MANOR The Spring 2017 Issue

Spring 2017 Issue 17 | £4.50

The Region’s Premium Publication

Fay Weldon

As I see it

John Brown

Publishing pioneer

Kit Heath

A silver success story

Moor creativity

Unique portraits of Devon artisans

PLUS

CULTURE FOOD SPACE ESCAPE SCHOOL PROPERTY

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ADJACENT TO THE SPECTACULAR NATIONAL TRUST-OWNED TREVOSE HEAD

TREVOSE, PADSTOW, NORTH CORNWALL

Padstow: 4, Wadebridge:10, Cornwall Airport (Newquay): 10, Rock:17, Truro: 26 (Distances are in miles and approximate) A once in a lifetime opportunity and available for the first time since 1939. Victorian house set in a unique position with panoramic sea views and direct beach access. 5 bedrooms all with sea views. Level gardens and a newly constructed garage. Requiring refurbishment with potential for development (subject to all necessary consents). 3302 sq ft. EPC=G Guide £2.5 million Freehold 6

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Savills Cornwall Ben Davies bmdavies@savills.com

01872 243 200

IMMACULATE SMALL COUNTRY ESTATE WITH INCOME POTENTIAL IN THE AXE VALLEY

AXMINSTER - DEVON/DORSET BORDER Axminster: 1, Lyme Regis: 4, Honiton (A30/A303): 11 (Distances are in miles and approximate)

5 bedroom main house. Attached 2 bedroom cottage. Pair of semi-detached two bedroom cottages. Private entrance drive, formal landscaped gardens, walled garden, paddocks, woodland, ponds and extensive outbuildings.

About 37 acres in all.

Guide £1,950,000

Savills Exeter Chris Clifford cclifford@savills.com

01392 455 733

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Salcombe, Devon

A unique and historically special house in the heart of Salcombe.

Kingsbridge 6 miles, Exeter 45 miles (London Paddington 128 minutes) (all distances are approximate) The Custom House is a true Salcombe landmark in the very heart of the town. Incredible views over the main anchorage towards East Portlemouth. 5 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, 3 bathrooms, balcony and private parking for 2 vehicles.

Guide Price ÂŁ2,000,000 KnightFrank.co.uk/EXE150150 8

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To find out how we can help you please contact us. www.KnightFrank.co.uk/Exeter christopher.bailey@knightfrank.com

Kingswear, Devon

Spacious living with breath-taking panoramic river views.

Dartmouth (by Higher Ferry, a short walk from the house), Totnes 11.2 miles (London Paddington 2 hrs 50 mins) (all distances are approximate)

To find out how we can help you please contact us. www.KnightFrank.co.uk/Exeter mark.proctor@knightfrank.com

A substantial family home architecturally designed to exceptional standards to provide spacious living over two floors.

4 bedrooms, 3 reception rooms, extensive decked balcony with impressive glass and stainless steel balustrade, conservatory and garage. EPC: C.

Guide Price ÂŁ1,175,000 KnightFrank.co.uk/EXE160401 MANOR | Spring 2017

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Contents

Spring 2017

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Regulars 17 TOWN MOUSE, COUNTRY MOUSE Correspondence from across the divide

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AS I SEE IT...

Author and playwright Fay Weldon

Style & Beauty 18 TRENDS Ties and tulle, transitional coats

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SPRING GREENS

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MY FEEL-GOOD REGIME

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GLAMP IT UP

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36 Features 32 A HEAD FOR BUSINESS

Publisher and entrepreneur John Brown

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GO WILD IN THE COUNTRY

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SILVER SERVICE

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SOUL FABRIC

Fun for all on the Bear Trail near Cullompton, Devon

Devon-based jewellery maker Kit Heath

Charlotte Gordon Cumming on aiming to create a new luxury clothing brand

Fresh advice for the new season

Artist Iona Sanders

Photographed by Thomas Hole

Photostory 45 A HIVE OF TALENT Photographer Suzy Bennett’s ‘Artisans of Dartmoor’

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68 Culture 66 JOINT ENTERPRISE Artists Daphne and Emma McClure

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DRAWING INSPIRATION Exeter’s wealth of talented illustrators

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WONDER WORKS Artist Susan Bleakley talks about her work

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SOUTH WEST MUST SEES...

What’s on around the region

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WORTH MAKING THE TRIP FOR...

Cultural highlights from the metropolis and beyond

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WORTH STAYING IN FOR...

Quality time on your sofa

Food 102 THE TRUTH ABOUT SPRING LAMB Village Farm on why traditional hogget and mutton should return to the Easter table

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MOVEABLE FEASTS Chef Ben Quinn’s quest to bring some Californian ideas on outdoor eating to Cornwall

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BITES Food news from across the peninsula

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THE TABLE PROWLER ...dines out at Rendezvous, Exeter and Halsetown Inn, St Ives

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Spring 2017

120 150 MANOR school 140 SCHOOL NEWS IN BRIEF

Mount Kelly’s new swimming pool, Plymouth College of Art’s new film, Blundell’s fund raising, Maynard’s netball success

142 Space 120 THE ART OF LIVING Gray + Gray architects’ Park House

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SHOPPING FOR SPACE

SPEAK YOUR MIND Studying a language to broaden horizons

Property 147 THE BULLETIN The South West’s second home market

Green and brass

Escape 130 LIFE’S A BEACH Upper Saltings in St Ives

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WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE Exploring Sri Lanka

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SKI FOR TWO A break to Zermatt

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SNAPSHOT COMPARATIVE A selection of properties under £750k in the South West and London

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PROPERTY OF NOTE Brightley House, Devon

Back page 162 BLACK BOOK Interiors expert Victoria Jelbert shares her secrets

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is brought to you by PUBLISHING EDITOR

Imogen Clements imogen@manormagazine.co.uk

COMMISSIONING EDITOR

Jane Fitzgerald jane@manormagazine.co.uk

FEATURES EDITOR

Fiona McGowan features@manormagazine.co.uk

ARTS EDITOR

Belinda Dillon belinda@manormagazine.co.uk

FOOD EDITOR

Anna Turns food@manormagazine.co.uk

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Phoebe Tancock phoebe@manormagazine.co.uk

CONTRIBUTORS

Sarah Brittain-Mansbridge, Lucy Munday, Jacqui Richards, Lucy Studley, Lauren Williams, Alice Wright DESIGN

Eleanor Cashman, Guy Cracknell ADVERTISING SALES

Kathy Barrau, Rachel Evans advertising@manormagazine.co.uk

THE COVER Grey velvet dress, Next, £45; silver/gold layered necklace, Next, £16 Photographer: Thomas Hole; Stylist: Mimi Stott; Model: Geiza Rodrigues; Hair and make-up: Maddie Austin

© MANOR Publishing Ltd, 2017.

MANOR Magazine is published by Manor Publishing Ltd. Registered office: MANOR Publishing Ltd, 12 Mannamead Road, Plymouth, Devon PL4 7AA. Registered in England No. 09264104 info@manormagazine.co.uk. Printed by Warners Midlands plc.

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Hello and welcome to the Spring Issue of MANOR. Days are getting noticeably longer, and nature – fauna and flora – is getting busy. You can’t help but be infected by its vibe and dynamism, and this issue of MANOR sets out to further inspire with stories of entrepreneurship and creative enterprise.

We celebrate making, with Suzy Bennett’s stunning photostory showing extracts from her forthcoming exhibition, ‘Artisans of Dartmoor’, to be shown at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen. She set out to show the rich variety of skilled artisanship that still exists on Dartmoor, from children’s shoe-makers, ceramicists and painters, to honey and cider producers, and ironmongers. In this world of mass-production, there’s an appreciation for skilled craftsmanship, not least for the attention to detail and high quality it delivers.

We profile two highly successful entrepreneurs: firstly, John Brown of John Brown Publishing, who went from purchasing adult comic Viz (because he loved it) to building an empire that pioneered premium contract publishing and spawned such titles as Waitrose Food Illustrated and, later, John Lewis’s edition, among dozens of other highly successful company magazines. Although he sold the business several years ago, John Brown Publishing remains the market leader in its field.

Then there’s Kit Heath – the jeweller who found his vocation by accident at school during a metalwork session, employed his younger sisters and their school friends to produce his first range of silverware, and 40 years later sells 400 different product lines through independent jewellers and branches of John Lewis throughout the UK, as well as in the States. Kit Heath and his sister Katie Nickell reveal the factors that have contributed to the brand’s success from their headquarters in Barnstaple, Devon.

And then there are the writers, originators of a different kind. Fay Weldon, one of our best-known doyennes of British literature, takes to our ‘couch’ to reflect on life and love as she sees them, and her renowned She Devil. Her appearance in MANOR ties in with the first Bath Festival, a multi-arts event at which she will be speaking with Margaret Drabble, along with numerous other highly renowned writers and performers.

We have the usual fascinating Food and Escape sections, and in our Space section, we showcase the recently completed project of Gray + Gray Architects, a new practice working out of Exeter. Their work demonstrates just how stunning the combined effect that two creatives – architect and designer – can have in building a new home in tandem with one another.

So this Spring Issue is all about setting out, reinvigorated by the time of year, to do stuff or make stuff, inspired by the work of others. We hope you enjoy it and, as with all issues of MANOR, discover something, somewhere or someone new that you hadn’t known of before, and are left feeling rather pleased as a result.

Imogen Clements FOUNDER & PUBLISHING EDITOR @ManorMagazine

@manormagazine

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The views of the writers in MANOR Magazine are not necessarily those shared by the publisher. Unsolicited manuscripts, artwork or transparencies are accepted on the understanding that the publishers incur no liability for their storage or return. The contents of MANOR Magazine are fully protected by copyright and may not be reproduced without permission.

By submitting material to MANOR Magazine, MANOR Magazine Ltd is automatically granted the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use, reproduce, edit, distribute and display such material (in whole or part) and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed for the full term of any rights that may exist in such content. The contributor acknowledges that material submitted may

be published in any publication or website produced or published by MANOR Publishing Ltd. The contributor agrees not to submit material where they do not own the copyright and where they have not obtained all necessary licenses and/or approvals from the rightful owner.

With respect to any photographs submitted, the contributor confirms that all necessary model and property releases have been obtained from any clearly identifiable person appearing in any image, together with any other relevant consents required.

Prices and details of services and products are genuinely believed to be correct at the time of going to press, but may change. Although every effort is made to maintain accuracy we regret we are unable to honour any incorrect prices or other details that may be printed.

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TOWN MOUSE, COUNTRY MOUSE Sweetness...

Darling...

Hurrah, it is spring. I can see it, hear it and feel it. Little birds are racing around chattering, clumps of snowdrops in the hedgerows bowing their heads and nodding in jest as I pass.

There’s a discernible buzz as the earth starts to stir, wake up and stretch. There’s really nothing quite like this time of year, darling, when everyone snaps out of winter and gets going!

I am certainly infected and will proceed with a thorough spring clean. Time for a recharge and a refresh. You know, I’ve come to the conclusion that the modern malaise is boredom – in this modern era of convenience and zero-effort entertainment, we’re just too used to doing nothing. We can sit on the sofa all day, watching TV, tapping at screens to communicate or have the weekly shop delivered, which invariably consists of ready meals in throwaway cartons. No need to cook or clean.

Is it any wonder, then, that we get fat, then get depressed and eat some more to feel better? No wonder at all. And do you know what my answer to it all is? Do you, sweetie? To make stuff. Get back to cooking, sewing or go further and learn a skill. There is no greater satisfaction than creating something from scratch – time to stop living vicariously through Bake Off and Sewing Bee and get on and do it ourselves. Of course, it will take some effort, but goodness knows you’re not going to be on your deathbed wishing you’d spent more time on Facebook or watching Deal or No Deal.

I have made preparations and shall start with focaccia and cushions – very easy, machine-sewing squares. Then, when the flowers, the wild abundant ones that self-sow, need to be picked, I shall embark on flower-pressing. That way, I can frame them and line the walls with my creative achievements and enjoy spring all year round – ingenious, don’t you think?

I do understand. In these unpredictable times, there is a need to get back to basics and seek pleasure, indeed therapy, in doing and making. As they say, the Devil finds work in idle hands.

Which brings me to handshakes – I’d never really paid much attention to them before in this age of the air kiss, of which I am wont, but it seems the handshake is, and always has been, a power play. Where formality dictates a handshake over a kiss (and I’m never entirely sure where the line is drawn), I prefer a firm handshake, by the hand. Have never understood the shaking of the fingers, like you’re too nervous, or dainty, to make palm-to-palm contact. I have heard of ‘the squeeze’, where one is clearly being undermined by being crushed, the response to which is to maintain eye contact and smile throughout. But ‘the yank’ (à la Trump)?

That’s new to me. I’ve not been on the receiving end of such a thing, and if I had been, I’d have taken it as rather forward and/or an invitation to dance – you know how much I love to dance, sweetie, the slightest hint of an invitation would have me twirling directly into their arms.

Indeed, have you noticed that in these times of soap opera news, dance is proving a cheery antidote. Take the latest Sainsbury’s ‘food dancing’ campaign and the doolally that everyone’s going over La La Land, like they’ve never seen a good old-fashioned musical before! Well, hear hear, I say – let’s have more of it! It’s innate, after all – we dance just as soon as we’re steady on our feet as toddlers, and someone switches the music on. We should all celebrate this peculiarity of our species rather than desist for the sake of civility. Let’s alleviate the boredom and affluenza and, in between the making of stuff, get all la-la and twinkle-toed – I, for one, will be putting on my top hat, tying up my white tie, brushing off my tail, wherever the opportunity lies.

WHAT’S COOL IN THE COUNTRY?

WHAT’S HOT IN THE SMOKE?

Porthminster Gallery celebrates its tenth year in St Ives, Cornwall, with a diverse show of original art by eight new faces alongside gallery favourites. The exhibition opens on 25 March and runs to 6 May.

A giant new production of 42nd Street, boasting an all-singing, high-kicking cast of over 50: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane from 20 March.

Polpo Exeter, the original Soho favourite serving Venetian classics such as Frito Mixto, Pizza Marinara and Crab and Chilli Linguine, along with fine young Italian wines, opens in the Guildhall, Queen Street, in March.

Franco Manca’s sourdough pizzas are causing a stir in culinary circles. The new pizza chain on the block, with branches throughout London, is putting many of those others in the shade, we’re told.

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Bangle, Jigsaw, £29

Ties and tulles

Jumper, Zara, £29.99

Dior SS17

Ties crept into winterwear to add an extra-interest detail to knitwear, and they remain prevalent in the Spring Summer collections, on both blouses and dresses. They add a certain femininity, but tulle adds a whole lot more and was rife on the SS17 runway. To tone down the ballerina effect, add a denim jacket, trench or an oversized jumper and some sneakers.

Sunglasses, Next, £15

Jumper, Joseph, £395

Tulle, Studio by Preen at Debenhams, £55

Shoes, Marks and Spencer, £45

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Tulle, New Look, £14.99

trends Erdem SS17

Top, Zara, £25.99 Earrings, Accessorize, £6

Top, Zara, £29.99

Top, Zara, £25.99

Bag, Zara, £39.99

Shoes, Zara, £25.99 Shirt, Topshop Unique, £125

Tied sleeve dress, Topshop, £49

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Earrings, Whistles,£30

Transitional coats

Dior SS17

It’s that time of year when a winter coat is too much but you need something lighter weight to protect you from the April showers. Trenches were very much the favourite on Spring 17 catwalks and never fail to inject a shot of elegance. For more informality, the trusty parka remains strong, with metallic and quilted varieties to dial up the glam quotient.

Coat, Zara, £59.99

Scarf, Marks and Spencer,£9.50

Coat, Next, £65

Boots, Zara, £29.99 Coat, Topshop, £79

Bag, Next, £28

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Coat, Marks and Spencer,£79

trends Next

Earrings, Whistles, £30

Coat, Topshop, £69

Trainers, Zara, £29.99

Coat, Next,£78

beautiful fused glass interior pieces, handmade at our cornwall studio. bespoke design service available. galleries at st ives, padstow, fowey, tintagel and launceston in cornwall, ripley in surrey and twickenham. www.jodowns.com

10% off

Cornish Pilchards Range* when you enter ‘MA10’ at checkout or quote in galleries *Offer runs from February to end of March 2017

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beauty

Spring greens Ditch the copper and taupe – it’s time to get with the season. Make-up artist Elouise Abbott presents her guide to what’s hot and how to go green with confidence.

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pring is the season of growth, with flora and fauna bursting into life to inject verdant colour into our wonderful world. It’s perfect, then, that the predicted trend colour of 2017 is green. If you find wearing colour a little daunting, fear not – you too can add a touch of green to your make-up bag. It’s all about finding the right shade and style to suit you.

Pastels are a spring/summer classic embodying youth and giving a light, ethereal quality to the eye. While quite retro, mint green also lends itself well to a futuristic look.

Illamasqua Cream Pigment in Bedaub is a beautifully striking matt cream pigment, perfect for a statement colour block. Apply a soft, dusty sweep of powder to the lid for a more classic, understated look; I like the Stila eyeshadow compact in Poppy for a wonderful wash of mint green. If your eyes are blue or green, choose a shade lighter to avoid washing out your natural colour.

Brown eyes can go all out.

A water-resistant cream eyeshadow is great when on holiday because it sets, so will not smudge or transfer in heat, and the waterresistant qualities make it ideal for the beach or the pool. As a longer-lasting product, a water-resistant cream creates an ideal base for eyeshadow, acting like a primer. I love Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream in Turquoise for a fun, bright colour-splash.

Yves Saint Laurent Full Metal Shadow – The Mats in Fur Green brings a wonderfully opulent classic twist in a vintage shade of dark green. A long-lasting, liquid eyeshadow, this is perfect for a rich, sophisticated, smoky eye.

An olive eyeshadow is very versatile and is suitable for everyone. Chanel Les 4 Ombres eyeshadow quad in 254 Tissé d’Automne is a perfect feminine balance of soft pink, copper and olive greens. The subtle shimmer is just right: not too sparkly but enough for a touch of glamour.

A dark green liner applied to the water line and used to tightly line the eyes is complimentary and will make your eyes pop. Clinique High Impact Custom Black Kajal in Blackened Green is a nearly black kohl with a hint of green and offers up to 12 hours’ staying power. Soft and smudgy with a hint of drama.

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Kohl pencil used to underline the eyes is a great way to be adventurous with colour while at the same time keeping your look low key. For a fun flash of colour, wear Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencil in Freak, a vibrant shade of acid green.

I am a huge fan of gel liner, and it’s safe to say that a good flick is not going out of fashion anytime soon. For a trendy flick with a funky twist, try a bright spring green like Inglot Cosmetics AMC Eyeliner Gel 85, great for those with blue and brown eyes. For a green eye, try a more conventional dark forest green such as shade 86.

Coloured mascara is a fun way to add a flash of colour to your make-up, and is surprisingly effective at drawing out and intensifying all the different colours in the iris. Givenchy Phenomen’Eyes Renewal Mascara in Vivid Green is a pleasure to apply with its unique spherical wand.

Lipstick is no longer restricted to variations of red and pink. It is increasingly broadening the scope of what is considered the norm, with popular lipstick shades ranging from grey to purple to – you guessed it – green.

It’s not the shade for everyone, admittedly, but if you like to push boundaries and are feeling adventurous, then Jeffree Star Cosmetics Velour Liquid Lipstick in Crocodile Tears – a deep, luscious green, matt shade – is for you. To keep my lips in tip-top condition for matt lipsticks, I like to use Carmex Classic Moisturizing Lip Balm.

releases its latest

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aks Exeter, UK Salon of the Year in 2016, has released four new seasonal styles for their latest campaign All That And More.

Ellie Wilson, owner of Saks Exeter, said: “For All That And More we created four styles that clients love because they’re easy, and perfect for summer. It’s about getting the look and the knowhow at Saks and recreating it at home. From a mussy crop or nextday texture to the weekend blow-dry and VIP up-dos.

“All our expert hairstylists at Saks Exeter are trained to apply these latest styles, but of course aren’t confined to them. They can create any look a customer has in mind, whether it’s big and bold, or sleek and shiny.”

GET SHORTY A long short! Thrown together; undone with texture. Easy to own by blasting underneath and blow-drying the front in different directions.

BIG HAIR DON’T CARE The weekend blow-dry. After blow-drying, pin curl or set hair in rollers for extra oomph, then lightly brush out.

TEXTURISE ME A modern take on the 70’s Shag – not for those who love a polished finish – use tongs to add slightest movement then work with products and scrunch to diffuse the look.

BIT OF A DO A homage to the 60’s up-do. Set dry hair in rollers, brush out loosely, put into a high pony then pile it high! Play about and pin, letting it fall naturally – nonchalant!

To opt for one of these styles or another style that’s perfect for you, call Saks Exeter or pop into the salon for a complimentary consultation.

2 Bampfylde Lane, Princesshay, Exeter, Devon Tel: 01392 256999 | saks.co.uk/exeter

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My feel-good regime

Artist Iona Sanders is currently renovating a house in Lelant, Cornwall, with her husband, Paul. She was born in Penzance and lived most of her life in West Penwith, although she left Cornwall to study Applied Biology at Bristol University. After a career in the pharmaceutical industry, she left the corporate world to become a full-time painter – with a bit of waitressing on the side. She splits her time between being a mother to three children, painting, and working at Scarlet Wines, where she also organises exhibitions.

My day-to-day life involves tearing around after my children (two daughters aged 13 and 14, and a son, aged

six). I try to exercise when time permits and usually spend weekdays painting and corresponding with galleries, and working at Scarlet Wines.

My passion is being outdoors – preferably in or by the sea, and with my friends and family. Having been

brought up (virtually) on Sennen beach, with parents who were outdoor junkies, it's hardly surprising that this is exactly what makes me tick now. I feel free and re-energised, physically and mentally, when I’m on one of my favourite beaches. I also love painting whenever I possibly can, and visiting galleries.

The place that makes me feel most at peace, the place I

go to dream or sort out my problems, is Gwenver (near Sennen Cove). Every time. My soul rests there. I can't explain it.

In the summer, the beach is my favourite place to be. I

couldn't possibly say which quiet spots I visit, but I do like coves. I love running and walking on the cliffs and generally being outside. I have a love of the Scillies and am fortunate enough to be invited there to paint for a week each year. That's very special.

The thing that gives me the most energy is positivity.

And my children, my husband, my family and my friends. And the sea.

I get inspiration for my art from my daily life, be it a

mundane object that I use repeatedly or an emotion that I feel or observe in others. Often, things are not what they seem – my positive paintings always have a twist.

