When my irrigation system comes on there is no pressure. What should I do?

Find the reticulation connection to the water mains. You will find a solenoid valve that has isolated the system from the mains. The valve has failed internally and is not opening fully. We recommend hiring an expert to replace it. If you have a bore, the pump or bore needs to be fixed by an expert.

What is better for a retaining wall, timber sleepers or blocks?

Treated timber is approved for in ground use and has a reasonable service life, however block retaining walls and concrete sleeper retaining walls are more durable having a greater life expectancy. This is based on suitable footings & good drainage. Both Blocks and concrete sleepers come in a wide range of colours, sizes and styles to create a more aesthetic landscape. Common styles of retainers walls to consider are timber sleep retaining walls, link wall or link block retaining walls and concrete sleeper walls

Should I pave or concrete?

While concrete certainly has its benefits, pavers give a more aesthetic finish to a landscape area. Pavers area available in range of colours, texture, styles and sizes. Larger format, 400mm and 500mm pavers have become increasingly popular with modern and contemporary landscape designs. Pavers are also commonly used for garden borders and edges for their straight line finish which is widely desired in modern landscape construction.

How do I maintain artificial grass?

Very little maintenance is required. Just sweep off any leaves or gently use a leaf blower. You can hose off any spills or pet messes. For pet solids, you just scoop up in the traditional way. You can hose or wipe down with cold water if required. To lift the fibres just use a broom to sweep in the opposite direction to your view point.

Do I need landscape design plans before I get a construction quote?

Yes. A landscape design will allow us to discuss the project with enough detail to allow for an accurate price estimate. This design process will also determine whether council approvals are required, which can impact cost and timing.

Gardener Marsden Park

Need 5 star rated Gardeners in Marsden Park? All Green Gardening and Landscaping is one stop for all your gardening and landscaping needs. We provide mulching, weeding, lawn care, turfing, and rubbish removal. With our outstanding services right in your neighborhood, we proudly rank among the top gardening contractors around.

Our team provides maintenance services with expertise. Detail is paramount to us, and our gardening services reflect that.

Call 0410 196 069

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Best Gardening Services Marsden Park Wide

Get a straightforward written estimate upfront for Marsden Park gardening services, no strings attached. An initial garden check helps us quote the price accurately. This preliminary visit clarifies the garden’s needs, lets us provide guidance, and aligns with your budget.

Whether you’re hesitant or your garden’s in chaos, we’ll restore order with a comprehensive plan. You won’t encounter call-out fees, and your payment is contingent on your satisfaction with our service! We charge for actual work time, avoiding any unnecessary extensions to the estimate.

Our Marsden Park team, fully trained and well-prepared, can assist with all your garden care queries. The All Green Gardening and Landscaping team is well-versed in these matters, and they’re there for a second opinion or extra help.

Looking for a Gardener Near Me in Marsden Park?

Need a dependable local gardener? Explore top-notch lawn care, maintenance, and landscaping services online. Our garden care offers service variety, scheduling ease, and no size constraints. From tiny garden spruce-ups to big lawn restorations, we’re here. We’re here for garden tune-ups or breathing life into lawns.

Tired of garden chores eating your free time? Contact All Green Gardening and Landscaping. We love to maintain gardens for commercial and residential clients. There’s a real joy for us in making gardens tidy and lush!

Professional Gardener Services in Marsden Park

When designing a garden, it’s useful to know what plants will enjoy the soil and climate conditions, what width and height they will grow to, what water and nutrient needs they have, how much sun they will need, what pests will show up and how to deal with them if/when they do, bird and insect attraction, etc.

All Green Gardening excels in curating gardens customised to your taste. It’s essential we know what you seek from your garden and your commitment to it. We ensure the same meticulousness in designs and all garden services for your trust. We have years of experience and are trusted by countless clients to provide our services to them year after year. For garden assistance in Marsden Park, ring us or visit our Contact Us page.

Garden Care Marsden Park

Hours of dedication and care create beautiful and flourishing gardens. Routine upkeep is the key to the perfect aesthetic. Regular tasks like mowing and soil enrichment ensure the best garden performance. Today, most homeowners face this significant problem. Having a well-tended garden is a wish, but time is the challenge.

What started out as a labor of love soon turns into an obligation you just don’t have time to fulfill. And the longer you postpone taking care of a garden or lawn, the more time you will have to spend fixing it up. This is a vicious cycle that prevents people from making the most out of their outdoor space. In the gardening realm, our Marsden Park squad has accumulated decades of wisdom. Whether crafting a stunning garden or battling pest invasions, All Green Gardening and Landscaping tackles it joyfully. Landscape creation, plant health, or lawn care, our experience stands out.

Garden Maintenance Marsden Park

It’s not straightforward to keep a garden pristine. The process demands frequent care, hard work, and a time investment not all can offer. Every garden is unique, so we provide bespoke gardening services. Our goal: accentuate your garden’s best without overpricing. The technicians we partner with are well-equipped for any task at hand.

Our skilled team knows the care for Marsden Park, NSW 2765 grass varieties. Commercial mowing, acreage care, or grass slashing, we’re equipped with the best tools and know-how.

Frequently Asked Questions

Seek the connection between reticulation and water mains. The solenoid valve has an internal flaw, hindering its full operation. We recommend hiring an expert to replace it. If you have a bore, the pump or bore needs to be fixed by an expert.

While treated wood is ground-approved, concrete and block walls offer more longevity. Blocks and concrete sleepers enhance landscapes with their myriad styles and colours. Consider timber sleep, link wall, or concrete sleeper retaining walls.

Pavers, compared to concrete, elevate a landscape’s appearance.

Enjoy hassle-free upkeep; clearing leaves is effortless with sweeping or a leaf blower. For spills or pet solids, it’s a straightforward process – hose or scoop, no hassle. Enhance fiber height by sweeping against your viewpoint with a broom.

Absolutely. A landscape design helps us explore project details, providing an accurate price estimate. Within our design process, we investigate the necessity for council approvals, potentially impacting both cost and timing.

Current Job Postings

If you’re considering joining the All Green Gardening & Landscaping Team, reach out with your Job Interest. We’re hiring local landscapers and gardeners in Sydney, and the positions are open immediately.

jobs@allgreen-gardening-landscaping.com.au

Stagecoach - 11270 SN69ZGF - ADL E40D - ADL Enviro 400MMC
New to Stagecoach Manchester(Greater Manchester South), in 09/2019, this smart Enviro 400MMC is seen here on Cheapside, Oldham, about to enter the bus station on 05/06/2024. It is operating in on Service 184 09:35 Huddersfield Bus Station - Cowlersley - Slaithwaite - Marsden - Diggle - Uppermill - Grotton - Lees - Greenacres Cemetery - Oldham Mumps Interchange - Oldham Bus Station. This is service now comes under Tranche 2 of TfGM's Bee Network's Oldham Mumps depot of Stagecoach Manchester. It was previously a First Huddersfield service. Under Tranche 2 of Bee Network, which started on 24/03/2024, Stagecoach Manchester(Greater Manchester South) gained Manchester Queens Road depot from Go North West and the Oldham Mumps depot from First Manchester. In Tranche 1, which started on 24/09/2023, Stagecoach Manchester(Greater Manchester West) lost the Wigan depot to Go North West and in Tranche 3, starting on 05/01/2025, Stagecoach Manchester(Greater Manchester South) will lose Ashton-under-Lyne, Manchester Hyde Road, and Manchester Sharston to Comfort DelGro Metroline Manchester who will also gain Arriva Manchester's Wythenshaw depot. Stagecoach Manchester(Greater Manchester South) will keep their Stockport depots. © Peter Steel 2024.

