Luxury Awnings and Pergolas in Welwyn Garden City
Beat the cold weather with an awning heater
As we hurtle headlong into the long, dark days of winter, you will probably have already packed away or covered your garden furniture for the year, not to be seen again until late spring next year. However, should you have an awning fitted to your property, why would you want to limit your time relaxing in the garden?
Well, the simple answer to the above question is likely to be, ‘because it’s too cold to sit out’, but it doesn’t have to be. The simple installation of a good quality awning heater can mean that you can enjoy the fresh outdoor air any time of year, without having to wrap up in multiple layers of clothing in order to avoid shivering with the cold.
An awning heater for all year enjoyment
The beauty of an awning heater is that they direct a constant glow of radiated heat towards you, keeping you comfortable even on the chilliest of days. This level of heat also means that you can continue to enjoy the many benefits of your awning after dark too. Let’s face it, by the time you’ve finished work and had a bite to eat, it’ll probably be dark anyway during the winter months, so the chances of you getting under the awning before the sun fades are limited to start with.
When you have invested in an awning heater, a whole world of possibilities opens for you. No matter what the outside temperature is, you will be able to sit, relax or even entertain friends and family with the warm, snug glow from your awning heater. No more shivering and bolting for the warmth of the house, just a much longer time to bask in the glorious outdoor experience.
Modern awning heaters are a game changer
A modern awning heater will keep you warmer without allowing most of the heat to escape directly up and away from you like the older models of heater did. Not only did these heaters lose heat quickly, but they were also inefficient and expensive to use. Most were run on gas, and this meant that you had to constantly keep replenishing the gas bottles, which was a pain, as well as them being heavy to transport around.
On top of this, there was the fire risk they presented too. They were tall and as most of the heat exited at the top of the heater, there was a real danger that the awning fabric could be scorched or even set on fire. Now this is a nightmare waiting to happen, when you consider that the awning is attached to your property.
New and more energy efficient awning heaters direct the heat at you, not the canopy of the awning, they run on electricity and are very energy efficient, even with the currently high cost of this source of energy. They can be attached to the frame of the awning or possibly mounted on wall that the awning is attached to. They can also be fixed to an adjacent wall close to the awning space. No longer will you be tripping over wires to free standing heaters or worrying about the kids or the family pet getting too close to the heater. Your back will also thank you as you will not have to contend with the weight of gas bottles any longer.
So, to enjoy your garden awning all year round, think seriously about investing in a good quality awning heater and continue to relax throughout the colder months.
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Brocket Hall in Welwyn Garden City
The splendid hall we see today was not the original stately home. On this rambling parkland estate were two predecessors, the first of which was built in 1239 as Watership or Durantshide Manor. One of these fine houses was built in about 1430; whereas in 1413 John Mortimer held Waterships and by 1477 Thomas Brockett held both of the manors. The house was acquired by John Brocket in the early 1550s and passed to his son Sir John Brocket, who was then Captain of Queen Elizabeth’s personal guard, on his death in 1558.
Aristocratic splendour in Welwyn Garden City
The building and park in Welwyn Garden City owe much of their appearance today to Sir Matthew Lamb, the 1st Baronet, who purchased the estate in 1746 and commissioned Brocket Hall to the designs of the architect Sir James Paine in around 1760.
Sir Matthew Lamb’s son was Peniston Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne, and he was often visited at Brocket Hall by the Prince Regent, who had a liaison with Lady Melbourne.
The next owner was The 2nd Viscount Melbourne, who was Queen Victoria’s first Prime Minister, when she regularly visited the Welwyn Garden City stately home. His wife, Lady Caroline Lamb, infamously had an affair with Lord Byron causing Lord Melbourne much embarrassment. For one of his birthdays she held a state banquet in the Saloon, at which she had herself served from a large silver dish, wearing nothing but her birthday suit.
On Lamb’s death, the Welwyn Garden City house passed to his sister, Emily, whose second husband was another Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston.
On Emily’s death, the grand hall then passed to Emily’s grandson by her first marriage, The 7th Earl Cowper, though it was his younger brother, Henry who lived at Brocket Hall.
Foreign Peer leases the historic Welwyn Garden City residence
In 1893, The 1st Baron Mount Stephen, President of the Bank of Montreal and the first Canadian to be elevated to the Peerage of the United Kingdom, leased Brocket Hall from the 7th Earl for the remainder of his lifetime. For the next three years distinguished guests included the Queen’s children. The Prince and Princess of Wales were frequent visitors, The Duke and Duchess of Connaught and the Princess Mary, Duchess of Teck also stayed at the glorious Welwyn Garden City stately home. In 1897, one year after his first wife died in 1896, Lord Mount Stephen married Georgina Mary Tufnell, the Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck. She was a lifelong friend and confidant of the Duchess’s daughter, Mary of Teck, the wife of King George V, and the Mount Stephens’s regularly entertained the Royal couple at Brocket Hall. Georgina preferred life at Brocket Hall to the social life that surrounded their London residence at Carlton House Terrace and took great delight in the open space and fresh air in what was to become Welwyn Garden City. Lady Mount Stephen was a close friend of Georgina, Marchioness of Salisbury, who lived on the neighbouring estate of Hatfield House.
The Nall-Cain family connection with Welwyn Garden City
After the death of The 7th Earl Cowper in 1905, the future reversion of the estate was left to his niece, but she died only a year after him and the estate passed to her husband, Admiral Lord Walter Kerr, who lived at Melbourne Hall. When the life tenant Lord Mount Stephen died in 1921, Kerr put the estate up for sale and in 1923 it was purchased by Sir Charles Nall-Cain and he was then to be styled as Baron Brocket. His son, The 2nd Baron Brocket, was a Nazi sympathiser and, when he was interned during the Second World War, his property was sequestrated and put to use as a maternity hospital. Local people from Welwyn Garden City have a connection with the Hall through the time it was a maternity hospital, as many local residents were born there.
Welwyn Garden City Lord and the car fraud scandal
In 1996 the 3rd Baron Charles Brocket was convicted of insurance fraud. He apparently had several classic cars buried in the grounds of the estate so that he could claim on the insurance to bail him out of his financial troubles.
While serving a prison sentence, he let the whole estate for a minimum of sixty years to Club Corporation of Asia based in Hong Kong. CCA converted Brocket Hall into a hotel and conference centre, built a second eighteen-hole golf course and developed a restaurant called Auberge du Lac in an existing building on the estate.