Manor 018 issuu copy

The Region’s Premium Publication Late Spring 2017 | Issue 18 | £4.50

Charley Boorman

As I see it

Trelowarren

A Cornish estate diversifying

Blooming marvels

Landscape designers Isabel and Julian Bannerman

Coombeshead Farm A foodie’s haven

The charm of Chile

PLUS

Travel adventures in South America

CULTURE FOOD SPACE ESCAPE SCHOOL PROPERTY MANOR | Late Spring 2017

1

2

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

3

4

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

5

FORMER HUNTING LODGE ENJOYING BEAUTIFUL VIEWS OVER THE BARLE VALLEY

DULVERTON, EXMOOR

Dulverton about 1.5 miles; Winsford about 5 miles; Tiverton about 15 miles Unspoilt position. 5 reception rooms. 5 bedrooms. 5 bathrooms. 5441 sq ft approx. Landscaped gardens including kitchen garden. South facing pasture paddocks. Garaging, workshop and outbuildings. Stable yard with 7 loose boxes, tack rooms and feed stores. In all about 13 acres. EPC – E.

Guide £1.5 million 6

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Savills Exeter Chris Clifford cclifford@savills.com

01392 455 733

A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY HOME IN AN IDYLLIC RURAL HAMLET

WITHIELGOOSE, CORNWALL

Savills Cornwall

Wadebridge: 6; Bodmin: 6; Cornwall Airport; Newquay: 12; Padstow: 13.5 (Distances are in miles and approximate) Home Farm is a beautiful example of a traditional Cornish country home; tasteful character blends with modern upgrades creating a comfortable and welcoming interior with a total of three bedrooms. Facing south, the house looks out over its wonderfully stocked front garden and there is a paddock to the rear with around 2.5 acres. Additional 13 acres available by separate negotiation. 1,912 sq ft. EPC=F Guide £895,000 Freehold

Jonathan Cunliffe jcunliffe@savills.com

01872 243 200

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

7

8

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Contents

Late Spring 2017

26 70

36

16 Regulars 15 TOWN MOUSE, COUNTRY MOUSE Correspondence from across the divide

26

30

AS I SEE IT...

TV presenter and actor Charley Boorman

Style & Beauty 16 TRENDS In the pink, stripes for the picking

22

SHADOW AND LIGHT

24

MY FEEL-GOOD REGIME

70

BATHING BEAUTY

Features 30 BALANCING ACT

The diverse work being done at the Trelowarren estate in Cornwall

36

COMING UP ROSES Landscape designers Isabel and Julian Bannerman

Tips and advice for one of make-up’s biggest trends

Entrepreneur Linley Lewis

Photographed by Matt Austin

Photostory 42 OPENING EYES Photographer Remy Whiting’s The Snap Foundation

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

9

54

58

90

96 Culture 54 SIGNS OF THE TIMES Artist, curator and writer Cedar Lewisohn

58

A behind-the-scenes look at the Brixham Fish Market

94 96

WORTH MAKING THE TRIP FOR...

100

WORTH STAYING IN FOR...

Quality time on your sofa

10

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

BITES Food news from across the peninsula

Cultural highlights from the metropolis and beyond

68

BOXING CLEVER Mindful Chef founders Giles Humphries and Myles Hopper on their healthy recipe box scheme

SOUTH WEST MUST SEES...

What’s on around the region

65

A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE Food foraging along the banks of the River Exe with ethnobotanist Robin Harford

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES Artist-led consultancy Art Eye

62

Food 90 A SENSE OF SCALE

107

THE TABLE PROWLER ...dines out at KuPP, Exeter and Surfside, Polzeath

Late Spring 2017

110 132 Escape 126 A TASTE FOR RELAXATION A foodie getaway at Coombeshead Farm in Launceston, Cornwall

132

SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE Discovering Chile’s untamed charm

MANOR school 136 SCHOOL NEWS IN BRIEF

Maynard’s championship competitions, Trinity School’s The Prep Lodge, Shebbear College’s pupils’ rugby success, author Ben Kane’s visit to Exeter School

138

LOOK WHO’S TALKING Advice for a child’s life-long learning

114 Space 110 INSIDE STYLE The story of JAM and its particular brand of design expertise

114

A NEW BREED OF MATERIAL Justin and Hannah Floyd on their innovative business Solidwool

118

How presentation can incrwease the value of your home

148

PROPERTY OF NOTE

159

SNAPSHOT COMPARATIVE

Crown Yealm House, Newton Ferrers, Devon

A selection of properties with stunning gardens in the South West and London

KINGS OF KIP We talk to Devon-based Naturalmat’s founders as they open a new flagship store in London

122

Property 147 THE BULLETIN

SHOPPING FOR SPACE Designer brands

Back page 162 BLACK BOOK Interior designer Libby Milla shares her secrets

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

11

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 anna@manormagazine.co.uk

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Phoebe Tancock phoebe@manormagazine.co.uk

CONTRIBUTORS

Professor Ruth Merttens, Alice Wright, Lauren Williams COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR

Claire Wares claire@manormagazine.co.uk

ADVERTISING SALES

Rachel Evans advertising@manormagazine.co.uk

DESIGN

Eleanor Cashman, Guy Cracknell

THE COVER Dress, £49.99, Mango Photographer: Matt Austin; Stylist: Mimi Stott; Model: Eve Delf; 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.

12

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Hello!

We have timed The Design Issue for spring (with summer fast approaching), as that’s when we throw open the windows and refresh wardrobes and living spaces. There’s the essence of the season infused throughout the following pages, with design relating to homes, gardens and beautiful country estates.

There is also an air of positivity and purpose that comes with greater rays of sunshine, and Fiona McGowan interviews the wonderfully upbeat Charley Boorman for As I See It. Charley, the motorcycling mate of Ewan McGregor, has recently recovered from a life-threatening motorcycling accident and testicular cancer, but at no time allows himself to get down or ponder ‘why me?’. As he sees it, “nobody likes a moaner.”

We also feature Isabel and Julian Bannerman, the award-winning garden designers and custodians of the 12th-century Trematon Castle, which overlooks Plymouth Sound. They show Jane Fitzgerald around and take her through the thinking behind their creation of the castle’s extraordinary garden.

Anna Turns heads to Dartmoor to interview the couple behind Solidwool, who produce sleek, state-of-the-art furniture out of wool. Yes, chairs from wool. Read just how they do it in our Space section. Also in Space, we feature two premium design outfits originating in Devon and offering the best in style and comfort, not just across the UK but internationally.

Exeter-based JAM Interiors and Naturalmat are celebrating the opening of flagship showrooms – the former’s in Topsham, the latter’s in Chiswick, London – that will showcase the best you can buy in interior design and beds. These are just two premium operators amongst a growing number of high-end design purveyors and innovators who are fast turning the cathedral city into the South of England’s mecca for seekers of such quality. Indeed, this South West corner of the country, as both Naturalmat and Solidwool demonstrate, is not only delivering the very best in design, but time and again shows an innovative and highly progressive approach to it. It must be the something about the beautiful, natural environment they operate in.

We have, as usual, a brimming food section and a quite beautiful arts section full of visual stimulation, not least that created by the multimedia artist Cedar Lewisohn, who discusses with Belinda Dillon the historical influences on his work prior to his exhibition, ‘Ndungu, Isca’, to be shown at Exeter Phoenix.

MANOR’s mission as a premium regional is always to reflect the interests and lifestyles of its informed and qualitydiscerning readers. With every issue, we endeavour to provide content that is relevant to their lifestyles, be it art, beauty, style, food, design or travel. In that regard, we cover the best of the region but recognize that our readers move beyond it and want to know what’s good to see, or where’s good to eat, in Bath, Bristol or London, and where in the world to travel to.

With travel in mind, we have a winner. In association with the Isles of Scilly Travel and the four-star Star Castle Hotel, MANOR offered one lucky reader a short break for two on the Scillies, with return flights included. We received a phenomenal 1,800 responses, but there can only be one winner. The name to be drawn from the hat was Katherine Wildman’s from Plymouth. Congratulations, Katherine! We hope you and your chosen companion have a wonderful trip. And for those of you who didn’t win this time, there’ll be more highly attractive prize draws coming up in MANOR. Watch this space, or, better still, sit out in the spring sunshine and peruse your Design Issue, soaking up the inspiration.

Imogen Clements FOUNDER & PUBLISHING EDITOR @ManorMagazine

@manormagazine

Sign up to the MANOR newsletter to receive special offers and see what’s coming up at manormagazine.co.uk/newsletter

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.

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

13

14

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

TOWN MOUSE, COUNTRY MOUSE Darling...

Sweetness...

I’ve decided to become a designer, of the fashion variety. I mean, how hard can it be? All the wives are at it – Victoria Beckham, Samantha Cameron – and they seem to have harboured remarkable, untapped talent… so I figure, so must I. I shall dust off the sewing machine and start sketching and seeking seamstresses to do all the challenging bits. The trick of these born-again designers, though, is to keep it simple, which is handy, as this is very much the trend. No Jean-Paul Gaultier flounce and flamboyance, which is good, as that would test me. Instead, it needs to be simple panels, expertly cut. Think like a Dane: mute colours, clean lines, perhaps Cos, or if you’re me, Prada (who, of course, I aspire to), and you have the right idea.

And as for the home, it is spring, but I’m going further than simply cleaning; I am depersonalizing. Absolutely. It’s what all modern high-style homes are doing these days: white-washing and clearing out to achieve minimalist anonymity, and maximum aesthetic. It’s a simple concept that I’ve only just latched on to – the less you fill a room, the more you widen its appeal. At least, that’s what those real estate experts are extolling across the pond. Declutter, go neutral (colourwise), then throw in the odd choice piece of Scandinavian furniture, perhaps a work of modern original art. Your home will look like it’s straight off the pages of Elle Deco.

Obviously, such minimalism doesn’t extend to the garden, that extra room to one’s home – or in my case, the balcony. This, I’m told, needs to ooze romanticism; think climbers and blooms of the most fragrant kind, amongst which one can hide, like Helena Bonham Carter in Howard’s End. There is something inexplicably therapeutic in sitting out, surrounded by nature budding, blooming and being pollinated. It’s what we city folk all gravitate towards at the first sign of summertime – corners of balconies, parks and deckchairs. We’re all children of the earth really, aren’t we, sweetness?

What you say makes complete sense. I’m quite hopeless at visualization, so in my days as a property hound, I would completely disregard aspect and potential, and was put off bargain buys of houses by things as silly as tile grout and shabby year-old toothbrushes in the bathroom, never mind the heinous yellow paint that dressed walls, and dusty, illfitted carpets. Such properties I’m in no doubt would be worth double these days, had I seen through all the gumpf.

I’m absolutely for stripping it all out, except for the fact that I’m a self-confessed hoarder, never wishing to throw away or pass stuff on, just in case it becomes useful and I regret it. Take fashion, sweetie – it’s pretty much always cyclical. As soon as you throw away those flares and leather jackets, they spring right back into fashion.

Plus, there is, I’d like to think, less of a disposable attitude that us more progressive country folk are adopting these days. Buy fewer quality items and they’ll last you; and never be a slave to fashion such that you invest in quite obvious fads – we are, are we not, sweetie, now of the age where we simply don’t need to demonstrate that one’s finger is on the pulse by bearing our navels and emblazoning brands on our t-shirts? That said – and this is where I disagree with your penchant for khaki and all things White Company – I am for a splash of colour come the sunshine months: so deck me out in pinks, stripes and florals (obviously not all at once) all summer long, please. They are all the rage and plentiful, which is lucky.

Just make sure those stripes are at the right angle to flatter, not fatten. Talking of contouring, there is much one can do with make-up, I’m told, to straighten the nose and heighten the cheekbones.

Ah, all the illusory tricks we can apply to figure, face and home to find favour in the beholder. It just requires a little know-how.

WHAT’S HOT IN THE SMOKE?

WHAT’S COOL IN THE COUNTRY?

An American in Paris at The Dominion until 30 September is getting universally rave reviews as a Gershwin classic that thrills.

Devon County Show on 18 -20 May is the place to head if you fancy a thoroughly enjoyable rural weekend, spectating, eating and drinking the very best of Devon.

‘Queer British Art’ at Tate Britain features works from 18611867 relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer identities at a time when established assumption on gender and sexuality were changing. Features work by John Singer Sargent, David Hockney and Duncan Grant. Until 1 October 2017.

If it’s coastal rather than rural fare you’re after, then head to the immensely popular Salcombe Crab Festival on Sunday 30 April. Celebrates crab, seafood and the arts, and draws crowds of up to 3,000 – must be good!

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

15

In the pink

Marks and Spencer

Warmer days call for warmer tones and pinks are the stand-out colour this season. From rich fuchsia to dusty rose, dress up your style with heels and statement jewellery or dress it down with sandals, trainers and a bomber or denim jacket. Compiled by Phoebe Tancock.

Earrings, Whistles, £40

Dress, Marks and Spencer, £69

Dress, Topshop, £46

Bag, Zara, £22.99

Shoes, Next, £18

Top, Hobbs, £45 Denim skirt, Next, £24

16

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Christopher Kane SS17

trends Earrings, Hobbs, £25

Dress, Zara, £29.99

Top, Phase Eight, £49

Skirt, Zara, £25.99

Coat, Phase Eight, £125 Pashmina, Phase Eight, £39 Necklace, Marks and Spencer, £19.50 Gazelle trainers, Topshop, £149.98

Shoes, Hobbs, £99

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

17

Stripes for the picking

Stripes are back – they never stay away for long – and this year they’re more widespread and bolder than ever. Indeed, stripes are prevalent throughout the high street combined in many cases with other popular trends this season – uneven hemlines and shoulderless cuts – or bodycon knits. Stripes to suit everyone. Compiled by Phoebe Tancock.

SS17 Altuzarra

Earrings, Zara, £9.99

Dress, Marks and Spencer, £55 Dress, Hobbs, £119

Bag, Next, £32 Clutch, Jaegar, £65

Shoes, Hobbs, £139

18

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Jasper Conran SS17

trends

Dress, Dorothy Perkins, £38 Dress, Hobbs,£229

Clutch, Whistles, £69

Skirt, Debenhams,£60 Skirt, Debenhams, £60

Shoes, Dune, £75

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

19

20

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

21

beauty

Shadow and light Create some drama through the art of contouring. Make-up artist Elouise Abbott shows you how.

T

hanks to the Instagram phenomenon that is Kim Kardashian, and the many beautiful instaglam girls (and boys) everywhere, contouring has become a massive make-up trend. But contrary to popular belief, it’s not just a recent fad: contouring can trace its roots back to early theatre, where the technique was used to adjust and enhance facial features for the stage, and was subsequently adopted by film and television. Max Factor, the master himself, created a contouring tutorial in the 1930s.

Contouring is all about the use of a light shade and a dark shade to create an illusion on the face. All you need to remember is that a dark shade recedes while a light shade comes forward. Using this information, we apply a dark shade (contour shade) to areas we want to deepen, such as the hollow of the cheekbones; it’s also used to adjust shape, or make an area smaller, such as shading around the edge of a long forehead, or down the sides of a nose to straighten. A contour shade needs to mimic a shadow, so when looking at your face, take note of the shaded areas – such as under the cheekbones – and try to match that. It is most often a cool taupe tone that you need.