. #Chair No.26
It’s #Chemo #Monday. I can call it the #HappyMondays because the #staff, am mostly in contact with the nurses on the #Medical #Day #Unit at the #Royal #Marsden So far fewer side effects than 4 years ago (oh oh back again… #NikkiMinaj )

Network Rail Class 153 153385
Working The 2Q61 09.37 York Parcels Sidings To York Parcels Sidings York Parcels Sidings 09.37 . 09.38 1L York Loop (Holgate) 09.39 To 09.39 09.39 . 09.41 2L Colton North Jn 09.45 1/2 To 09.45 1/2 N/R 09.46 1/4 RT Colton Jn 09.47 . 09.46 3/4 RT Hambleton North Jn 09.54 . 09.53 3/4 RT Temple Hirst Jn 09.58 1/2 . 09.58 1/2 RT Joan Croft Jn 10.06 . 10.07 1L Applehurst Jn 10.08 . 10.08 3/4 RT Thorpe Marsh Jn 10.11 . 10.10 1/4 RT Hatfield & Stainforth 10.16 . 10.15 RT Thorne Jn 10.19 To 10.29 N/R 10.21 7E Crowle 10.38 . 10.33 1/4 4E Scunthorpe [SCU] 10.47 To 10.50 10.43 1/2 . 10.51 1L Crowle 11.01 . 11.00 3/4 RT Thorne Jn 11.09 . 11.09 1/2 RT Hatfield & Stainforth 11.12 . 11.11 3/4 RT Thorpe Marsh Jn 11.17 . 11.15 3/4 1E Haywood Jn 11.20 . 11.19 1/4 RT Knottingley South Jn 11.33 . 11.31 1/2 1E Knottingley East Jn 11.35 . 11.33 1E Sudforth Lane Signal Box 11.40 . 11.36 1/2 3E Whitley Bridge 11.43 . 11.38 1/4 4E Hensall 11.45 . 11.40 3/4 4E Drax Branch Junction 11.47 . 11.42 3/4 4E Drax Power Station 11.53 To 11.53 N/R 12.17 24L Drax Branch Junction 12.01 . 12.24 3/4 23L Hensall 12.03 . 12.27 24L Whitley Bridge 12.05 . 12.29 1/2 24L Sudforth Lane Signal Box 12.07 . 12.31 24L Knottingley East Jn 12.10 . 12.34 1/2 24L Knottingley West Jn 12.12 . 12.35 1/2 23L Pontefract Monkhill 12.16 . 12.38 22L Crofton East Jn 12.26 . 12.47 21L Oakenshaw South Jn 12.29 No Report Royston Jn 12.36 No Report Monk Bretton Redfearns 12.42 To 13.31 No Report Royston Jn 13.36 No Report Oakenshaw South Jn 13.42 No Report Oakenshaw Jn 13.45 No Report Calder Bridge Jn 13.47 . 13.44 1/2 2E Wakefield Kirkgate 13.49 . 13.46 1/2 2E Horbury Jn 13.55 . 13.51 1/4 3E Mirfield East Jn 14.03 . 14.11 1/4 8L Heaton Lodge Jn 14.07 . 15.57 1/2 110L Bradley Jn 14.10 . 14.15 3/4 5L Huddersfield 14.14 . 14.19 3/4 5L Marsden [MSN] 14.29 To 14.45 14.30 3/4 . 14.47 2L Huddersfield 14.55 . 15.00 1/4 5L Bradley Jn 14.59 1/2 . 15.04 3/4 5L Bradley Wood Jn 15.02 . 15.07 1/2 5L Greetland Jn 15.09 . 15.14 1/4 5L Dryclough Jn 15.14 . 15.20 1/4 6L Halifax [HFX] 15.21 To 15.24 15.23 . 15.24 3/4 RT Dryclough Jn 15.26 . 15.27 1/2 1L Greetland Jn 15.30 To 15.43 N/R 15.30 1/2 12E Bradley Wood Jn 15.48 . 15.37 3/4 10E Heaton Lodge East Jn 15.53 . 15.49 3E Mirfield East Jn 15.56 . 16.00 1/2 4L Dewsbury 16.01 . 16.05 4L Morley 16.07 . 16.11 1/4 4L Whitehall Jn 16.17 1/2 . 16.17 3/4 RT Leeds West Junction 16.17 1/2 . 16.18 1/2 1L Leeds 16.19 . 16.27 1/2 8L Marsh Lane Jn Leeds 16.22 . 16.32 3/4 10L Neville H. West Jn 16.25 To 16.47 N/R 16.37 1/4 9E Cross Gates 16.51 1/2 . 16.41 1/4 10E Micklefield 16.56 . 16.50 3/4 5E Church Fenton [CHF] 17.00 1/2 To 17.00 1/2 Pass 16.55 1/4 5E Colton South Jn 17.10 To 17.35 N/R 17.16 18E Colton Jn 17.36 . 17.18 17E York Parcels Sidings 17.43 . 17.25 18E

