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Celebrating the essence of English style February 2019 | Issue 168 | £4.40 | UK Edition

FRESH BEGINNINGS Converted barn, Sussex farmhouse, London terrace RETHINKING ECO CHIC Antique furniture Vintage textiles Natural materials Reclaimed buys

MADE TO MEASURE INTERIORS Commissioning bespoke pieces for unique rooms

BATHROOM DESIGN

INSPIRED BY NATURE Soothing colours, tactile textures, botanical motifs

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Adding colour & character

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Our new brochure is out now, for a free copy please call 01473 826934 or visit www.jim-lawrence.co.uk

CONTENTS FEBRUARY 2019

34 52

Beautiful Buys 14 HOME COMFORTS Soft tones and gently

contrasting patterns for the home.

20 PRETTY IN PINK Covetable buys in blush tones.

22 A PLACE OF BEAUTY Dressing table adornments.

24 NURSERY TALES Timeless elegance for new arrivals.

English Homes 34 HISTORY & HERITAGE The renovation of an

inherited historic hall in Northumberland.

44 A SENSE OF THE PAST A tumbledown Devon barn

is transformed into a bright, inviting family home.

52 TREASURE SEEKERS Richly coloured hues and

antiques transform a Victorian house in London.

62 WHERE THE HEART IS A romantic timber-framed

44

home in West Sussex is a magical haven.

70 MY ENGLISH HOME The Marchioness of

Cholmondeley on her home passions. THE ENGLISH HOME 5

74 Style Inspiration 73 HISTORY REPEATING Inspirational archive design.

74 NATURE’S INSPIRATION Bring the tones, textures

and harmony of the natural world indoors.

80 ONE OF A KIND Designers reveal how specially

commissioned pieces deliver individual style.

89 RETHINKING ECO CHIC How conscious

consumerism can result in beautiful interiors.

106 AWASH WITH COLOUR The joy of vibrant tones

and design in the bathroom.

112 REVIVAL OF ST GILES The incredible restoration

of a country house in Dorset by Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury.

Quintessentially 121 BEAUTIFUL BLOOMS Lift the mood at home with

the heavenly scent of hyacinths.

122 SEASON TO TASTE Chef and food writer Gill Meller

shares delicious recipes from his new book, Time.

89

128 CREATING A KITCHEN GARDEN How to plan and

nurture homegrown produce.

138 MY PASSION FOR... Martin Waller, founder of

Andrew Martin, reveals his design obsession.

Regulars 8

A LETTER FROM HOME A welcome from our

Editor-in-Chief.

27 NOTEBOOK Our monthly digest of notable people

and pursuits, plus important dates for the diary.

72 SUBSCRIBE Treat yourself or a loved one to

a subscription to The English Home.

135 COMING NEXT MONTH & ADDRESS BOOK

Useful resources and an insight into the delights to come in our March edition.

106 The

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Celebrating November

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January 2019 | Issue 167 | £4.40 | UK Edition

Celebrating

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Celebrating the essence of English style

To make life easier, you can now buy single editions or back issues of The English Home online and have them posted directly to your home address.

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A letter from home

T

This month I’ve been * Interviewing the Marchioness of Cholmondeley and feeling great warmth for her distaste of waste, envy at the treasure-hunting she can enjoy whilst rummaging in the attics at Houghton Hall, and sharing her love for chinoiserie and the new Houghton design from de Gournay. See page 70 for our conversation. * Thinking seriously about creating a kitchen garden in an underused area of my plot at home to add to the bounty from the apple and fig trees already in situ and the potted herbs I grow. The feature on page 128 has set my imagination alight. I just need to work out which crops I can realistically tend in the time I have when I’m not in the office.

Follow us on Twitter @englishhometeam Pinterest at pinterest.com/theenglishhome Facebook at facebook.com@theenglishhome Instagram at instagram.com@englishhomemag 8 THE ENGLISH HOME

With warm regards,

Kerryn Harper-Cuss, Editor-in-Chief PORTRAIT RACHEL SMITH

Salvage company and design studio Retrouvius is one of the leading lights in upcycling

here is a new mood afoot and growing across the world. It is a renewed sense of the power of individuals to create positive impact with the smallest of everyday choices and a reawakened awareness that incremental change can be wrought where politicians are failing.

For several years, authenticity and provenance have been key words in interiors. Now more than ever, consumers want to know where things are made, who makes them and how the makers are treated. But since the news of the horrifying ingress of plastic, what things are made of is increasingly top of mind, too.

And I believe that sustainability will become an equally important part of the decision-making process before making a purchase.

Readers of The English Home are already thoughtful in their approach – shunning transitory ‘trends’ in favour of timeless elegance, deploring waste and caring deeply about the stories behind the products they buy. In many ways, it is these ‘old values’ which you already enact that are the best possible example of ‘conscious consumerism’. Buying antiques, vintage, bespoke or craftsman-made rather than this season’s mass-produced ‘must-have’ is not new for you.

With all this in mind, we felt it was timely to rethink the portrayal of eco chic and reframe the somewhat earthy credentials of the word ‘sustainability’ in an accessible light. I hope you find the feature starting on page 89 as thought-provoking and inspiring as I did.

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ENGLISH HOME

oc Design F

Celebrating the essence of English style February 2019 | Issue 168 | £4.40 | UK Edition

FRESH BEGINNINGS Converted barn, Sussex farmhouse, London terrace RETHINKING ECO CHIC Antique furniture Vintage textiles Natural materials Reclaimed buys

MADE TO MEASURE INTERIORS Commissioning bespoke pieces for unique rooms

BATHROOM DESIGN Adding colour & character

INSPIRED BY NATURE Soothing colours, tactile textures, botanical motifs

COVER PHOTOGRAPH: © JAKE EASTHAM ILLUSTRATION: © EDUARD RADU/SHUTTERSTOCK

EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief Kerryn Harper-Cuss Executive Editor Samantha Scott-Jeffries Managing Editor Sarah Feeley Art Editors Claire Hicks, Frances Wallace Sub Editor Lea Tacey Decorating Editor Katy Mclean Features Editor Eve Middleton Homes & Lifestyle Editor Clair Wayman

ADVERTISING Head of Market Freddy Halliday 020 7349 3744; freddy.halliday@chelseamagazines.com Advertisement Manager William Bernard 020 7349 3749; william.bernard@chelseamagazines.com Advertisement Account Executive Madeleine Burgess 020 7349 3711; madeleine.burgess@chelseamagazines.com Group Digital and Creative Solutions Manager Ben Leek 020 7349 3742; ben.leek@chelseamagazines.com Advertising Production 01202 472781; allpointsmedia.co.uk

PUBLISHING Managing Director & Executive Chairman Paul Dobson Deputy Managing Director Steve Ross Chief Financial Officer Vicki Gavin Director of Media James Dobson Publisher Caroline Scott Circulation Manager Daniel Webb

ONLINE Digital Product Manager Ben Iskander Email Marketing Manager Emma Shriwardhankar Digital Executive Jenny Choo

PRODUCTION Reprographics Manager Neil Puttnam Printing William Gibbons Ltd

NEXT ISSUE ON SALE 6 FEBRUARY 2019 THE ENGLISH HOME (UK EDITION) ISSN 1468-0238 (PRINT) THE ENGLISH HOME (UK EDITION) ISSN 2397-7086 (ONLINE)

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Beautiful flooring, designed to last Over 100 designs | Expert advice | 20,000m 2 of stock | Express delivery SHOWROOM 20 Smugglers Way, Wandsworth, London, SW18 1EG 020 8871 9771

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SUBSCRIPTION RATES UK £68 (12 issues) Overseas £80 (12 issues) NEWS DISTRIBUTION Seymour Distribution Ltd 2 East Poultry Avenue London EC1A 9PT Tel 020 7429 3667

Design Centre | Chelsea Harbour | landmark-collection.co.uk | Made in England

Contributors GILL MELLER Chef, author and food writer (see four of his seasonal recipes from his latest book, Time, starting on p122).

What do you love most about being a chef and food writer? I like the creative process. It’s something I’ve always enjoyed. Before I started cooking, I studied art and photography. There are lots of similarities in these processes; the conception of an idea, the development, the execution.

What has been your career highlight so far? I think it’s having the opportunity to produce my own cookbooks. It’s a wonderful feeling to work on something from the very beginning to the very end. I put a lot into it, and when I’m able to hold the finished book, it’s a special thing.

What was the best thing about working on your book Time?

When it found its narrative. A cookbook needs a story to carry the recipes. It needs to flow and everything needs to be harmonious. Sometimes that’s hard to find, but when you do, it really makes such a difference.

Introducing our acrylic range of cedar-clad hot tubs and swim spas, tailor-made for the holiday/rental market.

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KITTY CORRIGAN Writer with a special interest in countryside and green issues (see her piece on eco chic style on p89).

What do you love most about your job?

As a freelance journalist I will tackle any subject, but eco issues are a particular passion.

What was the best thing about writing this particular story? I was delighted to find such high standards of design and innovation using sustainable materials, and new ideas for vintage and antique items.

What has been your career highlight so far? Living in Africa for a year, volunteering and writing about wildlife conservation.

What is your favourite seasonal pleasure in February? In the depths of winter, I long for the first snowdrops to appear in February, bringing with them the promise of spring.

PHOTOGRAPHS (GILL MELLER) © MATT AUSTIN; (JUDITH WILSON) © POLLY WREFORD

Clioose from our range of wooden barrel hot tubs, ofuros and saunas.

JUDITH WILSON Interiors writer and author (turn to p52 to see her feature on a beautiful and surprising London home).

What has been the highlight of your career so far? The joy of being a freelance interiors journalist is access to amazing houses. For my books, I’ve been on shoots in a downtown Manhattan loft, a Swedish island, a holiday home in Long Island and a historic house in Bruges, amongst many others.

What did you enjoy most about working on the Bickertons’ house feature? Henry and Sophie were a delightful couple to interview and they’ve genuinely thought through every detail in their home. The dark sitting room walls, painted in Farrow & Ball’s Railings, were particularly inspirational – dramatic but cosy.

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Colourful tones This elegant furniture by Nina Campbell adds a lightness of touch to a scheme.

Gatsby sofa, £3,960; Massenet console table, £1,440, both Nina Campbell.

Gerome coffee table, £1,735; Tini IV side table, £440, both Nina Campbell for Oomph; curtains in Nemours, £135 a metre, Nina Campbell at Osborne & Little

HOMEComforts Soft tones and gently contrasting patterns create a fresh and inviting feel in the home this month

14 THE ENGLISH HOME

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT Nature’s bounty Botanical forms and soft colourways are key to Sanderson’s Elysian fabric and wallpaper collection. Clever use of scale and proportion lend levity and charm.

Warwick wallpaper, £69 a roll, Samphrey fabric, £89 a metre, both Elysian collection, Sanderson New life The gentle colourways of the new Andalucia range of rugs

by Weaver Green are a delight, both for the senses and for the planet. Made from 100 per cent recycled plastic bottles, they are handwoven to provide a soft cotton feel underfoot.

Paloma Rug, from £130, Andalucia collection, Weaver Green Form & function Showcasing contemporary touches and a classic finish, this vanity basin blends practicality with glamour.

Taw Double Vanity in Verde Guatemala marble with an antique brushed brass finish, from £4,548 (single), and £7,182 (double), Drummonds



CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Historic work Inspired by medieval art and architecture, designer Kate Medlicott’s Journeyman collection blends form and pattern in five colourways.

All fabrics, £49 a metre, The Journeyman collection

by Kate Medlicott Colourful collection Now comprising 120 shades, the relaunched paint range from Marston & Langinger offers a carefully curated palette for use indoors and out.

Bayswater, from £5 for 125ml Chalky Matt Interior, M&L Paint Bird life Hummingbirds delicately painted onto hand-blown glass make for an illuminating sight.

Come Fly With Me lamp base, from £385, Rosanna Lonsdale Perfectly petite Designed to meet the needs of those short on space but big on cooking, Aga’s new 90cm-wide model features two cast-iron ovens as well as a warming oven.

3 Series eR3 90 range cooker, from £7,900, Aga

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16 THE ENGLISH HOME

What’s unique about an Albion Bath?

What makes an Albion bath unique?

We started making fine free-standing baths over 20 years ago using our own material: Iso-Enamel.

Iso-Enamel keeps your bathing water hotter for longer than other bathtubs, at half the weight of an equivalent cast iron or fireclay bath.

To suit your design ideas, the exterior of most Albion baths can be finished to a colour of your choice - and with over 50 models available, we’ll have you spoilt for choice.

Request our 276 page brochure to find out more about our baths, taps, showers and bathroom furniture.

Request your Brochure: +(0) 1255 831605 albionbathco.com

FEATURE EVE MIDDLETON PHOTOGRAPH P15 (DRUMMONDS) © DARREN CHUNG; P18 (KDLOVES) © CHRIS TAYLOR

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE Luxurious lie-in Few things are as indulgent as a sumptuous breakfast, served on delicate gilded chinaware and a special tray.

Peacock Teacup, £299 for a set of two; Peacock Teapot, £374; Oval Tray, £397; and all other items, Breakfast in Bed collection, Rachel Bates Interiors Practically perfect Featuring the aesthetics of marble with scratch-, heat-, and stainresistant properties, this nonporous engineered quartz stone provides an individual and easy-to-clean finish.

CRL Quartz in Savannah, from £250 a square metre, CRL Stone Collaboration collection Design studio Kelling Designs has launched KDLoves, a selection of homeware that includes collaborations such as this smart fabric range with Bernard Thorp.

Cushions (from bottom left), Minna (green), Polly (pink), Philippa (green), all from £85, the Bernard Thorp collaborative fabric range, KDLoves n

18 THE ENGLISH HOME

100% Bespoke kitchen & household furniture, sympathetically designed to work with your home’s architecture and handmade to last a lifetime.

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Electric Three-Oven Aga Total Control in Blush, £12,060, Aga

PRETTY IN PINK Whether a pastel Madame de Pompadour shade or a hot Schiaparelli hue, pink’s popularity as a colour for interiors looks set to continue. Contemporary print collections span from busy designs with romantic themes, to timeless patterns updated in striking bright and bold motifs. For those wishing to merely dabble in the colour, small accessories in uplifting flavours of pink add charm and enhance interiors.

Rose Table Cutlery, 30-piece set, £119, Villeroy & Boch

Acacia Rug Pink by Linie Design, from £459, Heal’s Sophia Pink Waste Paper Bin, £60; cushions from £48.50, all Kate Forman

Peggy Sherbet Velvet Cushion, £90, Bluebellgray Le Bateau Foix painted in Pale Dogwood, from £5,000, Catchpole & Rye

Hartfield Footstool, from £400, Arlo & Jacob

20 THE ENGLISH HOME

FEATURE SUZANNA LE GROVE PHOTOGRAPHS (HEAL’S) © BRIAN BUCHARD

Sofa covered in Lazurite Pink, £79 a metre; cushions (left to right): Eris, Silver, £64 a metre; Marble Rose, White/Grey, £105 a metre, all Jane Churchill

Flora Pendant in Ruby, Optic, from £410, Rothschild & Bickers

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Pompadour high back sofa in Como silk velvet - Moss

Eclectic Leafed Dressing Table, from £1,920, And So To Bed

Nosegay Coaster, £6, Avenida Home

A PLACE OF BEAUTY Couture Rose Peony & Rose Diffuser, £38, Designers Guild

A well-organised dressing table should have both practicality and glamour in mind. This will help routines at the start and end of the day occur in a calm, enjoyable fashion. Essential items include somewhere comfortable to sit, good lighting and a trinket tray to make sure everyday jewellery is easily to hand. A few finishing touches – such as flowers, scented candles or diffusers, and pictures of loved ones – will make it a beloved place to spend time.

Laurel Crystal Glass Perfume Bottle (Conical) with Gold Atomiser, £99, Royal Scot Crystal

Blue Faux Croc Silver Alarm Clock, £41.25, Addison Ross

Gordon Castle Antler Trellis Trinket Tray in Ivory, £195, Halcyon Days

FEATURE SUZANNA LE GROVE

Cadby Velvet Button Stool, £214, Rowen & Wren

Blossom & Bugs Hand-Painted Hexagonal Tea Caddy Table Lamp, £1,029, Besselink & Jones

Glass Vases with Gold Rim, £35 (for six), The Wedding Of My Dreams

22 THE ENGLISH HOME

www.yiangou.com 01285 888 150

Nevada Teepee in Bloom Pink, £140; Large Sahara Beanbags, £79 each, Ella James

Vitra White Rocking Chair, £425, Alex and Alexa

Hello Boo lampshade (base not included), £45, Belle & Boo

NURSERY TALES Winnie The Pooh Disney Baby Dream Blanket, £46.95, Aden + Anais

Taking time to decorate a nursery and prepare for a new arrival is one of the joys of anticipating a special addition to any family (Royal or otherwise). Here we select some adorable, timeless buys for a sweetly stylish setting for any little prince or princess. We include a few pieces set to become heirlooms so that the young owners can share the joy with future generations.

Harry Bear, £125, Highgrove Shop

Harlequin Kids Storage Bench in Blue, £199, Cam Cam Copenhagen at Nubie

Dapple Grey 30th Anniversary Rocking Horse, from £3,960, Dragons of Walton Street

24 THE ENGLISH HOME

Nizio chair, £95, Meble (comes in white, blue and pink), exclusive to Blue Almonds

WINTER

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THE ENGLISH HOME

NOTEBOOK Our monthly digest of inside information on people, places and pursuits

Diary – events worth noting TREASURE TROVE

Blenheim Palace is the spectacular setting for the annual Cotswolds Art and Antiques Dealers’ Association (CADA) fair.

Expect fine furniture, pictures, silver, clocks, antique boxes, glass, sculpture, bronze, carpets and textiles, ceramics, rare books, jewellery and decorative items.

All works are for sale, with prices from £100 to more than £100,000.

21–24 February; cadafair.com EXPERT ADVICE Consult the biggest

collection of listed building experts and suppliers under one roof at The Listed Property Show, held at London’s Olympia.

Advice is available covering every aspect, from mortgages to maintenance, specialist builders and conservation architects.

9–10 February; lpoc.co.uk EXOTIC ALLURE Colombia is the world’s most biodiverse country for orchids, with 4,270 species, and for Kew Gardens’ annual Orchids Festival, The Princess of Wales Conservatory will be transformed into a Colombian paradise with dazzling displays, themed attractions and after-dark openings.

