DRIFT 33

01872 306360 info@ rohrsandrowe.co.uk rohrsandrowe.co.uk

Beautiful Grade II listed Georgian residence

5 en suite bedrooms Self contained 2-bedroom annexe

3 x one bedroom letting cottages

Swimming pool complex Circa 1.4 acres of gardens and grounds

Drift /drift/ noun

1. the act of driving something along

2. the flow or the velocity of the current of a river or ocean stream

verb

1. to become driven or carried along, as by a current of water, wind, or air

2. to move or float smoothly and effortlessly

THE PINNACLE OF LUXURY LIFESTYLE IN CORNWALL

Lucy Willow, ‘Shadow of the Moon’, 2023, Chinese ink on paper, 59 x 42 cm. Courtesy and © the artist, as featured from page 97.

lucywillow.art/ dustltd.art

CEO

Ben Pratchett – 01326 574842 ben.pratchett@enginehousemedia.co.uk

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Hannah Tapping hannah.tapping@enginehousemedia.co.uk

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Miguel Belert miguel.belert@enginehousemedia.co.uk

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Dan Warden dan.warden@levenmediagroup.co.uk

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Finance & HR Manager

Charlotte Forster charlotte.forster@enginehousemedia.co.uk

Client Director

Jonathan Perkins – 07587 072706 jonathan.perkins@enginehousemedia.co.uk

Creative Designers

Spencer Hawes

Jamie Crocker

Credit Control

Tracy Dart – 01326 574842

tracy.dart@enginehousemedia.co.uk

PROUD TO BE PART OF

Drift is published by:

Engine House Media LTD

Holbrook, The Moors, Porthleven, Cornwall TR13 9JX

www.enginehousemedia.co.uk www.levenmediagroup.co.uk

ISSN 2632-9891

© All rights reserved. Material may not be re-produced without the permission of Engine House Media Ltd. While Drift will take every care to help readers with reports on properties and features, neither Engine House Media Ltd nor its contributors can accept any liability for reader dissatisfaction arising from editorial features, editorial or advertising featured in these pages. Engine House Media Ltd strongly advises viewing any property prior to purchasing or considerations over any financial decisions. Engine House Media reserves the right to accept or reject any article or material supplied for publication or to edit such material prior to publication. Engine House Media Ltd cannot take responsibility for loss or damage of supplied materials. The opinions expressed or advice given in the publication are the views of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of

Engine House Media Ltd. It is suggested that further advice is taken over any actions resulting from reading any part of this magazine. Engine House Media Ltd is a multi-platform media business with a passion for everything Cornish. Visit www.enginehousemedia. co.uk to find out more. Our mission is to create READ-WATCHEXPERIENCE media opportunities marrying together consumers with the fabulous businesses across Cornwall. Our publishing and marketing teams are specialists in creating print and online communications, devised to achieve a range of marketing objectives. With over 20 years of marketing, brand management and magazine experience we develop effective communications that deliver your message in a credible and creative way. We operate across all media channels, including: print, online and video.

Foreword

Cornwall’s natural environment informs how we live and work. From its fields, farmland and foreshores to its ocean expanses and watery depths, what is grown, harvested, caught, created and consumed here reveals diversity, sustainability and an overall passion for good. In photographer Adj Brown’s latest edition of his series ‘Makers and Doers’, he turns his lens to the intricate world of wood that Jamie Zennor (16) inhabits. Working without chemicals and reinventing fallen trees into works of art, Jamie’s creations tread lightly on the planet. Reinventing old ways and seeking out orchards where endangered apple varieties would otherwise be lost in time, apple hunters James Evans and Mary Martin (39) have collaborated with Fowey Valley Cidery and Distillery to bottle an Old Cornish range of cider. Chef Jeffrey Robinson, who has just taken the helm at Harbour House, Flushing,

is leading the hospitality drive in achieving hypersustainability (89). Menus at this waterside inn flex not only with the season but by the day, each dish dictated by ingredients just pulled from the ground or landed on the quay. Sustainability also applies to our built environment as is played out by ARCO2’s approach to architecture (55). With health, comfort and wellbeing at the heart of every building they design, ARCO2 strives for top standards, adopting passive house principles with a fabric-first approach. Andrew Forster, founder of Dive Project Cornwall, bookends DRIFT’s narrative as he looks back on a year that engaged 358 schools in its education programme (122), nurturing a group of young Ocean Influencers to enact a positive change. However the Cornish environment impacts or informs, join us on a journey of environmental discovery.

Our contributors

Join our team

We have an exceptional and loyal team here at Leven Media Group but as a fast growth business we’re always interested in talking to outstanding individuals. If you’re a superstar of extraordinary talent then we would love to hear from you.

We invite you to continue your lifestyle voyage online. Find inspiring stories and uncover more luxury content on Instagram @driftcornwall. Join our exclusive e-journal community at drift-cornwall.co.uk to receive recipes, reviews and insider knowledge of some of Cornwall’s most-loved luxury destinations.

Martin Holman

Rosie Cattrell

Hannah Tapping

Ysy Lees

Lucy Studley

Mercedes Smith

ROSEVINE | ROSELAND PENINSULA | GUIDE PRICE £2,250,000 | EPC B

NR ROSEVINE | ROSELAND PENINSULA | GUIDE PRICE £560,000 | EPC E

ALL SOLD IN THE LAST THREE MONTHS

The Directors of Jackson-Stops Cornwall would like to invite you, to accept an offer to arrange a private and discreet free marketing consultation on your property.

Hayle £2,250,000

Wadebridge £775,000

Helford Passage £950,000

Nr Fowey £1,150,000

Harlyn Bay £1,500,000

Newquay £1,150,000

At a glance

71 JUST ADD BEER

A revolution from Sharp’s Brewery

79 SMOOTH SAILING

A celebration in nautical history

89 CONSCIOUS DINING

A new level of delicious sustainability

97 ART WITH SOUL

Lucy Willow’s moving take on grief

109 NURSING NOSTALGIA

Back in time with Cornwall Hospice Care

116 FINER DETAILS

A closer look at artist, Mark Dale

122 EVENTIDE

A final word from Andy Forster

the GRAIN Gristfor

His relationship with wood began at school; in any spare time, Jamie could be found in the DT department creating something in 3D. Much of his formative years were immersed with creative people and environments as his mum, and subsequently both older siblings, were artists. Little wonder then, that his path would follow a similar line. Given the opportunity to set up a workshop at home, Jamie’s intimate relationship with wood was born in the form of his woodturning business, Zennor Made.

Unable to afford to buy wood in the early days, Jamie was fortunate to have friends with land where he would forage for interesting pieces of sycamore and oak. Exploring this micro-space made him realise that there was a unique and sustainable source of material on his doorstep. Tree surgeon friends would deliver unusual offcuts for Jamie to work with and all from within a 20-mile radius of his workshop.

“The most satisfying part of my work,” says Jamie, “is when I get offered a beautiful old tree that’s become diseased and has to be cut down; it’s like a dream come true because I get to go through the whole journey of

the tree, using every party of it. When I see it, I can already visualise the finished pieces before I’ve even taken the wood in my hands.”

The resulting bowls and platters embrace not only the natural beauty of the wood but also its imperfections, as Jamie prefers to leave those ‘gnarly’ edges that others might cut out. In juxtaposition, his perfect wooden spheres allow the intricate grain pattern to be the focus of each piece. Jamie shys away from using any forms of chemicals, preferring to simply finish his pieces with hemp oil and beeswax. The resulting natural woodshavings are then returned to the soil as mulch for newly planted trees at a woodland project in south Cornwall.

Jamie was photographed in his workshop as part of photographer Adj Brown’s latest project, ‘Makers and Doers’, a series of images capturing Cornish artists, craft makers and creators with a sense of curiosity.

zennormade.com

adjbrown.co.uk

Working with wood from a creative perspective, woodturner Jamie Zennor considers his medium to be as much the artist as himself.

ABOVE

The woodturning waste remains as natural as the tree from which it came

TouchingGROUND

WORDS BY MERCEDES SMITH

Louise Bougourd is an awardwinning artist whose career has so far been focused on the spectacular landscape of Dartmoor. She lives and works on its eastern edge, regularly walking its tors with a rucksack full of drawing kit, making plein air sketches that she later translates into semiabstracted paintings full of atmosphere and colour. Now though, she is turning her attention to new landscapes, and a new collection, inspired by her long relationship with Cornwall. “Dartmoor’s sense of solitude, isolation and wilderness fascinates me, but Cornwall also has a deep allure for me, one which is both spiritual and emotional. Years of blissful family holidays in Cornwall have left me with warm, glowing memories,” says Louise, describing long childhood days

filled with love and laughter, and what she calls a “deep-rooted sense of wholeness, of wellbeing”. She is also a recent graduate of Newlyn School of Art’s acclaimed oneyear Mentoring Course, which she describes as “truly life-changing”. Loss and longing, too, form part of Louise’s connection to Cornwall: “My mum died over ten years ago,” she says, “and every time I return to Cornwall it is like an emotional tribute to her, to her love of Cornwall. It’s like saying ‘thank you mum, for instilling in me an appreciation for the natural world’.”