Before the Thanksgiving Christmas Party
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients. For nearly a year Lettice has been patiently awaiting the return of her beau, Selwyn Spencely, son of the Duke of Walmsford, after being sent to Durban by his mother, Lady Zinnia in an effort to destroy their relationship which she wanted to end so that she could marry Selwyn off to his cousin, Pamela Fox-Chavers. Now Lettice has been made aware by Lady Zinnia that during the course of the year, whilst Lettice has been biding her time, waiting for Selwyn’s eventual return, he has become engaged to the daughter of a Kenyan diamond mine owner whilst in Durban. Fleeing Lady Zinnia’s Park Lane mansion, Lettice returned to Cavendish mews and milled over her options over a week as she reeled from the news. Then, after that week, she knew exactly what to do to resolve the issues raised by Lady Zinnia’s unwelcome news about her son. Taking extra care in her dress, she took herself off to the neighbouring upper-class London suburb of Belgravia and paid a call upon Sir John Nettleford-Hughes. Old enough to be her father, wealthy Sir John is still a bachelor, and according to London society gossip intends to remain so, so that he might continue to enjoy his dalliances with a string of pretty chorus girls of Lettice’s age and younger. As an eligible man in a aftermath of the Great War when such men are a rare commodity, with a vast family estate in Bedfordshire, houses in Mayfair, Belgravia and Pimlico and Fontengil Park in Wiltshire, quite close to the Glynes estate belonging to her parents, Lettice’s mother, Lady Sadie, invited him as a potential suitor to her 1922 Hunt Ball, which she used as a marriage market for Lettice. Selwyn rescued Lettice from the horror of having to entertain him, and Sir John left the ball early in a disgruntled mood with a much younger partygoer. Lettice recently reacquainted herself with Sir John at an amusing Friday to Monday long weekend party held by Sir John and Lady Gladys Caxton at their Scottish country estate, Gossington, a baronial Art and Crafts castle near the hamlet of Kershopefoot in Cumberland. To her surprise, Lettice found Sir John’s company rather enjoyable. She then ran into him again at the Portland Gallery’s autumn show where she found him yet again to be a pleasant and attentive companion for much of the evening. Sir John also made a proposition to her that night: he offered her his hand in marriage should she ever need it. More like a business arrangement than a marriage proposal, Sir John offered Lettice the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of his large fortune, be chatelain of all his estates and continue to have her interior design business, under the conditions that she agree to provide him with an heir, and that he be allowed to discreetly carry on his affairs in spite of their marriage vows. He even suggested that Lettice might be afforded the opportunity to have her own extra marital liaisons if she were discreet about them. Turning up unannounced on his doorstep, she agreed to his proposal after explaining that the understanding between she and Selwyn was concluded. However, in an effort to be discreet, at Lettice’s insistence, they are not making their engagement public until the new year: after the dust about Selwyn’s break of his and Lettice’s engagement settles. So Lettice and Sir John are going on about their separate lives, but in the lead up to Christmas they invariably end up running into one another at the last mad rush of parties before everyone who hasn’t already decamps to the country to celebrate Christmas. Tonight, we are in the drawing room of Cavendish Mews, where Lettice is entertaining her elder sister Lalage (known to everyone in the family by the diminutive Lally). Lally, who resides with her husband Charles Lanchenbury and their two children, Harrold and Annabelle, at Dorrington House, a smart Jacobean manor house of the late 1600s in High Wycome in the country of Buckinghamshire, has come up to London to do her Christmas shopping, and access the larger range of shops and Oxford Street department stores mot afforded to her in the country. Rather than motor up and then back to High Wycombe the same day, Lally is stopping the night with Lettice after the two siblings have spent the day shopping together. Tomorrow Lally will motor down to Wiltshire to their parents and drop off all hers and Lettice’s gifts for their annual family Christmas together at their country family seat before motoring back to Buckinghamshire. Just by good fortune, Lettice is going to one of the last big Christmas parties of 1924, and knowing the host and hostess very well, being part of her Embassy Club coterie, she has wrangled an invitation for Lally to attend too. Now the two, both dressed up in beautiful and delicate evening frocks and bedecked in jewels, with their hair freshly coiffed and set by a fashionable West End hairdresser, sit chatting, sipping champagne and cooling their heels before attending the party at a fashionably late respectable time. “I say, Tice darling!” Lally remarks as she looks at the pink salmon mousse in the shape of a fish sprinkled with thinly slice cucumber and garnished with lemon wedges on the low black japanned coffee table between she and her sister. “This is all rather splendid!” “Oh there’s more to come,” Lettice replies, picking up a sparking glass of champagne which almost blends into her silvery grey silk crêpe gown adorned with silver and gold sequins. “Edith is just bringing it now.” “To use one of the phrases of the moment that you and your fashionable friends love, ‘how ripping’!” Lally replies, picking up her own glass and sipping the sparkling golden liquid from it. “That’s the spirit, Lally darling! You’ll fit in perfectly tonight.” Lettice replies encouragingly. “I must say, this is awfully good of you, Tice.” “What is, Lally?” “Well, all of this.” Lally replies, stretching her arms elegantly and gesticulating at the festively decorated drawing room around them with its bright Christmas tree covered in shining glass baubles surrounded by a mountain of presents, and garland draped fireplace covered in Christmas cards. “What? The decorations?” Lettice asks. “But I would have decorated for Christmas , even if you weren’t coming, Lally darling.” “No Tice!” Lally hisses in reply. “Not the decorations. I’m so grateful to you for allowing me to come and stay here tonight after my shopping expeditions to buy presents for the children and the rest of the family, not to mention the last minute invitation to the party.” “Well, I wasn’t going to let my sister stay in a London hotel when there is a perfectly good spare bedroom here.” Lettice retorts. “I mean, I know I could have motored back to Buckinghamshire after we’d finished shopping today, but it’s so much easier just to stay in town overnight.” “Of course it is, Lally.” Lettice agrees. “Don’t give it another thought. And as for the party,” She wafts her hand breezily. “It was simple to get you an invitation. It helps when you know both the hosts intimately.” “Are you sure you don’t want me to motor you down to Glynes* tomorrow, Tice?” “No thank you, Lally,” Lettice declines. “Thank you all the same. I’m sure you won’t want me in the car with you tomorrow, all grumpy and woolly headed, nursing a beasty hangover after all the excesses of tonight. I plan on getting rather tight** tonight, since George and Cilla are footing the drinks bill.” “Well, perhaps not, since you put it that way, Tice.” “Besides, I doubt there would be room enough in your little Baby Austin*** for me as well as both your presents and mine for the family Christmas.” She nods in the direction of the pile of presents sitting underneath her Christmas tree all wrapped up in bright festive metallic papers and gaily coloured ribbons, and several very full bags from some of London’s best department stores. “Yes, we did shop up quite a storm today, didn’t we?” Lally remarks a little guiltily. “More you than me, Lally darling. I’ve already done most of my Christmas shopping.” “Well, it’s too much of a temptation, isn’t it Tice? There are so many more wonderful shops here in London than there are in the counties, not to mention the department stores.” “It was rather fun luncheoning at Derry and Tom’s**** café today.” Lettice smiles, casting her mind back to earlier in the day when the pair of them were ensconced in a cosy nook at a quiet table for two at the Kensington department store, with the table before them laid with fine white napery, gilt edged china, glinting silverware and gleaming glassware, with the hubbub of quiet and polite, predominantly female, chatter drifting around them as Edwardian matrons and their daughters or other well-heeled young women enjoyed a fine repast just like them between their Christmas shopping excursions. At that moment, Edith, Lettice’s maid, slips through the green baize door that leads from the service area of the flat into the dining room, carrying a silver tray on which stands a bowl of gleaming black caviar, a plate holding an assortment of watercracker biscuits and another upon which stand an array of very smart looking canapés. She walks purposefully across the dining room and into the drawing room, lowering the tray onto the coffee table between the two sisters as they chat, gently pushing aside several cheerfully wrapped presents to make room for it. “Not that High Wycombe feels like the country so much anymore,” Lally goes on. “What with those ghastly Metroland estates full of endless streets of mind numbingly matching two-up two-down***** rows of houses being developed up and down the railway line, chewing up the beautiful English countryside.” Edith’s hands shake as a sudden shudder runs through her, making the plates and cutlery on the tray rattle noisily. “I’m sure we’ll have a department store built in the high street before too long, what with the influx of commuters to London pouring into High Wycombe every weekday.” “Are you alright, Edith?” Lettice asks in concern, reaching out a hand and grasping her maid’s shoulder. As if struck with a hot poker, Edith quickly stands up and brushes down her lace trimmed afternoon uniform apron and her black silk moiré dress. “Yes Miss.” She replies stiffly. “I beg your pardon Miss,” She bobs a small curtsey and then turns to Lally and does the same. “Mrs. Lanchenbury.” “Oh, I’m sure there’s nothing to forgive, Edith.” Lally replies kindly as she sinks back into the comfortable rounded back of one of the Lettice’s Art Deco tub armchairs. “Indeed, there isn’t.” Lettice assures her maid. She looks into her pretty face and notices that Edith’s peaches and cream complexion looks a little pale. “Are you quite sure you’re alright, Edith?” “Oh yes Miss!” Edith replies quickly. “It was just someone walking over my grave.” “Well, let’s hope its not one of the three ghosts of Christmas.” Lettice chuckles, smiling wistfully as she remembers she and Edith sitting down to listen to a dramatised recording of Charles Dickens classic novella ‘A Christmas Carol’ on her new wireless, a gift from Selwyn Spencely, in December last year******. “Oh indeed, Miss.” Edith smiles shyly as she agrees. “Oh, and thank you for putting up with me for tonight,” Lally pipes up quickly. “And all of my,” She waves her hand laconically at all the presents spread about the flat’s drawing room. “My acquisitions.” “Oh that’s quite alright, Mrs, Lanchenbury.” Edith assures her. “No bother at all.” “That’s kind of you, Edith.” Lally acknowledges. “I’m sure I make extra, unnecessary work for you. And I really do appreciate it.” The sisters