9 February to 10 March; kew.org

A Good Read

PURSUITS Capture Sunshine In A Jar Making marmalade is the perfect winter activity and provides a sunshine taste on cold mornings. Seville oranges produce the best marmalade due to their lively tasting peel and high pectin content, but their season only lasts for a few short weeks in January and February.

Home-making marmalade ensures an entirely bespoke result to please the maker’s preference for bitter or sweet, fine-shred, coarse-cut or no peel at all, and whether to add a spike of flavour from gin, Cointreau or champagne.

Choose organic oranges to avoid

pesticide-sprayed peel, and soak the peel overnight for a shorter cooking time and a brighter, fruitier taste. A sugar thermometer is the best way to check for the setting point of 104.5°C. Fill jars to the brim (no need for wax discs if jars have tight-fitting lids).

Legend has it that marmalade was invented in 1700 when a storm-ravaged Spanish ship carrying Seville oranges sought refuge in Dundee. The cargo was sold off cheaply to James Keiller, a down-on-his-luck local merchant, whose wife turned it into a preserve.

Love Colour by Anna Starmer (£25, Ivy Press)

Colour expert Anna Starmer implores us to surround ourselves with colours that make us “happy, comfortable and calm”, and trust our instincts with decor, remembering “your home is for you”. With beautiful photographs and clever ideas, she demonstrates how to bring colour into the home without the need for sunglasses, using subtle, chic tones to warm up a room.  THE ENGLISH HOME 27

Michael Curtis Green Mahout Lifestyle co-founder When boat-builder-turned-upholsterer Michael Curtis Green met wife-to-be Mary-Anne, she introduced him to the exotic beauty of India and the traditional dhurrie, a flatwoven rug.

Together they founded Mahout Lifestyle in 2010 to showcase the colours and crafts of India and, in particular, to support and help keep alive the dying art of dhurrie-making.

Today they have the largest collection of flatwoven dhurrie designs in the UK and possibly Europe, which they add to constantly.

These dhurries are made by hand in Jaipur by craftsmen using ancient techniques and combinations of wool, cotton and jute, creating a variety of textures and subtlety of colour.

Michael designs the rugs and manages the weavers, and has introduced a 100 per cent premium wool collection that takes dhurries to a more sophisticated level and offers

PEOPLE

Kate Medlicott Fabric & homeware designer Contrasting the exotic with the traditional is a common thread throughout the work of fabric designer Kate Medlicott. The dual influences of growing up on an organic farm in rural England and working in business in Singapore and Hong Kong are evident in her designs, offering a fresh perspective.

Now living and working near Glastonbury with her husband and two children, Kate established her studio in 2016 and has launched three fabric collections to date, all proudly woven and printed in England.

Her latest collection, Journeyman – five designs in five colourways – was inspired by medieval architecture and artisans.

Inspiration struck when Kate visited the ancient ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, especially the chevron ‘zigzag’ mouldings on the arches, a seemingly modern pattern that has in fact been around for centuries.

Fragments of medieval pottery and tiles – many of which would have been made by travelling artisans, also known as ‘journeymen’, from Italy, Spain and England – yielded the motifs and shapes that can be seen on Kate’s fabric designs. katemedlicott.com  28 THE ENGLISH HOME

a muted, warm colour palette.

Every rug can be custom coloured and sized, and delivered in less than eight weeks from start to finish.

“Dhurries are tough, versatile, fun and an extremely good-value floor covering,” says Michael. “I visit my weavers twice a year, every year, and witness the working conditions and methods for myself.”

Design is in his blood – his great grandfather, architect William Curtis Green, designed The Dorchester, and William’s brother Arthur Romney Green was an accomplished furniture maker in the Arts and Crafts tradition. mahoutlifestyle.com

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PLACES

Ryder & Hope Many of us admire the famous William Morris quote “have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful” – but Alice Meller and Michelle Blyth have turned this philosophy into a thriving business.

Their stylishly rustic homeware shop, Ryder & Hope, specialises in “thoughtfully curated, design-led wares to inspire everyday living”. Standing outside the shop in the pretty Dorset town of Lyme Regis, it is possible to see the sea, and this anchor to the natural world is reflected inside the shop with an abundance of natural materials, tones and textures, including many wooden and woven items, hand-dipped beeswax candles, ceramics, baskets, textiles and nature-based beauty products, plus kitchenalia, jewellery, books and more.

Friends Alice and Michelle have backgrounds in retail and product design, and share an appreciation for quality, but they never meant to open a shop. When this Grade II listed doublefronted retail space became available on their local high street, they were intrigued, arranged a viewing, and the rest is history.

Since opening the shop in 2015, the pair have forged links with skilled local artists and makers, such as carpenter and joiner Barry Meller, who has been working with wood for over 50 years, traditional trug maker Adrian Janssen, artist and designer Hugh Dunford Wood and Neal’s Yard founder Romy Fraser, who makes organic soaps and balms on her Dorset farm. ryderandhope.com

Easton Walled Gardens Snowdrops peeking through the frozen earth is a heart-warming sight that reminds us spring is on its way. One of the wonderful places in England to see spectacular swathes of them is at Easton Walled Gardens set on a rural estate in Lincolnshire’s rolling countryside.

Its annual Snowdrop Week – this year from 16 to 24 February, 11am until 4pm daily – offers a fairytale wonderland of snowdrops, aconites, cyclamen and other winter flowers. Those in the know will flock to see this hidden gem, warming up in the tearoom afterwards with a cup of tea and slice of cake.

Owned and managed by the Cholmeley family since 1561 – 15 generations have farmed, built and developed this land – Easton is an estate run on traditional lines, with ancient woodlands, arable and livestock farming, as well as fabulous gardens open to the public.

The gardens had been lost to nature, but passionate gardener Ursula Cholmeley has rescued them from dereliction, a labour of love that has been going on since 2001. As the gardens were cleared of brash and brambles, letting the light back in, the snowdrops began to recover. Now they spread across two banks alongside the river, and release wafts of honey-scented perfume on sunny days. Hellebores, crocuses, daffodils and blue chionodoxa have been added around these naturalised plantings. Throughout the gardens there are pretty groupings of early-flowering perennials and small bulbs. visiteaston.co.uk  30 THE ENGLISH HOME

LUXU RY B ESPOKE WARD ROB ES & D RESSING ROOMS The Heritage Wardrobe Company has long been associated with high quality, luxur y fitted furniture for customers with discerning taste. Distinct, traditionally crafted designs blend with modern style to create a statement of elegance for bedrooms, dressing rooms and walk-in wardrobes.

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PLACES

Croft Castle

32 THE ENGLISH HOME

FEATURE SARAH FEELEY PHOTOGRAPHS P27 (MAIN) © EDUARD NASYROV/SHUTTERSTOCK; (JAR) CATHERINE HUNT ORIENTAL ANTIQUES. P28 (TOP) ROOM © CHRISTOPHER SCHOLEY. P30 (TOP) © MATT AUSTIN; (BOTTOM) © FRED CHOLMELEY. P32 (ALL) © NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES. (EXTERIOR) © ROBERT MORRIS; (SCREEN) © EMILY ROE; (PIANO & DINING ROOM) © NADIA MCKENZIE; (REST) © JAMES DOBSON

Norman knight Bernard The Bearded, under orders from Edward The Confessor, built a ‘motte and bailey’ castle to protect the English borders in around 1055.

Now, 964 years later, Croft Castle is open to the public through the National Trust.

Set deep in the heart of Herefordshire’s countryside, surrounded by 1,500 acres of historic woodland, farm and parkland, Croft Castle has a fascinating history and lavish interiors for visitors to explore.

The Croft family had settled at the site by the time of the Domesday Book in 1086. Dr Herbert Croft built the castle we see today, which dates from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with a stone structure added during Tudor times. Despite having once been prominent in national politics, due to declining fortunes the Croft family were forced to give up the estate in 1746.

It passed to the ironmaster Richard Knight, and Thomas Farnolls Pritchard was commissioned to remodel the interiors in 1765, adding Rococo-style ceilings, magnificent oak panelling and hand-gilded trompe l’oeil. His delicate interiors contrasted with the rugged grandeur of Croft’s battlemented towers.

The Crofts bought the castle back for £30,000 in 1923, and today The Saloon is set up as it would have been then. Visitors can marvel at Jacobean panelling, eighteenth-century plasterwork and woodwork, Rococo chimneypieces and fine neo-Georgian decoration, as well as a collection of seventeenth- to nineteenth-century furniture and paintings, including works by Gainsborough, rare books and early eighteenth-century music. nationaltrust.org.uk/croft-castle-and-parkland n

34 THE ENGLISH HOME

The carved-wood fireplace in the drawing room was installed in 1919 as part of the renovations that took place after a devastating fire swept through the house in 1917. The walls are painted in Grey Mist by Sanderson and the Saturday sofa in Orange Ganges Roosevelt Velvet is from Sofa.com

History & HERITAGE Inheriting Fallodon Hall in rural Northumberland has been an enriching experience for Mark and Lucia Bridgeman, who have taken on the challenge wholeheartedly FEATURE & STYLING CLAIR WAYMAN PHOTOGRAPHS BRENT DARBY

THE ENGLISH HOME 35

ABOVE LEFT The red bricks used to build Fallodon Hall came from The Netherlands: “Mark’s father told me that ships taking grain from England to The Netherlands used bricks to provide ballast on their return journey,” says Lucia.

ABOVE RIGHT The drawing room curtains were inherited with the house. The green glass vase is from The Beehive in Alnwick.

LEFT This painting in the main hall was the inspiration for the design of the rug in the drawing room (above), which was commissioned by Mark’s mother.

36 THE ENGLISH HOME

B

athed in winter sunlight, Fallodon Hall is a majestic sight, surrounded by formal gardens, organic farmland and ancient woods. Situated near Alnwick, Northumberland, the estate is a stone’s throw from picturesque beaches, open moorland and the rolling Cheviot Hills that straddle the border between Scotland and England.

Mark and Lucia Bridgeman moved to Fallodon 13 years ago with four young children in tow when Mark inherited the farm and estate from his parents, who had inherited it from his grandparents in the 1970s. As Mark grew up at Fallodon, the couple knew they would all settle quickly and receive a warm welcome. “We came here from London when the children were all under the age of seven,” says Lucia, who also knew the area well, having spent summer holidays with her cousins in nearby Rothbury.

Original parts of Fallodon Hall date back to the 1660s, when a family called Salkeld were in residence.

Then, in the 1720s, Thomas Wood took over and extended the house, giving it its smart Georgian feel.

A pivotal moment in Fallodon’s history occurred when his daughter, Hannah Wood, married into the Grey family in 1755. From then on, the house became the 

Once a year, Lucia’s housekeeper, Hayley, spends a week polishing the wooden bannisters and parquet floors in the hall with beeswax polish.

The sculpture of a chicken on the mahogany table is by Ann Gascoine, a sculptor and family friend.

ABOVE The kitchen is

by Tom Bayley and has Corian Quartz worksurfaces. Lucia chose a British Standard paint colour called Linden Green for the splashback, from Glassolutions.

RIGHT The blue patterned tablecloth was sourced from Ibbi and the Camargue dining chairs are from Oka. The white porcelain lamps are from Graham & Green.

The faux hyacinths are from Neptune.

‘We don’t claim to be anything grand or special, but this house has significance, in a small way, and we cherish that’ residence of a number of prominent Greys, including Charles, the 2nd Earl Grey, after whom the tea is said to be named. Sir Edward Grey, Charles’s great-greatnephew had no children, so, on his death in the 1930s, the house passed to his nephew, who sold the house to Mark’s grandfather. The Bridgeman era had begun.

Unfazed by the idea of taking on a large, eighteenthcentury country house, Lucia would travel up from London on the train to oversee the renovations. “My interior style was motivated by having a very organised husband who said we’re moving in six months,” she says. “You have to make decisions quickly and I think that’s always a good thing. Luckily, when we took the house on it was in very good nick, as Mark’s parents had loved and looked after it.” Being an old property, however, the couple did need to rewire, add more lighting, and upgrade the bathrooms and kitchen.

During this time Lucia also enlisted the help of her good friend, interior designer, Lottie Keith, who runs LK Design. “I had never done up a big period property before, so Lottie gave me advice on fabrics and paint

colours,” she says. “My in-laws left a great heritage too. I kept Mark’s mother’s curtains in the drawing room and library because I love them, and they’ve stood the test of time.”

The couple have created inviting interiors with a mix of inherited treasures, pieces picked up whilst living abroad and auction finds. “I would say I’m influenced by my mother’s interior style, where so many objects, pictures and bits of furniture have got a history,” Lucia explains. “Weaving these collections together creates a welcoming space that everyone feels comfortable in, whilst each individual piece has a story to tell.”

Lucia enjoys the thrill of bidding for antiques in local auction houses. “I’m a regular at local auctioneers Anderson & Garland and Railtons,” she says. “You can get incredible things. I’ve found the most beautiful leather-bound books and old mahogany furniture, and gorgeous antique crockery.”

The kitchen was one of the first spaces to be tackled, with the help of Mark’s cousin and good friend Tom Bayley, an interior architect. “I grew up 

ABOVE In the library, the Road to the Olgas watercolour, by Australian artist Ben Shearer, reminds the couple of the time they spent living in Australia. The shelves in the library are filled with nineteenthcentury books inherited from Mark’s grandfather.

LEFT In the kitchen’s sitting area, Lucia chose the uplifting red Lysander fabric from Osborne & Little to act as a contrast to the lime accents in the rest of the kitchen.

THE ENGLISH HOME 39

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with a kitchen that had a long table, an Aga and a sofa,” Lucia says. “My mother was always cooking, sewing, painting or sculpting, with us four children around her. I wanted a similar feel at Fallodon.”

Having enjoyed renovating this home, Lucia has more recently undertaken converting Brunton House, also on the Fallodon estate, into a holiday let. “Mark gave me five months to completely refurbish it. Talk about deadlines!” says Lucia. Guests can now enjoy this tranquil setting, surrounded by organic farmland and a diverse array of wildlife.

Organic farming and sustainable living are close to the couple’s hearts. The heating is run using biomass.

“We use wood from our woods on the estate, which we chip. Our boiler system is then run off the wood chip, which covers all our heating and hot water. It’s brilliant. The house is amazingly warm. We have tree-planting projects, so every time we cut down trees we plant more,” explains Lucia. 

ABOVE The Laura Ashley curtains in this room were brought from the couple’s house in London when they first moved in. The pink throw is from Ibbi and the black hand-painted table lamps are from Oka. LEFT The framed bird illustrations are from The Birds of America

by John Audubon.

The pink hydrangea fabric used to cover the headboards is from Laura Ashley.

THE ENGLISH HOME 41

ABOVE The wallpaper in the master bedroom is Mapperton by Sanderson. “I love the neutral tone and the fine botanical detail within a large pattern,” says Lucia.

RIGHT “We thought of this bathroom as being the surprise around the corner.

The bedrooms are all very calm colours and then you walk in to this tropical forest.

This is now Ida’s bathroom as we’ve redone another bathroom at the end of the house for the three boys,” explains Lucia. The wallpaper is Sunbird by Matthew Williamson.

Fallodon is a great draw for many friends and family members. “We both come from large families, so a lot of people converge on the house regularly, but it absorbs them easily,” says Lucia. “We might have 16 children playing hide-and-seek one day, then a book-signing or local fundraising event the next.”

Although the house is large, it has great flow, with rooms and stairs leading off the main hall, which has always been a favourite spot for the children – Orlando, 18, Ned, 17, Ida, 16 and Ben, 13 – to play boisterous games of indoor badminton or table tennis.

“The ghosts of the past probably look down on us with a raised eyebrow or two,” laughs Lucia.

The couple take great pride in opening the house and its gardens for local events. “This house is of historical interest in Northumberland and within the nation. One Oxford professor, for example, who’s very interested in the Greys and political ethics, brings a reading group here most years. I get school groups, historians, garden lovers and the flower club from the local village,” Lucia says.

It is clear to see that the family are enormously fond of Fallodon. “We treasure the house,” Lucia says. “And as Sir Edward Grey didn’t have any children to pass the house to, we feel very much honour-bound to keep it in his memory. We don’t claim to be anything grand or special, but this house has significance, in a small way, and we cherish that.” n

42 THE ENGLISH HOME

ITCHMARSH &

OODWIN

A sense OF THE PAST Returning to the Devon farm where he grew up, interior designer Rupert White seized the opportunity to turn a tumbledown barn into a bright, inviting home for his family FEATURE SERENA FOKSCHANER PHOTOGRAPHS JAKE EASTHAM STYLING LOU EASTHAM

The welcoming entrance to the new extension was designed as a practical hall and bootroom which leads to a new utility room and guest cloakroom. The walls are painted in Blue Blood from Paint & Paper Library.

THE ENGLISH HOME 45

ABOVE In the sitting area, a Naz in Blue cushion by Alidad from Chelsea Textiles sits on the sofa from David Seyfried, which is covered in a fabric from Colefax and Fowler. The fender from Acres Farm is covered in Mogador

by Lelièvre.

ABOVE RIGHT The growing ‘picture wall’ is lined with pictures by artists including Katharine Lightfoot and Charles ‘Snaffles’ Johnson Payne.

R

upert White’s children have disappeared.

“But I’m not worried,” he says cheerfully, opening the door to his Devon home where rainjackets and tweeds hang across the blue walls of the hallway. “I know exactly where they are.

They’ll be across the farmyard at my parents’ home, watching telly and eating Polos,” laughs Rupert, who lives on the family farm with his wife Trish and two daughters, Matilda, seven, and Nancy, five. It is an arrangement, both modern and traditional, that suits all generations. “We can pop in for a chat and the children can see their grandparents every day, without it feeling like a formal visit.”

When Rupert left home at 19 to pursue a career in interior design in London, he had always imagined returning to live in rural Devon, but not, he says, opposite his parents. Then, events intervened. “One day my father rang to say that their tenants had moved out and would we like to move in to the stable block?

We’d outgrown our terraced house and our friends

46 THE ENGLISH HOME

were moving out of London. So 10 minutes later we rang back and said ‘why not?’,” says Rupert, who honed his design skills at leading interiors firms, including Colefax and Fowler, David Seyfried, Pierre Frey and Vaughan.

At first the Whites lived in the stable block: a cheerful but squashed arrangement of three bedrooms and a kitchen that multi-tasked as office, dining room and laundry-strewn utility. But two years later, when Rupert inherited a small legacy, he decided it was time to knock through and reinvent the adjacent tumbledown barn as a modern, family space. The upside-down layout, he explains, was dictated by the scale of the building which had been untouched by the family for decades. Upstairs, on the first floor, where the ceiling of the former hayloft soars to seven metres, is now a convivial kitchen, eating and dining space.