That deep love for nature has seen her become an accomplished contemporary landscape artist and a well-known teacher of explorative approaches to painting. Her workshops, which she holds in the garden

Artist Louise Bougourd’s new work explores the emotionally grounding, restorative nature of the Cornish landscape.

studio of her Devon home, encourage participants to explore their ‘artistic voice’ and to paint subjects that particularly inspire them. Louise’s inspiration has always been the drama of wild spaces and man’s relationship to nature. Her watercolour, oil and mixed media works immerse the viewer in the wide-open landscapes of the South West, amid its powerful weather systems and the brilliant, rural colours of its ever-changing seasons. “Cornwall is an abundant muse for landscape artists like me,” says Louise. “It offers endless, rolling landscapes, a rugged coastline, cliffs, relics of industrial activity and changing skies at every turn. I feel a connection with Cornwall which I find difficult to articulate – it is so familiar that it actually feels like home each time I visit, which I do as often as I can. It is important to me to keep that connection. It is not just Cornwall’s unique array of colours, or the sea that merges and melts into billowing skies, or the allure of soft pastel shades where the ocean meets the shoreline, or its dramatic cliffs – it is the pull of memory that sees me heading along the A30, like a pilgrimage to the past and the present. Revisiting familiar locations is restorative to me, it feeds my creativity. When I have a close connection with a place, it inspires me, and I find that my work flows intuitively and freely, as

though the past is as important to my process as the landscape that inspires the painting.” In many ways, Louise could be described as a ‘process-led’ painter, an artist whose methods and materials take the lead as she creates a work. While her outdoor sketching practice is entirely responsive on a visual level, back at the studio her drawings are reinterpreted through colour, gesture and mark. “Out in the landscape I fill my sketchbooks with rapid responses in watercolour, ink and pastel,” she tells me. “I take several sketchbooks with me, and in a short time the rocks will be strewn with them as I leave one book to dry and begin on the next one.” Back in the studio, these ink and paint sketches inform works on a much larger scale. Using oil paint, she works on canvas or panel, making more than one painting at a time in order to keep that special spontaneous quality. “My mark-making is always energetic,” says Louise. “I aim to replicate the energy and joy I experience when I’m in the landscape. Creating artwork from a place that is emotionally charged is very important to my practice, so having a personal history with a location like Dartmoor or Cornwall makes my work feel entirely natural, it literally flows from a place deep within me. I respond to the beauty, the rawness, and sometimes the cruel and harsh

intrusion of man in the landscape, and I let myself feel – I sit for a while listening to and looking at and feeling the landscape before I begin to sketch, which leads to artworks that retain the energy and emotion I felt. The result is always something that is reflective of the moment, of an almost meditative state, a liminal place. I want viewers to step into my world for a moment, to be able to lose themselves by connecting with the emotional narrative I convey in my work, the conversation between memory and perception infused with paint onto canvas.”

Her new Cornwall project focuses particularly on light, and the ways in which places can be calming and restorative. “Light plays an enormous role in my work,” she says, “and I have aimed to create a luminescent quality in each piece. Creating atmospheric effects and working on a large scale has been the main focus of this new collection. My fascination for the natural world, and how we are so infinitesimally small within it, is a feeling that always stays with me. My favourite place in Cornwall is West Penwith, which is exactly the kind of grand landscape that inspires such emotion. It is so rich and diverse, with hidden coves of silky sand, stunning cliff walks, those deep valleys full of flowers, and the remnants of tin and copper mining.” In October 2021

Louise undertook a residency on Penwith, at Cape Cornwall’s Brisons Veor, an experience she found “awe inspiring, with the wild autumn sea raging over the rocks. It is an outstanding location”. While her gestural, emotive mark-making stays the same in these new Cornish works, the colour palette Louise has used is quite different to the palette inspired by Dartmoor. “It has a softer quality, more blueish grey and warm yellow white contrasted with dark blends of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue,” she explains. “The overall effect in my paintings of Cornwall is softer and warmer than the wildness of Dartmoor, with an almost effervescent quality. What I hope to have captured is my experience of feeling grounded and at peace –of a strong sense of being at one here. In every painting in this collection you will discover the suggestion of a horizon line, albeit a subtle one, which is a visual device intended to ground the viewer, but you will also find an intentional luminosity and atmosphere within my work, that lifts the soul and expresses a real sense of hope and joy.”

Louise’s new Cornwall collection can be viewed on her webiste at louisebougourd.co.uk

louisebougord.co.uk

A Cornish POMONA

WORDS BY LUCY STUDLEY

© Faydit Photography

James Evans and Mary Martin have dedicated four decades to a noble pursuit: seeking out historic and endangered varieties of Cornish apples and preserving them for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations. Now, for the first time in 150 years, truly authentic East Cornwall ciders are being made thanks to a collaboration with Fowey Valley Cidery and Distillery. Bottles of the Old Cornish range hold a taste of a bygone era, when apple trees carpeted the valleys of this corner of Cornwall, producing cider for thirsty farm labourers and sailors visiting these shores from far and wide.

James and Mary have both lived in this part of the world all their lives and share a passion for exploring the lanes, fields and riversides on foot. Mary is an artist by profession and trained at the Royal Academy Schools. “I love painting orchards,

setting up my easel amongst the trees,” she enthuses. “Once the economic, social and ritualistic focal point for a whole household or community, they are often rather neglected these days. They have a romantic look, but it’s sad when you think of their cultural value slowly being consumed by weeds.”

On one ramble back in 1980, James and Mary came across an old cider press in a disused barn, and persuaded the farmer to let them and a group of friends renovate the equipment and get it working again, using the traditional method of horsepower to press the apples. More interested in the age-old process itself at this stage, they used whatever apples they could lay their hands on. The project got them interested in local varieties of apples which once flourished but were now dying out – except for a few trees dotted in hedgerows, forgotten

An epic quest to preserve traditional and rare Cornish apple varieties bears fruit.

Barrie Gibson, Owner of Fowey Valley Cidery & Distillery

James Evans and Mary Martin

© Faydit Photography

© Faydit Photography

© Faydit Photography

orchards and hidden away in back gardens. The apple itself isn’t native to these shores, although you could be forgiven for thinking so given how entwined the nation’s favourite fruit has become in our cultural, social, and religious makeup. Apples are thought to originate from the Tian Shan mountains of Central Asia, from where they made their way along the silk road to Western Europe and eventually worldwide. Along the way, local breeding resulted in a plethora of unique cultivars with distinctive qualities.

Realising the fragility of both the cultivars themselves and knowledge of their existence, James and Mary began exploring the countryside with purpose, looking for and cataloguing apples trees and their fruit. “It felt wonderful to be doing something positive to save these dying orchards, rather than simply painting them,” says Mary.  “From the very beginning we made notes on geographic locations, characteristics and appearance, and anything the locals could remember about the origins and characteristics of their apples,” recalls James. “We catalogued the fruit and took photos and cuttings, but putting names to the varieties is incredibly complicated. Many apples have several different names, or none at all, so at first it seemed an impossible task to impose order.”

“At one time, we discovered a tree in the Tamar Valley with apples which looked and tasted entirely different to anything we’d

come across. The tree was literally about to be cut down to make way for some landscaping or building work. Luckily, we were able to save the varietal and propagate it in our own orchard. We discovered that it’s known as Breadfruit, and it has a lovely strawberry flavour when ripe.”

The advent of genetic testing has enabled James and Mary to trace the roots of many unusual varieties, the apple equivalent of ancestry research. Their 40+ years of specimen collecting has gradually been examined by East Malling Research Station in Kent, where DNA analysis and genetic fingerprinting are revealing interesting tales about the origins and migrations of Old Cornish varieties over the years. The Breadfruit, for example, was revealed to be an exact match for an apple known as Vajki Alma in Hungary (how it ended up in a tiny Cornish hamlet is anyone’s guess), but James and Mary suspect it’s related to the lost French apple Calville Blanc d’Ete; coincidentally it makes a wonderful French apple tart, as well as a Cornish apple dumpling.