Painting makes me feel free.

Like most busy mums, life is a juggling act, which feels

pretty chaotic! I do try and compartmentalise my family, painting and me-time, to find some sort of balance.

I love healthy food generally – salads and seafood in

particular – but I do make a mean chilli, which is my favourite winter meal.

I don't eat out lots, but if my husband Paul and I can, we often go out for brekkie without our children. I love

Scarlet for breakfast, Porthmeor Beach Café for lunch, and you can't beat a takeaway curry for dinner in the winter.

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My indulgences are spending quality time with my husband and having time on my own. I love nights

around a kitchen table, be it with our friends or my girlfriends. They're always the best.

I’m currently reading a book about the St Ives artist Rose Hilton – it’s uplifting and inspiring.

I love camping in France and anywhere hot on an island.

Time is my biggest challenge, but what drives me most, too. If my life were not so busy, I wouldn't be so fired up

and passionate about painting. It's full to bursting and I love it that way. I wish I had more time for my husband and myself.

I love swimming (I prefer the sea) and running (I prefer trail running). I love yoga but haven't found time recently

and need to redress this, as it was the only time I ever felt really chilled. I try to clear my mind when I run and I find that this re-energises me. I really relax on the beach.

Iona Sanders will be exhibiting her paintings at the Penwith Gallery in St Ives until 11 March. penwithgallery.com

LANGUISHING IN MY MAKE-UP BAG Lots of Christmas pressies: grey eyeliner (Clinique), black mascara (Estée Lauder), eye shadow (Clinique – greys), lip tint (Lancôme), Dior (moisturiser), Beauty Flash Balm (Clarins), body oil (Clarins). I occasionally get my hair done by Caroline at the Bedford Road Salon in St Ives.

I wear Chanel No. 5 every day. For moisturising, I use coconut oil or Clarins oil (if I get bought it), and I love Clarins’ Beauty Flash Balm. If I want to pamper myself I use Clarins and Ren products.

SPRING OFFERS INVISALIGN £500 OFF

E XCLUSIVE OFFERS

FREE MINI IMPLANT CONSULTATION FREE ELECTRIC TOOTHBRUSH* I N S P I R E D D E N TA L C A R E , 2 4 6 H I G H S T R E E T , E X E T E R E X 4 3 N Z

G D C N O. 1 6 8 4 4 7

T O B O O K A F R E E M I N I C O N S U LTAT I O N , P L E A S E C A L L 0 1 3 9 2 2 7 2 3 8 5 O R V I S I T I N S P I R E D D E N TA L C A R E . C O . U K

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PHOTO: SEBASTIAN WILLNOW

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As I see it...

Fay Weldon, CBE, has been producing fiction for 50 years. Her works include 34 novels, numerous dramas for TV and radio, and five stage plays. One of her early books, The Life and Loves of a She Devil, about a woman’s revenge on her philandering husband, instantly became a feminist classic. She has been a judge for the Booker Prize, and is a Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. She lives in Dorset with her husband, Nick Fox. Interview by Fiona McGowan.

Moving from New Zealand to London when I was 15 changed my life. It was a cultural shift as well as a personal one – from a very tranquil, rural, milk-and-honey land at one end of the world, to a war-torn, hungry, dejected nation at the other. It was 1946, a year of austerity, strict rationing, power cuts and a spectacularly hard winter – we had to stay in bed all day just to keep warm – but also of optimism, a sense of new beginnings. Bombed to bits Britain might be, but we would put ourselves together again as a better, fresher nation. As for me, I’d been an outsider – an English child, ‘a homey’, in New Zealand – and now I was ‘a crude colonial’ in England. To be an outsider is to belong nowhere: nowhere feels like home. But that’s no bad thing for a writer – you take nothing for granted.

I’ve been married three times. The idea of living my life alone never appealed – I’m a sociable person. The first lasted two years and was a matter of necessity, not choice, but the next lasted 31 years, and the third is still going strong after 26 years, so I’m no marital flibbertigibbet. But then, I was brought up in an era when to be married was a girl’s greatest desire and wish; it was certainly mine as a girl. To be a spinster suggested failure and disgrace; the wedding ring was the sign that you had made it. And yes, a different ring makes for a different life.

I like going to church on Sunday, but only if it’s The Book of Common Prayer and The King James Bible.

It’s a ritual, a way of marking the passage of time, the change from one season to another: when the same reading comes around and a year has passed. It slows things up a bit. Especially as you get older and time seems to go more quickly, it’s a very valuable thing to do. The marking of things. It seems important to have some sort of ceremony in one’s life. And then I like singing hymns. Always did.

You’re only ever as good as your last novel. Writing is difficult, but the career is not. And I was brought up before women had ‘careers’. Success is in the eye of the beholder, not the practitioner. I just found myself using fiction to explain people’s behaviour to themselves. I first used TV and stage, then the novel, having discovered in advertising the power words had. I teach Creative Writing at Bath Spa University now, helping graduates to hone their writing skills, as once mine were honed. You can’t teach people what to say – that must come from them.

Since my very first novel, published in 1967, I’ve been under contract to deliver a new novel practically every year. That can only be why I’ve ended up as what they call ‘prolific’ – never quite realising that I could, and probably should, ask for more time. But you write the book you want to

write, which is actually the one you feel you need to write – a commentary on the times you’re living in. So I daresay the novels end up as a kind of annual social record.

Is age slowing me up at 85? Not noticeably. My next book, Death of a She Devil, is coming out on April, a sequel to The Life and Loves of a She Devil, which came out in 1983. It’s taken me some time to get around to it, but time has had to pass and the feminist revolution to come and go and change society for good, before it could be done. Others of ambiguous gender now occupy the She Devil’s High Tower, but the past still haunts it, and wind and wave still eat away at the foundations.

It was a novel in a great many voices, so technically it was quite difficult to write, but it was great fun. I laughed a lot. And now I must get back to the coalface and start writing my next book, called After the War, a sequel to my Before the War, about how conflict between nations is reflected by conflict within families.

I’ve lived in Dorset for 15 years, and before an interlude in London, for 15 years in Somerset. You find a far wider range of acquaintances in the country than in London, and a greater assortment of views and attitudes. In London, like talks to like. For a writer, country is better. Although I remember being rather startled when I first moved down here to read headlines in the local paper like ‘Vicar nearly run down on pedestrian crossing’.

In 1949, when I went up to university at St Andrews, my mother moved to St Ives. She lived in what was more a hut in a field than a house – in Boswednack, near Zennor – and wove willow baskets. She’d walk into Penzance market once a week to sell them. I, more practical, worked as a waitress at the Copper Kettle in St Ives (now The Rum & Crab Shack) all through the wakes weeks, when the factories in the North closed and everyone came south for their annual holiday. Lunch was two shillings and ninepence: a shocking price, I thought then, for a set meal of tomato soup, ham, peas and chips, with ice cream. Then she got a job in the woodworker Robin Nance’s gallery. St Ives was an exciting place in those days – an artistic hub, with artists like Barbara Hepworth, Patrick Heron, Graham Sutherland and Bernard Leach working there.

Home at last? One way and another, I now think of myself as a permanent denizen of this part of the world. It certainly feels like home. Maybe the West Country has finally taken the edge off my outsider’s blues.

Fay Weldon will be in conversation with Margaret Drabble at The Bath Festival on 28 May. bathfestivals.org.uk, 19-28 May. Fay’s latest book, Death of a She Devil (Head of Zeus), is out now in hardback, £16.99.

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It’s the detail that sets you apart

“Design, manufacture and installation of such high quality products that can’t be rivalled.”

DAVID MATTHEWS, PINPOINT PROJECTS

Bespoke joinery | Furniture | Kitchen interiors T: 01392 364269 | touchdesigngroup.com

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PHOTO: ALASTAIR LEVY

A head for business From forays in the music industry to running an eponymous multimillion-pound publishing empire to co-owning a restaurant in Cornwall, John Brown’s journey is an inspiration for entrepreneurs everywhere. Words by Fiona McGowan. Portrait by Alastair Levy.

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ack in 1985, an adult comic was doing the rounds of student common rooms and bedsits.

Run by two young Geordies, it was smutty, scatological, acerbic and satirical – like a student rag, but funnier and with a wider appeal. It had a modest circulation of 5,000. Four years later, it had sales of one million, making it the biggestselling magazine in the country. Do you know what it is yet? Viz, of course: staple of British youth culture throughout the late 80s and early 90s.

How does a publication shoot from scruffy rag to mass popularity in four years? For starters, its content: there was no other magazine with as much diversity of humour and madcap characters that were so deeply rooted in British society. It was a time before ‘lad mags’ and celeb mags, and comics were predominantly for 32

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young kids (with the exception of the highbrow political in-humour of Private Eye). But the fact that Viz exploded onto the market in such a meteoric fashion was really down to one man: John Brown.

Now in his 60s and nominally retired, John Brown spends a good chunk of his life at his converted home on the Roseland Peninsula. The large house overlooks the Carrick Roads waterway at the point where it opens up to the sea. It sits on a promontory of land at the base of a wooded hill, accessed by a long, winding lane from the village of Portscatho, and has grassy gardens sloping down to a jetty and mini-dam. A couple of outhouses have been converted to provide extra accommodation, and the beach is just a five-minute walk across the property. John and his wife Claudia potter about in the expansive, modern kitchen, with their curly-haired,

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I thought Viz was the funniest thing I’d ever read. What was so impressive was that it was all funny. Every word. It was just a work of genius. chocolate-coloured dog Maggie snuffling around in the background. John’s distracted, slightly scruffy appearance belies his incisive business acumen.

Casting his mind back to his early years, he thinks he always had an entrepreneurial streak: “I was always attracted to business: I was the marble-swapping king at prep school,” he muses.

Like many potted histories of an entrepreneur’s life, there is an impression of unstructured drifting from one random thing to another; but, like a bee collecting nectar from many flowers, every experience adds up to the final honeypot of business success. John went from a course in printing and business to a job in book publishing (from which he “flounced out” after failing to get the job he wanted). He then worked on a fanzine, became a motorbike messenger for a band manager and a production assistant for music concerts. He was seduced away from the music industry by a job offer from top book publisher Jonathan Cape – something he still regrets to this day.

After two years doing publicity and sales, he quit and ended up in New York, where he became a chauffeur, driving “knackered old Rolls Royces”.

A year later, aged 27, he returned to London and landed a job working for a publishing company owned

by Pete Townshend of The Who. Within a year, John was running the company – his blend of nectars from the music business, print and publishing, not to mention his business skills, enabling him to lift a business that was almost on its knees to a point where it was sold for a profit.

Perhaps the most pivotal moment in John’s career, however, was getting a publishing job with Virgin, back when it was a record label. Richard Branson’s spirit of entrepreneurism is legendary, and his particular brand of ‘anyone can do it’ infected everyone who was working for the company. “Someone would join Virgin as marketing assistant,” reminisces John, “and two months later they were running a nightclub. Because Richard was just like that. There was a feeling of fun... that a business is fun – which had never occurred to me before.” After so many years of mild dissatisfaction in his career choices, John Brown had found his spiritual home.

“I loved it from the moment I joined,” he enthuses.

“Literally the first day.”

John remembers Richard Branson approaching him and a group of friends at a wedding party. “He came up to a bunch of us and said he was going to start an airline, which none of us took seriously – because Virgin was a record company, and he was completely pissed.” John

chuckles into his coffee before continuing. “Then a few days later, Richard rang me and said, ‘You do the in-flight magazine.’ And that was my entrée into magazines.”

While running Hot Air, Virgin’s in-flight magazine, with no experience in magazine publishing, John discovered Viz. He loved it. The clever, smutty humour tickled him – and he knew it was a winner. Reading it for the first time, he says, “I was instantly fantastically excited. I thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever read. What was so impressive was that it was all funny.

Every word. It was just a work of genius.” Within a year, John had left Virgin to set up his own magazine publishing company – with Richard Branson’s blessing (and some financial support). He started with just two titles: Viz and Hot Air. “It was risky all right,” he admits, “and it was a bloody scary thing to do, to set up my own business. A palpable feeling of taking a jump into the dark. For the first time ever, I didn’t have anything around me. I had no infrastructure to fall back on.”

From in-flight magazines, a whole new genre of publications arose: contract publishing was born. John was right there at the birth. “Potter [Michael Potter, who set up Redwood Publishing], and fairly rapidly myself, pioneered the concept of ‘we’ll do a magazine to help you with your marketing and you’ll pay for it. And it might or might not contain some advertising.’”

Over the years, his client list grew – from Waitrose and John Lewis to Yellow Pages and Sky. Meanwhile, he had been bringing on more consumer magazines – the ones you find on the shelves. Viz was followed by slightly leftfield consumer titles including Fortean Times, Wisden Cricket Monthly and, in the nascent boom of lad mags, Bizarre, whose mainstay was strange images and tales from the nether regions of the internet. Moving MANOR | Spring 2017

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feature into a more straightforward, mainstream market, his art director wife, Claudia, set up the eminently gorgeous and still highly regarded Gardens Illustrated. The empire was built, but the consumer titles were becoming wearing for John: “I essentially had two businesses – the contract publishing and my own titles – and I was working a bit harder than I wanted to do, and I thought I’d concentrate on one. The opportunity was in contract publishing.” So he sold Viz, Fortean Times, Bizarre and Gardens Illustrated – making a tidy packet in the process.

PHOTO: ETIENNE GILFILLAN

The Watch House, St Mawes

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Within next to no time, John Brown Publishing was the number one contract publisher in the country and remains so, as well as a world contender, to this day.

Clearly thriving on the journey, the process, the eclectic and exciting challenge of success, once he achieves a goal, John clearly loses interest: “We got to number one,” he says. “Then I got bored with contract publishing. I liked growing the business, but having to kiss arse to clients when you’re over 50 is pretty annoying.” He decided to sell John Brown Publishing

Like a bee collecting nectar from many flowers, every experience adds up to the final honeypot of business success.

PHOTO: ETIENNE GILFILLAN

in 2004 in a £20m management buyout. “It was a feeling that this was a poker game I was playing and now was the time to cash in.” He confesses that he was never “besotted” by publishing, although he was smitten by Viz. “It wasn’t like being a pianist or a chef or something, where you simply have to do it every day…”

And here he is today. Having overseen the extensive project of rebuilding his beguiling second home on the Roseland, he decided to buy a restaurant in nearby St Mawes with his nephew, the chef Will Gould. The Watch House is a lively bistro right on the harbourfront, between rival eatery The Idle Rocks and The St Mawes Hotel – both owned by racing car boss David Richards.

During the summer months, a separate serving hatch sells fresh fish and chips to a never-ending stream of yachties, tourists and locals. Once again, John has loved the challenge: “Restaurants were a bit of an itch for me that I wanted to scratch. It’s kind of like publishing: it’s art and commerce – and that’s always appealed to me.”

Over the five years, he says, it has been hard work; the second year of business threw the pair into turmoil.

John explains, in his characteristically frank style: “A combination of me getting the mark-up versus tax calculations wrong, and him [Will Gould] getting all his bloody trendy South African and Australian chefs down from London, meant we had a spectacularly successful first year in terms of numbers –very cheap, delicious food – and we lost a fortune.” They have come to something of a turning point, now. The food is not too complicated, with a predominance of seafood, and they have a better understanding of the seasonal nature of the business.

Staff are housed in St Mawes, a skeleton crew is kept on

through the winter months, and Will is clearly 100% on the ball with managing the restaurant, while John throws in his capricious insights, and the occasional investment, before disappearing back to London.

In London, he is far from sedentary – he would never stop working, he says. He runs Bob Books, a successful business producing high-end photo books, which he launched before the likes of PhotoBox had hit the market. He managed the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain for a year, and “dabbles in other ideas” from his office in Portobello. It sounds as though Claudia helps to keep some of this dabbling in check. When he considered buying The Idle Rocks hotel a few years ago, “She pretty much locked me in a darkened room and said, ‘no, you’re not’.”

The Watch House is still enough of a challenge for John to stay embedded in St Mawes, and Will is passionate enough about the business that you can see it going from strength to strength – in spite of the challenges. And the word on the street is that St Mawes is set to become ‘the new St Ives’, which can only be a good thing for John and Will. Whether Claudia is 100% happy to have sold their house in the South of France, in order to spend more time in Cornwall during the stormy winter months, is a moot point. What is clear is that John is always going to be seeking out the next bloom for the nectar-gathering that is central to his very being. And that their little corner of Cornwall is a vital anchor to a frenetic life.

The Watch House on the harbourfront in St Mawes is open for lunch and dinner: watchhousestmawes.co.uk, 01326 270038.

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feature

Anna Turns took her family to run, jump and climb their way around Bear Trail and learnt there’s much more to outdoor play than just muddy paws.

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h oh, you can’t go over it, you can’t go under it. We’ll have to go through it – the mud, that is. Every obstacle at the new, tailormade Bear Trail experience near Cullompton presents a fun challenge. Whether it’s racing on the zip line, clambering over a huge net with big mud pits below, crawling on all fours through the bear tunnel, teetering across the wobbly bridge or pulling yourself up the rope to reach the summit of Bear Mountain, there’s an element of risk-taking. The adventure trail is intended to take you out of your comfort zone for a couple of hours, up and over, underneath and through the series of 16 rather hefty obstacles.

Bear Trail’s founder, Ben Jordan, is ex-Army and opened up this family-friendly activity centre on a 10acre plot of land last summer, with hopes of bringing a military aspect to it. “I love assault courses and I love wood-fired pizzas, so I’ve combined the two and created a place where families of all ages can enjoy a day out together,” he explains. Ultimately, it’s about breaking barriers: “Although some of these obstacles might look fairly simple, some children will spend 20 minutes on one piece of kit and they will be breaking barriers... they remember that achievement when they have done something they didn’t think they could and then they come back to try new things.”

Ben remembers one example vividly: “Last year, one five-year-old girl wouldn’t go on any of the kit, then she went two rungs up the first net and got scared, but later on that day she came and found me in the office to tell

me she’d been right over the top. Her pride and sense of achievement was incredible.”

Ben, 31, left the Army as a captain four years ago, and then worked for Mole Valley as a buyer, and sold tractor parts to earn enough money to set this place up. “I’m a northerner but my wife Clare has connections to Devon and it was a very wise decision to move here. We built it in just 11 weeks, which was epic.” Where we are sitting at picnic tables was previously a sheep barn full of hay bales, Ben tells me, and the rest of the land was a sheep field. “My bank manager told me I either had a great vision or I was insane, so it was a big leap of faith.”

Ben’s original inspiration for creating Bear Trail was to encourage children to escape screen time and enjoy playing outdoors: “We’ve lost that connection with being outside in the elements and it’s so important to get out into the wild and explore.” Ben grew up in the middle of nowhere: “I spent my whole childhood playing on hay bales; my friends and I were always in the farmer’s barns, so we have made a hay bale race here, which is great fun.” (Yes, Ben, I agree. I can’t have looked particularly elegant clambering over the hay bales in full waterproofs, but who cares?!)

As a parent, I often hear myself restricting my children – ‘don’t touch that’, ‘be careful’, ‘slow down in case you fall over’, ‘try not to get your clothes dirty’.

Free play allows us to escape that constant inhibition and encourages us to self-explore. At Bear Trail, children have total freedom to explore away from the rules we usually impose, without any boundaries, and suddenly the possibilities become so much more creative and exciting.

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feature On the way to Bear Trail, my five-year-old decided she really didn’t want to get dirty, but once she saw the set-up she couldn’t wait to get going. If only I’d described it as a giant playground instead of an obstacle course, she wouldn’t have worried! According to Ben, a lot of children first do a circuit without doing any of the obstacles, then they dip a toe in and start trying to climb things, and by the end of the day they are often lying in the mud. “In the summer, after four hours here, some children will literally be doing mud angels,” he laughs.

Risky play in a safe environment is a positive feature of any child’s education. Providing them with opportunities to explore and learn to take risks teaches them about success and failure and how to find motivation again for the next challenge. Physically, it’s essential for the development of motor skills – climbing, sliding, balancing, jumping from heights, hanging upside down – all this challenging play tests their limits and helps them to explore their boundaries, mentally and physically. “Improving coordination through physical activity directly helps reading and writing skills at a later stage, so crossing the midline and doing two different sets of actions at once are all really vital. For us, it may seem like second nature, but for young children it’s an essential part of their learning process, and this place seems to be a really favourable environment for children with special needs too.”

Even our one-year-old manages to clamber through the tunnel on his own and cross the wobbly bridge slowly with help from us. And our five-year-old’s favourite challenge is Bear Mountain. Climbing up to the top with ropes and getting down all by herself gave her an enormous sense of pride on her rosy-cheeked face.

It’s not all about the children, though. Ben has introduced a series of Bear Fit adult fitness classes around the 800m track. “It’s like circuits with traditional squats and climbing up ropes but it’s outside, so it’s different to being in a gym,” he says.

Ben is looking forward to developing the trail. “I want to build a super treehouse in the middle, extra obstacles and more rope bridges across the stream, plus extra showers.” He’ll also be building a bear walk: “Just like in the bear hunt story, there’ll be lots of different textures to touch – pebbles, reeds, sand and wood, for example.”

Of course, there’s an element of competition too: “We have constructed everything in pairs so that you can race – one lad in the summer finished the whole course in just three minutes 40 seconds. My assistant manager, Lee, is a former Marine, and I am ex-Rifles, and we took 4½ minutes to complete it!”

As family attractions go, Bear Trail is rustic and far from commercial, but that is what makes it so wonderful. The idea is simple but once you get here, the transformations can be pretty groundbreaking. thebeartrail.co.uk

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In the summer, after four hours here, some children will literally be doing mud angels.

Bear Trail’s founder, Ben Jordan

classic cottages | Est. 1977

Finding exceptional homes that make great holidays.

classic.co.uk

Call us on 01326 555 500

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Inspired 40 years ago by a school metalwork class, Kit Heath now sells in over 350 retailers across the UK and Ireland, including every branch of John Lewis. Imogen Clements meets the makers.

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it Heath sits before me looking quite the dapper English gentleman. He’s dressed in a tweed jacket, silk stock, and bearing a moustache (with beard) that curls up at the ends, Dali-esque, as an extension of his easy smile. Moments earlier, Kit, along with his sister, Katie Nickell, greeted me at Kit Heath HQ in Barnstaple.

I hadn’t known what to expect. The jewellery brand I knew very well, having purchased it myself several times.