Downstairs, a new wide hallway leads to a utility and dog room, guest cloakroom and, most importantly for a designer who takes a quiet delight in orderliness 

“It can be difficult to tear guests away from the island,� says Rupert of the kitchen, designed from scratch and made locally to feel more like furniture than fitted cabinetry. The long table is made from scaffolding planks used in the building works. The curtains are in Bukhara by Lewis & Wood.

THE ENGLISH HOME 47

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‘I’m fascinated by the minutiae of how people live...

The best homes reflect our lives’ (and a pained acceptance of “the deluge of plastic toys” that goes with bringing up children), a hallway lined with coat hooks. “Thirty-six to be precise,” he says.

Ever since he turned a boxroom into a bedroom lined with junk-shop prints when he was seven, Rupert was intent on becoming a designer. “My brothers are the horsey ones; I lacked their hand-to-eye coordination which is why I throw chintz around,” he laughs. He now runs his own interior design practice, describing his style as “traditional with a kick”, an English hybrid of antiques and deep seating enlivened with fresh, modern colours and fabrics, which suits his clients. “Living in the country, everything has to be comfortable and practical; somewhere you can put your feet up and dogs can jump on the sofa,” he says, adding, “I’m fascinated by the minutiae of how people live; where they have their coffee in the morning for instance. The best homes reflect our lives.”

Does Mrs White agree with all his schemes? “She’s rather clever at planting a seed of an idea and then letting me think it’s mine,” he says, leading the way up the new, green-oak staircase to the bright kitchen. The original openings, once frequented by roosting doves, have been turned into windows for views of the swaying laurel trees. Rupert used scaffolding boards salvaged from the building work to make the sociably long table. The Aga was inherited and Rupert designed the kitchen cabinets, which were made locally.

A warm wall colour, illuminated by a scattering of table lamps and Edison-style pendant lightbulbs, cements the relaxed mood. “It’s a large space so the challenge was to make it feel cosy whilst keeping the open-plan look; we had to think carefully about creating separate zones whilst keeping the flow of the layout. I feel it’s worked because now I can read on the sofa in peace, whilst the children watch Peppa Pig.”

ABOVE LEFT The former hayloft, to the left, has been converted as an extension to the converted stableblock, to the right, which now houses the family and guest bedrooms and Rupert’s office.

ABOVE RIGHT Rupert with his wife Trish and two daughters, Matilda, seven and Nancy, four.

THE ENGLISH HOME 49

ABOVE In the converted stableblock, the former kitchen has been turned into a guest bedroom. The set of prints were a housewarming gift from Trish’s mother.

The lampbases are from Där Lighting and the bed is upholstered in Facet

by Ian Sanderson.

RIGHT In the master bedroom, the headboard is covered in Damask by Blithfield, the drapes and valance are in Bowood by Colefax and Fowler, the lamps are from Vaughan and the quilt is from Oka.

The project took 11 months and was done by the local farmer who moonlights as a builder. “At one point he had to leave to do the sileaging. But that’s what happens in the country.”

Transforming the barn gave Rupert the excuse to start again in the stable block. The former kitchen and sitting room are now comfortable bedrooms for family and guests. Like next door, the decoration is an easy “non matchy-matchy” mix. In the master bedroom, the Edwardian four-poster bed, inherited from Trish’s great-grandmother, is festooned with curtains brought from a previous home. “It took four months to dress the four poster,” says Rupert. Throughout the house the walls are lined with a mix of prints unearthed in junk-shop portfolios and paintings. “All my art used to be lucky finds, now I tend to spend too much time in galleries; it is my one weakness,” he explains.

French doors in Rupert’s new office open on to what used to be the farmyard, which in his childhood was messy and workaday, with the family’s point-topoint horses milling about, too. Now it is as neat as the interior. But the setting of glassy millponds fringed by tall beeches and oaks and quiet views across the valley is exactly as Rupert remembers it from boyhood. “In so many ways nothing has changed, which is the nice thing about coming home,” he says. n

50 THE ENGLISH HOME

The sofa is upholstered in Campbell Union Bronze linen from Ian Mankin, and the sisal matting from Nina Burgess is overlaid with an antique rug from Joshua Lumley. The curtains, in Malabar Red Green on Beige from Bennison, were made to order by Alice Verenna Design.

52 THE ENGLISH HOME

Treasure SEEKERS Henry and Sophie Bickerton have created a delightful haven using their combined love of antiques and richly coloured hues FEATURE JUDITH WILSON PHOTOGRAPHY JAN BALDWIN

ABOVE The terraced house has been completely renovated, including a loft and kitchen extension, and a new roof. The exterior has been painted white “for a fresh look”.

ABOVE RIGHT In the rear half of the drawing room, Henry designed floor-toceiling bookshelves, which are painted using Railings by Farrow & Ball. The nineteenth-century wing chair is upholstered in a striped Malabar fabric (now discontinued).

T

here is a palpable design thread running throughout Henry and Sophie Bickerton’s Parsons Green home. From the pavement their 1880s terraced house appears to be a typical London property, however, inside, everything alludes to a grander vision – from the upscaled vases on the hall table to the winter-dark painted drawing room walls. “I grew up in a Grade II listed Georgian manor house, and my mother inherited and collected antiques,” says Henry. “So the country house aesthetic feels natural to me.”

Henry and Sophie met at university, marrying 13 years ago. They needed a larger family home, so they bought this house in 2011. The location was perfect: it was an easy commute for Henry, who is one of the directors of Jamb, the Pimlico-based specialist in antique and reproduction fireplaces, lights and furniture, and as Sophie was brought up in Fulham, “it was a natural anchor for me,” she says. The house was in a terrible state when the couple viewed it, but they were unfazed. “We wanted a project that we could stamp with our ideas,” says Henry. The drawing room

54 THE ENGLISH HOME

was divided into two bedrooms – the house was being used as student rental accommodation – and had a hideous 1930s fireplace. “We’d spotted original plasterwork beneath the thick layers of paint and Victorian hall tiles under the lino,” Sophie says.

The house was gutted, replumbed and rewired, and Henry designed new extensions for the loft and kitchen. “We lived with my parents that first year,” says Sophie. They moved in with baby Archie, now eight, who has since been joined by his brother Hector, five.

The project, Henry says, was stress-free. “I believe that if you have a clear vision and take time to find good restoration experts, as we did, renovation can be enjoyable,” he says.

Still, he admits that he and Sophie consciously evolved a designer-client relationship for the duration.

Henry has a background in antiques and architectural reclamation, and as he frequently advises Jamb clients on grand country-house projects, he often attends auctions. “For our home, I’d suggest things and Sophie would give approval – or rein me in. I’ve a tendency to random purchases,” he explains. Witness the time 

Henry installed Stanhope fireplaces from Jamb in both halves of the drawing room. The fender, from Alexander von Westenholz on Lillie Road, is teamed with a Playfair fire basket, also from Jamb.

ABOVE The kitchen was custom-made by Thomas Ford & Sons to Henry’s design and painted French Gray

by Farrow & Ball. The limestone flooring is from Stone Age. RIGHT The dining nook includes chairs “thrown out by a friend”, teamed with a bench sourced from Station Mill Antiques in Chipping Norton.

The cheerful cushions were bought on a trip to India.

FAR RIGHT Henry and Sophie in front of a painted sideboard from Anton & K in the Cotswolds.

With candles lit and fires roaring, Henry and Sophie can indulge in a slice of country-house living in London he bought four late-nineteenth-century editions of Encylopedia Britannica for £40 whilst holidaying in Cornwall, only to discover the set comprised 40 volumes. “The journey back home was crowded,” he says. “I’m like a magpie in antique shops.”

Tour the house today, and every room is filled with beautiful finds: walls are elegantly adorned with old prints and antique furniture has been carefully edited. Many pieces are scaled up, but this, says Henry, is deliberate. “My motto is to collect for the future,” he says. The hefty gilt-framed painting over the rear drawing room fireplace is a perfect example of this. “One day,” says Henry, “it will be perfectly proportioned for our dream Georgian ‘forever’ home.” An 1830 map of London hanging above the sofa is similarly generously sized.

The couple focussed on making colour choices early on, starting with the delicious blue-black Railings paint

by Farrow & Ball in the drawing room. Henry loves dark colours and cheerfully admits he would light the entire house with candles if permitted.

“Rooms should be atmospheric,” he says. As a cheerful contrast to the dark walls, the sofa is upholstered in a rich, rust-red hue, and the curtains, in a fabric by Bennison, feature deep tones. Meanwhile, in the master bedroom, walls in Blue Gray, also by Farrow & Ball, generate a more gentle, feminine mood.

Colour aside, Henry was keen to design a drawing room that would remain a grown-up space. Rather than converting the rear half into a playroom, he and Sophie commissioned floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and added a desk. Sophie works from here, running 

ABOVE An antique armchair from Emma Leschallas Antiques in Tetbury, now upholstered in Olive linen from The Cloth Shop on Portobello Road, sits beside the sideboard. The vintage glass bottles and vases are part of Sophie’s ongoing collection. The painting is by Gareth Parry.

THE ENGLISH HOME 57

LEFT In the master bedroom, a relaxing haven with grey-blue walls, the headboard is upholstered in Bukhara Tea Rose linen from Lewis & Wood, teamed with Fermoie blue and red cushions, for a dash of subtle pattern. The reproduction stools are from Jeremy Rothman.

Crowther Charrington Associates, her lifestyle management company. As one might expect from a director of Jamb, Henry has specified a pair of white statuary marble fireplaces. “These are copies of an 1820s design, so a little early for the period of the house,” says Henry. “But I had to have a drawing room flickering with roaring fires.”

Despite the couple’s love of antiques, refreshingly, their favourite pieces are not always pristine and did not necessarily involve major expense. Henry believes that, with a careful eye, it is possible to buy cleverly at auction. One nineteenthcentury drawing room armchair, from Emma Leschallas Antiques in Tetbury, has been left unrestored to show off its original fraying hessian. Sophie has a sharp eye too: her mother had consigned some 30-year-old crewelwork curtains to a skip, but Sophie rescued them and they now look elegant in the master bedroom. “Luckily they fitted,” she says.

Sophie’s particular input came when choosing the kitchen.

“It took lots of planning but it is now the heart of the home,” she says. Due to planning constraints, the top of the outside wall in the kitchen had to be at an angle, leaving no capacity for wall units. Faced with the need for storage, Henry designed floor-to-ceiling cabinetry on the opposite wall, which also 

ABOVE The small sofa in the master bedroom was bought at auction and covered in Jasper fabric by Michael S Smith. The lamps, bought in Petworth, are teamed with lampshades from Fermoie.

LEFT In the bathroom, for an easy, country mood, the walls and tongue-and-groove panelling have been painted in Quiet White from Papers and Paints. The wall lights are from Collier Webb.

THE ENGLISH HOME 59

houses the fridge and microwave. The inspiration for it came from an antique estate cupboard, bought for Jamb by Henry but too big for this kitchen. “We commissioned Thomas Ford & Sons in Ripley to build the kitchen, including a pantry cupboard,” says Henry. “It gives the mood of a country house kitchen.”

Despite a sophisticated design throughout, this is also a family home and Henry and Sophie are not “precious” about the boys intermingling with antiques. “Though I’ll occasionally find bits of old silver amongst the Lego,” says Henry. The boys’ bedrooms are jolly, mixing the antique and new. Archie specifically requested a modern Ikea homework desk, and his wish was granted. “But I hope I’ve ignited a love of old things in the boys,” adds Henry.

One day, the Bickertons hope to move to a Georgian rectory.

When that moment comes, Henry’s ‘future’ buys will fit perfectly. But in the meantime, with candles lit and fires roaring, Henry and Sophie can indulge in a slice of country-house living in London. “I love this house – it’s a space we created together and seven years on, with the addition of two children, it still works really well,” Henry says. n 60 THE ENGLISH HOME

ABOVE The headboard in Hector’s room is upholstered in Onikoko Red on Beige by Bennison and is teamed with curtains in Chimichanga 08 by Malabar. The pompom garlands are from Pompom Galore.

RIGHT Archie’s bedroom walls are covered in Boyton Rose wallpaper by William Yeoward, available from Designers Guild.

The metal bedstead is by Feather & Black.

A love letter, owls’ nests and a large, abandoned, hornets’ nest were found in three closed-up rooms at the top of the house.

Where the HEART IS When designer Harriet Anstruther peeled back the layers of her historic Sussex house and let it speak for itself, she created a unique country retreat brimming with personality FEATURE CHRISTINE STOVELL PHOTOGRAPHS JAKE EASTHAM STYLING LOU EASTHAM

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The scullery is one of the oldest rooms in the house and is where Harriet dries linens and keeps cuttings.

Harriet found the butler sink in the garden.

THE ENGLISH HOME 63 THE ENGLISH HOME 63

The scullery is one of the oldest rooms in the house and is where Harriet dries linens and keeps cuttings.

Harriet found the butler sink in the garden.

THE ENGLISH HOME 63 THE ENGLISH HOME 63

H

ouses, it is said, are made of walls and beams, but homes are made with love and dreams. For interior designer Harriet Anstruther, it was her sensitivity to her West Sussex property’s past, both as a repository for centuries of personal stories and in terms of its architectural history, which she used to stunning effect to create a unique and enchanting country retreat for her family. “You have to listen to a house and allow it to speak to you,” observes Harriet, who is a full member of the British Institute of Interior Design. “Every space will tell you what it needs if you let it. That’s where creativity begins.”

Harriet is married to portrait and interior photographer Henry Bourne and has a 25-year old daughter, Celestia. During the week, she lives and works in South Kensington where she runs her own highly successful multi-disciplinary design studio.

Weekends in the country provide respite from city life and an opportunity to reconnect with nature.

“Without romanticising it, it’s a slice of time where life is simplified. It’s about collecting wood for the fires, clearing ditches, mending hedges, making and doing and spending time together outside,” she remarks appreciatively.

The family’s sanctuary is a three-storey farmhouse which was given to Harriet by her father on the day 

ABOVE All the exposed woodwork has been limewashed by hand and organic paints, pigments and plasters have been used to allow the wattle-and-daub walls to breathe. The table and chairs are from Petworth Antiques Market. Harriet bought the brass arms holding torches from a junk shop in France.

RIGHT Pearl the whippet loves her cosy spot next to the Aga. Harriet discovered the York stone flooring under layers of 1930s newspapers and carpet tiles.

‘I sometimes think I would love a big fancy shower, but that’s not possible here. The building is what it is and that’s what makes it magical’ ABOVE A welcoming fire burns in the huge hearth of the sitting room which was an eighteenth-century addition along with two upper storeys.

The large ottoman is from George Smith.

RIGHT The house’s laid-back mood makes it a relaxing weekend hideaway for all, including the family’s dogs – Pearl, a whippet (seen here), and Maudie, a terrier. The modern sconce above is by Tobia Scarpa for Flos.

she was born and subsequently occupied by tenant farmers. The timber-framed property sits at the heart of 100 acres of farmland, garden and woods and is deeply rooted in its rural past. The oldest parts of the house, which date back five centuries, are the kitchen, scullery, dining room and library. A later wing, added in the eighteenth century, provides a sitting room and two upper storeys.

However, it was not history or architecture which piqued Harriet’s curiosity when she first visited the house as a young girl, but a far more immediate question. “I was about eight or nine and keen to get to my riding lesson, but my father had to call in first to speak to the farmer,” she explains. “As we sat there, a little mouse ran across the floor and straight up the farmer’s leg. I kept wondering where it had gone and why no one was mentioning it.”

Less intrepid souls might have been disturbed by memories of free-range mice, but when Harriet moved in with her small daughter some 20 years ago in the aftermath of a difficult time, she relished the challenge of a house that had remained untouched for decades.

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“There was no central heating, so I bought dozens of cheap, brown felt Army surplus blankets to nail up as draught excluders. We wrapped ourselves up and nestled in front of the fire,” Harriet says.

“We called ourselves Bidge It and Bodge It,” Harriet continues, laughing as she recalls how she and Celestia removed piles of rubbish, and lifted dank carpet tiles and layers of 1930s newspapers smothering the ground floor. “We had huge bonfires.”

There were what Harriet refers to as the “necessary, unglamorous jobs” – the installation of new drains, rewiring, replumbing and installing central heating.

Her own interventions have been subtle – a half-height wall to create a ‘snug’ area off the dining room and a new bathroom on the second floor. “I sometimes think I would love a big fancy shower,” Harriet says, “but that’s not possible here. The building is what it is and that’s what makes it magical.” Respect for the building has been paramount throughout every stage of the renovation, even to the extent of removing old plugs from holes in interior doors to allow the fires to draw freely and redistribute heat. 

The windowsill in the sitting room plays host to Harriet’s collection of candlesticks and candles alongside a bust with a paper crown playfully placed on top of it.

In the snug, the gilded antique chair, playfully described by Harriet as a throne, was a serendipitous find by the side of a skip.

The fabric (discontinued) is by GP & J Baker.

THE ENGLISH HOME 67

The master bathroom’s clawfoot tub, a flea market find, is somewhere to luxuriate on dark, rainy nights, and sits beneath an inherited Scottish landscape painting.

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The Campbell tartan throw on the chest in the guest bedroom is a reference to Harriet’s Scottish heritage.

Gradually the bones of the house were revealed; the original brick-and-stone floors downstairs, weathered York stone flags in the kitchen, and magnificent oak beams. There were other discoveries too, from a hand-painted scene tucked almost out of sight at the bottom of a door, to three hidden rooms at the top of the house, sealed off, presumably to keep out the cold. Harriet then lime-washed all the exposed woodwork by hand and used organic paints, pigments and plasters to allow the wattle and daub walls to breathe.

The calm, quiet interior is representative of a new chapter in the story of this unique property. As a designer, Harriet focuses on creating a style which evokes feeling and prompts response, a philosophy extended to her own home with its harmonious blend of graceful, witty and playful notes. She has, with great flair, combined an eclectic collection of family heirlooms and found objects to create an elegant and very personal home where everyone can relax, including the family’s dogs, Pearl and Maudie.

“It was a marvellous gift from my father,” Harriet says with feeling. “I was very close to him and, for me, this house epitomises his generosity of spirit, his life as a countryman and his love of nature, which I’ve inherited. As a child, I grew up watching and listening to nature’s rhythms and I continue to draw inspiration and impetus from Mother Nature’s monumental designs.” n

Elegant family pieces furnish the second-floor guest room in the eighteenth-century wing. The modern wall light is Tau by Flos.

