Welcome to The Victorian Garden of the 1800’s, an English country garden with organically grown herbs and flowers from which our products are created by hand.

By David Forster, owner

GENERAL

The month of December was really awful regarding the weather, the builders were desperately trying to put the tiles back onto the roof having previously removed them to lay a new type of insulation used by NASA on space projects. The insulation is only half an inch thick but reflects direct sunlight in hot summer months while keeping 92% of the heat in the tank room during winter. As I said previously, this really is a remarkable building, the sheer structure simply amazes me. An example is the walls, at the base is a solid two and a half feet of Victorian engineering bricks, at present I am trying to bore my way through to lay the two new sewer pipes, I have to dig down inside the tower through 8 inches of concrete and then bore horizontally with a 150mm tungsten drill, which to date has overheated and burnt out two sets of carbon motor brushes! Its absolutely exhausting and has so far taken me five hours to get 20 inches. Anyway getting back to the roof, the builders have managed to almost complete the tile replacement, I only had to buy about 500 extra tiles as some of the old ones were cracked and not economically worthwhile using again. I was allowed to add two extra conservation roof lights, one facing east and one west, this allows me to put a small viewing platform inside allowing spectacular views over the Norfolk countryside. The top balcony is under construction and again when installed will be perfect for sunbathing all day long during summer. The guttering is next and this is based on original Victorian type, robust and cast iron and large enough to take the heaviest downpour. Once the scaffolding is down I can't exactly reach the gutter with a ladder!

THE WELL

The well is now completely cleaned out and has halogen lights fixed at certain positions, I have also put two rope lights at the bottom, one green and one blue. When these are turned on the water turns to a gorgeous Mediterranean colour. The specialist glass company have been to measure up for the glass cap with hatchway which will go over the well, this has to be 52mm thick and weighing about 400Kgs, twelve men are required to lift it into position using special vacuum lifting pads. Total cost £2300. This will allow anybody to walk directly over the well. Half way down the well is an original small platform used to hold the old pump crankshaft; I am using this as a wine storage area as this has the perfect temperature all year and access is very easy. I have had to replace two Victorian steel beams just above the water line, the old ones were really dangerous and as new water pumps for the fresh water are supported by these, this was a necessary job. The cast iron liner bolts have all been painted red and look really good against the black steel beams and cream coloured well shaft

ELECTRICS

The electricity supply was installed in 1937 and consists of a huge lead protected cable buried and entering just inside the door; this mates up to a very lethal looking fuse box with the old material type wire insulation which fizzled and crackled in damp conditions indicating that the insulation was starting to break down against the incoming 400 volts. Pulling the fuses allowed me to strip out all the old heavy switch gear revealing all the original meter paperwork dating back to the war years and advising “ Save on electricity and switch off unecessary lighting for the war effort - help the factories.” The Norwich Electricity Generating Co 1941. I have now installed a new electric distribution panel all up to date to accommodate the huge wiring that will be required to carefully light up each room with special low voltage lighting.

THE FLOORS

The builders and carpenters have now put all the new floors in. They initially made a major mistake by misreading the achitect's drawing and put two floors in the wrong position, much to the amusement of the TV crews who lapped up any misfortune with relish! This has all been rectified and the floors are now looking brilliant. The kitchen is on the first floor above the main entrance and the well, so I have had a glass hatchway put in the centre of the room to allow an unusual view of the well from higher up as well as allowing furniture to be moved up through to other floors. (no skirts allowed in kitchen!). The spiral staircase has been ordered but Donald Price. The excellent carpenter, who lives in Southwold and is semi-retired, has had to go in for a cataract operation and can't start building it until April. He made the staircase for the Electric Picture Palace cinema in Southwold of which I am a trustee. His woodworking skills are fantastic. So we wait patiently, Donald made me a tenth scale model of the staircase which is really incredible. With all the floors in , there is a large void which has been left for the staircase through each floor, I have yet to cut through the main tank floor at the top with oxy/acetylene cutting torch which is going to be difficult and dangerous and requires cutting a round hole in the ½ inch steel tank bottom, lifting out 1.5mtrs of solid plate and then cutting through a steel girder 16inches by 10inches weighing just over a metric tonne, then lowering this out of the building, I'm fairly confident on this one and lie in bed at night till the early hours working out my modus operandi.

THE SOLAR PANELS

The solar panels have now been positioned facing south east. These are the best available and have been developed by Beijing and Sydney Universities - they gather heat on the coldest day relying on the u/v coming through clouds, heating the water to 56 degC in winter and 97 degC in summer. A large stainless steel hot water tank holds this heat with additional back up from a wood burning stove down below. Being situated in an environmentally sensitive area, I think that it is vital to be as “green” as possible. Well that's it so far! All will be revealed at a later date on national British TV – the documentary on the water tower is on channel five which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's daughter, I've no doubt it will eventually get onto Sky and be blasted around the network. I originally said that the tower would comfortably sleep ten, however this has now increased to twelve, as the bedroom on the ground floor extension will actually sleep four.

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Welcome

Meander Through The Victorian Garden

History – The Victorian Era

History – The Tudor Era

The Victorian Garden Collection – Product List/Prices

The African Indigenous Collection – Product List/Prices

The Royal Tudor Collection – Product List/Prices

The Victorian Garden Baby Collection Product List/Prices

Full Descriptions and INCI ingredients listings on All Products

Natural and Organic

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