Lions House allotments

April 1, 2023--Lions House

Walking Berwick's Elizabethan walls, we came upon the Georgian mansion, Lions House c. 1807-1809.  Prominently placed in the Elizabethan fortifications (it is the highest ground in Berwick),  Lions House is a Grade II* listed property that has been restored. 

April 1, 2023--One of the lions

An "icon of the Berwick skyline" according to the Berwick Civic Society, the three story Lions House (or four if coming in from the rear) is a free standing neighbor of the Gunpowder Magazine.  It affords a wide ranging view of Tweed Estuary, and really the whole way down the Northumbrian Coast toward Lindisfarne.  The house is guarded by two 17th century Venetian lions at its front entrance, which give the name to the place.

April 1, 2023--Steel door to Gunpowder Magazine

 

April 1, 2023--Tweedmouth from the Walls

The renovated Georgian house is a holiday let, a self-catered accommodation (three bedrooms let out) at a relatively trendy £1435 pounds for a three night stay.  We pass along the link, if anyone is interested.  Currently managed by Crabtree & Crabtree: (https://www.crabtreeandcrabtree.com/properties/lions-house/).  For ourselves, accommodations at the newly opened Premier Inn were fine enough, and the Premier Inn was right next to the Walls at Sandgate anyhow.  

A note about listed properties in the UK.  Grade II* listed buildings are buildings of particular importance, or with a more-than-special interest.  Which means:  it may not be demolished, extended, or altered without permission from the local planning authority.  So, a preservation property essentially.

Not to wade too deep into ongoing urban planning disputes in the UK, but it is somewhat a stretch to claim that developers are unable to develop at all--and thus there should be fewer listed buildings.  In their entirety, listed buildings only comprise about 2% of British building stock, and they do reflect the architectural heritage of the UK.

April 1, 2023--The lions

If I had a voice in the ongoing arguments, it would be to err on the side of conservation.  After all, once it's gone, it's gone.  Now it is true, as far as Georgian buildings go, they're something of a dime a dozen in the UK--to risk being flippant.  They are not, in themselves, especially rare.  What makes Lions House specially interesting is that, as far as I can determine, it is remotely linked to L.S. Lowry, the acclaimed English painter from Manchester.  Remotely.  Or rather, tenuously.

April 1, 2023--Lions House

Often vacationing in Berwick, and smitten by the Lions House Georgian charms, Lowry considered buying Lions House in 1947.  He was dissuaded from doing so by an architect report of the house's alleged dampness.  Lowry was himself quite a character--an only child, a tyrannical mother, never married, never had a girlfriend...but had a strange relationship with an underage girl who grew up and to whom he bequeathed everything, including his paintings.  Another story for another time.

By 1971, Lions House stood neglected.  And consideration was given toward demolishing it.  Then it had a reprieve.  First, it was listed, and in 1972 (though some say 1976), Colonel JIM Smail stepped in and purchased the property.  In 1977 he presented it to the Berwick upon Tweed Preservation Trust which Smail chaired for 23 years, before passing in 1995.

April 1, 2023--One of the lions

Smail was a well known figure in the Borders for industrial development, but also for developing tourism and for his environmentalism.  But basically, the Smail family were newspapermen.  In 1947 (the same year L.S. Lowry considered buying Lions House), Smail inherited a small group of Borders newspapers called the "Tweeddale Trio"--namely, Berwick Advertiser, Berwickshire Advertiser and Kelso Chronicle.  In 1950, Smail bought the Southern Reporter and formed the Tweedsdale Press Group which was sold in 1999 to Johnston Press, and finally liquidated in 2020...victim of the economic and demographic times.  Lost to COVID we'll call it. 

April 1, 2023--The other one

On the lions, there are two "identical" (they really aren't, but hey) snarling recumbent stone lions with curled tails. They are flat at the back, which suggests they were once attached to the walls of a building.  The Victoria and Albert Museum (the V&A--world's largest museum of applied arts) identified them as likely being seventeenth-century Venetian.

For our interests, though, we were fascinated by the Lions House Allotments.  Allotments are a curious social construct mostly practiced in the UK, where gardening is a national pass time.  They take gardening seriously.

April 1, 2023--The allotments at Lions House

Ignoring serfs, crofters and tenancies from earlier ages, modern allotments can be traced to the industrial revolution in the 18th century.  As an inducement, workers in towns and cities across the country might be given a smallholding as part of their wages on which to grow their own food.  Keeping an allotment is now governed by "The Allotments Act 1922" and its subsequent revisions.  

The Act forms the basis of the rules of the Lions House Allotments Association, a private charity, which is overseen by the Town Council.  In addition to the Lions House Allotments, Berwick-upon-Tweed Town Council now manages allotments at Five Arches Recreation Ground, Blakewell Gardens, and those adjacent to the former Kelso railway line. 

In 2019, an architectural firm was approached by a private client to restore Lions House, which they recently purchased in the private market as the Berwick upon Tweed Preservation Trust sought to rationalize its holdings.  It had fallen into disrepair despite the earlier intervention of the Berwick Preservation Trust in the 1970s.  

The Allotments Association, which formed in 2018, helped open the door for the Preservation Trust.  The site was separated--Lions House and Lions House Allotments.  And the Association bought the Lions House Allotments site, comprised of 52 allotments.  

April 1, 2023--The allotments

Ownership of allotments was not really the purpose of the Preservation Trust.  Ensuring that the land was preserved as allotments, however, was.  So, through a clause in the sale contract that the site would remain in use as allotment gardens in perpetuity, the Trust was able to sell the allotments to this new charity.  And everyone went home happy.

Rent by the way is set by the plot size.  But it is very affordable.  A majority pay under £30 per year, plus all have agreed to pay a supplement to accumulate a maintenance pot for the future.  It is little wonder, therefore, that the waiting list for an allotment is longer than several lifetimes. 

April 1, 2023--The allotments