Quite often the results of this scientific analysis come back as ‘unknown variety’, giving James and Mary the task of naming them. Hence their records contain many varieties with wonderfully evocative inherited or given names such as Grow-BiNights, Whitpot Sweet, Pig’s Snout, Pengelly,

Manaccan Primrose, Hocking’s Green, Collogett Pippin, Liskeard Gillyflowers, Limberlimb, Ladies Fingers, Banana Pippin, Pendragon and Long Keeper.

For James and Mary, this quest to catalogue and preserve Cornwall’s historic apple varieties is a labour of love, and one they are keen to pass down to the next generation. Their highly respected book,  A Cornish Pomona, was first published in 2014 and remains the preeminent text on the subject. But they have done much more than preserve knowledge in the pages of a book; the real gift to the future lies in two ‘mother orchards’ – precious repositories of the apple varieties they have found and preserved during their wanderings.

James carefully cultivates the orchards using natural pest control and eschewing any chemicals. For many years a beekeeper, he nurtures pollinators and the whole ecosystem of the orchards, creating a haven of biodiversity. With the volume of samples collected over the years, space is at a premium, and several of the trees are ‘family trees’, which means that more than one

variety is grafted onto a single tree. “Some of our trees carry up to five different varieties of apples, which makes them very difficult to prune but it does help with pollination, as the blossom comes in waves,” explains James.

Now James and Mary have collaborated with renowned cider makers Fowey Valley to produce a very special series of ciders. For Barrie Gibson, Founder and Master Cidermaker at Fowey Valley, their collection is a precious assemblage of red, green, brown, and yellow-hued jewels; an astounding resource to have access to.

“Last autumn, we had the pick of these incredible mother orchards,” explains Barrie. “After much enjoyable pontificating between the three of us, we ended up with five barrels of juice in various combinations of apples which our combined knowledge of cultivars and cider-making told us would work well together.”

Following the various stages of fermenting and racking, the juice has been bottled and labelled using Mary’s bucolic paintings of Cornish orchards. The five small-batch ciders are available in very limited quantities

© Faydit Photography

© Faydit Photography

© Faydit Photography

and sold on a first-come-basis at Barrie’s cidery in Lostwithiel, and via the Fowey Valley website. The trio hope to repeat the experiment in future years with further releases of the Old Cornish range, no doubt to the delight of cider enthusiasts.

Meanwhile, every autumn Barrie invites local people to donate excess apples for the creation of Fowey Valley’s Castledore Cider, swapping fruit from unsprayed orchards and gardens in return for the finished article – award-winning apple juice or cider. He explains: “The exchange is a great way for us to get to build knowledge of local cultivars and have conversations with people about their apple trees. Of course, if we come across something unusual, we know who to call!”

If this exchange encourages people to keep their trees and understand a little more about their value, James and Mary will be

happy. “Large scale food production is now all about monocultures, and therefore the system is growing increasingly vulnerable to adverse weather conditions – exacerbated by climate change – and resistant pests,” explains James. “That doesn’t just apply to apples of course, the same issues affect many of the crops which form a big part of our diets.” Conversely, the rare cultivars James and Mary worked to discover and protect are resistant to things like canker and scab, which can be a huge problem when national varieties are grown in the damp west country. “It is only by preserving the historic cultivars that their future value can be judged,” says Mary. “The mother orchards are our own Cornish seedbank of genetic code, and one that might help future generations solve some of the challenges they will undoubtedly face.”

foweyvalleycider.co.uk

Fluent in FLAWLESS

WORDS BY ROSIE CATTRELL

Infusing her love of the Cornish coast with a passion for creating beautiful interiors, Chloe Morris has been transforming homes all over the country in the image of her client’s dreams and aspirations. With an aim to find out a little more about the inner workings of Chloe Morris Interior Design, I speak with the woman herself about exactly what it is that goes into creating the interiors that she’s built such a sterling reputation on.

Tell me a little bit about yourself, and how you incorporate your own passions into your work?

The sea has probably been my first and greatest love. I’ve managed to hug the coast from the moment I was born, growing up in a 400-yearold farmhouse by the sea, through to university amongst all sorts of interesting interiors, not

to mention travelling the world and absorbing Australian, Californian, Balinese and Sri Lankan designs. Today, I live minutes from rolling Cornish dunes.

Me and my whole family surf, so the idea of ‘coastal living’ and ‘beach house chic’ are not interior terminology to me, they are a way of everyday life for us. I’m not sure I could be more ‘grass roots’ when it comes to coastal design; I’m constantly inspired by the ever-evolving dance between the elements and nature – if I could live outside I probably would, which is bizarre when my passion is interiors, but perhaps explains why I am consistently looking outside to find inspiration for inside. Nature is the greatest colour pallet and there’s no better place to draw upon that than Cornwall; the marriage of dark stormy skies; vibrant yellow gorse; blonde warm sands with barely blue skies;

In conversation with Chloe Morris, an expert in articulating her client’s idyllic visions into effortlessly stylish interior spaces.

green rivers and sharp grey rocks. There isn’t anywhere quite like the outdoors to inspire my designs, so every sea swim, surf and river dip is like flicking through the finest interior books for inspiration.

Talk me through your particular style. When it comes to interior design, my main aim isn’t to achieve a style, but rather to carefully curate a space with natural, elemental textures and tones that look entirely effortless, and not overly styled. Selecting eclectic elements, from the smallest nick-nack to astonishing pieces of art that anchor a whole space, means that each home is unique, with a sense of intimacy and personality. It’s my aim to let each home achieve its design possibilities, to capture the best views, the best moments of light and enhance the best features of each space I see.

What do you think it is that sets you apart from other interior names? While I have my own style that may suit my home and my way of living, it won’t necessarily work for anyone else. Each of my clients are completely individual and unique; it’s my job to listen, to ask the right questions and to observe the space, the people that inhabit that space and the way they live. Everyone’s aspirations for their homes are different, everyone’s routines, pleasures and passions, so each home should reflect that individuality –which is why all my designs are completely unique. It’s my job to translate what my clients tell me their aspirations are for their home and how they want it to feel, into interiors. When they see their finished space, I want them to feel it is perfectly designed for them, a perfect translation of their style and their lives.

Take me through a project that you might be particularly proud of. In all honesty, I’m proud of every project I’ve completed so far because I know I’ve brought to life the aspirations of each of my clients. From modern and bright, architecturally designed beach houses and 18th century palatial mansions, to cosy Cornish cottages and perfect barn conversions with Dartmoor backdrops, to farmhouses, apartments and townhouses; I’ve taken pride in every space that a client has entrusted me with transforming. I particularly like to personalise each project in some creative way – whether it’s sourcing original photos of a shipwreck from which a beam in the house belongs; finding lyrics to a wedding song incorporated in a piece of art; bespoke

dining tables with hand-picked flotsam and jetsam encased or sourcing 1970’s Italian, one-of-a-kind, retro orange Perspex chairs. I’ve found a particular passion for antiques and period properties, which are always a dream to work with. As a child I spent hours in the barns at my parents’ farm ‘making home’, dragging old furniture around to create ‘homes’. I would dress the ‘kitchen table’ with jugs of fresh flowers, and use left-over paint to paint old brass bed ends. What I’m trying to say is that I’m probably most proud that my great passions – creating beautiful spaces and being ever close to and inspired by the coast – have become a career that I could only have dreamt of.

chloemorrisinteriordesign.com

LANDLiving amongst the

Mark Ashbee

WORDS BY YSY LEES

It can be rare to find a home that is both contemporary and sustainable, yet beautiful and sensitive. However, this is exactly what architecture firm ARCO2 specialise in. Inspired by the Cornish landscape, each project is designed with our health, comfort and well-being at its core. Turnstones, a recent construction, is no exception; combining beauty with function, this property in Polzeath embodies modernity and privacy while acting as an ode to its surroundings through ARCO2’s earthled mantra.

Turnstones is a far cry from the tired 1960s bungalow that previously stood in its place. The original property was built on a low budget and was consequently damp, cold, expensive to run and ultimately not in keeping with

the beautiful Cornish landscape that surrounded it. Instead, Turnstones required a clever, high-quality design strategy to solve the existing issues while following the client’s brief which required a wheelchairfriendly, low-energy and sustainable multigenerational family home. It was also important for Turnstones to improve views from neighbouring properties, provide vehicular parking and have an area for dogs. The finished project, however, offers so much more.

Deviating from an archetypical-built house, the property acts more as a landscape feature for those wanting to escape everyday life, inhabit the land and truly live amongst nature. As with all its projects, ARCO2 strived for the best standards, adopting passive house principles with a fabric-first approach:

Designed for the future and developed for the earth, we take a look at the sustainable style of ARCO2’s recent construction, Turnstones.

