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DECOR ATING & SHOPPING
GARDEN ANTIQUES INSPIRATION & VINTAGE
RENOVATION & MAINTENANCE
PERIODLIVING 30 Decorate with lush botanicals Create a relaxing retreat outdoors Fill your garden with fragrant roses
HOMES WITH HEART
From a rustic Welsh cottage to a characterful Victorian farmhouse
BEAUTIFUL IDEAS FOR SHUTTERS AND BLINDS
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DELICIOUS ONE-PAN RECIPES FOR SUMMER
Illustration Sarah Overs Photograph David Lloyd
Editor’s Letter
ringing a sense of the great outdoors into your home has never seemed so vital as it is now, after weeks of being confined to indoors. These four walls are your sanctuary, through good times and bad, and their influence on your happiness and well-being cannot be underestimated. That’s why it’s so important to feel in touch with nature every day, even while inside. Of course, your prime concern must always be to stay safe, and I do hope that you and your loved ones are in good health. But why not take a moment to reflect on your surroundings and make plans for the future? This issue is all about connecting your house and garden, and making the most of summer at home. So even if you can’t put all of your plans into action right now, you can work out your priorities for better days ahead. To capture this month’s cover and Summer in Paradise decorating feature (page 20), the Period Living team visited possibly our favourite ever shoot location – a Grade I-listed Georgian conservatory in the Brecon Beacons national park. Straight out of a fairytale, the conservatory provided the perfect backdrop for showing off botanical prints and hothouse hues amid lush greenery. Let it inspire you to create your own piece of heaven on earth. Elsewhere this issue, we look to the garden, offering stunning ideas for creating an outdoor room to escape to – be it a summerhouse, posh shed or (my fantasy) a writer’s hut (page 99). Plus, we offer expert advice on growing roses, including how to choose, care for and get the best out of these beautiful, fragrant blooms (page 114). Finally, if you’re finding it difficult to get to the shops and pick up a copy of Period Living, then why not subscribe (page 56)? This month, when you pay just £20 for six months, you’ll get a free Sophie Allport Butterflies apron worth £21 and baking book worth £9.99 – plenty to keep you busy over the summer. I do hope you enjoy the issue. Melanie Griffiths Editor, Period Living
Period Living 3
PERIODLIVING
Future PLC, Units 1 & 2, Sugarbrook Court, Aston Road, Bromsgrove B60 3EX EDITORIAL Editor Melanie Griffiths Content Editor Rachel Crow Homes Content Editor Karen Darlow Style Editor Pippa Blenkinsop Features Writer/Subeditor Holly Reaney Email periodliving@futurenet.com ART Head of Art Billy Peel Senior Art Editor Emily Smith Art Editor Karen Lawson Contributions by Cliff Newman ADVERTISING Media packs are available on request. For all media sales enquiries, please contact rebecca.vincze@futurenet.com; 01527 834415 Commercial Director Clare Dove clare.dove@futurenet.com Group Media Director Mark Wright mark.wright@futurenet.com Strategic Partnership Director Jackie Sanders 01527 834426 jackie.sanders@futurenet.com Print and Digital Sales Manager Rebecca Vincze 01527 834415 rebecca.vincze@futurenet.com Print and Digital Sales Manager Kelly James 01527 834471 kelly.james@futurenet.com INTERNATIONAL LICENSING Period Living is available for licensing. Contact the liscensing team to discuss partnership opportunities Head of Print Licensing Rachel Shaw licensing@futurenet.com SUBSCRIPTIONS Email enquiries contact@myfavouritemagazines.co.uk Orderline and enquiries +44 (0)344 848 2852 Online orders and enquiries www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk Head of Subscriptions Sharon Todd CIRCULATION Head of Newstrade Tim Mathers PRODUCTION Head of Production Mark Constance Production Manager Frances Twentyman Advertising Production Manager Jo Crosby Digital Editions Controller Jason Hudson ONLINE Technical Project Manager Tom Burbridge Realhomes.com Editor in Chief Lucy Searle Realhomes.com Associate Editor Lindsey Davis Video Producer Matt Gibbs MANAGEMENT Brand Director Paul Newman Editorial Director Jason Orme Commercial & Events Director Nick Noble Commercial Finance Director Dan Jotcham
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Cover Photograph Brent Darby Styling Pippa Blenkinsop
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Decorating & shopping
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Journal We round up the latest interiors offerings and news Flutterly fabulous If you’re enjoying the spectacle of butterflies in your garden, find more in these colourful finds Summer in paradise Recreate the elegance and romance of a Georgian glasshouse
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ON THE COVER
Hothouse hues Add some Mediterranean style to your home with these botanical and sunny shades Statement kitchen taps The latest designs, perfectly suited to period homes
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Homes
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Happy returns Returning to her childhood home, Melissa Jolly involved her whole family in a renovation project ON THE COVER
Enter our awards Your home or garden renovation could win you a prize worth £1,000 A colourful past Discover the fascinating history of Christine and Neville Brown’s idyllic Welsh cottage ON THE COVER
The best of both worlds A tumbledown outbuilding has been transformed into a coastal, country hideaway
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Features
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30 years of Period Living Celebrating our anniversary year Antiques journal Discover the latest trends in antiques and hear collectors’ stories
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Decorative details Marc Allum looks at the history of metalworking and blacksmithing The restorers We visit the blacksmiths at Holkham Forge in Norfolk to see how they revive heritage metalwork Food journal Eateries, edibles and kitchen essentials for keen home cooks Recipes Prepare delicious and nutritious suppers, all in one roasting pan
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Shutters and blinds We bring you the best window treatments for a period home ON THE COVER
Garden journal The latest products for your garden, and horticultural advice Garden buildings Inspiration and tips for designing your ultimate outdoor room ON THE COVER
Where the wind blows Be inspired by Chris and Robin Hutt’s garden, exposed to the elements but brimming with life Roses advice In celebration of National Rose Month, we help you get the most out of these beautiful blooms ON THE COVER
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Your journal We share our readers’ letters and photographs £50 book giveaway Find out how to redeem your five free digital books today ON THE COVER
Subscribe Get a free Sophie Allport apron and baking book when you subscribe Stockists Where to find all the suppliers featured in this issue
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8 Period Living
Anniversary
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n the first ever issue of Period Living, editor Kirstie Rogers announced ‘a new type of home magazine for people who enjoy living in period homes; who enjoy the sense of history, the elegance, the atmosphere, the character, but who can also brave the dry rot, the damp, the seemingly inexhaustible demand on the pocket and patience, to see that character lovingly restored.’ That mission statement could have been written today, and while the magazine has evolved with the times, it still inspires people to live the period home dream. This year, Period Living turns 30, and the team will be celebrating over the coming months with a series of special content. Over the years, dozens of people have contributed to the magazine – from section editors and writers to designers and photographers – and helped it to go from strength to strength. Last year that hard work and passion paid off as we became Britain’s fastest-growing homes magazine. Of course, we wouldn’t have got here without you, our loyal readers. We thank you for supporting us for three decades, and hope you will be with us for many more years to come.
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In 1990, a new magazine was launched with the intention of helping readers care for and enjoy their period homes. Three decades later, it’s almost unrecognisable from its original form, but the aim remains the same
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Supported by our anniversary sponsors:
Period Living 9
Letters
YOUR journal
Share your own news and thoughts on the magazine
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Feature Holly Reaney
Thirty years ago, in 1990, when I was pregnant with my first child, a friend passed on to me a copy of Period Living, to help inspire the nursery decor. It certainly did, and so much more! It was my avid reading of the magazine that gave me the confidence to buy the ivy-covered
barn that adjoined our home (above). Despite it being unseen for nearly 40 years, we knew we could bring it back to life. Historic research revealed that it was actually a coach house from the docks on the River Severn and, with the help of builders, we incorporated it into our Grade II-listed home, creating a larger kitchen and an extra bedroom. Plus, we used the barn’s old tin roof on our garden sheds – recycling at its best! Sarah Blomfield
Perfect for letter writing, this month’s star letter gift is the stunning Cross Wanderlust Malta fountain pen with gold detailing, worth £84, from The Pen Shop
PETS’ CORNER To celebrate National Pet day, we asked you to share your furry and feathered friends – we were inundated with photos of your pooches, pussy cats... and even chickens. Above left: Linda Mackay’s Siamese cats, Monty and Louis, have definitely found the cosiest spot in the house, and love to snooze on the Aga.
Get in touch: periodliving@futurenet.com
We have just moved into a 1930s Grade A-listed Art Deco flat in Ravelston Garden, Edinburgh, so I loved the feature on interwar properties in the March issue of Period Living (right). I was particularly interested in the advice about windows, as unfortunately our new home no longer has the original designs – these have been replaced with uPVC. I really appreciated the guidance the feature offered about finding a more sensitive alternative, and look forward to replacing them. I can’t wait to begin our renovation project and to start discovering all the original features. Rebecca Benson (@wishvintage)
SHARING THE LOVE
I’ve just been reading your article about the birth of Period Living and can’t believe it’s been 30 years since the first issue (right). I have subscribed to your magazine since its beginning, and would hate to be without it. For the first few years, when I had finished a copy, I would pass it on to my friends; then, when my husband was ill, I took it to the local hospital, as I noticed that magazines there were non-existent. Now, my neighbour has the pleasure of its company, but returns it to me once read. When I’ve saved a year’s worth of editions, I take them to a local charity shop, where they resell them for someone else to enjoy. Long may this recycling and Period Living continue. Sandra Watson
Below left: Binka found her forever home with Moria Louise after being adopted from Blue Cross. She enjoys a relax by the fireside. Above right: Milo has discovered that hanging out in owner Rebecca Brown’s kitchen often results in being given treats… Below right: Alexandra Carvalho Mattea’s hen, Ditzy, likes her evening visits to the house, when she perches on the banister, awaiting treats before bedtime.
@periodlivingmagazine
@PeriodLivingMag
@period_living Period Living 11
J Ideas for summer living, from a colourful shepherd’s hut to new nature-inspired collections Feature Pippa Blenkinsop
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eshly squ r F ee ze Immerse yourself in
the vibrant culture of Spain’s Andalusian capital with Cole & Son’s stunning new Seville wallpapers. Featuring fragrant flora to flamenco fans and citrus trees to Moorish ceramics, the collection captures the beauty and rich heritage of the city. Celebrating the fruit synonymous with Seville, this Orange Blossom design is a delicate repeat with a subtle textured feel that pays homage to the regal tapestries found hanging in the Royal Alcázar’s Salón de los Tapices. Pictured in Orange and Spring Green on Parchment, one of three vintage-inspired palettes, it’s guaranteed to bring zest to interiors, £115 per roll. Period Living 13
TALENT SPOT
Clockwise from above: Bee orchid, £350; Blue Morpho butterflies, £850; Amazon grasshopper, £245; feverfew, £180; Convolvulus moth, £420
‘I started creating because I wanted to make some bugs and plants to go on my walls,’ says mixed media artist Kate Kato of Kasasagi Designs, who saw her hobby for sculpting intricate flora and fauna from paper, blossom into a new career. Aiming to capture those little things in life as if through the curious eyes of a child seeing them for the first time, Kate begins every piece with a walk in the countryside, her children in tow. ‘They’ll spot things that are completely different to what I’m looking for,’ she says. ‘It’s nice to see things differently; they really do make you look at everything.’ As well as using her magpie eye on botanical specimens, Kate lets no book, magazine or newspaper escape her attention, as she is always on the look out for interesting materials to sculpt with. Luckily, being based in the rural Welsh borders, just 15 minutes from the so-called ‘town of books’ Hay-on-Wye, she is perfectly placed to source inspiration for both. After an initial phase of documenting, photographing, collecting and drawing, Kate begins to bring her creations to life, which can take anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours. She first selects and prepares her papers, painting them in watercolours if needed. Book lovers needn’t be alarmed – when it comes to materials she leaves the rare and valuable on the shelf, opting instead for printed casualties too old and battered to tell their stories. She also hand embroiders and embellishes at this stage. Using a template she then cuts out the separate components from the papers and, using specialist tools, assembles the 3D forms, fixing them together with wire and glue, but in places also binding with thread. ‘I want the sculptures to look real and not real at the same time,’ says Kate. ‘I like to provoke curiosity in the viewer by leaving sections of the original object visible.’ Kate takes commissions, or you can buy ready-made pieces online. (kasasagidesign.com) ROLE REVERSAL Upholstered in textured cloth that resembles the intricate, overdyed motifs of traditional Berber carpets, this new rug-printed sofa, £1,798 from Anthropologie, takes beautiful global textiles centre stage. Mix with colourful art and natural weaves for a boho look.
TWIST ON TRADITION
To mark its 250th anniversary, British pottery Spode has teamed up with John Lewis & Partners to launch an exclusive range of teaware designed to bring a taste of the tropics to your tea parties. Switching the rural Arcadia of its iconic Blue Italian design for exotic safari scenes, the Zoological Garden collection is alive with zebras, lions, monkeys and palms. The range also sees Spode’s signature blue and white traded in for a sophisticated monochrome, as well as pink and turquoise colourways on selected pieces. 1ltr teapot, £95.
News
EYE ON DESIGN Interior designer Kit Kemp talks about the transformation of her fabulous shepherd’s hut What was the vision for the space?
The hut had been perched in a local garden when we found it, looking a little unloved. We agreed to transport the hut to its current position in our garden where it’s shaded by silver birch trees and overlooking a little pond. I asked the local forester, John Harman, to add its characterful thatched roof and commissioned an old friend, Melissa White, to paint the walls and ceiling. I wanted to create a room that makes you feel happy – that you want to return to again and again. What was the inspiration behind the mural?
Two things I have always loved are folk art and handcrafted designs; the mural is a marriage of the two. Melissa White has a wonderful historical knowledge and has worked on some important early interiors, including the house where Shakespeare was born. We had a great time looking at old American folk art for inspiration and coming up with the designs for the hut.
cartouches which have been decorated with joyful jugs of flowers and leaping horses. Wonderfully colourful, it is finished off with a Lapis Lazuli starry sky. The sofa is upholstered in my Friendly Folk fabric from Andrew Martin and I chose Molly Mahon’s Oak linen for cushions and curtains. How does the space make you feel?
Colour makes you feel happy. When you open the door, even if the room isn’t filled with sunlight, colour can alter your mood dramatically and should never be underestimated. My shepherd’s hut is a perfect retreat to hide away and work on the next new idea, accompanied by my five dogs of course! I wrote the introduction to my new book there and I often take paper and pencils to sit at the desk and sketch ideas for a fabric, or furniture placing.
Images Simon Brown Photography
The hut has a myriad of influences – what is it about mixing styles that appeals to you?
Breaking the rules and stretching the imagination with colour and pattern is always fun. Mixing styles in surprising ways creates spaces that are memorable and makes them feel alive. Dado rails are often removed from rooms as they are seen as outdated. However, we see a dado rail as an opportunity to combine different colours, fabrics and patterns. In the hut a painted dado rail divides the panelled walls, handpainted with a mythical landscape above, featuring bright-blue waters, rolling hills and pear trees. Below are vivid red
Read more about the shepherd’s hut and get plenty of interior inspiration in Kit Kemp’s book, Design Thread (£30, Hardie Grant) Period Living 15
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Do you grow the finest dahlias in the village? Or are you the baker of the lightest Victoria sponge? Show off your produce with Emma Bridgewater’s new collection. Conjuring British summertime traditions from fêtes to picnics, this Red Gingham Ginger Beer vase, £29.95, and tea plate, £12.95, get our vote.
This June, The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh will host People & Places, a solo exhibition of watercolours and drawings by artist Emily Sutton. Based on the lively drawings from the pages of her sketchbook, the artworks capture the colourful market life and daily wanderings from Emily’s recent travels to Paris, as well as coastal scenes in Whitby close to her home in Yorkshire. Emily’s fascination for depicting people and places has been alive ever since her degree in illustration at Edinburgh College of Art; in fact, the show takes its title from the name of her very first university sketchbook. Works will be available to view and buy online, 3-27 June. (scottish-gallery.co.uk/emilysutton)
PASSION FOR PATTERN
Florence Maud Broadhurst was an Australian painter and designer (1899–1977) who created over 500 vibrant geometric and nature-inspired designs for handprinted wallpapers. Leading a life as colourful as her designs, Florence travelled the world, taking on an array of different personas: changing her name, her appearance and even her voice. Leaving her humble beginnings in the Australian outback, she became ‘Bobby Broadhurst’, a showgirl in the Far East in the 1920s. Then in the 1940s, from a salon on London’s Bond Street, she clothed the aristocracy (and even the Queen Mother) as ‘French’ couturier ‘Madame Pellier’. During the ’60s and ’70s, from her Sydney studio, she created a prolific number of wallpapers inspired by her travels up until her untimely and mysterious death. With a passion for Florence’s eclectic creations, a small UK-based team has launched the Florence Broadhurst home brand, bringing archive prints to life in fabrics, rugs and more. Right: Velvets in Shadow Floral, Japanese Floral, Pagoda, Papyrus and Octagonal Lattice and Octagonal Mini Lattice, all £115 per m.
