Winter’s Icy Fingers Creep Quietly over the Elmore Estate

There is a stillness and quiet to Elmore that arrives with winter and brings with it a hoar frost that clutches the estate within its icy fingers. It is at this time of year that the bone structure of the land reveals itself.

The skeletons of the umbelifers (large umbrella like flowers such as hogweed) are now icy white sculptures in the meadows, the crocheted cobwebs between their stalks, beautifully highlighted in the low winter light.

Across the meadows there are silvery pools full of water, as this is the Severn Vale and the low-lying meadows, have for years, held flood water at this time of year. Traditionally the land was managed using sluice gates to control the water, making it dryer and more suitable for commercial dairy cattle.

Since 2020, owner of Elmore Court, Anselm Guise has reversed this practice, to once again allow water to accumulate, and the land return to the wetland that it once was, digging scrapes, shallow pools of water, to attract wetland birds such as oystercatcher and lapwing, as part of our Rewilding project.

In the fields where the longhorn cattle have been, there is poaching where they have walked, creating hoof sized divots now filled with ice. The thin ice on Madam’s Pool is broken to allow the hardy wild winter swimmers access into the cold water for their dips, before warming up again in the sauna.

Flocks of long tailed tits ‘peep’ their high pitched, excited call, not yet paired off for spring, and flitting through the hedgerows, along with the tiny wrens, who you can hardly see between the branches. In the distance a heron stands still, blending into his environment, almost camouflaged, save for when he spreads his wings and takes flight, almost prehistoric looking as he soars into the sky.

The frost makes sounds travel clearer and louder and in Park Covert, where the treehouses stand, a woodpecker is drumming loudly, unseen by the naked eye, he sends out his ‘morse’ code across the fields.

There is the smell of woodsmoke in the air from the treehouses, where the guests inside have retreated from the world, cocooned in luxury. Their views over the rewilding land give them a front seat of the most wonderful wildlife, from hares in the meadows, to lapwing and oystercatchers in the scrapes down below. They could be enjoying a glass of champagne in the bath on the deck as otters play below!

Walking back towards the house, there is an entirely different aroma in the air, as the chefs are busy in the kitchens concocting wedding breakfast tastings for newly betrothed couples getting married at Elmore Court. January is a busy time for booking weddings, and with Elmore being one of the UK’s most popular wedding destinations, the team are busy hosting viewings and answering enquiries, their calendars almost full for 2025 and now busy filling 2026 dates.  

The Court is closed at the beginning of January, giving the team the opportunity to prepare for the busy year ahead. Floors are being polished, and walls and woodwork painted under the watchful gaze of the portraits of Guise ancestors through the ages,  hanging on the wall.

The portrait of a young Sir John Guise almost looks to have a knowing twinkle in his eye as he knows all too well that this stillness won’t last for long, and the first weddings of the year are but days away!