Birds, and Books at Wimpole (21/8)

One of the larger open areas at Fowlmere

Wendy had to take Terry to Cambridge for medical tests so we organised to meet aferwards and headed to Fowlmere for some bird-watching. It was a lovely day for it, but unfortunately it was the day the volunteers are there to carry out maintenance and to keep the reserve tidy, so we were competing with whipper-snippers, etc. There were several hides that look out over the reed beds, and we suspect that the workers have to work hard to keep some open water in front of the hides. At a larger body of water there were grey-lag geese, lots of mallards, coo, moorhen, lapwings, herons and grebes. We found one small scrubby area where there were a number of terrestrial birds – we were able to identify Blue Tits, Great Tits, and Chaffinches.

After a couple of hours we went to see Wimpole House. The Domesday book records there being a manor house here in 1086, but the present brick structure was completed in 1650. It has had numerous owners, being presented to daughters of gentry several times only to be sold off by their profligate husbands to pay off debts. Such was the standing of women in those times that as soon as they were married, any real estate immediately became the possession of the husband. It's last owners were Rudyard Kipling's daughter and her husband, Captain Bambridge. They bought the house in 1935 and restored both it and much of the garden. It was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1976 when Mrs Bainbridge died. She lived there after her husband died for over 30 years, so much of the house wasn't actually used. The conservatory, servant's quarters and service areas had fallen into disrepair so she had them demolished.

Tea and other ingredients in quantity!

 The grand dining room was converted into a more convenient kitchen than the one downstairs, although this has now been restored to its former grandeur. Before the demolition of the service areas, it is thought that some of the fittings were brought across to the main house and placed in the basement, as they had been altered to fit in to what is now set up as a kitchen/stores area. The original kitchen was probably demolished. On thing that astonished us was the storage provided for tea! These elaborately decorated and labelled bins (for each type of tea) were large enough to hold at least half a chest of tea, and several were almost full tea chest size. They each had a set of wheels which ran on rails set into the floor so they could be pulled out more easily. These were probably installed by the early owners who were known to do a lot of entertaining. And there must have been a fortune invested just in tea when they were in use as the ability to purchase any tea at all was an indication of wealth. The decoration on the chests indicates this, but you really wonder why as only the servants would have seen them.

Several years ago the library was flooded due to a build up of snow followed by a thaw and over 400 books were water damaged. The collection was considered so valuable that it was decided that they should be rescued. We were able to watch them on site where they were in the final few months of a three year project. It was interesting to see that the general technique was to dampen the books again, page by page this time, and then dry them immediately using blotting paper. For some books the water used was hot, and for others it was cold depending on whether they were vellum or linen based. The water was reapplied time and time again until the blotting paper which was applied to each side came away clean. There were several examples of books opened with pages treated and untreated and it was remarkable what could be achieved. Todays books made of paper pulp would have been much more of a challenge. We had quite a chat with one of the conservators who was only too happy to answer our questions.

Some of the gardens at Wimpole

The gardens in front of the house were set out in a very formal arrangement, and there were also grand vistas running away from the house in several directions. There is still a large walled garden laid out mostly for vegetables, and you could actually feel that it was warmer inside this enclosure and this probable helped the fruit trees espaliered along the walls, but there were also other fruit trees outside in the orchard.

We finally went to meet Wendy & Terry in Cambridge, did a little shopping and had a really great meal at vegetarian restaurant hidden away down an alley so you really had to know it was there otherwise you wouldn't find it.