Good evening Rita. I’m delighted to hear from you and learn about your visit to the areas that are now inaccessible. Thank you for sharing the information and memories.

In August 2024 I and other Tabley volunteers were given a little guided tour of the Crown Estates land on the other side of the mere.

We were hoping to find the viewpoint Turner had for his ‘Tabley on a Windy Day’ painting, but were forced to conclude it doesn’t quite exist. He seems to have altered the position of the House (seen to the right of the tower in his picture, whereas to us it appeared always on the left). He also seems to have exaggerated the size of the tower.

Some of these criticisms were done away with once we realised that
a) Turner was trying to compose a picture, not take a snapshot,
and
b) unlike us, he wasn’t confined to the bank. Apparently he had himself rowed out and did preliminary sketches from a viewpoint actually on the mere.
I was also told – but would have to double-check the accuracy of this – that there was formerly a watermill on the edge of what’s now the mere, and when it was taken down the bricks are thought to have been re-used to build the ornamental tower.

The former mill stream became one of the main sources of the mere, after the ground before it was dug away to a depth of some thirty feet to create a pit which filled with water and then gradually spread out onto low-lying marshy ground nearby. Apparently the mere is quite shallow for most of its extent, but not at the point where the pit was dug. This is still the deepest part – and reputedly the best spot for fishing.

You are a man after my own heart Andy. Learning something new feels good!

Andy.

Hello Tom. Tune in next week for a wonderful nostalgic story of the same folly.

MERCY BUCETS! KEEP THEM COMING.

TOM