The Real Homes Show, the online TV show from our sister brand, has had a makeover. Tune in for paint ideas for every room to amazing cleaning hacks. There are also chances to win great prizes in every episode from brands like Grohe and Rangemaster. (realhomes.com/tv) Images (top left) Marché aux Fleurs, Paris watercolour, 38x52cm, Emily Sutton, (bottom left) Photograph of Florence Broadhurst at her Sydney studio, courtesy of Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
FROM THE SKETCHBOOK
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Flutterly fabulous Feature Grace Allen
As the warm weather welcomes an array of beautiful butterflies into our gardens, from peacocks to swallowtails, celebrate the winged wonders with these colourful finds 1 Jones silver butterfly clock, £12, Dunelm; 2 Spring Romance bell jar with butterflies, £25, Paperchase; 3 Butterfly Bloom plates, £115 for 4, Wedgwood; 4 Christian Lacroix Butterfly Parade teapot, £201, Amara; 5 Butterflies small jug, £16, Sophie Allport; 6 Garden tile bowl, £14, Anthropologie; 7 Butterfly mirror, £145, Decorexi; 8 Cloud of Butterflies origami kit, £13.96, Cambridge Imprint; 9 Thistles & Butterflies writing set, £8.95, Cherith Harrison; 10 Sånglärka quilt cover and pillowcase, £22, Ikea; 11 Butterfly dressing table, £995, Bryonie Porter at Not on the High Street; 12 Matthew Williamson large English Garden candle, £140, Trouva; 13 Beaded butterfly brooch, £30, V&A Shop; 14 Butterfly collection mini print, £8, Natural History Museum Shop; 15 Exotic Butterfly Spring pillow cover, £66.57, StuckOnHue at Etsy; 16 Astier De Villatte butterfly oval platter, £180, Liberty London; 17 Indigo fine china butterfly mug, £6, M&S Period Living 19
Summer in
paradise Glistening like a precious jewel, this heavenly Grade I-listed Georgian conservatory conjures the luxury and romance of a bygone age Words and styling Pippa Blenkinsop Location and assistant styling Karen Darlow Photographs Brent Darby
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opularised in the early 19th century, during a period of great horticultural discovery, conservatories were used to cultivate and display exotic plants, but also as social spaces. During the 1700s orangeries and glasshouses tended to be separate buildings with solid roofs, but advances in the manufacture of glass and wrought iron, and developments in heating systems, meant glazed structures began to be attached to properties in the 1800s. Fusing the domestic with the magic of distant lands, they offered places for the social elite to escape to and enjoy their gardens year round. The conservatory at Penpont, added in 1828 and restored in 1996, is an exquisite survival. Akin to a delicate jewellery box or reliquary, as fine as the botanical treasures within, it boasts a timber and glazed structure of five by three bays divided by classical pilasters, and is crowned with a spectacular curved fishscale or beaver tail glazed roof. If you’re looking to bring the outdoors in, or simply a dose of visual delight, let this heavenly space sow seeds of interior inspiration and lift the soul into a botanical daydream‌
20 Period Living
Decorating EXOTIC ESCAPE Bathed in light and the sweet aromas of citrus and jasmine, this glasshouse would have been a blissful space to take afternoon tea. Today the mature climbing roses creeping in through the window, and the recent addition of Newton Paisley’s whimsical Madidi Clouds Midnight wallpaper, only serve to enhance the magical mood. Wrought-iron garden furniture and classic Lloyd Loom Henley chairs – complete with sun-bleached and time-worn patina – make for a relaxed feel amid potted palms and citrus trees. Citrus Calamondin (on table), £25, in 14cm Terracotta Lace pot, £9; citrus tree (right), £45, in 25cm Large Rosa Copenhagen pot, £20, all Burford Garden Company
A ROOM WITH A VIEW The addition of floor-to-ceiling glazed structures complete with heating allowed the aristocracy to enjoy vistas of their gardens whatever the season. Covered in an array of tropical cushions, this antique bench is the perfect spot to while away the hours. Throughout history the glasshouse has proved a rich source of inspiration for fabric brands and independent designer-makers, meaning there’s no shortage of beautiful, exotic designs to choose from. From left: Terrarium cushion in Botanical Green, £50, Sanderson; Camellia piped cushion, from £40, Susie Hetherington; Palm House cushion in Botanical Green, £50, Sanderson
Decorating
IN THE DETAIL The impressive curved glass roof was an innovation of the time that allowed for optimum light and growing conditions. Yet decorative architectural features, including the coloured glass margins and geometric floor, suggest the structure’s purpose was more than merely practical, but a space to enjoy spending time
PERFECTLY POTTED Pelargoniums, Streptocarpus, succulents and other hothouse favourites make for attractive conservatory displays when arranged in various sizes and odd numbers. Search fleamarkets for vintage terracotta pots, and for a similar plant table try Sarah Raven’s Spruce Butlers table
SITTING COMFORTABLY Introduced to the UK during the 1920s, Lloyd Loom chairs are conservatory classics. Still made today using the time-honoured technique of upholstering woven twisted paper over a wooden frame, the chairs are comfortable and lightweight. Team with Audenza’s Love Coral velvet cushion cover, £39.95
TIME FOR TEA Bring a taste of the tropics to afternoon tea with tableware inspired by flora and fauna. Try Melody Rose’s Butterflies bone china teapot, £82, and teacups and saucers, £55 each, with Mews Furnishings’ Parrot hand-block printed cotton napkins in green, £54 for four, and a mini citrus tree centrepiece (as before)
Period Living 23
A CRAZE FOR COLLECTING During the 19th century Britain became ever more captivated by the rare and exotic flora brought back by plant hunters from around the world, and the upper classes began to collect and cultivate specimens in their own glasshouses. This was in part made possible by the addition of hot-water trench heating, which is still intact here, with its decorative iron grille. The findings of botanists were often recorded by botanical artists in minute detail, many reproductions of which are available today and make fitting pieces for a nature-inspired interior, such as the Flame of the Forest wall hanging (left) by Berthe Hoola Van Nooten, from £140, The New York Botanical Garden Collection at Surface View. Cissus rhombifolia plant (top left, hanging), £20, and botanical framed print (right), from £75, both Burford Garden Company 24 Period Living
Decorating
THE PENPONT ESTATE Set on the edge of the picturesque Brecon Beacons National Park and comprising 2,000 acres, the privately owned Penpont estate is described by its owners as ‘Britain’s best-kept secret’. At the heart of the estate, just south of the River Usk, is the Grade I-listed house; dating back to the 17th century it was remodelled in the early 19th century, at which point the impressive bath stone Neoclassical entrance façade was added. Surrounding the house are listed gardens, which boast sweeping lawns, an old Victorian rose and walled garden, riverside and woodland walks, and the more recently constructed Green Man Maze. Today its large walled kitchen garden lies at the heart of its operations as a Soil Association approved organic farm. Committed to a sustainable future, the owners of the estate, Gavin and Davina Hogg, are currently working with the charity Action for Conservation on a youth-led project to re-wild 350 acres of land. If you’d like to sample the delights of Penpont, the West Courtyard Wing of the house offers self-catering accommodation for up to 15 people, or you can pitch up at the campsite. The estate is also available to hire for conferences, weddings and private events. (penpont.com)
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1 Leopard cake server, £17.95, Mint & May; 2 Morny wallpaper in Bleu Canard, £149 per roll, Manuel Canovas; 3 Hill Rise Dahlia rattan table, £279, Latzio; 4 Palm tree hand-embroidered linen napkins, £28 for 4, Sarah K; 5 Jungle Fever Birds serving mat, £25, Club Matters; 6 Faux hanging maple ball, £325, Sweetpea & Willow; 7 Orange Juice 1.3ltr jug, £84, Petra Palumbo; 8 Bordallo Pinheiro Watermelon salad bowl, £75, Liberty London; 9 Toba rattan bench, £500, Artisanti; 10 Sultan’s Garden teapot, £72, William Edwards; 11 Surabaya velvet cushion in Gold, £75, Arley House; 12 Oceana Salton tray, £25, Dar Leone; 13 Tropical Bird lithograph by C Hullmandel, from a 1955 edition of Tropical Birds by J Gould, £975 for a set of 3 assorted, Lorfords; 14 Sahara faux-rattan mirror, £18, Sainsbury’s Home; 15 Spode Zoological Gardens cup and saucer in Turquoise, £35, John Lewis & Partners Period Living 27
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Hothouse hues
Ignite the senses with a vibrant interior scheme that captures the beauty of a tropical rainforest. A cornucopia of colour, from botanical greens to flaming oranges, this palette is perfectly paired with leafy prints Styling Pippa Blenkinsop | Photograph Kasia Fiszer
Paints Opposite page: Green Wall wallpaper W7330-01, £130 per roll, Osborne & Little. Paints: 1 Aloe Vera, £29 for 2.5ltrs of Valspar Premium Blend V700 Walls & Ceilings, B&Q; 2 Botanical Green, £47 for 2.5ltrs of Active emulsion, Sanderson; 3 & 4 Duck Green and Verdigris Green, both £47.95 for 2.5ltrs of Estate emulsion, Colour by Nature collection at Farrow & Ball; 5 Antibes Green, £21.95 for 1ltr of Chalk Paint, Annie Sloan; 6 Niblock, £47.50 for 2.5ltrs of Chalky Interior matt, M&L Paints; 7 Lime Cloud, £47 for 2.5ltrs of Active emulsion, Sanderson; 8 Garden City, £42 for 2.5ltrs of matt emulsion, Fired Earth; 9 Green Verditer, £47 for 2.5ltrs of Absolute matt emulsion, Little Greene This page: Benmore wallpaper NCW4393-01, £85 per roll, Nina Campbell for Osborne & Little; Paints: 10 Hot Shot, £29 for 2.5ltrs of Valspar Premium Blend V700 Walls & Ceilings, B&Q; 11 & 12 Mulberry and Sunshine, both £23 for 0.94ltrs of Regal Select matt, Benjamin Moore; 13 & 14 Dutch Orange and Lake Red, both £47.95 for 2.5ltrs of Estate emulsion, Colour by Nature collection at Farrow & Ball; 15 Burnham Red, £38 for 2.5ltrs of emulsion, Neptune; 16 Burnt Orange, £47.50 for 2.5ltrs of Chalky Interior matt, M&L Paints; 17 Berries, £78 for 2.5ltrs of Pure & Original Classico Chalk paint, Design Studio V; 18 Lake Red, as before; 19 Rose Geranium, £29 per 2.5ltrs Valspar Premium Blend V700 Walls & Ceilings, B&Q
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HAPPY RETURNS Idyllic childhood memories of days spent outdoors in the countryside brought Melissa Jolly back home to tackle a renovation project that would involve the whole family Words Karen Darlow | Styling Pippa Blenkinsop | Photographs Kasia Fiszer
Farmhouse Renovation
Clockwise from top left: Open shelves create a relaxed, homely look in the kitchen. On the top shelf are Melissa’s pasta cutters, and a blue enamel pan found at The Old Grain Antiques; there’s plenty of space round the dining table from Home Barn, with Melissa’s grandmother’s oak carver chairs, and a bench from The Old Cinema Club topped with a Norwegian reindeer hide; garden designer Melissa keeps the house well supplied with cut flowers; glazed cupboards and dresser-style base units give a contemporary twist to the new farmhouse kitchen Opposite: Melissa designed the kitchen, with help from mum Jeanne. Builder John-William Henderson fitted the oak worktops and British Standard cabinets and Melissa painted them in Hicks Blue by Little Greene. The island is an old workbench from Home Barn, the oven is a Rangemaster, and the lamp is from Decorexi. Blinds are made in Washington Still Blue fabric from Blinds2Go Period Living 31
ntouched for 60 years, without mains water or central heating, and with chronic damp problems, the dilapidated former farmhouse would have held little appeal for most people. Melissa and Charlie Jolly, however, aren’t your average househunters. The couple are seasoned renovators and updated their five previous homes. This time they were looking for somewhere rural with plenty of outdoor space for garden designer Melissa to enjoy, and somewhere to suit the family’s changing needs as their children grew up. The couple cast their net wide in the search for the perfect project, never suspecting it would be right on their doorstep. Or, strictly speaking, on Melissa’s parents’ doorstep. ‘The farmer told my mum he was selling his father’s old farmhouse, and she booked us a viewing before even telling us about it,’ says Melissa. The house had been separated from the rest of the farm, and was up for sale with just under an acre of land. With its familiar setting surrounded by the fields Melissa had played in as a child, it seemed an opportunity too good to miss. ‘We’ve done house projects all our lives and this was a dream come true,’ says Melissa. ‘It was in a great location and had a lovely feel, plus I’d always wanted to live on a farm. Charlie and I agreed it was perfect, but wondered if it was feasible.’ In reality the house was far from perfect. It had serious damp and structural problems, and was being held up by acrow props. Melissa called on some trusted builders and a structural engineer they’d used in previous projects to get their thoughts, and managed to convince the mortgage company that the house could be habitable. From then on the renovation became a family affair. Melissa turned project manager and she, Charlie and their two children moved into her parents’ house next door. It helped greatly that her mother Jeanne is an architect and was able to draw up plans, advise on specialist builders, and be a sounding board for Melissa’s ideas on reconfiguring the higgledy-piggledy farmhouse. ‘There’s no room in this house that’s on the same level as another, so it was difficult to make it all work,’ says Melissa. ‘But first we had to get the damp under control. We worked from the top down and replaced the whole roof. We had to take 32 Period Living
the ground level down in the garden – as it was up the sides of the house, feeding water into the walls.’ ‘We had a damp report done that advised chemical injections and waterproof plaster, but I wanted to take a more holistic approach,’ says Melissa. ‘Reducing the ground levels and fixing the roof and gutters was a good start and I found out that we needed to get every bit of concrete and cement render off the walls. We employed a specialist who used lime plaster inside and out, and we used breathable woodfibre insulation. Since then we’ve had no damp issues at all.’ There were many more challenges to overcome, however. Like the day Melissa and Charlie found out that both bays at the front of the house were hanging on by a thread. ‘We had only intended to rebuild one of them, but we knew if we didn’t replace both at the same time while we had the scaffolding and roofers on site, we’d have even more expense at a later date.’ There were two equally problematic options for getting running water to the house. One was to run the supply from the nearest mains water point in the middle of a children’s charity’s outdoor play area and dig through ancient woodland. Loathe to disrupt the charity and woodland, Melissa and Charlie opted for the second option: a borehole. ‘We were told if you dig down far enough you will eventually find water. But when the contractors broke a drill bit at 60 metres, and had to reposition the drill and start all over again, we seriously began to wonder if we’d ever have running water,’ says Melissa. They got there in the end and water is now on tap, with a bio disc system to treat all waste, so only clean water goes out. This had always been a working farmhouse so there were few decorative details but rather a simple, functional style, which Melissa took as her cue when updating the décor. While the builders were working on the house, the couple spent their weekends clearing the garden, starting with one important detail. ‘On our first viewing I spied an original Crittal greenhouse, which I loved,’ says Melissa. ‘But it was right by the house wall so we took it down and rebuilt it on its brick base in another part of the garden. It would have been far easier and cheaper to buy a new greenhouse, but I’d set my heart on keeping it.’ Many things have changed for the farmhouse in the years since Melissa was growing up next door. With oil-fired central heating, it’s warm and dry at last. The barns are now offices and workshops, and instead of animals in the farmyard, office workers come and go in their cars. Yet all around the land is still farmed, and the house exudes those same special qualities of welcome and peacefulness that struck Melissa as she first stepped through the door. ‘We’re assuming we’ll live here forever. We’re definitely not planning another project,’ she says. ‘But never say never.’ From a couple who thrive on renovations, that’s as much of a commitment to staying put as you’re ever likely to get.
Farmhouse Renovation
THE STORY Owners Melissa and Charlie Jolly live here with their, son Sam, 17, daughter Amelie, 14, Jack the Jack Russell cross, and Fish the cat. Melissa is a garden designer (melissajolly.co.uk) and Charlie works in corporate finance. Property A farmhouse near Reading, Berkshire, with almost an acre of garden. The property was built in around 1780 and extended in Victorian times. Originally a six-bedroom house, it now has four bedrooms, two bathrooms and an en suite What they did The couple replaced the roof and tackled the damp issues, digging out earth that had built up against the house walls and replacing cement renders with lime plaster before radically altering the interior layout
Top right: Both bays at the front of the house were unsafe and had to be rebuilt. Michal Wolf at All Things Lime worked wonders with lime plaster inside and out, and created the decorative plasterwork above the front door Top left: Melissa and Jack in the sunny living space outside the kitchen, created when piles of earth had to be dug away from the outside walls. The lantern is from Vinegar Hill, the fire basket from Garden Trading, and the table base from Lassco, with a glass desktop from Ikea. Melissa and Charlie built the garden shed themselves with bits of wood salvaged from the house. The excavated earth helped to create a terraced area, held in place with timber sleepers, a cheaper option than building a wall Above left: When she was designing her own garden, Melissa wanted her planting to blend into the farmland beyond. ‘I didn’t want a manicured garden with neat borders and lawns,’ she says. ‘Instead I kept it natural, with a separate vegetable and herb garden.’ Above right: Melissa loves the Crittal greenhouse and moved it to a better spot away from the house Period Living 33
The living room is divided into three distinct areas: this relaxed seating space, a place for the piano, and a fun ‘bar’ area. The oak lintel above the fireplace was one of the room’s original ceiling beams. It had to be replaced with a structural steel to support a new wall upstairs. The top of the coffee table came from Lassco; the legs were handmade by a local metalworker. On the right is a sofa from Loaf, with a checked throw from So Cosy, and the grey sofa on the left is from House of Fraser, with cushions (left to right) from Grand Illusions, Vinegar Hill, Oka and Homesense. The lamp is an old family piece and the rug is from Ikea. Walls are painted in Downpipe from Farrow & Ball
Farmhouse Renovation
36 Period Living
Farmhouse Renovation
Above: Melissa says the front bay windows were later additions to the farmhouse, designed to give the façade more grandeur. They had to be rebuilt as part of the renovation. The piano in this part of the living room was Melissa’s grandmother’s. Charlie and Sam are the pianists now. The elegant French button-back sofa is from Lassco and the floor lamp is from Ikea. Walls are painted in Downpipe, as before. The Norwegian reindeer hide was a gift from Melissa’s sister; for similar try Nordic Sheepskin Above left: The original staircase was beyond repair, so a new oak replacement was fitted by carpenter Gene Walter, who did most of the woodwork in the house, including the fireplace lintels. The old baker’s trug is French, and came from Goose Vintage Home. The rug is from Vinegar Hill and the console table (just seen), which has an unusual cane basket weave top, was Melissa’s grandmother’s. The many different levels between the rooms gave Melissa and her architect mum Jeanne a few extra challenges when they were reconfiguring the layout, but Fish the cat appreciates the additional vantage points Below left: Melissa turned an old doorway alcove into a home bar – a special request from Charlie. Carpenter Gene used bits of wood salvaged from the rest of the house to create the shelving and a cupboard below for glasses. The beautiful elm-topped sideboard is from Wells Reclamation in Somerset and the unusual gallery wall was created by framing Melissa’s grandmother’s piano sheet music
Period Living 37
Above: A bathtub with a view – Melissa created a luxurious en suite for the main bedroom and sourced the cast-iron roll-top from UK Architectural Antiques. The tiles are flamed brushed granite by Mandarin Stone, and the bath and shower mixer is from Crosswater Right: Like many elsewhere in the house, the ceiling in the main bedroom was water damaged and had to be removed to add wood fibre insulation from Natural Building Technologies. ‘Each time we took a ceiling down we didn’t want to put it back, as we liked the beams and the extra height,’ says Melissa. She made the bedhead from an old church panel, found at Wells Reclamation. The chandelier is from Cox & Cox and the original floorboards have been sanded and sealed, and covered with an antique Moroccan rug from Berberouche 38 Period Living
Farmhouse Renovation
Could you be one of our 2020 winners? If you think your home or garden deserves a prize, enter Period Living’s Home and Garden of the Year awards and you could be in the running for a prize worth £1,000
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ave you recently completed a renovation, an extension project, or given your home décor a stylish update? Have you redesigned and replanted your garden? Or do you simply feel that all your work on your home or garden has finally come together and is ready to be admired? If so, Period Living would love to hear from you. We’re inviting readers to enter their completed home improvement, garden, or interior decoration projects into our awards. We can’t wait to see the schemes you’ve come up with for all kinds of period properties, large and small, and to hear their unique stories. As we launch the 2020 Home and Garden of the Year awards, we look forward to finding out all about your homes, kitchens and gardens, and to hearing about your inspirations and the work you’ve put in. For how to enter, see right.
