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User:AnemoneProjectors/Rooks Nest House

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History and residents

[edit]

Lily Forster also had a friendship with the Jowitts: William Jowitt, rector of Stevenage and his wife Louisa, who had nine daughters and a son, William Jowitt, who was too young to be friends with Morgan.[1] It was through the Jowitts that Lily became friends with Charles Poston.[2]

Description

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  • Hall dominated by a big ingle-nook fireplace[3]
  • Door to left led to drawing room, large and live with French windows to the garden[3]
  • To the right a passageway by the central hearth led to the dining room, smaller and illuniated by a window.
  • Another passage from the hall led to the kitchen with kettle on an open range. ledge above with candles, and far corner had 6 black bells connecting each *room to the kitchen to summon maids.[4]
  • 1st floor landing led to 3 main bedrooms[5]
  • middle room morgans nursery[5]
  • small room at end of landing, they used to store apples and preserves[5]
  • the smell mingled with that of open fires to give the house a distinctive aroma[5]
  • unexpected protusions and uneven floors where rooms had been added or altered in the past or where the original fabric had been worn smooth by successive generations of farmers[6]
  • When the Forsters moved in:
    • Vine-covered front porch[7]
    • Hall with loose floorboards[8]
    • Smoky drawing room fire, nursery, bedrooms, attics.[8]
    • Garden meadow ouside, Rooks Nest Farm's garden was separated by a "straggling" hedge[8]
the garden
  • The front garden mostly consisted of a large lawn sloping down to the hedge separating RNH from RN Farm[9]
  • Between Lawn and hedge a boggy depression known as the "dell-'ole" or "dellow"[9]
  • narrow flower beds and borders either side of the garden and under the front windows[9]
  • a driveway ran past the front of the house, between the house and the lawn, laeding to the stables and paddock at the back of the house[9]
  • at one point the driveway skirted around a large tree. Morgan found pigs' teeth embedded in the bark[9]
  • Lily established it was a wych elm, and locals told them of a belief that toothache could be cured by sticking a pig's tooth into a wych elm's bark[9]
  • back of house - veg garden and fruit trees[9]
  • grass path between them[9]
  • a passage led to a small shrubbery, then an orchard which merged into the boundary hedge[10]
  • Lily also rented 2 fields that came with the house, one for her pony and one let to Mr Franklin for grazing[10]
  • Lily took to making a garden, tending to flower beds, hoped to fill the dellow to provide space for shrubbery with spring bulbs beneath them, but never completed[11]
  • She planted rambler roses and tulips[11]
  • The dellow had snowdrops[11]
  • Morgan loved the dellow and hoped it would be a water garden[11]
  • They had an aquarium with tadpoles and water snails[11]
  • Lily planted roses in borders, but was expected to spend time away with family as they were due to flower[11]
  • Morgan had his own patch of garden by the back door, he grew poppies[12]
  • Also in the garden = raspberries, gooseberries, currant bushes, large cherry near kitchen[12]
  • RNH garden with apple trees, pear trees, cherry trees, Lily made preserves from them[13]
  • Lily turned the front lawn into a tennis court, despite its slope that gave one player an advantage.[14]
  • Wych Elm felled 1960s[15]

Forster Country

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  • Poston asked Forster to help in the campaign to save the countryside there.[16]
  • Williamson continued the Forster Country campaign.[17]

References

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  1. ^ Ashby 1991, p. 37
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ashby 1991 p41 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Ashby 1991, p. 20
  4. ^ Ashby 1991, p. 20-21
  5. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference Ashby 1991 p22 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ashby 1991 p24 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference On foot p6 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference On foot p7 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Ashby 1991, p. 44
  10. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Ashby 1991 p45 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ a b c d e f Ashby 1991, p. 48
  12. ^ a b Ashby 1991, p. 49
  13. ^ Ashby 1991, p. 28
  14. ^ Ashby 1991, p. 51
  15. ^ Ashby 1991, p. 15
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference On foot p9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ashby 1995 p105 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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