Here are my top contour products.

Illamasqua Gel Sculpt in Silhouette is a versatile contouring stick suitable for most skin tones. It’s incredibly blendable, and is best used with a cream or liquid foundation.

Kevyn Aucoin The Sculpting Powder is the perfect matt taupe shade and works fabulously over powder or liquid foundation. It’s important that your contour shade is matt; avoid shimmer at all costs – shadows don’t shine!

We add a light shade (highlighter) to the areas we want to draw the eye to and bring forward, like the cheekbones and the cupid’s bow. We can use light to enhance, and to make an area appear larger or fuller.

The Balm Mary-Lou Manizer is a fabulous, honey-hued powder 22

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

highlighter with a beautiful balance of light and shimmer.

MAC Strobe Cream is a cult classic – I never leave home without it.

This liquid illuminator is beautiful when applied under foundation for a touch of subtle radiance. You can also mix with a dab of liquid foundation for a little extra brightening glow. This comes in a range of shades perfect for all skin tones.

I’m a huge fan of contour palettes, and most cosmetic houses now have a kit within their ranges. I like to have a clean make-up bag and a palette containing the balanced shades I need makes my life quicker and simpler.

Kat Von D Shade and Light palette contains six pans of powder: three shade and three light. This is perfect if you are a contour novice, as the variety of shade options allows you to experiment and see which tones work best for you.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Pro Series Contour Cream Kit is the forerunner of the contour kit trend. The kits each contain six shades of cream colour, and there are a range of kits ensuring there’s one suitable for everyone.

Smashbox Step-by-Step Contour Kit is a great little palette with three perfectly balanced shades, including a contour, a bronze and a highlight, ensuring beautifully sculpted, chiselled cheekbones.

Every face is unique and individual, so choosing areas to shade and highlight is all down to personal preference and individual requirements – there is no ‘onesize fits all’. Just experiment and see what suits you.

To book your style refresh, complete hair makeover or gorgeous new colour for summer call 01392 256999

2 Bampfylde Lane, Princesshay, Exeter, Devon Email: exeter@sakshair.co.uk | www.saks.co.uk/exeter

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

23

My feel-good regime Linley Lewis founded surf and snow travel company Ticket to Ride with school friend Will Hayler in 2005, and more recently the two took over the ownership of Wavelength surf magazine (and set up Wavelength Media, the creative agency behind it). He moved to Topsham three years ago, where he founded It Happened Here – a quarterly social gathering for independent businesses in Devon and the South West.

My life’s a bit of a blend between my time away, and when I’m at home in Devon with my wife, Kiri, and our two young children, Ottilie and Theo. As a company,

we operate all over the world in ski resorts like Banff in Canada and Méribel in France, and surf destinations including South Africa, Mozambique, and Costa Rica.

I will spend a number of weeks travelling around these locations as it’s important to have some time with our team and customers, get a bit of mountain air in the lungs, and salty water on my skin!

We have an awesome office and a team of 10 down at the Quay in Exeter, where we are part of The Generator

co-working space. The office is also a good five-mile bike ride from where I live in Topsham. This is a great way to start and end a working day. Outside of work and family time, there aren’t many other opportunities to exercise.

I love a weekend trip to Greendale Farm Shop and so do

the kids, with their little trolleys and the animals. I get a buzz from talking to the butchers, buying an alternative cut of meat, and knowing that I’m going to go home and put it in the Kamado for about eight hours. We won’t have meat with every meal, and when we do it has to be organic and free range. I suppose we eat Paleo, but we aren’t obsessive or too regimented about it.

Nothing beats a summer in Devon. We have a small boat

and will spend the weekends on that, or head off to beaches at Bigbury and South Milton Sands, where the water and waves are ideal for the kids, and it also means we get to eat at The Oyster Shack and The Beachhouse.

We’re always off on trips with the family, whether it’s abroad or just some local Devon exploration – the spirit of adventure is important. Last summer we spent three weeks

going around California in an RV, which was amazing.

I spend around five weeks in the mountains each year, which gives me a good amount of skiing and snowboarding. At home, I spend as much time as

possible in the water, and if the waves are pumping, Will and I have a few hidden spots that we’ll hit.

Kiri and I are both into our food, and we like to cook everything from scratch, and buy local. I recently

treated myself to a Kamado Joe ceramic cooker, and I’m always looking for an excuse to fire the coals and explore different recipes and ingredients.

24

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Travel keeps me inspired, but I like hearing about other people’s life journeys, the choices they’ve made, the

decisions they’ve taken, the failures they’ve had and how they’ve dealt with them, how that’s shaped them to make the achievements they’ve made and be the people they’ve become. It helps keep me pushing to make the right choices that will shape my professional and personal life in a positive way. tickettoridegroup.com

Bigbury, Devon

LANGUISHING IN MY BATHROOM CABINET My kids have fully hijacked my morning routine, so I can’t do it myself any more. I don’t trust antiperspirant, so I just make sure I wash regularly and use something called PitRok, which is a natural alternative. I use Bulldog Moisturiser each morning, a dash of SuperFish Moulding Cream on my hair, and a dab of Ortigia pomegranate aftershave.

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

25

26

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

As I see it...

TV presenter and actor Charley Boorman is a man with a passion for motorbikes. One of his most wellknown TV appearances was a documentary charting a round-the-world motorbike expedition that he undertook with his friend Ewan McGregor. The son of renowned film director John Boorman, he has spent almost his entire life in front of and behind the camera. Interview by Fiona McGowan.

I’ve always been fascinated by the way television and movies are made – from coming up with the idea and looking for the money, to filming, editing and selling it around the world. I think I get that from my father. He’s a film director, and as children we were all thrown into his movies.

His philosophy was: “Why bother paying for children when I’ve got four who I can use for free?”

I was very dyslexic, so I found it difficult to express myself in school. I was always clowning around – I suppose deflecting from the fact that I couldn’t read properly. I was lucky that we lived in Los Angeles: they were ahead of the game over there, and I was diagnosed at a very young age.

It would take nothing to integrate dyslexia into the teacher-training curriculum – it’s about recognising the signs. The kid who’s constantly asking the teacher questions might be struggling to keep up with what they’re writing on the board; the child who’s just quiet and sits in a corner because he’s been told he’s thick all the time.

Acting and presenting are a similar process. With acting, you’re portraying a character that isn’t you. I loved it, but hated learning lines. Some dyslexics have no problem doing it, but I struggled. I’d have to employ someone to read the lines with me repeatedly until eventually they would sink in.

In documentaries, there is some scripted stuff you have to get right, but in the end, you’re just being yourself.

I broke my hand; I’ve had testicular cancer; I broke both my legs last year and had to retire from the Paris-Dakar race, but I don’t wallow. I never say, “If only I’d left my hotel room 30 seconds earlier, then 40 minutes down the road I wouldn’t have hit that car.” That’s a waste of time. It’s done. Either you become depressed or you just get on with it. Nobody likes a moaner.

I wouldn’t say I’m especially resilient, but I’m optimistic.

My mother had this great dignity and positivity about her. I loved it, and I’ve always tried to take a leaf out of her book.

When I broke my legs, I was really bed-bound. Suddenly your world shrinks: bum-shuffling across the ground and somehow managing to get yourself up onto a toilet and sitting there for the first time in months is huge. I remember thinking, “Wow, this is an enormous achievement. I’m never going to take going to the toilet for granted ever again.” Sure, there were days when I didn’t feel great – a lot of that was because I was in so much pain; that gets you down.

Men aren’t very good at talking about their problems.

After I had testicular cancer, I got involved in [testicular cancer

charity] Movember, which aims to get men talking about issues like mental health and cancer. A third of men I’ve met don’t like fondling their testicles. So you say, “Look, women check their breasts once or twice a week. You’ve got to get to know your testicles, so that anything that feels abnormal, you can pick it up quickly.” I love it. It’s changing men’s lives, which is great.

I’ve never called myself an adventurer, but my father made very adventurous movies – Deliverance, Excalibur, Hope and Glory, Hell in the Pacific – all in very tough places to film. Dad dragged us along everywhere he went, so that sense of wanting to travel was instilled in us as kids. For me, travel is about the freedom. When I made decisions about whether to do a movie, it was all down to where they were being filmed. Someone would say, “Do you want to come and do that movie? It’s in Africa.” And I’d go, “Ooh yeah, I’d love to do that.” Then I’d be looking at the script on the plane, thinking, “That’s a bit shit, but the location’s good.”

I think we all have to get out there and drive our lives forward, otherwise nothing will happen. When I was younger, my ambitions were to be a millionaire and to be a fireman. Today, I still have that ambition to be a millionaire.

I’ve ridden motorbikes since I was six years old – they’ve completely dictated my life. I’m sure my wife would love me to take fewer risks, but at the same time, she knows that I could never not ride a motorbike. Anyone who loves riding motorbikes, if they have an accident, they look at their doctor and say, “How long before I can get back on my bike?”

There have been lots of people who’ve inspired my interest in travel and life. There’s Barry Sheene: a motorcycle rider who was always so inquisitive about the world; he was funny and a real character, and he travelled all over. There’s Ted Simon, who wrote an incredible story called Jupiter’s Travels. He rode a motorbike around the world, and the book was about life and the people he met along the way. That was really inspiring.

My kids are 20 and 21. It’s a changing world for them. You hear about global politics all the time, politicians and people saying, “We want to know what’s going to happen with Brexit negotiations or whatever.” No-one knows. It’s impossible to know what will happen. Sometimes you feel like saying, “Shut up and get on with it.”

Long Way Back, Charley Boorman’s official autobiography, is published on 1 May by AA Publishing (rrp £20), and he will be talking at The Bath Festival on 23 May. bathfestivals.org.uk charleyboorman.com

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

27

Wardrobe doors with ‘cushion finish’ in Alpi grey stained oak veneer on black valchromat board. Clear matt lacquer finish. Copper handles from Sweden.

28

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

It’s the detail that sets you apart “I have always been hugely impressed by the outstanding quality of TDG’s joinery, furniture and interior fit-outs, allied to their exceptional attention to detail and the high level of service they offer their clients.”

ANDREW BROWNSWORD, OWNER OF GIDLEIGH PARK

Bespoke joinery | Furniture | Kitchen interiors T: 01392 364269 | touchdesigngroup.com MANOR | Late Spring 2017

29

A holiday rental cottage on the Trelowarren estate

A

Fiona McGowan visits Trelowarren, where Sir Ferrers Vyvyan and family are diversifying to keep this Cornish estate viable while maintaining a deep connection to the land and its ecology.

n epic battle is on the verge of being lost in the British woodland; a battle between a strong, resilient invader and a more delicate resident. The grey squirrel is a dominant force: it will eat anything, scavenging from bins and stripping the bark from trees; it carries squirrel pox but suffers no harm itself from the disease; it is brazen in its interactions with its human neighbours. The original resident squirrel – russet red, tufty-eared, shy and perfectly attuned within the ecosystem – couldn’t compete; over the decades, it succumbed to squirrel pox and retreated from its breeding and feeding grounds.

This could have been the end of the journey for the red squirrel, destined to go the way of the wolf or the beaver. However, we humans are a tenacious lot.

30

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

While the majority of issues with the ecosystem have been caused by our intervention, we are just as capable of managing those systems to help them run more smoothly, from the careful corralling of large grazing animals to help reduce desertification in Africa, to reintroducing the red squirrel to small pockets of Britain.

Which brings us to a capacious estate on Cornwall’s Lizard peninsula, where the red squirrel has found a champion. Trelowarren – one-time home of Daphne du Maurier and the family seat of one of Cornwall’s oldest families, the Vyvyans – is naturally isolated and environmentally pretty much unchanged for millennia.

Here, the Lord and Lady of the manor, Ferrers and Victoria Vyvyan, have been working to ensure that their estate doesn’t suffer the vagaries that affect so many

feature

The New Yard Restaurant

once-thriving ancestral estates, which stumble towards extinction, frequently turning to heritage charities like The National Trust and English Heritage to ‘museumify’ their properties and grounds.

Ferrers was having none of it. He took over complete management of the estate at 24, fresh from a sojourn in the army, and took the helm full of ideas. He gained a postgraduate diploma in the conservation of historic landscapes from the Architectural Association, and had a youthful understanding of the importance of being – well – earnest about the balance of human existence within the ecosystem. At the time, he says, “The big question was: are these old historical estates anachronisms? Has their time passed?” He found the answer pretty quickly: “I felt that living history was more interesting than corporate heritage.” Leaning back in his chair, he is a laid-back figure in a navy jumper and jeans. His table is covered with piles of papers, and his assistant works assiduously at an adjacent desk. The office is less of a barn conversion than a real barn: the stone walls are exposed, the floor is wooden planked; windows overlook the courtyard that once housed coaches. “These estates are the concepts of benign dictatorships,” he continues. “That’s what gives them their character and individuality. If you take away that form of ownership, perhaps something is lost.”

Estate management is clearly a mammoth task.

Trelowarren comprises cottages and farm buildings; it encompasses grazing land, acres of forest, and agricultural fields. The house itself is a great pile whose origins date back to the 1400s; later parts were added in the 1600s, and again in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Vyvyan family have owned and lived in the property for six centuries. No pressure for a 24-year-old

Sir Ferrers Vyvyan

idealist, then. Talk about standing on the shoulders of (Cornish) giants…

In order for the estate to survive financially, it had to be parcelled into different areas – much as it would have been divided over the centuries past. Running through everything that Ferrers does is a deep drive for conservation and the maintenance of the grounds’ unsullied ecology. Not for him the manicured open gardens of many stately homes – the family didn’t want to rely on countless visitors traipsing through the property year-round. On the other hand, they were keen to allow voluntary access to walkers and lovers of the countryside.

The litany of business ventures seems daunting: Ferrers took over the restaurant in 1984. “The food world was very different,” he remembers. “We were still quite excited by the avocado pear back then.”

Competition has grown over the years, and the restaurant has kept up with the times. A new chef, Jeff Robinson, started recently and the menu is mouth-watering (see page 105 for his asparagus risotto recipe). The Vyvyans are keen to emphasise the concept of ‘moral food’: “The morality is about profoundly understanding where it comes from, how it’s produced.” As much as possible it is locally sourced – grass-fed, fished and hunted from the immediate environs – although quality remains the main focus. Foraging is a thing, with courses on offer for hedgerow trufflers. An old walled garden adjacent to the swimming pool, gym and spa is in the process of being recreated as a kitchen garden-cum-botanical garden.

For many years, the couple’s focus was on sustaining the estate and bringing up their five sons. The estate was ticking over financially, with visitors to the restaurant, self-catering accommodation, and a popular campsite (very much pre-glamping), but Ferrers hit MANOR | Late Spring 2017

31

Staircase in the courtyard at Trelowarren

32

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Ilex avenue on the drive

feature

The self-catering eco rental accommodation features local oak and granite, and are super-insulated – very much about living in the landscape

Like all aspects of the estate, the construction business is about building trust through ‘connection and relationships’.

upon a great idea for engaging more investment in the property: timeshare. Having seen it in action on Tresco, where his friends the Dorrien-Smiths were bringing in a steady income from those with a vested interest in the estate, he decided to recreate the business model on the Lizard. He managed to garner planning permission to build 40 properties and convert several others into selfcatering lets.

