Visit to Belgrave Hall
- By: Lucy Veale
- 26th July
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Belgrave Hall - Glasshouse temperature records
This morning I visited Belgrave Hall and gardens in Leicestershire to meet with Gardens Officer Val Hartley. The house was built in 1707 and was a family home until 1936, passing through 5 families. It became a museum in 1937 and is laid out as it would have been in Victorian times during the Ellis family’s residency. The house has a large walled garden with several glasshouses. Val was able to show me temperature records kept for the glasshouses from 1999 (although these are not continuous). Checking the temperatures in the glasshouses daily is good practice to ensure that the boilers are working properly. Obviously these are records show artificially created temperatures but may still be able to tell us something about changing climates (an outside temperature is also usually recorded). So, another example of museums actively collecting data rather than objects…
Val pointed out some relatively recent tropical additions to the garden (kiwi, olive etc), perhaps showing that conditions in Britain are becoming increasingly suitable to these plants, but also showed me some exotics (for example the pomegranate) that have been growing well at Belgrave for hundreds of years, undoubtedly aided by the garden’s sheltered position and high walls, showing perhaps a consistency in climate.
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