Mark Ashbee

Chris Hewitt

Chris Hewitt

Chris Hewitt

Mark Ashbee

Mark Ashbee

Mark Ashbee

super insulation, airtight construction and triple-glazing. This began with careful consideration of window locations and sun screening to make sure the building didn’t overheat, while cross and stack ventilation meant the refreshing sea breeze from outside cooled the building. Keeping sustainability at its core, ARCO2 used a variety of innovative methods to exploit the view of Pentire Point for neighbouring properties and maximise its space. Using a faceted upper triangular mono-pitched wildflower roof means the property appears as part of the horizon, with a seamless transition from wildflowers, hedgerows and fields up above. This also conceals the lower roof of the property, solar panels and ridges of the houses below to provide neighbours with uninterrupted views of the Cornish coast.

The biodiverse wildflower green roof and sensitive planting scheme further create biodiverse habitats for bees, butterflies and other insects while minimising rainwater run-off by acting like a sponge until it becomes saturated. Upon approach to Turnstones, it appears to float above the ground in singlestorey form and only once you reach the end of the driveway is it apparent that there is a lower concealed parking area underneath the green roof. Visions of returning after a day on the beach to wash off leftover sand in the external shower come to mind,

returning your surfboard to its secret storage and hanging your wetsuit ready to dry for another day on the waves.

Enter Turnstones through the large frameless glass door, chosen not only for its excellent u-value but to maximise the stunning view from inside the property. With accessibility in mind, the main entrance is designed for wheelchair access and is surrounded by a covered seating area to take advantage of some of the best sunsets in the world. Step inside the open-plan lounge and generous dining area for eight people for a first glimpse of the property’s breathtaking interior. Combining spacious design with luxurious comfort, its wooden shelving features and discreet warm lighting reflect the golden glow of the sun as it sinks below the horizon and streams in through the windows. There is plenty of room to recharge by taking in the panoramic landscape, and for wheelchair users this space is completely accessible. ARCO2 have thoughtfully executed every detail in this considered design, from the optimum seated-height views to the selfcleaning, frameless roof light implemented in the lounge to gaze up at the stars. The palate is gentle and mirrors much of the Cornish coast with its speckled flooring, golden cushions, plush tangerine armchairs, calming ceramics and accents of leafy foliage. As there is no need for supplementary heat,

the lounge features a digital flame fire as a focal point, making it the perfect low-energy space to relax in as the day draws to a close.

To the left of the lounge is the kitchen, accessed via two triangular tapered stairs with inset LED strip lighting. This room is modest, understated and the ideal place to cook, host, or work from home; it is complete with a separate pantry for all of your snack and ingredient needs in addition to an accommodating printer and Wi-Fi so you can stay connected even during your escape to the Cornish coast. This room seamlessly emulates the light, airy aura of the lounge through its open-plan sociable design and stone breakfast bar, inviting the opportunity for morning buffets, a recharge for another day on the beach.

Over the stairwell and western red cedar ceiling are twinkling recycled lights, leading you to just one of the four en-suite double bedrooms. This particular bedroom provides views of the rear garden over the top of the terrace, which was designed using 3D and virtual reality to ensure optimal views as you sink beneath the water in the hot tub. There is a cohesive continuation of the clean yet cosy beach-feel in the bedroom and ensuite that ties the entire property together. The room features slatted wooden ceilings similar to that of the lounge and kitchen as well as pops of sunny yellow decor and hidden wallpapered light switches on either side of the bed. The en suite is composed and sleek, yet warm and welcoming. On

the opposite side of the hallway are two further bedrooms, one of which is designed specifically for wheelchair users with direct access onto the decking overlooking beautiful Polzeath and the stretching Atlantic Ocean. Each of these rooms feature unique ceiling shapes and volumes emulating the exterior of the property in its contemporary design and elegant aesthetic. ARCO2’s sister company ADD Sustainable Construction built this wonderful dwelling and the marriage of inhouse design and construction is reflected both inside and outside of the property.

Even though the design and construction of Turnstones wasn’t without its challenges, mainly the increase of material costs due to the pandemic, ARCO2 Director Ian Armstrong believes the finished property fulfils every part of the brief and more: “The neighbours have been delighted with the end result and were very positive throughout the build, especially given our efforts to improve their views and privacy. Whilst the design is contemporary, it sits into the street scene very well, turning the heads of every passer by… in a positive way! The lucky people who have stayed in this house have left very complimentary comments about the building and its design. We really hope that anyone considering a low-energy sustainable building comes and stays here to experience the health benefits of good quality air, natural light, peacefulness, the renewable energy systems, garden and overall beach lifestyle.”

arco2.co.uk

OASIS Waterside

One of an exclusive waterfront development of nine stunning contemporary houses, Cormorant House sits on the edge of the River Fowey in the picturesque and tranquil village of Golant. This commanding property is in an elevated position, perfectly poised to take in the panoramic views of stretching countryside, formally a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Park in your designated space with electric charging points and enter the house via the paved terrace, a stunning area to entertain guests or relax while the Cornish sun sinks beneath the horizon. With three floors of breathtaking interiors, the property has four bedrooms, an open-plan kitchen, living room and dining room plus a cinema room and multi-purpose basement, all stylishly decorated with a high-specification finish throughout. With access to the South West Coast Path and flights from Newquay airport, the world is at your fingertips.

CORMORANT HOUSE

Offers in the region of: £1.675M

ROHRS & ROWE 01872 306360

info@rohrsandrowe.co.uk

rohrsandrowe.co.uk

A beautiful, commanding property sat peacefully within nature, overlooking the River Fowey.

HISTORY A slice of

Situated in an enviable position on Port Isaac’s quayside, Market House offers cosy living in a contemporary environment.

This stone property dates back to 1771 and sits on Port Isaac’s iconic Platt with uninterrupted views of the harbour. It has a light and airy feel throughout with contemporary finishes after being rewired and replumbed in a recent renovation, making it completely move-in ready. The relaxing coastal home offers two reception rooms and two double bedrooms with stunning ocean views of the stretching blue sea beyond the quaint harbour.

This immaculately-presented house is mere steps from village amenities, the beach and the harbour itself, boasting an array of charming original features from snug bay windows and wooden beams to authentic stone floors and cosy interiors. It lends itself perfectly to being a unique holiday let, second home, or primary residence, and for those looking to escape to the coast, you couldn’t get any closer.

sales@johnbrayestates.co.uk

COUNTRYSIDE charm

A five-bedroom home tucked away in the Cornish countryside, within reach of the sea and the city.

Built originally as a Count House in the early 1800s, this attractive property in the small hamlet of Mingoose offers versatile accommodation with sea views across north Cornwall. Complete with five bedrooms, Mingoose Villa makes the perfect family home, with the previous owner having described it as a ‘happy house’ during their 60-year ownership.

The interior is packed with cosy features like a magnificent fireplace, flag slate floors, generous study and another open fire in the light and airy sitting room. Mingoose Villa also includes a summerhouse, garage and one-bedroom cottage, surrounded by trees and an adjacent woodland garden for keen gardeners or nature-lovers. Less than nine miles away from the city of Truro, this property offers a peaceful sanctuary within reach of your favourite shops, restaurants and amenities.

MINGOOSE VILLA

Guide price: £899,999

JACKSON-STOPS

01872 261160

cornwall@jackson-stops.co.uk

jackson-stops.co.uk

KeepingCLASSIC it

Located in Nalders Court, opposite the cathedral in Truro, is Mélange, a long-established boutique. Providing personal service without pressure is high on the team’s list of attributes, combined with an extensive range of quality clothing and accessories. Where classic meets fashion with a nod to current trends each season, Mélange offers perfectly fitting jeans and trousers, along with sumptuous knitwear, dresses and stylish yet practical outerwear. With a range of accessories to complete your look, your new wardrobe is only a visit away.

melangefashion.co.uk

2. JOSEPH RIBKOFF JUMPSUIT £269

3. JOSEPH RIBKOFF JACKET £255

3. JUST WHITE SHIRTS FROM £99

4. ERFO

6. MARBLE JUMPER £89

7. ERFO JACKET £165

5. ERFO

Just add BEER

WORDS BY HANNAH TAPPING

Sharp’s Brewery’s cook book heralds a food and beer pairing phenomenon that brings chef and sommelier together in a unique way.

Just Add Beer is available to buy from the Sharp’s Brewery online shop at sharpsbrewery.co.uk for £18.99 RRP. A donation of £1 per book is being made to Hospitality Action.

sharpsbrewery.co.uk padstowchristmasfestival.co.uk

Rock-based Sharp’s Brewery’s very first cook book Just Add Beer was the brainchild of Sharp’s Beer Sommelier Ed Hughes and Communications Manager Rachel Williams who have been on a mission to encourage the pairing of food and beer for many years. The book celebrates beer both as an ingredient as well as a pairing for a variety of recipes, created by top chefs who either live and work in Cornwall or have strong links to the Duchy.

