RESIDENTS of a historic house in Betley joined owner Professor Godfrey Brown and his family to celebrate the official opening of new garden gates.

Betley Court, once the grand home of the Squire of Betley, now home to the Brown family and 13 tenants, marks its 300th year in 2016.

The new Betley Court Garden Gates commemorate the building’s tercentenary.

They feature a depiction of the house’s distinctive dovecote, along with a representation of the garden’s most well-known tree, which is a cedar of Lebanon, planted by renowned landscape architect William Barron in the 19th century, Godfrey and his late wife Freda’s entwined initials, and a Staffordshire knot.

The 3m-high gates were designed and fabricated by artist blacksmith Charis Jones at her forge at Etruria Industrial Museum.

Family member Su said: “We love Charis’ gate design.

“The whole family discussed what symbolism might be included on the gates, and sent Charis the ideas to play with.

“She worked them into several design concepts for us to choose from and built the gates from our favourite design.

“We set her the task of building gates that made a statement at the entrance to the gardens, and she certainly rose to the challenge.”

More than 60 people attended the opening, with Prof Godfrey, 90, taking centre stage to untie the ceremonial ribbon.

Betley Court is a Grade II* listed historic house. Once the seat of the local squire, it became a hospital briefly during the Second World War, and during the early days of the NHS.

It was left derelict until Professor Brown, Emeritus Professor of Education at Keele University, and his late wife Freda bought it in 1977, and restored it as a home for their family, and as flats for tenants.