With his passion for the environment coming to the fore, Ferrers got deeply embedded in the design of the new-builds and conversions. “We’re managing 40 or 50 buildings here,” explains Ferrers. “We have a huge amount of experience from new-build to old to conversion to cob to thatch to heating systems to architects. We’re obsessive about quality. Obsessive.”

The new buildings, completed in 2006, sit in rolling, grassy acres, abutting the 200-acre woodland. In exterior design, they are reminiscent of large, American-style barns; they are high and blocky, albeit clad in naturally greying wood with slate roofs. All the materials are locally sourced, Ferrers points out, from the Cornish granite and slate to the green oak timbers and ash wood interior details. “The thing about environmental design is that if it’s truly environmental – and a square block is the most efficient form – it’s hard to make the buildings aesthetically interesting.” There is careful thought behind every aspect of the build. He points out some clever planting of shrubs and trees, rockeries and secluded gardens, which soften the lines of the structures. The car park has been positioned so that the glare of headlights never reaches the windows. The use of materials that are natural and of the landscape means that the buildings blend in to the colours and contours of their surroundings.

Inside the new-builds, the design is simple and airy – high ceilings, lots of windows and roof lights. Behind the simplicity is, once again, some serious environmental consideration: the ordinary-looking double-glazed windows, Ferrers explains, are filled with argon – a gas with 34% lower thermal conductivity than air. The interior paint is organic and the heat comes from a big biomass system that runs off woodchips made from the 100% sustainable woodland on the estate. The buildings are so effectively insulated with recycled cellulose, he says, that they don’t really need heating at all.

Word in this part of the world spreads quickly, especially when quality building work is the story.

Within a short amount of time, the Trelowarren Estate building team was asked to work on a residential conversion project on the Roseland Peninsula. Other bespoke builds followed: from architect Alex Michaelis’s modernist marvel at Praa Sands to Ednovean House, a stunning coastal property in Marazion. Ferrers explains that, like all aspects of the estate, the construction business is about building trust through “connection and relationships”. Experience, of course, comes to play, and selecting the right people to work on the project. He is MANOR | Late Spring 2017

33

feature

PHOTO: COURTESY OF PERFECT STAYS

Ednovean House

passionate about the design and details of the build. “I particularly enjoy putting together the Rubik’s cube of all the issues, including time,” he adds, “but without compromising the quality of work. Sometimes it can get very tense, and we’re working 24 hours a day.” His favourite part of the process, though, is the final few weeks, when the fittings and finishes are completed and the client can see what they’ve got “and are delighted, I hope.” He grins in a self-deprecating way that implies his clients are rarely disappointed.

The Vyvyans are deeply enmeshed in Cornish cultural life, too. The estate is home to a large Cornwall Crafts Association gallery, and they host various arts events – the highlight this year being WildWorks’ peripatetic theatre show, Wolf’s Child. Ferrers has served as High Sheriff of Cornwall (“it felt like I footed the Champagne bill for Cornwall for a year”), and has founded a new organisation partly funded by the Arts Council, called the Cornwall Museums Partnership. “It’s about collaboration and building resilience into the museum sector. It’s groundbreaking work – we’re really building the plane as we’re flying it.” And very recently, Ferrers has become a board member of the Eden Trust. This is a very exciting time for Eden, he says – there are huge plans to expand globally – so being involved internationally, while maintaining his Cornish-rooted influence, will be key.

34

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

If there’s one thing that sums up the Vyvyans’ life on Trelowarren, it’s a passion for the land. His wife, recently retired from teaching, now chairs one of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) national committees, Business and the Rural Economy. “We have a fabulous intellectual relationship,” Ferrers says with a twinkle, “which is based on polar opposites. We row and we fight, but I think we both know we’ve got something lovely.” The management of the estate is both very traditional and yet contemporary in terms of environmental activity. It’s about investing in ‘natural capital’ on the country’s balance sheet, says Ferrers: 100 acres have been enclosed to promote wilderness, while the controlled grazing of cattle and pigs will provide meat for the restaurant. The grey squirrels have been culled and banished, and if all goes to plan, the first red squirrels will arrive this autumn in the first phase of a managed-release strategy – it’s not been universally popular, but in the same way as shooting rabbits, it is perhaps a necessary feature of managing human interaction with nature. And the five Vyvyan sons, with their varied skills and interests, look set to be involved in the estate for many years to come… This is at least one of Britain’s living country estates that laughs in the face of extinction. trelowarren.com

Specialists in Exceptional Holiday Homes.

Creating Lasting Memories.

Visit us at www.perfectstays.co.uk or call 01208 895 570 MANOR | Late Spring 2017

35

Wild valerian, oxeye daisies and and Philadelphus ‘Virginal’ shelter beneath the 13th century gatehouse and curtain wall

36

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

feature

Coming up Eminent landscape designers Isabel and Julian Bannerman have created an extraordinary garden at Trematon Castle overlooking Plymouth Sound. Words by Jane Fitzgerald.

Images courtesy of Isabel and Julian Bannerman.

I

t’s the nuances of roses that are being discussed around the kitchen table at Trematon Castle. Five years ago, landscape designers and builders Isabel and Julian Bannerman became custodians of this 12th-century castle, complete with an imposing Regency ‘creamy pat of butter’ villa built within the bailey, and they’ve been applying their energies, immense knowledge and wild imaginations to it ever since.

But what is it they’re trying to create at Trematon?

“Romantic magic,” says Isabel, without hesitation.

“It’s sort of a Pre-Raphaelite-on-drugs thing. Masses of roses, scent, luxury.” Roses can be difficult to grow in parts of the South West, and the Bannermans have learnt what works and what doesn’t in this wet, warm corner of Cornwall, with its surprisingly alkaline soil from the crumbling lime mortar of the castle walls. “People don’t think of Cornwall as having roses. They think camellias, hydrangeas, rhododendrons, magnolias.”

“Magnolias are fine,” says Julian.

“Rambling roses generally don’t have a problem,” adds Isabel. “It’s the sophisticated ones that can have. I’m still not sure how we’re doing with those.”

“They are doing absolutely fine,” counters Julian. “In varieties – climbers and old varieties and rambling – we’ve planted about 50 species, trying to get as long a season as possible. There are lots of Shakespeare’s roses that smell when it rains. Rosa Eglantyne, for instance – it’s like a wild rose, a dog rose, that will grow anywhere. And the leaves are apple scented; it’s like going to an apple store.

“When people think roses, they think showy things that flower all the time, and that’s quite hard to achieve.

Yes, you have to wait for them to grow up trees. And not all roses smell in the flower, they smell on the wind.

Another favourite is a Rosa rubiginosa hybrid, ‘La Belle MANOR | Late Spring 2017

37

Terracotta pots of scented Pelargonium ‘Sweet Mimosa’ frame steps up to the green oak obelisk

Sweet peas in the Peony Border

38

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Hot coloured dahlias, canna lilies, phygelius and auratum lilies surround the pool pavilion

Rosa ‘Comte de Chambord’ and a red aquilegia

feature

These visionaries speak of realising dreams, and it’s their creations of mock ruins, grottoes, stumperies and oaken temples that have made them famous.

PHOTO: ANDREW MONTGOMERY

Julian and Isabel Bannerman

Spring borders with wild honesty and sweet rocket and a flowering Kanzan cherry

Distinguee’. But you have to be patient. It grows to about the height of me. It has a miniature rose-pink flower.

The leaves are slightly ferny and the moment it is damp you get this strong smell of apples on the wind. And the flowers have that old-fashioned rose scent; like roses, but as you would expect soaps to smell.”

From the kitchen window, we inspect the bare rose stems clambering up the hefty stone ramparts that shelter the south-facing border; they are already up to the top and all the way along after five years of tender nurturing.

“It should be a good year,” says Isabel. “They were up last year, and this year they are filling out. You just have to be patient.”

“I do feed blood, fish and bone, and bonemeal,” adds Julian.

“He goes to Waitrose covered in bonemeal.”

“I smell like a feral tramp. I talk in a loud voice: ‘God, the garden’s being difficult this year’.”

Over the past 35 years, Julian and Isabel (who speak almost with one voice) have created extraordinary landscapes for high-profile clients including HRH The Prince of Wales at Highgrove, Lord Rothschild at Waddesdon Manor, The Duke and Duchess of Norfolk at Arundel Castle, and John Paul Getty II at Wormsley.

Not only are they masters of creating gardens in the soil, but they magic them in the mind, too, creating imagined Elysiums. It’s easy to get swept away by their descriptive prose.

These visionaries speak of realising dreams, and it’s their creations of mock ruins, grottoes, stumperies and oaken temples that have made them famous. The garden at Trematon is their own project, with no client to please, its nine acres beguilingly “crammed with the right things: with charm, mystery, possibilities, dissipated grandeur, lost domains,” says Isabel.

Julian disappears into the garden to transplant buckets of snowdrops while Isabel takes me on a brisk tour of the garden, where trees are just in bud and spring growth is pushing its way out of the ground. Under a spreading ‘Kanzan’ cherry tree, the earth spangles with tiny, deep-pink cyclamen. We swing by gently sloped borders punctuated by onion-shaped yews either side of a flight of steps that lead up to a green oak obelisk. In summer, Isabel tells me, the border explodes with a glorious mixture of opulence and allusion: mecanopsis, iris, peonies, roses, salvias, campanulas; and those mediaeval charmers the violas, lilies, gillyflowers and sweet rocket of illuminated manuscripts.

“There’s not much soil here,” says Isabel, “and because of the archaeology, you’re not allowed to dig, that’s why we’ve had to bring in soil to build up the borders. When we arrived, there was a big, roundleafed weed everywhere – Petasites. We’ve got rid of it from all the important bits, but you have to keep on top of it. The site is also very windy, which is strange.

I think the walls do something funny to the wind. It MANOR | Late Spring 2017

39

feature

PHOTO: DAN BURTON

Trematon Castle from the air shows the viaduct over Forder Creek and the naval dockyard at Devonport across the river Tamar

buffets around, so you adapt the planting accordingly.

The euphorbias get blown out of the ground, so we’re now planting them further down, where it’s more sheltered. I don’t know why we’re so obsessed with them. It’s a simple one called Euphorbia characius subsp. wulfenii. They’re just very useful.”

We thread through ancient granite archways, pause beside the weighty green oak cannons that are trained towards the naval dockyard in Devonport, and make our way to the orchard. “There was a pond here that acted as a filtration system for the natural swimming pool, but the whole thing didn’t work properly, and the pond looked completely wrong. Julian insisted on taking it away. I thought, ‘oh, so nice to have a pond,’ but I agreed with him, it looked terrible. It’s high ground and just unlikely somehow. Water in a garden has to make sense. So we dug it all out and filled it in.

We just planted more apples.”

Beside the orchard is a sheltered vegetable garden where Isabel says she likes to sit. But does this woman, who aside from being a landscape and interior designer, runs up her own loose covers and exhibits exquisitely detailed botanical photographs, ever sit down? “When we came here, this area was a bit sparse, very hard and empty-feeling, and we wanted to fill it with plants and make it more cosy and exotic and tropical,” she says, as we enter the pool garden, where a carved wood pavilion, imported from Rajasthan by the previous tenants, frames orange-painted benches and an extravagance of subtropical bananas, palms, lilies, scented pelargoniums and brugmansia that blaze brightly in summer.

Ascending the almost vertical castle mount that will soon be laced with bluebells, campions, orchids 40

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

and wild herbs that have self-seeded for hundreds of years, we stop for breath. From here you get a sense of just why, in 1068, William the Conqueror chose to site a castle at this point, 300 feet above the water. Nine hundred years later, John Betjeman wrote that it had “one of the most superb views of Cornwall, a Brunel stone viaduct crossing a foreground creek, the Lynher and Tamar estuaries beyond, and the wooded slopes of Anthony.” Isabel opens the ancient door to the castle keep. Within the lofty stone sweep of a wall, up a flight of small wooden steps, is an extravagant chicken house ornamented with fine feathered (and some rather fancy) chickens. “It is, of course, perfectly fox proof in here,” says Isabel practically, “but I do miss watching them from my kitchen window.”

On our descent, Isabel points out a Naval frigate moored below. “The guy who built this house, Benjamin Tucker, was a big fixer over there in the dockyards and I bet the whole house was built out of stuff he got for nothing. But he obviously got stuff done. And you realize in life – anyway, in our job – that’s what matters.”

Landscape of Dreams: The Gardens of Isabel and Julian Bannerman is published by Pimpernel Press.

Isabel and Julian Bannerman will be talking about the making of their garden at Trematon Castle at Ways With Words Festival of Words and Ideas on Wednesday 12 July at 11.45am in the Barn at Dartington. Trematon Castle is open to the public on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 11am – 4.30pm, until 30 September 2017. bannermandesign.com/trematon

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

41

photostory

Opening eyes For the last few years, photographer Remy Whiting has been working on a personal project, the Snap Foundation, which aims to teach children photography in the most deprived areas of Africa.

“This has opened many doors,” explains Remy, “and enabled me to immerse myself in areas and cultures I would never normally gain access to, which in turn has led to a portfolio of portraits, all shot on film through my trusted 30-year-old camera.”

42

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

43

Izikhothane – ‘to lick’ “Impoverished teenagers involved in Izikhothane have attracted sharp criticism due to their destruction of luxury brands in a carnival of excess. At their worst, they will buy lavish items of clothing and proceed to trample and burn them to show off to their friends, or simply to negate their feeling of dispossession. The group I met called themselves ‘Lai Golden Spidens’, and they’ve been congregating in a central part of their township each Friday for the last two years.”

44

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

photostory

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

45

photostory

46

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Coal in the Congo “The trading of coal in southern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is huge – people are selling it by the truckload right down to a handful at a time. There was a massive buzz in the air with the chaos of the market while men, women and children went about their daily work.”

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

47

48

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

photostory

Kasamba Village Hospital “In a small, remote village near Lubumbashi, in the southeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is an old shack that serves as a hospital. Doctors and the village are fighting against many things, but malaria is the biggest threat. Two-year-old Kilambwe was being treated for malaria with her mother by her side. A combination of limited education and a lack of resources means the child mortality rate is massive. I have since found out that Kilambwe sadly died. When I saw her there, on a drip and with doctors, I presumed she was being taken care of. Unfortunately, the care they could provide was not enough.�

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

49

Shepherd Xego “Shepherd Xego lives in Ramaphosa, a township on the outskirts of New Brighton in South Africa. A very quiet and humble man, he makes amazing lino prints from his workshop at home. I made a short film with him, which you can watch at remywhiting/shepherd-xego-1/.�

50

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

photostory

Jackie “Apart from the loaded gun on the arm of the sofa adding some extra tension, Jackie sits in his lounge sporting stab wounds to his stomach, chest, arms, and one to the back of his head. The memorial photo in the background is for an old friend who was recently shot dead outside his home next door, the same old friend who made that near-fatal stab to the back of Jackie’s head.”