I knew Kit Heath to be good quality but accessible and unfussy silver jewellery that took pride of place within every John Lewis I’d been in.

Kit Heath the individual, however, had always been an enigma. I hadn’t imagined a man, for a start, given the classic feminine lines of his wares, but it’s clear, from his presentation, that Kit is an aesthete and a highly jovial one at that. There is a strong family bond between him and his creative director sister, despite their entire working lives and business relationship being intertwined.

Within moments of meeting Kit and Katie, it became clear that this immensely successful brand is very much a down-toearth Devon family business.

“It started at school,” recalls Kit. “We grew up in Broadhempston, and I went to school in Ashburton. I’d never been particularly academic: it turned out that I was – am – dyslexic, but they didn’t know much about dyslexia then. One day, the metalwork teacher showed us how to melt and

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feature cast silver to make jewellery, and I was hooked. Which was all well and good until our mother discovered at Christmas that I’d melted down her candlesticks.”

“She forgave you eventually, though,” Katie laughs.

“You’ve made up for it.”

“My interest in jewellery led to my taking a job with a Torquay-based jewellery manufacturer as a sales rep for their product, while making my own when I could,” continues Kit. “That job gave me direct contact with retailers and I started getting a sense for what sold. After a few years, I converted one of the barns on land owned by my parents, who’d now moved to North Devon, and set about creating and selling my own jewellery. I employed my sisters, Katie and Fran, then teenagers, who would rope in their school friends to help, and some of the items proved particularly popular. The turning point came when, in the early 80s, we began to see ethnic jewellery from the Far East becoming popular in this country. I’d started making silver Celtic rings, but to generate any kind of volume was tricky, as UK manufacturing was extremely seasonal, slow and expensive. Both Katie and I loved to travel; we spent some time in Bangkok and discovered a production unit out there that could take our designs and mass-produce them faster and much more cost-effectively. We were really the first to do this. This grew volume sales to the independent retailers, which allowed us to buy the first shop I had sold to, in Barnstaple. I installed Katie and Fran to run the shop, who’d by now left school.”

“And within a week, he’d sacked us both,” hoots Katie. “It was a manic time. We’re siblings who bicker as siblings do, and Kit threw up his arms and said, ‘That’s it, you’re both fired.’” Needless to say, they both ignored him, and he’s very glad that they did.

It’s clear that being interviewed allows both Kit and Katie to look back fondly at the business trajectory.

There’s a relaxed cheeriness to them both that belies how astute and strategic they’ve been in building their business. A key contributory factor to growth has doubtless been an end-to-end overview of the business throughout the production process, from design through to retailer consultation through to running a shop themselves, enabling them to see at first hand which product lines appeal.

“We could see what lines we needed to do more of, or certainly variations of, and which we should discontinue,” explains Katie. “We had retailer feedback as well as end-consumer feedback. All this knowledge we fed back into the Kit Heath brand – we could guide retailers on what lines would sell best and so generate trust from them. People have often asked us, dreamily, ‘So what has inspired this design?’ It’s simple, really: we design what we know sells.”

So, a business that started some 40 years ago with a fortuitous metalwork class at school now sells 400 lines of jewellery across the UK, Ireland, as well as in the States.

Within moments of meeting Kit and Katie, it became clear that this immensely successful brand is very much a down-to-earth Devon family business.

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People have often asked us, dreamily, ‘So what has inspired this design?’ It’s simple, really: we design what we know sells.

Again, Kit Heath breaking into the US market was somewhat inspired: he approached them with his Heritage range – a line of simple but notably Celtic designs – which were lapped up by the Americans, who have a well-known fondness for British heritage and history, particularly those with Anglo-Irish roots, of which there are many. Having broken into the States with the Heritage range, they then introduced the full Kit Heath product range and have not looked back.

After a crazy time for the Heaths in their 20s, the siblings, who both married and started a family at around the same time, felt the business was in such good shape that they could step back and focus on family life. They employed managers, remained directors and would attend board meetings, but by their own admission, given their desire to focus on their respective families, did not get involved in the day to day for some eight years.

As anyone who has started and run their own business will appreciate, letting go of the reins was a brave thing to do. The market dynamics have dramatically changed since then, with an increase in the price of silver and a plethora of branded silver coming to our high streets and available online. Three years ago, the family got together to discuss matters. It was 42

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feature hundreds of independent gift shops and jewellers to serve, not to mention overseas opportunities and the whole world of digital to fully exploit, which during their eight-year sabbatical has exploded as a platform.

Kit says: “We have to find the right balance, one that allows us to stay true to our loyal retail customer base and also meet the needs of consumers.”

There is also talk of a new gift range aimed at the growing number of boutiques and lifestyle retailers.

However much Katie insists that their approach to the business will be much more managed – “I think I was close to ‘burn out’ before,” she says – their shared passion for the Kit Heath family brand and their drive is all too evident, as is the effervescent personality and sense of humour they both bring to the business. And although these qualities aren’t often cited as factors behind business success, they’ve doubtless helped through the ups and downs, and will, I’m in no doubt, carry them into the next phase for Kit Heath. kitheath.com

decided that, now that their children were older, they should get back involved and reinvigorate the business.

The result has been a fresh injection of energy from recharged founders who are still passionate about, and immensely proud of, their own brand.

Today, Kit is chairman, Katie Nickell is creative director, and the retail offer has been taken over by Fran, who now has boutique jewellers Carol Anne in Barnstaple, Exeter and Taunton.

Kit is the figurehead, but Katie, alongside two London-based designers, is the driving force behind the creative aspects of the business, from product design to merchandising and marketing support materials.

Their operational team consists of loyal and, in some instances, longstanding (20 years’ service and more) local staff. The business is committed to remaining in North Devon, and currently employs over 30 people.

They have just launched their full spring-summer range, which displays the classic Kit Heath design credentials: simple lines with weight and elegance that have an ageless appeal. Still very much the trademark silver, with occasional subtle touches of gold and rose gold detailing, and beautifully packaged. The price of Kit Heath jewellery extends from studs at £25 to statement pieces at £350, with a core range between £60 and £80 – the optimum price to be everyday jewellery that’s aspirational enough to delight as a gift. It has failsafe appeal and a classic versatility that ensures it can be worn on both casual and special occasions, and draw an appreciative response.

What will Kit and Katie do next? Ask them and your mind will be boggled. The range is refreshed frequently, with around 30% churn in lines each year, which Katie oversees. There are markets, multiples and MANOR | Spring 2017

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photostory

A hive of talent

This issue’s photostory features images from Suzy Bennett’s forthcoming exhibition, ‘Artisans of Dartmoor’.

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uzy explains the inspiration behind it: “Dartmoor National Park has a thriving artisan community – it's one of the most creative and diverse in the UK. “I wanted to do a project to celebrate that, and to show that in a world of mass production, people are still making things by hand, with passion, honesty and integrity.

“There is a resurgence of interest in traditional skills and trades in the UK, and Dartmoor is one of the main centres for this. We are increasingly looking for products

that have a story. These images show exactly where – and by whom – Dartmoor’s products are made.”

The full exhibition can be seen at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen in Bovey Tracey from 3 March until 3 April; and at Dartmoor National Park’s High Moorland Visitor Centre in Princetown between 26 May and 22 August.

Suzy will be giving a talk about her project on 25 March at The Devon Guild of Craftsmen. Admission is free, but advance booking is required on 01626 832223.

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photostory

Greg Abel, Blacksmith

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Jane Deane, Spinner

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Alison Hastie, Shoe Maker

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Mary Gillet, Printmaker

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Sophie Berger, Painter

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Pauline Lee, Garden Ceramicist

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Ron Barter, Cider Maker

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The late Davon Friend, Goat Farmer

Suzy Bennett is an award-winning travel writer and photographer, who has written several guides to Devon. She divides her time between her home on Dartmoor and London. suzybennett.com

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PHOTO: LUCY MUNDAY

After recovering from a life-threatening poisoning, Charlotte Gordon Cumming has designs on creating a luxury clothing brand that fuses spirituality and style. Words by Fiona McGowan.

“M

y dream is to build a great British company,” says Charlotte Gordon Cumming, as she sits next to a crackling open fire, watching her huge grey lurcher pace the floor. “I want it to eventually be a cooperative, so that all the people who work for me will be a part of this company. I want it to be ethically strong. I want to do as much as I can for people in this country. I want to work with British manufacturers. I want to build a luxury brand that also represents the UK at its finest.” It’s an impressive introduction. But then this is an impressive woman.

Charlotte lives in a sprawling ex-monastery in Devon – the exterior is all flinty stone, with an ancient walled garden surrounded by acres of grounds. Inside, it is a complex warren of rooms, from the ‘great hall’ of a living room to the flag-floored kitchen with its long refectory table and low ceiling. The fireplace is grand; 60

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the furniture stately yet lived-in and comfortable; the rugs and thick curtains are in rich, warm hues. There is something of the Scottish castle about the place. Sitting on the sofa, we are surrounded by swatches of fabric: fine, pure silk crêpe de Chine in floral prints. They are tactile – almost rubbery – and the prints are traditional, inspired by vintage dresses from the early part of the 20th century.

Charlotte, who named her business ‘House of Comyn’ after her family’s ancient clan, explains that she is using the vintage-style dresses, coats and accessories as a launch pad: “I’ve started in my very small way, with the clothing side of it, for women.” She sells the clothing from an invitation-only salon in Battersea in London – apparently to a rather exclusive clientele that includes Helen Mirren. Eventually, though, she plans to expand into a lifestyle brand to rival the likes of Ralph Lauren.

feature If it seems extraordinary that a woman in her 60s, living in a bucolic Devon monastery, should be on this trajectory, it’s perhaps less so when you discover her past.

Her life nearly ended abruptly in 2008, when Charlotte and her husband Nick Evans – the author of bestselling novel The Horse Whisperer – were visiting her brother and his family. One evening, they ate mushrooms that had been foraged and cooked by Nick. But instead of an edible variety, they tucked into death cap toadstools, and all four adults suffered terrible consequences. A nightmarish few days followed – of violent sickness and the rapid shut-down of the kidneys.

Doctors fought to keep them alive with steroids and antidotes. Charlotte, with her slight physique, was in the greatest danger. She remembers just fighting to stay alive – lying in bed looking at pictures of her six-year-old son, Fin, telling herself, “I’m not going to die. I’m not ready to die. I’ve got things to do. I’ve got my son, Fin. I’ve got to fight.” All four adults survived, but with such massive damage to their kidneys that they had to be hooked up to dialysis machines to enable them to continue to function.

Nick and Charlotte continued to suffer for years to come, both being committed to daily trips for dialysis, until finally, Nick had a transplant operation with a kidney donated by his daughter, and in 2012, a mother from Fin’s school donated a kidney to Charlotte.

The trauma had a fundamental impact on Charlotte.

Always a spiritual person, she was shaken to her core, and determined to live her life with more purpose. “I knew that I’d been given a second chance, and I didn’t want to start again in a trivial way and do nothing,” she says passionately. Being poisoned gave her a lot of time to think, she says. And this led to the idea of creating a business so successful that she could invest the money into purposes that she believes in.

Charlotte Gordon Cumming has come a long way to reach this point, the threads of her life woven together like the fine silk skeins of her fabrics. She grew up on the estate of Altyre in northern Scotland – “I was brought up in paradise,” she says. Her life at home with three siblings was deeply imbued with nature: “I used to spend hours sitting in the woods, studying birds. We had ponies and horses and were always riding bareback. I took up archery when I was about nine – I could really shoot.”

Going to boarding school in Hampshire was tough: “I really hated boarding school life. I didn’t ever feel I fitted in. I was always gazing out of the window, looking at the outside world.” Sport carried her through, she says, and she became a brilliant fencer – “I was scary with a foil,” she smiles. And her love of stories led to her using poetry to express herself, particularly after her parents divorced while she was still at school.

Charlotte speaks a lot about having a voice. Living in London in the 70s was a dazzling time, and when she first put her poetry to music, her voice came out into the open. With songs inspired by her love of Scotland,

I knew that I’d been given a second chance, and I didn’t want to start again in a trivial way and do nothing.

The Salon in Battersea, London

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Peony on silk

infused with African beats, she was driven as much by the lyrics as by the music and her voice. Over 26 years in the music industry, she sang protest songs about war, penned ballads about suffering, about refugees and about Mary Queen of Scots. Her voice has a remarkable range: from Kate Bush-esque wistfulness to the mellifluous depths of a jazz singer, with some good old pop tunes thrown in.

Charlotte’s current drive and ambition did not surface out of nowhere. In the late 70s, she escaped from London to live in a tiny crofters’ cottage in the middle of Scottish moorland. It was a brave, and lonely, move. She stayed in the cottage on and off for three years, where she found the inspiration for her first album: “There was an element to me that was always hungry for something that I didn’t have. It was something deep, deep inside me. I really found that in the composing of songs.”

Back in London and determined to get her album produced, her ambition kicked into another gear.

With the help of an investor, she turned a basement in Portobello Road into a recording studio. Eschewing the utilitarian design of recording studios, Charlotte 62

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created a warm, homely space. “It had such a vibe. It was colourful, not like most studios, which were black and soulless. I had pictures and books, and people would love coming to it.” The studio is still there today – something of which she is very proud.

A few years ago, with her hearing failing, Charlotte realised that her life in the music industry would have to cease. It is a form of grief, to have lost the ability to listen to and appreciate music, she says. “I get quite teary when I talk about music too much. I miss it hugely. It’s been my life – most of my adult life.” Her voice is still there, but her creativity has swung in a new direction. The journey to this place begins to make sense. Her activist mentality is still there – she chooses silk partly because it is long-lasting, and because there is very little opportunity for child labour in the silkmaking system. She has plans to help the resurgence of Scottish sheep-farming – bringing back sheep grazing to far-flung communities in the Highlands and Islands. She’s deeply engaged in working with British manufacturers and craftspeople to produce her clothing.

And she’s working on convincing her brother to move

feature

She dreams of making enough profit from House of Comyn to invest in an esoteric university, where all aspects of spirituality can be studied and shared.

Prints on crêpe de Chine

away from beef farming, as cattle have such a negative impact on the environment. Her spirituality runs deep through all of this, too: she dreams of making enough profit from House of Comyn to invest in an esoteric university, where all aspects of spirituality can be studied and shared.

The House of Comyn ethos is one of ‘less is more’.

Charlotte has only six dress designs, on which she makes slight departures: the sleeve length may alter; the print will change, the hem-line drop. She has a range of suede skirts and suede bags (she feels deeply and spiritually connected to the Native American culture), and subtle, feminine tweed fabric that she designed herself with a tweed-maker in Scotland. A new collaboration with renowned figurative artist Thomas Darnell has led to the production of a silk-satin scarf adorned with peonies. “One of my key things is: how much is enough? How much do we need?” she asks.

“Who’s going to stand up and say, ‘you know what, we’ve got there. We’ve got enough. We don’t need any more now.’ Who’s going to be that person?” In this remote corner of Devon, the activist is hard at work.

“It’s my big chance,” says Charlotte. “It’s a song lyric that I haven’t completed.” houseofcomyn.com

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Culture Daphne and Emma McClure | Exeter Illustrators | Susan Bleakley South West must sees | Worth making the trip for | Staying in

A bout portant by Simon Williams Part of the ‘After Illusion’ exhibition at Penwith Gallery, St Ives. See p74

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Ahead of their mother-and-daughter exhibition, Sarah Brittain-Mansbridge talks to artists Daphne and Emma McClure about painting, practice and the sphere of influence

D

aphne and Emma McClure are two artists who live in the far south-west of Cornwall, near Penzance. With successful painting careers in their own right, a forthcoming joint exhibition at Cornwall Contemporary gallery has offered them a chance to take a step back and reflect on their own painting practices and how they might have influenced each other. It is the first time in more than 10 years that they have exhibited together, and the show is highly anticipated among their many collectors and admirers.

Both artists are inspired by the landscape they call home, and there is an obvious connection between their paintings in terms of subject matter: cows in a Cornish field, a vase of flowers on a table, boats moored in a harbour… But where Daphne’s paintings are more expressive, perhaps led more by instinct, Emma’s studies feel more carefully composed, more thought out, with a coastal-inspired, softer palette. Both demonstrate a masterly handling of composition and paint, and both have the ability to keep evolving the way they work, developing their own unique voice on the canvas.

Surely, growing up in an artistic household must have been inspiring, and instrumental in shaping Emma’s choices? “It didn't feel unusual that my mother was an artist when I was growing up,” says Emma, who studied at Falmouth School of Art, Winchester School of Art and Chelsea School of Art, from where she graduated in 1985 with an MA in painting. “Although I was aware that she was a bit different to some of my friends’ mothers, it felt very normal and natural to have a creative mother. She was always painting or making something and there were lots of creative activities at home.

“As a child, I loved making things myself, so the decision to go to art school was always the most interesting option available,” she says. “I never felt the need to rebel against it, just because it’s what my mother did.”

Daphne, of course, spotted her daughter’s talent: “Emma showed an aptitude from an early age for 66

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drawing and painting, so it wasn’t a surprise to see her go to art college and to follow in my footsteps.”

And what footsteps! Born in Helston, Daphne attended Hornsey College of Art and Central School of Art. While studying at Central, she often attended ballet and opera performances at The Royal Opera House; inspired by reading about the girls in the production department who hand-dyed and painted the costumes, Daphne subsequently spent five years working there. The experience played a significant role in her development as an artist – it was an inspiring time and she worked on costumes for the likes of Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, as well as collaborating with designers such as Leslie Hurry (The Ring, 1954) and John Piper (The Magic Flute, 1956).

After returning home to Cornwall, she began to paint full time, but found her process blocked by the weight of all the artistic responses to the location that had gone before, particularly Peter Lanyon’s iconic painting of the harbour at Porthleven. Daphne returned to screen-printing fabrics, and sold scarves and smocks at Trelowarren, and opened a junk shop at the back of the house. With the proceeds from this, she took her first cruise up the Baltic to St Petersburg and saw the Hermitage for the first time, which was a huge revelation. On her return, a friend, David Edwards, who was Air Commander at Culdrose, gave her an aerial view of Porthleven; in much the same way that aerial landscapes had such a profound effect on Peter Lanyon, it gave Daphne the starting point she needed to begin painting again.

“There it all was – the great harbour shape cutting out the skyline,” she says. “I then painted Porthleven for nearly ten years.”

Daphne is now considered to be the Grande Dame of the Cornish art world – in 1995 she was commissioned by the Tate St Ives to design a piece of work for its inaugural exhibition – and her paintings are in a number of international collections. Her paintings are emotionally intense, and they draw on the rich artistic heritage of Cornwall while maintaining a contemporary approach.

culture

We both like to work in series, exploring certain themes, and the starting point for a painting is to observe and sketch a subject and then develop a painting in the studio from the drawings and memory. That way of working is similar for both of us.

Daphne McClure, Poppies in Newlyn, mixed media on canvas 41 x 56 cm

Emma McClure, Early Spring Daffodils, oil on canvas 80 x 100 cm

After living and painting in London for many years, Emma now lives near Penzance, not far from her mother.

The Cornish landscape has always been a focal point for her paintings and the strong artistic tradition of the area is a continual source of inspiration to Emma, whose paintings are in worldwide private collections. She has enjoyed many successful solo exhibitions in London and Cornwall, and her subject matter ranges from still life to animals to harbours to landscapes. Her compositions capture serenity and balance with an often playful humour and an underlying, deceptive simplicity. Her paintings have also been reproduced on a range of greetings cards and prints.

I wonder whether living and working in such close proximity exerts a strong influence on them both?

“I think inevitably there is a certain amount of influence,” says Emma. “I am, and always have been, aware of what she's working on in her studio. I really admire her sense of design and originality as well as her bold and direct approach. Whether it's her influence or what I would have done anyway, I think we initially approach making a painting in a similar way. We both like to work in series, exploring certain themes, albeit often different subject matter, and the starting point for a painting is to observe and sketch a subject and then develop a painting in the studio from the drawings and memory. That way of working is similar for both of us.”

Daphne agrees. “With us both living and working in close proximity to each other in the far west of Cornwall, I’m sure there is cross fertilisation within our working patterns and our inspiration, but I think any influence on each other is subconscious,” she says. “You have to be very selective in choosing what to paint in

Cornwall, because wherever you look, there is something to catch your eye and so much of the county has already been painted. But if we were to paint the same vista, we would end up with completely different paintings. I’m sure we would find a different focus. I greatly admire the still lives and the simplicity of Emma's work, which I aim to achieve in my own painting practice. We are able to criticise but in a fairly tentative way.”

Now in her mid-80s, Daphne is still producing the finest, most challenging work of her life. “My new work has been inspired by a period of living close to Newlyn Harbour and watching the busy, working fishing port,” she says. “Seeing the fishing boats go out the harbour in the morning, then returning home, often seen through a window with flowers next to it, and I know that these are all things that inspire Emma too.”

Happily, Emma doesn’t feel overwhelmed by living and working so closely to her mother. “In my studio I do my own thing, which might be quite different to her work,” she says. “I do feel that because she's such a good artist, there has been quite a lot to live up to but I don't think it's always helpful to make too many comparisons to each other. We sometimes ask for each other's opinion on new work or advice if a painting is proving particularly problematic. I value her opinion and I think she values mine.”

Daphne and Emma McClure’s paintings can be seen at Cornwall Contemporary in Penzance throughout April.

Paintings from the exhibition can be seen on the gallery website cornwallcontemporary.com and you can telephone the gallery on 01736 874749 for more information.

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I

Through the magic of Twitter and a chance meeting at a city co-working space, two artists discovered that Exeter is a hotspot for talented illustrators. Words by Belinda Dillon

t can be lonely being a freelancer. Yes, the commute tends to be short – for me, from breakfast table to desk is a short climb up the wooden highway – and the dress code relaxed, but there’s a lot to be said for office camaraderie, the company, and access to the creative hive mind when you’re feeling stumped. And the cat makes terrible tea.

To avoid just this scenario, when illustrator Paul Cherrill relocated to Exeter from Brighton with his family in 2013, he signed up at The Generator, a coworking space just off Southernhay. Serendipitously, the first person he met there was Clare Elsom, also an illustrator who’d relocated from London, and also, like Paul, working mainly in children’s publishing.

While that already seems like the beginnings of an ideal opportunity to network, it was the other shared environment so beloved of freelancers – Twitter – that really sowed the seed for what has developed into the artists’ collective now called Exeter Illustrators.