watch as Edith withdraws and slips quickly behind the green baize door and back to her preserve of the Cavendish Mews kitchen. “Do you think she’s really alight, Tice darling?” Lally asks with concern. “She looked a little pale.” “Oh I think so, Lally. I noticed that too. But I think, like the rest of us, she’s just tired as the year comes to an end. Although she won’t admit it, I think she’s quietly quite looking forward to me going home to Glynes, so that she can go home and spend a lovely Christmas with her own family. She tells me that her steward brother has shore leave again this year.” “I do hope I’m not being too much of an inconvenience, Tice darling.” Lally goes on, once they think Edith is safely out of earshot. “I know how hard it is to get good help these days, and maids can be so temperamental nowadays.” “Oh, you’re no more a bother to Edith than you are to me, Lally darling. And if you were, you’re certainly making it up to me at any rate by taking my gifts down to Glynes with you.” “It’s my pleasure, Tice.” Lally smiles at her sister. “Anyway, it makes sense. If I’m going to take most of the presents down there to avoid the children fossicking for them before Christmas at home, it makes sense to take yours down with me too.” “Well, I am most awfully grateful, Lally darling.” “So, when are you going down to stay with Mamma and Pappa then?” “I’ve arranged to motor down with Gerald on the twenty second. When are you, Charles and the children going?” “Well, we’ll be there before you. I’m taking the children and Nanny down on the twentieth. Charles will follow on the twenty second like you. He has some final business with Lord Lanchenbury before Christmas, whereas my last duty with the High Wycome WI******* for 1924 is to give my treasurer’s report to Mrs. Alsop.” Lally pulls a face. “On the eighteenth.” “The ghastly gossip and bore, Mrs. Alsop!” Lettice deposits her glass back onto the coffee table and raises her hands to her cheeks in mock horror s she pulls a sad face. “Oh you!” Lally hisses with a cheeky smile. “You wouldn’t be so glib about ghastly Mrs. Alsop if you’d met her, Tice,” She nods seriously as her lips crumple disapprovingly. “Well, mercifully Aunt Egg saved me from that fait accompli when she organsied the invitation to the Caxton’s Friday to Monday party at Gossington in Scotland,” Lettice remarks, before adding, “Not that that didn’t have ramifications of its own, in due course.” “Indeed.” Lally replies sagely, her head bobbing up and down slowly. “Mind you, I did receive a Christmas card from Gladys and John in the post the other day.” “You didn’t!” Lally gasps in surprise. “I did!” Lettice stands up and walks over to the mantelpiece, cluttered with a dozen or so gaily coloured cards, all stylised in the simple lines of the Art Deco aesthetic movement that is swiftly becoming fashionable as the decade of 1920s moves forward. She fishes out a card hidden towards the back featuring a Christmas tree lined laneway at night with a car motoring down it. The car’s two beaming headlights and the crescent moon above are painted in gold paint which has also been used on the ‘Season’s Greetings’ written in bold text at the bottom of the card. She hands it to Lally who flips it open. “’Best wishes to you and your family this festive season’,” Lally reads aloud. “’And a happy 1925 from Gladys and John.’” She closes the card and hands it back with an edge of distaste to Lettice, who slips it back behind a card featuring two bright red poinsettias on a blue background. “Well, it’s cursory, but not unpleasant.” Lally pronounces. “That’s somewhat of a turn up for the books, I must say!” “Oh, I don’t think it was actually written by Gladys.” Lettice replies, returning to her seat and picking up her glass of champagne. “I think her dragon of a personal secretary, Miss Goodwyn, did it and simply gave it to Gladys and John to sign.” “Yes, but she didn’t have to send you a card at all, did she, Tice darling?” “I suppose not, but I think she knows that Phoebe and I have developed a friendship… mmm… of sorts… since that afternoon tea at Aunt Egg’s.” “Is Pheobe finally starting to come out of her shell, now that she’s not under Lady Glady’s roof so much?” “Since I set things right at her Ridgmount Gardens pied-à-terre********, yes.” Lettice replies with a satisficed smile. “I mean, she’ll never be frightfully outgoing, and I’d never call her one of my bosom friends*********, but Phoebe is actually turning out to be a rather pleasant companion, in a quiet and more reserved way. At least she expresses her opinions more readily now, and being on the quieter side, I’ve discovered that she is very good at observing people and noticing little things that others don’t.” “Well that’s good.” “Yes, it is rather.” “Well, I must say this looks awfully jolly and festive.” Lally remarks, looking at the brightly coloured canapés and sleek black caviar on the silver tray. “Now, Tice darling, you must tell me all about this Christmas party we’re going to tonight.” “Oh, well it isn’t strictly a Christmas party as such, Lally darling.” Lettice corrects her sister politely as she puts down her glass and picks up a thin watercracker biscuit which she smothers in glistening black caviar. She then deposits the silver spoon back into the bowl and passes the caviar lavished cracker to her sister. “Thank you, Tice.” Lally says, accepting the watercracker gratefully. “It isn’t?” “No. This is more of a transatlantic set, you see, what with Georgie being American and Cilla being British.” Lettice fixes herself a caviar smothered watercracker biscuit. “So, tonight is more of an amalgam of celebrations.” “And amalgam?” Lally bites into the caviar and sighs with pleasure. “Yes. It’s a Thanksgiving Christmas party, combining the American tradition of Thanksgiving with our Christmas traditions.” “Then why can’t it be a Christmas Thanksgiving party, since it’s being celebrated here in England?” She finishes the caviar. “Do have a canapés,” Lettice remarks, picking up the plate and holding it out to Lally. “They’re rather good.” As Lally accepts one from the proffered plate she goes on, “Well, firstly, Thanksgiving is celebrated before Christmas in late November********** apparently so it takes precedence, and secondly, it is technically Georgie’s party,” She takes a canapé for herself. ‘So he can call it whatever he likes, can’t he?” “Oh these are jolly scrumptious!” Lally enthuses as she consumes the dainty canapé delicately. “Do have another, Lally darling!” Lettice encourages, picking up the plate and passing it to her sister. “Help yourself. Eat up!” Lally reaches over and accepts the plate gratefully. She selects another one. She pauses for a moment and thinks. “However, I don’t see why we need to eat so heartily before we attend this party of yours we’re going to, whatever it’s called. Isn’t there going to be any food?” Lettice lifts her head fall backwards as she laughs lightly at her sister’s remark. “You’ve never been to one of the Carter’s parties before.” she says knowingly. “It’s not like Mater’s Hunt Balls with the local landed county gentry, where it’s all ‘no, after you’ politeness and no-one takes more than they need. Georgie is American, and frightfully well off thanks to things they call dry goods stores.” Lally laughs. “What on earth are those?” “I wish I knew.” Lettice laughs. “Gerald and I have been trying to get to the bottom of what they are ever since Cilla and Georgie got married.” She takes another sip of champagne before continuing. “Anyway, as a result of his dry goods store money, and Cilla’s positive obsession at acquiring as many new friends as possible now that she is rich, every acquaintance and hanger-on in London will be in attendance tonight, and believe me, when the food comes out, it’s like a pack of vultures swooping. We’ll be lucky if we get a few pieces of canapés each. So eat up!” “How frightful!” Lally remarks, popping another canapé in her mouth and taking another from the plate before handing it back to Lettice, who places it back on the table. “It is rather, but only when it comes to food, Lally darling.” Lettice lavishes another watercracker with caviar. “Georgie and Cilla’s ballroom in their Park Lane*********** mansion is to die for! It’s all Palladian columns, gilding and polished parquetry beneath crystal chandeliers they bought for a song from an old rundown château in the south of France whilst they were on their honeymoon.” “Rather!” Lally exclaims. “Old Philadelphia money also pays for the hottest new dance bands.” Lettice remarks conspiratorially before eating the caviar covered watercracker. “Who will be performing tonight?” Lally asks excitedly. “Only the Savoy Havana Band************!” Lettice enthuses, clapping her bejewelled hands. “Heavens! How thrilling!” “Georgie has paid goodness knows how much to Wilfred de Mornys************* for them to perform tonight! It’s going to be a whizzer of a party, Lally darling!” She takes a canapé and bites into it before continuing on. “And, for all Georgie and Cilla’s hangers-on, tonight will be the last big event of the 1924 Season, so we’ll be sure to be mixing with some very smart and select people: interesting and influential types, you know the sort, not to mention the brightest of the Bright Young Things**************.” “Oh, I’m far too old to be mixing with the likes of them, Tice.” Lally scoffs with a dismissive wave of her hand. “That’s more your set. I’ll just blend into the background and be a wallflower tonight.” “Nonsense Lally! You’ll do nothing of the sort!” Lettice retorts, looking her sister up and down, appraising her blonde hair, admittedly streaked with a few silver greys, set in a stylish cascade of waves and pinned elegantly in a chignon at the back of her neck, dressed in one of Gerald’s beaded evening frocks in striking French blue************** borrowed from Lettice’s wardrobe, diamonds sparkling at her ears and two strands of pearls encircling her neck. “You can hold your own with them. Anyway, I’ll introduce you and they’ll love the fact that you’re my elder sister.” She finishes her canapé. “They will grill you for dreadful stories of me misbehaving from childhood that they can then dine out on in the New Year, so best you try and remember my most ghastly exploits.” “Like when you put a frog from the ornamental lake in Nanny Webb’s apron?” Lally giggles. “That’s the ticket, Lally darling!” “And you don’t mind?” Lally picks up a watercracer and adds a smaller amount of black caviar to it than her sister’s servings. “My dear Lally, I relish it! There’s nothing more boring than not being spoken about.” She rolls her eyes. “I should have thought that with that ghastly cad, Selwyn Spencely, breaking off your engagement like that, that being spoken about would be the last thing you’d want.” Lettice doesn’t answer for a moment, but then replies, “Well, that’s why I need people to talk about and ask me about anything other than that. I don’t want people’s pity, least of all any of Cilla’s hangers-on, who don’t know me from a bar of soap****************.” The sisters fall into an awkward silence. Lettice toys with the spoon sitting atop the caviar idly. “You know, you really are being most frightfully decent about all that beastly business with Lady Zinnia,” Lally finally says, breaking the sudden, smothering quiet engulfing the siblings. “And Selwyn not even having the decency to come back and tell you that he’s engaged to someone else, himself!” “Oh,” Lettice replies breezily, waving Lally’s remark away with a dismissive sweep. “I mean, it was never definite that Selwyn was going to come back to me. And