Doveleys

I met up with my brother and one of his friends for a lovely lunch at a local garden centre today. I hadn't been back to Doveleys for over thirty years.

One of my primary school friends lived in the grounds of Doveleys School and I used to visit her. I particularly remember staying up so late (it seemed right into the middle of the night) and going with her and her father to watch out for badgers on a bank not far from the big house.

I arrived early and went for a wander. The house isn't lived in now. There are notices about 24 hour security and it is clearly in the process of being slowly restored. It would make a wonderful hotel or upmarket country club - but it has a rather forbidding feel to it.

The early history of the house is dignified and classy. It was built for the notable Heywood family and was their home for many years.

Sir Thomas Percival Heywood, 2nd Baronet (15 March 1823–26 October 1897). Heywood was the son of Sir Benjamin Heywood, 1st Baronet. He retired from the banking business set up by his father and settled, with his wife Margaret, at the family's summer home at Dove Leys, near Denstone in south Staffordshire. He greatly enlarged Dove Leys, built the local church of All Saints, together with a vicarage and a school. He played a major part in the founding of Denstone College, and was its first bursar. Heywood was also a Justice of the Peace for Staffordshire. He was an officer in the Staffordshire Yeomanry (Queen's Own Royal Regiment), in World War I attached to the Yeomanry Mounted Division in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. His eldest son Arthur inherited his interest in metalwork, which led to his development of Minimum Gauge Railways.

In the 1950s it was a boys school. The Werrington reformatory was a residential school which was relocated to Doveleys from the Stoke on Trent area. Although we were totally unaware of it at the time, it was an unhappy place and the inevitable scandal broke, leading to its closure in 1988.

Perhaps its beauty and gloominess will continue to co exist...... What will the future hold ?

Meanwhile, the Garden Centre, under new management, is thriving - and offering a very generous and tasty carvery with loadsa veg for the princely sum of £3.99