Charlie Alder

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“Although Paul and I met in person, most freelancers work in isolation, and there’s a very proactive community of illustrators on Twitter,” says Clare, who collaborates with Sir Chris Hoy on the Flying Fergus series, as well as illustrating the Maisie Mae books written by Poppy Harper. “There were lots of interactions, chit-chat, weekly drawing challenges, that kind of thing, and we came to realise that of all these people chatting online, several of us were based in the same place.”

Six gathered for an initial drink at The Rusty Bike, followed by further meet-ups, and soon there was a plan brewing. “Clare and I saw there was the potential to do more than just catch up over drinks, but to collaborate on an exhibition,” says Paul, who has been working in illustration and graphic design for 20-plus years (Robo-Snot, his latest book, with author Amy Sparkes, was published by Scholastic in 2016). “It was working towards the exhibition that encouraged us to create an identity for the group.”

culture

Joining a group like Exeter Illustrators creates opportunities for those just starting out to meet other artists who are proving that you don’t have to migrate to the big city to forge a successful career.

PHOTO: SIMON HAMMETT

Left to right: Victoria Byron, Kevin Payne, Gareth Conway, James Loram, James Grover, Paul Cherrill, Clare Elsom, Tom McLaughlin, Adrian Stone (back), Xander Lee (front), Charlie Alder and Sam Boughton

And so Exeter Illustrators was born, and during April to July, 13 of them (there are currently 20 members in the collective as a whole) will showcase their work in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum’s (RAMM) café gallery.

Featuring two or three pieces by each artist, the exhibition comprises a vibrant, varied collection that showcases the range of styles and talent represented by the group. As well as exhibiting examples of existing published work and design projects, each artist was tasked with creating a new piece on an aquatic theme, to tie in with ‘Sea Life: Glimpses of the Wonderful’, RAMM’s upcoming exhibition inspired by the Victorian marine biologist Philip Henry Gosse, who explored and illustrated Devon’s coastal life.

The group also wanted to celebrate the city they all now call home, so each artist will contribute their illustration of an iconic Exeter building to a unique poster design, which will be sold as a run of prints. In fact, all the work in the show is for sale.

It’s no surprise that a group comprising professional artists is proactive and self-organising – “we’re very democratic and inclusive in terms of decision-making, so everyone feels involved,” says Paul – and there is a range of experience across the group, from those with established careers to those just starting out (Tom Sutcliffe, for instance, is a recent graduate from Plymouth College of Art), but there’s nothing like an exhibition to set a challenge, raise the bar and raise the profile.

Similarly, the group’s online activities, particularly on Facebook and Twitter, do more than simply create fun interactions, although it’s certainly a great way to keep everyone connected when they’re slaving over a hot desk in isolation: a recent challenge saw them posting photos of their workspaces – “cue lots of frantic tidying

and artful placing of pot plants,” says Clare – and selfportraits, which give an insight in their practice and their personalities. They also help to generate interest in the group’s work, which is important in what can be a highly competitive industry. What advice would they give to illustrators just starting out?

“Styles come in and out of fashion, so it can be tough to keep on the scene, even for those illustrators with established careers,” says Paul. “It can be hard to make a living, which is why it’s important to keep an eye on the market. It’s also why the internet has become such a good tool, allowing people to be proactive, to get their work out there, get it seen.”

Paul says that perseverance is key, too. “The journey from graduation to that point when people start to give you work can be a long one, but it’s worth it, and people can get there at any age. Keep sending publishers your work. They might not respond straight away, but they will see it, and if there’s the potential for a match with an author, they’ll be on the phone. And I can’t stress enough how important sketchbooks are – an entire commission can evolve from tiny thumbnail sketches of characters.”

“And keep drawing, constantly,” adds Clare. “Even if you’ve found your ‘style’, your work will continue to develop, and that will keep it fresh. You need to understand where your work will come from, so if you’re interested in children’s publishing, for instance, spend a lot of time in Waterstones looking at the books – why are these artists published, what’s working? You should never try to mimic someone else, but you need to know where your work sits. I try to go to the New Designers show in London every year, and it’s very motivating to see all this new talent coming through.”

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Victoria Byron

Image from Robo-Snot – written by Amy Sparkes, illustrated by Paul Cherrill and published by Scholastic 2016

Gareth Conway

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Adrian Stone

Kevin Payne

culture Joining a group like Exeter Illustrators creates opportunities for those just starting out to meet other artists who are proving that you don’t have to migrate to the big city to forge a successful career. Although both Clare and Paul spent time in London – while building up her portfolio, Clare worked as an artist’s agent for five years, and Paul was Design Manager at Wayland, Hachette Children’s Group publishing company – but neither has seen their work suffer since moving to the South West, and neither feels out of the loop, as so much is now done digitally and with skype meetings.

Through establishing the group, and the focus provided by working towards the exhibition, the illustrators have also started to build mutually supportive relationships with other businesses, too: Devon Picture Framer in Baker’s Yard has framed all the work for the exhibition, providing cohesion to a show that by its nature is visually diverse; estate agents Strutt & Parker chipped in with some financial help; Exeter City Council awarded them a Small Arts Grant; city centre café Boston Tea Party provided the venue for a photoshoot with Exeter photographer Simon Hammett; Devonbased singer-songwriter Sadie Horler will perform at the Private View on 6 April; and Ashley House Printing Company are working with the group to develop ideas around a postcard booklet.

“Through the exhibition, we want people to see the work, of course, but it’s also a celebration of this community in Exeter,” says Clare. “It was important to get local companies involved, to show that the city is a serious commercial arts hub. Having experienced

Clare Elsom’s illustration of Harry’s Restaurant, for the poster design featuring iconic Exeter buildings

Image from The Story Machine by Tom McLaughlin and published by Bloomsbury, 2015

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London, where everything’s on your doorstep, it’s been great to find much more of a community feel down here.

We all realise that Devon’s amazing.”

“There are so many talented people in the area,” says Paul. “And it shows that you don’t need to be in London to have a good career. It’s about thinking where you want to be for the rest of your life, that perfect balance.

You don’t have to spend half your life commuting.”

Facebook: /exeterillustrators Twitter: /eillustrators Instagram: /exeterillustrators Exeter Illustrators will be exhibiting during 4 April – 2 July at RAMM’s Café Gallery, Queen Street, Exeter.

Paul Cherrill, Clare Elsom and Tom McLaughlin will be running a one-day workshop on illustrating children's books on 18 May, 10am4pm. A basic experience of illustration is desirable but not essential.

Please bring a sketchbook and materials, as well as your lunch.

Tickets costs £35 via rammuseum.org.uk

Tom Sutcliffe’s illustration of singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley

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culture

Wonder works

Alice Wright talks to artist Susan Bleakley about abstraction, the joy of playing with materials and the sense of exploration at the heart of her work.

“I

t’s almost as if I wasn’t long enough in the sandpit at school, so I’m learning how to construct things.” As she describes her work and practice, Susan Bleakley darts around her cliff-top studio in West Cornwall, pulling out sketches, sculptures and materials from drawers and shelves. The words ‘play’, ‘explore’ and ‘experiment’ come up frequently in our conversation. “If I can’t play with doing this then there’s something wrong with it,” she explains. “It has to come from my heart, to have a joyfulness to the work, otherwise I would disappear into oblivion.”

Susan’s significant body of work encompasses sculpture, installation, video and painting, and a dizzying array of materials, from English alabaster and wood to silicone, concrete and even teabags. Her work has been exhibited in joint and solo shows nationally and internationally, and she is currently represented by the Crane Kalman Gallery in Knightsbridge, as well as by the online gallery White Court Art. She is a member of the Newlyn Society of Artists and was a founding member of Penwith Artist-Led Projects (PALP), an influential collective that supported local and emerging

Force, oil on canvas, 54 cm x 54 cm

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It’s about experimenting with each thing until I know what I’ll end up with.

artists with an emphasis on more transgressive and experimental ideas and forms.

While her focus was previously on sculpture, in recent years Susan has returned to painting, moving from her early naïve style to a more formal, abstract approach, which involves laying a series of repeated marks, shapes or symbols over a prepared grid. These form what Susan describes as “a kind of veil”, revealing ways in to something hidden deep amongst the surface marks, and moving the viewer from simply looking to an experience of becoming immersed in the painting – an “indwelling activity”, in Susan’s words. “Everything’s about seeing through to what’s inside,” she says.

Susan starts by measuring out a grid on her canvas with a crayon and ruler, and then paints her marks on freehand, usually in oil. She may only paint a few inches in an hour.

In theory, every mark is usually exactly the same, but as the work develops, subtle differences will emerge, perhaps where the paint has been applied more heavily than elsewhere, so other marks and shapes start to appear within the painting. “The work really is a pure exploration because I have no idea what’s going to happen with it when I begin. It might just be awful, so some of them are just painted over because they don’t have that rhythm, that singing, that I really want.” Susan talks of singing again when describing the colours she uses, saying she knows they have worked when they “sing in a certain kind of 74

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way”. Pulling out one work in progress, she says, “I have no idea at this stage, that could be absolutely awful. It’s only when I can hang it up and start to look at it that I can kind of get the feeling. I think it’s a bodily sensation.”

Susan has a strong spiritual sense: she is Russian Orthodox (and has been for more than 20 years) and this is reflected in her approach to her work, responding more to the energy of a piece than its aesthetic qualities.

Preparing herself mentally is therefore an important part of her process. “I meditate each day,” she says. “I do a meditation with a kriya yoga breathing technique and sit quietly, so I attune myself to being in touch with myself.

That’s really important for me. I endeavour to get into an honest place with myself where I’m really in touch with what I’m trying to do.” This is particularly crucial when working on her abstract paintings, where the repetitive process is almost a meditation in itself.

Later, Susan uses an analogy of the sea when describing a painting that hadn’t worked for her, because “there was no way in and no way out. It’s a bit like looking at the sea,” she explains. “When you look at the sea, you’re seeing it but it’s a whole thing. And then you catch yourself looking at one wave and it’s coming in, and then you watch the next one. Somehow, with this painting, there were no waves to see.”

With her home perched above Gwenver Beach on the West Cornwall coast, the sea is a constant presence. Large

culture glass windows in the kitchen provide spectacular views, and one of the artist’s two garden studios looks out to sea.

The whole family surfs – Susan’s son, Sam, is a multiple British and European longboard champion. The water and the surrounding landscape are an important part of her life, and although she doesn’t paint it directly, she feels it speaks through her in her work: “I couldn’t paint it but I want to be embedded in it.” Some years ago she spent time with Native Americans and she likens her relationship with the Cornish landscape to their connection with the land. “The way they teach and share stories was a really inspiring way to learn how to be more receptive to what’s around you. It’s almost like it’s coming into you.”

And Susan is vitally connected to the land and the world around her in a more physical way, too, through her fascination with materials and what she can do with them.

A muddy walk might prompt her to try mixing mud with different glues, and she describes once finding a load of wax washed up on the beach, which she heated up and then dipped seaweed into. “It’s purely about experimenting with each thing until I know what I’ll end up with.”

Perhaps one of the most enduring influences on her work was a residency in Liverpool in 1998, working with the concrete company Tarmac Topmix. “I had to explore the aesthetics of concrete – I just had such fun playing with materials that are liquid and then become solid again.” The company gave her bags of materials to experiment with, including scrim – woven mesh used to reinforce concrete. Susan has continued to use many of the materials she was introduced to then, and the gridded formation of the scrim has reappeared again and again.

Mesh or netting or repetitive forms of some type feature frequently in Susan’s sculpture, and in recent years she has found herself recreating it in her drawings and paintings, which drew her to the abstract canvases she now produces.

“It’s all sculptural,” Susan says, and indeed she continues to sculpt even while working on her paintings. Her studio is filled with little pieces, or “commas”, that she has made in between her paintings, inspired by an object she has found, or a beautiful colour. And it is crammed, too, with materials she has picked up for future projects. At one point, she pulls a package of cheap, red and white chequered tablecloths from a drawer. “I wonder where they’re going and what they will do,” she muses. That word ‘wonder’ says it all – expressing the constant sense of play and experimentation that runs through Susan’s work, exploring materials and forms to see where they might take her, and then stepping back to see if they sing.

Susan will be exhibiting at the Newlyn Society of Artists’ exhibition, ‘Borders’, at Tremenheere Galleries, near Gulval, Penzance, from 5-26 March. Her work will also be on show at Scarlet Wines, Lelant, from 6 March. susanbleakley.org.u

Tilt and you’ll see it, oil on canvas, 54 cm x 54 cm

Breathe In, oil on canvas, 140 cm x 140 cm

IN MY TOOL BOX “Brushes and paint form an essential part of my toolbox, along with crayons and rulers for marking out grids. I also use a range of mallets, chisels, files and drills for working with wood and stone.

And I am very fond of my silicone gun, which I like to ‘draw’ with.

“Concrete and cement are materials I return to, as I like to work with liquids that become solids. I am always on the look-out for anything that could inspire or be incorporated into my work.

This can range from discarded plastic toys picked up on a walk, to used carpet and bits of old wetsuit. I like to reuse and recycle.”

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culture South West must sees...

Unwrapped

PHOTO: ROBERT DAY

The latest piece of theatre from Jane Upton, joint winner of the 2016 George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright, All the Little Lights delves into the real-life horror of the sexual exploitation of young girls. The promise of one last birthday party by the railway tracks brings together two old friends who share a dark secret and a new girl who may be about to succumb to the same sweet-talking adult. Moving, darkly funny and savagely honest, Upton’s work shines a torch into the troubled lives of those who might otherwise go unnoticed, or slip through the cracks of society. In a world where nobody wants you, what would you do to survive?

18-22 April at The Drum, Royal Parade, Plymouth PL1 2TR. £15 (£11). theatreroyal.com

Ways of seeing ‘After Illusion’, a new exhibition of paintings at Penwith Gallery in St Ives, brings together for the first time six established and progressive painters: Niamh Collins, Jeremy Diggle, Tony Plant, Iain Robertson, Clare Wardman and Simon Williams. This collection of work, from artists who between them have travelled extensively, questions what it means to be an abstract artist today within a contemporary international context.

1-29 April at Penwith Gallery, Back Road West, St Ives TR26 1NL. Free entry. penwithgallery.com Niamh Collins, Cliff, 51 x 51cm, oil on canvas.

Speak out PHOTO: JOY GREGORY

Joy Gregory was one of the most significant artists to emerge from the Black British photography movement of the 1980s. Spanning 20 years, ‘Lost Languages and Other Voices’ brings together 16 bodies of work exploring race, history and gender, encompassing a wide range of photographic media, from digital video installations to Victorian printing techniques.

Until 7 May at The Exchange, Princes St, Penzance TR18 2NL. £2.20 admission. newlynartgallery.co.uk From Autoportrait

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Live it.

Love it.

Shop it.

/shopping

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Heavenly creatures Exeter-based artist Simon Ruscoe’s new, partially complete, sculpture, ‘Heaven Sent’, will be unveiled in Princesshay on 31 March. Symbolic of hope, the sculpture strives to open up positive conversations about our children’s future. The sculpture will stand on a plinth specially designed to encourage the people of Exeter to support Simon’s Kickstart campaign, while collecting donations for the NSPCC. The campaign hopes to raise funds for additional life-size figures that will appear to freefall and thread together the collective sculptures’ full narrative. From 31 March – 17 April in Princesshay, Exeter. ruscoe.info

Go fish Developed as part of a residency at The Bike Shed Theatre while performing The Beanfield, Breach Theatre’s Tank went on to receive critical acclaim and a Fringe First Award in 2016.

In 1965, an American scientist lived with a dolphin for ten weeks to try and teach him to speak English – part of a NASA-funded research project into humananimal communication. Condemned by the wider scientific community as an elaborate circus trick, Margaret’s lessons with Peter remain a controversial episode in the space race between the two Cold War superpowers. Inspired by the Dolphin House experiments, Tank rips this history apart to explore the difficulties of bridging cultural divides, the politics behind the stories we tell, and what happens when you inject a dolphin with LSD. 4-15 April at Bike Shed Theatre, Fore St, Exeter EX4 3AT. £12 (£10). bikeshedtheatre.co.uk

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culture

Book it It might be small, but Chagword Literary Festival punches above its weight.

This year’s impressive roster includes award-winning poet Alice Oswald, novelist Patrick Gale, and screenwriter Marnie Dickens (author of BBC3 original drama Thirteen) in conversation with veteran playwright and screenwriter Peter Moffat (Criminal Justice, Undercover, and The Night Of, among others). Audiences will also be treated to a story concert of War Horse, performed by Michael Morpurgo and song man Ben Murray, who was behind the hit West End production. The family-friendly festival will also be holding storytelling events for children at the nearby Chagford Primary School by children’s authors Jason Beresford and Simon James.

17-19 March at various locations in Chagford, Dartmoor TQ13. Tickets are available from the Three Crowns on the High Street, Tue 2-5pm and Thur/Fri/Sat 10am-2pm; or by phone (credit or debit card) 07518 469437, Wed/Fri/Sat 10am-2pm. chagword.co.uk

Kate Adie

Michael Morpurgo

Alice Oswald

PHOTO: SVEN ARNSTEIN

Marnie Dickens

Jason Beresford

Peter Moffat

Patrick Gale

Bold strokes

PHOTO: JOHN ANDOW

If your appetite was whetted by the Royal Academy’s barnstorming ‘Abstract Expressionism’ show, then get yourself along to Barnstaple for ‘The Language of Colour’, which showcases the genius of painter Patrick Jones.

After studying in New York in the 1960s, teaching and exhibiting there and in the UK, Jones returned to live in the UK in the 1990s, working from a studio in Exeter.

Now based in Lympstone, he continues to exhibit widely, his large canvases providing a complex, challenging and emotionally charged visual expressionism.

Until 7 April at White Moose, Trinity St, Barnstaple EX32 8HX. Free.

Green Goddess

whitemoose.co.uk

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Festival fever

Mary Berry

This year sees the launch of the Bath Festival, a new multi-arts event for the city, building on the heritage of the Bath Literature and Bath International Music festivals. This flagship event will have music and literature at its heart – classical, jazz, world and folk music alongside contemporary fiction, debate, science, history, politics and poetry – but will embrace blends of the two as well as other arts. The 10-day programme will include more than 130 events, including Sir Salman Rushdie’s only appearance outside Paris and London, in which he will talk about his life in writing as he approaches his 70th birthday; doyenne of the kitchen Mary Berry talks about her career in cookery; and academic and writer Sarah Churchwell, novelist Lionel Shriver, journalist Tim Dowling and special guests will head up the US politics debate, no doubt taking an unflinching look at Trump’s first 100 days in office.

19-28 May at various locations across Bath. See thebathfestival.org.uk for full programme and ticket details.

PHOTO: SARAH LEE

Sir Salman Rushdie

Simon Callow

Lionel Shriver

Song boys

27 April – 1 May at various venues across Cornwall. See the festival website (cimcf.uk) for full details. Tickets for all concerts can be purchased directly from the Hall for Cornwall box office: hallforcornwall.uk

PHOTO: PHIL MONKTON

Sixty choirs of all ages and nationalities will be converging on Cornwall for the 2017 International Male Choral Festival, now in its 14th year and the largest event of its kind in the world. Performances will take place in theatres, churches, tourist attractions and castles from Bude to Land’s End and Porthleven to Saltash, with singers coming from Australia and America, Russia and across Europe, Wales, Scotland, England and, of course, Cornwall.

2015 winners Mannerstimmen Basel

UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE EXHIBITION, EXETER'S RAMM - CORRECTION In the previous issue of MANOR we featured an exhibition of prints by Utagawa Hiroshige. We listed this exhibition as free but it is actually a ticketed event costing £4. We apologise for the misinformation.

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culture Worth making the trip for...

Animal magic 2016’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition was the most competitive to date, attracting almost 50,000 entries from professionals and amateurs across 95 countries. The exhibition features the collection of 100 exceptional images that reveal the astonishing diversity of life on our planet, from urban foxes to mountain hares.

Until 10 September at the Natural History Museum, Cromwell Rd, Kensington, London SW7 5BD. £10.50 – £13.50 (£6.50 – £8). nhm.ac.uk

PHOTO: SAM HOBSON

UK photographer Sam Hobson was a finalist in the urban category with this shot of a city fox

Building the future

PHOTO: IWAN BAAN

In the wake of the WW2, the widespread devastation of Tokyo and other cities in Japan brought an urgent need for new housing, and the single-family house quickly became the foremost site for architectural experimentation and debate. In the years following, Japanese architects have consistently used their designs to propose radical critiques of society and innovative solutions to changing lifestyles. ‘The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945’ presents some of the most exciting architectural projects of the last 70 years, many of which have never been exhibited in the UK. As well as architectural projects, the exhibition incorporates cinema, photography and art to cast new light on the role of the house in Japanese culture.

Sou Fujimoto Architects, House NA, Tokyo, Japan, 2011.

23 March – 25 June at Barbican Art Gallery, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS. £14.50 (£12/£10). barbican.org.uk

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PHOTO: AKSE P19 PENTAGRAM

Broken lives

Daniela Rossell, Medusa, 1999

The multi-award-winning writer Jack Thorne (Skins, The Solid Life of Sugar Water, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) breathes new life into Woyzeck, one of the most extraordinary plays ever written (it was unfinished on the death of its author Georg Büchner in 1837, and has since been ‘finished’ and adapted by numerous people, include Werner Herzog, Neil LaBute and Punchdrunk).

It’s 1980s Berlin. The Cold War rages and the world sits at a crossroads between Capitalism and Communism.

On the border between East and West, a young soldier ( John Boyega) and the love of his life are desperately trying to build a better future for their child. But the cost of escaping poverty is high, and its tragic consequences unfold in this tale of the people society leaves behind.

6 May – 24 Jun at The Old Vic, The Cut, Lambeth, London SE1 8NB. £12 – £60. Recommended for ages 16+. oldvictheatre.com

Female landscapes Drawn from the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC, ‘Terrains of the Body’ showcases photography and video work by 17 contemporary artists from around the world – including Marina Abramović, Nan Goldin, and Candida Höfer. By turning their camera to women, including themselves, these artists embrace the female body as a vital medium for storytelling, expressing identity and reflecting individual and collective experience.

Until 16 April at Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX. Free entry. whitechapelgallery.org

Ready to wear

PHOTO: JAMES ABBE ARCHIVE

America in the 1920s created a cultural shockwave that reverberated around the world, creating icons on an industrial scale — from stars of the silver screen to skyscrapers. This worldwide phenomenon is explored in ‘1920s Jazz Age: Fashion and Photographs’, which examines America’s role as a trend-setting nation during this decade. The exhibition features more than 100 fashion objects, including flapper dresses, evening capes, lamé coats, couture, and ready-to-wear garments from 1919 to 1929, documenting a decade of change through the shifting hemlines and waistlines. The exhibition will also include the work of photographer James Abbe, whose portraits present a candid commentary on early 20th-century celebrity.