with Selwyn’s absence for a year, I didn’t feel this ending quite so acutely, as I did his departure.” she lies. “Oh but we’d all so hoped that it would work out: Mamma, Pappa, Leslie, Charles, all of us, really.” “Not Aunt Egg.” Lettice counters. “Well, Aunt Egg doesn’t believe in marriage, but all the same, she only wants your happiness.” “Well,” Lettice rubs her hands together, flicking crumbs of golden puff pastry from the canapes on the Chinese silk carpet at her feet. “It’s done now, and that’s all there is to it.” “Be that as it may,” Lally adds. “I have no doubt that you have something up your sleeve.” “What do you mean?” Lettice asks as she sits up with a start, suddenly very alert as to what her sister is saying. “Oh, nothing, Tice darling. Don’t worry!” Lally chuckles languidly. “I only meant that you won’t let the grass grow beneath your feet. You’ll have some plan or other to stop yourself from sitting idly by and missing Selwyn. A new interior design project or some such for the new year.” Lettice longs to confide in her elder sister about her recent secret engagement to Sir John Nettleford-Hughes. Although the two siblings have not always been the closest, thanks largely to the selfish and jealous actions of their mother, Lady Sadie, who forced a rift between them by setting up cases of one-upmanship, now that they are aware of this and no longer play into Lady Sadie’s emotional clutches, they have become close again, so it pains Lettice not to be honest with Lally. However, she knows that not only would Lally consider her sudden engagement on the heels of Selwyn’s abandonment of her rather rash, but that Lally dislikes Sir John, and Lettice suspects that if she knew about it, she would try relentlessly to get Lettice to break off her engagement. She knows that her reasoning behind keeping her engagement a secret until after the dust settles on her break with Selwyn is wise and sound, so she keeps her own counsel and remains silent on the matter of her engagement. Lally gets up from her seat and wanders over to the fireplace, warming herself by the glowing wood fire as it crackles pleasurably as she picks up the cards and reads whom they are from inside. “Mrs. Hatchett?” She foists a card with a little black Scottish terrier in a hamper tied with a pink bow on the front before Lettice. “Isn’t she the wife of that Labour politician who was part of Ramsay MacDonald’s short-lived minority Labour government?” “Charles Hatchett? Yes. I decorated the Hatchett’s house in Sussex back in 1921, and Mrs. Hatchett still sends me a Christmas card every year.” “Thank God the country came to its senses and the Conservatives won the general election in October. We’re back to normal politically again.” Lettice doesn’t reply as Lally continues to peruse the cards. “Oh-ho!” Lally chuckles, holding up one featuring a painting of a pair of brightly coloured wooden dolls in festive Art Deco version of Victorian style outfits. “Pappa would habe you hung, drawn and quartered as a traitor if he knew you were in receipt of correspondence from the film star Wanetta Ward.” “Why?” Lettice gasps. “I decorated her flat too.” “Yes,” Lally muses. “I remember, and I remember all the stink that came about because you deliberately failed to tell Mamma and Pappa about it.” She wags her finger accusing at her sister, yet the impish smile on her face confirms that she isn’t in the last cross with Lettice. “Well, I knew they wouldn’t approve,” Lettice defends. “And I wanted her as a client. She’s very high profile, and she boosted my own business profile with my decoration of her flat.” “Yes, well, lets hope Pappa has forgotten about it.” “Why is he suddenly even more vehemently against Miss Ward than he was when I decorated her flat? I held to the promise I made to him then. I haven’t decorated any more, and I quote, ‘unsuitable actress’’ houses since I did hers.” “Didn’t Mamma write and tell you?” Lally asks. “No. Tell me what?” “Marsen’s gone.” Lally replies, referring to the Chetwynd family’s footman, who always faithfully opens the front door and carries Lettice’s bags when she visits Glynes. “Gone? Gone where? Gone when?” “He left about two weeks ago apparently,” Lally replies, replacing the card on the mantle. “After he came to London on one of his days off.” “What has that to do with Wanetta Ward, Lally darling?” “Everything, Tice!” Lally replies with a light hearted laugh. “He saw that awful cardboard costume cutout picture of hers set in London when the Thames froze over.” “‘Skating and Sinning’.” Lettice breathes. “Yes!” Lally gasps. Raising her hand to her throat and clutching her pearls she continues, “Don’t tell me you saw it, Tice darling?” “Well, no. I only know about it because Miss Ward told me about it not long after I completed the redecoration of her flat.” Lettice eyes her sister suspiciously. “But it sounds to me, like you’ve seen it.” “Heavens no!” Lally laughs again, releasing her pearls and replacing the card in front of Lettice’s statuette of the ‘Theban dancer’ which sits in the centre of the mantlepiece. “I only know about it because Mrs. Sawyer tells me about all the pictures she sees with her husband at The Grand***************** in High Wycombe on the weekends when we discuss the menus on Mondays.” “So why is Daddy so black on Miss Ward? Don’t tell me he dislikes her films.” Lettice says in disbelief. “I doubt he’s ever been to the pictures; he speaks so disparagingly of them.” “Indeed he hasn’t, Tice. No. You see when Marsden saw your Miss Ward in ‘Skating and Sinning’, he fell madly and passionately in love with her, much to his ruination, or so Mamma tells me, and he decided that one day he would become an actor in the pictures. It turns out that he took secret acting lessons from Mrs. Maginot.” “Not Mrs. Maginot, the haberdashers in Glynes?” “The very one, Tice!” Lally titters. “She does have rather a theatrical bent, and manages the Glynes Theatrical Players as well as her shop in the village.” “I know, but we’ve all been subject to their awful plays before, especially the Christmas panto****************** which we’ll both have to suffer through painted smiles this year, since its on the night of the twenty second. It’s ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ this year, and goodness knows I don’t wish to see Mr. Lewis the church verger reprise his role Dame Trott*******************.” “As awful as it’s bound to be, Tice darling, Mrs, Maingot must have something of a knack when it comes to acting, because after a year and a half of lessons with her, Marsen went up to London to Islington Studios******************** last month to try out for a bit part in an upcoming film to be released in 1925, and landed the role as the romantic lead opposite his beloved Miss Ward!” “What?” Lettice bursts out laughing. “Well I never!” “Indeed! So, he came home to Glynes and handed Mamma his notice then and there!” Lally joins her sister’s raucous laughter. “Can you believe it? Our Marsden, starring in a film?” “They must have hired him for his looks and his height, Lally darling, not his acting skills. Well, we definitely can’t see that production!” “I’m almost tempted to sneak into The Grand and see it with Mrs. Sawyer when it coms out next year.” Lally laughs. “Well, fancy Marsen being an actor in the pictures!” “Yes, Mamma is fit to be tied! She has put an advertisement in The Lady*********************, but of course you know how hard it is to get a young man to be a footman these days that I think it’s a hopeless endeavour.” “Well, only the really grand houses have footmen these days.” Lettice mutters, shuddering as she remembers Lady Zinna’s imperious footmen at her Park Lane mansion on the day Lettice fond out that Selwyn had become engaged to someone else. “Poor Bramley will have to answer the door as well as all his other butlering duties.” Lally continues to flick through the cards until she comes across a rater innocuous one of a cottage with a smoking chimney set against a forest of pine trees. “Sir John Nettleford-Hughes?” Lally gasps. “That old lecher?” Lettice blushes at the mention of his name. Before she became secretly engaged to Sir John, he had sent her an early Christmas card which she put up, and rather than take it down when her sister arrived to stay, she simply left it up, hidden discreetly towards the back of the cards on display. “He’s really not that bad,” Lettice says, grateful that her elder sister is too preoccupied with putting the card back to turn around and see her flushed cheeks. “Not once you get to know him. He was at Gossington when I went to stay with John and Gladys, and I was seated next to him at dinner. He’s really quite interesting and entertaining.” “Lecherous and handsy don’t you mean?” “No, I don’t. He really is rather kind, and more of a gentleman than you might suppose, Lally darling. Honestly.” “You’ve changed your tune.” Lally replies, finally spinning around and facing her sister. “I seem to remember you and I both agreeing not that long ago on what a ghastly handsy old man he is!” “Well, that was before Gossington.” Lettice defends. “Anyway, I really have Sir John to thank for the wonderful review by Henry Tipping********************** in Country Life***********************. After all, it was thanks to him that I met Mr. and Mrs. Gifford properly and redecorated the Pagoda Room for them. Mr. Gifford is Sir John’s nephew, and Mr. Gifford’s godfather is Henry Tipping.” “You are a dark horse, aren’t you Tice, my darling?” Lally says with a puzzled smile. “What do you mean, Lally?” “Well, you and your interesting assortment of friends: politicians wives, lady novelists, actresses and lecherous old men!” Lally replies with a chuckle. “If this is the artistic life of a London society interior designer, I think I’ll be glad to get home to the quiet life of a Buckinghamshire lady of the manor. No Miss Wards or Sir Johns there!” “Not yet, Lally darling! Not yet. But wait until Metroland reaches you. See what neighbours you get then!” Lettice gently teases her sister. “Besides,” she adds with an enigmatic smile. “I’m going to corrupt you with London society at this Thanksgiving Christmas party of the Carter’s this evening. High Wycombe is going to appear even more dreary dull to you after tonight.” She pauses for a moment. “Oh, and by the way, Sir John will be at the party this evening.” Lally’s eyes grow wide in surprise. “No!” “Yes.” Before Lally has a chance to protest, Lettice goes on, “Sir John is a distant relation of Cilla’s, so it’s not unexpected that he would be there. So, I’ll have the chance to show you just how charming he really can be.” “You make it sound like you’re going to convert me, Tice.” Lally says warily. “And so I am, Lally darling! By the end of tonight, you’ll love him! Now, drink up! It’s high time we were away!” Lettice holds her half drunk glass of champagne out to her sister whilst taking a less than ladylike gulp from her own. “The night is still young, and we don’t want to miss all the fun, or the good quality champagne.” *Glynes, the grand Georgian family seat of the Chetwynds, and the home of Lettice’s parents, the presiding Viscount and Countess of Wrexham and the heir, their eldest son Leslie and his wife. **To get tight is an old fashioned term used to describe getting drunk. ***The Austin 7 is an economy car that was produced from 1923 until 1939 in the United Kingdom by Austin. It was nicknamed the "Baby Austin" and was at that time one of the most popular cars produced for the British market and sold well abroad. Its effect on the British market was similar to that of the Model T Ford in the US, replacing most