Ed Hughes, who has appeared regularly on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen, introduces readers to beer and food pairing as well as

providing useful knowledge and insight into what makes beer and food so great together. In addition, Ed covers beer styles, glassware options, brewing techniques and tasting notes.

Just Add Beer will be available to buy at the Sharp’s festival bar at this year’s Padstow Christmas Festival for which Sharp’s is the headline sponsor. This world-renowned Christmas event will take place from Thursday 7th December to Sunday 10th December, where chef-royalty Paul Ainsworth and Jude Kereama will be demo-ing on the line up as well as Ed Hughes.

TO START

DBCD (Doom Bar Christmas Daiquiri)

MAKES ONE COCKTAIL INGREDIENTS:

50ml Twin Fin Spiced Rum

25ml lime juice

15ml sugar syrup

METHOD

Put all ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake hard for 10-12 seconds. Strain, and pour into goblet or Martini glass. Garnish with a slice of lime.

35ml Doom Bar

A drop of orange bitters

Slice of lime

“A beery twist on a classic drink, with a further Christmas twist: the sweetness of the malt from the Doom Bar balances out the acidity from the lime, and heightens the molasses and spiced sweetness in the rum.”

– Ed Hughes

Beef Feather Blade with Herb Olive Relish and Miso Sauce

“Doom Bar goes brilliantly with a piece of grilled steak. In this recipe the herb olive relish picks up on the herby hops, while the miso mimics the malty flavours. It’s a great dish for a BBQ party.”

– Jude Kereama

SERVES 6

BEER PAIRING:

Atlantic Pale Ale or Doom Bar Amber Ale

INGREDIENTS:

For the beef:

1 whole beef feather blade (approx. 2-2.5kg), trimmed and filleted

1 tsp chopped thyme

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tbsp rosemary, chopped

1 tbsp oregano, chopped

100ml olive oil

For the herb olive relish:

100g flat parsley, chopped

50g basil, chopped

METHOD

For the beef:

Ask your butcher to take a whole feather blade, trim off any sinew and fillet through the middle to remove all gristle. Cut into 4 large portions (approx. 250g each). Marinate the steaks (overnight or for at least 2 hours) in the olive oil, garlic, thyme, rosemary and oregano. Refrigerate until needed.

Make the herb olive relish by mixing all the ingredients together, and refrigerate until needed. Make the miso sauce by putting all the ingredients in a pan and warming until

“Why don’t you try both and see what you prefer? Will it be the citrus bitterness from Atlantic that cleanses the palate or the malty sweetness from Doom Bar that balances out Jude’s wonderful choice of flavours, you decide your favourite.”

– Ed Hughes

50g mint, chopped

4 spring onions, chopped

2 tbsp capers, chopped

6 salted anchovies, chopped

4 cloves garlic, crushed

100g mixed olives, chopped

2 lemons, juice

100ml extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper for seasoning

For the miso sauce:

225g white miso

200g sugar

115ml sake

115ml mirin

the sugar has dissolved. Sear off your feather blade steaks in a hot pan or on the BBQ and cook to your liking. If you have a meat probe, cook to 54°C – feather blade is best rare to medium rare.

Rest the steak for 8 minutes, then slice thinly and lay on a plate. Dress with the herb olive relish and a drizzle of miso sauce. Garnish with any bitter leaves such as watercress, rocket or mizuna and your favourite dressing.

DESSERT Bread and Butter Pudding

“Our festive twist on our classic ‘hoptail’ is as simple as ‘just add a little spice and orange.’ Paul’s homage to Gary Rhodes’ decedent Bread and Butter pudding paired with the balanced acidity, citrus zest, spice and malt sweetness from the Doom Bar Cocktail is a match made in heaven.”

– Ed Hughes

SERVES 2-4

SERVE WITH:

Doom Bar Christmas Daiquiri

INGREDIENTS:

12 slices of white bread

250g butter

30g sultanas, soaked in a high ABV Belgian Dubbel or Barley Wine for at least a week

METHOD

Place the butter in a pan and bring to the boil, whisking all the time until it turns nut brown. Then pass through a fine sieve, whisk until cool and leave to set at room temperature. For the custard, whisk the eggs and the sugar together until pale and light.

Bring the cream, milk and vanilla to the boil, then pour over the egg and sugar mixture, whisking all the time. Bring a pan with water to the simmer, then place the custard mixture in the bowl over the water and cook out until thick – stirring all the time. Once the custard is thick and about 75-80°C, pass through a fine sieve and leave to cool to room temperature.

Now butter your bread with the caramelised butter, cut off all the crusts from the bread and cut each slice into four triangles. Lightly butter a small Pyrex dish and sprinkle some soaked sultanas on the base of the dish. Dip the buttered bread triangles into the custard and lay into the dish, forming a single layer of

“This dish is a true classic that people love. It reminds me of my time spent working with Gary Rhodes.”

– Paul Ainsworth

450ml double cream

150ml milk

2 vanilla pods

140g egg yolk

175g caster sugar

bread with no gaps, then sprinkle some more sultanas on top of the bread. Ladle a small amount of custard over this layer, then repeat this bread layer twice more. On the third and final bread layer don’t put any sultanas on top, just cover with the remaining custard.

Place cling film on top and leave at room temperature for at least 12 hours (making this the day before is fine). This helps the custard to really soak into the layers. Place the dish inside a deep oven tray and fill the tray with warm water to the height of the bread and butter. Place into a preheated oven at 110°C and cook for 1 hour, until the custard is nice and thick. You can leave the cling film on top when baking as this will stop the top from drying in the oven.

To finish and give the bread-and-butter pudding an amazing texture, sprinkle caster sugar on top and blow torch to caramelise like a crème brûlée. Serve with vanilla ice cream for a real treat.

Supplying a one-stop shop for discerning boat owners across the South West

Experience

Experience hassle-free boating with our turn-key service. Let us spend more time on your boat so that you can spend more time on the water. We can collect your vessel from your home or public slipway and transport to our facility where the following services can be completed by our highly trained and experienced marine engineers.

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SAILING Smooth

WORDS BY YSY LEES | IMAGES BY MAX MUDIE

A look at the event that celebrates navigation with nautical history.

Falmouth was once again host to the prestigious Magellan Elcano Tall Ships Race in August this year, enticing crowds of boat enthusiasts and delighted onlookers in their thousands to marvel at the impressive ships, sails and sea vessels. The international fleet was welcomed alongside a variety of festivities and attractions during Europe’s largest, free festival before they set sail to A Coruña, Lisbon, and finally Cadiz. Bringing together people of different nationalities, religions and cultures, this event promotes international friendship and understanding, with it all beginning in Falmouth.

Falmouth is of course deeply entrenched in maritime history, its roots still flaunted in its natural harbour, the third

deepest in the world, which is home to working fishing boats, modern yachts and marina berths. Built in 1860, the docks made a huge impact on the fortune of the town, allowing ships from all over the world to take advantage of its natural geographical features and its sailors a place to settle for the night. The construction of the Queen Elizabeth dry dock was completed in 1958 and meant that after blasting and moving the cliff face, it could accommodate ships of up to 100,000 tons.

These docks are just as much an integral part of the port now, taking pride in celebrating the first circumnavigation of the world by Ferdinance Magellan and Sebastián Elcano over 500 years ago. Not only does this event welcome a diverse group of seafarers and fans but it serves as a

Capitan Miranda, a Class A sail training ship operated by the Uruguayan Navy

TOP Capitan Miranda

The tall ship ARM Cuauhtémoc is a sail training vessel used by the Mexican Navy to develop the seamanship skills of their cadets

reminder of our ancestral connections to the sea and for locals, the chance to explore their home inhabited by fascinating history.

One of the ships that visited this year was the Cuauhtémoc, a Mexican vessel that first launched in 1982 and is captained today by Captain Jose Díaz Castillo. Its rig sits 44.81 metres above the waterline and it has a hull length of 77.63 metres with a total crew number of 258. Its size alone draws the eye with its intricacies becoming more evident as you approach the stunning vessel. Cuauhtémoc, with its 24-metre length, 15-strong crew, oak black hull and billowing red sails was also particularly eye-catching for onlookers. Another

ship that made its way to Falmouth, and arguably one of the most impressive ships in Falmouth during the event, was the Dar Mlodziezy, the biggest of the fleet, at 2255 tonnes and with a steel, white hull measuring 94.8 metres.