MY ENGLISH HOME

The Marchioness of Cholmondeley The glamorous chatelaine of Houghton Hall reveals her home passions, her love of rummaging in the attic, and a very special wallpaper project

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he Marchioness of Cholmondeley lives at Houghton Hall in Norfolk with her husband, David, the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, and their three children. One of Britain’s finest examples of Palladian architecture, the house is located just three miles from Anmer Hall, home to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Formerly a model and political researcher, Lady Rose Cholmondeley, as she is also known, became a patron of East Anglia Children’s Hospices (EACH) in 2018. Houghton Hall is well known for its lavish interiors, art collections and events.

How would you describe your home?

It’s a Palladian house built in the 1720s for Britain’s first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, who employed the very best architects, decorators and designers of the day. Colen Campbell was the architect and William Kent designed the interiors. The house today is very much as it was then, which is a testament to the incredible care that the house has received from its former occupants and David’s family.

FEATURE KERRYN HARPER-CUSS PHOTOGRAPHS © CHRISTOPHER DRAKE

Who do you share your home with?

My husband, my twin boys – who are nine, my daughter – who is two and a half, and our whippet, Benjy. The children love Houghton and I do think they appreciate it, including having so much space to run around in the grounds.

Did it take much of an adjustment moving into such a large property?

We moved to Houghton in 2009, straight after the twins were born. My husband inherited it when he was around 30 [in 1990] but continued to live in London.

We decided to make Houghton our home when the children arrived. Moving anywhere feels awkward at first, and it took me a while to adjust and feel at home. We use the ground floor, and the second and third floors, where the bedrooms are. The first floor is mainly occupied by the State Rooms. I don’t know how many rooms we have in total. Of course, a house changes as you add a family. Family life brings a new dimension and some things need to adapt.

One of the first things I did was to add a family kitchen. I wanted it to be very cosy and relaxed, so it has a fireplace, a television, a big sofa, and we can cook and eat there. Prior to that it was all very functional, and David and I had to eat in the dining room every night. Adding a family kitchen has allowed us to live in a much more informal way.

What does being a guardian of such an important property involve?

It’s a case of constantly keeping an eye on things, making sure you get expert advice and help in the conservation [of the interiors and architecture]. We take great pride and care in doing so. My husband has a great deal of knowledge. And we have a fantastic team which is absolutely instrumental in keeping everything going.

It’s an endless project – there are always things to conserve, preserve and restore.

We have lots of specialists who come to advise. You get to meet a lot of experts and learn so much over the years.

Do you use the State Rooms in a personal capacity?

Not really. We sometimes use them for events – but not many. They’re very formal and it’s not how we live anymore. And, of course, many pieces of furniture and the textiles are very fragile.

Please tell us about your private quarters.

These are much less formal, obviously, and hold a mix of old and new, including quite a few possessions from our travels. We like to buy fabrics from abroad – I love India especially. The style is pretty traditional in essence but has things such as hand-blockprinted textiles, a lot of Moroccan Berber rugs and Fez woven fabrics.

Can you describe your interior style?

I love colour and textiles. Colour is always key. I like a room to feel warm and welcoming.

Who most influenced your taste?

I’m quite influenced by my mother’s style. Her home is a mix of traditional English country house style blended with things collected from her travels.

I love the way that adds character and makes a home unusual.

You are known for your wonderful eye for style and fashion. Are you ‘in charge’ of interior enhancement and preservation at Houghton?

My husband has better taste than me and a great knowledge of contemporary and traditional art and architecture, but always asks my opinion. We work really well together as a team and are both similar in that we like to reuse as much as possible, finding material from the attic and so on. I hate waste. And if everything is brand new in a room, it can all become a bit predictable. I go up to the attics all the time and find old curtains and things that can be given a new lease of life.

[Lady Cholmondeley discovered five panels of the original chinoiserie wallpaper hanging in The Cabinet Room (opposite and above left) – which Emile de Bruijn, a chinoiserie expert, dated to be from 1797 or shortly thereafter – and she has subsequently collaborated with hand-painted wallpaper specialist de Gournay to replicate the design, named Houghton.]

Which is your favourite room and why?

The Yellow Drawing Room. It was decorated by David’s grandmother [Sybil Sassoon] in a silk damask that she found a remnant of and had more woven to hang on the walls. She had it hung in a gathered way that I’ve never seen anywhere else before. It makes the room feel so inviting. The walls are vibrant yellow silk and the curtains are orange – which probably sounds awful on paper but it looks wonderful. And the room is filled with things that she collected.

Do the children have a favourite room?

The boys are really lucky to have a bedroom each, one in each cupola.

Both rooms are hexagonal and my cousin painted the ceilings; one has a night sky and the other a day sky. Both are really magical. The boys also love the main arcade – the entrance hall – and use it as a skateboarding and roller skating arena.

It has columns to weave between and they get up quite a speed.

Finally, what should no English home be without?

A Wembury Warmer. My mother designed it. It’s for serving food and very good for keeping things warm when you don’t have an Aga. It’s essentially a copy from one my father inherited from his parents’ house that could no longer be bought. Her design rather took off into a business. n houghtonhall.com; each.org.uk; hotplates.co.uk THE ENGLISH HOME 71

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HISTORY REPEATING

FEATURE KATY MCLEAN

Working with archive fragments from English Heritage, Little Greene’s new London Wallpapers V collection includes 11 designs spanning over 250 years. Brodsworth (seen here) is based on a design that still hangs on the walls at Brodsworth Hall, a carefully conserved Victorian country house in Yorkshire.

Brodsworth, Consort, £94.50 a roll, Little Greene

THE ENGLISH HOME 73

Sandberg’s Nippon collection of papers has a Japanese inspiration that celebrates the imperfect pure beauty of nature.

Kanoko wallpaper (seen through door), ÂŁ76 a roll, Sandberg

Nature’s INSPIRATION Soft earthy colours, botanical patterns and tactile natural materials combine to create a grounded, calm and organic scheme full of innate beauty

THE ENGLISH HOME 75

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ABOVE These printed cottons in muted pastels offer pretty and playful designs.

Roof Garden, £17 a metre, Studio G ABOVE RIGHT The natural beauty of ginkgo leaves is shown in this modern botanical wallpaper.

Ginkgo, £76 a roll, Sandberg

Evoke the tranquility of sitting in a glorious natural landscape

ature is an eternal source of inspiration for interiors, from beautiful blooms and trailing foliage through to colours and palette combinations. Of course, looking to nature can result in bright, bold and dramatic schemes, but seeking earthier, gentle tones leads to a calmer scheme, full of tactile interest and organic design. Some of the latest fabric and wallpaper collections are embracing the innate charm of nature in their designs, right through to the choice of colours – gentle greens, soft pinks, grounding neutrals and muted blues.

Design house Sandberg is leading the way with its ethos for its Nippon collection, which it describes as a tribute to the “beauty of the natural, pure and imperfect... celebrating nature and encouraging connection with the earth.” This spirit is the epitome of this more organic, sophisticated approach to natural inspiration.

As well as designs with a botanical theme, colours and textures play a pivotal role in this look. Finishes might be matt, natural and rustic; textures include linens, cottons, weaves and embroideries for tactile indulgence. Enveloping colours in a muted, grounded palette are inviting, restful and appealing. This look is about careful consideration and evoking the tranquility of sitting in a glorious natural landscape – by a lake in a forest, atop a hill in early spring or within a quiet woodland clearing. 

LEFT Farrow & Ball’s latest additions to its paint chart include some wonderfully natural colours.

Sulking Room Pink, as seen here, is a perfectly balanced dusky rose colour – a chic choice for a smart sitting room.

Sulking Room Pink, £45 for 2.5l Estate Emulsion, Farrow & Ball BELOW LEFT The hand-printed fabric used for the headboard combines the distinctive linear shapes of espaliered

trees with the flowing nature of their leafy branches.

Headboard, Walled Garden, Bronze Green, £92.50 a metre; walls, Webb’s Wonder, Lilac Grey, £24 a metre; cushion, Guadaloupe, Ash, £98 a metre, all Rapture & Wright BELOW A dense jacquard weave gives these weighty fabrics a sumptuous handle for curtains and upholstery.

Amadea fabric, £136 a metre, George Spencer

THE ENGLISH HOME 77

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OPPOSITE Soft blue, yellow and beiges combine in natural harmony in different patterns and textures in this restful room.

Fabrics, from £59 a metre, all GP & J Baker LEFT This sitting room deftly combines natural textures in a palette of warm stone, mineral blue and soothing sage.

Fabrics, from £55 a metre, all Colefax and Fowler BELOW The shapely curves of the glass lamp base impart an organic feel to this vignette. The pleated-linen shade is at once simple and luxurious.

Bessy lamp base, £55; Natural Linen pleated shade, £145, both Loaf

Key ingredients Layer natural textures in a palette of earthy colours, seeking patterns inspired by the beauty of plants – from pretty blooms to delicate ferns.

Celebrate the beauty of the natural, pure and imperfect

Colours should be natural rather than completely neutral, though beiges, browns and greys are useful in the blend. There should be confident use of nature’s palette. Rather than vibrant shades, the dirtier, smudgy tones work best. Rose pink, duck egg blue, sage green and ochre yellow are all welcome.

Fabrics ideally should be 100 per cent cotton, wool or linen, though those with other fibres are fine as long as the finish is not shiny. Matt textures give a more rustic and natural look. However, this is not unrefined – the elegance is in the detail: pleated linen lampshades, heavy upholstery and curtains, delicate embroidery and hand-blocked prints.

FEATURE KATY MCLEAN

Flooring, if wooden, should be in unpolished finishes such as limed, smoked or natural. Coir, seagrass, sisal or jute flooring and rugs are chic choices. Stone and other tiles can offer texture, too, for floors in bathooms, entrance halls and kitchens.

Patterns, of course, should be floral, leafy or plant-based. Those that have a trailing design in a true-to-life scale offer the most natural look. Stripes, tweeds and herringbones can be mixed in to offer a gentle contrast and rich texture.

Walls should be kept matt with emulsion or chalky paint finishes. For a smart, cocooning feel, use the same colour for woodwork, or if using a contrasting or off-white shade, ensure it is non-shine. n

THE ENGLISH HOME 79

One of a KIND Eminent interior and furniture designers describe projects where bespoke elements have delivered individual style

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ommissioning pieces for an interior scheme can make a room look not just wonderful but entirely individual. An intricately inlaid desk or ingenious extending dining table have the potential to become family heirlooms, whilst wardrobes built to suit a bedroom or dressing room will provide orderly clothes storage and make a strong style statement.

Furniture is a favourite subject for bespoke design but wall treatments, rugs and upholstery are just a few of the other items that can benefit from a designer’s individual treatment and creative flair.

However, going bespoke is not for the faint-hearted.

It requires having confidence in the designer, a

willingness to wait for the right result and a generous budget. The cost of any one-off piece will include materials and labour, design, development and any necessary modifications.

Meanwhile, customised (as opposed to bespoke) design takes advantage of the savings to be made by volume manufacture whilst meeting the desire for an individual look. Upholstery, storage furniture and even rugs, wall coverings and fabrics can be rescaled, recoloured and adjusted to order at a more affordable cost. However, as interior designer Emily Todhunter of Todhunter Earle says, “You can’t replicate a bespoke design. It never seems to work. You can always tell when something has come off a production line.”

OPPOSITE A specially commissioned rug uses colours from the artwork in this London sitting room designed by Natalia Miyar.

BELOW This unusual and dramatic bed was inspired by a French design from the 1970s Natalia Miyar saw in a book.

NATALIA MIYAR Interior designer ”Choosing bespoke furniture has to do with scale and proportion, especially when designing for a constrained or unusually shaped space.

In this bedrom (left) the bed is the centrepiece. Inspired by a remarkable 1970s French bed I saw in a book, it has a bronze frame, mid-weight linen drapes and – a modern addition – housing for a television at the foot. Because it was such an expensive piece, we produced the most comprehensive design possible. I had a scale model made of it, then a full-size prototype and tried out different fabrics for the drapes.

The sitting room (opposite), in a new-build London villa, is furnished with pieces that date from different periods but are pleasantly contrasting and complementary. To avoid distraction from the owner’s art collection, the seating is upholstered in apparently plain textiles. Actually, there is not a single flat fabric in the room: all were chosen for their intricacy and texture. I do a lot of research for each project and to draw the scheme together I commissioned a bespoke wool-and-silk carpet inspired by a 1930s design. The pattern is quite painterly and woven in colours to reflect those in some of the artwork.”

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THE ENGLISH HOME 81

EMILY TODHUNTER Interior designer and co-founder of Todhunter Earle “I usually specify bespoke furniture when there isn’t something readily available that fits the space. This dressing room (right) is in a one-and-three-quarter-height room and without a unique treatment a huge amount of space would have been wasted. Our solution was to create a two-tier dressing room with a mini staircase and gallery to reach the upper level.

When designing dressing room storage, every millimetre counts and we go into minute detail, assessing everything that will be stored in it from shoe size to the number of handbags. This way, we can create a beautiful bespoke wardrobe that the client loves because it is built specially for them. Here, the wardrobe doors are covered in a practical faux-ostrich skin, the handles and balustrade are glass and the stairs and shelving are dark walnut. I love the contrast of light and dark.

The dressing table (below) is quite different.

Whereas the wardrobes are essentially practical, this is just a lovely piece of furniture. Made with straw marquetry, it is the opposite of ‘off the peg’: it is unusual and beautiful, like a couture dress. Bespoke pieces are a labour of love.

They take a lot of time and effort to produce but it’s worth it.”

RIGHT A bespoke two-tier dressing room maximises storage, making the most of the almost double-height of the room.

BELOW Emily Todhunter specified luxurious straw marquetry for a decadent dressing table.

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MARK GILLETTE Interior designer “The internet has given us easy access to furniture and decorative products and much of it is of unusual design and great appeal, but for me the idea of commissioning is part of our heritage. There’s a long tradition in Britain of the wealthy employing creative people and thus sustaining skills and craftsmanship. We apply the concept of commissioning bespoke items in different ways from simply introducing the client to a maker to guiding them through the process or taking on the design completely.

In this dining room (left) the table and chairs were specially made for the room. The chairs were produced under licence to a design by the twentieth-century French sculptor and furniture designer André Arbus, so we needed a table with the right aesthetic to go with them. The bespoke one we commissioned was inspired by the work of another twentieth-century French designer, Jean-Michel Frank, and made from walnut and burr walnut with bronze inlay in the table top and legs echoing other bronze elements in the property.

This traditional bedroom (below) needed a bed in proportion with its size. We wanted an eighteenth-century four-poster bed but original examples are very rare, very expensive and tend to be smaller than required for the room. Our solution was to commission a cabinetmaker and a wood-carver who created a large bed that retains the proportions of a Georgian original and uses historical elements in the design of the posts.”

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ABOVE LEFT The bespoke dining table was designed to match the aesthetics of chairs specially produced under licence to a design by twentieth-century French furniture designer André Arbus.

LEFT As original Georgian four-poster beds are rare, and often smaller than desired for contemporary rooms, this large one was commissioned to include historical details to retain a period feel.

RUPERT BEVAN Furniture designer “Commissioning a piece of bespoke furniture requires a leap of faith, so you should always start by asking yourself why you want it. Develop a clear idea of its intended function, if there is one, and its aesthetic appeal then be brave and have a commitment to the project.

“This cocktail cabinet (left) has both functional and aesthetic value and was commissioned for the drawing room by a private client who wanted it to contain a small fridge as well as bottles, glasses and accessories. Designing a piece like this starts with the fridge as, up to a point, it dictates the size of the finished piece. Then we have to worry about the heat generated and allow sufficient airflow for it to dissipate.

Understanding what matters most to the client is an important part of any design. In this case, we fitted pull-out shelves to avoid the need to reach to the back of the cupboards, and lined some of the shelves with Alcantara faux suede so the bottles don’t clink. A yellow glass pull-out shelf provides a wipeable surface for drinks.

The exterior of the cabinet is made from oak, bleached to remove the tannin and then white washed. The doors are scalloped and inlaid with patinated brass strips to give a less solid look and the brass-covered plinth makes the piece appear to float above the ground.”

LEFT & BELOW RIGHT A completely bespoke cocktail cabinet designed by Rupert Bevan with a pull-out glass shelf to prepare drinks on.

BELOW LEFT “The clients who commissioned this walnut and steel Scandi-style desk were attracted by a 1950s design which we adapted to meet their desire for a minimal piece with a feeling of light and openness beneath,” says Bevan.

84 THE ENGLISH HOME

LOUISE BRADLEY Interior designer “Bespoke or customised?

I use a bit of both, but a bespoke piece will always be perfect for the room.

With any design project, it is important to look at the house and understand what it is asking for, and, because of its size, this spacious drawing room (above) in a Grade II listed Edwardian home demanded a substantial piece of furniture. In response, we designed a large glazed cabinet to stand against the end wall. Its break-front style means it has dimension and depth but doesn’t feel too heavy. An aged black paint finish gives it an antique feel and distressed mirrored pillars between the doors catch the light.

The bay window is an amazing feature and we designed a bespoke sofa to follow its curve.

Like the rest of the upholstered furniture in the room, it has low arms and is very inviting.

This bedroom (right) in the same house is designed to be comfortable and luxurious with a relaxing, controlled colour pallette. The walls are panelled with a highly lacquered framework,

filled with bespoke painted and embroidered silk wallpaper in a chinoiserie design that seems to trail around the room.

Facing the bed is a seating area with a bespoke sofa as its centre and a bespoke credenza to the side. The credenza is finished in crackle silver leaf topped with marble and conceals a little fridge.

On the wall above it, a piece of artwork hides a television screen. The sofa is curved and filled with cushions. A bedroom has to be comfortable with seating you want to sit in.”



TOP A sofa was designed to follow the shape of the bay window in the drawing room.

The generous proportions of the room allowed for a large bespoke glass-fronted cabinet.

ABOVE In the same house, this bedroom’s walls feature bespoke painted and embroidered silk wallpaper set within a highly laquered framework. The artwork hides a television screen.

THE ENGLISH HOME 85

SARA THOMPSON Managing director, Thompson Clarke Interiors

PROFESSIONAL TIPS Interior designer Henry Prideaux offers additional help for commissioning bespoke pieces.