We want to see: O Elegant townhouses and semis O Cosy cottages and terraces O Fabulous farmhouses O Characterful conversions – barns,
schools, chapels, pubs, windmills O Intriguing listed buildings O Extended homes O First-time and DIY projects O Showstopping kitchens O And gorgeous gardens 40 Period Living
The prizes Our prizewinning entries will be announced in Period Living’s January 2021 issue. One overall winner will scoop a fabulous £1,000 in John Lewis vouchers. Our first-prizewinner also receives a year’s Period Living magazine subscription for themselves and a friend, worth over £100. The garden of the year will win £500 worth of John Lewis vouchers, and a year’s subscription to Period Living, worth £50, and three further runners-up will each win a year’s subscription to Period Living, worth £50.
How to enter Enter online at realhomes.com/features/periodliving-awards and follow the instructions on the website. You will need to have the following information ready to complete your application: O Tell us in up to 500 words why you think your home should win, giving us details of how it looked before you renovated, what you’ve achieved and how you’ve gone about it. Please also tell us what period or original features you’ve successfully managed to restore or reinstate. O Make sure you include photos of all the main rooms in the house (or main areas of the garden for a garden entry) – quick snaps will do – and a photo of the exterior of the property. To enter by post write to Period Living, Future Plc, Units 1 & 2, Sugarbrook Court, Aston Road, Bromsgrove B60 3EX and we’ll send you a paper entry form. Full terms and conditions can be found at futureplc.com/competition-rules. The closing date for all entries is 5pm on Wednesday 8 July 2020.
Last year’s winners In 2019 we received some stunning entries of homes full of inspiring ideas. The standard was exceptional and showed just how much care and creativity our readers put into their projects. Tom and Jenny Williams’ family home – a renovated former laundry and dairy – scooped the top prize last year. The Grade II-listed building belonged to a hall that had been in Tom’s family for five generations. Tim and Olivia Payne were the winners in the garden category, having spent five years transforming a neglected plot into a fabulous English country garden.
Enter the Awards
THE CATEGORIES
1
Best Project
This is the category to enter if you’ve successfully negotiated your way through an extension or building project on a period home – we can’t wait to see what you’ve done and find out how the new space works alongside the original property.
2
Best Kitchen
If you’ve completed a kitchen update – whether that’s extending or just rearranging the layout and adding new cabinetry, we’d like to see the results of your hard work.
3Best Interior Style
SPONSORED BY THE RUG SELLER If you love the way the colours, patterns, furniture and furnishings have all come together in your updated home then this is the category to enter. Visit therugseller.co.uk online or in its Manchester showroom for the latest rugs, cushions, bedding, hallway runners, doormats and curtains by leading designers including Ted Baker and Calvin Klein. The Rug Seller offers free UK delivery, the lowest prices guaranteed and no-quibble returns.
Best Listed Home
4
Photographs (top) Kasia Fiszer, (bottom) Clive Nichols
SPONSORED BY THE SASH WINDOW WORKSHOP Renovating or updating a listed property brings joys and challenges. We look forward to hearing all about yours. The Sash Window Workshop specialises in manufacturing and installing high-quality, bespoke timber windows and doors which are designed to improve energy efficiency, while preserving the character of your home. For more details, visit sashwindow.com.
5Garden of the Year
SPONSORED BY BRIDGMAN If your garden is your pride and joy, we’d like to see photos of your planting schemes – whether they are cottage style, country garden or billowing borders and mellow meadows. Spend time enjoying your home and garden with Bridgman’s luxury furniture. A furniture specialist since 1977, Bridgman places distinct emphasis on providing reliable, luxurious comfort when it comes to furnishing your home. It works with award-winning designers and skilled craftsmen to create beautiful collections that are sure to impress. For more details, visit bridgman.co.uk. Period Living 41
Free Digital Books
£50 BOOK GIVEAWAY Period Living is giving away five free digital books for every reader – get yours today
W
*£50 value based on the original newsstand price
e’ve all been spending a lot more time at home lately, so to help keep you busy Period Living has put together a fantastic book giveaway for every reader. Our newsstand edition often comes with a free supplement, but we’ve had to make some temporary changes due to the current situation, so we hope you enjoy these five free books, worth more than £50*, instead. Take a look at what’s included...
Your Serenity Start living your best life today with Your Serenity, which offers inspiration and tips for a more fulfilled life. From creating a perfect home and cooking delicious food to crafting scrapbooks, becoming more mindful and much more.
Vintage Home Style Period Living Vintage Home Style is the definitive collection of period properties with beautiful, eclectic interiors. Discover 16 unique case studies, from elegant Georgian farmhouses to rustic country cottages, all lovingly restored.
The Big Book of English Gardens If you are passionate about gardening, then The Big Book of English Gardens is the perfect companion, providing garden planning inspiration, design ideas, practical tips and plant solutions, plus 16 glorious garden case studies.
Paint & Draw Collection Whether you’re an art novice with a passion for painting, or an experienced artist looking for some fresh insight, you’ll find plenty to get excited about in this guide – and there are also lots of techniques to learn from, too.
The Great British Baking Book Celebrate the best of British baking and master the nation’s favourite bakes. Each main recipe features an enticing image of the final product along with in-depth steps that will ensure you are able to recreate them with ease.
How to claim your books To receive all these fantastic digital books to read on your phone, tablet or computer for free, simply go to www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/periodlivingebooks, enter your email address and we’ll send them straight to your inbox. Period Living 43
Top left: The stunning natural backdrop to the Browns’ home and garden; the couple say they never tire of looking at the view of the valley Top right: Christine has transformed the large plot into a series of outdoor ‘rooms’, with something to catch the eye in every season, including this sizeable pond and fountain. For a similar wooden Lutyens-style bench, try Sloane & Sons Bottom left: Christine and Neville enjoy the sunny sitting area at the front of the house Bottom right: The couple have reason to believe the front door originated in a castle, one of the many unique features in this historic home
44 Period Living
Welsh Longhouse
A COLOURFUL PAST Christine and Neville Brown’s cottage in Wales has a long and fascinating history that has shaped the character of their unusual period home Words Heather Dixon | Photographs Brent Darby
The pretty Welsh longhouse is tucked away down a quiet lane in the Vale of Ffestiniog and has changed very little since it was built in the 17th century. Neville and Christine whitewashed the outside walls and painted the sash windows in Farrow & Ball’s Vert De Terre
Top left: A door within a door, believed to have come from Liverpool jail, is matched by the heavy oak studded front door Top right: Original panelling and a rough lime plastered ceiling bring character to the dining room, which is furnished with auction pieces Bottom left: The beautifully carved chest was the first thing Christine and Neville bought together when they married. Most of the furniture in the cottage is freestanding to preserve the original features and idiosyncrasies of the period property Bottom right: Christine has a huge collection of garden pots and moves them around to ensure there’s always a good display
46 Period Living
17th century cottage Welsh Longhouse This elegant sofa tucked under the staircase inspired the choice of curtain fabric. Ibiza tapestry from Just Fabrics would give a similar look. Antique console tables feature in many of the rooms, along with richly coloured vintage rugs bought at auctions
THE STORY Owners Neville and Christine Brown live here. The couple used to run a number of shops and restaurants in Harlech, but have both now retired Property A Grade II-listed, 17th-century longhouse in the Vale of Ffestiniog, near Portmeirion in Wales. The property was originally built as a farmhouse and has five bedrooms and two kitchens What they did Neville and Christine bought the house in 1994 and rewired it, updated the plumbing and redecorated so that a friend could live there. They eventually moved in themselves and made further decorative updates while preserving all the original features. They added a conservatory and converted an outbuilding to create a guest suite
Above: The elegant barrel ceiling creates a sense of space in the kitchen, where a double-oven Aga is tucked into the ancient fireplace. Original quarry tiles on the floor are a reminder of the cottage’s farming history. The table came from their daughter’s shop, Llew Glas Interiors, and the chairs came from one of Christine and Neville’s restaurants. The artwork over the Aga is by the late Peter Shaw, a Derbyshire artist Right: The dresser came from a convent originally and is now home to Christine and Neville’s extensive crockery collection. It cost £5,000 and they had to take it apart to get it into the room, then reassemble it
Welsh Longhouse
ovelist George Orwell, actor Cary Grant and the writer and journalist Arthur Koestler have all left their mark on the picturesque whitewashed cottage near Portmeirion that is now owned by Christine and Neville Brown. Their Grade II-listed home, with its quirky minstrels’ gallery, barrelled ceiling and reclaimed wooden prison door, harbours an extraordinary and varied history that makes it unique. ‘It was built in the 17th century as a farmhouse that included a dairy, cow shed and pigsty,’ says Neville. ‘It was the last farm in the country to use a dog wheel for churning butter.’ In the 1940s the Welsh longhouse was bought by a manager of the Portmeirion estate, Jim Wylie, who was working alongside architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, designer and builder of the famous Italian-style village. Wylie often invited film stars – including Cary Grant - to visit the cottage while they were staying at the Portmeirion Hotel. It is believed that Williams-Ellis’ influences extended into the cottage, where he sourced a very substantial front door believed to have come from a castle, fitted an internal door from Liverpool jail and painted the barrel ceiling bright blue with a scattering of stars. The property was later occupied by Hungarian philosopher Arthur Koestler, whose guests included George Orwell. By the time Christine and Neville bought the property in 1994, however, it was looking rather sorry for itself. It had been left to a dogs’ home and no-one had lived in it for some time. ‘It was very dank and gloomy,’ recalls Neville. ‘Whoever lived there last had a very odd taste in decor – including wrapping paper pasted round the sides of the bath.’ At that time Christine and Neville were working flat out, running a number of shops and restaurants they owned in Harlech. They spent a month having the house put to rights – rewiring, replumbing and decorating – so a friend could live there until they were finally able to move to the cottage themselves in 2003. ‘We moved when we sold our business and retired,’ says Neville. ‘We love the location. It’s
such a peaceful place to live and such a contrast to the hectic nature of our working lives.’ Their lifelong friend Ken also moved with them into the five-bedroom cottage. ‘We often joke that he came to dinner 44 years ago and never left,’ says Neville. ‘We have lots of space – including two bathrooms, two shower rooms and two kitchens and it works well for the three of us. We wanted to retain all the original features so we didn’t make any major structural changes, but we did update the décor to make the rooms lighter and warmer.’ Original features include the wonky old ceiling trusses, stone flagged and slate floors, low uneven doors, wood panelling and heavy oak beams over the fireplaces.‘We treated the beams for woodworm as a precautionary measure,’ says Neville. They also gained permission to build a conservatory, converted an outbuilding into a guest suite and whitewashed the exterior stone walls before painting all the window frames. Although they brought furniture from their previous home, Christine and Neville have also acquired many more antiques to create the informal, layered look of the cottage. Large, colourful rugs brighten most rooms, along with ceramics and paintings that they have collected over the years. The cottage has double-height rooms on either side of the hall, which is used as a sitting area, creating plenty of wall space for tapestries and pictures. There is also a large dining kitchen where the barrel ceiling generates a sense of space over the Aga. ‘We have to think quite large scale in this house because some of the rooms are very spacious,’ says Neville. ‘That’s why we bought the lovely Welsh dresser for the kitchen – although we had to virtually take it apart to get it through the doors.’ They are fortunate to have an ideal go-to place for many of their treasured items of furniture. ‘Our daughter runs a shop in Harlech called Llew Glas Interiors and we buy quite a bit from there, but we also go to auctions and salerooms,’ says Neville. ‘It’s quite an eclectic mix. We’ve had some of the sofas for decades and every so often we have them re-covered. We tend to buy furniture that will last and that has character and provenance.’ Christine is a keen gardener and has been instrumental in transforming the large garden into a series of outdoor ‘rooms’, including a rectangular pond flanked by seating and evergreen borders, a sheltered place for eating alfresco and sitting areas in the full sun to the front of the house. ‘The house and garden are constantly evolving in small, subtle ways,’ says Neville. ‘It’s a very comfortable place – cosy in winter around a roaring fire but beautiful outside when we are soaking up the sun in the middle of summer. It’s wonderful here, but we are very aware that we’re just passing through so we feel it’s our duty to look after it.’
