Woolton pie is a comforting dish that harks back to an era of wartime ingenuity and homegrown sustenance. Originally designed to be nutritious and make the most of easy-to-grow root veg, this cheap and cheerful recipe can be adjusted according to what’s in season. Feel free to swap the vegetables below with any personal favourites. Serves four. Ingredients: For the pastry 8oz wholemeal/wholewheat flour 4oz cold mashed potato 3oz margarine or lard 2 tsp of baking powder Pinch of salt Milk, for glazing For the filling 1lb cauliflower 1lb swedes 1lb carrots 1lb potatoes 3 spring onions 2 teasp ..read more

Sometimes objects literally come out of the woodwork. During a clear-out of one of the workshops a few years ago, this little brass plaque was discovered. Nobody knew where it had come from. When we started to investigate, we realised that it could be a relic from the time of John Nicolson, Winterbourne’s last private owner. Vane & Schofield Forward Appliance Works were based in Brighton Road, Balsall Heath, Birmingham. The warehouse occupied a massive site. In an entry in the British Industries Fair catalogue for 1937, the company advertises summer houses, garden chalets, greenhouses, co ..read more

For the past 80 years, Winterbourne’s garden has been in the hands of University of Birmingham. Before then, it was lovingly tended to by Winterbourne’s last private owner, John Nicolson. Head Gardener Dan reflects on how Nicolson’s impact has shaped the garden into the one so beloved by all who tread its paths today. I often think of the garden today as being closer to the one John Nicolson left in 1944 than the one Margaret Nettlefold left behind in 1919, when she sold Winterbourne to the Wheelock family. This assumption is based largely on speculation on my part, but not entirely without ..read more

John Macdonald Nicolson (1869 – 1944) was a passionate gardener, and it was likely the extensive garden that attracted him to Winterbourne when it came up for sale in 1925. He was responsible for some of the garden’s most popular features, including the Japanese bridge and tea house, and the pergola. In this article, archives volunteer Sue Tungate and curator Henrietta Lockhart explore his life. Nicolson was born in Liverpool in 1869. His grandparents, John and Janet Nicolson, lived on a farm at Kilmuir on the Isle of Skye and were Gaelic-speaking Presbyterian crofters. The large Nicolson fa ..read more

This classic Mrs Beeton recipe makes a perfect centrepiece for your Easter dinner. Serve it with some fluffy roast potatoes and seasonal vegetables (we’re thinking spring greens, cabbage, asparagus) for a crowd-pleasing feast. Ingredients One shoulder of lamb, boned (you can use a rack or leg of lamb instead) Four garlic cloves, peeled and quartered lengthways About six each small fresh rosemary and thyme sprigs Four bay leaves Two oranges 60ml/ 4tbsp olive oil Salt and pepper 300ml / ½ pint red wine Orange slices and fresh herbs for garnish Method Trim any lumps of fat from the lamb, then ..read more

Our Visitor Experience Manager, Tessa, shines a light on the life of Fanny Wilkinson – a pioneering horticulturist who paved the way for women in the field, yet whose work has been mostly lost to obscurity. When asked to write something for International Women’s Day, I thought I might wax lyrical about Gertrude Jekyll – the well-known twentieth century garden designer whose work inspired Maragret Nettlefold’s vision for the garden at Winterbourne. However, I thought I would do a bit of fresh research and, as I delved into internet searches of ‘early women in horticulture’, I stumbled across ..read more

A new month ushers in new sights in the garden. To help you know what to look out for on your next visit, we have asked Head Gardener Dan to round up his favourite blooms. Sometimes a ‘Looking Good this Month’ type article can be a bit of a struggle. Flowering plants can be thin on the ground through the winter and inspiration even thinner. By the time we get into late January – despite our best efforts to convince ourselves (and everybody else) otherwise – we gardeners are just wistfully longing for the seasons to get on with it. But we have no such problem in March. This is what we’ve al ..read more

Women were sometimes the unsung heroes of World War II. Working tirelessly behind the scenes to manufacture the nuts and bolts for weapons and machinery, their work contributed as much to the war effort as those on the frontline. Our curator Henrietta took a deep dive into our Guest, Keen & Nettlefold (GKN) archive to find out more. Both the first and second world wars provided huge opportunities for women to enter the workplace. GKN mounted a recruitment drive to attract women to join the workforce in the early 1940s – and we are very lucky to have one of the leaflets issued at that t ..read more

A big thank you to everyone who joined us for the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch (26 – 28 January 2024). We’re delighted to share that you helped us spot 386 individual birds across the birdwatch weekend – a whopping 184% increase from last year – and a total of 25 different species. The jackdaw swooped in to take the top spot, with an amazing 160 of them spotted together, roosting in our trees. Coots, Canada geese and black-headed gulls also flocked to us in double digits – and we even had a very special visitor: a fire crest. There are only around 2,000 of these tiny birds in the UK, and their ..read more

Nothing beats a nutritious winter warmer. Our detox soup is a great way to feed your body and soul this February, while using up whatever leftover veg you have in your fridge. We’ve shared our favourite ingredients below, but feel free to experiment with whatever veggies you like.   Ingredients 1 onion, diced 2 celery stalks, diced 2 medium carrots, diced 1 tablespoon of your choice of oil 1 head of broccoli, broken into florets with the stalk peeled and diced 1 knob of fresh ginger, peeled and minced 3 cloves of garlic, minced ½ knob of fresh turmeric, minced (1 teaspoon of turmeric powd ..read more