The House Husband

It was a lovely day of sun and cloud and threatening rain which never materialised.

After shopping and a long overdue almond croissant, we decided to visit Old Thatch, an NGS garden which was open today. Linda (eventually) took us there, down quaint country lanes and over the Basingstoke Canal, and, eventually to Dogmersfield.

Old Thatch is hidden away in woodland, the land (about 10 acres) sloping down to the edge of the canal which, built in 1792, is not as old as the house. Mind you, the thatched house as we see it today is a good deal bigger than the original which was built sometime in the 17th century.

According to the hand-out we picked up at the gate, the original house would have been a “…simple A-frame hovel without a chimney.” Sounds pretty ghastly! Today, of course, it looks perfect for decorating the lid of a tin of biscuits or the final image of a 900 piece jigsaw. Quintessentially English, in fact.

I’d just like to mention the hand-out and map we received at the gate. A fantastic idea and very welcomed (by us at least). Apart from the obvious advantages of the map, the short historical notes are an excellent way to dissect the place and put it into context. It’s not so bad with small gardens but when you visit a big one like this, it’s always great to know a bit of the history of where you’re walking.

The house sits, more or less, in the centre and the grounds spread out around it. Not that the thatch is the only building these days.

The Thatched House itself

There’s the Chapel (serving teas and cake), the Millennium Barn (built in 2000 and housing, among other things, a dovecot) and another big building without a name to indicate its purpose (it might be where the owner’s actually live). There’s even a granary sitting atop the rat defying mushrooms so popular in gardens these days (Mirinda wants one which, in itself, makes them popular).

The Chapel was built on the site of a goat house. A blind owner had a rope fence leading to the goats so she could find her way down there to feed them each day. After the Chapel was built (sometime after 1986), the present owners were married in it without, as they state in the hand-out, any goats.

In fact, we didn’t see any goats so I assume they don’t live there any longer. Goats there may not be but they do have some sheep and three very tiny donkeys. The smallest donkey is not long born and garnered many an ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ from the many visitors who patted him through the wire fence.

Tiny donkeys

There’s a lot of tiny areas dedicated to various plantings but the thing about this garden is the whole which far greater than the sum of its parts, though the staggering amount of daffodils is almost incomprehensible. The current owner planted 5,000 bulbs every year for ten years. Makes our little offering a bit sad. Mind you, if I planted 50,000 daffodil bulbs in our little garden, there’d be nothing else.

Something we’ve never seen before was the use of sheep’s wool as mulch. It is spread among the plants in the vegetable garden. I thought it was to keep the young plants warm but apparently it’s mulch. It looks a bit odd but if it works, why not?

In the garden behind the thatch and spreading down to the canal, is a bronze, full size statue of a horse. It looks remarkably real (except it’s green) and I kept expecting it to stop it’s eating and look up as people wandered by.

The remarkable horse

According to the map they gave us, the horse’s name is Vegetia (or something like that – the copy of the map is a bit blurry). The only information I’ve been able to find is for a Roman pottery woman who is a member of the equestrian class and I have no idea if it ralates to her or not. Still…great statue.

Mirinda poses

Of course we indulged our taste-buds with tea and cake before gradually making our way back home.

Old Thatch is a very different garden to the ones we normally see but the feel of the place is very friendly and not in the least bit formal. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

Mirinda feeds the lambs

Another great NGS garden. There’s a few more photos here.

It was running through my mind as I chased them. Those little oinkers. All I could see bobbing in front of me. Pork chop and bacon.

Today was the big day for all of Surrey. The County show. Bank holiday Monday, the second one in May, is always Surrey County Show day. It attracts thousands from near and far. It is a raucous, joyous celebration of all things country.

We’ve never been. Before today, anyway. We were determined to go this year. For a number of reasons. One reason was the terrier races. Every year we miss the terrier races. A sad, sad state of affairs. The terrier races are hilarious. Having decided we were definitely going, it was a shame, therefore, to find out that there would be no terrier races at this years show. Damn it!

And then we read the replacement and we smiled. With typical British craziness someone quickly invented pig racing. Oh frabjuos day! With what joy we left home early this morning.

And, indeed, it was a very good idea, leaving early. We wanted to get there before the crowds. And we did. We were directed to an almost deserted car park, right near the exit, and had no difficulty hopping on the free park and ride bus to the show ground. We were a small group entering the nicely sedate park.

We saw some amazing cows, some wonderful goats, a few Edwardian women showing off their donkeys and, the pig racing. The goats were especially cute. I love goats. I want one. I’m going to call him Satan. But he has to be a big evil looking brute. The ones at the show today were all cute and cuddly and you wanted to either take them home or milk them and make cheese.

We also saw black highland cows! I thought they only came in brown. And the cute little mini-cows, the Dexters. The whole day was just one cute farmyard animal after the other. About 800 breeds of sheep, countless dogs, beautifully sleek ponies jumping fences with 11 year old girls on their backs. But we mustn’t forget the pigs.

We were ready for the racing, standing by the fence, an excellent spot among the gathering crowd. This was going to be a very popular event. The woman started her chat to the audience and suddenly I was dragged, protesting from the crowd and marched around the back of a small horse float. Inside I was greeted by six crazy little pigs, just waiting for the off.

The pigs, with little numbers on their backs, continually jostled for the best position at the front of the float, waiting impatiently for the race to begin. The farmer was gee-ing up the crowd, the young chap in the dress with Heidi’s plaits was in the float with me, gee-ing up the pigs to a pre-race frenzy. The woman on the microphone was beseeching the crowd to give vent to loud shrieking and much raising of arms.

And the gate went up! Insanity reigned as the pigs flew up the track, leaping effortlessly over the little hurdles, me and Heidi in close pursuit, giving them helpful little prods. It was all pretty hilarious. I think the crowd enjoyed it. Three times I had to race with the pigs. It was like the bull thing in Pamplona only a lot safer.

We left soon after this as the crowds grew and grew. As we walked out the exit, a long queue of eager show goers was stretching up the street. We managed to get a seat on a bus and then headed back to the university where Sidney was now firmly surrounded by hundreds of cars.

A wonderful day. I’ve put some photos up here but here’s one of me and the pigs to start off with…

Helping with the pig racing at Surrey County Show