished but she saved it and turned it into residential flats for professional people and in later years accommodation was often taken up by personnel from RAF Waddington.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/644043

Every year from the date of my brother's birth I used to go and spend a week with them where I had free run of the grounds as long as I did not go to the woods and the lake. That was forbidden. Here is the Hall but in the centre panel on the ground floor it had a very large Victorian Green House. This backed onto what was my Aunt Kit's apartment. Where the raised banks were was all corralled in for the horses. To the left of the picture are trees and this is where by cousin's bungalow is. to the right of the picture there is at least half the Hall again as there is what was the kitchen wing and then additional homes like the Studio tacked on the end which backed onto the Victorian Kitchen Garden where my aunt grew flowers and also had a massive fruit and veg plot as well as the cutting garden.

The Hall became a prisoner of war camp during the war years. Which I know about as I was told this as a littley and indeed the concrete base to the bathroom was still there when I was small. More information can be gleaned here which I have only recently become aware of.

http://www.raf-lincolnshire.info/wellingore/wellingore.htm

The Hall as I knew it. It also had a large library and ball room with extremely beautiful ornate ceilings edged in gilt and lots of mirrors. Just before my Great Uncle died the Hall was sold and bought by a seed company based in Sleaford I believe which has since gone out of business. However my Uncle Jim was a Master Cabinet Maker and he was commissioned to restore the ball room as an events room. So a part of him still lingers on at the Hall where he worked and lived for so long.

To the right of the photo there were a set of ponds that cascaded down the hill to my Uncles Aviaries. When it was hot I was allowed to paddle in the little ponds. However I think these have long gone as the Hall is now under private ownership again and they have made quite a lot of changes to the Hall some of which I am not too keen on.

Here is the Hall today perched on the brow of the Hill looking down into the park.

Looking from the Park up the Hill towards the Hall. Where the big tree is to the left is my cousin#s home. The Park originally belonged to my Great Aunt as well. And there is the Church to the left of the picture also. The Park ends up in a central valley and the ponies used to live in the field there was a central shelter for them. Later after the ponies had gone and come harvest time the whole of the park would be set alight to burn the stubble.

The church also perched on the brow of the Hill and where my aunt is buried.

The Private Chapel. The old kitchens which were converted into my aunt's flat are behind the chapel. The road on the left of the picture leads straight through to the Stables. Proper Stables that had the Haylofts up top and just holes in the floor - I was kept away from them unless I was with an adult and then under close supervision.

The Original Gateway to the Hall that I always knew straight up ahead to my Aunt's flat and to the left of the picture the gateway to the stables. A large Victorian Square Block Stables with a big white mounting block.

The wall along the road to the Hall was always solid when I was at the Hall but the new owners have changed it and it is that I am not sure of.

Which is a carriage gateway. It is possible that this is how it was built originally but I new knew it like this.

The Hall offices as they are today. When I was a child this was the Tack Room.

These are not my photos but are on the Internet. I spent many happy hours here as a child. I was very privileged.

Anyway I seem to have gone off track. I was writing about flower arranging.

Last night I managed to get flowers reduced and as I had bought a flower bowl for 50p I decided to do a flower arrangement in it. As there was no grid I made this out of sellotape making a gridwork and then slotting the flowers in. I think it looks quite pretty and not too bad an effort for a non-flower arranger.