Period Living 49
Welsh Longhouse Once a dining hall, this is now a cosy living room. The beams were treated for woodworm as a precautionary measure and left as they were originally, complete with nails and hooks. Much of the furniture, including the milking stools, came from salerooms or through Llew Glas Interiors in Harlech. The fireplace is painted Farrow & Ball Book Room Red to work with the rug, an auction buy. All of the sofas and chairs were bought over 50 years ago and have been re-covered. The stove is a Morsø Dove
Welsh Longhouse
Left: The double height of the second sitting room allows for a minstrels’ gallery over the fireplace; Neville says the Esse oil-fired stove is realistic and saves a lot of work. The armchair, covered in Emperor’s Robe fabric, was a gift. The wall is painted in Farrow & Ball’s Book Room Red. For similar window mirrors, try Oka Above: At the opposite end of the double-height sitting room, mirrors are mixed with tapestries and paintings on the high walls to reflect light around the rooms. The red sofa was bought in a junk shop and has been re-covered in velvet
Period Living 53
Top left and right: No two lines are parallel in this 17th-century Welsh longhouse and the beams crisscrossing the main bedroom ceiling highlight the property’s charming quirkiness. The curtains are from Cae Du Designs and the throw on the bed is from Laura Ashley Bottom left: There’s an oriental theme in the spare bedroom, with the bedhead upholstered in Emperor’s Robe, a vintage linen from GP & J Baker, and a Chinese-style mirror from Llew Glas Interiors. The textured white throw is from the same shop Bottom right: The en-suite bath is from B&Q, with panelling painted in Farrow & Ball’s Parma Gray. Scapa vinyl from Carpetright is a similar floor
54 Period Living
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THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS Jane and Ant Hosking transformed a tumbledown outbuilding into a charming country hideaway within reach of the stunning Cornish coastline Words Heather Dixon | Photographs Š Unique Homestays (uniquehomestays.com)
Converted Barn
Jane describes the converted barn as ‘Snow White meets surf dude’, a fusion of traditional stonework and painted weatherboarding. All the doors and woodwork are painted in Farrow & Ball’s Oval Room Blue. Local woodsman David Hearle used wood grown on the estate to make the chestnut fence and gate
THE STORY Owners Jane and Ant Hosking have owned the property for 30 years. The couple have a son Jowan, 21, and a daughter Teän, who is 17 Property A former gamekeeper and gardeners’ shed in the grounds of Colenso House in Cornwall that was used as a net shed and stable before it was turned into a holiday home, available to book through Unique Homestays What they did Restored the roof using reclaimed slates and timbers, replaced all the windows and doors, knocked down an interior wall to create a spacious open-plan living space, fitted a kitchen and bathroom, installed new electrics and plumbing and plastered all the rooms before decorating throughout
This page: Ant, a fisherman, used to use the old gamekeeper’s shed to dry out his nets before he and Jane decided to convert it into an unusual holiday cottage. There’s no shortage of beautiful outdoor space around the house, situated as it is on the edge of a wood, and not far from some of west Cornwall’s finest unspoilt beaches. Jane and Ant created a firepit surrounded by rustic benches, and a secluded alfresco dining space complete with its own pier over the stream for spotting wildlife. The couple are pictured on the old stone clapper bridge, which was once the only access to the property
60 Period Living
Converted Barn
urnt or under-baked cakes served with ash-speckled tea made on a very temperamental Cornish range were a daily delight for Jane and Ant Hosking when they bought a beautiful old house with outbuildings on the Cornish coast. The main house was still inhabited by two sisters who had lived there for 60 years despite its spartan conditions.‘There was no water, electricity or telephone line to Colenso House, and the sisters used a bucket outside for a toilet,’ recalls Jane. ‘They carried drinking water from a spring and washed their clothes in an old boiler. Shopping was brought in by wheelbarrow via a little stone access bridge and large deliveries were made by tractor. The gardens were completely overgrown.’ The sisters continued to live in the house while Jane and Ant started clearing the gardens. After months of chain-sawing and bonfires, they managed to take running water and electricity to the main house ready for its major renovation. In return, the sisters regularly invited them to tea, doing their best to serve hot brews and cakes, which were at the mercy of the unpredictable range that frequently billowed smoke. Soon afterwards, the two old ladies were offered sheltered housing nearby and Jane and Ant were able to start renovation work on the lovely stone building. Once Colenso was updated, Jane and Ant finally moved in and turned their attention to a derelict barn standing in the grounds. The barn was used over the years by a string of gamekeepers and gardeners working on the estate. At first Jane and Ant used the building as a net shed and stable. Ant is a fisherman and he wanted space to make and mend his fishing nets and pots, while Jane’s Welsh pony Tangle Belle, which the property is now named after, occupied one end of the outbuilding. Eventually Jane and Ant decided to renovate it to create a beautiful summerhouse for the family and as extra accommodation for visiting friends. ‘We wanted to use as many of the original materials as possible and were delighted to be
able to rescue some of the scantle slates for the roof, which is now restored and a work of art. We also used discarded roof slate from local houses and a church,’ says Jane. ‘The barn is built of the local Blue Elvin stone and what we couldn’t find on site we would find elsewhere, bringing it back in Ant’s old yellow post office van.’ The roof trusses came from a cargo of timber that washed up to shore when a ship ran aground near Coverack in the 1980s. All the windows and doors had to be replaced but Jane and Ant decided to retain the unusual mix of styles that had developed over the years. ‘They were all handmade locally and my favourite one is the kitchen window that has a workshop feel, with narrow vertical glazing bars that were originally designed to use up all the smaller leftover pieces of glass,’ says Jane. An old outside toilet was then taken down by local builder Richard Trewern and the bricks were used to build a three-quarter dividing wall between the kitchen and living room. ‘Tangle Belle has grown and changed with our needs over the years,’ says Jane. ‘Our inspiration has always been for it to be at one with its beautiful setting, inside and out.’ The main refurbishment took five months but that was working seven days a week and long hours every day. As well as the main building work it included new electrics and plumbing, plastering the walls and decorating from top to bottom. ‘The low point was cleaning the reclaimed bricks for the builder when it was so cold they were frozen together,’ says Jane. ‘The high point was seeing the results of the fantastic workmanship that was put in by every single person who was involved in the renovation.’ More recently, Tangle Belle has been given a major ‘refresh’ and turned into a holiday let to help it ‘earn its keep’. But Jane and Ant still use it as their own place to escape to whenever they can. ‘We started off with a fairy tale cottage in the woods and have developed the look over the years to incorporate rustic modern country life plus a little bit of French style,’ says Jane. ‘My dad has made many pieces of furniture for us and has repaired several dodgy purchases, which I have made at auctions and car boots. ‘The garden is planted with lots of camellias and rhododendrons that flourish in the woodland setting and is a really peaceful spot with the stream flowing along the bottom,’ adds Jane. ‘It is lovely to sit around the fire pit in the evenings and star gaze with the sound of the stream and owls hooting in the background.’
Period Living 61
Converted Barn
The Clearview wood-burning stove is one of Jane’s favourite purchases and takes pride of place in the sitting room, where the exposed brick of the chimney breast – created from bricks salvaged from the old outside lavatory and some of which were made on the estate – has been painted to create a coastal style. ‘Calm, light and relaxing with little bits of wow is how I wanted it to look,’ Jane says. She has furnished the space with car-boot and auction finds, including an old ammunition box that now holds kindling. The stripped, waxed wooden floor adds to the rustic style and skylights let the light flood in and frame the views of the treetops outside
Converted Barn
Above: The kitchen, with its cosy Aga, is inspired by the woodland lane view from the picture window, with natural colours and materials inside reflecting the outdoor space. The kitchen units are from Wickes and Jane and Ant fitted new doors Right: Jane loves the rustic dining table from her parents’ family home and bench from a friend who was running a stall at Rosudgeon car-boot sale, another of Jane’s favourite places for bargains. The long wooden wall shelf is made from a pine tree that grew in the nearby woods. Many of the rugs and pots in the house are from a shop in Penryn, called Just Delights
Above: The main bedroom was once Tangle Belle’s stable and the stable doors are now French doors to the garden. ‘It has a calm and soothing feel with a pale painted boarded ceiling and simple wooden furniture, all from car-boot sales or auctions,’ says Jane. The sheepskin rugs are from the Rare Breed Sheepskin Co Right and far right: The bathroom is lit by two skylights. The Oval Room Blue cast-iron bath is from Victorian Plumbing and the vintage-style floor tiles are from Topps Tiles Below: A pair of vintage sleigh beds from Jane’s childhood home add a hint of ‘Goldilocks’ appeal to the guest room, where colours and materials were chosen to reflect the rural environment. Stripped floorboards, natural linen, jute rugs, and cushions and throws from M&S and Dunelm, add colour and texture
Pable Picasso ‘Visage au Nex Noir’, Terre de faïence pitcher, 1969, sold for £62,500
ap
tment n i o For those of you p missing your visits to
A royal
galleries, exhibitions and historic properties, there’s good news – you can get instant access to hundreds of works of art from the comfort of your own home with the Royal Collection Trust’s digital archives. Virtual visitors can browse more than 250,000 works of art from the Royal Collection online, enjoy 360-degree tours of palaces and exhibitions, download fun family activities, watch behind-thescenes films and more. Highlights include a virtual tour of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace, film footage on the conservation of Queen Victoria’s throne, and free downloadable publications, including the beautifully illustrated Maria Merian’s Butterflies. (rct.uk)
Pablo Picasso ‘Tête de Femme Couronnée de Fleurs’, Terre de faïence pitcher, 1954, sold for £68,750
ANTIQUES journal
Feature Alice Roberton Images (Picasso ceramics) Sotheby’s (top right) Conservation work is undertaken on Queen Victoria’s throne, 1837, Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020 (right) assorted tins from Michael Saffell’s private collection, Alice Roberton
News from the antiques and vintage world, from fairs to collectors’ stories
UNDER THE HAMMER Embracing the beauty of the French Riviera, Picasso created vibrant, cheerful ceramics inspired by his surroundings in sunny Vallauris. Earlier this year, the Sotheby’s sale Picasso Ceramics: Colours of the Côte d’Azur offered an important single-owner collection of his most colourful and innovative designs. With low estimates starting at £500, the sale offered a ceramic for every Picasso enthusiast, from the first-time buyer to the seasoned collector. Testament to his popularity, 100 per cent of the lots sold at a price range of £1,125 – £68,750. ‘There is an original work of art by Picasso available for almost any price point and many ceramics are at the lower end of the spectrum, which is undoubtedly appealing,’ says Séverine Nackers, senior director and head of prints at Sotheby’s, Europe. ‘Collectors are Pablo Picasso drawn to these ‘Tête de Faune’, works because Terre de faïence each piece is dish, 1948, sold for £37,500 so distinctly recognisable as “a Picasso”.’
Assorted pieces from Michael Saffell’s tin collection
MEET THE COLLECTOR Michael Saffell What I collect Tins – containers originally made to hold anything from biscuits, confectionery, tea and coffee to tobacco, cigarettes and ointments. Almost anything could be packaged in a tin. I have a personal collection, which consists of pieces from the 1880s to World War II, but I also deal in tins from my shop in Bath, where I stock pieces from the 1870s up to the 1960s. The first decorative biscuit tin is reckoned to date from 1868. Various decorative techniques were used, including direct, transfer and litho printing, as well as embossing to give texture and depth. Why I collect I find tins to be attractive decorative items in their own right, but they hold added interest for me as pieces of social history. Popular subjects depicted were the arts, nursery rhymes, poems, travel, the seasons and the British Empire – a hugely popular theme. Some also commemorated historic events.
How I collect I buy from markets, antiques fairs, shops and from other collectors. I’ve occasionally bought back a tin I originally sold 20 or 25 years ago! Including small tins, like those for gramophone needles, I have around 250. My collection highlight A Carrs’ biscuit tin made to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 (below). It celebrates the technological advances of her reign and reads ‘Travelling in ye Good Old Days’ and ‘Travelling in 1897’. It also has wonderful images of a horse-drawn carriage, steam travel, electrical telegraph and the Canadian Pacific Railway.
ets new e m
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When she’s not d hunting out treasures for
Antique Aubusson trim cushions (top) £150, (bottom) £280 for 2; (left) Toile de Nantes Le Karatoes cushion, £120
her antiques shop in Tetbury, Chloe Cyphus, proprietor of Chloe Antiques, makes the most beautiful cushions using antique textiles and trims. Dating largely to the 19th century, favourite fabrics include toile de Jouy, Italian Fortuny and French Aubusson. Made as singles or pairs using a combination of hand and machine stitch, the cushions come filled with luxurious new plump feather pads. (chloeantiques.com)
TALKING SHOP Set in charming Hay-on-Wye, family-run Llewelyn & Company is a box of decorative antique delights. The shop is the love, life and passion of John and Anna Llewelyn Funnell, who offer a warm welcome alongside beautiful time-worn treasures. Shop for French country furniture, stoneware, enamel pitchers, pretty garden furniture, linens and vintage toys. (llewelynandcompany.com)
FUN OF THE FAIR Arthur Swallow Fairs is adding a new venue to its popular summer season of boutique shopping events. The Decorative Home & Salvage Show at Beale Park is currently planned to take place from 19–21 June just outside Pangbourne, Berkshire. Set in a meadow by the River Thames, the event makes light work of buying for the home and garden from a roster of exhibitors selling from beautifully styled stands. For more inspiration, try one of the creative, hands-on workshops taking place on the Saturday. Entry from £7.50. (asfairs.com)
BOOK SHELF Compiled by the world-renowned antiques expert Judith Miller, Miller’s Antiques Handbook and Price Guide (£35, Mitchell Beazley) is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a fully refreshed 2020–2021 edition featuring new and comprehensive information on more than 8,000 antiques, from furniture and ceramics to objets de vertu and textiles, and everything in-between. As the essential and trusted guide to the antiques market, the book comes with the following advice from Judith: ‘Don’t buy an investment, buy something you love.’ READER OFFER Period Living readers can get the book for the reduced price of £23 including UK P&P. To order call 01235 759555 and quote the code ‘9952100044’*
Burr elm Windsor chair, likely Cornish, c.1810
Continuous arm Yealmpton chair, Devon, c.1820
West Country combback Windsor chair, Cornish, c.1780
70 Period Living
Iconic country classics, Windsor chairs were originally utilitarian pieces of furniture primitively made in the UK by village craftsmen from native woods such as elm, ash, oak, beech and yew. Typically they comprise a solid slab seat shaped to comfortably accommodate the derrière, to which a stick-back backrest and sturdy arms are attached above with four legs morticed into the underside. It’s not clear when the first Windsor chairs were made, however they were first written about in the early 1700s. The exact origin of their name is also something of a mystery, with some sources stating it was acquired from the town of Windsor due to it being a ‘distribution hub’ of early Thames Valley production. Throughout the second half of the 18th century, chair makers refined their designs for the upper classes, and the early 19th century saw regional design variations, with English towns like High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, Yealmpton in Devon and Mendlesham in Suffolk becoming centres for production. For those serious about buying an early original piece, it’s important to get to know how early Windsors look and feel by visiting a specialist dealer or good auction house. Honest original repairs can add valuable character, so don’t be put off by these. Windsors are available for around £100 for the more common ‘grandfather’ or ‘wheel-back’ chairs, to thousands for rarer examples, like those made from yew or with their original paint. Around £500 to £1,500 will buy a nice piece.
* Code valid from 22 April 2020 to 31 May 2020. Images (Windsor chairs) Cunningham Whites cwantiques.co.uk, expert advice courtesy of Cunningham Whites and Tim Bowen Antiques
IN FOCUS WINDSOR CHAIRS
W L O A R T E
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Antiques Roadshow specialist Marc Allum looks at the history of metalworking and blacksmithing, and the collectors’ market for antique architectural wrought iron
W
orking with metal fascinates me. I grew up with my father’s well-resourced workshop and unlimited access to an industrial lathe, which very fortuitously gave me an early grounding in the practical side of machine-shop practices and construction. As a result, I advanced through my teens undaunted by the idea of welding, turning, patinating and general metalwork repairs. I have always been captivated by the craft of a blacksmith and have – on a few occasions – had the joy of spending time in a smithy; it’s quite humbling to witness a skilled blacksmith at work. Historically, humans have worked metal for millennia. More malleable metals were first utilised as long ago as eight thousand years, with copper, gold and silver easily hammered into other forms. More advanced methods of metalworking evolved in the Chalcolithic period and Bronze Age, when 72 Period Living
smelting, casting, riveting and forging subsequently developed with the appearance of alloys, such as bronze (tin and copper). Of course, ‘blacksmiths’ predominantly work with iron, and the Iron Age, which superseded the Bronze Age, was technically a very important advance in metallurgical terms, spanning slightly different periods in history – depending on culturally where iron working was evolving. For instance, meteorite iron was highly prized by the ancient Egyptians and Tutankhamun’s dagger, made of this extra-terrestrial metal, was actually made in the Bronze Age. However, the skill of its construction obviously shows that Egyptian ‘smiths’ were well versed in working iron. The end of the Iron Age, though, is generally taken to come at the beginning of the historiographical record, at around 500BC. Iron, and later steel – iron with carbon added – are therefore essentially one of the most significant developments in human
Antiques
Clockwise from opposite: A wrought- and cast-iron church chancel screen, c.1870, Lassco; ornate scrolled panels, English Salvage; French wrought-iron gate, Hand of Glory Antiques; 20th-century lanterns, Lassco
history, and their physical legacy is an important resource to historians and collectors alike.
Photographs © English Salvage, Lassco, Hand of Glory Antiques
IN LEAGUE WITH THE DEVIL A blacksmith was historically key to most communities. The importance of such craftsmen is emphasised in key mythological figures such as Hephaestus or Vulcan, the blacksmith of the gods in Greek and Roman mythology, or Wayland, the Smith from German and Norse mythology. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, and throughout the medieval period, the village smithy would have produced almost every type of tool and fixing required, ranging from chains to axes, nails, cooking utensils, decorative items and even weapons and armour, although specialist divisions of such production might have been carried out by farriers, armourers and wheelwrights. Such craftsmen were obviously appreciated, but they were also regarded with suspicion, particularly in the medieval period, where their skills working with fire put them closer to the Devil than to God. It was customary for a smith to leave his tools arranged in a cross on the anvil at the end of the day, a custom that is still followed by some today.
SKILL SET The technicalities of working metal for architectural purposes are complicated and it’s also important to make the distinction between items that are cast rather than forged. For instance, iron umbrella stands and decorative Regency balcony panels might well be cast iron. It’s brittle and can be broken with a hammer. What we call ‘wrought iron’ today, is actually mild-steel. Wrought iron had largely fallen out of use by the 1860s – due to technical advances in steel production – but up until that period, most items were forged from wrought iron, which has a distinctive marbled or wood-grain like effect. Many major museums house superlative collections of iron and steel from over the centuries. However, iron is regarded by many as a base product and is often under-appreciated, yet it takes highly skilled artisans to produce fine steel caskets, window grilles, roasting spits, Period Living 73
lanterns and balustrades. Of course, there are many astonishingly good examples of metalwork gracing palaces and stately homes around the world. A fine example is the Edney Gates at Tredegar House, near Newport. Made between 1714-18 by William and Simon Edney of Bristol, they are a magnificent example of wrought ironwork from two of the finest gatesmiths of the period.
WHAT TO BUY It is not unusual, when viewing auctions and searching through antiques centres, to come across all manner of blacksmith-made wrought-iron items – many at salerooms with low catalogue values attached. Garden furniture is one such area, and can range from the distinctive cross and elliptical-backed benches of the Regency period, to pergolas, planters, circular tree benches, railings and gates. Other items can be a bit more esoteric, 74 Period Living
LIGHTEN UP The lighting market is traditionally a commercially strong area, too, and decorative wrought-iron lighting currently commands sturdy values. Continental pieces, which commonly feature fancy cage designs with glass drops and typical ‘leaf’ motifs, can range in the hundreds at auction. Novelty examples, such as lights in the form of clocks or galleons, carry large premiums, too. Good blacksmith-made period vernacular pieces can also be very desirable. Personally, I am a big advocate of reutilising items in untypical circumstances. This works well with wrought iron and it’s not at all uncommon to see 19th-century animal feeders repurposed as planters, or carriage and cart fittings used to make kitchen fittings. Visits to France have produced some gems over the years, where wrought-iron ecclesiastical and agricultural metalwork and ‘château’ cast-offs of ornamental gates, balcony balustrades and architectural elements are more common than in this country. Bringing architectural items indoors has also proven popular and wall-mounted decorative ironwork can look stunning in an interior. However, they often come at a cost and the ability to repair can also be a valuable asset when negotiating or assessing value. Blacksmiths and good metalworkers might be skilled, but that skill set and ability to restore can often come at considerable cost – and rightly so. So the next time you are viewing an auction and you pass over a rusty-looking garden gate, perhaps think again. It might well be an early-19th-century hand-wrought piece and worth two or three hundred pounds.
