Henry Lytton Cobbold

What a fine document the Parish Plan is! – A great tribute to the hard work of all those involved over the last three and a half years, in particular Linda Brookes.  What stands this report apart from the Village Appraisal of 1996 (in which I also played a part) is the enormous wealth of ideas for us to ponder as a community.  Out of these ideas I am convinced we, and our governing authorities, will be able to find answers that will genuinely make Knebworth an even better place to live.

I am pleased – and relieved! – that conclusions drawn about Knebworth House and Park are generally favourable, and even more pleased to have the valuable suggestions of how we might improve our relationship with our community.  Many of these suggestions have already turned into actions whilst the Plan has been evolving, and I intend, over the next few months of this column, to respond to all the issues raised by the Plan concerning Knebworth House and Park.

This month I’ll limit myself to pointing out just one great idea that came out of the Parish Plan – Knebworth House’s Parish Open Days.  This year over 250 Parish residents took up our invitation of a free visit to the House, Gardens, Dino Trail and Adventure Playground on the first Sunday of our season.  The letters and feedback I have received have been very encouraging, and it is particularly pleasing to hear neighbours, some of whom have lived in the Parish for many years, confess that this is the first time they have visited Knebworth House.  All hail the Plan!

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

When is a bouncy castle not a bouncy castle?  When it’s a bouncy dinosaur!  Popping her head between the parapets of Fort Knebwoth, ready to welcome you to the Adventure Playground this summer, is a brand new green dinosaur – for bouncing on!  Equally impressive, but definitely not for bouncing on, are two rather fierce new dinosaurs in the Dino Trail – an Elasmosaurus and an Tylosaurus – locked in a duel in the waters of the Victorian stream in the Wilderness Garden.  And the dueling spreads to the Park on Easter Sunday, when the Royal Knights of England ride in for the first of our seventeen Special Event days this summer.  So, a mix of new faces and old favourites at Knebworth Park and Gardens this Easter holidays – come join us for a bounce!

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

Can you believe it?  It’s here already!  Our 2007 Summer Season kicks off at the end of this month and, as mentioned in the New Year issue, we will be holding a “Parish Open Day” on Sunday 25th March.  All Knebworth Parish residents are invited to visit the House, Gardens and Park for free.  Please enter the Park via the white gate at St Mary’s (not Junction 7) and bring something to show you live in the Parish – a copy of this magazine will do.  Park hours are 11am to 5pm – but don’t be caught out by the clocks going forward for British Summer Time that morning!

We look forward to welcoming you,

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

‘Twas Eve and June… and a splendid Eve it was!  The Village Festival was rounded off in style in the Banqueting Hall by the Hertfordshire group Classic Opera encoring the beautiful song with words by Robert Lytton, “’Twas Eve and May” – and a splendid finish it was, to a wonderful week of events.   Many thanks to all those who donated time and facilities to make it the special week that it was.

The Zimbabwean sculptures – which were already in the Gardens at last year’s Village Gala Evening – return this year from June 26^th to July 26^th.  Those who remember these wonderful stone creations from last summer will, I’m sure, be curious to see the new designs Patrick and Passmore have brought this year to decorate the Rose Garden.  The Gardens are open daily throughout July (with the exception of the final day, 31^st, when we shall be setting up for the Sonisphere concert – check next month’s column for details of this).  The Gardens are at their absolute best at this time of year – so there is no better time to come and enjoy them!

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

In comments made in response to the Parish Plan, the point was raised that Knebworth Park has no attractions or facilities designed specifically for teenagers.  The Adventure Playground and the Dino Trail – and events like our Noddy Weekend (17th, 18th & 19th August) cater for a younger audience; while parents and grandparents enjoy the House and Gardens – and events like the Classic Car Show (29th & 30th August).

This was not always the case.  For much of the 70s and 80s we had a Skateboard Park just the other side of the Barns that had an excellent reputation amongst teenagers from Hertfordshire and beyond.  The knowledge that it is still there, buried under the earth (when we relocated the Adventure Playground), torments my 15-year-old son!

We do aim to be an attraction for all the family and all age groups.  Our recent Renaissance Dance event welcomed 8,000 young people, who otherwise might not find much to appeal in Knebworth Park this side of an Oasis concert.  Of course, teenagers are an embattled breed when it comes to their entertainment.  The activities that interest them do not sit easily with some of our newer neighbours.  I also wonder how something like a Skateboard Park would fare under modern health and safety restrictions and current insurance czars.

But we do have plans to incorporate more permanent attractions for teenagers – for instance we have planning permission for a combined Indoor and Outdoor Playground, which will contain more for older children, across the Exit Road from the current Adventure Playground site.  It is beyond our budget at the moment, and there are some stringent planning conditions – for instance we have to completely remove our current Adventure Playground before we are allowed to open the new facility – but we are trying to come up with ways to make it work.  In the meantime, I recommend that, along with their iPods, teenagers bring footballs, or kites, or sketchbooks – or dare I say it, their girlfriends or boyfriends – to family outings in the fresh air of Knebworth Park!

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

We gave part-time work to over 80 local people last summer in the House and Park, and again, this year, are offering the same opportunities.  When I used to man the Astroglide in the Adventure Playground in the late 1970s I remember being paid in pence per hour (40p, I think) – now it’s £5.35 an hour, for everyone, from aged 16 up.  Our part-time staff are also paid a pro-rata holiday entitlement – something, as students in the 1970s, working our holidays, we would have found very odd.  Ah yes, in those days, the job began and ended with litter-picking (now contracted separately), bare-handed, prizing cigarette ends out of the mud… but I’m in danger of sounding like one of the Four Yorkshiremen!