other British economy cars and cyclecars of the early 1920s. ****Derry and Toms was a smart London department store that was founded in 1860 in Kensington High Street. In 1930 a new three storey store was built in Art Deco style, and it was famous for its Roof Garden which opened in 1938. In 1973 the store was closed and became home to Big Biba, which closed in 1975. The site was developed into smaller stores and offices. *****Two-up two-down is a type of small house with two rooms on the ground floor and two bedrooms upstairs. There are many types of terraced houses in the United Kingdom, and these are among the most modest. The first two-up two-down terraces were built in the 1870s, but the concept of them made up the backbone of the Metroland suburban expansions of the 1920s with streets lined with rows of two-up two-down semi-detached houses in Mock Tudor, Jacobethan, Arts and Crafts and inter-war Art Deco styles bastardised from the aesthetic styles created by the likes of English Arts and Crafts Movement designers like William Morris and Charles Voysey. ******The BBC presented the first dramatised recording of Charles Dickens classic novella ‘A Christmas Carol’ in December 1922. The dramatic recital was performed by Cyril Estacourt (who went on to do a good many more recital pieces for the BBC over the ensuing years) with carol interludes performed by the Star Street Congregational Church Choir. The recording was actually broadcast on the BBC’s 5WA Cardiff, but I hope you will indulge my slight alteration by placing it in the London studios of the BBC for dramatic purposes. *******The Women's Institute (WI) is a community-based organization for women in the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. The movement was founded in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, by Erland and Janet Lee with Adelaide Hoodless being the first speaker in 1897. It was based on the British concept of Women's Guilds, created by Rev Archibald Charteris in 1887 and originally confined to the Church of Scotland. From Canada the organization spread back to the motherland, throughout the British Empire and Commonwealth, and thence to other countries. Many WIs belong to the Associated Country Women of the World organization. Each individual WI is a separate charitable organisation, run by and for its own members with a constitution agreed at national level but the possibility of local bye-laws. WIs are grouped into Federations, roughly corresponding to counties or islands, which each have a local office and one or more paid staff. ********A pied-à-terre is a small flat, house, or room kept for occasional use. *********The term bosom friend is recorded as far back as the late Sixteenth Century. In those days, the bosom referred to the chest as the seat of deep emotions, though now the word usually means a woman's “chest.” A bosom friend, then, is one you might share these deep feelings with or have deep feelings for. **********In the United States, Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. ***********Park Lane is a dual carriageway road in the City of Westminster in Central London. It is part of the London Inner Ring Road and runs from Hyde Park Corner in the south to Marble Arch in the north. It separates Hyde Park to the west from Mayfair to the east. The road was originally a simple country lane on the boundary of Hyde Park, separated by a brick wall. Aristocratic properties appeared during the late 18th century, including Breadalbane House, Somerset House, and Londonderry House. The road grew in popularity during the 19th century after improvements to Hyde Park Corner and more affordable views of the park, which attracted the nouveau riche to the street and led to it becoming one of the most fashionable roads to live on in London. Notable residents included the 1st Duke of Westminster's residence at Grosvenor House, the Dukes of Somerset at Somerset House, and the British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli at No. 93. Other historic properties include Dorchester House, Brook House and Dudley House. In the 20th century, Park Lane became well known for its luxury hotels, particularly The Dorchester, completed in 1931, which became closely associated with eminent writers and international film stars. Flats and shops began appearing on the road, including penthouse flats. Several buildings suffered damage during World War II, yet the road still attracted significant development, including the Park Lane Hotel and the London Hilton on Park Lane, and several sports car garages. A number of properties on the road today are owned by some of the wealthiest businessmen from the Middle East and Asia. ************The Savoy Havana Band was a popular British dance band of the 1920s. It was resident at the Savoy Hotel in London, between 1921 and 1927. The band made their first live outside broadcast on the British Broadcasting Corporation from the Savoy Hotel on the 3rd of October, 1923. *************Wilfred de Mornys managed both the Savoy Havana band and their colleagues the more famous Savoy Orpheans, both of whom performed at the Savoy in London. **************The Bright Young Things, or Bright Young People, was a nickname given by the tabloid press to a group of Bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London. ***************French Blue is a rich, deep blue that exudes elegance and sophistication. This captivating hue is inspired by the vibrant blue uniforms worn by the French military in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. ****************Meaning to be completely unacquainted with, “not to know – from a bar of soap” is often attributed as an Australian colloquialism, because it is there that it is most commonly used in everyday parlance, however the term was first used in the Chicago Daily Tribune in May 1877 when writing a review about the English comic opera singer and actress Emily Soldene: “The ‘prima donna’ does not know a bar of music from a bar of soap; the chief actor would not be allowed to play supernumerary in a dumb show.” *****************Located about a mile from High Wycombe town centre. The Grand Cinema was opened on the 28th April 1913 with “Zigomar”. It was designed by T. Thurlow, and had an attractively decorated façade. There was a small stage and some dressing rooms for variety acts. It was closed for several months in 1953, and re-opened under new operators. It closed forever on the 8th September 1962 with Kenneth More in “Some People” and Ray Barrett in “Time to Remember”. Part of the building was demolished and the remainder was used as a tailors. It then became a furniture showroom for James Blundell, who seemed to have a knack of converting closed cinemas for their own use. It then became an electrical store, and the façade was re-modelled. ******************A pantomime (shortened to “panto”) is a theatrical entertainment, mainly for children, which involves music, topical jokes, and slapstick comedy and is based on a fairy tale or nursery story, usually produced around Christmas. *******************Dame Trott is the long suffering mother of Jack in the Christmas pantomime of Jack and the Beanstalk. She is outrageous, brash and loud, and traditionally played by a man in drag. ********************Islington Studios, often known as Gainsborough Studios, were a British film studio located on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in Shoreditch, London which began operation in 1919. By 1920 they had a two stage studio. It is here that Alfred Hitchcock made his entrée into films. *********************The Lady is one of Britain's longest-running women's magazines. It has been in continuous publication since 1885 and is based in London. It is particularly notable for its classified advertisements for domestic service and child care; it also has extensive listings of holiday properties. **********************Henry Tipping (1855 – 1933) was a French-born British writer on country houses and gardens, garden designer in his own right, and Architectural Editor of the British periodical Country Life for seventeen years between 1907 and 1910 and 1916 and 1933. After his appointment to that position in 1907, he became recognised as one of the leading authorities on the history, architecture, furnishings and gardens of country houses in Britain. In 1927, he became a member of the first committee of the Gardens of England and Wales Scheme, later known as the National Gardens Scheme. ***********************Country Life is a British weekly perfect-bound glossy magazine that is a quintessential English magazine founded in 1897, providing readers with a weekly dose of architecture, gardens and interiors. It was based in London at 110 Southwark Street until March 2016, when it became based in Farnborough, Hampshire. The frontispiece of each issue usually features a portrait photograph of a young woman of society, or, on occasion, a man of society. I love Christmas, and I love decorating at Christmas too. This even extends to my miniatures collection. This upper-class domestic scene is different to what you may think, for it is made up entirely of 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures. Fun things to look for in this tableau include: The elegantly decorated Christmas tree is a hand-made 1:12 size artisan miniature made by an artist in America. The presents beneath it and on the coffee table come from various miniature specialist stockists in England. The 1:12 miniature garland over the Art Deco fireplace was hand-made by Karen Lady Bug Miniatures in England and the 1;12 Art Deco card selection on the mantle came from Doreen Jeffries’ Small Wonders Miniature store in England. The salmon mousse garnished with cucumber slices and lemon wedges is an artisan miniature by an unknown artist. It is even presented on a holly sprigged plate, so it is very festive! The champagne bottle, glasses and bowl of caviar are hand-made 1:12 artisan miniature pieces too, acquired from Karen Ladybug Miniatures. Lettice’s drawing room is furnished with beautiful J.B.M. miniatures. The Art Deco tub chairs are of black japanned wood and have removable cushions, just like their life sized examples. To the left of the fireplace is a Hepplewhite drop-drawer bureau and chair of black japanned wood which has been hand painted with chinoiserie designs, even down the legs and inside the bureau. The chair set has a rattan seat, which has also been hand woven. To the right of the fireplace is a Chippendale cabinet which has also been decorated with chinoiserie designs. It also features very ornate metalwork hinges and locks. On the top of the Hepplewhite bureau stand three real miniature photos in frames including an Edwardian silver frame, a Victorian brass frame and an Art Deco blue Bakelite and glass frame. The fireplace is a 1:12 miniature resin Art Deco fireplace which is flanked by brass accessories including an ash brush with real bristles. On the left hand side of the mantle, behind the cards, you can just glimpse the turquoise coloured top of an Art Deco metal clock hand painted with wonderful detail by British miniature artisan Victoria Fasken. In the middle of the mantle is a miniature artisan hand painted Art Deco statue on a “marble” plinth. Made by Warwick Miniatures in England, it is a 1:12 copy of the “Theban Dancer” sculpture created by Claire-Jeanne-Roberte Colinet in 1925. The carpet beneath the furniture is a copy of a popular 1920s style Chinese silk rug, and the geometric Art Deco wallpaper is beautiful hand impressed paper given to me by a friend, which inspired the whole “Cavendish Mews – Lettice Chetwynd” series.