These ships create unity by sharing their history and allowing us to climb on board and explore. We have the chance to experience first-hand the connection Falmouth had and continues to pursue with international fleets and crews while learning all about what makes them so special today.

falmouth.co.uk/tallships-3/ tallshipsnetwork.com

The Polish vessel Dar Mlodziezy is one of the biggest tall ships sailing the seas

falmouth.co.uk/tallships-3/ tallshipsnetwork.com

Conscious

DINING

WORDS BY HANNAH TAPPING

Jeffrey Robinson is a chef with an illustrious career. Best known in Cornwall in recent years for being at the helm of the New Yard Restaurant, which he ran with his wife Caroline, Jeffrey’s passion for sourcing ethical ingredients and animal welfare saw the restaurant gain a loyal and devoted following. His food philosophy and high standards permeated throughout the talented team at New Yard, who became as dedicated as Jeffrey was to serving food from their own walled garden; food grown using permaculture and no dig methods, alongside truly local line-caught fish and pasture-fed Cornish meats.

Jeffrey Robinson reflects: “At New Yard, it was not only the organic, regenerative farming methods used by ourselves and our suppliers, it was the move of taking away the menus in 2020 that really made the difference. This forced the creativity into my team and I every single day. We had to come in fresh and

ready to re-create an experience that was not available yesterday, that wouldn’t be available tomorrow – but that was absolutely created for this very one lunch dinner service.” Changing the restaurant’s approach to how they sold their experience was a bold move.

As one of the UK’s first chefs to attain a green Michelin star, Jeffrey is now taking his team and this unique approach to ingredients to a new waterside location, the Harbour House in Flushing. The move from serving a £150 tasting menu to an à la carte pub dining is something of a swerve, however, it’s a challenge that Jeffrey is relishing and he will be dedicated to creating and achieving new levels of hyper-sustainability in the hospitality industry.

Formerly known as The Seven Stars, Harbour House marks a distinct evolution for the historic waterfront property. It pours the very best of local beers from Penryn’s Verdant Brewer, Lacuna, who are making headways with the local sourcing of their hops. Cornish-

Jeffrey Robinson

Chef Jeffrey Robinson brings new levels of hyper-sustainability to a waterside inn, helping to support the local community and its producers.

TOP

Dishes change with the seasons and the catch, whether that’s a hearty breakfast or the new three-course set lunch menu ABOVE Taking pub dining to a new level

made gins and spirits will be supplied from Loveday, Pocketful of Stones and other local producers. Jeffrey has a key relationship with David Berwick from St Ives Cider who made their cider for New Yard, one that was up for the World Cider Awards and will now be doing the same for Harbour House. The wine list has been carefully curated using minimal intervention, biodynamic and organic wines with Ben Mudditt from Wanderlust Wines. Ben has been working with Jeffrey for many years and understands his food style and which wines pair impeccably with this cuisine. Pub rooms, all with charming sea views, will be added upstairs in the coming months with these expected to open in winter 2023.

Jeffrey says: “I couldn’t wait to throw open the doors of Harbour House and to bring all of our learnings with us to this utterly idyllic, shoreline pub setting.” Welcoming its first customers this summer, Jeffrey uses produce from just at the top of the hill in Flushing, seafood harvested right outside the front door and imports delivered by sailboat from New Dawn Traders. “By allowing forward-thinking farmers from Cornwall to dictate my menus, I will be honouring how previous generations sourced and traded ingredients from this very location. We’ll be offering a dining experience that is obviously my signature, but in an affordable way. This means we can continue to support the local community, local producers and also means we can create year-round positions for my invaluable and dedicated team.”

Jeffrey continues: “Sustainable is an umbrella term that perhaps isn’t policed as much as it should be. But for me and my team, true

sustainability is our daily graft and craft, and it’s evident in every ingredient and every single decision we make as a business.” While the food might be fine, there’s no pretension here. The pub welcomes walkers with muddy boots and dogs in tow for a refreshing pint and a bar snack, as much as they do those preferring to linger over lunch. “We’re able to serve food all day here, from breakfast through to dinner, as we are very fortunate to have three kitchens out back,” adds Jeffrey.

The menu is certainly not what one would consider ‘normal’ pub fayre and it is unashamedly so. “Should a menu be a perceived perception of the customer?” asks Jeffrey. “I don’t believe so. It should be a story created by local suppliers. So, if we can’t source organic potatoes nearby, then we’re not going to be serving chips. We are very passionate about putting money back into the local community and if that means that a menu isn’t what people expect, so be it.” This approach is honest and quite frankly, refreshing.

With a menu reliant on local, sustainable suppliers, Harbour House is fortunate to have a plethora on its doorstep. Soul Farm, just up the road at Trefusis, supplies the vegetables. Jeffrey receives a list of what’s available on WhatsApp, to which he replies “we’ll have everything you’ve got!” and the menu is put together from that. The same applies to Sailors Creek Shellfish, which are literally just out of the front door of the pub, supplying whelks, mussels and queen scallops.

All cooking at Harbour House is over coals sourced from Tom Kemp of Working Woodlands Cornwall, the only eco-sustainable

supplier in the entire country, who uses local coppice sourced from surrounding woods. “The pork comes from the same company,” says Jeffrey, “the pigs are kept there to look after the soil around where the trees are coppiced for the charcoal; it’s very circular. To be honest, our ethos is just as strong here as it was at New Yard.”

“I think it’s really important for England as a country to put more focus on the food we eat and prepare at home. The rest of Europe practically revolve their whole day around dinner and I feel that we are very far behind them. There needs to be an education piece about not buying substandard ingredients that are full of obesogens and glyphosates, which are actually making us sick. I really want to help by sharing everything I’ve learned over the last 20 years, so people have the ability to cook better at home and to understand the story a little bit more. Go out and find some organic veg and understand why it’s so important for it to be grown that way. I believe, that unless we changed our mindset on industrial agriculture, in 40 to 50 years’ time, we’re not going be able to grow any food in this country with industrial agriculture. If you look at Wildfarmed, which is where we get our flour from, and watch some of their videos it shows you quite simply just by picking up soil from the ground how dead it can be in chemically induced petrochemical, industrial agriculture, compared to regenerative farmed wheat. I don’t understand why this isn’t more of a mainstream conversation.”

“Back in the 1950s we would have spent 30 to 40% of our salary on food, it’s more like 12% today. One of the major reasons for this dramatic drop in food spend relative to our income is that the cost of rent and mortgages is so much higher than it was and so we are forced to make difficult choices, one of which is having to choose cheaper food. The only problem is there is no such thing as cheap food, someone has to pay for it. If it isn’t the consumer it’s the farmer, if it isn’t the farmer it’s the animals and the soil itself.

As a nation we seem to be full up on food and starved on nutrition. This is why, even as a pub, we want to be pushing this story forward, and it’s a really easy story to tell when you have access to quality ingredients. We realised that only a small percentage of people could afford to eat at New Yard; there’s no shying away from the fact that it was an expensive restaurant. Whereas, with Harbour House we hope to be able to tell our story to an awful lot more people as the price point is much more affordable. Customers might only come in and spend £20 on a couple of our snacks and a pint and go home, but at least they have experienced the ethos of what we’re trying to say about our relationship with, not only what we eat, but with what we eat eats... and that includes vegetables. In a nutshell, that’s what we’re all about.”

Harbour House’s new set lunch menu includes three courses for £25. Changing with the seasons and catch, it will vary from day to day, but is guaranteed to always be delicious.

harbourhouseflushing.com

Drinks are given the same care and attention as the food

The Harbour House team are the heart of the pub

We are homemakers.

We are known for creating exceptional bespoke homes that are uniquely designed to suit our clients, their lifestyles and the location.

From our studios, we work on projects across the South West and the UK, as well as overseas.

15 North Street, Ashburton, Devon, TQ13 7QH Tel: 01364 654888 www.woodfordarchitecture.com

Art with SOUL

WORDS BY MARTIN HOLMAN

Acouple of years ago, artist Lucy Willow discovered a well in a garden in Lamorna. No one knew how long it had been there and an ash tree had grown nearby to obscure its entrance. The only trace of its existence had been the wet soil encouraging moss to grow, and the ash to flourish. Cutting away the overgrowth of roots revealed the opening and the glassy surface of the water a little distance beneath it.

Willow was immediately captivated by the discovery, not by the access it gave to a water source but by its appearance. The well was black and cold. There was no easy way of telling its depth nor what might lie at the bottom, however far down that was. The possibilities, however, stimulated her artistic imagination. She was

fascinated most by what she could not see and by the prospect percolating out of its void of a mysterious underworld below.

