We’ll forever associate him with Cornish clifftop walks and Aldershot sun, but Sir John Betjeman’s heart lay in another part of the country altogether. Clive Aslet looks at his enduring relationship with Norfolk.
WHEN we think of John Betjeman, we think of Surrey and bombs falling on Slough, but, most of all, Cornwall. Memories of happy boyhood holidays were a lifelong wellspring of inspiration for the Poet Laureate, who returned to Trebetherick (‘I know so well this turfy mile,’ he wrote in Greenaway) time and time again. Indeed, it was where he died, in 1984.
However, Cornwall wasn’t the only place sacred with echoes of a prelapsarian past. Ernest Betjeman, his cabinetmaker father, had also taken the family on a trip to the Norfolk Broads that would shape him profoundly. Here, for Betjeman, was the very best of England, from salt marshes to sand dunes and the gossip of village life and he made up his mind to return whenever he could.
‘I’m still reeling with delight at the soaring majesty of Norfolk and our tour there,’ Betjeman, then in his late sixties, wrote to BBC producer Edward Mirzoeff after a research trip for his television programme A Passion For Churches in 1974. He went on to describe ‘the sound of waves on shingle and bells in church-towers’ and the detour he had made to admire the Art Nouveau architecture of George Skipper in Norwich.He effervesced with the joy of it.
But there was another side to the place,which appealed to him in a different way.His poem Norfolk isn’t an ebullient celebration of the county, but a lament for the vanished past—an expression of mourning for that time before the outbreak of war (and the onset of adulthood), when Betjeman and his parents could tuck themselves securely into a houseboat on Horsey Mere and enjoy a few days of tranquility:
Denne historien er fra August 17 2016-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra August 17 2016-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