Photographs © English Salvage, Lassco, Hand of Glory Antiques
Clockwise from top left: Wrought-iron gates with verdigris patina, Hand of Glory Antiques; reclaimed iron panels from France, English Salvage; an early Victorian wrought-iron garden bench from a former priory, Lassco
such as lark spits, rush holders (lights), religious items, game hooks, wine safes, bottle racks and fire screens set with tiles. Production of such items increased enormously in the 19th century with the introduction of mechanised processes. Parks and public institutions saw an influx of furniture and fixtures in the form of benches with their typical scrolled end supports, gates, bandstands and railings. I’ve bought many items such as benches over the years but often had to replace parts due to corrosion. Of course, many have perished through neglect but the market is always strong for period items and many are worth repairing. Local blacksmiths often come into their own in such circumstances and although mechanisation did produce a universal affordability and uniformity in such items, it’s the joy of the locally commissioned blacksmith that invariably produces something unique and more desirable. However, don’t expect to run away with items just because they bear cheap estimates; competition is often fierce. If you are unsuccessful at auction you will have to explore the retail market, and major architectural salvage dealers such as English Salvage, Lassco or Robert Mills, carry good stocks of benches and architectural ironwork.
The
RESTORERS At Holkham Forge in Norfolk, the skilled blacksmiths carefully revive heritage metalwork using ancient techniques and tools Words Rachel Crow | Photographs Jeremy Phillips Above, left to right: The blacksmiths’ fire uses sieved and washed coke – the consistency in the grain size helps to deliver a consistency of heat; using traditional techniques, hot metal is hammered into shape at the old Victorian anvil; this fire bull, one of a pair, was a commission to match an original antique set from Spain
S
erved by generations of blacksmiths, the coke fires still burn daily in this 19th-century forge, found on a country estate on the Norfolk coast. Holkham Forge co-founders, James Spedding and Roger Foyster, use age-old, traditional smithing practices to restore and conserve antique metalwork, as well as produce contemporary pieces and bespoke commissions. From large country house gates or weather vanes, to old and worn door hinges or porch lanterns, all manner of heritage metalwork can be sensitively revived or replicated through their ways of working that aim to carefully bridge ancient and modern. Originally from a background in IT, James spent years as a traditional journeyman, learning from blacksmiths along the North-East coast, Ireland and Scotland, until he set up the Holkham Forge with Roger 12 years ago. Here he gives an insight into the restoration of heritage items. How much of your work at the forge involves restoring antique ironwork?
Quite a significant proportion of our work involves restoration or conservation, as we have a reputation for it. Increasingly people value their heritage ironwork because of its scarcity and rarity. 76 Period Living
They want to repair it and retain that continuity, valuing the connection it has with their house and wanting to pass it on to the next generation. We never know what sort of projects we might get. We’ve worked on restoring the stained-glass leaded windows and huge angelic weathervane of the 1930s Art Deco Anglican Shrine in Walsingham; gates for Victorian rectories; pieces of sculpture; to old iron door latches and cast-iron fireplaces. What specific considerations are there when working on heritage metalwork?
You never know what state an item is in until you have removed the paint or rust and can see the damage underneath. It might have been repaired in the past on a budget, or by someone without the skills or access to the necessary equipment. The more you look at it, the more interesting it becomes – it takes an amount of time to understand a piece: Why has it been made like that? How did they make it? Why has it been fixed as it has? You can then begin to decipher its story a little. What does this type of work involve?
There are broadly two categories when working with historic metalwork. With conservation,
Antiques
Roger at the original double hearth, which remains at the heart of the forge. In times past the space behind it would have been filled by the bellows. A rail of old tongs skirts the huge water and coke vats in front of the fire
Period Living 77
difference between the two. There is also an element of experimenting with the processes to understand the way a piece was made in order for the replacement elements to match with the original. What stock did they start with – a bar or a sheet of metal? If you use the wrong starting material, you can never achieve the same end result, so you have to trial different processes until you are sufficiently close to the original. All of this is revealed beneath the paint or rust. How much – if at all – does the work differ to creating new pieces of hand-forged metalwork?
Above: A key element of the forge’s work is the restoration of heritage ironwork. A broken cast-iron gatepost bought at a reclamation yard has been brought in by a customer for welding and repair. ‘The first phase is to get it functioning structurally and decoratively,’ says James. ‘Then to build a gate to suit the gatepost’
78 Period Living
perhaps due to budgetary constraints, we are looking to just stabilise the piece and stop any further degradation – almost freeze it in its story, but still showing the history of its use and what has happened to it over time. With restoration, though, we will look to take out almost all of the degraded elements and replace them with pieces that, as far as possible, restore it to its original state. It depends on the item in question, the budget available, as well as where it will be located and how much it will be used, as to the route taken. What complexities or difficulties can it entail?
We can never tell how long a job will take or how much it will cost until the layers of paint, built up over the years, have been professionally removed. There are considerations of how to attach metals or replace something that’s not made anymore – whether you can use a modern equivalent and how you replace and join in elements, welding them to look like they are part of the whole and not obviously added later. You have to be sensitive to the piece – allowing it to dictate, along with the customer, how far to go in trying to restore it. Wrought iron is very rare now and only generally used on Grade I-listed properties, such as cathedrals, or on items that are historically significant enough to warrant its use. It’s been replaced with mild steel, which has a different composition, does not withstand corrosion as well, and works differently, so is forged at different temperatures. However, the process of making a scrolled leaf, for example, is the same whether it’s made out of wrought iron or mild steel, and it would be difficult to the untrained eye to tell the
Fundamentally the process of blacksmithing has not changed since it developed thousands of years ago. Stylistically there might be differences – but forging, bending, tapering, punching, welding, finishing and all of the various processes haven’t changed a lot, so the skills are transferable whether you are restoring something from the 20th century or the 18th century. The techniques of joining are now different; whereas once things may have been riveted, fixed with screws and bolts, or forged together, now they may be welded. We may use machinery for certain processes, such as a plasma cutter or a bandsaw, rather than doing everything by hand. When you are restoring antique pieces, though, you will mostly have to do it in the same way as it was done originally – chisel the shape of a leaf out of a hot sheet of metal, for example – to create the same marks, texture and form that hand-making produces. It would look out of place if machined as it would lack the light that you put into it and the impressions left by hitting the steel with a hammer on the anvil. Have the tools of your trade altered much?
We can now use pneumatic hammers, hydraulic presses or bits of machinery – so one person can forge an item rather than needing a team working on it as it was so physically demanding. These tools are still moving metal in the same way – just with less huffing and puffing from us! We as humans are constantly pushing against the boundaries of technology to see how quickly we can do something, but there are still the hand tools used now that would have been used in forges in medieval times. Why do you think it is important to retain these skills?
When you get a piece of heritage metalwork that may have 200 years of wear and tear, it is only by following the same processes originally used to make it, that you can restore it to how it looked. You can’t replicate that with modern techniques, which is why it is so important to retain traditional skills. It’s up to the owners and custodians of these items to invest in preserving them. To find out more about the work of Holkham Forge call 07881 632257 or visit holkhamforge.co.uk
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Making simple but effective changes to your grounds could deter criminals
W
ith rural crime at a sevenyear high, it’s understandable that many homeowners want to take steps to secure their properties. It can, however, be a struggle to make security enhancements to a period home that are in-keeping with its architecture and style – especially if it is listed – as well as complying with any regulatory requirements. However, there are some very simple yet effective changes that you can make to your grounds which could deter criminals.
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hiding, but taller at the rear and sides (ideally a minimum of 1.8m) to prevent easy access. O ADD A TRELLIS OR FINIALS to fencing to make it more difficult to climb. O
REMOVE EASY CLIMBING PLATFORMS
which can be provided by branches, benches, or even wheelie bins. O GRAVEL DRIVEWAYS AND PATHS are a low-tech but effective way of deterring criminals, by preventing them from being able to make a silent approach. O PLANT
SPIKEY AND THORNY PLANTS
such as a pyracantha. While they add to the visual appeal of your garden, they also deter burglars when positioned at key entry and exit points. You can also
train the plant to grow along a wall, to make it harder to climb. O SECURE
STATUES OR ORNAMENTS
with higher values to the ground using stainless-steel bolts and fixings. O INSTALL
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illumination, which helps to prevent intruders from approaching unobserved. Choose elegant designs which also add decorative interest to your garden. NFU Mutual draws on over 100 years’ experience to offer NFU Mutual Bespoke home insurance for high-value homes. To find out more information visit nfumutual.co.uk/bespoke.
The National Farmers Union Mutual Insurance Society Limited (No 111982). Registered in England. Registered office: Tiddington Road, Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire CV37 7BJ.
Period Living 79
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In recent years, provenance has become increasingly important to homeowners. From clothing to cabinetry, the desire to buy British goods has seen artisan companies go from strength to strength. Based in the Cotswolds, new kitchen manufacturer Hush Kitchens unites the craftsmanship of handmade with state-of-the-art processes, to transform ethically sourced FSC timber into beautiful bespoke kitchens. Hush also sources materials locally where possible to lower environmental impact.
Shaker-style kitchen in Westonbirt, from £12,000
HOUSE journal
Discover the latest products to improve your period home and pick up top tips from industry experts METALLIC HIGHLIGHTS With its characterful patina, copper exudes warmth and charm, making it perfect for period homes. In celebration of the iconic material, Jim Lawrence’s latest Heritage Copper range sees copper fixings, which have been treated with an antiquing solution to create a subtly aged appearance, suspended in a translucent hand-blown shade, designed to highlight the very best of the metal’s details. The Ava pendant (left) costs £158.
DOUBLING UP
Following Drummonds’ launch of its single Buttermere vanity unit last year, the elegant console now has twice as much impact. Adding an opulent touch to any style of bathroom, the twin, fine-china bow-front basins have a generous width of 132cm, and are paired with dainty cast-brass tapered legs, which are available in nine different finishes. The Buttermere double vanity starts at £3,540.
ALL THE FRILLS While you may dream about decorating your kitchen or bathroom with authentic antique tiles, the reality is that sourcing them is often time-consuming and costly. However, Devol’s new Lace Market range offers a solution. Made using its antique press, the clay forms are imprinted using vintage lace remnants and garments to unveil gorgeous reliefs of repeating patterns and trims. Available in three colours – Vintage Teal, Rose and Sepia – the tiles have been finished to replicate the delicately worn look of antique designs. Available in a range of patterned prints with co-ordinating plain tiles, prices start at £5 each for plain and £10 for patterned. Period Living 81
ASK THE EXPERT Douglas Kent, technical and research director at the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), answers your queries
Q
INTO THE BLUE
Tranquil shades are all the rage at the moment and the trend continues into the kitchen with Everhot’s latest Dusky Blue range cooker. The understated colour has a timeless charm that would work as well in a cottage kitchen as it would a Victorian semi. Everhot’s electric ranges are also praised for their efficiency, being well suited to running off renewable energy sources, from solar panels to water turbines, as well as mains electricity. Prices start at £6,770 for the Everhot 90 in Dusky Blue.
FETCH THE ENGINES We are all looking to make more sustainable choices, and to meet the demand designers are coming up with ever more ingenious ideas. Renowned kitchen company British Standard has joined forces with ethical luxury designer, Elvis & Kresse, to create a new range of cupboard door handles and drawer pulls made from old fire-hoses that have been saved from landfill. The deep red handles will add a splash of colour and industrial chic to your design, while helping you to do your bit for the planet. The collection is available to order online, from £37 for a loop handle. 82 Period Living
Q
Do you have any tips for refreshing limewashed walls? Give the walls a good brush first to remove loose and flaking material, dirt and debris. Then, scrub and sponge the walls with warm water before redecorating them with limewash. Steer clear of modern paints.
Q
We have a ‘butterfly roof’ with slates that have been coated in bitumen. I understand that this is not recommended – can it be removed? It is inadvisable to cover roofing slates with bitumen – a practice known as Turnersing – as it can promote condensation and lead to the decay of the underlying structural timbers as well as the battens on which the slates lie. It also makes it impossible to reuse any of the slates when the time comes to renew the roof covering. However, there is no practical way of removing the bitumen other than replacing all the slates. So, unless you currently suffer from condensation or rainwater penetration, I would suggest you live with it as it is, but keep an eye on it for early signs of deterioration. You can extend its life by patching minor leaks with a similar bitumen product. If you have a question for Douglas, email it to periodliving@futurenet.com*
Feature Holly Reaney *We do our best to answer all queries, but cannot guarantee a response
TREAD THE BOARDS Inspired by the exquisite floors of Italy, Havwoods has added nine new engineered wood flooring designs to its Italian collection. Crafted from European oak, the range is comprised of small, narrow planks, which enable the floor to be laid in intricate herringbone or chevron patterns as well as conventional plank designs. The new styles offer lighter, more neutral finishes, and can be laid in one shade or mixed to create a multi-toned design. From £46.74 per m2.
Can our council insist that we use a conservation-accredited surveyor for our building application? No, your local planning authority cannot insist on a conservation-accredited building surveyor. However, it is advisable to appoint one of the small proportion of architects or building surveyors who have undertaken additional training specifically focused on working with older buildings. They will possess a relevant postgraduate diploma and have undergone a scholarship programme run by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. You can obtain the names of specialists by consulting one of the recognised lists of peer-vetted, accredited professionals.
Advertorial
Authentic design Over 170 years ago, Crittall pioneered its signature steel window frames. Today, they are just as popular as they were when they were first created
L
ook at the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge and Coventry Cathedral and you’ll see Crittall’s iconic window products. Throughout the early 20th century, its eponymous steel-frame windows became icons of Art Deco and Modernist architecture. Combining century-old techniques with traditional craftsmanship, the company continues to make virtually maintenance-free steel-frame windows, doors and internal screens today – all designed to last a lifetime. Although the original designs have been modified over the years, Crittall products remain ever popular as they complement all building styles, from historic renovations to listed homes and contemporary properties. To explore Crittall’s full range, visit crittall-windows.co.uk.
Crittall’s iconic windows, screens and doors suit a wide variety of homes
Shopping
French mono doublehandle monobloc mixer tap, £99.99, Wayfair Tinkisso tap in satin gold, £99.99, Dowsing & Reynolds
Sherrard chrome-effect tap, £78, GoodHome Kitchens at B&Q
Elan Vital wall-mounted articulated kitchen spout with hydro progressive mixer in brushed brass, from £2,264, The Watermark Collection
Mayan aged brass cross-head taps, £360, Perrin & Rowe for Devol
KEEP IT CLEAN The humble kitchen tap is in constant use, so choose one that’s ergonomic, practical and looks the part in a period home
Vicus twin-lever tap in brushed copper, from £199, Blanco
Regan monobloc mixer tap in chrome, £139, Wickes
Feature Sophie Warren-Smith
Raw brass mixer tap with wheel design, £435, The French House
Deck-mounted Ionian tap in chrome with porcelain lever handles, £484, Perrin & Rowe
Bayenne monobloc tap in Century Copper, from £508, Abode
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Shutters and Blinds
DRESS TO IMPRESS Streamlined yet chic, shutters and blinds are practical and versatile window treatments, available in a wide range of beautiful options
Feature Sarah Warwick
SPACE SAVER When you need to position furniture beneath a window, opting for a Roman blind rather than floor-length curtains can make room without sacrificing the decorative appeal of pleats of fabric. Designed by Clarissa Hulse, this made-to-measure Ombre Fuchsia Roman blind, from ÂŁ31.15 for H40xW41cm at Blinds2go, adds further decorative interest with beautiful colour that shades from light at the top to richer at the bottom.
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SHUTTER SELECTION O Shutters may be solid, or
have slats or louvres. Solid shutters provide good light exclusion and insulation, and can be an authentic choice for many period homes. Slatted shutters allow adjustment to manage light and privacy. O Full-height shutters cover the whole window. They can be either single hinged panels or, for large windows, can concertina open. O Tier-on-tier shutters cover the whole window but have separate upper and lower panels that can be opened independently of one another, allowing, for example, light in from the top of the window while the lower panels keep the room private. O Café-style shutters dress just the lower part of the window for privacy, and allow light in constantly at the top of the window.
STAY SNUG Solid shutters like these from Shutterly Fabulous, priced from £299 per m2 , can provide heat insulation for original single-glazed windows. They’re also a very good choice for both adults’ and children’s bedrooms, as they can block out light effectively to prevent early sunrises, long days, or street lights disturbing sleep. Also consider solid shutters if you’re disturbed by noise outside, as they can help to keep the interior of your home more peaceful.
BLIND OPTIONS O Made from fabric that
folds into large horizontal pleats when the blind is pulled open, Roman blinds appear softer and more dressy than other types and make a neat alternative to curtains in bedrooms and living spaces. O Roll-up or Swedish blinds are a charming option made from two fabrics; the windowfacing fabric can be seen in the interior as the blind is rolled up. O Most often used in spaces like kitchens and bathrooms, roller blinds are a hard-wearing and streamlined option. O For subtle light and privacy control, slatted Venetian blinds work well, with wooden versions offering a natural finish. O Special blind options can offer features such as heat retention and shading, or fine light and privacy adjustment. O Some types of blinds have the option of blackout versions or blackout linings, which are useful for bedrooms where light control is a priority. 88 Period Living
BATHING BEAUTY In a splash-free grown-up bathroom you can keep the look elegant with a Roman blind at the window rather than a plainer, more functional treatment. Roman blinds bring softness to the scheme when made using patterned fabric, like this Kahanu linen in Rose, £74.90 per m at Linwood, which enhances the relaxing atmosphere of the bathroom.