Remy Whiting is a commercial photographer working mainly in London and the South West shooting portraits, fashion and sports for a variety of clients as well as running Snap Foundation across Africa. remywhiting.com snap.foundation

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

51

52

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Culture Cedar Lewisohn | Art Eye South West must sees | Worth making the trip for | Staying in

Anomalous Facets by Mark Jessett Showing as part of ‘Fathoms Fragments Fieldwork’: an exhibition exploring resonances and contrasts between works by three contemporary abstract artists – Mark Jessett, Robert Manners and Seamus Staunton – where similarities in process and enquiry can be traced, despite each artist’s unique handling of material, colour and form. Until 3 June at Green Hill Arts, Moretonhampstead TQ13 8LL. greenhillarts.co.uk

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

53

54

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

culture An artist, curator and writer, Cedar Lewisohn draws on the histories and imagery suggested by museum collections to fuel his diverse multimedia practice. Belinda Dillon talks to him ahead of his solo exhibition at Exeter Phoenix.

T

Untitled (Mesopotamian and Egyptian Gods), hand-pressed woodcut on paper with spray paint and ink, 2013

here’s an object on display at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) that draws me back again and again. A minuscule, yet beautifully detailed, carving of two deities upon a single grain of wheat, the piece was made in Japan in the early 1800s to celebrate the harvest at the Shinto Temple of Ise. I’ve stood in front of it innumerable times, entranced, picturing the artist bent over his work, relying on touch to complete his task because he can’t see, so small is his canvas; slowing his breathing, his heart rate, to steady his hand as he works. This tiny object in a glass case in an English regional town in 2017 calls forth cultural practices, beliefs and, at the centre of it, a person in a different time in a distant land; it transports me instantly across centuries and thousands of miles.

“This idea of ‘time-travel’ through artworks is fascinating to me – and it’s why I find museum collections so inspiring,” says London-based artist Cedar Lewisohn, whose solo exhibition, ‘Ndungu, Isca’, opens at Exeter Phoenix on 12 May. Showcasing his diverse, multimedia practice, which comprises drawing, printmaking, video and bookworks, the show will include a mixture of older pieces and newer work, some of which has never been exhibited before. The most recent pieces – including screenprints and at least one costume – were created in response to RAMM’s World Cultures collection, which Cedar visited last year.

“A museum collection like RAMM’s is not somewhere you’d normally think of as supercontemporary, but how we respond to objects relates to the contemporary world, particularly in how we use the internet,” he says. “With the internet, you pick something to research – cricket, say – and you follow links for current matches, then find your way to a reference to a match in 1930, and suddenly you’ve made this whole map, you’ve travelled there. I like the idea that you do the same in a museum collection with objects – they all lead to and communicate with each other.”

The ways in which cultures absorb, digest and then regurgitate ideas and imagery is central to Cedar’s practice, particularly with regard to how this affects the way we see the past and its people. For instance, he has previously commented on how he, who has African heritage, was introduced to African art and sculpture through his engagement with the work of European Modernists such as Picasso and Léger.

“I was initially inspired by those artists, and that’s led me to the ethnographic work,” he says. “But another side of it is that the Surrealists and the Modernists, including MANOR | Late Spring 2017

55

Cedar has described himself as a ‘cultural cannibal’, honing in on objects and narratives that attract his attention; absorbing, digesting and filtering his responses through a unique visual language

Untitled Drawing (After Ndungu Spirit Costume, 1879-1887, from RAMM Collection), screenprint and ink on paper, 2017.

Cedar Lewisohn holding a copy of his Black Drawings hand-bound artist book. 2015

56

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Sigmund Freud, were all collectors of those objects, which is something I want to explore further. There are stories around dream life, fertility and the spirit world, and that leads to a whole world of possibilities. Imagine Freud’s living room, his patients lying on the sofa and looking up at these strange objects… there are so many possibilities for narratives, and I hadn’t thought about that previous to seeing the RAMM collection.”

This new show’s title, ‘Ndungu, Isca’, references not only a Kongo spirit costume, brought back from Africa at the end of the 19th century by a Devon-based man working for a British trading company, but also the Roman name for Exeter. The conflation of the two names, the origins of which are millennia apart, evokes notions around imperialism, global movement, and cultural appropriation; all a rich source of dialogue for us today, in a time when issues around travel, identity and personal freedom are much under debate.

And although the work resonates with current political discourse, it is not overtly political, at least not in a didactic way; instead, it vibrates with a sense of joy, perhaps due to the aesthetic simplicity of some of the renderings, but also in the way in which each seems to capture the artist’s myriad interests. As well as a visual artist, Cedar is a curator and a writer, and when his attention alights on a topic, he drills down rigorously: he writes extensively about food, for instance, regularly interviewing artists and chefs about the food-art crossover (“I’d like to make a show in which everything is edible,” he says), and recently immersed himself in the history of London’s coffee houses.

As part of his RAMM visit, he interviewed Tony Eccles, curator of the ethnography collection, to discover not only the objects’ indigenous meaning and provenance, but the stories of how and why they came to be in Exeter.

With so much to trigger his interest, how does he choose which objects to engage with? “I’m drawn to certain artefacts in an almost visceral way,” he says, later producing quickly executed sketches and drawings that evoke the physical experience. “David Hockney said that the best way to understand things is to draw them, which is certainly the case for me. It’s partly enjoyment, but partly thinking about how an object is crafted. When you think about the physical process of how something is made, then all the other stuff – the concept, the spiritual journey, the meaning – falls into place.”

Cedar has described himself as a ‘cultural cannibal’, honing in on objects and narratives that attract his attention; absorbing, digesting and filtering his responses

culture

Untitled (Yellow and Red with blue figures), hand-pressed woodcut on paper with spray paint and ink, 2013

I love trying to find mysterious masonic signs in the architecture, that’s why I love going to cathedrals and churches, looking for these hidden messages within the city…

through a unique visual language, a language no doubt shaped by his upbringing in an artistic and literary family – his father is a graduate of Chelsea School of Art, his grandmother studied at the Slade and subsequently ran a book shop, and his great-grandmother was a writer.

As a dyslexic child, he naturally encountered the world in a particularly visual way, and spent weekends visiting galleries with his father; as a teenager in the London suburbs of the 1980s and 90s, he became fascinated with graffiti culture. Straight from school, he went to Camberwell School of Art, where he studied sculpture, art history and graphic design.

He’s still excited by graffiti – “Whenever I get to a new city, I’m always looking around at the tags, the street art, using it as a way to navigate the urban landscape” – and is currently producing a show on the subject in Milan (he also curated 2008’s ‘Street Art’ exhibition at Tate Modern). Increasingly, though, he has become interested in the semiotics of religious iconography. “I love trying to find mysterious masonic signs in the architecture, that’s why I love going to cathedrals and churches, looking for these hidden messages within the city, wondering if they have alternative meanings the public isn’t aware of. That feeds into my work, my fiction and the imagery I use.”

This interest in pictograms and signs is certainly apparent in his work, and not just in the aesthetics, but in the sense that imagery divested of its own, intended narrative can stimulate other stories, presenting the potential for these combinations to create new meaning.

To this end, Cedar increasingly exhibits works of fiction alongside his visual art, and this may well be how some of the works in response to the RAMM collections find their voice in the show. He’s still digesting the material, he says.

“I’m planning to display some of the woodcarvings as sculptural objects in themselves, and then the prints in a different room, which will offer a different experience and perspective, and hopefully you’ll make this connection in your mind. The blocks have got this stained aesthetic to them – they almost look like old things, like ethnographic objects.”

For the spectator, this separation of the block and the print, as well as alternative physical manifestations of drawings, such as costumes on display and – “hopefully, dependent on time,” says Cedar – in performance, offers a multiplicity of viewpoints and perspectives that creates the opportunity to imagine fresh narratives. Changing one’s vantage point might also bring about a shift in ‘meaning’, allowing for further explorations of the ways in which our present position affects our interpretation of the past and its people.

‘Ndungu, Isca’ is at Exeter Phoenix, 12 May – 1 July, as part of Art Week Exeter. Cedar will also be presenting an artist’s talk. See exeterphoenix.org.uk for details. And keep your eyes peeled for a piece of Cedar’s work – a 3m2 banner – that has been commissioned for display in Bedford Square, Princesshay.

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

57

Cafe interior with work by Stephen Smith

Shifting perspectives Artist-led consultancy Art Eye aims to open up new audiences for artists in the South West and beyond. Alice Wright talks to its founder, Jen Larkin, about her mission to change the conversation around owning and enjoying art.

“I

t literally woke me up in the middle of the night,” says Jen Larkin, describing how she came up with the idea for Art Eye. As a successful artist herself, she was growing frustrated with the limitations of exhibiting and selling through galleries, and was aware that many other artists felt the same. Her solution was to market art differently, creating an artist-led consultancy that focuses on bringing artists in the South West together with architects, property developers and interior designers.

By helping source original work for the corporate, travel and hospitality sectors, Art Eye aims to change the way people think about buying and experiencing art.

“The gallery system has to be there, and it’s great promotion, but I’d say that it’s for art lovers who see a piece of work and fall in love with it, and that’s actually quite a small percentage of the market,” explains Jen. Decorative buyers such as architects, designers and hoteliers, large corporate art collectors, and private investors also provide significant markets, but breaking into these can be a challenge for artists with little entrepreneurial experience.

Alongside her creative background, Jen brought her commercial knowledge to Art Eye – she previously 58

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

ran a business in the North West of England creating collaborative pieces with interior designers, and had worked on projects with big companies. After moving to Cornwall and establishing a wide network of artist friends, Jen realised that she could expand the format of that business by joining forces with other artists. The response from those she approached was overwhelmingly positive and Art Eye was founded in 2011; in 2014, it moved to its own dedicated office in Penryn’s stylish Jubilee Warehouse development.

Art Eye’s success, Jen believes, hinges on building relationships between artists and buyers. Many of her clients recognise the need for art in the space they are developing, such as a luxury hotel or highend restaurant, but don’t feel confident buying or commissioning work. Jen is able to demystify the process, shortlisting artists who could work with their concept and then overseeing every stage from negotiating a commission to installing the work.

Jen’s skill is in tuning in to what the client is looking for and then matching them up with the right artist or artists. “Generally, from the first time I meet a client, or have a conversation with an artist, I’m thinking about

culture

PHOTO: DOUGLAS WATERS

Sometimes there’s a little spark and I think these guys might work well together, but I never have something too firmly set in my mind’s eye because the process is exciting and quite a journey in itself.

Jen Larkin and Joe Morris

those ultimate goals of what they’re both trying to achieve.

Sometimes there’s a little spark and I think these guys might work well together, but I never have something too firmly set in my mind’s eye because the process is exciting and quite a journey in itself.” Jen will usually present the client with a selection of possible artists and help them to whittle that down. Most will then commission work specifically for the project they are working on.

And although clients often begin by approaching the art from a business-minded, budget-oriented perspective, they inevitably end up falling in love with it – as do staff and customers. Making artwork a considered part of the space, rather than an afterthought, can create a lasting impact on its audience, and that is as powerful for the artist as it is for the client. “Instead of waiting for the right people to walk into a gallery, we’re using more public spaces,” says Jen. “If you get the connection right and the art looks right, the conversations just start.”

A case in point is the Godolphin Arms in Marazion. Owners Mary and James St Levan bought or commissioned the hotel’s art collection through Art Eye and it has become an integral part of the space.

Information on each of piece is available for guests, encouraging them to engage with the work. “They see it as an exhibition and they walk around the space and read the information about the artist and why the piece was created,” says Jen. With visitors coming from around the world as well as the local community, artworks reach a much wider audience than might be achieved through a gallery. And by visiting the hotel regularly and talking to staff and guests, Jen is able to feed responses back to the artists.

Typically, artists will receive very little information about who has bought their work through a gallery, or how people responded to an exhibition. “What an artist really needs, and what helps their practice to grow, is those comments about a piece that the audience or the buyer connects with,” says Jen. “The reasons they’ve connected with that piece do not usually get back to the artist. What Art Eye can do is feed that directly back.”

This kind of exposure and engagement is particularly valuable for South West artists, who can become isolated

away from the major urban centres. “Those big centres have their own ecosystems that thrive because they’re all quite close together,” says Jen, “whereas we’ve got quite a disparate ecosystem here and artists like to tuck themselves away. Then, of course, artists aren’t interacting with each other as closely or finding opportunities or new ways of doing things. That’s where Art Eye is very outwardlooking, and very ambitious to promote this type of work and change perceptions. Just because you’re not in the urban centre it doesn’t mean your work is of any less quality.”

And the service Art Eye offers is as relevant for established artists as it is for those just starting out. While Jen does work with emerging artists, helping to support their practice and create opportunities, she says Art Eye is perhaps most beneficial for mid-career artists who are doing well through galleries but have reached a ‘ceiling’.

With standard gallery commission at 50% plus VAT, Jen says that many reach a point where they can’t grow their practice any further because they can’t earn enough through sales. With Art Eye, artists get “the lion’s share”, says Jen, and the more regularly they work with an individual artist, the lower percentage they take; profits from each project are reinvested in the company to fund more marketing, so everyone benefits.

Six years on from that light bulb moment, Art Eye is now expanding nationally, and there is international potential, too. But the consultancy’s roots in the South West, and Cornwall in particular, are at its heart and Jen is keen to maintain that focus on opening up new opportunities and markets for talented artists here and in other non-urban areas. And the impact of changing those conversations around buying and experiencing art goes far beyond the gains for artist and client. “Everybody benefits from experiencing great art,” says Jen, alluding to its power to inspire, provoke and illuminate. “When contemporary art has been made with integrity, and is placed in more accessible contexts, we witness the positive ripples and changes across our culture.” arteye.co.uk

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

59

Three artists working with Art Eye...

Henry Garfit

Fab Four

Based: St Ives. Director of the Newlyn School of Art. Mediums: Oils, enamel, emulsion, screenprints and relief prints.

Drawn to: Found colours such as the red, peeling paint of a fisherman’s hut in Newlyn against the steely grey of a storm at sea.

My work is: A visual exploration of how our eyes react to colour and how colours inform each other – never being static as each colour is dependent on what it sits next to.

Exhibits in galleries in London and Cornwall, with work purchased by organisations including Young’s Brewery, for hotels and bars around London.

Art Eye: A major new hotel agreed to buy five of my framed works sourced by Art Eye – a really fantastic outcome.

Work in situ at The Godolphin Arms, Marazion, Cornwall

Stephen Smith

Untitled

60

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Based: Plymouth.

Mediums: Acrylic, oil, enamel, spray paint, graphite and collage.

My work draws on: Conspiracy theories, bit rot [software erosion], psycho-geography and post-traumatic landscapes.

Recent work has largely focused on large-scale, machine-sewn paintings based on a residency trip to the exclusion zone of Chernobyl and the ghost town of Pripyat.

Exhibits internationally at galleries including the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, Nam June Paik Art Center in South Korea, and the Mini Galerie in Amsterdam.

Art Eye: I work with Art Eye developing projects in the commercial and private sectors. I also work under the commercial studio name of Neasden Control Centre.

culture Juliette Paull Based: Cornubian Arts and Science Trust in Helston.

Mediums: Predominantly oil on canvas, also collage, spray paint, acrylic, charcoal and print.

Influences: Musical composition, nature and everyday life.

My work is: A continuously unfolding visual, spatial and psychological experience.

Represented by: Cadogan Contemporary in London. Juliette has also successfully submitted work to competitions such as the National Open Art Competition, and uses social media to market her artwork and connect with artists, galleries and collectors around the globe.

Art Eye: I have worked with Jen since the beginning and it has provided me with a fantastic platform to develop a wider audience for my work as well as being involved in some really great projects over the years.