Dolores 1919. Courtesy Private Collection.

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18 March – 29 October at the American Museum in Britain, Claverton Manor, Claverton, Bath BA2 7BD. £13.50 (£12/£6.50) includes entry to the museum, gallery and gardens. americanmuseum.org

culture Worth staying in for...

If you were gripped by In Plain Sight, ITV’s drama about Scottish serial killer Peter Manuel, then crime novelist Denise Mina’s latest book, The Long Drop, should be right up your alley. In September 1956, three women are shot dead in their Glasgow home; for a while, the main suspect is William Watt, the husband, father and brother-in-law to the victims. Desperate to clear his name, Watt turns to Peter Manuel – an infamous liar, rapist and thief – who claims he can get hold of the gun used to commit the murders. One December night in 1957, Watt meets Manuel in a Glasgow bar to find out what he knows... Displaying her exemplary gift for psychological insight, Mina creates an unsettling world in which the stories of the guilty and the innocent start to look increasingly similar.

The Long Drop by is published in March by Harvill Secker.

PHOTO: SONY PICTURES

Tartan noir Yada, yada, yada

The episode where they compete to become ‘master of their domain’… The one where Jerry gets bamboozled by a low talker into wearing the puffy shirt on The Tonight Show… The one in the parking garage where they can’t find the car… In the 90s, Seinfeld was the must-see TV show. Created by stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David (who went on to write the equally brilliant Curb Your Enthusiasm), it was a show about nothing. Unlike Friends, which ultimately had optimism at its heart, Seinfeld was deliciously nihilistic, and populated by characters – Jerry, Elaine, Kramer and George – who were consistently shallow and selfserving, never learning lessons from their behaviour.

And it was consistently, eye-wateringly hilarious.

You can now stream all nine seasons (180 episodes) of Seinfeld on Amazon Prime.

David Jamin “La Familie”

Thomas Bossard “Let’s make believe we are there”

Oil on canvas 30x30cms

Oil on canvas 81x65cms

62 Church Street, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 3DS 01326 219323 | 07913 848515 | info@artworldltd.com | www.artworldltd.com MANOR | Spring 2017

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Glamp it up This MANOR style shoot is in association with Next. Prompted by the utility and khaki trends so prevalent this season, our thoughts turned to matters safari. It so happens that a corner of North Devon boasts the award-winning glamping site Longlands, which, with its spacious and fabulously decked-out safari tents, made the perfect backdrop to transport us all to somewhere straight out of Africa.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY THOMAS HOLE STYLED BY MIMI STOTT

Khaki utility jacket, £48; white shirt, £22; Y drop necklace, £14, all Next; leather belt, stylist’s own

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Neutral oversized trench coat, £65; pointelle sweater, £25; cotton twill cigarette trousers, £30, grey leather twist belt, £24, all Next

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Red pleated swing dress, £180; gold tone necklace, £16.50; gold tone tassel earrings, £12, all Next

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Long sleeve black t-shirt, £6.50; cotton twill cigarette trousers, £30; skinny animal belt, £14; Y drop necklace, £14, all Next

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Grey velvet ruched front dress, £45; silver/gold tone layered necklace, £16; zebra leather court shoes, £60, all Next

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Pointelle sweater, £25, Next

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White shirt, £22; green tie waist trousers, £38; slingback mules, £52, all Next

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White shirt, £22; green tie waist trousers, £38; slingback mules, £52, all Next

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White shirt, £22; Y drop necklace, £14

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Grey suede skirt, £180; feather necklace, £14; feather earrings, £12; zebra leather court shoes, £60, all Next; black vest, stylist’s own

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Photographer: Thomas Hole Stylist: Mimi Stott Model: Geiza Rodrigues from Select Model Management Hair and make-up: Maddie Austin Location: Longlands, Devon

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BREAKFAST

To book ring reser vations on: 01637 861000, Option 1 or book online at: www.fifteen corn wall.co.uk 100

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•

LUNCH

•

DINNER

Fifteen Cornwall On the beach Watergate Bay Cornwall TR8 4AA

Food

The truth about spring lamb | Ben Quinn’s moveable feasts Bites, the latest news and events from across the region | The Table Prowler

Bake some Easter treats at Philleigh Way Cookery School on 8 April philleighway.co.uk

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Traditional mutton and hogget should be the real stars of the Easter menu. Village Farm’s Rebecca Hosking explains why to MANOR’s food editor, Anna Turns.

T

he sight of cute, white lambs gambolling across green pastures conjures up classic associations with new beginnings familiar to us all at Easter. But is lamb naturally ready to eat in springtime? Shepherdess Rebecca Hosking argues not. She’s pioneering a new way of farming with nature in mind on the South Devon coast

by Salcombe estuary, producing organic lamb with very little intervention. She’s going back to basics, using traditional farming methods without any chemicals or tractors, and perhaps most notably of all, without forced lambing. The Village Farm flock of 350 breeding ewes all come into season naturally once a year: “We tup 102

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our sheep by putting our rams in on 5 November and take them out at New Year, so our first lamb is due on 1 April and we have a two-month period of lambing,” explains Rebecca, who goes by the old farming calendar.

Normally, ewes would get pregnant in the autumn for four months, and lambs would be born in the spring, then ready to eat by the autumn.

Most modern sheep farmers tailor their timings around the peak season for lamb at Easter, but this springtime boom is somewhat artificial, and Rebecca sheds some light on when this first began: “In Victorian times, the ‘improvers’ were a group of gentlemen agriculturalists who improved the breeds. One breed,

food the Dorset, bred out of season, perhaps because just one ewe had a weird gene that meant it bred outside of the traditional season. The Victorians had this mad craze crossing Dorsets with all the other breeds to get them to breed out of season and thus enabling people to eat lamb in the spring.”

This has resulted in lambs being born in October then fed grain throughout the winter, housed inside and fattened up to be ready in time for the Easter market. “Lamb itself is a very modern dish, and in fact, even back in the 1900s, it is all about mutton dishes, but these days it is possible to buy milk-fed lambs which haven’t yet even been weaned onto grass,” says Rebecca. “We define lamb as up to one year old, hogget is between one and two years, and prize mutton is anything up to six years old.”

In 2004, HRH Prince Charles launched his Mutton Renaissance campaign in order to spark an interest in one of the nation’s long-forgotten favourite dishes. It used to be more popular than beef, so what changed?

Rebecca explains that before the Second World War, male sheep called ‘wethers’ were kept to an older age for their fleeces (wethers had better-quality fleeces than females because hormone changes during pregnancy made the wool more brittle). “So these wethers were kept for longer as the price of the wool was so high, and as a result, they were not killed for meat until they reached an older age – hence, prize mutton.” South Devon, where Rebecca farms today, was a huge wool trade area. Towns like Kingsbridge, Modbury and Totnes were all built on the wool trade. “When my dad was young he remembers when the wool cheque paid for the farm, and anything else you produced was a bonus, and most of the big Georgian houses in this area were wool merchants’ houses,” says Rebecca.

But then came the arrival of petrochemicals and manmade fibres such as nylon, so in the 1950s and 1960s, wool prices crashed. “Financially it wasn’t worth keeping on these old wethers, so sheep were killed earlier, and this was when lamb got trendy,” she says. “Farmers started speeding up the production of their animals because they wanted them to fatten up in one year.

Gone were the days when sheep would be slow grown to hogget or mutton; you didn’t want to overwinter an animal because you had to feed it grain and house it indoors, and that costs money.”

Hogget and mutton are a lot more old-fashioned, so it isn’t financially viable to produce these older meats unless the animals are entirely fed grass. So Rebecca is fundamentally working with the seasons, rearing a hardy breed of low-profile sheep that suit this exposed and wild coastal environment all year round. Together, she and her business partner Tim Green have developed an alternative way of farming hand-in-hand with nature.

Originally trained as a BBC wildlife camerawoman, Rebecca’s work took her across the world and she

As my dad said, a hundred years ago farmers were biologists, today they are chemists, and we are going back to being biologists.

The Village Farm philosophy is holistic, considering every aspect of each animal’s life and that of the land Rebecca and Tim steward

Coastal plants like sea thrift are part of the flock’s totally natural diet

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We see the salt crystals on the pastures and sometimes we even have the sea froth getting blown up the cliffs, so the salt takes away the bitterness and the meat seems sweeter.

was shocked by how much agriculture had devastated precious habitats. She left the BBC in 2008 and worked on her father’s conventional farms near Modbury until she moved to Village Farm three years ago.

Three things set Village Farm apart from other farms here in the UK. Firstly, Rebecca is the only one of the team from Devon farming stock. “I work with a group of environmental specialists – they all have ‘ologies’. We have a zoologist, two ecologists, a marine biologist and an agro-ecologist. Working on our farm is all about the biology of the land.” Secondly, she views her domestic and wild stock as part of the same ecosystem: “As my dad said, a hundred years ago farmers were biologists, today they are chemists, and we are going back to being biologists,” she explains. “There are wildlife-friendly farms but they tend to have separate wildlife areas and areas for food production. We step back – our human needs are not the only needs on the farm, so when skylarks are nesting, we pull out of those fields to allow them to breed; when orchids are growing in the bottom meadows, we don’t throw the sheep in, we allow them to go to seed.” Lastly, they key is to sharing the productivity of the farm. “We have planted 800 fruit trees but not with the intention that we will take all the fruit. The top ones go to the birds, the bottom ones drop off and go to the wildlife, and we take the middle ones,” says Rebecca, whose philosophy is resulting in nutrient-rich soils, and naturally great-tasting meat.

“We see the salt crystals on the pastures and sometimes we even have the sea froth getting blown up the cliffs,” says Rebecca, who explains that the salt actually makes the meat taste sweeter. “Salt takes away the bitterness and the meat seems sweeter to the taste buds on your tongue.”

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flung as Scotland and Norfolk, and Rebecca is proud to supply to some high-end restaurants including The Lido in Bristol, Gourmet Goat at Borough Market, Stevie Parle’s Craft London and, more locally, The Journey’s End Inn at Ringmore and Café ODE at Gara Rock.

“The breeding in Victorian times was driven by the industrial revolution, so we are reinventing the wheel by going back to what will naturally survive those environmental elements,” says Rebecca. “The traditional rare British breeds are the ones that suit our landscape best, so we breed from sheep from the Shetland Islands that weren’t interfered with by the improvers in Victorian times.” Today at Village Farm, Rebecca and her team are breeding for health, and with that, the high-quality fleece, delicious meat and thriving biodiversity follow.

To order a meat box or for information about Village Farm’s pop-up dining events this summer, go to village.farm

TASTE THE DIFFERENCE Lamb (up to one year old) is to mutton like veal is to aged beef. It has the lightest, most delicate flavour, and it is easy to cook.

Hogget (one to two years old) has the tenderness of lamb but it has a richer flavour. You can overcook it, so try slow roasting a shoulder for the most amazing flavours, or cook a rack of hogget for 15 minutes in the oven, then let it stand for five minutes.

Mutton (over two years old) makes delicious stews, with a richer, denser and slightly gamier flavour. You can cook good renaissance mutton that is traditionally reared and has been hung for three weeks rare just as you would a 28-day aged beef steak.

In loving memory of Tim Green 22.11.74 – 10.02.17

food Old South Hams mutton Recipe by Emma Olliff at Cliff Veg Market Garden, based at Village Farm

Serves four/five The sharpness of the crab apples cuts through the beautiful fat marbling the shoulder of mutton. In a slow cooker, the mutton can be done over the course of a day, while you are out at work or off for a wander in the countryside of a Sunday. In the oven, this should take 4-6 hours depending on the size of the shoulder. The cider keeps this dish deliciously moist, so as long as it is cooked at a low temperature, it is very difficult to overcook.

INGREDIENTS

• 1.5kg bone-in mutton shoulder (organic, pasture-fed for life, Village Farm mutton)

• Bunch of fresh thyme • Sprig of fresh bay leaves • 150g crab apples (or two tablespoons crab apple jelly • • • • • •

or a cooking apple, cored and cut into chunks) 1 pint of sweet, organic, Devon cider 1 tbsp organic honey 1 onion, chopped into eighths Salt and pepper Olive oil Seasonal veg (we used carrots, turnips, leeks, kale tops and potatoes, all from our Cliff Veg Market Garden)

METHOD

Take the meat out the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature. Season the shoulder all over with chopped fresh thyme, Maldon sea salt and cracked black pepper. Preheat the oven to 120ºC/100°C fan-assisted/ gas ½, or turn the crockpot on to warm.

In a large frying pan, heat a little olive oil with

a sprig of fresh thyme and put in the crab apples, a tablespoon of honey and the onion.

When the pan is really hot, add the shoulder. Do not fiddle with it; to get the perfect golden caramelisation the meat needs constant contact with the base of the pan.

Once one side is done, turn it and leave it alone again.

Remove the mutton, the apples, onion and thyme and place in the slow cooker or into an ovenproof dish with a tight-fitting lid.

Place the frying pan back on the heat and deglaze the pan with some of the cider, add a couple of bay leaves, fresh if possible. Pour this and the rest of the cider into the pot with the mutton and cook on low until the meat falls off the bone. Lift out the bones and allow the meat to rest in the juices while you roast the vegetables.

Serve with seasonal vegetables, roasted at 200ºC/180°C fan-assisted/gas 6 once the mutton is out of the oven and resting. And, of course, roast potatoes – we roast ours in tallow rendered from the mutton. Toffee crab apples make a good garnish as they give a wonderful sherbet lemon burst of flavour should you fancy it – just fry in butter, with another tablespoon of honey until golden brown and sticky.

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Cornwall-based chef Ben Quinn travels to the Californian coast to work with the world’s leading ‘restaurant without walls’ and brings back some adventurous ideas inspired by the produce, people and places he encounters. Words by Lucy Studley. Photos by Melissa Gayle and Emily Hagen.

O

n a remote beach called Catalina Island Sea Cove, with a private pier just a boat ride away from the sprawling city of Los Angeles, Cornwall-based chef Ben Quinn’s first job is to search for rattlesnakes. His arrival at Catalina last November is one of many moments that stick in his mind amidst a career-defining trip. He joins the team of Outstanding In The Field (OITF) which, in terms of memorable performances, is the culinary equivalent of the Moscow State Circus.

A table is laid, stretching almost into the Pacific Ocean, underneath a flawless Californian sky – a pristine expanse of white linen replete with polished crockery and glassware glinting in the light.

The stage is set; the performance is about to begin.

The cast consists of star chefs and a chorus of acrobatic waiting staff, plus a support crew to look after the stage management and heavy lifting. Their audience disembarks barefoot from small passenger skiffs, and more than 100 guests make their way across the soft sand to take their places at the table.

The performance on this occasion is all about the great bounty of the Southern Sea, and how ingredients

such as spiny lobsters are caught and transformed into the modern fusion food California is known for.

OITF is the world leader in ‘experience eating’, touring all over the Americas, from Canada to Argentina, San Francisco to New York. The organisers, led by founder Jim Denevan, have created a roving ‘restaurant without walls’, bringing diners to the places in which their food and drink is produced and revealing the story behind the raw ingredients – told by the people who dedicate their lives to producing them.

Ben was so inspired by the ethos and the aesthetics of these beautifully staged suppers that he contacted the organisers and asked if he could join the troop for its California tour. Recognising a kindred spirit, the OITF team replied at once – “the circus awaits you!”

Ben’s career to date includes three years in the kitchen at Fifteen Cornwall, followed by a plethora of high-profile freelance ventures alongside his wife Sam. Consultancy work with some of Cornwall’s most exciting food and drink businesses ran parallel to a busy enterprise, delivering beautiful woodfired weddings and sell-out supper events.

This included the conception and delivery of the food offering at Nancarrow Farm – a wedding and events venue that has become known for its communal farm feasts.

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For me, food is a way of telling a story – a story about produce, people and place. As a guest, you become part of that story and a conduit for it to spread like wildfire.

Ben’s residency in the kitchen at Nancarrow ended last year, leaving him free to dedicate his considerable energy to developing a four-pronged business with Sam, the queen of logistics: private dining, weddings, a Canteen (coming later this year), and communal dinners in unique locations – inspired in part by his OITF journey.

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most other chefs. “For me, food is a way of telling a story – a story about produce, people and place,” he explains.

“As a guest, you become part of that story and a conduit for it to spread like wildfire.”

As a storyteller, Ben understands the power of the image. Even before his Californian odyssey, his events were perfect fodder for the Pinterest generation: great hunks of meat sizzling in the embers (his cooking focuses on woodfired techniques), tables groaning with seasonal produce, guests elbow to elbow in animated

food conversation, and a stunning setting as the backdrop – think an abandoned creek-side cottage, a rustic barn lit by fairy lights, a lush sub-tropical garden, a clifftop overlooking a deserted beach…

Ben’s experience in California looks set to take his story concepts and events to another level. OITF is the best in the business, delivering this type of dining experience on an American scale, incorporating sweeping cinematic landscapes, a cast of hundreds, and a cutting-edge screenplay. As well as Catalina, Ben toured with the team to a remote sand spit, a natural winery, an abalone farm and a secret sea cave. Tables were laid amongst idyllic vineyards and industrial shellfish tanks, stories were told by humble oyster pickers and eminent marine biologists, and every night Ben slept outside under the stars, soaking it all in.

“The attention to detail delivered by OITF is phenomenal,” he says. “The table might be set up perfectly straight between rows of vines, or in a curve to echo the shape of a headland or the way waves break on the shore. If the wind was over 16mph we had to lay the wine glasses down, as that’s the precise speed at which they would fall over.”

The locations presented their own challenges.

“The fact that these places are hard to reach, or require exclusive access, is part of the magic for guests,” explains Ben. “Everything must look effortless. However, transporting a lot of equipment on boats and hauling it ashore, or cooking on a floating barge in order to serve 100 guests on a sand spit, requires a lot of planning and hard work.”

Energised and inspired by his experience, when Ben touched down back in the UK he hit the ground at a full sprint. His vision – for telling stories through food and drink in unique locations – had crystallised, and as a consequence he already has some exciting events lined up. “We’re working with several locations in the West Country but also looking further afield – nationally and internationally,” explains Ben. One of the partners he is most looking forward to working with is The Lost Gardens of Heligan. Ben will be telling ‘The Lost Stories of Heligan’, hosting a series of dinners that will bring the history of these remarkable gardens to life. “We’re working on some truly delicious menus for the Heligan events, which will showcase our approach to woodfired cooking and experience dining,” says Ben. However, it’s about more than food. The Heligan events are specifically about planting the seeds of a story, and watching it grow into something amazing. “We might be the ones giving the performance, but we want our guests to become a part of the show,” says Ben. This is immersive theatre, but with an added taste dimension – and it looks set to take stages in the South West by storm. canteencornwall.com

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Bites Shark bites An independent café and catering company sinks its teeth into the healthy food business at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth. As owner of Coffee Shark, Roan Yeates brings fresh and delicious food to everyone working in the hospital area, and now offers ‘shark boxes’ available for delivery not just to the hospital but also to surrounding businesses.

Shark boxes include five different varieties of wholesome food in eco-friendly containers, available for delivery or pick-up weekdays from 9am-4pm. Priced at £5, all the meals are gluten free, and with options such as oaty chicken on a bed of kale and rice, or falafel, halloumi, salad and tzatziki, they offer a welcome alternative to sandwiches and pasties.

Raised in rural Somerset and New Zealand, Roan has a passion for healthy eating: “Good food should be readily available and I like food to taste the way it should taste. I love to grow vegetables to use both at home and at work, plus we use local suppliers to get the best produce.

We want to help hospital staff to be fuelled on great food, and now it’s time to make our menu available to a wider audience. We believe we’re perfectly positioned to be able to serve the hospital staff as well as the busy customers from local businesses who need something quick, easy and nutritious to eat during the day.”

Coffee Shark, Post Graduate Medical Centre, Derriford Hospital, Derriford Rd, Plymouth PL6 8DH. Open Monday to Friday 8am-4pm. 01752 792734. coffeeshark.co.uk

Never too young for fine dining Ben Upton, the new Head Chef at the recently renovated Rockbeare Manor, just outside Exeter, says his new job is “a dream come true”. At Rockbeare Manor, his focus is on the quality of the ingredients: “We are surrounded by fresh, tasty produce, and the more local produce the better. Cooking is all about the flavours we can create with our fantastic ingredients. Every menu is unique, created for the individual client. We cook from scratch – everything that we possibly can.” He also believes that children should be included in the fine-dining experience. “How can you help people to develop their palates if they are given the same stuff at every meal?” asks Ben, who creates smaller versions of the same food that the grown-ups are having when guests bring along children. rockbearemanor.co.uk

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food

Pretty Local A new online shopping concept has just launched in South Devon, offering all locally sourced produce. Andrea Wilson, the founder of Pretty Local, explains: “It’s just like going to a farmers’ market, but you buy everything on your shopping list – from fresh fish, meat and veg to cut flowers and larder items – at the click of the button and it gets delivered to your home.”

Andrea, who lives with her family near Salcombe, wants to make Devon’s food and drink more accessible. “There is such an abundance of wonderful food being grown, harvested or caught within just a few miles from my home, but there was no easy way to buy it all, so I have created Pretty Local to be a one-stop shop that supports the fabulous producers and growers on our doorstep.”

Pretty Local suppliers include The Salcombe Fish Wife, which sources fresh seafood from Brixham fish market, and lands scallops, crab and wet fish from its own fishing boat; Challon’s Combe Organics at Aveton Gifford, which produces natural yogurt, cow’s milk and cream; East Portlemouth-based Mays & Green, which makes its own delicious salad dressings; meat from Salcombe Meat Company and Village Farm (turn to page 102 to read more about their hogget and mutton); Cheezeboard near Totnes; and Spindlebrook Farm, which grows vegetables and salads without the use of heavy machinery. “Like our producers, we are passionate about provenance and the story of where our food comes from, so we have handpicked the suppliers who share our ethos,” says Andrea. prettylocal.co.uk

An historic hotel, with outstanding food and beautiful gardens, located in the heart of Cornwall.