Her response emerged over the following months in dense, black charcoal drawings. Some were so large they threatened to engulf the viewer, as if their blackness could be walked into. The surface of the water acted like a mirror reflecting imperfectly the immediate vicinity of the well – its mossy rim, overhanging trees and plants, and the sky beyond. She found her starting point, therefore, in these reflections and the transient traces of insects and weather that appear as fluid, diaphanous, almost spectral white marks in the midst of black discs framing the image.

The purpose of Lucy Willow’s work is to understand grief, giving it presence and approaching it from any angle.

‘Drawn From the Well’, 2022, charcoal on paper, 170 x 150cm. Photograph by Oliver Udy

Lucy Willow at the DUST Art of Grief Café, 2022, with David Bowie’s hat, belonging to Steve Hazleton

‘Vessel’, 2022 from Drawn from the Well exhibition at Grays Wharf, Penryn

Installation views of Lucy Willow, Drawn from the Well exhibition at Grays Wharf, Penryn.

Photograph by Oliver Udy

As she looked into that darkness and drew, so her imagination turned from what she saw into what she sensed – the pull of the perceived chasm beneath the viscous water level, where light could not penetrate. There was no way of knowing what lay beyond.

Her mindset was already focused on the possibilities. For Willow, the depth and mystery of the well had become a metaphor for emotions. Our emotional life can feel like a separate being, awkward and detached, yet influencing our interactions with the world. Perhaps the strongest is grief: it occupies a profound, sequestered space that never goes away, a presence that is accommodated like an unwelcome interloper.

Willow knows the fathomless depth of that sensation. In 2006 her teenage son Jack died. His absence informs the work she has made since; her practice has developed channels to give death its place in our lives. In ‘The Last Portrait’ (2006), Willow created an artwork that resembles a celestial body, an apparent orb with the variegated surface familiar from photographs taken by space probes despatched into the farthest universe. There are innumerable stars there and Willow was able to name one after Jack. She did not need to see it to portray it as the image of her son.

With a microscope photographing Jack’s ashes, she gave it shape with his identity in a truly resonant and poetic fashion. If planets orbiting within infinite dimensions of time are composed of matter once living that falls as asteroids into our own atmosphere, then her son’s star exists eternally, as does her grief.

So how to understand grief, to give it presence and approach it from any angle? That purpose is the energy in Willow’s work. Grief, she says, “is the vehicle through which contact with the dead creates a space. My work comes from this space. I’m addressing the longing, filling the void, stitching with grief: stitching meaning back into life.” And not for herself alone; she collaborates and shares. In 2020 she set up DUST as a meeting place in Penzance. It occupied a former shop that also served as her studio. For more than two years DUST opened on Saturday mornings when 20 or 30 people would often visit, even though Willow only occasionally promoted the venue on social media. Word of mouth did the rest. DUST no longer operates that way: Willow needed more time for her own work and so modified its focus on to specific sessions. Conversations still take place over tea and around death, starting from a visual perspective.

Lucy Willow, ‘The Last Portrait’, 2006, photographic print, 30 x 30cm

Rather than providing support for bereavement, DUST has been an arts space examining its subject openly and constructively through the experiences of artists who have known death and have lived with grief. The setting remains intimate and extraordinary. Part Victorian parlour and part Wunderkammer museum, the room is lined with objects in cabinets and on the walls: figurines, pictures, sculptures, books. A glass-topped case contains a disjointed collection of animal bones with mixed origins. No object has overt monetary value. All, however, prompt memories and elicit stories. At DUST, people talk, look and learn. After all, the value of mementoes lies in the physical form they give to intangible memories.

Interestingly, many of the objects are broken in some way. That detail represents one entry point into the potency of metaphor; grief comes from brokenness. Willow describes the collection as “objects with soul” that have their own existence. Into this arena other artists have been invited to exhibit their work. Kieran Welford, a recent Falmouth graduate, assumed a shaman-like persona speaking a proto-Celtic language to connect with his ancestors, while among the objects made by painter Andrew Bryant was a ball of plasticine that has grown in girth over time to gain considerable proportions. As Bryant works through the memories and hopes attached to a lost loved one, more material is added.

The origin, however, of dust as a material in Willow’s art predates Jack’s death. It relates to travelling in India with her son, then aged ten. She was already interested in alternative cultures to western conventions, which in part she attributes to the pagan legacy she discovered in West Cornwall when, as a young mother, she arrived in St Ives to join her father, a marine biologist. She says she was “drawn to people for whom ritual was considered the norm.” For three months she and Jack took trains and buses across Rajasthan and into the Himalayas. They spent precious time with Tibetan monks. Jack taught them English and chess, and the monks introduced him and his mother to Zen Buddhism. The visitors also observed the tradition of creating mandalas with coloured sand that, once complete, were ritualistically dismantled to symbolise Buddhist belief in the transitory nature and futility of material life.

Willow began her degree course at Falmouth School of Art soon after her return. The significance of the sand mandalas had grown in relevance to her outlook so she developed her own interpretation, the ‘dust carpet’. Although non-secular, it was just as much about immateriality and impermanence as the monks’ creations. Each carpet’s making involved discipline and labour, bringing into the artwork domestic references that art has traditionally disdained (although marble dust was used rather than the less consistent

Lucy Willow, ‘Shadow of the Moon’, 2023, Chinese Ink on paper, 59 x 42cm

texture of house dust). Willow had loved drawing since schooldays in Kent, where she grew up in a family committed to peace causes. The art room was the calm centre of an otherwise unruly adolescence in pursuit of feisty, female role models. After school, she studied graphic design and naturally gravitated to life drawing, a knowledge that still feeds her creative activity.

She made her last carpet in 2019 in Finland, as part of the ANTIfestival in the city of Kuopio. By then, her material had taken on a deeper personal meaning and the carpet’s making became part of a public performance called ‘The Mourner - Lamentation in Dust’. Then, as before, shapes (in the past, these have spanned figures, birds and ornamental elements) were masked out with latex into a stencil straight onto the ground. Then dust was sieved on top, in varying densities like a woven pile, by the artist dressed in theatrical black funeral attire and veil.

Her designs were always reminiscent of rugs for prayer or the household, with dimensions dictated by the space available at host locations, such as Tate St Ives in 2007. In Finland, a factory floor was stage and exhibition. The finished work’s surface was inevitably fragile, a condition with meaning. Particles of dust could be casually

dispersed by air and movement, and outlines gently altered by draughts. Preserving these delicate compositions was not impossible but rarely done; mostly she followed her original concept, borrowed from the monks, of sweeping the entire work away once the exhibition was over, leaving no trace. “Nothing is forever,” she has said, “apart from our memories.”

Art resists temporariness; longevity is its presumed state. But Willow embraces ephemerality. At Kestle Barton in 2014 she filled the tall gallery walls with a continuous drawing. Her visual inspiration was Frenchman’s Creek, in secluded water and woodland, while the technique she used was indebted to studying, on a recent trip to China, large-scale ink drawings by local artists. A kind of narrative emerged as visitors followed the fluid brushstrokes around the room, watching as motifs weaved in and through sections, vanished and reappeared. The work, called ‘Fallen’, imaginatively travelled the riverscape Willow had seen west of Helford where fallen trees had been caught in the low tide silt. The project arose from a strange gift of two goldfinches that crashed into the windows at Kestle Barton and died. The combination of sources underwent the transformation characteristic of her approach and became a metaphorical expression of transitoriness

INSET

Lucy Willow, ‘Echo 1’, 2022, charcoal on paper, 59 x 42cm, from Drawn from the Well exhibition at Grays Wharf, Penryn

Lucy Willow, ‘Fallen’, 2014, Chinese Ink

drawing on wall of gallery at Kestle Barton.

Photograph by Lucie Averill

Detail of ‘Fallen’, 2014, at Kestle Barton.

Photograph by Lucie Averill

Lucy Willow, ‘The Mourner, Lamentation in Dust’, 2019, performance at ANTIfestival, Finland.

Photograph by Kim Saarinen

and loss. When the show ended, the wall work was painted out.

Willow loves the dark. That helps to explain her attachment to working almost exclusively in black and white. Visiting Iceland some years ago, she observed how snow obliterated detail to leave the essence of a location, its dips and rises. In a latitude where the sun makes only rare appearances for many months in the year, she was impressed by how so much is not visible, requiring other senses to become acute. Her discovery of the well hidden under the ash in Lamorna brought that recollection to mind as she probed the unseen depths of the watercourse with her imagination in search of imagery.

