A visit we made this afternoon

My 100/100 story today was about a visit we made this afternoon to lovely Knightsayes Court in Devon. We had been to the walled garden several times, but now careful planting, tending and gardening has brought it into an area of absolute delight. This is something I wrote a while ago after visiting it before with the same friend. The featured image I used on my 100/100 story I share again below, with a little explanation!

This magnificent building, and all its lovely grounds was originally owned by the Heathcoat-Amery family. John Heathcoat was born in Derbyshire  in 1783, and his family were farmers; however, he was one of the many scientists and inventors of the time he changed the world through an industrial not social revolution; he designed and patented a machine to produce lace, which had previously been made by individuals on pillows and cushions with pins and patterns, slow intricate work, often done as piece work in the lacemakers’ own homes. His ‘manufactury’ – or factory which was near Loughborough became a victim of a different revolution, the Luddite revolts and was burned down  in 1816. Undeterred, he  moved his basis and many of his of his workers, to Tiverton in Devon, and that is where we are going today. He established a new lace-works which brought employment to many of the local people too; by the last decades of the nineteenth century, his was the largest lace-producer in the world.
Being by now a very wealthy family, owning not only the factories, but also much of the land in the area, a descendent of the original John Amory, now Sir John Heathcoat-Amory, had built a beautiful and fabulous home overlooking his factory in the distance, and nestled in the Exe valley.

On an afternoon stroll with a friend round the grounds of Knightshayes Court in Devon, we saw this perfect tree in full spring leaf… that is its actual colour, I haven’t changed it at all!