Apricum, 140 x 130 cm

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

61

culture South West must sees...

This watery realm

PHOTO: DAN BOLT UNDERWATER PHOTOS

Ever since the pioneering marine biologist Philip Henry Gosse ignited the imaginations of his Victorian contemporaries with his exploration and illustrations of Devon’s coastal life, we’ve been obsessed with the underwater world. ‘Sea Life: Glimpses of the Wonderful’ embraces the study of the seashore in the early Victorian period, the invention of the aquarium and advances in marine science, through to the current day with the work of contemporary artists who have sought inspiration from marine life. Through a playful mix of historic objects, specimens and contemporary works, the exhibition combines science and art to inspire greater appreciation of Devon’s glorious coastline.

13 May – 17 September in Galleries 21 and 22 at Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Queen Street, Exeter. rammuseum.org.uk

Anemone

Buzz in Acknowledging the dangers faced by British bees, artist Kurt Jackson has spent the past few years exploring the world of pollinators, producing a collection of pieces that are also informed by his grounding in the sciences (he studied zoology at university) and his experience as a beekeeper in Cornwall. ‘Bees (and the Odd Wasp) in My Bonnet’ features both plein air and studio pieces embracing an extensive range of materials and techniques including mixed media, large canvases, printmaking, sculpture and film, and explores and celebrates the diversity, role, importance and current plight of bees. In collaboration with two charities working for the bee – Friends of the Earth and the B4 Project [Bringing Back Black Bees] – as well as the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, the show presents Jackson’s art alongside displays of their invaluable work. Along with the latest scientific research into the hazards facing bees, such as neonicotinoid pesticides and habitat losses, the exhibition offers a reflective and empirical view of British bees and wasps.

Hot Provençal morning, bees in the lavender. July 2013, mixed media on board, 22 x 22cm

62

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Until 19 August at Jackson Foundation, St Just, Cornwall TR19 7LB. jacksonfoundationgallery.com

Skin deep

PHOTO: NEIL HOPKIN-THOMAS

It’s official: we are addicted to ink. No longer consigned to the biceps of sailors, biker gangs and the Russian mafia, tattoos are now de rigueur – a staggering 13 million of the UK population sport at least one. A new exhibition, ‘Tattoo: British Tattoo Art Revealed’, presents a comprehensive history, telling a story that challenges long-standing myths and pre-conceptions about tattooing when it comes to class, gender and age, while celebrating the rich artistic heritage of tattooing as an art form in the UK. The exhibition delves into previously unseen private archives that reveal hidden histories, including the story of Britain’s pioneering female tattoo artist, Jessie Knight, who set up shop in Hampshire during the second world war. Also on show is specially commissioned work by contemporary hot shots Matt Houston and Aimée Cornwell.

Jessie Knight showing her tattoo of her family crest (c. 1950s)

All aboard

Until 7 January 2018 at the National Maritime Museum, Discovery Quay, Falmouth TR11 3QY. Adults £12.50, under 18s £5, under 5s free. nnmc.co.uk

Hot Chip

Cornwall’s annual Masked Ball is going all out this year, offering a time-travelling train journey into The Underworld on a site carved into a clifftop location. Over three days, revellers can jump aboard at Masked Ball Central Station and be transported around a series of themed venues, where they can hop off at the location of their choice. In keeping with tradition, some of the venues are being kept hush-hush, but organisers have revealed the train’s stops will include a 1930s speakeasy club, a 1970s Bristol Dub Club, a 1970s New York disco, and a vintage hip-hop joint. There’ll be DJs, bands – including indietronica darlings Hot Chip (pictured) – the Bedlam pyjama party, and a venue entered via a slide into a giant ball pool. The Friday night warms up with a long table feast in the Grand Ballroom followed by dancing until the early hours. Saturday is the main event running from 6pm until 6am, while the Sunday Service starts for the dedicated decadent at noon, ending and midnight.

26-28 May at Beacon Crag, Porthleven, Cornwall TR13 9LA. Tickets for the full weekend, including the Friday feast, cost £59.

Original Masked Ball tickets, to include camping for both Saturday and Sunday, are £49. maskedball.net

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

63

Animal magic If you’re in need of a dose of furry cuteness, then head down to Plymouth to catch ‘Creatures Great and Small’, which features the work of felt-maker Tracey Benton, who uses our native wildlife as inspiration for her adorable characters, and ceramic artist Gwen Vaughan, whose delicate figurines capture the nature of each animal, from polar bears and whales to badgers, owls and dogs (some of her latest range come dressed in little cashmere jumpers!).

Until 23 May at 45 Southside, Barbican, Plymouth PL1 2LD. Free entry. 45southside.co.uk

An AWEsome week of art During 13-21 May, Exeter will become a gallery without walls. In its second year, Art Week Exeter will host more than 200 contemporary visual artists in venues across the city, from major cultural spaces to quite unexpected places, giving visitors the chance to see the work of emerging artists as well as pieces by a diverse range of local, national, and international practitioners. In addition to paint, print and sculpture, there will be sound and performance pieces such as interactive street art by Berlin-based artist Hans Kellett, whose participatory work with Jörg Hochapfel, The Song Dispensary, will be a part of Exeter Phoenix’s and Blind Ditch’s Street LAB, a micro festival of liveart busking on the city streets. Look out for the chance see proposals for a large-scale public artwork on New Bridge Street in augmented reality. A daily e-newsletter with critical reviews, photoessays, artist interviews and opinion pieces will be sent out in the lead-up and during Art Week Exeter. Visitors will have the opportunity to buy original works of art at multiple venues, including an Art Market and the AWEsome Art Fair, as well as from Juneau Project’s Makers of the Multiverse pavilion on the Quay.

There will also be an interactive piece in the city centre which asks people to finish the sentence: ‘Art is the door to…’ Tweet your answers with the hashtag #ArtIsTheDoorTo and look out for it during the week. More details about the schedule, venues, exhibitions, open studios, events and artist biographies can be found at artweekexeter.org.uk.

Rebecca D. Harris explores the complex and multifaceted story of women’s breasts through textiles and assemblages, with a bit of humour as well. She says: “We obsess, fetishize, shame, ridicule, stigmatise, enlarge, shrink and desire these both functional and sexual areas of the female body.” Her exhibition, ‘Storm in a B Cup’, will be on view in EVA Studios, Alphington Road, EX2 8TH. Berlin-based Hans Kellett (below left) and Jörg Hochapfel perform together as punk-chanson band Princessin Hans, and will be appearing in shopping centres and on street corners across Exeter with The Song Dispensary – live art encounters with a musical twist. Kellett will also give a performative insight into the history of the Kabarett at the Phoenix’s Studio 74 cinema (16 May, 6pm, £3.50) , from its bloodthirsty roots with Munich’s Die Elf Scharfrichter 1901, to more contemporary incarnations.

PHOTO: JACKIE BAIER

64

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Winter Evening Egret, linocut woodblock and screenprint, 2016. Cathy King’s strikingly graphic linocuts depict urban and rural wildlife in bold colour palettes, which will be seen at her open studio at 12 Matford Lane, EX2 4PS.

culture Worth making the trip for...

House and home The home of legendary British architect Sir John Soane, the Soane Museum is a tantalising mix of the domestic and the curatorial; stuffed to the rafters with Soane’s collections of antiquities, furniture, sculptures, architectural models and paintings, it’s a treasure trove that rewards repeat visits, but which also houses a series of visiting exhibitions and displays. ‘Marc Quinn: Drawn from Life’ will see a series of ethereal fragmentary sculptures, made in collaboration with his partner, a dancer, placed among the multiple antique casts and sculptures that fill the Museum. Quinn has long been inspired by Sir John Soane’s collection of historic fragments, and ‘Drawn from Life’ explores the sculptor’s fascination with the subject and gives an insight into the artist’s affinity with Soane’s aesthetic and interests.

Until 23 September at Sir John Soane’s Museum, 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3BP. Free admission. Closed Sundays, Mondays and bank holidays. soane.org

Detail of a sculpture from the series Drawn from Life by Marc Quinn

Look into my eyes

Until 29 May at the National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London WC2H 0HE. Tickets £10 (£8.50). npg.org.uk

PHOTO: GILLIAN WEARING, COURTESY MAUREEN PALEY, LONDON; REGEN PROJECTS, LOS ANGELES; TANYA BONAKDAR GALLERY, NEW YORK.

‘Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun: Behind the mask, another mask’ brings together the work of French surrealist Cahun and British contemporary artist Wearing, both of whom use photography – particularly the self-portrait – to explore themes around identity and gender. Born Lucy Schwob in Nantes in 1894, Cahun produced some of the most provocative images of her time, although most were barely shown during her life.

With her partner Suzanne Malherbe, alias Marcel Moore, Cahun inhabited male roles, and is now considered a trailblazer of performance and queer art and of identity-probing photography. Similarly fascinated by the selfimage, Wearing uses masks in her work to unpick notions of identity. In recent years, she has masked herself to appear as generations of her family members or her younger self, but always with her gaze recognisable beneath the disguise.

Me as Cahun, Holding a Mask of My Face

by Gillian Wearing, 2012

Get booking now: After sell-out runs at London’s National and Wyndham’s theatres, a touring production of Duncan Macmillan’s astonishing People, Places & Things will be heading west in the autumn. A tragi-comedy of epic proportions, the play takes a cold, harsh look at addiction and the chaos it creates, but doesn’t shy away from exploring that there are times when all-out hedonism seems the only sensible response to a world in crisis. As substance abuser Emma, Denise Gough set the stage alight in the original production, meaning that the new cast for this tour will have a hell of an act to follow. A must-see.

24-28 October at Bristol Old Vic. Tickets £10-£33.50. bristololdvic.org.uk 31 October – 4 November at Exeter Northcott Theatre. exeternorthcott.co.uk

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

65

PHOTO: CORTIS AND SONDEREGGER

Image conscious

Making of Concorde by Toshihko Sato, 2013. East Wing Gallery

Now in its third year, Photo London has established itself as a world-class photography fair, bringing together the world’s leading photographers, curators, exhibitors, dealers and the public to celebrate this dynamic medium. Along with exhibitors representing leading galleries, Photo London presents the Discovery section for the most exciting emerging galleries and artists, and sees the announcement of major awards, including the Photo London Master of Photography, Photo London Residency Unlimited Award and the Magnum Photos Graduate Photographers Award. The public programme features work by leading practitioners, including Isaac Julien, Mat Collishaw and Juergen Teller.

18-21 May at Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA. Tickets from £21.60. photolondon.org

Under the skin A young man buried without ceremony in South Gloucestershire, 3,500 years ago; a Roman couple found in a single stone coffin; a girl from a Victorian burial ground… Our bones reveal much about the life we’ve lived – the how, where, and in what conditions; they reflect society’s rich and varied past and the changing face of the places we inhabit. A touring exhibition from the Museum of London and Wellcome Trust, and featuring 12 human skeletons from Bristol and London, ‘Skeletons: Our Buried Bones’ also offers an exploratory space to reveal some of the science behind the stories. Test your knowledge of bones; search for hidden clues to analyse skeletons yourself; and hear from experts of the excavation site, lab and museum. The clue is in the title, but please be aware that this exhibition contains human remains…

Until 3 September at M Shed, Princes Wharf, Wapping Road, Bristol BS1 4RN. Pay what you think. bristolmuseums.org.uk

66

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

culture

The Life Rooms by Cathie Pilkington

Art by the sea

In the words of Kate Tempest, the guest director of this year’s Brighton Festival: “Art is social. It should be a part of life. No big deal – just life itself.” Tapping into Tempest’s wide and varied passions, the programme celebrates the ‘everyday epic’, and features an eclectic mix of theatre, dance, visual art, film, debate and spoken word. At the Brighton Dome Concert Hall, you can take in a live performance of Mica Levi’s beautiful and otherworldly soundtrack for the film Under the Skin (7 May); at the same venue, Levi will lend her cinematic orchestration to Tempest’s hip-hop-inspired storytelling (11 May). Writer Emma Cline (The Girls) will be in conversation at Brighton & Hove High School (6 May). And at the Ditchling Museum of Art & Craft, sculptor Cathie Pilkington – who makes use of dolls in unexpected and challenging ways – presents a new body of work, ‘Doll for Petra’, which is a response to a carved doll that Eric Gill made for his daughter. Simultaneously, at the University of Brighton Gallery, you can see Pilkington’s Anatomy of a Doll, which responds to Degas’ famous figures of ballerinas, and Harmonium, which transforms a humble wooden shelving unit into the framework for fascinating individual tableaux.

6-28 May at various venues across Brighton. See brightonfestival.org for full details and ticket information.

In the boat The lure of a collaboration between award-winning playwright Jez Butterworth (Mojo, Jerusalem) and similarly garlanded stage and film director Sam Mendes has proved to be a draw few can resist: tickets for The Ferryman’s April run at the Royal Court sold out within a day, the fastest-selling production in the theatre’s 60-year history. Luckily, the play – which is set in rural Derry in 1981 during the height of the Troubles, and stars Paddy Considine – is set for a 16-week sojourn in the West End. 20 June – 7 October at the Gielgud Theatre, Shaftesbury Ave, London W1D 6AR. Tickets from £19.50. tickets.delfontmackintosh.co.uk

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

67

culture Worth staying in for...

Daniel Kaluuya as Chris Washington in Get Out, a speculative thriller from Blumhouse (producers of The Visit, Insidious series and The Gift) and Jordan Peele. When a young African-American man visits his white girlfriend’s family estate, he becomes ensnared in a more sinister reason for the invitation

Star appeal With the critically acclaimed, dread-inducing horror Get Out in cinemas now, it’s as good a time as any to remind yourself of British actor Daniel Kaluuya’s rise from home-grown TV favourite to Hollywood leading man. Across two series of BBC Two’s dark comedy Psychoville (available on BBC DVD), written by The League of Gentlemen’s Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, he played Tealeaf, the home help to blind billionaire Oscar Lomax. In E4’s groundbreaking teen drama Skins, he was Anwar’s plummy-voiced friend Posh Kenneth (watch all episodes on 4OD). Then he co-starred in BBC Three’s much-underrated supernatural drama The Fades (created by Jack Thorne, who was also behind Skins), in which he played the lead character Paul’s best friend Mac. After a stint in Channel 4 comedy-drama Babylon (also available on 4OD), playing a documentary film-maker following a firearms unit in the Metropolitan Police, he went on to be Emily Blunt’s FBI partner, Reggie Wayne, in 2015’s thrilling drug crime-drama Sicario.

Born in London in 1989, Kaluuya is also a writer, contributing to scripts on Skins, and a stage actor – in 2010, he won the Evening Standard Award and Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer for his lead role in Roy Williams’ Sucker Punch at the Royal Court. And if Kaluuya’s meteoric trajectory through Hollywood might mean we don’t get the chance to see him on the UK stage any time soon, you can happily settle down in front of all these TV gems for a reminder of his prodigious talent.

Death of the author Eminent literary critic Roland Barthes died in a Paris street in February 1980, having just left a restaurant where he’d shared lunch with presidential-hopeful Francois Mitterrand. Barthes’s death under the wheels of a speeding laundry van was a terrible accident. But what if it was an assassination? What if Barthes was carrying a document of unbelievable, global importance?

