CHAPTER FOUR – PENDRELL HALL Pendrell Hall was a small estate and as far as possible, it was self-sufficient. There was a large kit-chen garden with fruit cages for the soft fruit. Cherries and pears were trained to grow around the walls of the walled garden and there was a range of glasshouses.     As you entered the walled garden, the first glasshouse on the left was always full of foliage plants for the house. There was a lovely aroma in this glasshouse from the purple heliotrope and the cream Maréchal Niel rose. The next glasshouse was where they grew the grapes, both black and green. These were trained up the side of the glasshouse continuing onto the sloping roof. These were dessert grapes for eating in the Hall. The next one was the peach house, containing both peaches and nectarines. They were trained up against the wall, as these were lean-to glasshouses.    In addition they had a dairy farm.The new college building is built roughly where the stable yard was situated. Going away from the house, on the left, was the stable yard with loose boxes for the horses. Then there was a high building which housed the Brougham, the Victoria and what they called the Luggage Cart. Next to that there was a pair of double doors and if you went through those you came into the farmyard. There was a range of cow-houses and down at the bottom there was another range of cow-houses. On the right was a wood shed with a variety of different saws. The estate supplied wood for the house and for the work people as well.

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Stable and cowhouses at Pendrell Hall. Behind the buildings is the Orchard

Jersey cows provided milk for everyone on the estate. They were given fancy names like Pendrell Pansy, Pendrell Patience, Pendrell Primrose, Pendrell Patsy, and so on. They all had their names printed over their own stall. The cowman lived down at Wheatstone where they had a sort of ancillary farm. It used to be a bungalow and there were cow-sheds down there and three paddocks; two were used for grazing and one was cultivated. The pigs were kept down at Wheatstone. There were free-range hens in the yard. At the back of the stable-yard was the orchard and the hens used to go in there and in and out of the outbuildings. I don’t remember any game-shooting taking place at Pendrell at all; any birds required for the table were purchased.     In the orchard at Pendrell was a small brick building, about 8ft square, and windowless. This was where cans of petrol were stored for the car, in the days before petrol pumps, well away from the

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