T H E A LV E R T O N . C O . U K S TAY@ T H E A LV E R T O N . C O . U K 01872 276 633

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Best cream tea According to the Cream Tea Club, the best cream tea is to be found at Dartmoor’s Moorland Garden Hotel. A poll amongst guests who attended the Cream Tea Club networking events held throughout 2016 named the Moorland Garden Hotel’s teatime offering the Best Cream Tea of the year.

Andrew King from the Moorland Garden Hotel says: “The age-old debate of which goes on first, jam or cream, continues to rage, but whichever way you opt to have your scone it is a ritual to be taken very seriously. We were up against some very stiff competition, with some fantastic establishments having hosted the Cream Tea Club events, and we’re absolutely thrilled to come out on top.” moorlandgardenhotel.co.uk

Natural, local and rather lovely Fowey Valley’s orchard and press sits right next to Castledore, an ironage settlement and archaeological site, and now also the name of the new medium-dry cider joining the Fowey Valley range. The premium cider has a beautiful, naturally occurring rose blush to it, whereas many commercial ciders are dyed to achieve the same effect. Founder of Fowey Valley, Barrie Gibson, says: “All our ciders are produced in limited runs and in an artisanal way, so we wanted a name which reflected that. Castledore is natural, local and rather lovely, just like the cider.” foweyvalleycider.co.uk

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food

Guest chef Daniel Galmiche, TV’s Saturday Kitchen regular and consultant at the Gore Hotel in London, comes to Torbay to head up the kitchen as guest chef at The Elephant on 17 March. “I’m really looking forward to working with Simon, a chef whom I respect a lot, and Devon has a fabulous range of local produce which will be a delight to use,” says Frenchman Daniel, who will be cooking dishes such as pan-roasted wild halibut served with burnt confit onions, feta and lemongrass jus.

Simon Hulstone, chef-patron of The Elephant, is delighted with the success of his guest dinner series: “Guest chef dinners give locals even more reasons to dine with us, and we find that many guests come back time and time again. Having hugely talented chefs in our kitchen provides inspiration for the team and helps us to continue to raise our game.”

Call 01803 200044 or email info@elephantrestaurant.co.uk to reserve your table.

Gin o’clock There’s another bottle of craft gin for your drinks cabinet. John Lawton has designed his own copper still to create Black Dog Gin at Dartmoor Distillery, based at Teignworthy Brewery, using 22 botanicals and Dartmoor spring water. teignworthybrewery.com

The Millbrook Loft New for 2017 - our boutique apartment offering contemporary, luxurious accomodation in the heart of Devon.

Booking now. £150 for 2 people Bed & Breakfast (£135 solo and long stay discount available)

Telephone: 01548 531581 Web: millbrookinnsouthpool.co.uk

Email:info@millbrookinnsouthpool.co.uk MANOR | Spring 2017

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Save the date FOODIE HEAVEN Exeter Festival of South West Food & Drink takes place at Northernhay Gardens and Exeter Castle from 29 April to 1 May. exeterfoodanddrinkfestival.co.uk

GET CRACKING Salcombe Crabfest is on 30 April.

Visit salcombecrabfest.co.uk for more information

TORQUAY AND TONIC The Gin Festival brings more than 100 craft gins to Torquay’s Riviera International Centre on 14-15 April. £9.50 plus booking fee for entry to evening or afternoon sessions. Each gin and tonic costs £5. ginfestival.com

Eat, drink, run, repeat Hundreds of fun-loving foodies will eat and drink their way from Totnes to Dartmouth when the Delicious Dart Trail returns for a final time on 25 March. The popular food-festival-on-the-run sold out in record time after organisers announced their decision to make this year’s event their last.

Event founder, Kate Treleaven, says: “After five years it seems like the right time for us to take a break and to give the many local businesses who so generously support the event a break too! We’re looking forward to making this the best one yet and hope participants will help us raise a record amount for our charity partner, CHICKS.” Pubs, cafés, hotels and restaurants that line the route along the Dart Valley Trail will be welcoming participants with an astonishing selection of bite-size tasters made with the finest local produce. The strong-stomached gastronomes can look forward to sampling more than a dozen sweet and savoury dishes washed down with as many tempting tipples.

This year’s trail offers up a variety of new tasting opportunities from Dartington Dairy, New Lion Brewery, Salcombe Gin and the Kitchen Table, alongside old favourites including the Waterside Bistro in Totnes, Sharpham Vineyard, The Maltster’s Arms and Café Alf Resco.

The run, which is sponsored by Coast and Country Cottages and Caterfood, finishes in the Old Market Square, Dartmouth, where there’ll be live music and a fundraising raffle in aid of CHICKS charity from 1.30pm.

The Delicious Dart Trail is now sold out, but those who have missed out on a place can still join in the fun. Kate Treleaven says: “The Delicious Dart Trail makes for a really entertaining day out for spectators, with a great carnival atmosphere. Take a seat at one of the pubs or cafés along the route and toast the exuberant runners (all in fancy dress!) as they pass by, or head straight to the finish in Dartmouth and cheer the runners home.”

For a full course map and more information about the event visit deliciousdarttrail.co.uk/trail

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SPRING SEAFOOD Taste dishes created by chefs as they demo with some of the finest seasonal fresh fish from St Ives fishmonger Matthew Stevens.

16 March. 6-7.30pm. £16. Rick Stein Cookery School, Padstow. rickstein.com

SPRING FORAGE, COOK AND DINE Harvest the season’s hedgerow and inland plants with wild food expert Rachel Lambert, and enjoy a threecourse meal to follow.

18 March. 3-9pm. £50pp. Cotna Eco Retreat, Gorran Churchtown, Cornwall, PL26 6LG. wildwalks-southwest.co.uk

EASTER BAKING Master the art of baking treats such as hot cross buns, Easter biscuits and simnel cake.

8 April. 9.30am-1.30pm. £70.

Philleigh Way Cookery School, near Truro. philleighway.co.uk

food

Signature dish Sam Evans is head chef at the Rose & Crown pub, Yealmpton. He loves working with the wealth of local, seasonal produce available in the county: “I would describe our food as memorable. Presentation is really important to us, and we use seasonal ingredients throughout, changing our menu accordingly, as well as creating daily specials,” he explains. “Calves’ liver is one of my favourites, and the quality of the local liver we use speaks for itself – it has a very rich, intense flavour. We then add creamed mash, which goes really well with a red wine sauce, picking up all the flavours from the pan when reduced. The crispy onions add a bit of texture, finished off with seasonal vegetables, making for a nice fresh dish.” theroseandcrown.co.uk

Calves’ liver, seasonal vegetables, creamed mash potato and crispy shallots Serves two

• • • • • • • •

200g calves’ liver 10 fine green beans Handful of fresh kale 100ml milk 4 banana shallots Vegetable oil Plain flour 50g butter

FOR THE CREAMED MASH

• • • •

1kg Maris Piper potatoes 100g salted butter 100ml double cream Salt to taste

FOR THE SAUCE

• 40g butter • 100ml red wine • Seasoning to taste METHOD

Boil the potatoes until soft, bring the cream and butter to the boil and whisk until soft.

Bring a pan of water to the boil, add the green beans, bring back to the boil for four minutes and refresh in cold water.

Heat a large frying pan, add a tablespoon of oil, place your calves’ liver into the pan. Once it’s coloured on one side, carefully flip over, add your butter until the butter foams and gets to that nutty brown stage (beurre noisette). Take your liver out of the pan and leave to rest for 2-4 minutes.

Meanwhile, add 200ml of red wine and reduce down, leaving you with a glossy reduction to pour over the liver.

To crisp up the onions, cut the banana shallots in half lengthways and roughly slice.

Pour the milk into a bowl and put the flour into a second bowl. Place the shallots into the milk, then into the flour and repeat this process twice. In a small

saucepan, pour in 200ml of vegetable oil. Once it’s hot, lightly sieve the flour mix from the shallots and pour into the pan of hot oil, wait until they are golden brown and crisp, strain off ready to serve with the liver.

Melt 50g of butter in a pan, add the kale, cover with a lid until soft (while still keeping the lovely deep green colour), return the green beans back into the pan, until warmed.

Put the creamed mash onto a plate with the green beans and kale, place the rested liver on top, pour the pan juices over and finish with crispy shallots.

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Food Pioneers Ross Geach KITCHEN GARDENER I set up Padstow Kitchen Garden in 2007, having previously worked as a head chef for Rick Stein. Having

worked in the industry, I know exactly how chefs want things to be prepped and delivered to them, and I try my hardest to make their lives as easy as possible.

I realised my favourite part of cheffing was the ingredients. When the fishermen or the butchers or the

veg gardeners came in, I would get really excited. So, I started dabbling with growing veg at my dad’s farm, Trerethern Farm, near Padstow, which has been in the Geach family since the mid-1800s.

My granddad was a keen gardener. Helping him in his

I have three polytunnels but most of my produce is grown outdoors. This time of year is quiet so I’m

currently planning what to grow for the next year and organising more pop-up events with guest chefs and veggardening courses, which I really enjoy running.

I kept Rick Stein’s flagship Seafood Restaurant in carrots continuously for four months last summer. They didn’t

mind if they were plain orange or purple or heritage, but they just had to be the best quality, and a constant supply is essential for restaurants.

I try not to use any nasties. I’m not certified organic

as it would push the prices up so much but I don’t use anything on my veg garden that I wouldn’t feed to myself or my kids.

A lot of people are becoming more aware of where their food comes from. I have sold a lot of veg boxes this

year and customers have really noticed that when they buy the food direct from the farm gate, it lasts so much 116

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PHOTO: SEAN GEE

walled garden in between my split shifts was a way for me to escape the hustle and bustle of Padstow. It’s so peaceful here, just the wind and farm noises, overlooking the Camel Trail. He was growing things like beetroot, potatoes, runner beans. He grew all the beetroot and sowed them thick, then he taught me how to thin them out and I sold the thinnings that he was going to chuck away – he was surprised at how much the restaurants loved these tiny marble-sized beetroots. So we started selling veg at every stage of its life, from micro to baby to big. It grew from there, and it went from a small walled garden to now about five acres.

longer than produce harvested, transported and sold in a supermarket. There’s a big misconception about what people think is in season – even some chefs get muddled up and ask for broad beans, peas and asparagus in early spring because they see it on the TV. There’s no food waste with us. If chefs ask us to take the

tops off our carrots first, for example, we give the leaves to our three large, pedigree black pigs. We feed them all the excess, or if the radishes go bad because we’ve had too much rain, we let the pigs eat them.

My food hero has to be Rick Stein. He coined the phrase

‘food heroes’ for his TV programme. He always supports local producers, and when he does food tastings he says it how it is. I worked for him for ten years, from washing dishes up to head chef, so my business wouldn’t be like it is now without his influence.

Ross Geach is the owner of Padstow Kitchen Garden, supplying chefs including Paul Ainsworth, Chris Eden, Jamie Oliver and Rick Stein. He runs one-day kitchen garden courses and organises pop-up feasts throughout the season. padstowkitchengarden.co.uk

food

The Table Prowler Rendezvous, Exeter Down a set of stone steps in Southernhay, near Exeter Crown Court, sits Rendezvous, an underground snug featuring some of the best cooking in Exeter – according to my other half. I therefore had certain expectations.

Low-beamed ceilings and a mish-mash of exposed bricks provide a cosy atmosphere popular with solicitors and arty types. Located just off Cathedral Yard, this independent restaurant feels classically Exeter.

The menu, which changes regularly in line with fresh, local supply, holds a good range of dishes but only one main course option suitable for vegetarians.

We grazed plump olives (£2.50) and homemade bread (I believe this comes as standard) with a nice Romanian pinot noir (£4.80 for a medium glass). I began with misosmoked salmon, wasabi mayonnaise, tapenade and crostini (£6.90). The salmon was perfect in texture and the flavour stood up against the pickled vegetables it came with, but the mayonnaise cheapened the the dish a little. My partner had the beef carpaccio, with red onion, Parmesan, horseradish and tiny little cornichons (£7.90). This was a spot-on starter, the meat a deep red and well-seasoned.

For the main course, I thoroughly enjoyed confit duck with Toulouse sausage, potato rosti, carrots and thyme

jus (£15.50). The sausage was juicy and a little sweet, which paired brilliantly with the jus and perfectly pink duck. Alone, the jus was a touch too salty, although the vegetables were cooked beautifully and the rosti was crispy as well as juicy and able to soak up the sauce. My partner had the coley in pancetta, with new potatoes, cabbage and clam beurre blanc (£16.50). The sauce was as mouthwatering as it sounds, although the coley was a little overpowering against this for me..

For dessert, we shared the crumble with blackberry ice cream (£6.90). Like the rest of the meal, portions were not skimpy, so by the end of the night I felt somewhat rotund.

Part of the attraction of Rendezvous is that it feels like a well-priced treat. Our three courses came to under £70 with drinks and olives. My expectations were met: the food is good quality, tasty without added fuss, and the environment conducive – a cosy, unpretentious place to spend time in. winebar10.co.uk Food 8 | Service 7 | Ambience 8 | Location 8

Halsetown Inn, St Ives This is a cosy gastropub on the coast road just outside St Ives. It has three large seating areas: two dedicated to the restaurant, and one in the front, which is a typical pub bar. The interior is classic rustic pub décor, with a regular turnover of art by local artists. In the evening, particularly in the winter months, the candle-lit tables and low lighting combine to make it the most convivial of places to eat.

While it is always popular, it never feels overcrowded or too noisy. The vibe is jovial, and the staff friendly in an efficient, bustling kind of way. Service is impeccable in terms of attentiveness and speed of delivery of everything from the initial drinks via all three courses to the final dessert cocktail.

For me, one thing that marks out an eatery as special is the ability to be flexible around the menu. I’m trying to stay low on carbohydrates, so when I asked for a replacement for potatoes, the main course came with a delicious broccoli base – just as satisfying as potatoes, and cooked to perfection.

Similarly, I desperately fancied the espresso cocktail at the end of the meal, but as I was driving, it was not on. No problem, said our waitress, who Tom Cruised the cocktail and put it in a takeaway cup just as we were leaving (“Make sure you get home quickly,” she advised, “or it won’t be cold enough.”). It was divine, and the perfect finale to a jolly winter’s evening.

The menu is imaginative without veering too far from ‘modern European/Asian’ gastropub fare. My starter was tamarind and orange squid in the lightest of batters, with a paprika aioli and sweet spiced red pepper sauce that was somewhere between a chutney and a salsa. My partner’s sticky bourbon-glazed pork belly was as indulgent as you would expect, with the chunks of pork oozing flavour and tender as hell. Mains were excellent: my hake fillet had a pleasing crispy skin, sitting on a bed of broccoli and green beans drenched in a hearty, soupy crab bisque; my hubby’s thick duck breast slices were a glorious tender pink, topping an Asian medley of noodles, pak choi, and soy and star anise broth.

Falling off the ‘no sugar, low carb’ wagon for dessert was a given – the chocolate brownie was a rich confection that was more pudding than brownie, topped with peanut butter and chocolate sauce, plus creamy local Moomaid chocolate ice cream. We shared it, but I could have eaten a whole one to myself… halsetowninn.co.uk Food 9 | Service 9 | Ambience 8 | Location 8

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Space

Gray + Gray architects | Shopping for space

grayandgray.co.uk

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space

Husband-and-wife team Paul and Kate Gray combine their expertise in architectural and interior design to create stunning contemporary living spaces that feel like home.

Words by Imogen Clements.

Photos by Richard Downer.

“I

t’s an odd term, ‘broken-plan’,” reflects Kate Gray as she and her husband Paul walk me through Park House, the new build their practice, Gray + Gray architects, has recently completed in Exeter.

‘Broken’ admittedly has negative connotations, but ‘broken-plan living’ – as all the top-end style bibles tell us – has evolved from ‘open-plan living’ as the latest trend in residential architecture, the benefits of which are artfully demonstrated in Park House.

The ‘L-shaped’ living area on the ground floor is connected throughout, but each space is subtly and ingeniously distinct. For example, dividing the formal sitting room and the more relaxed garden-facing TV-viewing space is a partial wall, within which is inset a chimney with double-facing fireplace. Both these interconnected rooms enjoy the centrepiece of a contemporary glass-fronted stove but evoke an entirely different mood and serve different purposes. The formal living space is set at the front of the house, with two spacious sofas facing one another over a Noguchi glasstopped coffee table. It is a tranquil space, made for adult conversation, or perhaps a book and a glass of wine in front of the fire. The relaxed living area is brighter, extends seamlessly onto the garden through floor-toceiling glazed doors, and has a large corner sofa and TV. It’s overlooked by the kitchen and is clearly the family lounging area. Then there is the dining space, furnished with a large table and Hans Wegner ‘Wishbone’ dining chairs. It sits between the kitchen and the relaxed lounge but is separate from both by the void that towers above it.

This extends to the second floor, from which hang five Karboxx carbon-fibre pendants directly over the table.

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Throughout the living area there are no doors, and little in the way of walls, creating a sense of open-plan airiness while allowing for clearly defined interconnecting spaces to fulfil different needs.

Early on in my own career, I was always told that when working on a creative (communications, in my case) brief, you should meet it, and then some; the ‘then some’ meaning going the extra mile to elicit not just approval from the client but delight. That thought came back to me as I toured Park House: each room fulfilled its required function and then had something about it that made it special. The resultant emotion that such a building elicits is a mix of swoon and comfort – a certain harmony that makes a place feel right, without always being able to pinpoint why.

Park House is striking on approach. White, it is a cool cubic design set over three floors, each a little smaller than the one below. The house is notably modern, but not jarring.

Paul Gray explains: “In the city, where houses are in such proximity, it’s vital that the building is sympathetic to its environment. Here in St Leonards, we are surrounded by beautiful white stucco Georgian architecture. The client wanted a modern house, so I applied those same Georgian principles by creating a wider plinth as ground floor to ‘anchor’ the home, then a piano nobile first floor, with the second floor forming the traditional attic layer.” There is no attic in Park House: the second floor – the penthouse – houses the master 122

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bedroom and bathroom; the first floor comprises the family and guest bedrooms, and the media room; and the ground floor includes the living area, along with sizeable utility room, boot room and study.

Paul, an architect clearly passionate about his chosen profession, explains in some detail the considerations he takes into account to create a building that thrills while meeting the client’s brief. He considers the spine of the building as a starting point (the stairs, from which, in the case of Park House, all else flows), the axes, the lines of vision and aspects from different points throughout; and, of course, the flow from one room to the next, which comes from knowing how the inhabitants will use the house, and ensuring they can do so effortlessly.

What makes a house feel right is down to the detail, much of which your conscious mind overlooks but your subconscious warms to. This has a lot to do with the architecture – its spatial logic and ergonomics – but equally it’s the finish: how the materials used, and the different textures applied to the space, add emotive value. This is what Kate Gray brings in order to convert an impeccably designed building into a stylish and welcoming home. Mandarin Stone slate bathroom tiles, oak flooring, a Bulthaup kitchen, Danish furniture, and Scandinavian lighting all contribute to the contemporary but welcome calm that Park House exudes.

Interior design at Gray + Gray is considered from the outset of an architectural project. Kate is present at the

space

initial client meetings. “Although Paul leads the design process, I’ll regularly review Paul’s plans to consider how, for example, storage can be incorporated in a way that’s both practical and discreet,” says Kate. “It’s important that such things are factored in right at the start and are not an afterthought.”

So, in the guest bedroom, a fitted wardrobe fills one interior wall such that you don’t immediately notice it; there are tidy alcoves in the wall that give rise to dressing tables; the master bedroom is (broken) planned into three spaces where the sleeping area backs onto a large walk-in dressing room with capacious sliding wardrobes down one side and fitted shelves and drawer cabinets down the other.

The dressing room itself backs onto an inviting bathroom that’s fitted out with wide double basins and a freestanding modern bath along with a sizeable rain shower at one end.

Frequently, modern architectural achievements can feel sparse and cold, but Kate’s palette of materials and colours adds warmth while at the same time emphasizing the architect’s attention to detail.

Take, for example, the stairs. They are bare oak and angular but your eye is drawn to them immediately as you walk in through the front door. The wall enclosing the stairs is painted in Farrow & Ball’s Oval Room Blue, the dark hue setting off the honey-coloured oak, and is inset with lights that illuminate the flight. Each rise doesn’t extend to either wall but stops short, creating a ‘shadow gap’ that softens the join and gives the staircase MANOR | Spring 2017

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space

Frequently, modern architectural achievements can feel sparse and cold, but Kate’s palette of materials and colours adds warmth while at the same time emphasizing the architect’s attention to detail.

a sense of floating. All these details combine to make the stairs – often one of the more banal necessities of a family house – a feature that draws the eye as you cross the threshold.

Look around Park House and there are shadow gaps everywhere between floor and wall, wall and oak banister – a detail that lightens the join and adds a certain sophistication that standard skirting and architraves don’t.

As touched on, each room has its notable wow factor: the media room has a 62-inch, cinema-wide flat screen but also a floor-to-ceiling interior window that looks out over the dining area, allowing whoever’s cooking to note a presence or not in this enclosed room – again, keeping the family connected while separate.

“We have three children, and so we can’t help but bring a family-friendly perspective to designing living spaces,” says Kate. “We know what each member, at different ages, needs.”

Paul and Kate have worked together for ten years, bringing a collaborative and wide perspective to projects, which they’ve found to be particularly beneficial, not just to one another, but also to the client.

“In most situations,” says Paul, “meetings are scheduled between designer and architect. We share an office and bring our work home with us, ensuring constant consultation and a combined perspective. We are, in effect, one another’s sounding board. It helps that Kate trained as an architect – she can speak the language – but she adds the softer, more emotive elements that complete the home and that are often overlooked by the architect’s response to the brief. In that regard, she brings an added dimension to client meetings; she sees things from all perspectives, and also the end game. This is massively beneficial for all – the client is rarely one person, but often a couple looking for a family home, but coming at it with different needs.”

“While Paul’s skill is creating exciting places to live,” explains Kate, “homes with a strong architectural vision, I will bring a practicality to his thinking. I understand how the home will work beyond the artistic sensibilities and I’ll try to infuse the client’s character into the finish.”

I suspect that it was Kate who was behind the alcoved dressing table, and the highly covetable dressing room with immensely practical storage, but also such details as the lit recess on the first-floor landing wall that displays a rather beautiful sculpture.

There is a clean simplicity to Park House, but nothing practical or aesthetic has been overlooked, which is doubtless down to the tandem approach of architect and designer. “Poetic pragmatism” is how Kate Gray would describe Gray + Gray’s goal, which pretty much sums up what we all aspire to in a home. grayandgray.co.uk

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Green and brass

Wall lamp, Amara, £99

Vibrant green is very much the sofa colour of 2017, but in accessorising your furniture, consider brass or copper as an accompaniment. It adds a certain opulence and possibly down to copper’s natural greeny hues, works particularly well.