Shutters and Blinds STEP OUTSIDE Left: Shutters can be made for French windows as well as casements and sashes, and will ensure there’s a cosy atmosphere in the interior when night falls. For a room that links directly to the garden, they’re a practical choice as they’re easy to clean if any mud is transferred onto them. These bespoke Richmond shutters are priced from £499 per m2, including measuring and fitting, at Hillarys. PERFECT PAIRING Right: Grander windows look fabulous dressed with both curtains and blinds, but too much pattern at one window can be overwhelming. Here, the bold floral of the Roman blind is teamed with an understated herringbone for curtains – using the same tonal palette pulls the look together. Blind made in Mirren in Blush; curtains made in Herringbone in Auburn, both £35 per m from the Croft collection at John Lewis & Partners.
WIDE OPEN A room that’s north facing or overshadowed needs a window treatment that allows in plenty of daylight. Roller blinds are an ideal solution as when rolled up to the top of the window recess, the maximum amount of glazing is exposed. This blind is made in Saplings Silverleaf, from £57.74 for H60xW60cm from the Illumin8 Blinds and MissPrint collection at Ashley Wilde. If there’s sufficient height above the window, keep glazing completely clear by hanging the blind above the recess.
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Shutters and Blinds
HERITAGE TWIST Above: A roll-up (or Swedish) blind can be a pretty treatment for the window of a country-style kitchen. This version is made from Lemon Tree Embroidery, £115 per m from the Melsetter collection at Morris & Co. Roll-up blinds have handmade style, and are easy to sew yourself if you want to. Pick a contrasting second fabric in a pattern or plain, which will be displayed as the blind is rolled up. FINE ADJUSTMENT Left: A day and night blind can provide precise modification of light and privacy. This Plissé Day and Night design, £816 for H220x W150cm at Luxaflex UK, has two fabrics on one headrail to create the delicate adjustment. One is translucent to allow in light, and the other room darkening – you can use one or the other or a mixture of both. The blind is cordless and can be moved by hand.
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LIGHT AND SHADE Left: For a conservatory, choose blinds to prevent the glare that makes using it uncomfortable, and reading or screen viewing impossible on sunny days. These Pure pinoleum blinds for windows and roof, made bespoke by Conservatory Blinds Ltd, create soft dappled shade while maintaining the space’s natural light. They’re available in a range of colours, including Farrow & Ball paint shades. Price on application. WARM NOTE Right: Coloured shutters will add an eye-catching accent to a room scheme that can be echoed in other soft furnishings. These custom designs, from £672 per m2 including design consultation and installation, at Thomas Sanderson, are tier-on-tier shutters that allow the upper and lower section of the bay window to be open or covered as required. TAKE CONTROL Below: Both light shielding and privacy can be achieved for unusually shaped windows with shutters, and they can be made to fit both sizeable and small versions. For large or hard-to-reach windows, consider an automated design. These are operated by a remote control for opening, closing and precise adjustment of the slats, and they can be matched to Farrow & Ball or Dulux colours. Price on request at Just Shutters.
CROP COMPANIONS
WHAT: Borage with strawberries WHY: Strawberry plants have numerous pests
that can afflict them, but planting borage alongside can deter many of these. A culinary herb with clusters of sky-blue edible flowers and cucumber-tasting hairy leaves, borage is a powerful pollinator, bringing predatory insects – such as wasps – to the strawberries to help defend them, and is also believed to enhance the flavour of its companion fruit. PLANTING: Borage likes rich, well-drained soil in a sheltered, sunny position. Sow two or three seeds together direct onto the ground from late spring, and in late summer for a bloom in autumn. Deadhead to extend the flowering period. It will happily self-seed and grows up to 100cm tall and 60 cm wide.
- GARDEN TREASURES BORDE HILL GARDENS The rose garden at Borde Hill in West Sussex is set to put on its most stunning show yet this summer, with more David Austin varieties planted to mark the garden’s 55th anniversary of opening to the public. A mix of formal and informal, the rose garden boasts more than 750 roses of 100 varieties, offering heavenly fragrance and a visual, floriferous feast in a spectrum of colours from pale yellow through to deep crimson. The garden of the historic Elizabethan Tudor house is also renowned as a plant hunter’s paradise, with many rare shrubs and trees, sent by great Victorian adventurers back to England to Colonel Stephenson R Clarke, who bought the property in 1893 and whose ancestors still live there. bordehill.co.uk
GARDEN journal
BOTANIC FIND Green Leaves silhouette ceramic mug, £7.99, Car & Kitchen
Feature Rachel Crow Illustrations Sarah Overs
Create some beautiful potted floral displays and get a head start on battling the pests
Just an illusion Although appearing to be woven from natural materials, these planters are in fact made from durable concrete, so will keep their looks as well as their shape. Mix and match them for a nautical-inspired potted patio display. Green stripe basket, £10.95; white dip basket, £8.95; sierra basket planter, £10.95, all from The Gifted Few. Period Living 95
T
quil spo n t ra
What is the point of putting all that work into making your garden a brimming, blooming bonanza, if you can’t then take a seat to relax and enjoy the spectacle? With space for three to swing lazily in the breeze, the gracefully designed Tranquility oak fan-back swing seat is built to be enjoyed for generations to come. £3,154.20 from Sitting Spiritually.
A POTTED HISTORY
WHEELBARROWS: Whether transporting supplies for
the Chinese army along narrow, undulating hill trails as far back as 200AD, to helping domestic gardeners cart heavy loads of soil – or even a small child or two – with relative ease, wheelbarrows have been proving themselves indispensable for centuries. Early Chinese designs had the wheel on a central axis, so could take heavier weights – some even harnessed the power of wind through the addition of sails – while later European medieval models placed the wheel at the front of the barrow. Their use eventually spread from agriculture to construction and mining, and other than metal or plastic replacing the original wooden contraptions, and occasionally an extra wheel or two, the design has little altered since the days of carrying vegetables to market in the Middle Ages. 96 Period Living
PRACTICALLY PERFECT Used for tying and supporting plants, marking lines for planting rows, training fruit trees, hanging herbs, and much more, natural – and biodegradable – jute twine is an essential item for the potting shed. Couple it with a repurposed, vintage wooden mill bobbin, and it’s easily stored on a hook; £15, National Trust Shop.
ON THE BOOKSHELF Jane Eastoe’s background as a former fashion editor is clearly evident in the compilation of this beautifully presented tome with floral photographer Georgina Lane. Roses (£12.99, Pavilion) is as enjoyable to look through, as it is informative on the range of some of the most spectacular rose blooms, from classics with long pedigree and dramatic gallicas, to romantic old roses and fragrant hybrid musks.
Mick Lavelle is senior lecturer in horticulture at Writtle University College* As the growing season reaches its peak during the long summer days, it is not only plants that find conditions to their liking. Among your treasured flowers and produce is an army of pests, seemingly hell bent on devouring your prize specimens. There are a few of these that stay hidden from view, and arguably the worst is a small black beetle known as the vine weevil. Vine weevils – adults and larvae – feed on a wide range of ornamental plants and fruits, especially those grown in containers. Plants growing in the open ground are less likely to be damaged, although it is still possible that this will occur on strawberries, primulas, sedums and heucheras. Adult weevils eat leaves and are rarely a serious problem; whereas the grubs eat roots and can be very damaging. The ‘C-shaped’ larvae have light brown heads, are up to 10mm long and are active from late summer through the winter. They can only be detected by looking in the soil or compost. Adult weevils are 9mm long, dull black and chew irregular-shaped notches on leaf edges. They are around from spring to late summer but are only active at night. All adults are female, and each can lay several hundred eggs during the summer, so you need to control them now. Fortunately, there is help at hand. The most effective – and environmentally safe – control is attained by using microscopic nematodes. The most effective of these is a species called Steinernema kraussei, which kills the larvae. They are easy to use and can be bought online or in garden centres.
*Writtle University College runs a variety of short, weekend and evening horticultural courses. To find out more visit writtle.ac.uk
EXPERT TIPS... ‘DELIVER US FROM WEEVIL’
Garden Buildings
E S C T A E P R E C S E S
COUNTING SHEEP While the humble shepherd’s hut was traditionally used as mobile shelter for shepherds during the lambing season, today very few owners have any intention of following a flock. Instead, a hut offers an inspiring retreat, where you can indulge in your hobbies or start writing that best-seller. A self-build kit, as featured, starts from £5,170 at Tuin.
Whether you dream of a practical space or somewhere to unleash your creativity, here’s all the inspiration you need to design your ultimate garden building
Photograph Brent Darby
Feature Holly Reaney
T
he idea of having a private, relaxing space away from the hustle and bustle of daily life, is one that starts in childhood. Being able to climb up a ladder and disappear into a house in the trees, where you can spend time undisturbed, still sounds appealing today. Of course, the reality of a treehouse perhaps isn’t feasible for everyone, although there are some very beautiful designs for adults as well
as children. Instead, a garden building can easily give you that restorative idyll, as well as providing much-needed extra space, without the hassle of extending your property. Whether you desire a peaceful summerhouse, a practical potting shed, a creative room for painting, a home office for working, or a sheltered space for entertaining and alfresco dining, your garden room can be whatever you imagine it to be; the possibilities are endless. Period Living 99
In order to make the most of your space, there are five key things you need to consider: 1 INSULATION Keeping in the heat is a crucial aspect of creating a cosy, relaxing space. One option is to board interior walls with tongueand-groove panelling, behind which a slim layer of insulation can sit. Consult your installer for the best option for your design. In addition, something as simple as a having rug or a carpet on the floor can dramatically reduce heat loss. 2 POWER An electrician should be able to run a cable underground from your main house to provide electricity for heating, lighting and appliances. If you’re looking for a more sustainable, solution, consider fitting solar panels on the roof. 3 HEATING OPTIONS There’s nothing enjoyable about sitting in a freezing shed, so heating is a must. For buildings connected to electrical outlets, radiators are a popular option. However, there is nothing quite as welcoming as the flickering flame of a wood-burning stove, which will heat your kettle as well as your room. If you opt for a stove, consideration must be given to ventilation and the flue in order to keep it safe. 4 STORAGE SOLUTIONS From sheds to studies, garden buildings offer a prime location to store tools or craft equipment. Bespoke shelving enables you to make the most of your space, while Pinterest is full of inspiration for using pegboards to combine storage and interior design. If you have a woodburning stove or open fire, then there are lots of ways to incorporate a log store into your design, such as in a recess in a wall or under a veranda. 5 PLANNING PERMISSION Since they are considered to be ‘outbuildings incidental to the enjoyment of the house’, garden buildings are deemed a permitted development, and so don’t usually need planning permission – unless your home is listed. However, they must be single storey and have a maximum height of 2.5 metres. For more information visit planningportal.co.uk.
Finishes and painting Don’t feel you have to paint a timber building, as naturally weathered wood is a beautiful finish. But if you want to put your own stamp on it, make sure you use a suitable exterior finish. Natural palettes of blues and greens are popular choices, while pastel yellows, sugary pinks and calming whites have also become fashionable in recent years. 9 , £2 rior w o e l Yel f ext Ball 5 ior m o & £3 exter o s , o r w r t n l y o t e Da 0.75 , Farr Gre lligen ene for l d r l 1 r e e r t 3 fo she a r , £ terio ore pbo r of In ittle G s g u x egg o n C 1lt , L Wi ura e in M l r l l l i o e A f m sh dm of nja egg Win 4ltrs e, Be 0.9 lustr low
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PICTURE PERFECT Above: Hidden by a honeysuckle that climbs over its weathered wood exterior, this garden shed is rather unassuming when the door is closed. When open, however, it reveals a cosy snug, featuring coastal-blue painted panelling and seashells decorating the inside of the door to evoke a holiday mood. Filled with comfy seating, it’s the perfect spot to enjoy a good magazine and a cup of tea. Try Waltons for a similar design.
ADVENTURE TIME Below: Looking as though it has been plucked from the pages of a fairytale, the Apple Tree treehouse, £54,000 from Blue Forest, provides a great alternative to a playroom, or a quirky home office, surrounded by borders of flowers. The hand-cut cedar exterior and oak flooring celebrates the elegance of the natural materials. A reading nook in the turret provides a peaceful escape, while a fireman’s pole offers a speedy and fun getaway.
Photograph (above) Jody Stewart
Home from home essentials
Garden Buildings
UNDER GLASS Above: Greenhouses rose in popularity during the Victorian era, as there was seen an opportunity to grow exotic flowers and citrus fruits, despite the questionable British weather. A greenhouse offers a wealth of horticultural potential to keen gardeners, giving increased control over light levels, temperature and soil type. Built from aluminium, which is favoured due to its strength and light weight, Alitex’s Mottisfont greenhouse, from £15,950, gives you the flexibility to design your interior layout to suit your own planting style. ROOM WITH A VIEW Right: The petite footprint and open sides of a gazebo make it a less intrusive choice than other garden buildings, while a solid roof offers added protection from the weather, letting you make the most of your garden in all seasons. Constructed from oak beams with a tiled roof, this charming gazebo, £5,820 from Border Oak, is the perfect addition to a smaller garden. Pair with a wooden table and chairs to create a flexible dining space. Period Living 101
Garden Buildings
SOPHISTICATED STORAGE Left: Often used as a dumping ground for garden furniture, tools and the lawn mower, the humble shed has so much more to offer. To make the most of this space and prevent it from becoming a jumble, organisation is key, ensuring that every item has a clear place to live. As well as its footprint, think about wall storage, as shelves and hanging pegboards are great ways to store tools. A small table is also a useful addition, creating a space for potting plants or for working on your latest DIY project. The Gothic shed in pressure-treated timber with cedar shingles starts at £1,879 from The Posh Shed Company.
TAKE COVER Right: Climbing roses with lacy white blooms provide the finishing touch to this exposed oak-frame building, from £10,300 at Oak Designs Co. Featuring an elegant veranda, it’s the ideal spot for entertaining. Make the space welcoming all year round with heat lamps or a fire-pit, and a basket of woollen blankets for cosying up. SET IN STONE Below: Evoking the grandeur of magnificent estates, a stone building works beautifully in more formal gardens. With its classical proportions and ample glazing, this orangery, from £75,000 at Haddonstone, offers the ideal space for relaxing in the summer months and would look stunning filled with potted citrus trees. The building is made from cast stone, which is a versatile material that often matures and develops character much faster than natural stone.
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SITTING PRETTY Left: An idyllic escape for every season, the Burghley summerhouse from Scotts of Thrapston blends seamlessly into the garden, thanks to its natural cedar shingle roof and compact octagonal footprint. Large casement windows and French doors link the space to the garden and flood the room with light, but can be closed off to create a cosy hideaway on cooler days. The Burghley also comes with sectional seating, which can be lifted to reveal hidden storage space. Pictured priced from £10,400.
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY Left: Whether you are in search of a quiet, productive space, or want to create a more defined work/life balance, locating a garden office away from the chaos of the main house is the perfect solution. Choose a design with lots of windows, like this Suffolk barn painted in Sea Foam Green, from £25,244 at Smart Garden Offices, to let in lots of natural light and aid your productivity. Meanwhile, its solid roof will ensure you keep warm in the cooler months.
Photograph (Oakwrights garden room) Peter Graves
JOINED-UP DESIGN Below: If you’re short on space, a garden building abutting the house can be an ideal solution to give you more room. An oak design ages gracefully, perfectly complementing a whole host of period home styles. With an elegant veranda over a paved decking, this building, starting at £16,200 from Oakwrights, creates a synergy between outside and in.