A document explaining the seventh function of language – an idea so powerful it gives whoever masters it the ability to convince anyone, in any situation, to do anything… It’s this counterfactual contrivance that powers Laurent Binet’s latest novel, The 7th Function of Language, which conjures a parallel history of the French philosophical landscape in the 1980s, complete with characters called Derrida, Foucault and Kristeva. Much in the vein of Binet’s previous novel, HHhH, which looked at the assassination of Nazi security chief Reinhard Heydrich, The 7th Function of Language fuses fact and fiction to create a satisfyingly tricksy read. With metafictional flourishes galore, this is a novel that explores the nature of truth with intelligence and humour. In these times of ‘alternative facts’, it’s a much-needed shot in the arm.

The 7th Function of Language is published by Harvill Secker on 4 May.

68

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Elisabeth as Offred in the MGM/Hulu production of The Handmaid’s Tale

Dystopian visions These are scary times. In one of his first acts in office, the new President of the United States reinstated a ‘global gag order’, first introduced by Ronald Reagan in 1984, which blocks US funding to foreign organisations that perform or provide advice on reproductive health care. And he did it while surrounded by a room full of men. In a climate such as this, there’s never been a better moment to revisit Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale, set in a near-future New England in which a totalitarian theocracy has overthrown the US government. In response to a drop in fertility resulting from widespread pollution, The Republic of Gilead has classified certain groups of women as Handmaids, whose sole purpose is to act as baby machines for the ruling elite. It’s a chilling tale, and has just been made into a new TV series, which premieres on the US network Hulu on 26 April, and stars Elisabeth Moss as Offred (her name determining the man by whom she’s owned – ‘of Fred’), a Handmaid determined to survive the terrifying world she lives in, and find the daughter who was taken from her. Never has this story seemed more prescient.

The Handmaid’s Tale is published by Vintage Classics.

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

69

Bathing beauty We were privileged to be given access to the ancient Roman Baths in Bath Spa, and were awe-struck by its tranquil beauty. The colour of the classic Bath stone, the emerald hue of the water, the flaming torches and emperors looking down from above, all added to the atmosphere and provided the perfect backdrop to this late spring MANOR style shoot.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MATT AUSTIN STYLED BY MIMI STOTT 70

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Dress, £69.99; orb earrings, £9.99, both Mango

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

71

Blouse, £30, Topshop; embroidered jeans, £59, Topshop; faux fur slides, £25.99, Zara

72

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

73

74

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Dress, £69.99, Mango; floral ankle boots, £69, Topshop

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

75

Dress, £255; funnel neck top, £95, both by Unique, Topshop; embroidered trainers, £29.50, Marks and Spencer

76

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

77

Midi dress with floral embroidery, ÂŁ85, ASOS Premium; silver, three-oval dome drop earrings, ÂŁ150, Nicholas Wylde

78

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

79

80

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

81

Dress by Unique, £275, Topshop

82

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

83

Dress, £49.99, Mango

84

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

85

Photographer: Matt Austin Stylist: Mimi Stott Model: Eve Delf from Select Hair and make-up: Maddie Austin Location: The Roman Baths, Bath Spa Special thanks to the team at The Roman Baths and Emma Frayling of Bath Tourism for arranging access.

The MANOR team stayed at The Bath Priory and The Abbey Hotel in Bath. visitbath.co.uk

86

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

87

Traditionally hand cast in Cornwall 10%

o

ff for Man or reade rs with the code Manor1

New London and Cornwall showrooms NOW OPEN

cornishbeds.co.uk Tel 01726 825182

88

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

London showroom The Old Dairy, 66a Paddenswick Road, London W6 0UB Devon showroom Odhams Wharf, Topsham, Exeter EX3 0PD Cornwall showroom 24, The Roundhouse, Harbour Road, Par, Cornwall PL24 2BB

Food

Behind the scenes at Brixham Fish Market | Foraging for wild food on the Exe | Meet the Mindful Chefs Bites, the latest news and events from across the region | Food pioneer | The Table Prowler

Ginger spring onion sea bass with miso and lime quinoa, from Mindful Chef: Eat Well, Live Better. See page 99 for recipe. mindfulchef.com

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

89

PHOTO: CHRIS TERRY

A sense of scale

MANOR’s food editor Anna Turns gets up at the crack of dawn to go behind the scenes at Brixham Fish Market, the capital of England’s Seafood Coast.

E

n route to Brixham, I listen to the 5.20am shipping forecast. It’s rough out at sea and gales are on their way. It’s quite a job, being a fisherman. As I arrive at the fish market, the biggest by value in England, I meet Barry Young, who takes me into the market hall just as the auction begins at 6am. It’s busy and noisy – buyers and auctioneers are speaking a different language, bartering prices for fish landed just a few hours ago.

“The rough weather means we haven’t got a lot of dayboat fish today,” explains Barry, chief auctioneer and managing director of Brixham Trawler Agents. “Five or so beam trawlers landed here about 9pm last night, so all the fish was hand-graded by the night shift so it’s ready for sale this morning.” Each box of fish is labelled: “It tells you who we are, Brixham Trawler Agents, the boat code and name, PLN port letters and numbers to identify 90

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

the boat, the fish species, grade of the fish (1 is biggest, down to 7), weight and freshness – there’s nothing that isn’t ‘A’ quality freshness in here.” Barry explains that fish can be caught and stored on beam trawlers for up to five days: “You can see by the label it has been caught in the North Atlantic, which includes the English Channel, and the production date is the day of grading, i.e. last night, not the day of capture.”

The Brixham fleet includes 22 beam trawlers, 35 dayboats and a dozen rod-and-line boats; on average, about 70 tonnes of seafood is landed here every day.

Brixham is a prime flat fish market and we’re surrounded by turbot, Dover sole, monkfish and brill on ice. One of these huge turbot caught by the Emilia Jayne is worth about £200: “These are the sort of fish that never used to get eaten,” Barry tells me. These are the freshest, brightest-looking fish I have ever seen and the demand

food

These are the freshest, brightest-looking fish I have ever seen and the demand for today’s catch goes global.

PHOTO: ANNA TURNS

for today’s catch goes global: 60% gets exported and 40 or so buyers have come from Plymouth, Newlyn, Looe and London, plus some live in Brixham. Because they’re dealing with a perishable good, which can be so variable in size and quality, they need to see firsthand what they’re buying. Alex Passmore from More Seafoods exports to Beirut and China: “We send scallops predominantly and some fish on ice twice a week from Heathrow as wild cargo. It’s pretty streamlined – we’ve got it down to 30 hours door to door from my boat to the Shanghai terminal.”

Barry first worked as a fisherman from the age of 16, then came ashore aged 22 to grade the fish and worked his way up the ranks, so he’s seen how the business functions from every aspect. “I set my alarm clock for 5am and I don’t mind getting up because I love the job I do,” he says. “This seafood is the best in the world. There is nowhere else that has as rich a fishing ground as we have here. There’s such huge diversity of species – brill, mixed with red mullet, sea bass, squid, plaice.” More than 40 fish species are landed at Brixham throughout the year. “Lemon soles are kicking in now, they’re my favourite fish and I always buy from the local fishmonger to support the industry, and whenever I go to restaurants I choose fish. If every housewife cooked fish once a week, we wouldn’t have to export as much as we do.”

Without the fishing industry to support it, this would be little more than a tourist town. There are about 300 fishermen working out of Brixham, and Barry tells me that every fisherman creates three to four jobs ashore here. The politics of the fishing industry are complex, and fishermen have so many rules and regulations to contend with, so it’s understandable that the majority are frustrated and voted for Brexit. “First, there’s the discard ban, and we feel we got an unfair share of fish quotas – we have 30% whilst the French have got 60% of the quotas for the English Channel,” says Barry. “Plus, big French boats can come to within six miles of our coast, but big British boats are only allowed up to the 12-mile limit on both sides of the Channel. Twelve miles is the territorial limit for any country generally, but these grandfather rights are an unfair historical legacy and the French have more rights to our waters than we do.”

Barry explains that the fishing industry wants to find a way to move forward and get a fair share of what’s on the doorstep. “We won’t go out and rape the seas and leave nothing left for tomorrow – it isn’t like that. There’s a long, long future in this industry and we are the people that are going to make this happen.” He adds a reminder that it’s one of the most dangerous vocations: “Just two nights ago, two of our fishermen were taken to hospital, one with a crushed hand and one with a broken shoulder from one of the beams.”

We move on to the dedicated cuttlefish market, separate to the other areas so the black ink doesn’t

Barry Young carefully shows off the colourful tub gurnard, a beautiful fish that has become much more popular in recent years

Rockfish Brixham serves fish landed that morning at the market just a few steps away

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

91

PHOTO: ED OVERDEN

Brixham Seafish

PHOTO: CHRIS TERRY

Mitch checks out fresh gurnard at Brixham Fish Market

92

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

contaminate the other fish. Today, about 20 tonnes of cuttlefish, worth £80k, gets sold, mainly for export.

This is ‘black gold’ – Brixham’s hidden gem – and Barry has nicknamed it: “We call it ‘Brixham squid’ because it tastes just like squid but hardly any of it gets sold here.

It’s an untapped resource and nobody seems to know it’s available so it gets sent to France, Spain, Italy and Portugal, where they cook it just like normal squid.”

Lastly, in the dayboat market, there’s a mix of plaice, some lemon sole, and white fish; on days when the weather isn’t so bad, Brixham can get up to 40 dayboats landing. Barry is encouraging more of a hake trade here: “The hake fishery has tripled in the last three years, and the quotas have been doubled because it is such a flourishing industry and hake’s a versatile fish.”

Chef Mitch Tonks’s fish buyer is Josh Perkes, who is here at 6am, five mornings a week: “My job is to find the freshest fish, then I take it to my factory just down the quay, and I weigh it out, remove skin, trim the sides, and at 9am our delivery driver takes it to the Rockfish restaurants that same day, so it’s on their lunch menu.” Josh’s business, Brixham Seafish, also supplies to The Seahorse in Dartmouth, the Pullman Carriage on First Great Western trains, and Hawksmoor in London, and has taken links out of the supply chain by selling direct to chefs who trust Josh to be their eyes at market. “I am picking the individual fish, shiny fish that I would like to eat. I don’t really care what it costs – I want it. When we send fish off, I want them to see how good it is when they open our box. It’s like a present.”

food

PHOTO: CHRIS TERRY

Brixham harbour is the capital of England’s Seafood Coast

That’s as simple as it gets: he takes huge pride in his work and he’s making it cheaper for the end client while keeping the fish fresh by shortening down the time it takes to deliver.

Josh buys dayboat fish, and his business partner, Nigel Ward, buys Dover sole and monkfish from beamers.

“We buy what’s in season – that’s when fish is cheaper because more is being caught and we can pass that price difference on,” says Josh. “If fish are full of roe, as plaice are at the moment, the quality isn’t as good. When the weather is stirred up and horrible, there aren’t any dayboats fishing and the chefs we deal with understand that. It’s a hunter-gatherer business out there.”

After just 50 minutes, today’s auction comes to a close. When the weather’s calmer, it can take a couple of hours, and by 9am the whole market will be closed down and sanitised, once fish starts going through its

supply chain. The shortest supply chain from ‘boat to throat’ has to be fish bought here and then served up just a few yards away at Rockfish Brixham, owned

by Mitch Tonks: “The best seafood in the world is undoubtedly caught here off the south coast of England, but we are predominantly a white fish nation,” says Mitch. “I want the English Riviera to be known as an international seafood destination and celebrate what is landed at Brixham, which is the capital of England’s Seafood Coast.”

Visit seafoodcoast.co.uk for more information. To go on a Brixham Fish Market tour, on alternate Wednesdays from April through to October, contact bfmt2014@gmail.com (£15, 6am, TQ5 8AW, booking essential).

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

93

E

veryone is doing it. You can’t walk 50 yards these days with a group of friends before one pulls out a recycled bag and a pair of scissors and starts clipping at an elderflower “to make cordial”.

Foraging is very on-trend.

My first forage was not a success. It was some years ago, and I set out into the woods behind my house with Richard Mabey’s book, Food for Free (the one that set the foraging ball rolling), and lots of enthusiasm. However, I admit to getting into a bit of muddle: it was easy to identify the nettles and the cleavers (they stick to you like Velcro), but I wasn’t as certain about the wood sorrel.

Ignoring all good foraging advice, it still went into my basket, and later into the soup I made. To cut a long story short, I wasn’t sick, but, my goodness, I felt nauseous.

The experience put me off eating wild foods for a while. Indeed, I became quite the Gloomy Gus on foraging. “Be careful doing that – you don’t want to pick the wrong thing!” I’d shout whenever I passed anyone waist deep in Queen Anne’s lace. If I saw someone picking a mushroom, I’d break out into a cold sweat.

Then, last summer, I came across a glut of shiny blackberries and took home a bagful. I made delicious jam and decided to give foraging another go, but this time I determined to head out with an expert; someone who knew his cow parsley from his toxic hemlock, and his wild garlic (above) from his Lords and Ladies, and there would be no mistakes.

So it is that I find myself on a beautiful morning of showers and sunshine in glittering countryside by the River Exe with food forager and ethnobotanist Robin Harford. This man really knows his wild foods – and what foods there are out here if you know where to look and what to pick!

Pottering along the riverbank and hedgerows, Robin regales me with the plants’ history, folklore and culinary uses, as we pick, sniff and nibble. Many plants are picked 94

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Food forager and ethnobotanist Robin Harford introduces Emma Inglis to wild foods growing along the banks of the River Exe. Photos by Emma Inglis. for Robin’s show and tell: lesser celandine (“I wouldn’t eat this raw because of the toxin protoanemonin, which causes blistering – but once cooked, and with that destroyed, it’ll add depth and flavour to many a dish”); cleavers (“use the top tips as the older growth is stringy”); young, furled hogweed shoots (“I’ve devoted a whole post to these on my blog. Gourmet doesn’t even get close to describing them”); stinging nettles (“the possibilities are endless”); and a tender new shoot of dock that quickly disappears into his mouth.

In Riverside Valley Park, along the overgrown fringes of a public footpath, Robin points out the scallop-shaped leaves of ground ivy and encourages me to take a sniff.

“It’s so important to use your senses when you identify wild foods. A lot of plants are eaten before they flower, so you need to identify them in other ways: where they grow, the shape of the leaves and stem, and by smell.” It smells minty. Next, a nibble: earthy, and slightly bitter.

“I like to blitz the leaves up with some horseradish to make a delicious mayo,” he tells me. A little while later, we happen across a clump of bright green leaves with navel-like depressions that Robin identifies as Navelwort, or Pennywort. “The young leaves are delicious in a salad.

They taste rather like cucumber.” He pops a kidneyshaped leaf in his mouth, and chews happily.

This is fun. But more than that: it’s wonderful to be outside. The trees are in leaf, birds fly and sing, and the banks lining our route burst with wildflowers. This is one of the real joys of foraging, says Robin, getting out into nature and delighting in our surroundings.

“Foraging helps us to connect with the natural world and understand it better.”

