Bateman’s Report

Bateman’s Newsletter September 2025

It has been a busy summer at Bateman’s with a very satisfactory number of visitors and resultant increased activity in the tearoom and shop. As usual there has been a strong emphasis on children’s activities with trails in the house and gardens. Emily Gravett, the popular children’s author, paid a three-day visit in August, promoting her best known illustrated book ‘Tidy’ among others as well as holding drawing classes and storytelling. Interestingly she shares her publisher, Macmillan, with Kipling. Future events include house decorations for Diwali 17-20 October and for Jungle Book Christmas 15 November-4 January.

In the house, the most notable event has been the restoration of Carrie’s office with visitor access. Her original desk has been rescued from storage in Wimpole Hall; we have an original blotter, and the legendary house telephone has been refurbished and mounted as she would have known it. Research, particularly at the Keep, has resulted in a large collection of copied family photos being available to visitors and a recently collected sound archive of reminiscences of the family will soon be available on a specially adapted 1930s radio. In the interests of Edwardian middle class authenticity, we now have an aspidistra in the parlour. This is based on the assumption that Carrie would have approved. Perhaps a Cast Iron Plant was installed. I think better of Bateman’s former custodian.

The most significant restoration project has been the overhaul of the 24-gun frigate Caterina, which has pride of place in the study. In had reached a sad state of disrepair and was sent for specialist restoration. Technically she was a sixth-rate ship of the line with 9-pounder canon. She would have been used for picket duty, fleet communication, scouting (precursor of radar) and raiding merchantmen. Her most interesting feature is her rigging – ‘Liverpool rig’. This was designed to minimise the need for crew to go aloft to trim the sails, a hazardous and highly unpleasant task. Much of this work could now be done from the deck. This allowed for a smaller crew-less work for the press gang. Although the model was authenticated by the National Maritime Museum, no such name is recorded in the Navy List. It is a puzzle that will never be solved. Perhaps there was once a lady with a knowing smile?

We have a new Collections and House Officer. Chris Gumbley joined us in June and is mastering the byzantine complexities of the National Trust and the quixotic oddities of the volunteers.


It has been hard work in the garden. The weather, vacillating from drought severe enough to necessitate a hosepipe ban, to torrential rain has caused considerable difficulty. Plantings are being focussed on drought resistant or minimally demanding varieties. More plants are being grown from seed and greater use made of biennials.  The policy of conserving Old Sussex apple varieties, now well under way in Donkey meadow, is being extended to part of a meadow adjacent to the mill pond. The area in front of the Visitors’ Reception, freed up by the recent felling of inappropriate pine trees, has been seeded with wildflowers to create a floristic lawn. The Shire Horses again came to mow the meadows. With a single operator. Plans for the redevelopment of the Mulberry Garden behind the tea shop are almost finalised and work will begin soon to attempt to recreate the garden as it was known to the Kiplings.

A new stall by the entrance selling Bateman’s flowers and vegetables has been a great success. It is hoped that the flour from the mill will soon be authorised for sale to the public, no doubt to the dismay of the hens currently enjoying free meals. All in all, management of the house and garden remains dynamic and forward looking with careful appraisal of the history of the artefacts and a determination to make the presentation as authentic as possible, all based on diligent research

David Forsyth – 15 Sept 2025

 

Bateman’s report 23 June 2025

Summer is Icumen in
Llude sing cuccu
Groweth seed and bloweth med
And Springeth wdepu
Sing cuccu!
[ca 1260 English round song]

This well describes the last few weeks at Batemans’. The herbaceous borders are bursting with colour, the espaliered fruit trees, planted two years ago, are prospering. Donkey Meadow, with the recently established heritage varieties of Sussex apples, awaits a cut of hay hopefully powered by a pair of Sussex horses. Blackbirds, wrens, robins and sparrows perform for their lunch around the tables outside the Mulberry café.

Visitors, encouraged by the current good weather, are coming in substantial numbers, necessitating the use of the overflow car park. The recent house rearrangement has proved very successful with many comments of approval from the public. Diligent scrutiny of extant correspondence and diaries of the Kiplings’ guests and staff has showed that there is no “correct” bedroom arrangement and at various times each was used by different family members and quests. This has justified some reorganisation to show off the bedroom furniture to best effect, notably the four-poster bed which is original to Bateman’s and very likely was the Kipling bed. The single bed now in the West Bedroom is not original. It is similar-ish in style to some of the beds the Kipling’s had in Naulakha, which is why it was purchased for the space.

Some artefacts, such as the silver engraved presentation tray given to Elsie when she launched Kipling in January 1939, have been relocated.  The May Morris embroidery and the Burne-Jones watercolour portraits of the three children are both now in the restored Kipling’s Bedroom.

The return of the Detmold ‘Kaa’ illustration for an early edition of the Jungle Books is still awaited. It is currently under restoration at the Natural History Museum.