The ‘front’ of the house is actually at the back, and has spectacular countryside views out towards the sea. To counteract the steep slope in the garden from the house, a curvy Corten steel wall was installed to create a more usable change of level. Nearer the house, an ancient cherry tree is underplanted with wildflowers that contrast well with the neatly clipped lawn
Gardens
WHERE THE WIND BLOWS On this sloping plot in the Sussex Weald, open to the elements, Chris and Robin Hutt have created a gently flowing, sinuous garden that expertly melds into the countryside beyond Words Sarah Giles | Photographs Abigail Rex
THE STORY Character A meld of classic and naturalistic, with brimming herbaceous borders, wildflower meadow, orchard, hazel coppice, kitchen garden and natural ponds. Sinuous Corten steel wall supports add a contemporary edge Size Three-acre sloping site with views out across the countryside of the Sussex Weald Aspect South facing Soil Heavy clay Owners Chris Hutt and his wife Robin have lived and gardened here since 2004 Property An 18th-century brick and tile house Open The garden will open under the National Gardens Scheme on 7 June 2020 (ngs.org.uk), and for private groups from May to September by prior arrangement (fairlightend.co.uk)
A
long with most properties in the village of Pett, near Hastings in East Sussex, Fairlight End, a pretty 18th-century house, backs right onto the road, overlooking the countryside spreading out beyond it on the other side of the house. From the road, there is little clue of the garden, a special treat, nestling behind. Located a mile from the coast, it’s far enough away from the sea that plants don’t have to cope with excessively salty air, ‘but because we are quite high up, strong winds are a constant feature here,’ says Chris Hutt, who bought the property in 2003 with his wife Robin and then spent a year renovating it before moving in. ‘The winds sweep in off the Channel and come battering their way through the garden, so the planting has been designed with that in mind. We try to look on this as a positive rather than a negative,’ he continues, ‘and we’ve learnt to plant things that wave and billow without being snapped or flawed – like the twometre-high stands of the grass Stipa gigantea, which we have right outside the house. It looks wonderful with the wind blowing through it.’ The three-acre garden slopes in two directions – from back to front and from side to side, making it a challenging plot to work with. ‘It’s a very odd and wonky piece of ground,’ says Chris, ‘and the fall from top to bottom is considerable but, strangely, that’s what drew me to it when I first saw it – I don’t know why; most people felt it would be far too quixotic to make a good garden!’ With the renovations on the house complete, Chris spent four years trying to resolve the problem of having so many slopes and levels to contend with outside. Eventually, however, he was forced to admit defeat. ‘With the benefit of hindsight, I should never have tried to do it myself,’ he says. ‘You need to know what you’re doing and it quickly became obvious that I didn’t, so I made a mess of it.’ He subsequently brought in landscape architect and garden designer Ian Kitson to help, and it’s a partnership that’s endured to this day. ‘His solution to the problem of the slopes surprised me, but now that he’s been working here, on and off, for many years, he’s surprised me many more times. His approach is what you might call idiosyncratic,’ says Chris, smiling. The most obvious idiosyncrasy here is a sinuous Corten steel wall that cuts across the main part of the garden. The metre-high wall, which gives an infinity effect to the lawn – like a contemporary interpretation of a ha-ha – is striking
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and surprisingly contemporary in a garden that at first glance is classically and delightfully English. But it works brilliantly, both visually and practically, creating a defined change of level and a wonderful planting space. In summer, wildflowers create an exuberant, joyful feel below it, and a south-facing seating area benefits from its reflected heat, with the planting around it enveloping anyone who pauses to bask in the sun. The original idea was to use box plants at the base of the wall, but as there are so many problems associated with box these days, 80 dwarf mountain pines were used instead. ‘I didn’t want to have to spray the box and risk poisoning insects and birds at the same time,’ says Chris. ‘The dwarf mountain pines work well as alternatives and just need clipping back into their dome shapes once a year.’ Above the wall and closest to the house is the lovely upper garden, with an ancient cherry tree as its centrepiece. Now propped up with chestnut supports, it’s underplanted with wildflowers encircled by a neatly mown strip of lawn. ‘We like the contrast between the ostensibly wild and shaggy flowers that appear to have been left to their own devices, and the obviously cared for and tended lawn – it’s a contrast that we play with throughout the garden,’ says Chris. In the beautifully planted herbaceous borders are three striking steel sculptures specially designed by Ian Kitson. In summer, the sculptures gradually start to disappear into the surrounding planting and act as supports, before re-emerging again in winter as focal points. To one side is a kitchen garden, home to 30 productive raised beds planted with a mixture of vegetables and flowers for cutting. A wedge-shaped gravel garden runs back towards the road, where the white blossom of the ornamental pear Pyrus salicifolia takes centre stage in early summer, with splashes of colour from pink foxgloves and acid-green euphorbia. A south-facing wall is cloaked in the white rose ‘Open Arms’. ‘Not many people know this rose,’ says Chris. ‘It’s unusual because, unlike most ramblers, it repeat flowers and can be in bloom from June to October.’ At the other end of the house, a series of steps lead down to Chris’ study. It’s surrounded by self-sown foxgloves from the meadow below it, and in fact, ox-eye daisies and foxgloves sow themselves throughout the rest of the garden, too. ‘We love self-sowers,’ Chris says. ‘They fit in with the overall feel of the garden, which is intended to be relaxed rather than primped.’ Below the upper garden, and initially hidden from view by a wide hedge, is a delightful surprise – a wide expanse of wildflower meadows, an orchard and two vast ponds that make a great contrast to the cultivated areas above. The overall effect is very natural, but that belies the hard work that has gone into the making of this garden. Due recognition came in 2015, when Fairlight End received an award from the Sussex Heritage Trust. The judges’ comments say it all: ‘A thoughtful and beautiful integration of the countryside and garden landscape with contemporary elements. Sculptural pieces complement the listed house and old character trees add a timeless feel to the new plantings.’ Creating a garden that succeeds in feeling simultaneously modern and timeless is quite a feat to achieve, but it’s one that Chris Hutt – with the help of Ian Kitson – has managed to pull off wonderfully well.
Gardens Clockwise from left: Chris and Robin in their carefully created garden; the steel sculpture is one of three designed by Ian Kitson and is underplanted with catmint and self-sown pink and white foxgloves; the views out to the countryside from the seating area beneath the steel wall are far-reaching; a mown pathway leads through wildflowers from the upper garden to the meadow beyond; the gravel garden is backed by a sheltering wall that runs back towards the house, along which acid-green euphorbia, pink and white foxgloves and white ox-eye daisies create pinpoints of colour in summer
Gardens
Clockwise from far left: In the kitchen garden, Ladybird poppies add an unexpected splash of colour among the raised beds filled with a mix of vegetables; red campion, red poppies and pink foxgloves make a wonderful, colourful display around Chris’ study, which is nestled away in the garden; Rosa ‘Open Arms’ scrambles along the south-facing wall in the gravel garden, with a pretty seating area flanked by pink and white foxgloves and the architectural foliage of a cardoon; a path through the wedge-shaped gravel garden leads to an old stable block, now used as a potting shed
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Above: The rustic steps, edged with tiny erigeron daisies, flowing down the steep slope from the house to Chris’ study, lead underneath a weeping birch tree Right: Chris’ timber-clad study is surrounded by self-sown pink foxgloves in early summer
Chris’ advice for sloping gardens
In the area
1 It’s always best to get professional help to deal with steps, pathways, retaining walls or other hard landscaping features that are on sloping ground. 2 Slopes can mean that plants are more exposed to the elements, so choose those that can stand up to a battering: grasses, semi-wild roses and coppiced willows, for example. 3 Place seats to enjoy external views from the highest parts of the slope but also have seating lower down to enjoy looking at different aspects of your garden.
GREAT DIXTER, Northiam, East Sussex – ‘it’s like having the
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world’s finest reference library on your doorstep,’ says Chris. Open daily. Tel: 01797 252878; greatdixter.co.uk MARCHANTS HARDY PLANTS, Laughton, near Lewes – great plants, many unusual, and expert advice happily given. Tel: 01323 811737; marchantshardyplants.co.uk HASTINGS COUNTRY PARK NATURE RESERVE – wild, windswept, wonderful, and full of wildflowers. Tel: 01424 451066; hastings.gov.uk
Sunlight catches on this lovely scene designed by landscape architect Marian Boswall, who specialises in historic settings. Rosa ‘New Dawn’ scrambles up a rustic arbour, ‘Madame Alfred Carrière’ tumbles over the wall, and ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ puts on a beautiful show, all set off by purple spheres of Allium ‘Globemaster’ and Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’, among soft grasses and silvery eryngium
Roses
QUEEN OF HEARTS As we celebrate National Rose month, find out how to get the most from these beautiful blooms, with advice on choosing and planting the best varieties for your garden Words and photographs Leigh Clapp
une is the perfect time to see roses in full bloom and begin the process of selecting ones for your garden. Inspiration is all around and there are so many delightful varieties to choose for different situations – from statement climbers to miniatures for pots on the patio. Decide where you’d like to add roses – whether covering a wall or arch, mixed in with herbaceous plants, or in a dedicated rose garden – consider your colour scheme, the combination of scents, and if you’d like a blaze of flowers in one blooming or repeatflowering. Keep in mind, too, the conditions of your soil and micro-climate – see what grows well in the neighbourhood. The Royal Horticultural Society’s website is useful for suggestions of particular roses for different locations.
Types of roses With around 100 species and thousands of cultivars to choose from, there is quite a bewildering number of options available. It may be helpful to think of roses in the three main categories: SPECIES OR WILD ROSES like to sprawl in a natural style, are mostly single-flowered, and many have colourful hips in autumn, such as rugosa, glauca, moyesii and canina. ROSES FROM BEFORE 1860 are known as old garden roses and are characterised by large graceful shrubs, with mostly one-flowering, are richly fragrant and include alba, gallica, damask, cabbage and moss roses. MODERN ROSES, bred from the early 20th century, have characteristics of repeat-flowering and a good disease resistance, vigour and flower quality. These cover hybrid teas, floribundas, landscape, climbers, ramblers, miniature, hybrid musk and David Austin English Roses. Where in the past the most soughtafter roses were those that produced one perfect flower on each stem for cut flowers, now the aim of breeders is to produce prolific flowering over a long season, with resistance to pests and diseases.
How and when to buy roses Bare-root plants, the most economical choice, can be ordered for delivery between November and March. They are traditionally planted either in autumn, or from late winter until the beginning of spring – avoiding periods when the ground is 116 Period Living
frozen. Bare-root roses are generally the best quality, have a wider spread of roots than container plants, and should be planted out as soon as you receive them. If the weather prevents planting, unpack the roses, keep them in a container of slightly moist compost, and then plant out as soon as you can – ideally within a week for best results. Container-grown roses can be bought and planted at any time of the year. Deciding how many roses to grow in a space will depend on the type and growth habit. Old roses need more space, while the recommendation with David Austin roses is to plant them 100cm away from other plants, and 60cm from other roses. Always research the roses you’d like to grow beforehand to ensure optimum results.
Where and how to plant Roses will grow in most soil, as long as it is moist but well drained. Ideally they prefer clay, like loam, tolerate sandy but will struggle in chalk. A neutral to acid soil, with a pH of around 6.5, is best. Incorporate some well-rotted compost, bone meal or manure when planting. Different roses can be selected for different situations. Generally they prefer sun, but some grow in shade, and most roses are fully hardy. For bare-root roses, dig a hole large enough to accommodate the roots, place a handful of bone meal in the bottom, mix it in with the soil, then pop in the rose and backfill with organic matter enriched topsoil. Ensure the graft union is slightly below the soil level and then water in well. For container-grown roses, make sure your hole is as deep as the container and wider, to accommodate the roots. If you are replacing old roses with new, the Royal Horticultural Society advises digging out the soil to a depth and width of 45cm and swapping it with soil from a different part of the garden to reduce the risk of replant disease.
Rose maintenance Regular feeding is essential for healthy roses and differs depending on the soil type: CLAY SOIL – feed twice a year in March and late June. SANDY AND CHALK SOIL – feed monthly throughout spring and summer. LOAM – adopt a regime in between the above two. Never feed roses in late summer or autumn as this would promote softer growth that would be killed off in the frosts. Water roses in the morning and keep the leaves dry to help prevent disease. If the soil is dry, water well but avoid frequent, small amounts of water. Mulching with a good layer of well-rotted manure retains moisture, limits weeds and suppresses diseases, such as black spot. This is usually done in spring, but can be topped up monthly through the growing season. Deadheading regularly as blooms finish will encourage more flowering shoots for repeat-
Roses
Left: The dainty pink flowers of wild Rosa glauca, a lure for bees, glow against the foil of the dark coppery foliage. Also enjoy their red, spherical hips later in autumn Below left: Bred by David Austin, ‘Golden Celebration’ is a modern shrub rose, popular for its large, deeply cupped golden-yellow flowers and rich fragrance Below right: ‘Rose de Rescht’ is a very fragrant, repeat-flowering old rose that forms a compact shrub. It was originally introduced to England in 1880, then rediscovered in 1945
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Roses flowering roses. If, however, you have roses with lovely hips for autumn, such as rugosas, leave the finished blooms on the bush. Roses can be grown organically without chemical sprays by choosing those suited to your site, ensuring you are watering and feeding them well, have provided good air circulation, prune them appropriately and clear up fallen leaves that may harbour diseases. There is evidence, too, that roses are healthier when they are provided with companion plants that attract beneficial insects and repel pests, such as aphids. Recommended companions include allium, nasturtium, thyme, geranium, rosemary and alyssum. Keep in mind that roses don’t like too much root competition, so don’t choose invasive or aggressive plants that will overcrowd them. Ramblers, species, and rugosas are very hardy; there are lists of disease-resistant varieties on rose websites, such as David Austin’s. Healthy roses have a natural disease resistance, but it also helps if we learn to tolerate a little imperfection.
Pruning care These simplified guidelines from The National Rose Society help dispel any fears of the procedure in novice gardeners. For bush and shrub roses prune down to half their height in spring and remove all dead wood. Don’t, however, prune English shrub roses too hard over the first couple of years, until they have established, to help the stems mature and support the blooms of these types of roses. Climbing roses need to be pruned in spring down to the desired height, and all dead wood removed, which will promote new growth for the flowers that year. After three or four years, remove old stems, one per year, towards the bottom of the rose to promote growth lower down and get flowers all along the plant. As ramblers flower on the previous year’s growth, they need to be pruned just after flowering, as they then will produce new wood for next year’s blooms.
Breeders with mail-order websites DAVID AUSTIN ROSES, Albrighton, Wolverhampton
WV7 3HB. Nursery, rose garden, plant centre and tea room. Open daily. davidaustinroses.co.uk HARKNESS ROSES NURSERY, Hitchin, Herts SG4 0JT. Open daily. Rose breeders since 1890s, hybrid teas, bush, climbing, patio and floribundas crossed with wild species. roses.co.uk PETER BEALES ROSES, Attleborough, Norfolk NR17 1AY. Began in 1968, preservation of old-fashioned, historic and rare roses as well as new cultivars. Display gardens. Open daily. classicroses.co.uk DICKSON ROSES. Oldest family of rose breeders in the UK, since 1836. New roses in bright colours. Small mail order, but available through local rose growers. dickson-roses.co.uk
Above: Lightly fragrant, soft pink blooms of rambling Rosa ‘Rural England’, bred by Peter Beales, flower continuously through June and July Right: If picking roses for vases, use clean, sharp secateurs, cut the flowers in the early morning and immerse them in cool water straight away. Once inside, re-cut the stems while holding them under water and remove lower leaves
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Left: David Austin’s nursery is a pretty picture in June, with choices such as the graceful and prolific ‘Princess Alexandra of Kent’, a tea scented, repeat-flowering, English Shrub Rose bred by David
Rose remembrance Rosarian David Austin, who passed away in 2018 aged 92, was renowned worldwide for his breeding of diseaseresistant English Roses. These look back to the old roses with their blowsy, cupped rosette form and range of scents, combined with the repeat-flowering nature and wider colour palette of modern roses. His English Roses, arguably the most successful brand in the world today, had a journey that was, however, not without its hurdles. In the 1950s, when the prevailing trend was for hybrid tea roses, along came the young David, a hobby breeder and farmer’s son, with a vision inspired by a book of old roses, to create a more beautiful variety that would blend the best characteristics of old roses with the benefits of the new. He believed that roses were being grown for the show bench rather than garden worthiness, and wanted to develop ones that would be beautiful but also easy to prune and care for. There was initial resistance to these ideas, his peers believing that nobody would want to grow his style of roses. Fortunately, David stood true to his instincts and began the journey that would take decades to achieve. The process gained momentum by a lucky chance, when ‘Constance Spry’ was discovered among his early seedlings, and became the foundation of the development of the English Roses. Introduced in 1961, although not
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repeat flowering, it had a lovely old-world style that still remains a favourite in gardens across the globe. Gradually more new roses were bred on his farm, with David taking orders across the kitchen table, eventually opening his own nursery in 1970. ‘We prefer to call them ‘English Roses’ because it seems to us that England, more than any other country, is associated with gardens – and more particularly with the rose itself,’ he once wrote. Famous introductions have included ‘Graham Thomas’ in 1983, one of the most well-known roses and voted the world’s favourite rose in 2009, and ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ in 1986, twice voted the nation’s favourite rose. Awarded an OBE, David gained the greatest satisfaction in seeing the pleasure his roses brought to gardeners and rose lovers worldwide. His aim was for his roses to become a class in their own right, displaying a distinctive personality and making a unique contribution to the rose family. Today the company continues to develop new roses with breeder Carl Bennett and his team, overseen by David Austin’s eldest son, David Jr, and grandson Richard. ‘David was absolutely dedicated to his passion,’ says senior rosarian Michael Marriott, ‘and it just shows in the end result – healthy bushes with beautiful, fragrant roses – as simple as that.’
COOKING THE BOOKS: NEW RELEASES As self-sufficiency becomes a growing trend, learn how to bake your own bread and pastries by following the advice of Jane Eastoe in National Trust Book of Bread, £9.99. The comprehensive theory and techniques are accompanied by lovely watercolour illustrations by Louise Morgan, while recipes range from a basic soda or rye bread to ‘fancy’ cinnamon rolls. With many watermills and windmills being restored to grind heritage flours, there’s never been a better time to allow homemade bread to prove its worth.
Hunter gatherer The less dependence you have on supermarkets in the current climate, the better. So discover the rich bounty of nature’s wild larder by combining your daily exercise with a little foraging. From nettles, elderflower and wild strawberries, through to blackberries and chanterelles, learn how to seek out the countryside’s seasonal edible delights with the Woodland Trust’s online foraging guide. Discover what to look for each month, as well as recipe ideas, such as elderflower cordial and wild garlic pesto, which showcase the diversity of the ingredients. Visit woodlandtrust.org.uk for more.
FOOD journal Events, eateries, edibles and kitchen essentials for keen home cooks
R a
glass a e s i Family-owned
Hampshire Winery Hattingley Valley, known for its English sparkling wine, has released its first still vintage. The delicately acidic, limited-edition 2019 Rosé, £14, with refreshing notes of red fruit, will be available online and from independent retailers.
CHEF’S CUT
Feature Rachel Crow Images (samphire) Getty
June’s seasonal ingredient is chosen by Richard Bainbridge chef owner of Benedicts, Norwich SAMPHIRE Available from June until the end of August, samphire grows naturally in bunches along the UK coastline, from the marshlands of Suffolk to the rock pools of Cornwall. Gather it by pulling it up from the roots, wash these off, and then store it, wrapped in a damp cloth, in the fridge or a cool, dark place for up to two weeks. With its wonderfully salty flavour, it’s not necessary to season samphire, and you can serve it in a number of ways: raw in a salad; pick off the tender stems at the roots to serve with buttered new
potatoes; or blanch it in unsalted water and serve simply with a poached egg and cracked black pepper. To enjoy the fresh sea flavour well into autumn, you can also preserve it. To do so, wash it thoroughly, apply sea salt liberally, and place it in a jar for around three weeks. Rinse thoroughly before serving; it goes beautifully with cured meats, cheeses or braised meats. Or pickled samphire is delicious with fish. Make a pickle juice of equal parts of water, sugar and vinegar, bring to the boil, then cool down. Once cooled, pour it into a jar and add the samphire. Leave for two to three weeks in a cool, dark place. Rinse before serving. Benedicts celebrates the abundance of local produce in its seasonal menu.