It was the pure and simple joy of countryside that started Robin on his foraging journey. Until 2004, he had an e-book publishing company: “I was working seven days a week, 15 hour days, doing a job that totally burnt me out, and nearly killed me. I had to give it up.”

food In the weeks that followed, whilst walking along the hedgerows, Robin was struck by a “green wall filled with plants.” He started to identify and research them, learn about their medicinal properties, and discovered which ones were good to eat. He was hooked. His learning continued. One of his plant mentors was a “crazy old hippy” called Frank Cook who inspired Robin to share his plant knowledge. Today, Robin has made a career teaching people how to find and cook wild food.

Wild garlic is plentiful and pervasive, and Robin knows exactly where to locate it. We head for a stream meandering beside a muddy path, near a fence mossed over from age. He kneels down to sniff and chew.

“Almost all parts of the plant are useable, including the leaves, stems and flowers. It’s great as a pesto.” The woody spot is awash with the plant. Nearby, appearing from a crack in the cycle way, Robin points at some dandelion. “The French call it dent-de-lion (lion’s tooth), a reference to its jagged leaves. It’s a great superfood and absolutely packed with antioxidants.”

On we go, a light rain begins to fall, but we are not deterred. There is wild chervil to discover, burdock,

and hairy bittercress. Nature’s exhaustive larder stretches out before us to Topsham and the sea, where there are further goodies to be found: dulse, sea rocket and samphire. But that’s for another day, and another feature.

Already our baskets are full.

ROBIN’S FOUR FORAGING RULES • •

•

•

When it comes to foraging, fortune does not favour the brave.

Only pick something if you are 100% certain you know what it is.

Edible plants can have many common names so use the botanical/scientific name (Latin) when identifying a plant, that way there is no confusion.

Once you’re sure you have correctly identified a plant, proceed with a tolerance test: put a tiny bit of the plant in the front of your mouth and spit it out, wait 60 minutes and, if there’s no negative reaction, nibble a larger piece, wait 60 minutes, and see how you feel. If there’s no reaction, proceed with a tablespoon in a suitable recipe. Increase the amount accordingly.

Be sustainable. Only take what you need.

Garlic pesto INGREDIENTS

For every 100g of wild garlic leaves: • 100ml olive oil • 50g pine nuts • 50g grated parmesan • A handful of parsley (optional) • Salt and pepper METHOD

Blanch the garlic leaves in boiling water for 10 seconds, and pat dry. Add olive oil, pine nuts, and parsley, and blitz with a stick blender. Stir in parmesan, and season.

Nettle soup Serves four INGREDIENTS

• • • • • • •

2 pints of young nettle tops, washed 1 large onion, chopped 2 large potatoes, peeled and diced 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, crushed 1l chicken or vegetable stock Oil for frying Salt and pepper

METHOD

Fry the onion and garlic in oil until soft. Add the nettles, potato and stock, and boil until the potatoes are cooked, then liquidise and season.

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

95

MANOR’s food editor, Anna Turns, chats to Giles Humphries and Myles Hopper about their food philosophies and how the West Country inspired them to set up Mindful Chef, the healthy recipe box scheme.

W

hen Giles Humphries and his best mate went fishing from Topsham in the summer of 2014, something really resonated when they saw the fish being sold on the quay afterwards to the locals, direct from the dayboat and as fresh as can be.

“It dawned on us how locals source fish so differently in Devon to the mass model in which supermarkets work,” says Giles. “We wanted to take that nationwide by applying that principle to the recipe box model, with some added health benefits.” And so, the idea for Mindful Chef was born, with Giles and Myles Hopper at the helm.

The pair grew up in the West Country, playing sport together at Exeter School and going on surf trips to Polzeath, Harlyn Bay and Constantine Bay. Giles, 30, lived in Sidmouth, and Myles, 28, in Exeter, and their passion for this region’s food and drink produce is 96

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

evident. In the first six months of business, they spent a long time meeting small, independent Westcountry producers, and in the early days the entire stock for Mindful Chef boxes came from Devon and Cornwall.

The business evolved quickly, and since launching 18 months ago, Mindful Chef has delivered 250,000 meals nationwide, to customers as far flung as Penzance, Cardiff and Glasgow.

Now with an HQ in London, and a third co-founder, Rob Grieg-Gran, they’ve needed to cast their net wider and source ingredients from more independent producers and farms around the country: “We are trying to drill right down and remove all the big supply chains, so we go from plough to plate and farm to fork, keeping everything incredibly fresh,” says Giles, who always has direct relationships with each supplier.

Myles and Giles still keep one foot in the West Country: “We source fish from Celtic Fish & Game

food

If it’s not organic, it will always be free range, high welfare and conservation grade, because quality and ethics run through everything we do.

The three co-founders of Mindful Chef: Myles, Rob and Giles

in St Ives, and organic veg from Langridge Farm near Crediton,” explains Giles, who chooses organic where possible. “If it’s not organic, it will always be free range, high welfare and conservation grade, because quality and ethics run through everything we do.”

Mindful Chef was created with the aim of making healthy eating easier for far more people, and the founders’ timing couldn’t have been better. Recipe box schemes are just on the cusp of a big boom in the UK – they are already massive business in the US – and their wellness ethos fits the current mood of the food industry.

But these recipe boxes are by no means a fad diet, and there’s robust healthy-eating expertise behind every dish.

Myles, a personal trainer and nutritional coach, brings his own food philosophies to the table, plus he offers health coaching and meal planning. “Many of my clients would work out hard to get fit but find it tricky to keep on top of their nutrition,” he explains. “I’d always encourage them to stop eating refined foods and only indulge in things like bread and pasta occasionally, because they don’t give a nutritional high; they just create a blood sugar high.” Every colourful recipe is approved by a nutritionist, plus chef Louisa, who trained at Leigh Cookery School, spends her days testing recipes, making sure every dish can be made in less than 30 minutes. As a result, all the recipes are gluten-free and dairy-free, replacing refined carbohydrates with quinoa, wild rice, sweet potato and lots of vegetables.

“We’ve created a recipe box that is mindful in every way, by using healthy ingredients from small local

suppliers and by reducing food waste – as a business, we only order exactly what we need,” explains Giles. “We order from suppliers on a Thursday night, so the fishing boats go out on a Friday and land the fish by Friday night, so it’s sent to our depot and with customers on a Sunday.”

Giles, a marketeer, admits they’re not professional chefs, but this means he identifies well with his customers. Before launching this new venture, he was working late and his diet was suffering. “I had done a sports science degree and played competitive rugby, so I know what’s good for me, but with the modern lifestyle there wasn’t time to cook super-tasty, nutritional meals.

I knew there must be a better way and that’s when we discovered the recipe box model that’s so popular in the States,” he explains. “We are average Joes when it comes to culinary skills, so Mindful Chef has taught us to have more confidence with cookery and encouraged us to experiment with new ingredients while expanding our repertoire.”

But he believes that cooking is not booming. “Cookery books may sell by the shelf-load, but in terms of getting down and dirty in the kitchen on a weekday evening, people just don’t do it, especially in cities. They use ready meals or delivery services.” So, boxes provide an achievable way of getting back in the kitchen while preparing food that’s going to make you feel good, plus they offer a chance to try new ingredients and recipes.

The founders’ no-nonsense approach is reflected in their new book, with recipes divided into five sections: energy and productivity, stress, gut health, exercise and MANOR | Late Spring 2017

97

sleep. That said, Giles and Myles don’t pretend to be saints. “We sell good, wholesome food, and we make sure that we fill you up, but it’s not about excluding things... we still eat pizza and drink beer, but instead of having pasta six times a week, we suggest that you just have it twice a week and introduce a bit more raw food and diversity. Then you’ll be less bloated, sleep better and have clearer skin – it’s all down to the insulin metabolism and managing your energy levels.” Ultimately, it is all about balance. mindfulchef.com

Spinach falafels with coconut harissa sauce and zingy kale salad Serves two INGREDIENTS

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

240g drained chickpeas 100g spinach 2 tbsp chickpea flour Olive oil 80g kale ½ pomegranate 1 avocado 20g walnuts 1½ tbsp apple cider vinegar 15g creamed coconut 2 tbsp boiling water 1 tsp harissa paste Sea salt and black pepper

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.

Put the chickpeas into a bowl and mash for 1-2 minutes with a potato masher or the back of a fork, until they are all crushed.

Place the spinach in a separate bowl. Pour over enough boiling water to cover and leave to wilt for 1 minute. Place the spinach in a sieve and drain off the excess water, then finely chop.

Add the spinach to the chickpeas. Add the chickpea flour, one teaspoon of olive oil and one tablespoon of water, season generously and mix well. Form the chickpea mixture into 12 balls, place them on a baking tray, and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, turning them halfway through.

Meanwhile, make the kale salad. Finely slice the kale (removing any tough stalks). Cut the pomegranate in half and remove the seeds. Peel and de-stone the avocado and cut it into small pieces. Roughly chop the walnuts. Put the kale into a bowl and mix in the

98

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

apple cider vinegar and half a tablespoon of oil. Add the pomegranate seeds, avocado and walnuts and season with salt and pepper.

Dissolve the creamed coconut in the boiling water and mix with the harissa paste.

Serve the falafels on plates and drizzle over the coconut harissa sauce. Serve alongside the zingy kale salad.

food Ginger and spring onion sea bass with miso and lime quinoa Serves two INGREDIENTS

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

80g quinoa 300ml boiling water 1 head of pak choi 1 yellow pepper 4cm fresh ginger 4 spring onions ½ fresh red chilli Coconut oil 2 x 150g sea bass fillets 2 tsp tamari 1 tbsp sweet miso paste Juice of ½ lime Sea salt and black pepper

METHOD

Rinse the quinoa and put into a saucepan with the boiling water. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, until cooked.

Meanwhile, cut the root end of the pak choi and thinly slice the yellow pepper. Peel the ginger and slice into thin matchsticks. Finely slice the spring onions and red chilli lengthways.

Heat half a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan on a medium heat. Add the pak choi and yellow pepper and cook for 5 minutes, until softened, then remove from the pan and keep warm.

Season the sea bass with sea salt and black pepper.

Using the same frying pan, heat half a tablespoon of oil on a medium heat and place the sea bass in the pan, skin-side

down. Fry for 2-3 minutes each side, until cooked through.

Remove from the pan.

Add one teaspoon of oil to the frying pan on a mediumhigh heat and add the ginger, chilli, spring onion and tamari. Cook for 3 minutes, until golden brown.

When the quinoa is cooked, drain, season and stir in the miso paste and lime juice.

To serve, place the miso and lime quinoa on a plate, top with the sea bass and spoon over the spring onions, chilli and ginger. Serve alongside the stir-fried pak choi and yellow pepper.

Matcha cookies Makes 10 INGREDIENTS

• • • • • •

270g crunchy cashew nut butter 100g coconut palm sugar 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 egg 1 tbsp matcha powder 40g cashew nuts, roughly chopped

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.

Put the cashew nut butter, coconut palm sugar and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl and mix together until combined, then beat in the egg to form a dough. Add the matcha powder and stir well, then stir in the chopped cashew nuts.

Form the cookie dough into 10 balls and place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Flatten the balls with the palm of your hand to form a cookie shape (they will expand a bit when cooking).

Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes, until lightly golden brown. Leave to cool for a few minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool and enjoy!

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

99

Bites

Cornish flavours of fudge Buttermilk has collaborated with Tregothnan Tea and Southwestern Distillery to create two new Cornish fudge flavours. The new Earl Grey fudge, with notes of bergamot, features tea from Truro-based Tregothnan Tea, and Buttermilk has also created Gin fudge, which uses Tarquin’s Gin, made in nearby Padstow.

Tarquin Leadbetter, owner of Southwestern Distillery, says: “I’ve been buying Buttermilk fudge since I was a child, popping into the Padstow shop during school holidays, so it was a fantastic idea to collaborate with these brilliant confectioners that are only a few miles down the road from the distillery, and produce something really special.” buttermilk.co.uk

Fravocado Exeter-based mother Becky Osborne has created a new brand of delicious ice cream packed full of nutrients, made with avocado and coconut milk. Three years ago, Becky became addicted to eating ice cream while pregnant with her first child. Once her son was born, she decided to reduce her dairy and sugar intake but she couldn’t find a healthier ice cream alternative.

“I struggled to find something that was not only dairy free but had a low sugar content, so I decided to make my own,” says Becky. “I started experimenting with different ingredients and flavours. When you remove the sugar and cream from traditional ice cream it can be very icy, and this is where the avocado came in. At the time, I was eating avocado for breakfast, lunch and dinner, putting it in cakes and mousses, and after a bit of research I realised that it can be successfully used as a tasty fat in ice cream alongside coconut milk.”

Becky has recently launched three flavours of Fravocado: original, raspberry and basil swirl, and raw cacao swirl. fravocado.co.uk

100

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

food

Health kick in a bottle The Cornwall-based food enterprise, Je Tam, has launched an innovative new range of health drinks called Life Kombucha, based on a Chinese recipe that dates back thousands of years. Made by fermenting green and white tea, founder Tam Schallhorn has perfected her own recipe for kombucha in three flavours: mint, strawberry, and mango and mint.

Tam has been brewing this sparkling drink at home for a couple of years: “When I became pregnant, I started to consume it more regularly as the digestive health benefits were really noticeable. It was also the perfect substitute for when my partner was having an alcoholic beverage – so much so that he swapped his evening wine for one of our uniquely flavoured kombuchas.”

Je Tam has been producing ‘clean and raw’ desserts, truffles, protein balls, scones and burgers at Foundry Farm in Hayle since 2014, and Life Kombucha drinks are available at Archie Browns in Truro and Penzance, The Green Door Health Store in St Ives, The Natural Store in Falmouth, and Sprout Health Store in Newquay. jetam.co.uk

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

101

Gin school gets full marks With a choice of more than 100 botanicals from across the globe, the possibilities to make your own bespoke gin are endless at Salcombe Distilling Co. Gin School. Jason Nickels, ‘headmaster’ of the new gin school based by the estuary on Island Street in Salcombe, and one of the distillers of Salcombe Gin, explains that there are a few simple guidelines to follow: “Think about the seasons, whether you want citrusy or floral or spicy gin, dark, light, zesty, woody. Your choice of botanicals results in a totally unique blend, and it’s important to make the flavours indiscernible and smooth when you’re choosing your botanicals.”

Inspired by the sea, Salcombe Gin is made with Dartmoor spring water and a recipe of 13 botanicals, including the fresh peel of grapefruit, lemon and lime to give a distinctive zesty flavour. Of course, juniper is the main ingredient (between 25-30g are recommended per mini still), and additional botanicals should be added in relatively small quantities to the miniature copper stills, each designed to make one 70cl bottle of gin to take home.

“Tiny seeds like coriander pack a punch so you’ll only need a couple,” explains Jason. “Fresh bay leaves help to smooth out the flavour and a tiny pinch of orris root binds the flavours together. We suggest you taste your gin as it distils because the flavour profile does change, and continues to do so once it is bottled over the next week or so.”

The Salcombe Distilling Co. Gin School experience costs £100 for one person or a shared experience for two costs £125. salcombegin.com

Black Cow tours Black Cow Vodka, the world’s only pure milk vodka, has opened its distillery doors to the public. Starting this month, you can take a tour of the Black Cow Vodka Distillery near Beaminster in west Dorset and enjoy a vodka tasting, cocktail class and lunch in the new Black Cow Bar + Kitchen. Black Cow co-founder and dairy farmer, Jason Barber, says, “Since I first created our crystal clear pure milk vodka four years ago, we have seen interest grow around the world, so we are really excited to be opening our doors to fans of Black Cow Vodka.”