Brass table, Pols Potton, £179

Graham and Green Wall clock, Amara, £312 Lamp, Marks and Spencer, £95

Chair, Marks andSpencer, £1,299 Footstool, Marks & Spencer, £499 Lassen twin table, Amara, £239

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space Hatfield grass sofa, Sweetpea and Willow, £2,055

Bloomingville brass magazine holder, Amara, £41

Puccini cocktail cabinet, John Lewis, £1,999

Helsinki wireless speaker, Amara, £319

Orla Kelly cushion, Amara, £42

Cushion, Marks & Spencer, £19.50 Tom Dixon scented candle, Amara, £100

Wild & Wolf brushed brass telephone, Amara, £64.95

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For one wanting to discover Spain without the plane

This year experience a different, authentic Spain, away from the crowds and a better way of getting there.

Cruising overnight from Portsmouth or Plymouth to Santander or Bilbao, you’ll enjoy fine dining, elegant bars, entertainment and a great choice of comfortable cabins. You’ll arrive relaxed, refreshed and ready to explore northern Spain and beyond, in the comfort of your own car.

Reserve this year’s sailings now for a deposit of just £35.

Find out more at brittanyferries.com/manor or call 0330 159 6805 128 MANOR | Spring 2017 Terms and conditions apply.

Escape An idyllic beachfront apartment in St Ives | Exploring Sri Lanka | Zermatt’s year-round appeal

Infinity pool at Madulkelle Tea and Eco Lodge, Sri Lanka madulkelle.com

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Life’s a beach

Situated to enjoy the best of St Ives’s considerable charms, Upper Saltings is a holiday home you won’t want to leave. Words by Imogen Clements.

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here’s something special about St Ives. It has a rather magnetic attraction – first came all those great British artists, followed by the holidaymakers, then the second-home hunters, then the developers, resulting in the panicked response of the council, who, in an attempt to calm the stampede, prevented the building of more second homes, at the end of last year.

With its sandy-lichened slate roofs, labyrinth of pretty lanes and its undulating shoreline giving rise to several coves,

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many with good surf and all with pristine views, and tasteful (and tasty) eateries, it’s not surprising that people just keep coming. So much so, that many of the quaint cottages and sail lofts have been divided every which way to make more and more bijou apartments and holiday homes.

Which, in turn, makes it all the more astonishing to find Upper Saltings, an airy loft apartment of almost 1,500 square feet comprising an enormous open-plan living area and four bedrooms comfortably sleeping 12, located right on Porthmeor Beach.

Upper Saltings is designed to a faultless specification, whereby ingenious architects have made the best of the apartment’s unique location and fantastic space.

On entering the expanse of living area, complete with vaulted ceiling, you gasp initially at the sheer scale of it, and then at the view.

You are drawn immediately to the far end, where a wide window seat – which doubles as a daybed – looks out over the beach. It’s tempting to install yourself in this spot for the entire holiday, staring at the waves and watching the sun rise and set, because it is stunningly beautiful and there is nothing to obstruct the view.

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Upper Saltings is designed to a faultless specification, whereby ingenious architects have made the best of the apartment’s unique location and fantastic space.

If the jewel that is St Ives doesn’t tempt you out, Upper Saltings is the sort of apartment you can roam: the art on the walls – including limited prints of Terry Frost and Patrick Heron works – competes with some of the best galleries on the high street; the kitchen/dining area is state of the art, with the highest-quality appliances, impeccable use of space and artistic use of shelving; and the bedrooms are cleverly designed for maximum peace and comfort – the children’s room is accessed through a portholed door and has six bunks lining curved walls, some rather vertigo-inducing for the older and less intrepid amongst us, but making great use of the room’s dimensions while giving children an exciting maritime sleep adventure.

During summer months, you can nip out in your swimmies for a morning dip, then pad along the sand to the wonderful Porthmeor Café, just five minutes’ walk away. By evening, you can head there again for sundowners and tapas, or take a five minute walk to Porthgwidden Beach Café for some tasty Mediterranean fare while staring out to sea at the wonderful Godrevy Lighthouse.

The Tate is a mere ten-minute stroll away, and St Ives’s famous School of Painting is a stone’s throw, allowing you to discover a latent talent for life drawing, classes for which take place on most days.

St Ives’s charms are well known. There is no end of cafés, good restaurants, galleries and, of course, shopping to do, all within easy walking distance of Upper Saltings, which is just as well, as driving in St Ives is to be avoided, not least because parking is an endless challenge.

Upper Saltings is a rare gem. So rare that the same couple have owned and enjoyed it for 25 years, and continue to do so. They’ve loved it as a family home and love the fact that others love it as much as they do. And thank goodness they’ve never been tempted to sell up to those who’d carve it up into small apartments in a heartbeat.

On the contrary, in fact: five years ago, they bought Old Saltings, the apartment directly below, which is of equal size, with four bedrooms and similarly impeccably designed living spaces. Which means that an extended family or large group of friends could rent out both and have oodles of space to play with, and possibly one of the biggest and most beautifully positioned holiday homes to enjoy in one of the UK’s most prized coastal towns. saltingsonporthmeor.co.uk Prices range from £750 for a short break off-season to £3,200 for a week in high season.

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Midigama beach

Exploring the Sri Lankan jungle and hill country, Lauren Williams does a bit of hiking, enjoys a luxurious homestay and climbs Adam’s Peak before heading to the coast to watch whales.

Photos by Lauren Williams.

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ang! The tranquillity of my jungle cabana is broken by something big falling on the roof.

I put down my book and tiptoe cautiously around the side to see a giant water monitor lizard swagger towards me menacingly. I don’t take any chances with the reptile and swiftly retreat to the safety of my treetop balcony to sink into the sounds of the jungle around me. Later, over a banquet of home-cooked curries, my host Sanjee says whilst laughing, “’Ee is nothing to worry about, dear! ’Ee is hunting baby chipmunks living in your roof, no?” Of course.

This is Sri Lanka, where big, toothless smiles beam out of weathered faces, the smell of thick coconut milk wafts out of every kitchen on every street, and deep, luscious jungle fills the beach-fringed island like a dense chocolatey centre. The war is over, and Sri Lanka is a welcoming paradise dripping off the end of India; a place where you can indulge in nature, spirituality, ancient cities, and see men washing elephants in rivers as if they were the family hatchback.

Our homestay in the wild was the stuff of dreams, and although our cabana was simple, Sanjee, her husband Lalaith and two charming children welcomed us into their family from the second we arrived. Here, we lazed in the canopy with monkeys and fluorescent birds, learned to cook Sri Lankan style in the family kitchen, and ate like kings on no less than 20 different lovingly brewed curries during our four-day stay.

Honeyland Homestay was to be our exploration base to see some of Sri Lanka’s most famous sites, and with Kataranga, our private tuktuk driver, we hit the road and headed 40 minutes north to Dambulla.

The entrance to Dambulla’s famous cave temples is up two hundred monkey-riddled steps. These places of worship are worth the sweaty incline for both the views from the top and the intricately decorated caves within.

Giant Buddhas with feet bigger than my living room recline in golden splendour, and detailed and brightly coloured patterns cover every inch of the caves.

Coming down is, of course, much easier than going up, and in a flurry we were back in our tuktuk and heading to Pidurangala Rock. This rock temple, which is the remains of the inside of a volcano, is an oftenoverlooked hike in Sri Lanka, and is both quieter and cheaper than the more famous Sigiriya Rock.

After walking and scrambling for 20 minutes to get to the top, we emerged on the summit to views of imposing Sigiriya nearby and endless jungle stretching out, all around, beneath the base. We were the only two people wandering around on this stand-alone rock and it felt as if we had the roof of the world to ourselves.

From Naula, we hopped on a bus south to Kandy and haggled “a good price” for a ride into the Knuckles Mountain Range. For two-and-a-half bumpy hours we lurched up mountain roads to Madulkelle Tea and Eco

Dambulla Cave Temple

Dambulla monkeys

Descending Adam’s Peak

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Reconnecting over a cup of tea or falling back into soft sleep are far more important here than checking in on social media.

Tea at Madulkelle

Madulkelle tea plantation

Lodge, where we were to spend two nights sleeping under luxurious canvas.

Set within acres upon acres of tea plantations, the Eco Lodge has 18 private safari tents, with waterfall showers, organic toiletries, cosy beds, and balconies overlooking the Knuckles Mountains. Mornings here are spent with your tent doors open, prizing your eyes awake as the sun peeks over the peaks and floods your bed with glorious orange light. There is no WiFi in the lodges, which means reconnecting over a cup of tea or falling back into soft sleep are far more important here than checking in on social media.

We found it hard to prise ourselves away from the high-altitude infinity pool that sits in front of the lodge’s main house, but adventures in tea were awaiting us, and as the afternoon heat started to dwindle, we headed out to wander the plantation. Tea pickers waved and our guide showed us the different tea plants, explained how long they are dried for, the importance of crop rotation and fair pay for the workers at the factory. The sun slipped beneath the leaves and we ambled back to the lodge for a fabulous four-course dinner under the stars.

Some things are a rite of passage in Sri Lanka, and climbing Adam’s Peak, or Sri Pada, with the pilgrims at night is one of them. As we came into Dalhousie, the dark enveloped the hill country, and the mountain was lit up by a ribbon of bright lights reaching to the shining monastery in the sky. We dropped our bags, filled our bellies with kothu roti, set an alarm for 2am and went to 134

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sleep under a mosquito net, praying for a moonlit walk.

In the early hours, we eagerly stretched out of bed, threw on our hiking boots and grabbed a roti and coffee to shock our bodies into thinking it was morning. We chatted with locals and watched our fellow walkers drowsily ramble to the beginning of the walk. Over 5,200 steps were ahead of us before we would reach the summit for sunrise. It’s a long old slog, but the singing pilgrims who huddle around candlelight to worship as they go made our spirits soar.

Two and a half hours after we began, we reached the busy summit, where worshippers snuggled in sleeping bags and tourists hustled for the best spot to see the sun rise over the clouds. We huddled closer to keep the alpine air from chilling our bones, and watched the sky turn from black to a carnival of reds before embarking on the knee-shattering run to breakfast at the bottom.

If there’s an excuse required to head to the beach, an overnight hike is the best you’ll find. On a bus south, we headed for Mirissa, a paradise where good surf is guaranteed, the seafood fresh and weather as hot as you like. Accommodation in Mirissa can range from highend luxury lodges to concrete high-rises and beach huts; booking months ahead is not totally necessary, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the beach gets busy.

There is plenty to do other than sip on coconuts and bake in the sun on Mirissa, from snorkelling and kayaking to swimming with turtles, but joining a boat tour to see blue whales definitely takes the biscuit. We spent a

escape morning with Raja & the Whales (RATW), the only sustainable company in Sri Lanka, based at the west end of the beach in Bay Moon Bar – they also do an excellent red snapper supper. RATW works with Edinburgh University to conserve marine life in the area, teaching locals why conservation and treating the whales with respect are important, so you know your money is going to a good place. We saw five blue whales, a pair of mating turtles and spinner dolphins out on the sea that morning.

Sri Lanka is a country that has it all – you can be in the mountains for breakfast and on the beach for sundowner cocktails. The people are friendly, the food is out of this world and there is so much nature you won’t know where to look. Go now, before everyone else does.

Honeyland Homestay started at £12 per night. Two meals per day were charged at £2.50 each, and driver and tuktuk were £20 per day. honeylandhotel.com or search Naula on airbnb.com A night at Madulkelle Tea and Eco Lodge, full board, begins at £223.

Excursions, hikes, cooking classes and spa treatments all come at an extra cost. madulkelle.com

Madulkelle infinity pool

Spending a morning on the ocean with Raja & the Whales in Mirissa is £30pp, with breakfast, snacks, hot drinks and water all provided.

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PHOTO: LUCY MUNDAY

Paragliders at Zermatt, with the Matterhorn as a backdrop

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escape

Lucy Munday heads to the pristine peaks of Zermatt in Switzerland for an active fatherdaughter break.

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t was to be a father and daughter holiday. Dad and I hadn’t been skiing together before so, to appeal to both, we decided on Zermatt, with its huge and varied ski area, plethora of restaurants (him) and pampering spots (me). My father had learned to ski 20 years ago, after my parents’ marriage broke down. I, a surly teenager at the time, opted to learn while at university and on a budget. Having not been since, skiing to me means tiny French apartments rented as suitable for six people while realistically fitting three. The prospect of a grown-up hotel was therefore rather exciting.

We stayed at the Hotel Perren. It boasts a rather lovely wellness centre, where I spent most afternoons unwinding tired muscles after a hard day’s snowboarding.

Unfortunately, there was no swimming pool, but other hotels in the area allow non-guests to use theirs for a fee

PHOTO: JEREMY BERNARD

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This area boasts some of the highest peaks in Switzerland and 360km of pistes. As a result, it sells itself as a 365-day ski resort with a bustling tourist community all year round.

Gornergrat train

PHOTO: LUCY MUNDAY

Iglu-Dorf

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PHOTO: LUCY MUNDAY

of CHF 50. Due to the lack of pool and hot tub, Hotel Perren is rated three stars, but I would say that it’s worthy of four for the food, wine and service alone.

Dad and I arrived on a Saturday night after journeying from Geneva airport across Switzerland and up the mountain by train. Perhaps a long journey – it took a whole day – but as a Brit, getting to most European ski resorts usually takes at least a day, so it’s something we’ve come to expect. The airport was easy to navigate and the train journey made blissful by wonderful lake views, and rising peaks dotted with vineyards. Switzerland must have one of the best and most scenic railways in the world.

The hotel porter met us from the station and whizzed us over to our accommodation in an electric taxi.

Zermatt doesn’t allow petrol cars in the resort; there are instead numerous electric taxis and buses to get about in.

Doubtless these will all be driverless in no time, but if you’re nostalgic for the past, a horse and cart can also be hired from the station.

Petit Royal

Relax and Recharge Switzerland is known for its famous exports: chocolate, cheese, banks and a vast array of expensive watch brands.

A country so well known for watch-making should be somewhat exacting, and hospitality proved to be another great asset. We were treated with a welcome smile wherever we went, and everywhere was clean and warm, while staff moved fluently between German, French, English and Italian, with barely a breath.

A café of note was the Petit Royal on Bahnhofstrasse, serving delicate and fattening pastries and cakes with rich coffee, a hot chocolate menu to die for and smoothies, among other treats. I had a delicious chai tea latte. The interior is both cosy and modern, and looks out onto old shuttered buildings typical of the area.

On the mountain, a key draw was the restaurant Stafelalp, owned by the wealthy Julen family. Franz Julen is the CEO of Intersport International, and the family owns a dozen of the top restaurants and hotels in the area, along with a sheep farm, which doubtless contributes to the high-end menu. Situated on the Stafel run, the restaurant has a wide glass front allowing breathtaking views of the Matterhorn while you dine on fondue.

Worth another mention is the Iglu-Dorf, a collection of full-size igloos where by day you can enjoy hot chocolate with rum for a quick break off piste; or by night enjoy a ride up on the famous Gornergrat train for fondue inside the igloos.

The imposing shock of rock – the Matterhorn – towers 3,000m above the Swiss town. There isn’t much avoiding it, but one of the better viewpoints is from the Blue Lounge, located next to the Rothorn gondola and Blauherd chairlift. We stopped here for a drink and flammkuchen (a kind of French-German pizza), which was worth it for the awe-inspiring sight of this tremendous shard of mountain cutting through an intense blue sky peppered with hang-gliders.

Zermatt sits in the Pennine Alps on the southern mountain border with Italy. This area boasts some of the highest peaks in Switzerland and 360km of pistes. As a result, it sells itself as a 365-day ski resort with a bustling tourist community all year round. Plans to build new lifts that connect the Zermatt/Cervinia/Valtournenche ski areas to Val d’Aosta, and also Piedmontese, will expand the resort to 600km, making Zermatt one of the biggest ski areas in the world.

When there isn’t sufficient snow, the vast ski area becomes a draw for hikers and mountain bikers. Plus, for those brave enough, there is lake swimming to enjoy or, for those not, general lounging in the sun or at one of the many spas.

Open for Day Spas, residential packages and membership Sunday lunch £22.50 per person Non-residents most welcome for morning coffee, cream teas and meals throughout the day

This family-run country house hotel on Dartmoor is bursting with traditional character and friendly service from people ready to make you feel at home.

South Devon Hotel of the Year 2015 AA Silver Award 2015 Spa and Wellbeing Experience,Visit Devon Awards 2015

Ilsington Country House Hotel NEAR HAYTOR, DARTMOOR

Ilsington Village, Dartmoor, Devon Tel: 01364 661452 www.ilsington.co.uk

HOLIDAY COTTAGES

CHECKED OUT BEFORE YOU CHECK IN

Prices at Hotel Perren start at £164 (CHF 204) a night for a standard double room. hotel-perren.ch/en/ easyJet fly direct to Geneva from Bristol: easyjet.com

01647 434091 helpfulholidays.co.uk

Feefo Gold Trusted Merchant 2016 Sunday Times Editor’s Award Winner 2013 MANOR | Spring 2017

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For teachers and parents of children studying in the South West Schools news in brief

Mount Kelly opens Olympic Legacy Swimming Pool MOUNT KELLY WELCOMED HRH The Princess Royal to the school on 17 January to officially open the Olympic Legacy Swimming Pool. The 50-metre pool, built in partnership with Sport England thanks to £706k of National Lottery funding, opened for use in September.

In addition to training for Mount Kelly pupils, the pool will be used for long-course training by other swimming clubs from across the South West and further afield. A significant amount of time is also available for community usage, and for the national ASA ‘Learn to Swim’ programme for children.

The opening ceremony was attended by many swimmers who were pupils at Mount Kelly and who have achieved international success, such as Sharron Davies MBE and Andy Jameson, as well as Rio 2016 Paralympic medallists Claire Cashmore MBE and Mikey Jones MBE. “This is a fantastic boost for swimming across the whole of the UK,” said Sharron Davies, who has remained a keen supporter of the programme at Mount Kelly. “Mount Kelly has been at the heart of performance swimming for four decades and was the launch pad for my own international career. It is inspirational to see so many young athletes working hard to achieve their goals, and it’s fantastic that this facility will to be able to assist in producing the next generation of Olympic and Paralympic champions.”

HRH The Princess Royal enjoyed a swimming display by local primary schoolchildren and members of the Mount Kelly swim squad. Before leaving, Her Royal Highness unveiled a commemorative plaque to mark the occasion.

“The successful completion of the pool project, within two years of the establishment of the Mount Kelly

Foundation, is a significant achievement,” said Mark Semmence, the Headmaster. “It will bring enormous value not only to the school’s internationally renowned swimming programme, but also to our local community.”

Thinking Making, a new film about making at Plymouth College of Art, premieres in Saatchi Gallery Thinking Making, a new Freelands Foundation film by Henry Ward on Plymouth College of Art’s ethos of learning through making, premiered on Monday 6 February 2017 at London’s Saatchi Gallery as part of COLLECT, the Crafts Council’s International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects.

Henry Ward said: “Plymouth College of Art understands that it is through an intimacy with materials and processes 140

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that we create our genuinely innovative ideas. It is focused as much on thinking as it is on making. I knew that I wanted to share this, and that’s why I made this film.”

Thinking Making, will have its South West premiere at Plymouth Arts Centre on Monday 13 March from 7:30pm.

Plymouth Arts Centre, 38 Looe St, Plymouth PL4 0EB. Free but ticketed event. Email brand@pca.ac.uk for tickets. plymouthart.ac.uk

school

Blundell’s Prep pupils raise funds for ‘blood bikes’ PUPILS FROM BLUNDELL’S Prep School, Tiverton, handed over more than £2,000 to Devon Freewheelers, the emergency courier service.

The youngsters raised the money during the autumn term through a variety of initiatives including selling Christmas cards that they had designed, collections taken at their carol service, and running games and selling refreshments, as well as secondhand books and toys, at their Christmas market.

They were inspired to donate the money to Devon Freewheelers after Steve Nash, a volunteer with the service, came into school to talk to them about the organisation. Devon Freewheelers is a group of advanced motorcyclists who provide a free outof-hours emergency-response service, couriering blood, human organs, medical equipment and other vital supplies between hospitals and pharmacies. All costs are covered through fundraising – no charge is made to the patient or hospital that has requested their assistance.

The pupils were delighted to welcome Mr Nash and his motorbike to give him a cheque for £2,176.60, which will go towards meeting the costs of this important service.

Under-14 netball team secures place at national finals

Explore BAs, MAs and more in a range of subjects across art, design and digital media — from Fashion Media & Marketing to 3D Design Crafts.

Visit and apply now plymouthart.ac.uk

Students shoot and style the BA (Hons) Fashion graduate collection lookbook

THE MAYNARD SCHOOL’S U14 Netball team is now officially ranked as one of the top netball teams in the country, following a fantastic performance at the regional finals of the National Schools Competition on Saturday 21 January. They will compete at the national finals to be held in Welwyn Garden City in March.

“It’s a fantastic result to qualify but I’m not surprised,” said Maynard’s Director of Sport, Catharine Gabbitass.

“I’ve always considered them the South West’s dream team and they have a very bright future ahead of them.”

Interested in creative study?

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Studying a language broadens the horizons, improves cognitive abilities, and scores a big ‘yes’ with employers, writes Jacqui Richards.

ou may be at that point where you have to help your young teenager decide what options to take at GCSE or A-level, or your children may be much younger and starting primary school. Either way, it’s never too late (or early) to opt for languages. Including a foreign language in their toolbox of skills will offer them a plethora of advantages that will change their lives forever.

In my time at Exeter College, I taught the International Baccalaureate (IB) – an international equivalent of A-levels introduced to the UK in 1971. Six subjects are taught (as opposed to the usual three A-levels), with one being a second language. The IB Learner Profile aims “to create internationally minded people who, recognising their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more peaceful world”.

Some might think this mission statement rather lofty, but even if you don’t agree, shouldn’t this be the aim of all human beings? Isn’t this reason enough to encourage our offspring to learn languages?

Learning a language changes your mindset. It foments intercultural understanding and enables us to embrace inclusion; we are all different, but we all share this life and this world. Learning a new language lets us celebrate our differences together and build bridges 142

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to those communities that need help. The Italian film director Federico Fellini said: “A different language is a different vision of life.”

