Woolly says – the weather had changed dramatically, gone was the blazing hot sunshine with no respite and instead we had thunder booming overhead and cascading rain with breaks in between and the lovely smell of fresh grass and air. We set off to cover the few miles to the day’s activity just as another torrential downpour started, the wipers moving frantically to clear the windscreen to enable Jo to see where she was driving. ‘I’m not walking round in this’ I told her putting my paw down, Alfie the Dog stared at the downpour mournfully probably wondering if it was worth getting soaked for the sake of his walk.
I was busy navigating through the monsoon and keeping my fingers crossed that it would clear, in an effort to occupy my small friend I suggested he told me about our destination.
Woolly says – Well I never need asking twice, I cleared my throat and launched into the information that I had gleamed.
Hellens Manor, also known as Hellens House or simply Hellens is located in the village of Much Marcle in Herefordshire and is one of the oldest dwellings in England with its foundations dating from the 12th century, with some elements older still. The first owner, Earl Harold Godwinson was Lord of Merkelan, (Much Marcle) which included the land that Hellens sat on, from 1057 until his death after which William the Conqueror gave the manor to his Standard Bearer Walter de Lacey. By 1096 the manor had been granted to the de Balun family, the de Baluns were later to witness the signing of the Magna Carta.
By 1337 the Audley family were the guardians with Sir James Audley one of the inheriting nephews being a founding Knight of the Garter. It passed into the de Helyon family in 1403 and Helyon’s descendants have resided at the manor nearly continuously since first taking occupancy. In 1930 Hellens was sold to Lady Helena Gleichen, Queen Victoria’s great-niece, with the house passing to Hilda Munthe on her death, today it still serves partly as a family home. As we pulled into a parking space a miracle occurred and the rain cleared as we climbed out of the car and headed towards the gardens.
Sadly visiting the house itself is a bit tricky as they don’t open all of the time and on enquiry I had found that the guided tour was booked for the next few weeks so I would have to imagine the items associated with Anne Boleyn, Mary Tudor (Mary 1st), Elizabeth I, Charles I and II and see if we could book in later in the summer.
Woolly says – Before taking in the gardens we went to look around the outside of the manor house, a small courtyard with a multibricked tower looked very impressive for the age whilst the front of the building showed off its mullioned windows, it was a much large establishment that I had thought.
I turned my attention to the greenery that surrounded it. The gardens follow Tudor style architecture and Jacobean patterns, the terrace ponds scattered with lily pads were lovely with each one showing off a different animal.
The borders were planted with the best of the English country garden flowers bursting with colours and scents.
A small topiary of a ram caught my eye before I realised that there was a lovely octagonal building, the 17th century dovecote decorated with the same brickwork that had been used on the house.
Inside hung drapes and all manner of pots and pans. The dovecote was based in the physic garden filled to overflowing with medicinal plants and rather a lot of deadly ones marked with the skull and crossbones.
We ambled towards the yew labyrinth which was guarded by a large yew bird. The labyrinth had been planted in 2000 based on a Greek or Cretan design dating back to 2000 BC. It wasn’t difficult to find your way through and once n the middle I was met by a rather scary looking bird, possibly used in horror movies given its evil stare.
Retracing our steps, we gazed back at Hellens itself looking even grander as it overlooked the Knot Garden, a sea of blues met our eyes as did a rather strange and small fairy table and chairs, I looked around for the owners of the miniature furniture but seeing nothing I headed towards the rather impressive gates.
I stopped and peered up at the guardians of the gates, one was easy to make out a lion, the other left both me and the human bemused it looked like a two legged smartie with a couple of bobbles on, most strange.
In front of us were the ancient pastures, a vast area allowed to grow wild with pathways mowed through. A large stone book marked the boundary telling me to ‘seize the day’ so I did and raced through the long grasses.
I caught up with Jo who was looking at a blue glass sculpture which seemed a tad strange in a field, until she pointed out that there were sculptures everywhere in amongst the grass, I needed no encouragement to look further into this and seizing the day once more ran off to investigate the next one.
Some where pure art form whilst others included cows, hares and all manner of other items each one unique and each one for sale, it reminded me on a much smaller version of the British ironworks in Shropshire.
I caught up the human and mutt looking into the pond, well Jo was looking Alfie was more interested in drinking it.
The pathway led us into a wood which was shady now the sun was drying the ground around us, barking boy enjoyed racing amongst the trees and sniffing out the stumps before we found ourselves back at the meadow facing the Standing Stones.
The Munthe family had loved to puzzle over the stories of Viking heroes scathed onto granite monoliths and this gave them the idea of starting their own. Stone carvers from all of the country were brought in t work on the huge pieces of Cumbrian slate using famous quotes or texts, I liked them a lot and stored the memory for when I eventually have a large meadow to create my own.
We passed a wicker man relaxing on a bench and a rather strange character on the tree swing.
Before the path led us into the vegetable gardens which are lovingly looked after by volunteers who grow a large range of veggies and herbs for the community as well as the tea shop.
Next to the veggie patch was an area known as Hannahs Garden created by the award winning garden designer Hannah Genders, it was a very peaceful area to sit and ponder.
The cedar lawn had incredibly tall cedars to crane your neck up to along with a large swing chair and a rather interesting shaped maroon coloured sculpture.
We took a peek into the Great Barn with its apple press which is still used today to produce cider.
The Georgian stable block was horseless but did have a couple of carriages ranging from the cheapest everyday carriage for the general hoi poloi to a much grander one that would have transported the ladies and gents to the next engagement.
We passed the duck pond which was duck less arriving at the tearoom area which itself was a lovely building.
As we sat in the weak sunshine waiting for our feast to arrive Alfie the Dog and I admired the small water feature with its two horses watching us in return.
Full to bursting after our huge plate of falafels, bread, salad and humus I wiped my trunk on Jo’s jacket and set off back to the car only to stop dead in my tracks as I spotted the best thing yet. An elephant, a large wicker elephant with its trunk raised in salute, I raised my trunk and saluted him back, with no time to talk I told him that I would be back and hared after the human before she left without me.