The well drawings were exhibited last year at Grays Wharf in Penryn. Images on paper, some small and others wall-sized, lined the gallery like holes pushing into an unknowable

deep space. Juxtaposed with the flat drawings were objects. Some were broken shards of porcelain, like shattered empty vessels. Others resembled tendrils, visceral forms that seemed set to pull viewers into those deep voids. The room was imbued with ideas beyond the visual that belonged to feeling, so that any person’s response would be split between resistance and yielding. The tendrils were wrapped in words that turned out to be text culled from Jack’s schoolbooks. The unquestionable power of Lucy Willow’s excavation of grief lies in precisely that integration of every element she uses to give shape to impenetrable absence – through material, form and meaning.

Lucy Willow is based at CAST, Helston.

lucywillow.art/ dustltd.art

Lucy Willow, Work in progress: raw, unfired clay, 2023, studio 19, CAST, Helston

NOSTALGIANursing

WORDS BY ROSIE CATTRELL

Saying goodbye to a loved one is surely one of the most difficult things for us to overcome, but one thing we can all hope for is that there is a hand for everyone to hold when the time comes. For over four decades, Cornwall Hospice Care has provided that hand here in the south west, and has stood tall as a charity that many depend upon for the hardest of times. Together with the local community, the charity provides compassionate, specialised end-of-life care for patients, families and carers to ensure that everyday matters to those whose lives the team touch.

Offering inpatient care at Mount Edgcumbe and St Julia’s hospices, Lymphoedema clinics, community support hubs and bereavement services, it’s thanks to constant support from the Cornish community that these services are free to all who need them. With charity shops

stretching across Cornwall from Penzance to Bude and from Perranporth to Looe, not to mention the staff and an army of volunteers, all contributing over £1 million each year, it’s clear that they each play a vital role in funding the care at the two Cornish hospices. While you may well have come across the high-street charity shops, furniture shops and bargain outlets dotted around Cornwall, there is one particular branch of the Cornwall Hospice Care retail collection that you may not yet be aware of.

Cornwall Hospice Care’s very first Retro store was opened in Penryn in 2014, and was the brainchild of the current Retro Falmouth shop manager, Lindsay Taylor, alongside Manager Daisy Jones. Born from a drive to maximise the value of some of the stock the team saw coming into the shops, it seemed about time to try something fun and creative when it

Casting ourselves back to a time gone by with objects to make us smile in a bid to support a vital local charity, Cornwall Hospice Care.

came to charity retail. “We were tired of seeing brilliant vintage stock not getting the recognition or the value it deserved,” Lindsay explains, “and so we decided to dedicate trained staff and an entire shop to it! What grew was a constantly changing emporium of vintage and retro stock with creative displays and a brilliantly keen team of volunteers. We were sad to leave our Penryn site when it was sold, but it has allowed us to rebrand and more carefully edit our stock now in Falmouth, and of course, expand into two other locations. It’s been a great success both personally and for the charity.”

Now with Retro high street locations in Falmouth, St Ives and Launceston, there are three exciting new opportunities for the discerning bargain hunter who might be looking for something with a little more history to it, and if you hadn’t realised that the stores were part of the Cornwall Hospice Care network, you’re not the only one! “Our customers have been amazingly supportive,” Lindsay continues. “We receive so many compliments every day about our styling and stock, it’s really wonderful to hear our hard work is so appreciated by our customers. You can never hear ‘but you don’t look like a charity shop’ enough!”

From a 1960s mini dress to a 1920s wooden mechanical till (currently in stock in St Ives!), or perhaps something smaller, like an Observer Book of Birds, or an enamel saucepan, the range really is huge and the only requirement is that it’s old, in good nick, and it makes the team who receive it smile. I myself have visited the Falmouth branch on multiple occasions and have so far come away with a beautiful vintage wicker picnic basket intended as a wedding present, and a 70s crockery collection set to be the star of my dining room table. On speaking with Cornwall Hospice Care’s Marketing and Promotions Manager, Megan Hampton, she lets me in on some of her own finds: “My favourite ever fashion item was a 1920s French sequinned dress; the sequins were so delicate I was afraid to wash it, but it was so beautiful I couldn’t resist! I’ve also found some great vinyl, including several Beatles singles, and some wonderful vintage kids’ books that I’ve saved pages from and framed the illustrations.”

While support for the vital work that the charity carries out is the ultimate goal here, there is also an aim to help us all live a more sustainable life and see things a little differently, as Frazer Hopkins, Head of Retail

at Cornwall Hospice Care, explains: “We are, by our very nature, a big recycler of fashion and furniture here in Cornwall as we offer the opportunity for people to both purchase and donate second hand items. Every year we sell over 1 million items, offering each a chance at a second life and potentially diverting from landfill. We are striving for more, with sustainability being recently introduced as one of our charity’s core ambitions, and we are constantly working towards improving our practices in realistic ways. Our Sustainable September campaign was a chance to communicate our commitment with the people of Cornwall and invite them to take part in our Recreate Challenge. Customers

were invited to take away unsellable books and fabric and turn them into something new.”

With a particular talent for window displays, especially leading up to Christmas, you may well find yourself drawn into one of Cornwall Hospice Care’s Retro stores should you be wandering the high streets of Falmouth, St Ives or Launceston in the near future. What’s more, by following Retro Falmouth on social media, you’ll be up to date with all the latest news on the fabulous stock expected in store. After all, you never know what treasures you might unearth on your next visit!

retrofalmouth

DETAILS Finer

WORDS BY HANNAH TAPPING

Mark Dale is a multifaceted artist who embarked on a creative journey that has spanned decades. His artistic odyssey began at Cornwall College of Art, where he delved into the world of illustration and graphics. During this time in the early 1980s, technology was undergoing a seismic shift, and Mark found himself at the forefront of this digital revolution. He joined the college’s pioneering degree course in scientific technical graphics, a realm where technology was not merely a tool but the medium itself.

Rolls-Royce recognised the potential of this burgeoning field, helping to set up the course and offering to employ a student every other year for four years. Mark was to be their first, and he moved from Porthleven to Derby to begin a career in the cutting-edge world of technology-driven design. Mark’s work at Rolls-Royce spanned various sectors, from aeroplanes to boats, and even nuclear power, where he pioneered the use of computers for creating brochures, exhibitions and other promotional materials that were exhibited around the world.

Having said he would stay for three years, Mark was with Rolls-Royce for 37, before he took early retirement. This marked a new

chapter in his life, one without a concrete plan but brimming with potential. His artistic journey began with a picture painted for his father’s birthday, which was met with much acclaim. A dear school friend suggested they exhibit their work together, but his untimely death left Mark with an empty exhibition space. In tribute to Keith, Mark painted fervently, successfully holding his first ever exhibition at the Old Lifeboat House in Porthleven. Mark’s artistic process combines digital technology with traditional techniques. He often starts with photographs, manipulating them digitally to create a foundation for his paintings. He transfers these images onto paper and begins the process of painting, focusing on the intricate detail so much so that they can often have a photographic quality.

Drawing inspiration from various sources, including personal experiences and his beloved Cornwall, his landscapes and seascapes capture the essence of the Duchy’s beauty. His works reflect a fusion of traditional and digital techniques, resulting in unique and captivating pieces that inspire and resonate. markdaleart.com

Transitioning from the world of technical graphics to becoming a prolific painter, Mark Dale’s story is one of evolution, innovation and a deep passion for art.

Eventide

WORDS BY ANDY FORSTER

Dive Project Cornwall’s first year was a resounding success, introducing young people from around the UK to the incredible marine environment and instilling in them a desire to cherish and champion its vitality for generations to come. It’s a chance that they never would have had without the work of our team and our sponsors, and we’re delighted to have nurtured the 2022/23 class of Ocean Influencers to go out into the world and enact the positive change that our oceans, and the life support systems they provide, so badly need.

A key question to sustaining and protecting the natural environment for the future, is how to get a new generation to love and protect the ocean. Our answer is simple: turn them into divers! Having so far helped to create 83 Ocean Influencers, engaging 358 schools in our education programme, and therefore educating over 500,000 young people on the importance of the ocean, I am enormously proud of our achievements so far. However, our work has only just begun. Now, as another year

approaches, we are looking for more schools to take part in Dive Project Cornwall in 2024.

So, to any school that wants to provide a lifechanging opportunity for its students, to enhance their mental health and wellbeing, and teach them vital life-skills – all over the course of a weeklong camp learning to Scuba dive in Cornwall – I encourage you to get in touch. We are also looking for sponsors for Dive Project Cornwall 2024. The successes we’ve enjoyed in 2022/23 simply wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible supporters and sponsors, so as we head into our second year, I would ask anybody that wants to get involved and help make a difference to get in touch.

Andy Forster is the founder of Dive Project Cornwall, a Community Interest Company working to educate young people from around the UK on the importance of our oceans, and providing them the chance to learn to Scuba dive in Cornwall.

diveprojectcornwall.co.uk

Andy Forster with some fresh Ocean Influencers

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