1. It is important to understand that a bespoke item is a one-off piece which has never been made before. A professional interior designer, alongside the right manufacturer, has the experience and design flair to produce something that works, but unless the budget allows for developing a prototype, there is always a slight element of risk.

86 THE ENGLISH HOME

ABOVE The sunny accent yellow that runs through the theme is seen here on a stool in one of the dressing rooms, both of which have bespoke wardrobes.

ABOVE RIGHT A false wall was installed to create this additional dressing area.

RIGHT A bespoke headboard makes a feature of the master bed.

2. Commissioning items takes a lot of time – from initial sketches to detailed drawings, selecting materials, overseeing design development, manufacture and installation. The price will reflect the entire process.

3. Designers have their own go-to manufacturers with whom they have a good working relationship. After that, budget is a key factor in choosing the right maker.

4. To ensure that a bespoke piece will work with other fabrics and finishes in the same room, obtain samples of every element of the item.

5. Compare the height, width and depth of a proposed bespoke piece with other items in the room. For example, do existing carver chair arms fit under a bespoke table? Is a bespoke console table higher or lower than the dado rail?

6. Changes to a bespoke design should be made at the drawing and design development stage, before manufacture begins, as the further into manufacture, the more costly changes become.

7. There is a lot of trial and error in making a bespoke piece of furniture, most of which won’t be seen by the client but which can greatly affect the final cost. n

FEATURE MAGGIE STEVENSON PHOTOGRAPHS P81 (PORTRAIT) © DARREN CHUNG; P82 (PORTRAIT) © R BRAINE; (DRESSING ROOM) © A BEASLEY; (BATHROOM) © RAY MAIN; P85 (ALL) © RAY MAIN

“The brief for this bedroom (below right) with views over a garden and forested landscape was for a room with a relaxing and contemplative atmosphere. We decided on a palette that would balance neutrals with colour and a piece of art was specially commissioned in which the vivid colours of the landscape and the quieter tones of the bedroom go hand in hand to give the room energy and artistic appeal.

The sunny yellow runs all the way through the scheme as an accent and can be found in the super-king-size bed’s bespoke upholstered headboard. We designed this with careful thought for the proportions. With such a large bed, it takes time to get the balance right but the tapering edges of the ‘jelly-mould’ shape take away any heaviness.

Clothes storage demanded a bespoke solution which could be tailored to the clients’ needs and maximise space. His and hers dressing rooms were a requirement. We created a false wall behind the bed to partially conceal a masculine dressing area (above far right). The cupboards incorporate coffee-making facilities as well as wardrobes. The adjoining feminine dressing room (seen right, leading off the bedroom) presented several challenges. Doors and windows divided the space into four areas, one of which had a curved wall. The wardrobes were designed to unify the room and straighten the curve. Mirrored doors give the cabinets a lighter look with a tracery of ribbon-like glazing bars for a delicate wispy effect. Inside, they are lined with grey-washed veneer and planned to use every inch of space.”

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RETHINKING ECO CHIC Once the concern of the few, the importance of provenance, sustainability and keeping traditional crafts alive is growing Mention the words ‘sustainable style’ and most will automatically envision interiors with a slightly shabby air. Whilst this look undoubtedly has its innate charm, it is not the only approach to decorating with a mindful consideration to the world around us and the footprint we leave.

Classically elegant interiors featuring antique pieces, vintage textiles, reclaimed fireplaces and more are equally viable when decorating in a sustainable way. Here, we consider how a new mood of ‘conscious consumerism’ can result in beautiful interiors.

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Antique pieces reflect an era in manufacturing when people expected to have a lifetime’s use out of them

Antiques & vintage pieces Antiques are the ultimate in recycling. By investing in them and reusing items that already exist, we help to reduce ‘waste’ going to landfill and save on energy spent in new production. As well as being eco-friendly, antiques, when they move from owner to owner, generation to generation, continue to add warmth and texture to the home and help create a unique style. If we buy and use these older items instead of always buying new, we not only protect precious resources, but also preserve the history bound up in them — the stories, the manufacturing histories and their craftsmanship.

A study conducted by carbon-clear.com and commissioned by antiquesaregreen.org calculated that a new piece of furniture would last 15 years and an antique piece would be resold every 30 years.

Based on this pattern of consumption, the study concluded that the environmental impact of antique furniture is nearly six times less than that of new furniture. To source effectively, hunt out shops with high-quality merchandise that is in good condition and well presented. To source reputable antiques dealers or search for antiques, visit lapada.org – the Association of Art and Antiques Dealers (LAPADA) website.

NAMES TO KNOW Brownrigg Interiors and Decorative Antiques in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, run by Jorge Perez-Martin and David Gibson, offers an eclectic mix of antiques and decorative pieces. The duo have built up a reputation over many years. “We have learnt that our clients come to us because we have such an interesting mix and it often encourages and tempts them to try something different.

Nothing is ‘off limits’ so you may find pieces that are a youthful 30 years old and pieces that are several centuries old but as desirable as they were at the time of their creation,” they say.

Toby Lorford and Lesley Ferguson of Lorfords Antiques in the Cotswolds had the vision 20 years ago to modernise the way antiques in the UK were sold, leading to the creation of one of Europe’s largest and most inspiring collections of decorative and traditional pieces. Christopher Howe also saw the future in the past and began restoring furniture. This led to him collecting objects of desire, from gilded mirrors to Eero Saarinen tulip chairs, all displayed in haphazard fashion in his Pimlico, London showroom.

Augustus Brandt in Petworth, West Sussex, stocks more than 800 items of furniture, sculpture, works of art, lighting, mirrors, silver, jewellery and textiles from all over the world. Other names of note 90 THE ENGLISH HOME

admired by interior designers include Matthew Cox, Max Rollitt and The Blanchard Collective.

FINDING NEW PURPOSE Antiques lend themselves to a variety of uses in modern settings – for instance, a Victorian blanket box might make a wonderful coffee table, with the added benefit of storage, whilst vintage wooden office filing cabinets can create a striking impact.

Vintage and antique pieces – whether glassware and dining items, furnishings and decor, art and tools, linens and textiles, jewellery and clothing – reflect an era in manufacturing when people expected to get a lifetime’s use out of them, unlike many of today’s products with built-in obsolescence.

Thinking green, there are ‘furniture miles’ to take into account.

If a chair has been sourced in France, Italy or further afield, it will have a carbon footprint greater than buying a British one that has lived in this country all its life. If a piece is bought abroad with the intention of bringing it home oneself, there may well be rules and regulations regarding taking it out of the country, and even more rules about bringing it in. For advice, visit gov.uk and also check the government websites of other countries.

OPENING PAGE Made by Howe bespoke Lion Mask bookcase, £POA; Flatweave Swedish kilim, designed by Carl Dagel, c1960, £21,600, both Howe London LEFT Nineteenthcentury painted pine prep table, £3,500, and all other items, Lorfords BELOW LEFT Mixing antiques and decorative pieces, such as these from Brownrigg Interiors and Decorative Antiques, can lend a new twist to old favourites.

BELOW RIGHT Antique George III Regency three-pillar mahogany dining table, £POA; set of 10 antique Regency mahogany dining chairs, c1815, £POA; Made by Howe deep-buttoned Salon dining chair, from £2,160 each (including upholstery), all Howe London

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Repurposed & salvaged “Far too many high-quality materials are thrown out when they could be given a new home,” says Friends of the Earth waste campaigner Julian Kirby. “This is a shocking waste of precious materials – opting to salvage, reuse or repurpose will help avoid costing the earth.”

For a design or renovation project, salvage yards are a great source of materials, as well as being fascinating places to explore as they are filled with roll-top baths, garden statuary, wooden doors, quarry tiles, stained-glass windows, wrought-iron gates... the list is endless.

Salvaged lighting is somewhat of an obsession with Hannah Burson, owner of The Old Electric Shop in Hay-on-Wye. She regularly sets off at 4am to source items from farmers, scrap merchants, salvage yards, auctions, car boot sales and dealers.

Her collection is always changing, attracting repeat custom to her store, which also has an excellent cafe, holds exhibitions and hosts cocktail parties. A sign in the shop declares: “Everything is for sale, even the chair you’re sitting on.” Brass and nickel lampholders, large industrial shades, old coloured bulbs and cinema lights fill the space, which also houses other small businesses selling everything from vintage clothing to mid-century furniture, second-hand jewellery to collectable pots.

Near Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire is Baileys, located in a series of farm buildings that visitors can wander through in leisurely fashion, perusing the recycled and eco-friendly goods on offer – there is even a tea room in a former tabernacle should refreshment be needed. Founders Mark and Sally Bailey were pioneers of the salvage scene when they started out 36 years ago, and their most recent book, Recycled Home, demonstrates that their passion for rescued, repaired and reused pieces remains undimmed. Pared-back modern-rustic is their signature style, focusing on British-made garden and homeware.

FIXTURES & FITTINGS Artistic Industrial in Worcestershire proves there is no slack in demand for salvaged items from the industrial past. For 25 years they have been sourcing and selling one-off examples of metal 

LEFT A reclaimed mill-board ceiling adds to the naturally evolved feeling in this bedroom conversion.

Distressed Mill Board, from £40.80 a square metre, Bert & May ABOVE RIGHT Myriad antique encaustic tiles are used to create a colourful feature wall.

Antique Reclaimed Encaustic Colour Patchwork Tiles, £150 a square metre, Maitland & Poate RIGHT Reclaimed pine boards from a cheese factory – hence the circular shapes – add character.

Cheeseboards (on wall), £90 each Retrouvius

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It is important to go armed with measurements and exact requirements to hand ABOVE LEFT Baileys has an ever-changing range of goods, including recycled glassware, wool blankets and eco-friendly household goods.

ABOVE RIGHT Reclamation specialist Lassco offers everything from door furniture to entire panelled rooms.

Late eighteenthcentury statuary and brocatello chimneypiece, £18,500, Lassco

furniture, combined with their own designs of handforged, commissioned and bespoke items, proving that old and new can sit together. Their current stock includes antique hymn boards, carved house and shop signs, library steps and vintage display stands.

For roofing materials, garden statues, flagstones, doorways and period fireplaces, Frome Reclamation in Somerset is a happy hunting ground. It is important to go armed with measurements and exact requirements to hand, to avoid returning with a handsome roll-top bath that does not fit a new bathroom, or is too heavy for newly-sanded floorboards. Retrouvius and Lassco are both well-known reclamation specialists and Salvo is a useful online directory of reclamation yards here and overseas. Westland London primarily specialises in antique fireplaces but stocks antique lighting, furniture and decorative items

94 THE ENGLISH HOME

A NEW LEASE OF LIFE Repurposing can also take different forms beyond salvage yards and homeware shops. The Used Kitchen Company (TUKC) has saved an estimated 11,000 tonnes of ‘waste’ going to landfill since it launched in 2005. “People are more conscious about the environment and want to recycle,” says founder Looeeze Grossman. “I wanted to encourage homeowners and showrooms to recycle their kitchens instead of abandoning them to landfill.”

TUKC operates a ‘no sale, no fee’ system for those wishing to sell their used kitchen, which will be publicised to all their registered buyers. When a deal is struck, they will dismantle and collect on a convenient date and transfer the payment on the same day.

Ex-display kitchens can be bought at a greatly reduced price, often as much as 50 per cent.

Careful sourcing For his book, The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees, Rob Penn – a cyclist, writer and woodsman – decided to fell an ash tree and follow its progress as it was used to make a variety of things. He describes the ancient skills used to make wheels, arrows, furniture and musical instruments, and during his journey, one of the craftsmen he met was Sascha Gravenstein, who, with Jonty Hampson, has a business named Hampson Woods. Gravenstein and Hampson make covetable chopping boards and hanging racks, amongst other things, using only ethically sourced wood. “Provenance is key,” says Gravenstein. “A good piece of wood is one where you know where it’s come from.” There is even a label on each of their handmade pieces outlining where the tree used for it came from.

Artists Max Bainbridge and Abigail Booth of Forest + Found work with wood and iron to create objects of beauty and utility for the home. Combining traditional techniques with contemporary design, their products are made from locally sourced and foraged timber, and are intended to be heirlooms of the future. They seek out found material in far-flung parts of the country, always looking for the remote and the unexpected.

Huw Morris, known as Huw the Wood, makes treehouses, arbours, bridges, cabins, gates, benches and tables using oak, larch and Douglas fir from the Welsh Marches. His recent commissions range from a memorial bench to a shed made out of all the junk at the bottom of a garden.

EJ Osborne, aka Hatchet + Bear, carves exquisite spoons out of wood ‘windfalls’ in Somerset. Walnut, sycamore, field maple and cherry are her favourites, usually obtained after a storm, and always with the owner’s permission. In the seven years that she has been running her business, she has created an individual style that is in demand from retailers who appreciate artisan-made, British products from native trees.

JoJo Wood believes that “technique wins over physical strength every time” and is passionate about trees and the countryside where she lives in the Wye Valley, and is the founder of Pathcarvers, an organisation bringing traditional crafts and creative arts to disadvantaged sections of the community. She also runs a toolmaking company, Wood Tools, with her father, master woodturner Robin Wood, making high-quality, affordable tools.

Chris Armstrong makes hand-turned fruit and salad bowls from specially selected timber including ash, sycamore and walnut. There are sycamore chopping boards made from one piece of wood in a variety of sizes to last a lifetime and from the off-cuts there are chunky tea lights to brighten up the dining table.

Tamasine Osher is another woodswoman in what might once have been considered a man’s world. Her furniture range includes objects made with sustainable materials such as wood from the forest floor, as well as Pinatex fabric made from pineapple leaves.

Should crafting appeal, it is possible to enrol on a course on working with green (unseasoned) wood. An expert in the field is Mike Abbott, who offers courses in his Herefordshire cottage garden. There, students are guided through the process of making a chair to take home with them. He has gained international acclaim and is the author of several books including Living Wood – From Buying a Woodland to Making a Chair. A five-day course with materials, refreshments and light lunch is £480. 

TOP Hand-crafted crucibles made from foraged timber.

Crucibles from £125, Forest + Found ABOVE This elegant armchair is made with wood from the forest oor and inate Spider Lounge Chair, £1,440, Tamasine Osher RIGHT A beautifully hand-turned bowl.

Cherry bowl, £78, Chris Armstrong

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Antique textiles From tapestries, rugs, French linens and Middle Eastern silks to 1950s atomic prints and 1970s classics, antique and vintage textiles are popular for multiple purposes, including dressmaking, home decor and quilting. Popular nineteenth-century fabrics are calico, gingham, muslin and linen, as well as homespun materials such as Welsh blankets and Harris Tweed. Sought-after twentieth-century textiles comprise cotton, plissé (puckered) and embossed or cloqué fabrics. Mid-twentieth-century metallic, novelty, floral and themed prints are also popular.

Such fabrics and textiles can be found at markets, charity shops and online, but to be sure that they are the genuine article, it is best to buy from a knowledgeable dealer (for assistance finding one, visit lapada.org) who will be able to give information on the origin of any one cloth, how to care for it, and its age and value. For home accessories such as cushions, curtains and quilts made from antique textiles, sourcing from specialist designers is a must.

THE EXPERT EYE Susan Deliss’s area of expertise is “beautiful textiles to please your eye and soul”. Having studied History of Art and travelled extensively in Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Jordan and Morocco, she now creates cushions, lampshades, kilims, throws and quilts using both antique fabrics and her own-design textiles. “The textiles that I sell divide broadly into two groups – those that I deal in and those that I create,” Deliss explains. “Those that I deal in – kilims, embroideries, braids, trims, curtains – are principally vintage or antique, but they are increasingly hard to find in good condition and in the quantities that are required. I therefore commission and deal a lot in new textiles of the highest quality, made using traditional techniques and top-quality craftsmanship.”

The added benefit of buying and collecting new textiles using traditional fabric and techniques is that the skills of dyeing, weaving, hand-printing and embroidery are being kept alive, often providing employment for women in developing countries, and in the UK as home-based workers. This is what Julie Leonard embarked upon when she set up her business The Welsh Girl, working with one of the few remaining woollen mills in Wales to produce her home and lifestyle products that include tote bags, bolsters, cushions and clothing. She adds a contemporary twist to the Welsh tapestry patterns she loved as a child, when she was taught to stitch by her grandmother. As well as keeping traditional crafts alive, designers such as Leonard, keep small, family-run mills from dying out completely by providing them with regular orders.

Katharine Pole specialises in French antique textiles and is based in London. Visitors to her showroom (open by appointment only) will find exquisite fabrics and home accessories such as curtains, cushions and quilts made from French cotton, toile panels and linen. Pole is a regular exhibitor at the Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair where, from ceramics to furniture to textiles, there is plenty of inspiration for interior decor.

After a career working in the heritage industry, and with a life-long passion for British fabrics old and new, Cheshire-based 96 THE ENGLISH HOME

ABOVE The Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair offers a wealth of inspiration from stallholders such as Su Mason, whose linens, textiles and workwear are sourced from trips undertaken to France.

RIGHT Create a pretty, cossetting ambience in the bedroom by sourcing vintage textiles for headboards and cushions as well as silk quilts for a touch of glamour.

Liz Phillips of Phillips & Cheers fulfilled her dream of starting her own business, bringing fine vintage fabrics to life in the form of bolsters, cushions and lampshades using rare fabrics and, occasionally, classic British brands such as Liberty and Morris & Co. Llewelyn & Company are a husband and wife team, Anna and John, who find and select antique French and Scandinavian chairs and sofas – amongst other beautifully curated pieces in their Hay-on-Wye shop – complete with upholstery, or to be covered in a client’s choice of fabric. The idea came from Anna’s childhood in a Georgian farmhouse “interlaced with exciting family explorations through France in our caravan”.

Maud Lomberg, the founder of Beyond France in Cirencester, Gloucestershire named her business to reflect her vintage fabric journey. She travelled from the French markets to Germany and then on to Hungary and beyond, seeking out vintage linens, kitchen towels and upholstery fabrics. With a keen eye for handspun linens, Lomberg now sells cushions, rugs, fabrics and clothes. “Modern brands are being asked to clean up their acts and consider ‘circular economy’ practices,” she says, “making things more repairable, reusable and easily recyclable.”

The next Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair takes place 22–27 January, in London’s Battersea Park; decorativefair.com



THE ENGLISH HOME 97

Sustainable design & new materials Whether in a period or modern home, our love affair with wood shows no sign of diminishing. However, with increased awareness of illegal logging and rainforest destruction, reputable manufacturers, developers and architects are insisting on sourcing from well-managed forests where trees are replanted as they are felled. No certification system is infallible, but the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) are the best there are in the UK (there are 50 schemes worldwide).

