Crafting a New Narrative at Belton House

The Belton Estate is one of the nearest National Trust properties to us, and it’s one we’ve visited a few times - even before we moved up here. The orangery is a favourite of mine, and on the times we’ve visited recently it hasn’t been open, but it was open when we visited last week on the Spring Equinox, but you’ll have to wait for an updated post on that as today I’m going to share more about a new exhibition that’s on in the house.

I first went in the house in the summer of 2021 and as with most things the post-Covid reawakening meant that only a limited number of rooms were available to view, something that I’d forgotten [about our visit] until I read it on my own post! This time though there was much more to see, and the post-Covid timing of my previous visit also explains why I didn’t remember any of the upstairs - I hadn’t been there before!

The exhibition - Artistic Journeys: Crafting a New Narrative - includes previously unseen items from the collection. which will be on display until at least until the house is redressed for Christmas, with exhibits changing regularly. The four artists are:

• Elizabeth Cust (1776 - 1858) a skill oil painter inspired by ‘Old Masters’ to create her own.

• Sophia Cust (1811 - 1882) who documented interior and exterior views of Belton using her favourite medium of watercolours.

• Marian Alford (1817 - 1888) a skilled textile designer and artist who co-founded the Royal School of Needlework.

• Nina Cust (1867 - 1955) a sculptor and poet, whose sculptures were displayed at the Royal Academy and who has published many works of poetry and fiction.

I’m not much of an oil painting fan I’m afraid, and have realised as I’ve been going through my photos, that I have none to share of Elizabeth’s work, and my photos of Nina’s work aren’t good enough to include either - so if you’re here for those, sorry - this isn’t the post for you.

Let’s start with Marian

Marian Alford’s connection to Belton was through her marriage to Viscount Alford, the eldest son of the first Earl Brownlow, and it was in 1984 that Lord Brownlow gave the house to the National Trust.

But Marian’s story took place many years before that. She was instrumental in bringing recognition to embroidery as an art form, and brought recognition to needlework as a respected form of employment for women in all social classes, raising the status of both at at time when seamstresses still worked in apalling conditions.

In 1872 she was one of the three founders of the School of Art Needlework and helped establish the school as a place for formal art education and training, which I think is all the more remarkable as she herself never received an art education, but who developed into a skilled artist and designer.

The embroidery below, along with the sketched pattern. was behind glass (hence the glare) as you entered the upstairs library. The detail of the stitches was amazing, and my favourite part was the thistle on the right hand end.

Downstairs in the Tapestry room there were more examples of her designs this time crafted by Belton volunteers, though as some patterns were incomplete these are creative interpretations of the designs, and no less stunning for that. The original hand-drawn and painted designs are now very fragile having been stored in folios for many years, and sadly can no longer be unfolded without causing damage.

Behind the embroidery hoops draped over a sofa was the most amazing throw - I wish I had more info on this, but I don’t and if it was there I missed it. But look at the detail - this one was carefully behind the ropes, but it’d be great to see this one slightly closer up. And I’d also like a pattern of the designs in the hoops above please!

Sophia’s watercolours

Sophia left Belton when she married, but often returned to her family home and during these visits she created a large collection of watercolours showing the house and gardens, many of which survive today. I particularly liked the three posters on display in the Breakfast room, which had previously been used as an ante-library (when the library was also downstairs) and then when the library moved upstairs a small dining room.

Her watercolours show how Belton looked in the mid 1800s, and is now a valuable resource for the conservation work in the property; they also show how the interior evolved over time with the placement of furniture, textiles and other objects in the rooms. So very much the photos of the day.

Another of her watercolours gave details of Belton’s boathouse which otherwise might have remained a mystery, and her detailed depiction made it possible to reinstate the boathouse, which was originally built in the 1830s. Amazing.

I was also quite taken with the breakfast crockery in the display case, which if you look closely enough at my reflection, you’ll see that I also managed unwittingly to match with my white and lime green striped top!

Two final pieces

Just before we left the house there were two final pieces that caught my eye. The first is this coloured enamel painting on copper, with an iron and silver Art Nouveau frame by the renowned Arts and Crafts enamellist Alexander Fisher of Nina Cust. It dates from 1898 and shows Nina wearing a gold and pink robe holding a cape, and it’s thought that this piece further acknowledged her status as an artist.

Isn’t it exquisite?

The second was this scrapbook - and quite honestly a scrapbook like I’ve not seen before. This was presented to Marian in 1886 as a Christmas gift from the School of Art Needlework. It’s covered in green velvet and embroidered with a gold, metal thread.

Both the house and the exhibition are worth seeing, so do go along if you’re close by or if you’re passing. As I said earlier it will be on for a while yet, and though the exhibits may change the ethos will remain. I’m looking forward to popping back and seeing how it changes, and seeing more detail on the things I’m sure I missed.

And I’ve still more to share, later this week look out for another visit to the Orangery, which now appears to be referred to at the Conservatory - and I think there’ll be another post to come on the ‘bedrooms at Belton’ and there’s some stunners there too!

Make a Metre Matter with Gardeners' World

* I was invited to the Garden Press Event, a one day show which connects garden product suppliers with garden media, I’ve also worked with the team at Gardeners’ World Live so I’m marking my blog posts from the event as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

Gardeners’ World is a bit of a national treasure isn’t it, or I think so at least. You’ll know that I love my visits to the the Live show at the NEC and I also love to catch up with Monty and the team when they’re back on our TV screens too. This year they have a campaign to Make a Metre Matter encouraging everyone to transform a metre of outdoor space for the good of the planet.