Summer work in the Park is great fun, particularly for the young – but we are also pleased to be able to offer part-time work for the “not-quite-so-young”.   40 of our part-time staff last year chose to work in the House, as wardens or guides.  Here, interaction with visitors is cited as one of the great pleasures and, year on year, we are thrilled by the lovely comments in our Visitors Book about the friendly and enthusiastic greeting our visitors receive.

So, if you’re looking to make some pocket money for that trip at the end of the summer or if you’d enjoy welcoming visitors and tourists to some fine Hertfordshire heritage, please consider contacting Cherry De Lacy (Park) or Mia Herbert (House) by telephone on 812661.

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

As a member of the Literary Homes and Museums of Great Britain Group we recently attended a conference at Lord Byron’s home, Newstead Abbey.  Here we were told that many museums now make their audio tours available for download from their websites, so that visitors can both learn about the museum in advance and also bring their own MP3 players to be their guide.

At Knebworth House we treasure our human guides, who do a wonderful job of bringing the House alive for visitors, however there are busy weekends when it is not practical for our human guides to give individual tours.  Thus, at www.knebworthhouseaudiostore.com, we become one of the first historic houses to make our audio tour available as a digital download, for the comfort of your own headphones!

As we busily put our program together from the 2007 Season, the first date for your diary is the weekend of 24^th/25^th March, our opening weekend.  I am very pleased to announce that on Sunday 25^th March we will be holding a Parish Open Day, when entry to the House, Gardens and Park will be free for residents of the parish of Knebworth.  Details to come, but we hope our neighbours will take the opportunity to join us in celebrating the start of the Summer 2007 Season, and enjoy all that a family day out at the House and Park has to offer.

Martha and I wish you a very happy New Year,

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

“Last Sunday evening my wife, two friends and I spent what I can only describe as one of the most enjoyable evenings out I have attended in ages.  Our two friends had been to the Christmas Carol reading previously.  It was the first time for my wife and I, but it will certainly not be our last!  If we have anything to do with it, we intend to make it our regular ‘get into the spirit’ Christmas outing.  The pre-reading drinks and mince pies were most welcome.  We met Colin, who was an absolute delight to talk to and chatted with us like old friends. The reading was excellent and the monologues very entertaining…  When we parted it was handshakes and best wishes all round.  If only life were like this all the time.”
Mark Bryce – December 2005

Charles Dickens – in the form of actor Colin Greenslade – pays his seasonal visit on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, December 15^th to 17^th.   Contact Christine Smith on 01438 810931 or csmith@knebworthhouse.com to see if there are any tickets left.  Christine can also help with the perfect Christmas present – a Knebworth Park 2007 Season Ticket!

Christmas begins for us on the weekend of December 2nd and 3rd, with our annual Christmas Craft Fair.  Held in the Park, in heated wooden-floored marquees, the event brings together some of Britain’s top craftsmen, artists and designers, and includes demonstrations and puppet shows.  Santa has promised to be there and there’ll be Christmas music, food and drink.  The fair is open from 10am-6pm on both days. Admission is £.4.50 for adults, £4 for senior citizens and £2 for children.  We look forward to seeing you there.

Martha and I wish you a very happy Christmas,

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

If you thought you saw plague-infected zombies marauding across the Park a few weekends ago, I can reassure you that you weren’t necessarily under the influence of a good lunch at the Lytton!  The Park was playing host to a science fiction feature film called  “28 Weeks Later”.  Our long grass was the attraction, as we were meant to represent a post-apocalyptic Hyde Park.

With so much feature film work now going to Eastern Europe, this was a welcome – albeit brief – return by the film industry.  The last feature film to use the House or Park was “Cody Banks 2”, now three years ago.  The film that best features the House and Park is 1984’s “The Shooting Party”, starring James Mason and Edward Fox, released for the first time on DVD a couple of weeks ago and packaged with a documentary entitled “Knebworth – Playing Nettleby”.  I recommend it for Santa’s list!

On a different note, I thought the debate that took place at the Parish Council’s Open Meeting on 4^th October about the forthcoming pressures of the Local Development Framework was particularly constructive.   If anyone would like to discuss the comments I made – or, if you missed it, receive a copy – I would be happy for them to contact me.

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

Craft fairs, weddings, conferences, film companies, Dickens readings, Christmas parties – and this is our off season!  Then a rush to squeeze in as much repairs and maintenance as possible to the Park and House before March when our Summer Season begins again!

It’s been a successful summer, although our visitor numbers are down a little.  It seems only yesterday that we kicked off with our Parish Open Day, and how nice to finish a couple of weeks ago with a free concert in Knebworth House for Hertfordshire Care Homes.  Maria Arakie and the Connaught Opera sang for 50 local elderly, including residents of Bulwer Lytton House in Knebworth.

If you have any comments about our summer programme or any suggestions for next year, please let Martha know.  During our closed season I encourage you to make good use of the Park’s footpaths to enjoy the autumn colours and the deer.  Let’s hope the winter is a mild one and we don’t suffer too much wind-fall – both in the Park and off the House!

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com