A CLEAR VISION Want to know where your food comes from, with full transparency and traceability? The Ethical Butcher, a new online supplier, offers just that, sourcing meat from a selection of hand-picked producers who farm in a sustainable and regenerative way – some running carbon-negative farms. Along with extensive information on the background and methods of each individual farm, the website includes cooking advice and tips on getting the most flavour from any cut. All products, priced from £4.50 for 250g lamb mince, are delivered in recyclable packaging. Period Living 123
Recipes
w n o a n p d e e rs n O Prepare delicious, nutritious suppers with minimal fuss, with these roasting recipe ideas from Rosie Sykes Photographs Dan Jones
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SPICE-RUBBED STEAK WITH SWEET RED ONIONS AND CROUTONS This recipe works well with any kind of steak as the rub has a tenderising effect, even if you cook the meat straight away. Leave the rub on overnight, or just for the time it takes to cook the onions. SERVES 4 1 tbsp light brown sugar O 2 tsp salt O 1 tsp ground allspice O 1 heaped tsp ground coriander O 1½ tsp mustard powder O 4 steaks O 2½ tbsp olive oil O 4 red onions, peeled and finely sliced O Few sprigs of thyme O 200ml cider or apple juice O 1 tbsp cider vinegar O 225g rustic bread, brown or white, cut into 1cm chunks and tossed in 1 tbsp olive oil O 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil O 60g rocket O
1. Make a dry rub by mixing together the sugar, salt, allspice, coriander and mustard powder. Rub it thoroughly into the beef and set aside. 2. Preheat the oven to 190°C (170°C fan), gas mark 5. Preheat a roasting pan with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Once the oil in the roasting pan is hot, add the red onions, thyme, cider and cider vinegar, and stir everything about thoroughly. Cover with foil and return to the oven for 15 minutes for them to steam and become soft.
3. Once the onions are in the oven, preheat the grill to its highest setting and give it 10 minutes to get red hot. When the onions have softened, turn the oven up to 220°C (200°C fan), gas mark 7, and remove the foil. Lift out the onions and all but a tablespoon of the liquid in the roasting pan. Add the chunks of bread to the roasting pan and toss everything together well. Return to the hotter oven to let any remaining cooking liquor evaporate and the bread to become golden and crisp – this will take about 8–10 minutes and it is worth shaking everything about after a few minutes. Once they look ready, take out and set aside. 4. While the croutons are in the hotter oven, oil a roasting pan which will fit under the grill and place the steaks on it. Turn them over a couple of times so both sides get oiled. Place the steaks under the grill for about 4 minutes on each side for rare, or add on a couple more minutes per side for more cooked steak. Set the meat aside to rest in a warm place for 5 minutes. 5. Toss the croutons, warm red onions and their cooking liquor with the rocket, extra virgin olive oil and a dose of seasoning. Top with the sliced steak.
FISH PARCELS You will need two roasting pans for this recipe, plus string if you are using baking parchment to make the parcels. SERVES 2 1½ tbsp olive oil 3 cloves garlic, finely sliced O 1 tsp sweet smoked paprika O 1 leek, finely sliced O 1 potato, diced into small pieces O 2 skinless cod loins, approx 200g each O Sea salt and black pepper O O
FOR THE BAKED VEGETABLES O 1½ tbsp olive oil
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O 1 courgette, cut into long thin strips using a peeler O 1 aubergine, cut into long thin strips O 1 clove black garlic (or regular garlic), crushed O 1½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil O 2 tsp balsamic vinegar O Couple of sprigs of fresh oregano, basil or thyme, leaves stripped from stalks
Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan), gas mark 4. 1. Put a large roasting pan and a small roasting pan with the olive oil into the oven to heat up. 2. When the oil is hot in the small pan, throw in the
Recipes
BAKED MUSSELS WITH TOMATO AND FREGOLA garlic and return to the oven until it turns light golden and crisp – don’t let it burn or it will become bitter. Remove from the oven, strain off any oil into a bowl and drain the garlic on FSC kitchen paper, then toss with the paprika. Set aside: this is the garnish for the cod parcels. 3. Mix the leek and potato together with the garlic oil and season generously. 4. Cut two large rectangles of baking parchment or foil and make a bed of the leek and potato mixture in the centre of each. Season the fish and place it on the vegetables. Bring the parchment or foil up around the fish to form a parcel, leaving space for the steam to circulate. If using parchment, tie with string so it is like a spacious but well-sealed bag. If using foil, fold over and crimp the top to create a nice tight seam. 5. Place the parcels on the hot, large roasting pan and cook for 15–20 minutes, until the parcels are puffed up and full of steam. 6. While the fish is cooking, put the courgette and aubergine ribbons in the small roasting pan with a splash of the olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 10–15 minutes, until soft and golden. 7. To make a dressing for the aubergine and courgette, use a stick blender to whizz together the garlic, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic and herbs until smooth. Once the vegetables are cooked and ready, toss them in the dressing. 8. Serve the fish in its little parcel topped with the garlic slices. Serve the courgettes and aubergines separately, to go on top of the fish once the parcel has been opened.
This is a wonderfully messy dish that requires hands-on eating! It’s great fun, but make sure you provide lots of napkins, a bowl for the shells, and bread for mopping up the sauce. You will need two pans. SERVES 4 O 3
tbsp olive oil banana shallots, cut in half lengthways and sliced O 20g butter O 1 large leek, cut in half lengthways and sliced O 1 large head of fennel, cut into quarters and sliced (fronds reserved) O 3 cloves garlic, crushed or finely grated O 1–2 tsp chilli flakes (to taste) O 1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed or chopped O 250g fregola or giant couscous O 125ml white wine or cider (optional) O 400ml boiling fish or vegetable stock O 300g passata O 1kg mussels, scrubbed, beards removed, and rinsed O 6
O 3
sprigs of mint, leaves chopped O Juice of 1 lemon O Sea salt
Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan), gas mark 4. 1. Put the smaller of your two roasting pans in the oven to heat up, with two tablespoons of the olive oil. Once the pan is hot, add the shallots, butter and a generous pinch of salt to the roasting pan and place in the oven for 10 minutes. 2. Stir in the leek and fennel and return to the oven for 10 minutes until the vegetables are starting to soften. Add the garlic, chilli and fennel seeds, and cook for another 5 minutes. 3. Add the fregola and stir well. Now add the wine or cider, if using (if not, add an extra 125ml stock or water), the stock and passata and return to the oven for 10 minutes.
4. Turn up the oven to 220°C (200°C fan), gas mark 7. Give everything a good stir and if the fregola mix is looking very thick you can add more hot water – about 150ml. Return this roasting pan to the oven and place a larger roasting pan, with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, in to get good and hot. Have your mussels ready in a colander. 5. When the oven is hot, take out the large roasting pan and throw in the mussels – they should sizzle a little. Add the tomato mixture and give everything a good stir, adding some more hot water or stock if it seems thick. Return the pan to the oven until the mussels open – this will take about 10–15 minutes. 6. When all the mussels are open, stir in the mint and lemon juice, garnish with the reserved fennel leaves, and serve immediately.
MARMALADE BAKED PEARS These pears are so easy to do and are lovely as a pudding with some cream or custard and a ginger biscuit, or to go on top of porridge. They will keep for several days in the fridge, so are well worth doing.
BAKED PEARL BARLEY, PEAS, BEANS AND GREEN SAUCE Pearl barley is quite an old-fashioned ingredient, often used in stews – it has a delicious nutty flavour and it bakes well. SERVES 4 2 tbsp olive oil 1 large onion, sliced O 1 leek, sliced, using as much of the green part as possible O 200g pearl barley O 850ml boiling vegetable stock O 120g frozen peas, defrosted O 120g frozen edamame beans, defrosted O 100g baby spinach O Sea salt and black pepper O O
FOR THE GREEN SAUCE O Generous handful of parsley, chopped O 6 sprigs of mint, leaves chopped O 2 cloves garlic, crushed O 1 tbsp Dijon mustard O 1 tbsp red wine vinegar O 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil O 2 tbsp capers
Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan), gas mark 6. 1. Put a roasting pan in to heat up with the olive oil. When hot, add the onion and leek and plenty of seasoning and place in the oven to soften for 15 128 Period Living
minutes, stirring a couple of times. Add the barley and cook for about 4 minutes, then add the boiling stock and cook for 25 minutes. 2. Meanwhile, make the green sauce. If you would like a very smooth sauce, put everything except the olive oil and capers into a blender or food processor and whizz to a paste – you may need to add some of the oil to help the process on its way. Add the remaining oil with the motor running. Finally fold in the capers, either on pulse or by hand. For a more rustic version, whisk everything together by hand instead. 3. After 25 minutes, add the peas and edamame beans to the barley and return to the oven for 10 minutes. The barley should be quite moist – if necessary add some boiling water. When the barley is soft and nuttytasting, fold in the spinach and a couple of tablespoons of the green sauce. Leave to stand for 5 minutes before serving with the remaining green sauce in a bowl.
SERVES 4 3 tbsp marmalade 2 tsp ground ginger O 300ml boiling water O 4 pears, peeled and cut in half, no need to core O O
Preheat the oven to 150°C (130°C fan), gas mark 2.
1. Mix the marmalade and ginger together and stir into the boiling water. Put the pears, core-side down, into a roasting pan. Pour in the hot liquid, cover with foil and cook for 30–40 minutes until the pears are soft. Remove the foil for the last 15 minutes to thicken the sauce a little. 2. If you want more of a glaze than a sauce, you can lift out the pears, turn the oven up to 200°C (180°C fan), gas mark 2, and let the sauce reduce slightly, stirring regularly. Serve hot or leave to cool before storing in the fridge.
Recipes FOR THE BAKED RHUBARB
125g rhubarb, cut into 5cm lengths O ¼ pink grapefruit O 25g unrefined caster sugar O ¼ tsp rose water. O
Preheat the oven to 150°C (130°C fan), gas mark 2. 1. Using a vegetable peeler, peel off a couple of strips of zest from the pink grapefruit and set aside. Squeeze the juice from the grapefruit into a bowl, adding some of the pulpy flesh in, too. 2. Toss the rhubarb with the grapefruit, sugar and rose water. Put everything into a roasting pan and cover with foil. Place in the oven and cook for 20 minutes. Stir and continue to cook until the rhubarb is very tender but still has its shape – this will probably take another 20 minutes. Outdoor-grown rhubarb often collapses more, but don’t worry, it will be delicious anyway.
RHUBARB, PISTACHIO AND GINGER CAKE This recipe is inspired by one from my favourite cookbook, Margaret Costa’s Four Seasons Cookery Book. She calls it orange snow cake. It doesn’t need icing as it is lovely and moist and keeps very well. SERVES 6 175g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing O 150g unrefined caster sugar O 2 eggs, separated O 280g self-raising flour O 2 heaped tbsp baked rhubarb (see right), rhubarb jam or honey O 55g crystallised ginger, chopped into small confettisized pieces
*Offer valid until 31 July 2020
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85g pistachios, finely chopped O 5 tbsp rhubarb juice reserved from cooking the rhubarb (see right), or water O Sea salt O
Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan), gas mark 4. 1. Gradually beat the sugar into the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, adding a little flour to keep the mixture stable. Stir in the rhubarb, ginger, pistachios and rhubarb juice or water and mix thoroughly. 2. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff. Gently fold the flour into
the cake mixture and then fold in one-third of the egg whites and combine very well. Carefully fold in the remaining egg whites, ensuring everything is very well mixed and taking care to keep it as light as possible. Turn the mixture into a small (30x20cm) buttered roasting pan, and bake for 45 minutes. 3. Test by inserting a thin skewer or a piece of spaghetti into the centre of the cake. It should come out easily and perfectly clean. Leave to cool before turning out on a plate.
READER OFFER This is an edited extract from Roasting Pan Suppers by Rosie Sykes, (£14.99, National Trust Books). PL readers can get a copy for £12, including free UK p&p*. To order, call 0141 306 3100, quoting the reference CH2048. Period Living 129
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نÁƺȸȅɀ ƏȇƳ ƬȒȇƳǣɎǣȒȇɀ يÁǝǣɀ Ȓǔǔƺȸ ƺȇɎǣɎǼƺɀ ȇƺɯ Èk ɀɖƫɀƬȸǣƫƺȸɀ ɎȒ ȸƺƬƺǣɮƺ Ɏǝƺǣȸ ˡȸɀɎ דǣɀɀɖƺɀ ǔȒȸ דگǔȒȸ Èk ȸƺƏƳƺȸɀِ ǔɎƺȸ ɵȒɖȸ ɎȸǣƏǼ ƺȇƳɀً ɵȒɖȸ ɀɖƫɀƬȸǣȵɎǣȒȇ ȵȸǣƬƺ ɯǣǼǼ ƫƺ ƏƳǴɖɀɎƺƳ ɎȒ ȸƺˢƺƬɎ Ə ۏɀƏɮǣȇǕ ƏǕƏǣȇɀɎ Ɏǝƺ ««¨ ȵȸǣƬƺِ Áǝǣɀ Ȓǔǔƺȸ ǣɀ ƏǼɀȒ Ȓȵƺȇ ɎȒ ȒɮƺȸɀƺƏɀ ȸƺƏƳƺȸɀً דǣɀɀɖƺɀ ǔȒȸ דڡǔȒȸ 0ɖȸȒȵƺ ƏȇƳ דǣɀɀɖƺɀ ǔȒȸ דڟǔȒȸ « áِ ǔɎƺȸ Ɏǝƺɀƺ ǣɀɀɖƺɀً ɀɎƏȇƳƏȸƳ ɀɖƫɀƬȸǣȵɎǣȒȇ ȵȸǣƬǣȇǕ ɯǣǼǼ ƏȵȵǼɵِ Áǝƺ ƫǣǕǕƺɀɎ ɀƏɮǣȇǕɀ Əȸƺ ƬȒȅȵƏȸƺƳ ɯǣɎǝ Ɏǝƺ ȒɮƺȸɀƺƏɀ ««¨ِ IȒȸ ƏǼǼ ɀƏɮǣȇǕɀ ƳƺɎƏǣǼɀ ɀƺƺ ȒȇǼǣȇƺ Ȓǔǔƺȸ ȵƏǕƺِ çȒɖ ƬƏȇ ɯȸǣɎƺ ɎȒ ɖɀ Ȓȸ ƬƏǼǼ ɖɀ ɎȒ ƬƏȇƬƺǼ ɵȒɖȸ ɀɖƫɀƬȸǣȵɎǣȒȇ ɯǣɎǝǣȇ גƳƏɵɀ Ȓǔ ȵɖȸƬǝƏɀƺِ ¨ƏɵȅƺȇɎ ǣɀ ȇȒȇٮȸƺǔɖȇƳƏƫǼƺ ƏǔɎƺȸ Ɏǝƺ ٮגƳƏɵ ƬƏȇƬƺǼǼƏɎǣȒȇ ȵƺȸǣȒƳ ɖȇǼƺɀɀ ƺɴƬƺȵɎǣȒȇƏǼ ƬǣȸƬɖȅɀɎƏȇƬƺɀ ƏȵȵǼɵِ çȒɖȸ ɀɎƏɎɖɎȒȸɵ ȸǣǕǝɎɀ Əȸƺ ȇȒɎ ƏǔǔƺƬɎƺƳِ ¨ȸǣƬƺɀ ƬȒȸȸƺƬɎ ƏɎ ȵȒǣȇɎ Ȓǔ ȵȸǣȇɎ ƏȇƳ ɀɖƫǴƺƬɎ ɎȒ ƬǝƏȇǕƺِ IɖǼǼ ƳƺɎƏǣǼɀ Ȓǔ Ɏǝƺ (ǣȸƺƬɎ (ƺƫǣɎ ǕɖƏȸƏȇɎƺƺ Əȸƺ ƏɮƏǣǼƏƫǼƺ ɖȵȒȇ ȸƺȷɖƺɀɎِ IȒȸ ǔɖǼǼ Ɏƺȸȅɀ ƏȇƳ ƬȒȇƳǣɎǣȒȇɀً ȵǼƺƏɀƺ ɮǣɀǣɎ يƫǣɎِǼɵٖȅƏǕɎƏȇƳƬِ ǔǔƺȸ ƺȇƳɀ בxƏɵ ِאא
Fairy tales
Cicely Mary Barker was best known for her magical flower illustrations, which continue to charm children and adults alike
B
orn 125 years ago this month, in Croydon, Surrey, Cicely Mary Barker found fame with her Flower Fairies books, for which she penned the words and the illustrations. She was already a successful artist and sold her first painting, aged 16, to a greetings card firm, but Flower Fairies of the Spring was her first book, published in 1923. Her pictures and poems captured the 1920s’ fairyhunting zeitgeist and seven more collections followed. As talented a natural historian as she was an illustrator, Barker’s exquisite pen and wash creations capture the fine details of each plant. Her ‘fairies’ were in fact portraits of children at her sister’s nursery school, in costumes made by Barker to match the blooms, adding extra magic without compromising botanical accuracy. She wrote in 1948: ‘I have drawn all the plants and flowers very carefully, from real ones; and everything that I have said about them is as true as I could make it. But I have never seen a fairy; the fairies and all about them are just “pretend”.’
Words Karen Darlow Image The Harebell Fairy from Flower Fairies of the Summer illustration by Cicely Mary Barker, 1925 © WorldPhotos / Alamy Stock Photo
In the Picture