![]() Six months later, the tortoise in question came strolling across the lawn, having emerged from hibernation. When Mr Godsal quizzed his son Hector on the whereabouts of their lost pet, the then two-year-old insisted it had last been seen riding on a fox’s back. ![]() It is, perhaps, the tortoise’s ability to capture the imagination that compensates for the lack of affection they offer. It’s not a big ask, unlike a dog that needs walking.’ Roxy’s (surprisingly fast) spin on the school-classroom carpet was enough to captivate a room full of five-year-olds. ‘Because they’re low maintenance, you can ask friends to look after them if you go away. ‘Little Bedwyn is turning into a sort of tortoise empire,’ laughs Phili Wilson, who was inspired by a local friend to buy Roxy for her children for Christmas, as well as Sprout for her mother. In one Wiltshire village, a growing number of young families are buying the reptiles as pets, attracted by their undemanding diet of weeds and the interest they ignite in guests of all ages. ‘They start off looking the same as the smaller tortoises and people buy them without realising how big they’re going to get.’įor those who successfully navigate the legislation and mystifying breed names, there is a sense of community among owners, united by unpredictable hibernation patterns and the soundtrack of noisy shells. Mrs Ovenstone, who is known as the Tortoise Lady, encourages prospective owners to make contact with the sanctuary before taking the plunge, to make sure they are on the right side of the law (an import ban on wild-caught Mediterranean tortoises came into force in 1984, for example), are clear on what they’re signing up for when it comes to care and have swotted up on breeds.Īt the British Chelonia Group’s weigh-in at Clifton Cathedral in Bristol, where tortoise owners descend to have their pets’ health checked before and after hibernation, a giant tortoise takes centre stage as ‘a sort of awful reminder to check what sort of tortoise you’re buying,’ warns Mrs Hamilton-Baillie, who recommends the Tortoise Trust’s website as another reliable source of information for new owners. This Mediterranean Spur-thighed Tortoise is at least 70 years old. ‘For my daughter, who is very artistic and has a great imagination, they represent some otherworldly species,’ Mr Godsal believes. Her father found a breeder and Poppy’s sixth-birthday present was a pair named after the estate’s first wedding couple, Hannah and Doug. Upon returning to his family’s 750-acre Iscoyd Park in Shropshire in 2009, to set up a wedding venue with his wife and children, he rediscovered his collection of model tortoises and gave it to his eldest daughter. When Philip Godsal was growing up, his pets Alexander and Freida had a relaxed existence roaming the fruit cages - so hunting for them became a time-consuming task. ‘She let them roam the garden for a few days and, at the party, each child was given the end of a string and had to unravel it around the garden to find their tortoise.’ ‘His grandmother bought a lot of small tortoises and attached a string to each one,’ explains Mrs Hamilton-Baillie. ‘It’s quite a responsibility because they live for such a long time.’ Of course, that hasn’t stopped these docile reptiles from cropping up in an eclectic mix of homes. ‘It’s not a short-term project, having a tortoise,’ admits Heather Alston, alluding to a life expectancy that exceeds a century for the creatures that roam her West London garden. ![]() ![]() By the time the sweet-toothed pair died as nonagenarians, they had been a mainstay of his four children’s childhoods, too. ![]() ‘Where the radio was, we were and, where we were, there might be a dandelion flower, a bit of tomato or a strawberry,’ says Mr Blathwayt, who took the tortoises with him to Somerset in the 1970s, after he got married. Lured by the sound of the Test match, there was often evidence of a trip to the raspberry canes lingering around Duffer and Daisy’s mouths. On long summer days, Mark Blathwayt remembers his childhood tortoises’ faces appearing at the kitchen door. With a taste for radio and raspberries and a habit of clambering over anything in their path, tortoises are never going to be the cuddliest of pets, but they are nonetheless treasured by successive generations. Country Life's Top 100 architects, builders, designers and gardeners. ![]()
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