There has been a wealth of research demonstrating that learning a language improves performance in other areas, including listening skills, communication, grammar and numeracy, and it promotes collaboration and team-working with peers. As the former education secretary Michael Gove said: “It is literally the case that learning languages makes you smarter. The neural networks in the brain strengthen as a result of languagelearning.” So, learning a foreign language has countless cognitive benefits: it facilitates multi-tasking and problem-solving by increasing your brain’s capacity. It also improves memory.

Learning another language is a gift – it expands your child’s horizons. When we think of a language, we tend to think of it as just the spoken word, but the experience is much broader than this. It comprises a multi-faceted world of culture, art, people, literature, film, religion, politics, geography, economics and even history. It unlocks a world of possibilities. Studying a language allows your child into this new and exciting dimension, and allows them to see the world through other’s eyes. Knowledge of another language can help

school that person understand, and be sensitive to, different people’s points of view – a desirable skill required in many areas of the workplace.

Learning a new language is fun. It increases confidence in social situations and gives you a reason to communicate with foreigners in the UK or when abroad. Whether it’s because there are similar grammar structures, or simply that the more languages you learn the faster you make connections, learning a language makes it easier to learn other languages. For example, you can apply the principle of declension to German if you have studied Latin, even though the vocabulary is different.

Because of our language’s links with Latin, if you were to learn a romance language, you wouldn’t be starting from scratch. Over 50% of English comes from Latin or French. In fact, if you learn Spanish, for example, it shares the same alphabet and many ‘cognates’ – words that look like English words or are similar. Then there are the Oriental or Middle Eastern languages, which, although naturally more challenging to study, could open the door to some of the most lucrative economies in the world.

When choosing a language, there are many considerations: what is on offer at your child’s school?

You may like to holiday in France or have family in Greece or have plans to set up a business with Latin America. Or your child may have an amazing teacher who has kindled a passion for their subject. Whatever the motivation, make sure you do your research and ask around. According to the British Council, as a nation we need to improve our language skills.; together, we can start that change.

Successful linguists have worked in a multitude of industries: travel and tourism, hospitality, journalism, football and sports, entertainment, teaching and politics. Did you know that Nick Clegg speaks fluent Spanish, and Mitt Romney, French? Your budding entrepreneur could even start up an import/ export business with Europe. Employers look for a language, even it’s not directly linked to the job advertised, because it illustrates that the individual has overcome all the challenges associated with learning that language, such as teamwork, communication, respect and collaboration. It is also well documented that foreign language speakers are good listeners and problem solvers.

From a personal perspective, when I moved to Devon from London I was given a job in food sales over a monolingual candidate because I could communicate in Spanish or French or Italian with the suppliers.

My additional skills were recognised and rewarded: I negotiated an extra £5,000 on top of the salary advertised.

So, to summarise, speaking a foreign language will augment the chance of achieving a top career.

If your child is at primary school, the school normally decides which language will be taught

from Key Stage 2. However, at secondary level there is usually more choice, and your school might offer a carousel of languages over a year. This means that pupils are exposed to, say, a term of German, a term of French and a term of Spanish. If you’re lucky, Latin or Mandarin may be on offer, too. Towards GCSE, students can then choose one or two, depending on their preference.

At A-level, a language can proffer an alternative to maths or the sciences, while still being strongly academic. In addition, students can add an extra dimension to their learning by studying that language abroad or doing an exchange. This is an invaluable opportunity for young people to experience how other cultures live, and can establish a lifelong passion.

So, in a world where there is so much competition for school or university leavers, make your child stand apart from the crowd by encouraging them to learn languages.

Jacqui Richards runs iSpanish, which offers live one-to-one online and face-to-face tuition to children and adults, from beginners to A-level. She has co-written the CGP GCSE Spanish Study Guides and is an examiner for the International Baccalaureate. ispanish.co.uk

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SUPERB RIVER VIEWS DITTISHAM, SOUTH DEVON Outstanding views over the River Dart and surrounding countryside n beautifully presented property n full length balcony n attractive front and rear gardens n ample parking with double garage n sought after village location n easy access to river n ideal family or second home n EPC Rating E

Guide Price ÂŁ1,500,000 Web Ref: DAR160207

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Contact our Prime Waterfront & Country House Department on 01548 855590 Dartmouth office 01803 839190

Property The Bulletin | Property of note: Brightley House, Devon Snapshot comparative

71 Above Town, Dartmouth Guide price: ÂŁ625,000. See page 149 marchandpetit.co.uk

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A BEAUTIFUL REGENCY HOME WITH INCOME DARTMOOR NATIONAL PARK, SOUTH DEVON Elegant late Regency country house n income from established holiday lets n superbly presented n wealth of historic interest n nestled in grounds and landscaped gardens approaching 2 acres n beautiful orangery n fabulous heated outdoor pool n only 10 minutes from the A38 n large double garage and ample parking n EPC Rating E

Guide Price £1,395,000 Web Ref: PWC160039

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Contact our Prime Waterfront & Country House Department on 01548 855590 Totnes office 01803 847979

property

The Bulletin As the Easter holidays approach and many of us plan to hit our favourite spots on the South West’s moor and coast to take some well-deserved downtime, we consult the region’s leading estate agents on today’s second-home market.

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espite the ‘second home’ being considered, in some quarters, a dirty phrase, the lure to have your own bolthole on the coast or in the country – a place to escape the hubbub associated with everyday working life – is still strong.

The second-home property market has met some challenges. Firstly, the government, concerned that second-home buyers are denying the local community places to live, has levied 3% additional stamp duty from April 2016 on any home not bought as a primary residence. This means properties priced between £250k and £925k will incur stamp duty of 8% instead of the 5% chargeable if the property is sold as primary residence, which can be quite an outlay.

There is also the news that St Ives has successfully incurred a ban on any new builds being sold as second homes – they can only be sold as primary residences –

and there are other communities in the South West that are expected to follow suit.

What does all this mean, and has it dampened the demand for second homes? Apparently not.

According to Prunella Martin, Director of Marchand Petit in Kingsbridge, the market remains rife. “In 2016, second homes accounted for 63% of Marchand Petit’s prime waterfront and country house sales. It is an incredibly important aspect of our business, but also integral to the economy of the South Hams, with money feeding into the region from London, the Home Counties and the Midlands in particular.

The support structure needed to run these properties employs local gardeners and housekeepers, as well as property letting agents.”

Prunella reveals that, in her experience, many people buying a second home are looking for a lifestyle change,

MAP: KNIGHT FRANK, 2016

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and wanting to ‘test drive’ an area prior to moving the family down permanently or retiring there.

For those considering purchasing a second home, Richard Addington, Director of Jackson Stops in Exeter, states there are two overriding factors to consider: ease and cost of ownership.

“Ease will be dependent on the design and construction of the property,” he says. “Twee thatched cottages may look very appealing but today’s buyer is often interested in modern buildings with low running costs (maintenance, heating, insurance, gardening). Location will also affect ease of ownership, in as much as good communications to the area will make visiting it easier.”

Richard goes on to explain that cost is dependent on the type of property, with second homes attracting the aforementioned surcharge of 3% stamp duty unless they qualify as ‘mixed-use property’ (that is, they consist of an element of the property in addition to the residential element that is commercial, agricultural or leisure-related).

Ben Davies of Savills, Truro, warns: “Don’t assume that you will be able to negotiate the additional 3% stamp duty off the purchase price of the property.

Instead, consider the returns. In order to generate a good return from letting out your property, invest in it to bring it to the highest possible standard. The quality of holiday lets has improved dramatically, to which holidaymakers have grown accustomed, but they are also prepared to pay a premium for it, so it is most definitely worth doing.”

With regard to the St Ives second-home ban situation, Ben cautions: “This is only in relation to new builds with planning granted after the decision was made. The flipside is, of course, that the value of existing properties has gone up.”

It sounds like a TV cliché, but all agents stress the importance of location. The practicalities of getting to your second home will dictate whether visiting it is a joy or fast becomes a chore. Property that is coastal or on the one of the region’s moors has obvious outstanding natural beauty advantages, but it is a better commercial bet if it is near a good pub or restaurant, according to letting agents.

South West current hot spots are indicated on the map on the previous page.

A PRIME EXAMPLE OF A ‘HOT-SPOT’ PROPERTY

Coastguard Terrace, Portloe, Cornwall Guide price: £695,000

Two former coastguard’s cottages renovated into one four-bedroom period home on the south-eastern coast of Cornwall’s Roseland Peninsula. The Coastguard Terrace (dated 1856) has recently been refurbished, although it still retains some of its original features. Set in extensive gardens and boasting sea views, it’s just a short walk from Portloe Harbour and is 2.5 miles away from Carne Beach. The accommodation includes an open-plan kitchen/dining room, a double-aspect sitting room, downstairs shower room as well as a family bathroom. Three of the four bedrooms have sea views. savills.com

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property

Snapshot comparative A selection of properties for under £750k, which could make good second (or principal) homes.

South Devon

2 Hele House, Ashburton Guide price: £565,000 Part of an original Grade II listed property, Hele House is a renovated contemporary family home, with four bedrooms and south-facing views. Set over three floors, the accommodation compromises an entrance hall, study, downstairs WC, dual-aspect sitting and dining room and kitchen with underfloor heating. Set within an acre of land in a tranquil rural location, the house is one mile from Ashburton and the A38 dual carriageway. struttandparker.com

Trevoyan Farmhouse, Padstow Guide price: £750,000

Cornwall

Trevoyan Farmhouse is a spacious, south-facing, fivebedroom Grade II listed building with distant sea views and an attached three-bedroom cottage. Set on just under an acre of land, the property is close to Constantine Bay and the Trevose Golf Club (1.9 miles). The property retains many of its original features and includes a spacious dining room, kitchen, sitting room, office, snug, utility, and internal access to the cottage. In need of some modernisation. rohrsandrowe.co.uk

South Devon

71 Above Town, Dartmouth Guide price: £625,000 A three-bedroom detached period house set over three floors and located close to the town centre, this property benefits from river and sea views. It has been refurbished with underfloor heating and new kitchen and bathrooms. The bedroom on the lower floor opens out to the patio, overlooking the river, with steps leading down into an enclosed garden. marchandpetit.co.uk

Parsons Green Lane, London, SW6 Guide price: £699,950

London

This two-bedroom period maisonette is spread over two floors and rare in that it occupies all the residential space in the building. The dual-aspect windows in the master bedroom on the upper floor and reception room on the lower offer plenty of natural light, and the maisonette is situated yards from Parsons Green underground station. Parsons Green Lane has many shops and bars, and Fulham Road and New King’s Road are also close by. struttandparker.com

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This green and pleasant land Occupying a riverside location in north Devon and boasting 50 acres of pasture, woodland and meadows, Brightley House is the ideal spot for lovers of country pursuits. Words by Fiona McGowan.

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property of note

S

o many people dream of a country house retreat – a place to escape the frenetic pace of life in the city. For office-bound urbanites, surrounded by the jangling demands of communication technology and Other People, it’s no surprise that the bucolic countryside of Devon and Cornwall is a constant draw. Perhaps not so much the seasonal charms of the coast; rather the quiet seclusion of a pad in the middle of nowhere – a place where the only interruptions are the chitter of birds and the wind through the trees, the harrumphing of horses and the splashing of an otter in a stream.

Such picture-postcard fantasies are not so unrealistic when you come across properties like Brightley House.

This generously proportioned, four-bedroom house – built at the turn of the 20th century – is replete with Arts & Crafts charm: from its thatched roof to its enviable position atop a knoll overlooking a meandering river, to its elegantly designed grounds with flowering shrubs marking out sections of lawns, and a paddock and stables beyond.

Its most recent owners had been loving caretakers of the property for 40 years, says their nephew Steven. They immersed themselves in country living.

“Brightley was my late uncle’s pride and joy,” he says.

“He had a wonderful canvas on which to set out all his treasures: the paintings and the antique furniture. They both had such wonderful taste.” With its extensive grounds, it was also a perfect place for entertaining, says Steven, who has fond memories of coming to visit. “It is an oasis of calm,” he enthuses. “A real haven of peace and nature.”

There can be few properties so perfectly suited to those who love country pursuits. The river that loops around, horseshoe-like, forms a border to the property and is ideal for salmon and sea-trout fishing. The large paddock and stables were the domain of Steven’s aunt – now 90 years old, but a keen horsewoman for much of their time in the house. Add to that the ample opportunities for shooting (“although the property is not large enough to have its own shoot, there is one just across the river,” adds Steven), and you get a sense that this place is frozen in aspic.

It is unlikely that the place has altered much – neither in terms of the lifestyle nor the essence of the house and grounds – since the 1920s. You can imagine the gatherings: all flapper dresses and Gatsby-esque men strolling around the summer lawns and playing croquet; the tweed-clad guests wandering down to the river for a spot of trout fishing or riding out across the countryside on a hunt.

“One of the joys of the property,” reveals Steven, “is the deciduous woodland along the long drive. In spring, the banks are covered with snowdrops, daffodils, crocuses, celandine, wood anemone, wild garlic, primroses and bluebells. It is a spectacular feature and MANOR | Spring 2017

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This generously proportioned, four-bedroom house – built at the turn of the 20th century – is replete with Arts & Crafts charm.

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property of note the wild birds proliferate, along with many pheasants seeking a safe haven.”

The house itself is by no means contemporary – it has not been modernised for several decades – but the structure and interior were built to last, and the décor is of reassuringly good quality. The bathrooms and kitchen, particularly, would benefit from a tasteful intervention, but what might seem old fashioned in some contexts somehow comes across as rather apt in this corner of Devon countryside. The house has clearly been designed for entertaining: the four bedrooms are generous enough that the owners had grand four-poster beds in them, and the dining room and drawing room connect with double doors, so they can be opened up into one large room for a big group of guests.

Located around 45 minutes’ drive south of Westward Ho! on the north coast of Devon, and under an hour’s drive from Exeter, Brightley is not entirely remote; and the nearby village of Dolton provides the amenities that you’d expect (grocery shop, pubs, church). It is a place that is both immensely private but deeply embedded in the local community – Steven says his uncle and aunt had a warm network of caring friends in the area, who have been incredibly supportive of his aunt after her husband died. “I imagine the house would either attract families whose children board during term time, empty-nesters who want to enjoy the peace and wonderful aesthetics of the place, or someone who wanted to buy it as a second home,” says Steven.

The cottage on the property would make an ideal place for a caretaker to live, says Steven – particularly if the house was not permanently occupied – but it could be just as easily converted into a guest-house.

Investing in a second home, of course, would usually incur stamp duty surcharges. However, as Richard Addington, director at Jackson-Stops, explains, Brightley House is categorised as a ‘mixed-use’ property, thanks to its paddock, stables and fishing opportunities. This means it would be exempt from the surcharge, and attracts a lower rate of stamp duty. Somewhat unusually, too, for a house of this style and age, Brightley is not listed – meaning that sensitive renovations would be a relative breeze. That’s if anyone wanted to break the place out of its genteel past.

Brightley House, complete with 50 acres of paddocks, river meadows, pasture and woodland, a mile of salmon and sea trout fishing on the River Torridge, along with a two-bedroom detached cottage, is on the market with Jackson Stops for £1.5 million. Tel: 01392 214222. jackson-stops.co.uk

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A BEAUTIFULLY PRESENTED VILLAGE HOUSE WITH LARGE GARDENS AND WATER VIEWS

DITTISHAM, DEVON

Dartmouth: 6, Totnes (with main line rail link to London): 9, The beach at Blackpool Sands: 7 (Distances are in miles and approximate) 3 bedrooms. 3 reception rooms. 2 bathrooms. 1,705 sq ft approx. Immaculate gardens with wildflower meadow.

Garage and storage for small boat or additional parking.

Guide £795,000 154

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Savills South Hams Sarah Jane Chick sjchick@savills.com

01548 800 462

BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY PROPERTY SURROUNDED BY HISTORIC GROUNDS

MORVAL, LOOE, SOUTH EAST CORNWALL

Savills Cornwall

Looe: 2.5, Liskeard: 6, Tamar Bridge: 14, Cornwall Airport, Newquay: 33 (Distances are in miles and approximate) Charming Grade II listed 4 bedroom house, with adjoining 3 bedroom cottage and a detached converted forge arranged as two holiday cottages. Set in 3.5 acres of park-like gardens, offering a tranquil retreat in a secluded valley with opportunities for income. 4,700 sq ft. EPC= Exempt Guide £1.1 million Freehold

Jonathan Cunliffe jcunliffe@savills.com

01872 243 200

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OUTSTANDING TITHE BARN WITH PADDOCK NEAR KINGSBRIDGE, SOUTH DEVON A stunning tithe barn n reconstructed in 2008 to create a beautiful and unique home n finished to an extremely high standard n hi-tech specification n set in approximately 2 acres of land n stable block n wildlife pond n small orchard n wonderful estuary views from the land n triple open fronted garage n EPC Rating C

Guide Price £1,000,000 Web Ref: PWC160036

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Contact our Prime Waterfront & Country House Department on 01548 855590 Kingsbridge Office 01548 857588

WALK TO LOCAL BEACHES WELLSWOOD, TORQUAY Attractive open views towards the sea n beautifully presented detached house n set out on 3 floors n near the delightful Wellswood Village n only a short distance from local beaches and Torquay town n 4 bedrooms n self-contained 1 bedroom annexe n private setting n outdoor swimming pool n garage and parking n EPC Rating E

Guide Price ÂŁ800,000 Web Ref: TOT160338

Contact our Prime Waterfront & Country House Department on 01548 855590 Totnes office 01803 847979

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BLACK BOOK

Interiors expert Victoria Jelbert runs her design business, too chy chy, from her studio in St Ives. She shares her tips for the Westcountry good life.

Born in Cornwall, I’ve lived here most of my life; it’s a beautiful want my business to keep sustainability as a core value when place to be. I worked in marketing before retraining and designing and renovating because the choices we make when switching to interior design, and now I run my own business, building or furnishing our homes have a big impact on our daily which I love. My husband and I had done a few of our own environment, as well as globally. design-and-build properties, and I wanted to use those skills At home, we have artwork from local artists and sculptures and creativity in my work. The granite farmhouse we live in by my husband’s late friend Max Barrett, who used granite now was an empty shell, and we created from the farm to turn into his our family home with a fantastic flow of masterpieces. Plus, an abstract work by spaces, and the exposed hilltop setting is my daughter. They are personal and stunning, with views to the north and beautiful and unique. There’s a lot of south coasts of West Cornwall. It’s wild exposed granite in our house, so anything in winter and soul-lifting in summer. here needs to sit well with the rawness The sea, the wild, relaxed spaces and earthiness of those walls. and the towns of West Cornwall are I only like upcycling when it’s done conducive to creativity, so there’s well, and using quality secondhand lots of artistic inspiration around me. furniture, but you have to hunt for good My favourite St Ives galleries are the pieces – Kernow Furniture has a good Penwith Gallery, the New Craftsman, selection, and Kitsch Attic on Etsy does and the Porthminster Gallery, and fun pieces and great prints. I love it when there is always something surprising at a client has a piece that we can breathe Weaver Green rugs Anima-Mundi, but Truro, Newlyn and new life into – one of my favourites was Penzance all have great galleries, too. an antique buttoned chaise longue that When I’m out I like honest, we brought bang up to date by recovering ergonomic and individual interiors with a vibrant pink patterned velvet. where you feel immediately comfortable, I use Little Greene paints because but also inspired. The Cornish Barn I love their colour palette and the finish. in Penzance and Newlyn Filmhouse Wallpaper is brilliant for giving a lot do that brilliantly, as does the more of impact. I love fabric and pattern, The Cornish Bed Company traditional Tinner’s Arms in Zennor. and there is a boom in talented British For a nice cup of tea, I like Scarlet in fabric and wallpaper designers – Korla, Lelant and the Godrevy Café, and I Abigail Edwards and Zoe Glencross love being able to eat outside, by the sea – are my current favourites. I’ve got some there are great beachside restaurants in St great lampshades by Falmouth-based Ives. At home, we have an outdoor room Particle Press that are artworks in with a chimenea and a big barbecue, themselves, and fit beautifully into our cushions and blankets that we use nearly home. I love the cosy glow of lamps in every day in summer. This year, I want the evenings, along with scented candles to get a good outdoor rug from Devonfrom St Eval Candle Company; you based Weaver Green, made from can pick them up at one of my favourite recycled bottles, and more lights to make shopping haunts, The Old Foundry it feel even cosier.

Chapel in Hayle.

Little Greene paints I dip in and out of many design I love metal beds because they are and interiors magazines, blogs, programmes and newspapers strong, elegant and practical. We need to be wary of fast fashion for trends and sourcing accessories. I love The Restoration when it comes to the key items in our home, and buy to last – Man, because the owners always take on such challenging and I like to source British or Cornish makers and craftspeople. projects. I use Pinterest for keeping images and inspiration The Cornish Bed Company has beautifully crafted bed to show to clients or craftspeople. I follow Australian interiors frames. I’ve just discovered the wonderfully relaxing pillow trends because their indoor/outdoor and coastal vibes fit so mists from the holistic and organic Bloom Remedies (and well with the lifestyle in Cornwall. I’m reading books on their skincare range is amazing). With pure linen bedding, that’s sustainability, including one by designer Oliver Heath – I my idea of bed heaven.

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The all-new Audi A5

BRAND SPACE Main communication copy must be placed in this area

Exeter Audi

Denbury Court Marsh Barton Exeter Devon EX2 8NB 01392 338070 www.exeter.audi.co.uk

Official fuel consumption figures for the all-new Audi A5 Coupé (including S5 Coupé) in mpg (l/100km) from: Urban 28.5 (9.9) – 60.1 (4.7), Extra Urban 47.1 (6.0) – 78.5 (3.6), Combined 38.2 (7.4) – 70.6 (4.0). CO2 emissions: 170 – 105g/km.

Fuel consumption and CO2 figures are obtained under standardised EU test conditions (Directive 93/116/EEC).This allows a direct comparison between different manufacturer models but may not represent the actual fuel consumption achieved in ‘real world’ driving conditions. Optional wheels may affect emissions and fuel consumption figures. Fuel consumption and CO2 figures correct at time of print [February 2017]. Image for illustration purposes only. More information is available on the Audi website at www.audi.co.uk and at www.dft.gov.uk/vca MANOR | Spring 2017

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87 Queen Street, Exeter, EX4 3RP, Tel 01392 279994, Email websales@mortimersjewellers.co.uk