Buying from British companies using home-grown and recycled timber is the most sustainable option.

HOME-GROWN TALENT Benchmark began with three people and now employs a team of 70, in Berkshire and Dorset, with workshops for milling, cabinet making, veneering, finishing, metal-working and upholstery. The company is committed to training a new generation of craftsmen in their apprenticeship scheme, which has been running for 30 years.

Sebastian Cox transforms felled trees destined for chipping into unique items and works almost exclusively with British hardwoods, bringing out the individual colour, grain and character, and finishing with toxin-free oils and stains. They will even visit small gardens with their portable chainsaw to process single trees, and turn it into a piece of furniture for your home, ‘from tree to table’.

ABOVE SolidWool’s hard-wearing composite wool material has a low environmental impact.

Hembury chair, £395, SolidWool RIGHT This freestanding glass-fronted cupboard is beautifully crafted from sustainable British timber.

The Sebastian Cox kitchen, from £15,000, deVOL BELOW Benchmark’s ethos is based on sustainability and craftsmanship.

Gleda Sofa and Gleda Coffee Table, from £2,985, Benchmark

SUSTAINABLE SOURCES Cork flooring is warm underfoot and has good insulating and fire-retardant properties. More than half of the world's supply comes from Portugal, and is a rural industry that was badly hit when the wine business introduced metal screw-tops and plastic corks. The cork oak tree does not have to be felled to harvest the bark, which grows back in three years, meaning that workers can be employed to maintain the forests and continue providing this renewable product.

Bamboo is increasingly popular as a building material because of its strength and versatility, suitable for walls as well as flooring. It is a sustainable crop that grows quickly; the only downside is that it mostly comes from Asia, so the carbon footprint is considerable.

Indian sandstone is also much in demand, especially for exteriors, but to avoid contributing to the scandal of child labour in dangerous quarries, make sure you quiz the supplier as to its provenance.  THE ENGLISH HOME 99 THE ENGLISH HOME 99

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Plant-based dyes Increasingly, more designers are adopting eco-friendly methods of achieving depth of colour. Not all natural dye sources are 100 per cent toxin-free – logwood and bloodroot, for example, can cause irritation, and it is common to use a mordant such as aluminium, copper, iron or chrome to make the colour stick the fabric.

Having said that, most are safe and harmless, and far preferable to artificial colourings.

COLOUR MAGIC Polly Lyster of The Dyeworks started working with indigo (from the woad plant) 20 years ago and has developed a colour palette through layering individual tints to create a subtle range of shades and hues. She sources antique French hemp and linen from the British Isles. At her Gloucestershire studio she dyes and hand-stitches cushions, bolsters and utility clothing.

The most common natural plant dyes used in fabric design are madder, cutch, weld and indigo. Nicola Cliffe named her business after the first two. A former chemistry teacher who was concerned with the damage to our health and environment caused by the effluent from synthetic dyes, she started Madder Cutch & Co to screen-print her own designs onto linen woven in Scotland to create soft furnishings and accessories.

Cliffe grows some of her favourite plants in the garden outside her studio In Lincolnshire, but it would be impossible to be self-sufficient as it takes a huge volume of plants to extract sufficient colour for each item. She therefore buys in some dyes but mixes the pastes to a secret recipe using only safe, organic ingredients.

Jane Meredith in Herefordshire prefers the word ‘plant-based’ to ‘natural’ because a man-made mordant is often necessary. Organic alternatives do exist – rhubarb leaves, which are poisonous to eat or compost, are effective in this process. The results cannot always be predicted, “but that’s where the magic comes in,” says Meredith, who started her enterprise Plant Dyed Wool as a hobby and now, many years later, exhibits at fairs around the country. She also runs workshops at her home near the River Wye where she teaches every step of the dyeing, spinning and weaving process – from fleece to fabric. ABOVE RIGHT Screenprinted designs by Madder Cutch & Co made using sustainably sourced plant dyes and pigments.

RIGHT Jane Meredith of Plant Dyed Wool only uses lea es roots and owers to dye the wool she uses or wea in

THE ENGLISH HOME 101

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Natural flooring Depending on the hard surface that has been chosen, it may be appropriate to cover the entire surface, or simply add rugs, runners or matting. Bare floorboards may be enhanced with hard-wearing paints free from volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are chemical pollutants, particularly with little ones around. Auro, one of the first natural paints available 30 years ago, is now joined by a wide range that includes Farrow & Ball, Little Greene, Edward Bulmer Natural Paint and Earthborn, all of which are British-made.

THE COMFORT OF CARPET Many people like the luxuriously warm feel of wall-towall carpeting, especially in a bedroom, and this is where most British sheep’s wool is currently used. The Carpet Foundation offers impartial advice on materials, fitting and care, depending on budget, and represents most manufacturers in the UK. Wilton Carpets in Wiltshire is one of the few remaining British companies that still designs and weaves with 100 per cent British wool using traditional looms together with modern machinery. Other brands to consider are Brintons, Brockway, and Ulster Carpets. Buy the best natural underlay possible, avoiding polyurethane (derived from oil, a finite resource) which releases toxins over the years. In addition to pure wool, one option is ‘crumb’ rubber which is recycled rubber and is both hard-wearing and easy underfoot.

MATERIAL WEALTH Plant fibres such as sisal, seagrass, jute and coir are perennially popular, especially in rustic settings. Ask the carpet fitter to use a toxin-free adhesive, such as Auro 382 Natural Floor Adhesive. Crucial Trading and The Alternative Flooring Company offer the full range of natural materials for use either as fitted carpets or as scatter rugs.

Solva Woollen Mill near St Davids in Pembrokeshire is one of fewer than a dozen traditional mills using dobcross looms to weave all-British wool into hardwearing rugs and runners, adding texture and warmth to a slate, stone or wood floor. Still family run, by husband-and-wife team Anna and Tom Grime, it has been in existence since 1907 and exports all over the world. Support for these small businesses is crucial, and even if the prices are sometimes a little more than mass-produced alternatives, keeping that investment in home-grown skills and materials is invaluable.

ABOVE Previously quite hard to come by, natural paint is becoming more easily available and in a range of sophisticated colours for the home.

Linen Wash Floor Paint, from £31 for 1l, Little Greene RIGHT Used for enturies lant-ibre oorin is hardwearing and perfect or hi h-tra i areas such as entrance halls and staircases.

Hand-plaited Hyacinth Plant Fibre Rug in Natural, £250 a square metre, Flock BELOW If opting for carpet, use natural underlay, perhaps made of wool or recycled rubber.

Bloomsbury Summer Breeze, £59 a square metre, Ulster Carpets

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RIGHT Antiques add character to the home as well as being the ultimate in recycling.

Nineteenth-century Huffer (plate-warming cupboard), £3,300, Matthew Cox

Eco labelling Because ‘eco-friendly’ now has cachet, and customers are prepared to pay more for assured provenance, less scrupulous manufacturers may claim their products are ‘green’, ‘fairly traded’, ‘energy-saving’ etc. There is a great deal of ‘greenwash’ around and not enough scrutiny. To avoid this, consult organisations such as Salvo and its directory of accredited suppliers of architectural salvage, which must be proven not to be from a dubious source (for example, stolen or imported illegally).

If a retailer is serious about its green credentials, it will have an environmental policy statement on its website, and in-store staff should be able to answer questions about whether, for instance, the wood in a table is FSC-accredited, or if the paint being considered is VOC-free. This may also be an opportune moment to ask why there is so much plastic in store – and not just in the wrapping and bagging. Since the scandal of plastics destroying the oceans hit the front pages, it has become apparent that banning plastic bags is not enough. Some companies are addressing this. For example, Crown Paints has introduced 100 per cent recycled plastic containers, the first paint manufacturer in the UK to do so. It is also tackling waste by calling in unused paint and donating it to charitable projects around the country. The paint is reprocessed, reused and recycled, along with the packaging. (It is estimated that there are approximately 54 million litres of unused paint in homes across the UK, some of it poured down drains causing blockages and water pollution.) In 2017 alone, more than 30,000 unwanted tins were returned to Crown Decorating Centres around the country.

The EU Ecolabel logo makes it simple (for the time being) to know that a product or a service is both environmentally friendly and good quality. To qualify for the EU Ecolabel – which applies to furniture, floor coverings, textiles and appliances – the whole product life cycle is taken into account: from the extraction of the raw materials, to production, packaging and transport, right through to usage and eventual consignment to the recycling bin. n 104 THE ENGLISH HOME

Artistic Industrial Tel 07977 383434 artisticindustrial.com Augustus Brandt Tel 01798 344722 augustusbrandt.co.uk Baileys Tel 01989 561931 baileyshome.com Benchmark Tel 01488 608020 benchmarkfurniture.com Beyond France Tel 01285 641867 beyondfrance.co.uk Brownrigg Tel 01666 500887 brownrigg-interiors.co.uk Chris Armstrong Tel 01497 820556 haymakers.co.uk Christopher Howe Tel 020 7730 7987 howelondon.com Forest + Found forest-and-found.com Frome Reclamation Tel 01373 463919 fromerec.co.uk Hampson Woods Tel 07980 648773 hampsonwoods.com Hatchet + Bear hatchetandbear.co.uk JoJo Wood jojo-wood.co.uk Katharine Pole Tel 07747 616692 katharinepole.com Lassco Tel 020 7394 2100 lassco.co.uk Llewelyn & Company Tel 01497 821880 llewelynandcompany.com Lorfords Tel 01666 505111 lorfordsantiques.com Madder Cutch & Co Tel 01780 767958 maddercutchandco.com Maitland & Poate Tel 020 7867 3425 maitlandandpoate.com Matthew Cox Tel 01780 481092 matthewcox.com

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FEATURE KITTY CORRIGAN PHOTOGRAPHS P102 (LASSCO) © DANIELLE DIETRICH; P111 (FLOCK) © JAKE FITZJONES

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WITH COLOUR Create a bathroom scheme in confident hues to add interest and a feeling of enveloping comfort

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hough bathroom decor often lends itself to muted tones and a pared-back palette, a bold use of colour in this most indulgent of spaces affords an opportunity to create a characterful feel and an individual look. “Strong colours make powerful design statements,” says James Lentaigne, creative director of luxury bathroom manufacturer Drummonds.

SPACE & ORIENTATION Of course, far from being a contemporary trend, the confident use of colour has historic precedent.

“It’s often surprising to find out just how much our antecedents loved bold, sometimes brash, colours in bathrooms,” says Lentaigne. Complementing the period of a home is not the sole benefit of creating a saturated colourscape in the room, however.

The traditional white suite accompanied by brassware in cool metallic tones and a scheme featuring neutral walls and flooring can create an atmosphere that tends to chilliness. The orientation of the space, moreover, can contribute to this cold effect. For instance, the light in a north-facing room can draw out the cooler tones in a pale colour scheme. Even a west-facing orientation can prove disadvantageous to a room that receives most use during the morning hours as the light is cooler than it is in the afternoon.

Bold colour can be successfully employed as a warming device in a bathroom that is cool in appearance. Meanwhile, spaces negatively affected by orientation can be softened in atmosphere by 

OPPOSITE An uplifting mood is created here with coral wallpaper and a Roman blind in a co-ordinating fabric.

Wallpaper, Turini Dots, £90 a roll; blind, Dhara Strip in Orange, £84 a metre; both Paramount collection, Thibaut ABOVE Adding colour in the form of wallpaper adds a cossetting mood.

Lowther vanity basin suite with Arabescato Marble, £7,980, Drummonds; Hand-painted Anemones in Light wallpaper, from £1,200 a panel, Kate Moss for de Gournay RIGHT A gentle way of introducing different hues to a bathroom scheme is with an accent colour on a bath exterior.

Verdigris copper bateau bath with white enamel interior, £6,687.60, William Holland

THE ENGLISH HOME 107

the avoidance of pale hues with grey or green bases, and the adoption of a more colourful palette.

TOP The vivid green-hued tiles used in this project by interior design studio Barlow & Barlow are offset by modern brass fittings.

ABOVE Pink walls make a pleasing backdrop to patterned fabrics and polished wood.

Cuisse de Nymphe Emue, from £45 for 2.5l Emulsion, Edward Bulmer Natural Paint

ABOVE RIGHT This multicoloured porcelain basin combines colourful tones with an Asian-influenced design.

Yasmin basin, £850, The London Basin Company

CREATING AN AMBIENCE Colour can also evoke a change in the mood of the room. The selection of hues associated with the hot side of the colour wheel can bring a welcome energy to a bathroom used largely for morning preparations.

Softer, pastel variations allow a warmer, more soothing note to permeate the room, bringing a somewhat gentler appearance.

The visually arresting nature of bold colours can also influence the ambience of the room, making it feel more cocooning, and create a comfortable atmosphere that might be equally treasured on dark mornings or for relaxed evening bathing accompanied by low lighting.

Creating a more intimate environment may also be desirable if a bathroom’s generous proportions make it feel impersonal. In such instances, dramatic colour could be considered for the ceiling as well as the walls to visually alter the dimensions of the room. If the bathroom is more compact, the belief of avoiding strong or bright colours in relatively small spaces does not pertain. “Traditionally, bathrooms and cloakrooms have always lent themselves to a real wow factor,” says Lentaigne.

PALETTE SELECTION A palette for a bathroom may be suggested by the age of a property, with particular colours associated with their respective periods. “Victorian and Georgianinspired colour charts or wallpaper designs will give

huge inspiration,” says Lentaigne. Nevertheless, bathroom colour certainly need not be limited to the palette typical of an era. Lentaigne suggests selecting shades with personal resonance and enduring appeal, irrespective of the period of a property, for this oft-used room.

In creating a bold design, the walls, floors and outside of a freestanding bath all offer a canvas for colour, and so, too, do soft furnishings and accessories such as towels. Adding the most daring colour to walls or a bath’s exterior makes any future desire to change the colour scheme quicker to achieve. Elements such as floor and wall tiles are more permanent features but could equally be part of a vivid palette.

The suite itself might even be the vehicle for bringing colour to a bathroom. The Water Monopoly’s Rockwell collection comes in a range of colours, such as blue, green, lilac and yellow, and as well as baths, basins and lavatories, includes coloured taps, bath feet and accessories should a more gentle introduction with just a few accents of colour be desirable.

Should the choice of colours to use on the walls and floors with a coloured suite be a conundrum, Justin Homewood, founder of The Water Monopoly has the answer. “Earlier this year we collaborated with Farrow & Ball,” he explains. “Its client colourist chose a number of Farrow & Ball’s paint colours to go with each of the Rockwell colours, resulting in some wonderful combinations. For example, matching the Rockwell yellow (Sherbet) with Stiffkey Blue, Mouse’s Back and Brinjal. The Rockwell blue (Powder) was paired with Blue Gray, Pink Ground and Chappell Green.”

GENTLE INTRODUCTION Colour for walls may be introduced through tiling in matt or gloss finishes, with the latter offering the possibility of improving light reflection in schemes where dramatic tones are preferred. Both larger metro-style tiles or intricate mosaics might be considered to dado height around a bath, combined with a painted wall above. Extending tiling to full height within a zone of the room or more extensively can also work.

Wood panelling to half height can also provide a vehicle through which bold colour can be added to walls. For those schemes where block colours throughout are not desired, wallpaper with a colour ground that continues the hue of the panelling can prove a successful pairing – as it can with midto large-format tiles.

Painted cabinetry is a further prospective site for colour within a bathroom scheme, either extending a hue from painted walls or, for a more eye-catching effect, increasing the palette of shades in the room.

Both upholstery and soft furnishings can help in creating a colour-filled bathroom scheme. For instance, patterned designs for a Roman blind or floor-length curtains could echo a paint colour used for the exterior of a freestanding bath, or bring in an accent shade to the room design, whilst upholstered seating offers equal potential.

ABOVE LEFT Dark tones can work equally as well as bright tones to create a cosy atmosphere.

Brinjal, £45 for 2.5l, Farrow & Ball ABOVE RIGHT The elegant white of this marble washstand provides a smart counterpoint to chic tiling.

Moderna washstand with white marble top, from £7,499.95; Hanley tiles, £POA; Augustus wall mirror, £1,560; Leila wall light with gathered shade, £421.85, all Balineum

WINDOWS & FLOORS Windows in positions that do not permit them to be easily dressed with fabric may be finished with shutters. This creates the opportunity to inject bold THE ENGLISH HOME 109

A striking ombré feature wall graduates to a shade that matches the exterior of the roll-top bath.

Wall painted in Aubusson Blue (top half) and Provence (bottom half), both from £4.45 for 100ml Wall Paint; bath exterior painted in Provence, from £5.95 for 120ml Chalk Paint, all Annie Sloan

110 THE ENGLISH HOME

ACCENT TOUCHES A scheme in which accents of colour rather than bold hues throughout are added can also be

transformative. “Using bold saturated colour in smaller accents of the bathroom can help to create a cohesive look: crystal-style shower doors, co-ordinating vanities and black accessories help to create a very stylish space,” says Carter.

Accessories provide a way to bring in colour without changing the permanent features of a bathroom scheme. This might be achieved simply with bath linens, but artwork and decorative pieces can also allow vivid colour to become a greater presence in a bathroom. Even a smaller element such as the legs of a traditional freestanding bath can grant flashes of colour when a more pared-back palette is desired.

A well-thought-out lighting scheme offers the opportunity to offset the loss of the lightening effect of pale tones. “Simple bathroom pendants offer good lighting by the mirror, and small recessed downlights can provide overall light without diverting attention,” says Rebecca Richards, senior lighting designer at John Cullen Lighting. “If downlights are not an option, a bathroom-protected [IP45 rated] pendant can be used for general light.” Decorative lights in shapes that co-ordinate with a patterned wallpaper and have a finish that stands out from its backdrop can also prove appealing. n

ABOVE LEFT Make a statement with bold-coloured wall tiles.

Wall, Frezza tiles, £99.90 a square metre; floor, Amparo tiles, £195 a square metre; Babylon brushed copper bath with polished nickel inner, £6,250; Avebury bathmounted bath and shower mixer, £1,125, all Fired Earth ABOVE Inject additional colour with a coloured suite and accessories.

Basin in Powder Blue, £1,818; Soap Dish in Powder Blue, £284.40; Coloured Tumbler Holder in Powder Blue, £268.80, all the Rockwell collection, The Water Monopoly

THE ENGLISH HOME 111

FEATURE SARAH WARWICK PHOTOGRAPHS P106 © KIP DAWKINS; P107 (DE GOURNAY) © SIMON BROWN; (WILLIAM HOLLAND) © BEN PIPE; P108 (EDWARD BULMER) © PHOTOPIA

colour to either contrast with a more understated painted wall finish or extend its hue.