We are all looking forward to High Summer with the outdoor programme of concerts and children’s entertainment. In the house constant changes will occur as artefacts are sent away or returned from conservation. The three significant clocks, one, in the Hall is said to be the oldest working clock in the NT, are notoriously idiosyncratic and are reliably unreliable. They really merit their own money tree which is rather appropriate for a summer report.

David Forsyth

 

Bateman’s report for Kipling Society meeting April 2025

Summer has arrived and with it the seasonal increase in visitors. It is gratifying to learn how many families come several times a year and almost regard the house as their own. The annual NT survey of visitors to Bateman’s confirmed that 75% of members gave us the maximum satisfaction score. I can only assume that the remainder were stung by one of Rudyard’s bees. Also, the Aberdeen terriers can be a bit nippy!

A few statistics: Visitor numbers for the last accounting year were 120,000, which is 3,000 less than the previous year. This is credited to our new winter conservation closure as well as two closures due to bad weather; second-hand book sales (as opposed to NT shop sales) reached £32,000, money spent specifically on Bateman’s projects. It is a sad fact that it is becoming increasingly difficult for the NT to source new Kipling books as the demand has decreased to a level which makes new editions unprofitable. Would the KS consider buying out Macmillans?

The café is a great source of revenue. The average spend per NT member is £4.45. 11,000 scones were gratefully devoured, washed down by 27,000 pots of tea. Plans are in hand to restructure the café garden (the Mulberry Garden). Using old photos, it is hoped to recreate the changes the Kiplings made to the old farmyard. That configuration has been modified over the years, particularly by the NT, resulting in its present form. There is a basic principle of trying to recreate the house and gardens as the Kiplings knew them. As the family was notorious for destroying old records, receipts, etc. this is something of a detective game, relying on old photos and the reminiscences of guests and servants. This is nowhere more evident than in the house itself where the rooms on the first floor and the second floor (which now includes the conservation studio) have had multiple uses. The conservation staff has been diligently reorganising the sites and configuration of the bedrooms to give what is thought to be a reasonable representation of the rooms. Moving a four-poster bed through a Jacobean doorway merits an MBE. Only the best for Bateman’s.

Which reminds me. Sadly, Emma, our Deputy House and Collections Manager, has moved on (to another Trust property) and will be replaced in June.

The refurbishment of the Memorial Room has proved a great success. Previously, visitors tended to walk quickly through a rather worthy display of artefacts but the new layout, with objects arranged in groups of clearly organised themes, has much enhanced the experience. Of course, the law of unexpected consequences has resulted in the room becoming rather crowded and something of a bottleneck.

We still await the return of the restored and reframed Kaa from the Natural History Museum. It will then go back to the Powder Room to be displayed alongside its fellow Detmold, the Buffalo Herd.

David Forsyth (Bateman’s Liaison Officer)

 

Bateman’s report for Kipling Society meeting 5 Feb 2025

Bateman’s has not been immune to the current severe weather and has closed to visitors on two recent occasions principally due to the risk of flying debris injuring visitors.
The grounds are very much a winter vista, hellebores providing a rare hint of colour. The newly planted Old Sussex varieties of apple trees are prospering in the meadow facing the front of the house and the grass will be mowed in the summer, hopefully by a team of shire horses. Nothing flamboyant about the NT!
The mill is awaiting further repairs, this time to the central wooden post driven by the water wheel. We are still hopeful that the sale of the flour will be authorised soon, once the process is made bat-proof. The mills of bureaucracy grind much more slowly than the nearly 300-year-old mill.
The Christmas decorations were a huge success, attracting many visitors to admire them, this year themed on ‘A Jungle book Christmas’. Many of the visitors tour the local NT properties to compare the seasonal offerings and establish an informal league table. The time devoted to Christmas decorations grows exponentially and indeed has already commenced for this year. The final display involves a huge amount of work.
The event of the year will take place in late February when the refurbished Memorial Room will open to the public. The concept is to give a broad view of Kipling’s life and achievements with more striking display panels and better presentation of artefacts. John will receive a new prominence and new items, currently in store, as well as objects transferred from other rooms will now make a more vibrant and interesting experience.
It was something of a surprise to learn that the current distribution of the upper rooms is by no means sacrosanct, and the designation is often based on custom rather than fact. Scrutiny of guest correspondence has suggested that ‘John’s Room’ was in fact the Kiplings’ bedroom and that John normally used the West Bedroom. This is now reflected in a reorganisation, with the Elizabethan bed (which apparently was not the original left with the house but one acquired by the Kiplings) being transferred to the former ‘John’s’ room and the West bedroom being reorganised as a tribute to John. Moving the bed is causing sleepless nights for the staff, as although the bed is large, the doorways are not.
If winter comes, can Spring be far behind.
David Forsyth