Standedge canal tunnel
Boats passing through Standedge tunnel are provided with both a pilot on board, and a second CRT volunteer who will drive through the adjacent disused railway tunnel and appear at several points through interlinking tunnels to check on the progress of the boat. 4th September 2024.

FQPL 1 Men’s Grand Final - Easts v St George Willawong
during the FQPL 1 Men’s Grand Final match between Eastern Suburbs and St George Willawong at Heath Park on September 07, 2024 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Alberto Omar Perera Pérez/Eastern Suburbs)

Ossett
Ossett Town Hall is a municipal building in the Market Place, Ossett, West Yorkshire, England. The town hall, which was the headquarters of Ossett Borough Council until 1974, is a grade II listed building. After significant population growth in the second half of the 19th century, particularly associated with coal mining, the area became a municipal borough in 1890 and civic leaders, who had been operating out of rented premises in New Street, decided to procure a dedicated town hall for the area. The site they initially selected at the corner of Bank Street and Illingworth Street was found to be unsuitable and instead they decided to make use of a site in the Market Place which had been occupied by the local grammar school before it moved to Park House, off Storrs Hill Road. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the mayor, Alderman John Hampshire Nettleton, on 27 February 1906. It was designed by Walter Hanstock & Son of Batley in the renaissance style, built at a cost of £22,000, which was financed by public subscription, and officially opened by the mayor, Councillor John Thomas Marsden, on 2 June 1908. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with twelve bays facing onto the Market Place with the end three bays at each end slightly projected forward and topped with ornately carved pediments containing oculi. The central section of two bays, which also slightly projected forward, featured a round headed doorway flanked by caryatids supporting brackets carrying a stone balcony; there were round headed windows on the first floor flanked by Ionic order pilasters with a pediment above containing a roundel depicting local industries. At roof level was a two-stage clock tower with cupola and dome, containing a large Cambridge-chiming turret clock by William Potts & Sons and a set of five bells by Taylor of Loughborough. Internally, the principal rooms were the council chamber and the public hall, which featured a large gallery. King George V and Queen Mary visited Ossett Market Place and talked to civic leaders outside the town hall in July 1912 and the young men of Ossett were called up at the town hall and billeted there during the First World War. A war memorial in the form of a soldier with a rifle was installed outside the town hall in 1920. The professional snooker and billiards player, Joe Davis, took part in a series of exhibition matches at the town hall in December 1948 to raise funds for local charities. An organ, which had originally been designed and manufactured by John Compton for the Rialto Cinema in Bebington in Cheshire in 1933, was recovered from the cinema on its closure and installed in the public hall in January 1970. The opening concert was broadcast on the programme, The Organist Entertains, on BBC Radio 2. The building served as the headquarters of Ossett Borough Council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Wakefield District Council was formed in 1974. A major programme of refurbishment works costing £2 million commenced at the town hall in March 2020. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ossett_Town_Hall