Vivid shades on walls might often be balanced with flooring in pale tones to increase light reflection, but patterned tiles repeating a hue from walls or a bath exterior, perhaps, are worthy of consideration in a colourful bathroom scheme.

Alternatively, dark-toned floors in the form of timber boards can be striking, grounding bolder wall shades, whilst classic black and white tiles or traditional geometric patterns may prove a good starting point for a room filled with colour.

In addition to the flooring, other elements of a bathroom design might be enlisted to counter the lack of light reflection when employing vivid shades and to give the eye a pause from colour. Introducing areas of white and grey can be a successful strategy.

“Crisp white marble or porcelain works really well,” says Jonathan Carter, marketing director of Victoria + Albert Baths. “Many designers also opt to incorporate natural woods.”

Revival of ST GILES Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury, and his wife Dinah have carefully restored the once dilapidated ancestral seat, transforming it into a family home once again PORTRAIT DANIEL ANNETT PHOTOGRAPHS JUSTIN BARTON

N

icholas Ashley-Cooper never once imagined that aged just 26 he would become the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury and inherited the crumbling Grade I listed St Giles House and estate in Dorset.

Nick, as he likes to be known, remembers cycling around the parkland of St Giles, playing in the trees and looking up at the house with his older brother Anthony in the 1980s. “It belonged to another time, another period that had ceased to exist,” he says.

Whilst the boys lived on the estate in the comparatively modest dower house, Mainsail Haul, they seldom visited the dilapidated pile, with its shutters tightly closed against the outside world. Despite his father’s best efforts to restore St Giles in the early 1970s, architectural historians declared it still close to collapse and the house became a family taboo, a topic that was not discussed.

Nick did not ever anticipate that the responsibility of the house would fall to him, as his brother Anthony, two years his senior, was the natural heir. Yet in 2005, after the double tragedy of discovering his father had been murdered and the unexpected natural death of his brother, Nick became the sole surviving heir. At this time he was working as a DJ and club promoter in New York. “My instant reaction was to come back [home] and be as helpful as I could, but I didn’t know what I was going to do or what was involved.” Devastated by loss, he embarked on a five-year journey “finding out about the house and its history, studying at business school in London and figuring out where I was in all of the tragedy, then coming up with a plan.”

The history of the house was first documented when the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury wrote in his diary on 19 March 1650, “I laid the first 

LEFT Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, 12th Earl of Shaftesbury in the Handel Room at St Giles House, 2010 before restoration work began.

ABOVE The facade of St Giles with its rebuilt tower and loggia (a later phase of the renovation) shows its current, more inhabitable footprint.

THE ENGLISH HOME 113

‘The house was overwhelming. You’d go into a room and it was full of debris... It was hard to see through to the beauty behind’ ABOVE Two original tapestries hang at the entrance of the kitchen epitomising the family home that celebrates its history.

ABOVE RIGHT The walls of the back staircase in the south wing are covered in a Farrow & Ball wallpaper, based on fragments of the original.

RIGHT The Green Room’s flocked wallpaper was recreated by wallpaper specialist Allyson McDermott.

stone of my house at St Giles.” The charismatic 1st Earl gave the house its Renaissance north and east fronts with classical facades loosely based on a 1638 design by Inigo Jones, and thus the handsome Georgian symmetry that remains today.

The years that followed saw the colourful generations of Ashley-Coopers both add and subtract from the property. The Earls acquired fine furniture, tapestries and paintings as vibrant and telling of their personal accounts of fortune as well as loss. By the time Nick’s father, the 10th Earl, inherited St Giles House it was in poor repair. Having been used as a military infirmary during the First World War and a girls’ school evacuated from London during the Second World War, the house needed huge investment to save what survived of an interior ravaged by dry rot and decay. Whilst his father had tried, the task of restoration was gargantuan and came at a time when many country estates “were knocked down or given away,” explains Nick.

When it fell to him, Nick felt a dual pull. Whilst proud of the work his brother Anthony had achieved

114 THE ENGLISH HOME

to find a way forward for the house and open up a dialogue with Historic England (formerly English Heritage) during his all-too-brief time as the 11th Earl of Shaftesbury, Nick felt “an ambivalent attitude” towards St Giles, too. “I saw how it had harmed my father and I felt a certain trepidation,” he admits.

Eventually, though, something changed.

Instrumental to this was a gift from his half-siblings.

They had secretly employed the photographer Justin Barton to document the 70-room house and presented Nick with a book of the photographs. “The house was overwhelming. You’d go into a room and it was full of debris and boxes and stuff that needed sorting out,” he explains. “It was hard to see through to the beauty behind, so the pictures came at a time when I really needed some inspiration.”

Nick also learnt more about the work his father and brother contributed to St Giles. The more he saw their vision, the more he shared a desire to complete it. “A big part of me has my father and brother along the journey with me and I feel like I’m doing it with both of them. I feel it’s a team effort, but also it is the 

THE ENGLISH HOME 115

ABOVE Hettie, a German wirehaired pointer, keeps guard in the family room.

The sign above the sofa is from an attempt after the Second World War to help maintain the house by opening it to the public.

continuation of the work that my father started, my brother continued and I’ve finished,” he says.

It was when Nick met Dinah in 2007, who became his wife in 2010, that the project commenced. “When you’re in love and thinking of starting a family and a new chapter in your life, you have a sense of adventure,” he says. “You don’t worry about things so much and it all seems quite fun.” The couple decided to create an apartment within the house and live on site. “Looking back, it was an amazing moment,” he continues, “because the biggest barrier, psychologically, was not knowing where to begin this huge project.”

Nick and Dinah pinpointed the most practical part of the house to develop as an apartment (phase one of

116 THE ENGLISH HOME

the project). This plan was also more realistic than funding the whole project in one go. “I’d had lengthy and ongoing conversations with Historic England about potential funding sources,” Nick explains.

“They were challenging discussions and it seemed like it was taking forever to progress, so getting a foothold in the house, we realised, came down to an amount of money that we could actually afford.” Self-financing this phase meant that Nick and Dinah could start as soon as they wanted.

The couple moved into the flat in St Giles in March 2012, almost 362 years to the day since the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury had made his diary entry. Nick is resolute that Dinah was an essential driving force, happy to live

with buckets to capture the rain pouring in through the ceiling whilst heavily pregnant with their second child, daughter Viva, and coping with their one-yearold son Anthony (joined in 2014 by daughter Zara).

Determined to make the house a family home for the first time since Nick’s great-grandfather’s time, the couple pressed on with the renovations, surrounded by a fleet of builders.

As the property is Grade I listed the couple had to liaise closely with Historic England on the planning process, designs and intentions for the restoration.

St Giles House had been on Historic England’s ‘Heritage at Risk’ register since it introduced the scheme prioritising heritage buildings most in need

of attention in the 1990s. “They were generally very excited and enthusiastic,” Nick says. It helped that the couple were not planning major structural changes and employed a building surveyor who Historic England had great trust in. Nick describes the process as “learning on the job” and being fortunate to have been introduced to the right people to guide them from the outset. “The house had so much beauty and character in it, the early work we did was focused on allowing the house to come back,” he says.

To create a family home they needed to install a kitchen. (The sculleries had been located in the basement, separated off for staff.) Nick’s greatgrandmother’s private quarters offered the most 

ABOVE The ire la e surround in the small dinin room was leaned and re ilded.

The arl s oronet was last worn in by the th arl o ha tesbury i s reat- rand ather at the oronation o in eor e and ueen li abeth The ueen other

THE ENGLISH HOME 117

obvious location. They sited the kitchen in what was her bathroom, incorporating a corridor which once separated this room from her bedroom to create a larger space which leads on to a family room. Whilst there were only three bathrooms in the original layout of the house, the many dressing rooms adjoining bedrooms lent themselves to being converted into en-suite bathrooms more suited to contemporary living.

The couple left as many original architectural features and original character as possible, restoring the gilding around doors, decorative ceilings and fireplaces, then added the new essentials for family life. Allowing the original history of the house to be brought back became a constant theme of the restoration as work progressed into phase two (which included the larger state rooms) with minimal intervention and a light touch. They also managed to carefully bring back to life all the ancestral portraits, paintings and tapestries and, with the help and keen eye of antiques specialist Edward Hurst, to salvage many of the finer pieces of furniture for restoration.

As the project has progressed, Nick and Dinah have had to consider making the estate work as a business. On realising that the state rooms could entertain up to 120 people, they added the necessary services – kitchens, a back staircase and a lift (carefully installed with Historic England’s consent) – enabling them to host events.

In the wake of many prestigious conservation awards and grants, the couple have continued to work on the house ceaselessly, most recently installing a nightclub.

With Anthony now aged seven, Viva, six, and Zara, four, St Giles House is once again a family home.

“We realise that we are very lucky to be living in such a magical place. One of the most rewarding parts is to bring up a family here. Of course, a house of this scale is never complete, all I see are the projects to do,” says Nick. Yet it is undeniable to see this family’s extraordinary achievement over adversity. n

FEATURE SAMANTHA SCOTT-JEFFRIES

TOP RIGHT A four-poster bed with the family crest on the headboard was restored for the Marlborough Room – the master bedroom of Nick and Dinah.

RIGHT The newly itted en-suite bathroom in the Marlborough Suite features eighteenth-century watercolours of St Giles park.

READER OFFER The Rebirth of an English Country House: St Giles House by The Earl of Shaftesbury and Tim Knox (Rizzoli, £40). Readers of The English Home can buy a copy at the special price of £35 (including P&P). To order, call 01235 465577 and quote the code ECHStG.

118 THE ENGLISH HOME

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QUINTESSENTIALLY Inspiration for seasonal pastimes and making the most of life at home starts here

FEATURE EVE MIDDLETON PHOTOGRAPH © MATTIASJ JOSEFSSON/ALAMY

BEAUTIFUL BLOOMS On a crisp morning, when the garden outside is shrouded in mist, being inside affords ample opportunity to enjoy colour and scent aplenty.

Jaunty hyacinths are a cheering sight at this time of year – their bold hues, showy flowers and fragrant perfume making them the perfect seasonal addition. Opt for pre-planted varieties for indoor flowers in the coming weeks, or pencil autumn in the diary for planting bulbs in the garden, ready for flowering next spring.

For expert guidance and inspiration, visit rhs.org.uk/advice

THE ENGLISH HOME 121

SEASON TO TASTE For chef and food writer Gill Meller, the changing seasons offer a plethora of delights. Here, he shares some of the delicious recipes from his new cookbook, Time

Leek and potato soup with smoked cheese and chives SERVES 4 What is it that constitutes simple?

I never know. In my experience, even the simplest things can be complex.

For example, take a small piece of driftwood that’s been washed up on the beach. It’s a fairly ordinary thing and plain enough to look at, but at one stage it was a part of a living tree; a plant that has evolved over millions of years, that feeds on sunlight, produces oxygen and is able to communicate with other plants through an intricate lattice of mycelium into which its roots connect. The simplicity of the naked form is skin deep. Underneath it is more complex and beautiful than we can possibly imagine.

“M

aking time to cook has become one of the most important things I do in my life. When we stop for a moment and do it, even in the simplest sense, it makes us feel good inside. Not only does it nourish our bodies and sustain our minds, but it’s vital for our happiness and well-being.

Cooking can be a brilliant way to establish gentler, healthier rhythms in the way that we live, as families and as individuals. It is a way to mark the passing of time; it is a way to celebrate it, but also remember it. I believe that every time we make something good to eat, we make a memory.

On the whole, my new recipes are inspired by the seasonal ingredients I have to hand, and by a love of simple cooking.

This book is an ode to the kitchen and all it represents. It’s a portrait of a year through the lens of a day. It is a dedication to, and celebration of, time.”

122 THE ENGLISH HOME

About 1 litre (35fl oz) vegetable (or chicken) stock 3 floury white potatoes (about 350g/12oz), peeled and cut into 1–2cm (½–¾in) cubes 3 medium–large leeks, trimmed and sliced into 1cm (½in) thick rounds 25g (1oz) butter 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 shallots or 1 onion, thinly sliced 2 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced 2 or 3 thyme sprigs, leaves stripped 100ml (3½fl oz) double cream 50g (1¾oz) smoked Cheddar or goat’s cheese, grated, plus extra for serving (optional) 1 small bunch of chives, finely chopped, plus a few left whole to serve (optional) Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Bring the stock to the boil in a large heavy-based pan.

• Add a third of the potato, bring the stock back to the simmer and cook,

uncovered, for 6–8 minutes, or until the cubes of potato are just tender.

• Add a third of the leeks and cook for 3 minutes to soften, then drain the vegetables through a colander set over a large bowl to catch the stock.

• Return the pan to a medium heat.

Add the butter and olive oil and, when bubbling, add the shallots or onion, the garlic and the thyme leaves.

• Cook, stirring regularly, for 4–5 minutes, then add the remaining leeks and potato to the pan and season well with salt and pepper.

• Cook gently, stirring regularly, for 3–4 minutes, then add the hot stock and bring the liquid to a gentle simmer.

• Cook the soup for about 15 minutes, until the leeks and the potatoes are lovely and tender.

Remove the pan from the heat and purée the soup until smooth and creamy. I find that a jug blender is the best tool for this job.

• Return the soup to the pan. Add the cooked leeks and potatoes you prepared earlier, along with the cream, grated cheese and chopped chives.

• Season with salt and pepper, then put the pan back on the heat and bring gently back to a simmer.

• Stir well, remove from the heat, and allow to stand for 5 minutes before serving in bowls, seasoned with pepper and sprinkled with extra cheese and a few whole chives, if you like. 

THE ENGLISH HOME 123

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Roast pork and crackling with apples, fennel seed, sage, lemon and thyme SERVES 6

Poached fish with seaweed, ginger and spring onions

About 2kg (4lb 8oz) pork loin, scored and tied 1 red onion, cut into 8–10 wedges 8 small apples, such as Cox’s 2 lemons, sliced into 5mm (¼in) rounds 1 small bunch of sage, leaves picked 8 bay leaves 1 small bunch of thyme A handful of fennel fronds, if available 2 teaspoons fennel seeds, lightly bashed 2 tablespoons olive oil Salt and freshly ground black pepper

SERVES 2 5g ( 1/8 oz) dried wakame seaweed 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds 3 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce 300ml (10½fl oz) fish stock ¼ small red chilli, deseeded and thinly sliced A few slices of ginger root 1 garlic clove, bashed, skin on 4 small spring onions, thinly sliced on an angle 2 x 50g (2oz) white fish fillets (such as bass, bream or sole), skin on Salt

• Soak the seaweed in cold water according to the packet instructions. It will grow in volume tenfold. When it is ready, drain and set aside.

• Heat a small pan over a medium heat. Toss the sunflower seeds in 1 tablespoon of the tamari or soy sauce and add them to the pan. Toast until they are dry and fragrant, and are nutty in colour – about 2–4 minutes – then remove from the heat and set aside.

• Pour the fish stock into a large pan, add the chilli, ginger and garlic and place over a medium heat. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to low and cook very gently for 10 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse.

• Pour the stock through a sieve into a clean, small pan set over a medium heat. Add the soaked seaweed, the remaining tamari or soy sauce and the spring onions and bring to a simmer. Season the fish lightly with salt, then nestle each piece into the simmering broth, skin-side up. The liquid should just cover the fish. Poach the fish in the broth for 3–4 minutes, or until the fish is just cooked through.

• Taste the broth and adjust the seasoning if you need to with more tamari or a little salt.

Divide the fish and broth equally between two warm bowls, scatter over the toasted seeds and serve at once.

• Heat the oven to 230°C/450°F/gas mark 9, or as hot as your oven will go.

Place the pork (with its very dry skin – this is really important as we want it to crackle) on a suitably sized roasting tin. Season all over with salt, then place in the hot oven for 25–30 minutes.

• Once the crackling is looking good, remove the pork and turn the oven down to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 6½.

• Scatter the red onion wedges over the base of a large, clean ovenproof dish.

• Carefully lift the pork from the hot

roasting tin and set it down on top of the onions.

• Place the whole apples around the pork, arrange the lemon slices in between them, scatter over the sage leaves, bay, thyme and fennel tops (if using) and season well with salt and pepper. Sprinkle over the crushed fennel seeds and trickle everything with the olive oil.

• Place the fragrant pork and apples in the oven and cook for a further 35 minutes, until the pork is cooked through and the apples are soft but not collapsing. (It is worth noting that if the apples look like they are going to collapse, you can take them out of the oven and allow the pork to finish cooking without them.)

• Remove the pork dish from the oven and allow the meat to rest in a nice, warm place for 10–15 minutes.

• Serve everyone a few thick slices of pork, some generous strips of crackling, an apple and some lemony, herby juices. 

THE ENGLISH HOME 125

Treacle tart with thyme and orange SERVES 8–10 725g (1lb 9½oz) golden syrup 1 egg 50ml (2fl oz) double cream 50g (2oz) unsalted butter Zest of 1 orange 2 teaspoons thyme leaves, chopped, plus an extra thyme sprig, to decorate 200g (7oz) white breadcrumbs for the pastry 45g (1½oz) icing sugar 170g (6oz) plain flour, plus extra for dusting 85g (3oz) butter, cubed and chilled, plus extra for greasing 1 tablespoon iced water 1 egg, plus an extra beaten egg for egg-washing

126 THE ENGLISH HOME

• To make the filling, pour the golden syrup into a medium pan set over a low heat. Whisk the egg and cream together in a bowl. When the syrup is hot, but not boiling, stir in the butter and allow it to melt. Then, stir in the orange zest, chopped thyme, breadcrumbs, and the cream and egg mixture. Take the pan off the heat and let it stand for 5 minutes,

to allow the breadcrumbs to take up the syrup.

• Pour the filling into the pastry case and bake for 35–40 minutes, until just set and golden brown around the edges.

• Leave to cool in the tin for 15–20 minutes before transferring to a serving plate, decorating with a thyme sprig and bringing to the table. n

READER OFFER These recipes were taken from Time: A Year and a Day in the Kitchen by Gill Meller (Quadrille, £25). Readers of The English Home can purchase a copy for the special price of £22 including P&P (UK mainland only). To order, please call 01256 302699 and quote code RC7.

PHOTOGRAPHS © ANDREW MONTGOMERY

• First, make the pastry. Combine the icing sugar and plain flour in a medium bowl • Rub in the chilled butter cubes until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (you can also do this in a food processor). Add in the iced water and the egg, and stir through to combine.