Whether you have an urban courtyard, small balcony, country plot or a community space, each of us making the most of one dedicated metre will have a real impact, and when you think about it a metre isn’t very much, but it can make an awful lot of difference.

As you’d expect every part of the Gardeners’ World brand will focus on their annual campaign - the magazine, the TV show, the digital platforms and live events, with Nick Bailey creating this year’s headline Show Garden at Gardeners’ World Live - but more on that later.

How you can Make a Metre Matter

There are loads of ways you can make a meaningful difference, whether that’s growing plants for caterpillars and pollinators, growing salad or vegetables to cut down a little on food miles and get a tastier crop at the same time, or creating a compost heap to boost your soil and help biodiversity.

The team at Gardeners’ World have plenty of ideas to inspire us which you’ll see more of in the coming months including how to:

• grow yourself a pollinator patch to support bees, butterflies, caterpillars and more,

• grow and harvest a summer of tasty veg using your square metre of space,

• boost biodiversity and welcome wildlife by making a small pond to make a big difference,

• save money on salad growing your own from seed,

• create an insect haven with log piles, habitat stacks and more,

• to get composting and boost your soil’s health with homemade compost.

Which all sounds quite tiring, but you don’t need to do it all! But there is a chance to win prizes when you register (before 30 September 2025) your participation at https://www.gardenersworld.com/win/make-a-metre-matter/

I’ve been considering what I could do in my garden, and while I do need a compost bin, that’s not what I’m going for as until I know more about what we’re doing with our garden I’m not sure where to put it. I do want to up my game on salad this year as we eat so much of it, and I’m always buying it. I like to have a variety of leaves and can quite often get bored with a single variety of lettuce, but then when I buy more than one it seems a rush to eat it - I can’t win! But if I were to grow more of my own then I could quite literally have my pick whenever I wanted, so I think that’s the right thing for me - though as before where to do this is an issue, so I think my metre will be across a number of pots, which may not be in keeping with the ethos of the campaign, but it’s what I can do and it’s way better than nothing.

Nick Bailey’s Gardeners’s World Live headline show garden, The Plant Based Garden

I mentioned earlier in this post that Nick Bailey is creating this year’s headline show garden and it’s going to be packed with ideas for transforming a metre of space, with ways to support wildlife, recycle and inspiration for choosing materials carefully as well as growing planet friendly plants.

Nick’s been involved with the campaign from the off and his garden with bring the Make a Metre Matter campaign to life. He’ll be including lots of interesting elements to the garden and wants to prove it possible to create a whole garden with only renewable resources. After the show in Birmingham the garden will move about 30 miles up the road to two different charities which are both focused on horticultural education. They are the University of Leicester Botanic Garden which is currently undergoing renovation so the show garden will add to their planting and resources, and the YMCA Leicestershire who have a big project engaging young people in horticultural careers.

And of course there’ll be lots of one square metre inspiration within the show garden, Nick said that the garden looks like a big Tetris game, but of course that it also has a cohesive design - and personally I can’t wait to see it first hand.

But until then I’ve my salad seeds to sort through and get planting - all the time remembering not to plant too many at once!

Bringing the bling to Zumba

I haven’t shared any pouches for a while, but don’t worry they’re still around - and the pouch love wait is over! Though today’s pouch is one that I’ve embellished rather than made myself.

At the start of 2024 one of our neighbours started a Zumba class in the next village, and so I’ve found myself heading along most Thursdays never having zumba-ed before - and quite honestly, I’m still not sure I’m technically doing it right, but it’s good fun and it’s a great group of people.

At Christmas our Zumba-leading neighbour held a fuddle for the group to celebrate our first year, which was a really thoughtful thing to do, and I think has helped cement the relationships that were already forming. We all insisted on helping cater the evening, as you would, and for a while our Zumba chat was the list of who was bringing what - and most importantly not to forget your slippers on the actual evening.

Now that’s my type of party!

Or fuddle. Not even knowing what a fuddle was, I’ve now been to two as my Sewing Group had one too. It’s a term I’d not come across before, and if you haven’t either, this is Wikipedia’s definition:

(UK, dialect, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Bedfordshire) A party or picnic where attendees bring food and wine; a kind of potluck.

But anyway, at the fuddle we all left with a Zumba pouch - imagine my joy, wearing slippers to a party and bringing a pouch home!

Embellishing my Zumba pouch

Obviously with twenty or so of these pouches now in the wild in my local area there was a high chance that some would make it to a Zumba class near me every week, and with them all looking the same that might not be the best move. So I decided some kind of customisation was required - and while I could have simply written my name inside, I decided to go bigger than that.

I also wanted to cover some of the text as that wasn’t for me. I know it’s fairly inoffensive, and more descriptive but I knew I’d be happier with just having the Zumba on my pouch - I can’t explain why. And I knew I had some sequins hanging around, like you do - and so I thought I’d put the mismatch of those together in ‘disco-type bands’ above and below the main zumba-ing figures.

This gave me the opportunity to test out my sequin applying skills, as well as my ability to thread teeny tiny needles - small enough to go through those tiny beads!

And actually it was quite a soothing thing to do. Before long I had two sparkly borders, which makes me smile - and then I remembered I had to do the other side too!

So now I have a bling inspired Zumba pouch, which definitely stands out from the others - and that’s mainly how I bring the bling to Zumba - my ‘moves’ mostly still need quite a bit of work, but really I don’t care too much about that!