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[138839] Imperial War Museum North : Victory
Imperial War Museum North, Trafford Wharf Road, Trafford Park, Greater Manchester. The Imperial War Museum North tells the story of how war has affected the lives of British and the Commonwealth citizens since 1914. Victory. Walter Marsden (1882-1969), 1920. Walter Marsden MC was born in Lancashire. He saw active service in the First World War and was awarded the Military Cross and Bar. He was awarded a civil pension by Queen Elizabeth ll for services to sculpture. He was an associate of the Royal college of Art. He assisted with the restoration work following the bombing of Coventry Cathedral. After the war, like many other sculptors who were also ex-servicemen, he carried out sculptural work on war memorials. All but two of these were erected in Lancashire. -------------------------------------------------- Imperial War Museum North, 1997-2002. By Daniel Libeskind (b1946). The impressive building was the first in the UK to be designed by internationally acclaimed architect Daniel Libeskind. The stunning exterior is based on the concept of a globe shattered by war and conflict. Libeskind has taken three of these pieces (or shards) to form the building, representing earth, air and water.

Former Collingwood Post Office
176-180 Smith St, Collingwood. Built 1868. Facade remodelled in 1891 & designed by architect, J H Marsden of the Public Works Department.

View of Bank Bottom Mill in Marsden, West Yorkshire
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Sunrise over field barn at Netherley and Bank Bottom Mills in Marsden.
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[138614] Sheffield : Weston Park Museum - City of Rivers - Sheffield from Ball Bridge
Weston Park Museum, Sheffield. Exhibition. City of Rivers 24 Nov 2023 - 3 Nov 2024. Sheffield from Ball Bridge. Sydney Marsden (1865-1939). Etching on paper, c1920-40. Sydney Marsden was a Sheffield based etcher and printmaker who attended Sheffield College of Art and eventually ran his own silver engraving firm. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Sheffield is a city born from its rivers, sculpting the landscape and powering the industries that made it prosper. Today, they're the arteries that flow through the urban sprawl, continuing to shape the character of the city and our lives in it. From vast reservoirs and cascading weirs to the brooks that trickle through our many green spaces, they also provide a home to a rich abundance of local wildlife. City of Rivers brought together stories, objects, artwork, film and photography to chronicle Sheffield's relationship with its waterways. Drawing on contributions from people across the city, it reflected on our connections to them in our work, leisure time and our impact on the natural habitats they represent.

6E10 "66773 Pride of GB Railfreight"
Liverpool Biomass 11.35 - Drax AES GB Railfreight 17.47 66773 "Pride Of GB Railfreight" . Taken at Marsden in failing light.

9M30 Between Marsden and Slaithwaite
9M30 Newcastle 10.43 - Liverpool Lime Street High Level 14.01

Our Chairman, elected November 2024: Graham Lambert.
At our annual awards ceremony on the 20th the Society elected this well-known, successful architect to succeed the Interim Chair Tony Marsden as the new Chairman.

Holywells Park receives the Civic Trust Award. 2016
At Portcullis House in Westminster Tony Marsden, Vice Chairman, Nick Wilson, Park Manager,AN Other and John Norman Society Chairman are presented with the prestigious award.

Royal Marsden FT
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Huddersfield narrow canal, Marsden.jpg
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LMS 45647 STURDEE on a train climbing to Marsden from Huddersfield
Taken from a print in my collection, no further details known. LMS Jubilee class, built Crewe numbered 5647 January 1935. Renumbered 45647 August 1949 and withdrawn April 1967.