Tip out the dough and bring it together with your hands, kneading lightly to achieve a smooth finish. Wrap the pastry tightly in cling film and place it in the fridge to rest for at least 30 minutes.

• Heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 6. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry until it is about 2mm (1/16in) thick. Grease and flour a 3cm-deep (1¼in) x 22cm (8½in) loose-bottomed tart tin, then lay over the pastry, tucking it into the corners and leaving an overhang. Line the pastry case with baking parchment and baking beans.

• Blind bake the pastry for 25 minutes, then remove the paper and beans, trim the overhang and brush the pastry with beaten egg. Return to the oven for 10 minutes, until the base is just colouring. Remove and set aside, but leave the oven on.

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An greenhouse is the perfect focal point for a beautiful and productive kitchen garden.

Designed with a flat-fronted lobby and reclaimed brick-base walls, it becomes invaluable for raising seedlings and nurturing tender plants.

The Mottisfont from the National Trust Greenhouse Collection, 2.6m x 4m, ÂŁ15,950, Alitex

Creating a KITCHEN GARDEN Whether it is for the pleasure of wandering through a burgeoning vegetable patch or the promise of harvesting homegrown produce, planning and nurturing a kitchen garden is hugely fulfilling

E

nvisage stepping outside on a still summer morning to be greeted by the sights, scents and textures of a thriving kitchen garden.

Neatly edged paths running through a series of raised beds bursting with lush crops of salad leaves, cabbages and beans, dotted with the occasional squash and pumpkin. Walk through a carefully hand-woven hazel arch, now covered with richly fragrant sweet peas, to reach the fruit area filled with rows of raspberry canes, and blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes. At the far end of the garden, a stately Victorian-style greenhouse takes centre stage, flanked by a pair of traditional cold frames, which proudly house the next batch of seedlings waiting to be planted out. With a little research, thoughtful planning and plenty of enthusiasm, this daydream can spring to life.

ABOVE RIGHT Invest in hardy garden tools, such as these endorsed by the RHS. Long-Handled Garden Tools, from £24.99, Burgon & Ball ABOVE FAR RIGHT Protect rows of produce from pests by pushing wire cloche hoops into the soil and covering with horticultural fleece or fine netting.

Small Tunnel Cloche Hoops, £22 for five, Plant Belles

PERFECT PLANNING Deciding on the perfect position for a successful kitchen garden depends on the space available as well as the orientation of the plot and the maximum amount of sunlight. Finding a sheltered yet sunny position is preferable but not always possible so be open-minded and look at ways of introducing screening to block prevailing winds or removing branches, trees or shrubs that may cast dense shade and a deluge of falling leaves. Monitor the way the sun travels across the proposed site. Note which areas remain in deep shade, partial shade and full sun as this will be helpful when it comes to positioning plants.

Soil types can vary hugely from acidic clay through to alkaline chalk and will inevitably impact on how plants perform or, in some cases, thrive at all. For instance, blueberries will only grow in acidic soil,

hence why they are often found growing in containers, whilst cabbages, cauliflowers and cucumbers prefer alkaline soils. There are various ways to determine the soil type within a specific plot. It is possible to call in a horticultural expert; take soil samples to a local garden centre; or use a kit to carry out a simple pH test. Test kits for soil can be purchased from a garden centre or online and usually take the form of a litmus test with a test tube or a digital probe. Be sure to take samples from different areas of the site as there may well be subtle variations.

Clearing the site of weeds, stumps and grass may be necessary before the soil can be cultivated. Calling in a professional will save time, effort and the upheaval of having to remove debris. Companies with tree and shrub shredders and stump grinders are also well worth the cost and can either remove chippings or leave them for composting.

Marking out a new kitchen garden layout is worth some careful deliberation. Consulting a garden designer can be invaluable as they will be able to accurately assess the site and suggest layouts based on practical experience and the type of produce that each individual homeowner wishes to grow. Postal design services, local horticultural colleges and garden centres are all good sources for local garden designers.

Alternatively, why not enrol in a short-term garden course to gain wider knowledge?

Organising the available space is key when it comes to planning a beautiful and workable kitchen garden.

A raised bed system is perhaps the most popular and practical solution and makes maintaining and harvesting crops much easier. Each bed should be surrounded with a sturdy timber surround – scaffolding  THE ENGLISH HOME 129

ABOVE Borders filled with kale and sweet peas climbing up tripods in the bountiful kitchen garden of Wardington Manor in Oxfordshire.

boards or railway sleepers are popular materials – and then infilled with a mix of top soil, well-rotted manure and compost. This creates a nutrient-rich base that can easily be topped up as required and encourages crop root growth. It also has the benefit of being easier to weed and can help to reduce the threat from all types of pests, from rabbits to slugs and snails.

Raised beds are usually spaced at regular intervals for neatness, with a network of paths around them for easy access. Ensure the paths are wide enough for a wheelbarrow to pass down and reduce the need for weeding by covering with a layer of landscaping membrane before topping up with gravel, bark chippings, paviours or intricate brickwork.

WHAT TO GROW When it comes to choosing which types of fruit and vegetables to raise, it makes sense to opt for varieties that are most frequently enjoyed at home and score high on flavour, beauty and resistance to pests and diseases. It is not worth investing time, energy and space to nurture crops which will then be discarded rather than savoured at the dinner table.

Some types of home-grown produce require less fuss and attention and prove more abundant than others.

It is these that prove to be the most satisfying to grow and share with family and friends.

130 THE ENGLISH HOME

“The best plants to start with in a productive kitchen garden are ‘cut-and-come-again’ plants, things like the annual salad leaves – mizuna, salad rocket and any of the mustards – plus the repeat-cropping lettuces,” suggests Sarah Raven, plantswoman, teacher and television presenter. “My current favourite lettuces are ‘Black Seeded Simpson’ and ‘Merveille de Quatre Saisons’, and I love to top my salad bowls with easy-to-grow, long-flowering edible flowers, added after tossing the leaves with dressing. If you harvest them right, you increase your harvest. So for salad leaves and lettuce, harvest from the outside in.”

Courgettes, and French and runner beans are also prolific, attractive and full of flavour too, with just a few plants taking up very little space but providing generous yields, throughout the late spring and summer months. Popular varieties of courgettes are ‘Defender’ (green fruit) and ‘Orelia’ (golden fruit).

There are also plants that have very different lifespans and cropping cycles, so striking a careful balance across the different types deserves consideration when establishing a long-lasting kitchen garden. For instance, annual crops – those that need sowing at least once a year such as carrots, lettuces, beetroot – generally take up more space but can be re-sown in a different location each time, whilst perennial specimens – such as raspberry canes, fruit bushes and, of course, fruit trees – will be in the same

position for years. Rhubarb is a firm favourite of many garden experts – including reknowned plantsman from seed and plant specialists Thompson & Morgan, Colin Randel – not just for its delicious flavour and dramatic good looks but for its easy growing nature too.

“Rhubarb ‘bud pieces’ can be planted directly into the garden either in October to November or March to May,” Randel says. “Allow them to grow untouched for a year, just tidy up the growth ensuring the central crown is not damaged and mulch with well-rotted compost, garden compost or leaf mould every November to December. A first picking of a couple of stems per plant can be done in the second year, and a full flush of stems thereafter.” He also suggests raising other fuss-free fruits but in striking ways. “Why not try hanging-basket fruit?” he continues. “Raspberry ‘Ruby Falls’ and blackberry ‘Black Cascade’ were bred for hanging baskets or growing in a larger container. They look spectacular and can be picked easily and quickly.”

Selecting fruit bushes and trees is simply a matter of individual taste and the desired use and characteristics that are most favoured at home. With over 3,500 varieties of fruit trees preserved in the UK’s National Fruit Collection there is an extensive range to choose from, including revived heritage varieties, firm family favourites and those that are innately curious, such as russet apples that have a flavour more akin to pears.

The Royal Horticultural Association (RHS) holds many fruit fairs and tasting sessions during the autumn months at which the public are welcome to attend, taste and purchase an array of different varieties. The National Fruit Collection at Brogdale Farm in Kent is also worth visiting to find out about the history of some of the UK’s oldest fruit species and order from its comprehensive nursery. Hertfordshire-based Majestic Trees also has a wide selection of mature fruit and nut trees for order.

Herbs also play an important role in any kitchen garden and can elevate a simple salad or roast joint from ordinary to sublime. Whilst some herbs are tender and need nurturing, there are many that are robust and reliable.

Herb guru Jekka McVicar has five firm favourites for a newly established kitchen garden but endorses the premise that gardeners should grow what they most like to eat. Her five highly regarded herbs are: “Coriander. This is best sown as seed directly into a well-prepared bed or window box in the early spring where it will resist bolting and can be picked from the end of August right through until the first frost.

English rosemary is a diehard plant – simply cut the soft leafy growth back immediately after flowering to maintain the shape and health of the plant.

Alternatively, try a prostrate form of rosemary such as ‘Foxtail’ which, with its arching habit, is perfect for hanging baskets or containers. Chives are a must 

TOP RIGHT Gather homegrown produce with pride and in style with this beautiful galvanised wire basket with a beechwood handle.

Harvesting Basket

by Sophie Conran for Burgon & Ball, £18.95, Annabel James MIDDLE RIGHT A cold frame is perfect for extending the growing season, protecting plants from adverse weather yet still allowing them to have the sunlight they need.

Red Cedar Baby Grand Cold Frame, £545, Gabriel Ash BOTTOM RIGHT Handmade from terracotta, traditional rhubarb forcers are an eye-catching yet classic statement in any kitchen garden.

Bell-shaped with a lid, they are placed over the emerging shoots of rhubarb to exclude light and help develop the stems’ natural sweetness and delicate pink colour.

Rhubarb Forcer, from £180 (68cm x 38cm), Whichford Pottery

for their tasty pom-pom purple flowers, strappy leaves and look lovely planted either side of a path. Their self-seeding habit also makes them great value. Mint is essential – aim for a strong peppermint (try Black Mitcham), a spearmint (Spanish Mint) and a leafy mint (such as Bowles Mint).”

PRETTY PLOTS Whilst plants take centre stage in a kitchen garden, it is important not to forget the stunning props and sumptuous backdrops to create the mood and framework against which the crops alter season by season. Intersecting paths divide up and help organise the planting scheme and can become stars in their own right when edged with neatly clipped box edging, fragrant lavender, low-growing stepover apples or clumps of chives or silvery sage.

Placing an elegant wirework arch or tunnel at the entrance to the garden or at a key intersection will add dramatic height and an opportunity to grow climbers such as mini squash, speckled borlotti beans or a thornless blackberry. Whilst fencing the whole area off with a beautiful cleaved post and rail fence, traditionally layered hedge or woven hazel hurdles will define the area and – hopefully – deter unwelcome guests. A hand-crafted Chestnut paling gate will add an uplifting finishing touch to the boundary.

Obelisks, wigwams and bean tunnels can be positioned to punctuate the raised borders and make a style statement that will endure all year round. Choose from rustic, hand-erected structures, assembled from coppiced hazel and twine, or intricate steel designs that ooze sophistication. Use them to support climbing crops such as beans and sweetcorn but introduce fragrant and vivid sweet peas too, for a dash of colour.

Cloches and tunnels, as well as being essential for protecting crops, can look beautiful with plenty of wirework and woven-willow designs available. Curved, stake and hurdle-style plant supports, often made in corten steel that attractively rusts with age, not only look gorgeous but will prevent plant stems from flopping and breaking.

Selecting choice features can also add character to any vegetable patch and those items rooted in horticultural heritage will add weight and a sense of tradition. Hand-crafted rhubarb forcers have long been associated with the quintessential kitchen garden.

Curiously bell-shaped and crafted in mellow terracotta, they add a comforting touch to the barest of borders right through the winter months. Galvanised-steel feed bins and salvaged butler sinks can also strike a similar traditional note. Details such as beautifully written plant labels or a stack of handmade flower pots all add to the charm whilst also being practical. Some of the most beautiful examples can be seen at West Dean Gardens in West Sussex, but other inspirational kitchen gardens that are worth visiting include 132 THE ENGLISH HOME

Mark Diacono’s Otter Farm in Devon, Sarah Raven’s Perch Hill in East Sussex, Audley End in Essex, Highgrove in Gloucestershire and Beningbrough Hall in Yorkshire.

ELEGANT COVER Investing in a greenhouse will prove invaluable when it comes to raising seedlings and nurturing tender plants such as tomatoes, grapes and chillies. It also adopts the role of workplace, where sowing seeds or planting up containers can take place despite the weather and in comfort. The greenhouse also becomes an opportunity for display – whether it is showing off latest bumper harvests or adding new accessories such as a potting bench or propagator.

The key is to think long-term. Decide on the scale, design and site – the optimum position for any greenhouse is in full sun for as many months of the year as possible. Consider how the building might be used, how much growing and storage space is required, and whether it should be a lean-to or freestanding design. Prestigious greenhouse brand Hartley Botanic advises the following: “For lean-to greenhouses placed against a wall, a south-facing position is ideal. For standalone structures, the ridge along the top of the greenhouse should ideally run from east to west. This will allow the sun to run along its longest side during the day. Other elemental considerations include a

ABOVE An elegant, well-built greenhouse is a worthwhile investment if considering growing plants from seedlings.

Victorian Lodge Greenhouse, £POA, Hartley Botanic ABOVE RIGHT Encourage climbers to grow proudly up these charming willow obelisks.

Willow Obelisk, £49.95 for two, Sarah Raven BOTTOM RIGHT Tactile and perfectly balanced, quality hand tools are hardworking treasures in any kitchen garden.

Stainless Hand Fork and Trowel, £11.99 each, Burgon & Ball RHS Collection, Dobbies

Companion planting The method of planting two or more different plants together for beneficial effect has long been celebrated by kitchen and cottage gardeners. The scents, fragrances and chemicals emitted by the plant combination can aid growth, help deter pests and attract pollinating insects. Tried and tested combinations include the following and are well worth trialling: Plant leeks and onions alongside carrots to deter carrot-root fly.

The strong scent of French marigolds will help repel aphids and whitefly, particularly around tomatoes, beans and sweetcorn.

Strong-smelling tansy will help deter ants from congregating around tender seedlings.

Nasturtiums are useful for attracting cabbage white butterflies, so dot amongst broccoli, cabbages and cauliflowers to keep them caterpillar free.

Basil, with its sweet scent, is great for seducing whitefly away from tomatoes and cucumbers.

Pot marigolds, poached-egg plants and sweet peas are all go-to destinations for pollinating insects, so are perfect to place amongst fruit and vegetable beds.

Mint will detract pests from tomatoes, carrots and brassicas but grow in a pot or it can take over.

FEATURE JILL MORGAN PHOTOGRAPHS P137 (PLANT BELLES) © JAMES CORBETT; P138 © CLIVE NICHOLS; P139 (GABRIEL ASH) © HEATHER EDWARDS; P141 (SARAH RAVEN) © JONATHAN BUCKLEY

location to catch prevailing winds for ventilation purposes and choosing a site which is not shaded, but equally not too exposed to the cold. Access to power and water is also preferable.”

Greenhouse specialist company Gabriel Ash adds: “Try to avoid siting a structure directly under any trees. Not only can doing so block the amount of sunlight getting through, which can affect productivity, but it can encourage algae growth, leading to a more laborious cleaning operation, as well as the increase risk of falling branches/debris that can damage the structure.” It also advises to carefully think about the base construction of the design. “A solid concrete base may be desirable, a path with some grow-from-ground space, gravelling, or an aluminium base to place straight onto grass. It really is up to the client.”

The most popular and opulent style of greenhouse is a Victorian design with defining features such as finials, a steep glazed roof and narrow glazing bars.

Long-established greenhouse manufacturer Alitex has a beautiful range of National Trust designs, inspired by Victorian originals. They come in a range of shapes and sizes and as the structures are made using powder-coated aluminium they need very little upkeep and come in a wide range of subtle colours. Tiered benches, cold frames, partitions and cast-iron floor grids all add to the look and ensure maximum practicality and style. n

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An Andrew Martin scheme which shows the layering of colour, texture and global style of the brand.

Skyla Chair, £2,495; Katia Coffee Table, £995, Andrew Martin

MY PASSION FOR...

EGYPTIAN MASKS Martin Waller, founder of global design house Andrew Martin, reveals his personal design obsession

FEATURE SAMANTHA SCOTT-JEFFRIES PORTRAIT © DOMINIC BLACKMORE

“

I remember going to the Tutankhamun exhibition at the British Museum in 1972 and seeing the the gold mask of King Tut. The discovery of his tomb was perhaps the ultimate treasure hunt and the idea that, like Howard Carter, you’re going to find buried treasure and untold riches in a lost tomb, is a schoolboy thing that I’ve never come close to growing out of.

I have about 10 artefacts from ancient Egypt, but the funerary mask is the most personal, the most intimate. I would love to say that I found a tomb and excavated it, but I bought the mask at an antiquities auction at Christie’s about 20 years ago. I’d seen lots of masks and this is an attractive example. It’s a portrait of a person who lived 3,000 years ago, with the same ambitions and concerns – of family, health, business and politics – that we have today.

If you stop to study it, the echo of the past is so evident in it. It’s a reminder that life is so short and of our mortality. I think that’s the strongest feeling it gives.

I do like it, and it is something that I want to have out, so it sits on a very big coffee table in the sitting room of my London apartment, 138 THE ENGLISH HOME

which is full of stuff. It has pride of place, but in a relaxed way. My eldest daughter took it to ‘show-and-tell’ at school once about 25 years ago, and it was raining, so you can see where the rain marked it a little bit. I think it’s all the better for that, too; that’s part of our story. I like things that are battered and worn, I want the condition of a piece to show the use of generations.

Hunting for treasure has always been my passion. Right from when I started Andrew Martin, aged 22, I was buying amazing pieces in India, Burma and China. An enormous amount of artefacts have passed through my hands as we’ve sold so much over a long period of time, but the mask I’ve always kept.

Global treasures, artefacts and design have informed English style for hundreds of years, and the layering of different aesthetics and ideas is very much the Andrew Martin philosophy and my own style. My kids say ‘when are you going to get rid of all of this clutter?’ but the ‘clutter’ really is the history of my life and other people’s lives.”

Andrew Martin is celebrating its 40th year. andrewmartin.co.uk n

TOP Martin Waller, founder of Andrew Martin.

ABOVE Waller’s Egyptian funerary mask.

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