The Black Cow Distillery Experience includes a cocktail-making class, 60-minute tour and lunch for two in the new Bar + Kitchen, plus a bottle of Black Cow vodka. £140. Alternate Fridays and Saturdays. The Black Cow Distillery Visit includes a tour of the distillery, a chance to sample the vodka and a complimentary cocktail. £10. Fridays and Saturdays. blackcow.co.uk

Seafood coast ale Mitch Tonks has created a craft beer called the Seafood Coast Ale to celebrate the rich pickings caught off the South Devon coastline (see page 90 for the seafood feature). Developed by Mitch alongside brewer Tom Maderious at Salcombe Brewery, the beer contains Citra, Chinook, Amarillo and Challenger hops along with Devon spring water.

102

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

food

Cocktails by the beach Boutique hotel, The Beach at Bude, has an exciting new cocktail menu. New bar manager Rudi West has spent a lot of time experimenting with recipes: “I want to inspire our customers to try something different and discover new flavours that reflect our great location beside Summerleaze Beach.” New additions include Peach Melba, Black and Stormy, and Mr Tunnel Tipple, which is based on Hendrick’s Gin with a refreshing combination of rose and cucumber, perfect for sipping on the terrace this summer. thebeachatbude.co.uk

Golden ghee Totnes-based Happy Butter has launched a new turmeric ghee made from clarified organic Westcountry butter.

With numerous health benefits, turmeric has been used traditionally in Ayurvedic medicine, and this smooth ghee can be used as a delicious replacement for butter in most recipes. happybutter.co.uk

New ambition The Michelin-starred The Treby Arms in Sparkwell has a new head chef. Luke Fearon, 28, has taken over from Anton Piotrowski. Luke says that his ambition for The Treby Arms is “evolution, not revolution”. With the same team remaining in the kitchen and the award-winning front-of-house team, Luke aims to keep the menu “as British as possible without restricting our culinary boundaries. We will work closely with our habitat, the seasons and our expert suppliers to share our offering with you. We are just the middle men to world-class ingredients.” thetrebyarms.co.uk

Never judge a book by its cover The Book Cover on Exeter’s Longbrook Street is a new 1920s-inspired speakeasy bar disguised as an old book shop.

Email hello@thebookcover.co.uk to request the weekly password in order to gain access.

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

103

Save the date Q’FEST A new festival for BBQ obsessives.

28-30 April. £6 per adult, children free.

Higher Humber Farm, Bishopsteignton. qfest.unitedq.com

GOOD FOOD MARKET A hub for real foodies, with food and drink producers from across the region.

7 May. 10am-3pm. Royal William Yard, Plymouth.

ST IVES FOOD AND DRINK FESTIVAL

Good Food Market, Plymouth

Headlined by Nathan Outlaw, this festival celebrates the best of Cornish produce.

13-14 May. Porthminster Beach, St Ives. Day ticket £3, weekend ticket £5. stivesfoodanddrinkfestival.co.uk

SPRING FOOD FAIR Foraging tours, kids’ workshops, artisan food stalls and chef demos, masterclasses plus the chance to dine in the River Cottage farmhouse.

27-29 May. 10am-6pm. Adults £17.50, children free. River Cottage, near Axminster. rivercottage.net/springfoodfair Spring Food Fair, River Cottage

THE SHOPS AT DARTINGTON FOOD FAIR Devon delights showcased with workshops and events, held in association with Food & Drink Devon.

PHOTO: JACK GORMAN, THE REALLY GOOD MEDIA COMPANY

28-29 May. dartingtonfoodfair.org

Wine expert Susy Atkins with The Millbrook Inn head chef JP Bidart

104

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

food

Signature dish Jeff Robinson is head chef at New Yard Restaurant in Trelowarren, Cornwall. His risotto recipe was transformed after he visited Venice and ate risotto made with a simple beef stock, which blew him away. “I tracked down the Acquerello rice, which is aged for up to 10 years, and researched the way risotto is made in Italy and why it’s so good,” says Jeff. “This is how we make risotto at the New Yard Restaurant, using an onion-flavoured butter rather than cooking the rice with onion and garlic, as we prefer the texture. We always have a risotto on at the New Yard – we love making it. We’re currently using locally grown asparagus, and in May we make our native lobster risotto.” He explains that there are so many different things you can turn into a risotto, but good rice, good butter and good wine are all essential. newyardrestaurant.co.uk

Spring risotto of asparagus and pea Serves four ASPARAGUS SPEARS

•

12 asparagus spears

Snap the bottom of the asparagus spears off. With a sharp knife, trim the bottom ends and take off the little leaves.

Plunge into boiling salted water and refresh into ice water.

They still want a little bite in them, not too tender.

Reserve the trimmings.

PICKLED ASPARAGUS

• • • •

8 asparagus spears, leaves off.

100ml white wine vinegar 100ml white wine 100g sugar

Snap the bottom part of the asparagus off. Using a peeler, shave them down so you have nice ribbons. Leave on a cloth with a little sea salt.

Boil the pickling liquor to make sure the sugar has dissolved and leave to cool. When cool, drop the shaved asparagus into the pickle for a few minutes Reserve the trimmings.

ASPARAGUS, PEA & WATERCRESS PURÉE

• • • • • •

Asparagus trimmings 400g peas (frozen) Two handfuls of watercress Rodda’s butter Cornish sea salt 400ml veg stock

Fry all the asparagus trimmings in a tablespoon of butter and a little salt, add the veg stock and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, add the frozen peas and the watercress to a blender and turn on, slowly add the hot stock and blend until smooth.

Remove and pass through a sieve.

RISOTTO

• • • • •

300g Acquerello rice 300ml white wine 1l vegetable stock at room temperature 3 tbsp Parmesan cheese, finely grated 50g Rodda’s butter

METHOD

Heat a pan to a medium heat and add the butter. When the butter is hot, but not brown, add the rice to toast it slightly.

Before the rice colours, add the white wine and keep stirring slowly until it is all absorbed. Slowly add the vegetable stock, stirring constantly and adding the stock a little at a time. When all the stock is absorbed, taste the rice. It should be cooked but still have a little bite to it. Add more stock if you like it a little softer.

At this point you would usually add the Parmesan, the purée, more butter and beat ferociously – but don’t. Add four tablespoons of the purée, two tablespoons of the infused onion butter and the three tablespoons of shaved Parmesan, put a cloth over the top and leave it for a few minutes to melt through.

Take the cloth off, give it a stir to incorporate all the cheese and purée. You will notice it will split then emulsify into a lovely glossy consistency. Hold each plate in the air with one hand and with the other hand tap the bottom to spread the risotto out evenly. Don’t serve it in a bowl – risotto shouldn’t stand to attention, it should fall under its own weight!

Sauté the spears in a little butter and place on top with some of the pickled asparagus and some peppery leaves. We have lots to choose from on the estate but be careful picking random ones if you are not sure what they are.

Shave some fresh strong Parmesan and serve immediately with a glass of white wine.

ONION BUTTER

• • • • • • •

200g Rodda’s butter 2 tbsp chopped butter 2 small, white, English onions, peeled and roughly chopped 2 garlic cloves, chopped 2 celery stalks, chopped Cornish sea salt ¼ nutmeg, shaved

Slowly heat the butter with the vegetables and nutmeg until infused, leave to cool down and pass the vegetables out through a sieve, leaving a nice flavoured butter.

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

105

Food Pioneers JP Bidart HEAD CHEF, THE MILLBROOK INN As a French chef, I’m classically trained. I moved from

Paris to the UK 19 years ago, and have worked here at The Millbrook Inn for eight years. When I was younger, in France, I moved jobs every few months to learn the trade in Michelin-star and rosette restaurants.

Everything we do is super local, with a French twist.

I stick to traditions. I love modern food but personally I concentrate on the taste and flavour – we still have lovely presentation but we are more rustic than fine dining.

Nose-to-tail butchery is what makes this pub so unique.

I use every single part of the carcass, from the kidneys to the heart. Nothing is wasted, so it is much more ethical, and it makes me more creative and experimental in my cooking. I take diners on a culinary adventure, out of their comfort zones.

I have learnt these skills by watching other chefs over many years, from when I first started out in kitchens. I

had my classic training in France, then starting to fillet a fish, for example. Sometimes the restaurants I worked in would be so busy that the head chef would always do the butchering and there wouldn’t be time to learn from him. Eventually, one of the chefs started teaching me in more detail – we started with a wild boar from scratch and it was quite interesting.

It’s important to respect and have a good understanding of the animal. For me, that goes from knowing how to

butcher it through to cooking it properly and eating it. Some parts might be used as a mince, braised in a casserole or cooked as a steak. The options are endless.

Welfare is crucial. The way an animal has been treated,

how it has been fed, how long it has lived, whether it has been kept in a barn or reared outside and grass-fed, how it is killed – that all matters. I think that high welfare should continue to how long it has been hung for, how you cook it and the way it is rested before eating.

This landscape is so exposed to the sea. The saltiness in

the soil translates into mineral-rich grasses, which the animals eat, and this gives a greater depth of flavour to the meat.

We only ever put what’s in season on our menus. A lot

of people are losing touch with what’s in season, so it’s 106

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

our job to help educate the community and showcase the wonderful meat, fish and veg produced on our doorstep.

There’s so much amazing produce here in Devon. We are

spoilt for choice, from ciders and beers to fish from the sea, meat and veg from the land. Living in a rural area, farmers just a few miles away bring us whole animals so we know exactly where it is from.

I take as much meat from local farmers as possible. We

source pheasant, venison and roe deer from local farmers, shoots and hunts, and we get a lot of herbs, spices and veg from our locals. We’d love to expand that idea and buy from every little plot in the surrounding area, which would allow us to rely less on bigger suppliers. One day we would love to have our own pub garden in the village and grow some of our own produce.

On our menu this spring we have lots of lamb, duck, poultry and some beef. Sometimes, people will order

a plate of offal – sweetbreads, heart, liver, kidney, all prepped differently. Often people come here especially for that, and we do a lot of demos and special events throughout the year.

My six-year-old son is a fussy eater. For a chef, that’s a

nightmare! He has a very sweet palate. If I make proper French crêpes, he helps me to whisk and stir the mixture.

Children’s palates change as they get older: at the age of four, their palates are around six times stronger than an adult’s, so if there is one flavour they don’t like, they won’t touch it again.

I love being involved with the Dartmouth Food Festival in October. People remember the times I have cooked

squirrel or snails in the demo tent. Last time, I tested out a new recipe and cooked rabbit with crab, which was a big success with the crowd.

Join JP at the next demos: Rose veal on 10 May, fish on 14 June.

7pm. £45 per head includes masterclass followed by four-course dinner and wine. Booking essential. South Pool, TQ7 2RW. 01548 531581. millbrookinnsouthpool.co.uk

food

The Table Prowler KuPP, Exeter I used to think Exeter was overrun with hairdressers, but now it seems that every time I turn around there’s a new burger bar opening – and yet I still can’t find one that satisfies. The ones I’ve tried (and believe me, I’ve put in the research) are either mega-stuffed, sloppy messes or suffer from having to be eaten in over-lit environments with nerve-shredding acoustics – like trying to have your dinner in the middle of a hen party.

Not so KuPP, with its cool, Scandi-inspired interior, soothing colour palette, and living moss wall. I’m already a regular here for coffee meetings in the calm atmosphere, so am delighted to discover that, along with myriad pickled, cured and smoked whatnots, KuPP offers a 7oz Elk burger, served with deliciously salty skinny fries and a frisky pile of spidskål (coleslaw), for £13.50. The two meat patties are tender, with a rich, gamey flavour, and are given a sweet kick by smoked red onions and sliced beetroot, and a lick of Danish blue cheese sauce; the bun is just the right side of brioche-y. It’s a chilly night, so the other half needs a hearty boost: he tucks into the slow-

cooked elk and venison karelian hot pot – a stonker of a stew that is packed with succulent chunks of meat, potato and kale, and served with slices of rye bread (£16). The portions are generous, and we feel sufficiently fortified to tackle the tundra, should that be required.

With such quality tucker on the menu, and lovely staff, it’s always a surprise that KuPP is never as packed as its brasher neighbours in the Queen St dining quarter; apparently, Londoners can’t get enough of its effortlessly Nordic sophistication – the Paddington branch (its only other outlet) is having to fight them off with a stick. I hope the rest of Exeter steps outside the box a little to sample KuPP before it pulls up its skirts and heads back to the smoke.

You want to know how much I liked my burger? I didn’t even care that they served it to me on a ridiculous board. kupp.co/exeter Food 9 | Service 10 | Ambience 9 | Location 8

Surfside, Polzeath, Cornwall On approach, Surfside, right on Polzeath Beach, looks like a run-of-the-mill, weather-beaten seaside caff. With an open-air terrace on the sand, the interior stretches over two storeys of whitewashed breezeblock, boasting large windows with panoramic views of one of Cornwall’s widest and most beautiful surfing beaches.

Inside, it becomes clear this is no greasy spoon; the décor is minimal and stylish – white Eames chairs arranged around refectory tables served by an efficient, polite, healthy-looking (doubtless surfers) team.

The menu also excites: fresh sole, steak rolls, whole crab and fresh green asparagus topped with poached egg and parmesan… a mouth-watering selection.

It was a pristine day, not a cloud in the sky or a whisper of wind. We chose the famous Surfside lobster roll and crab linguini as mains, with the asparagus as a side. The children all had burgers and chips. The asparagus was perfect in every way – six fat, succulent, fresh green stalks with a warm, perfectly soft poached egg and a generous slice of parmesan (this has to be one of the best ways to eat asparagus). The lobster roll arrived with hand-cut chips, and a green salad on a retro enamel tin lined with newspaper. Full marks for presentation, and the taste didn’t disappoint. The fresh ciabatta roll was filled with large chunks of lobster in a celery, apple and dill seed mayonaisse dressing, the chips were

delicious and the salad fresh. The crab linguini, of which this subject is an expert, was one of the best she’d had. A decent amount of crab, just the right amount of chilli, in a coconut milk sauce. The linguini boasted perfect ‘al dente’ bite and the Babylonstoren white wine made a good accompaniment, although it could have been a touch colder.

The only flaw in the lunch was the kids’ meals, where both baps and burgers in all cases had been scorched but served up anyway, which was a shame as the baps were clearly tasty fresh brioche buns, and the burgers rough-cut and home-made. The charred outer of one burger revealed an inner perhaps a little too rare for children, but the kids, having noted the black bits, laid into them anyway; sending them back would have meant wrenching the food from the mouths of hungry children. Plus, it’s the very start of the season: you can allow for the odd over-hot grill when the rest of the food, setting, and friendly service is this good. I will be back – this is currently my official venue of choice for a beachside, al fresco lunch. surfsidepolzeath.com Food 8 | Service 8 | Ambience 9 | Location 10

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

107

108

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Space

JAM Interiors | Solidwool | Naturalmat | Shopping for space

jaminteriorsgroup.com

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

109

At its new showroom in Topsham, JAM Interiors is demonstrating its particular brand of floor-to-ceiling design expertise. Imogen Clements talks to founder Matthew Robinson about the company’s journey. Photos by Paul Ryan-Goff.

T

here’s a corner of Exeter that is fast becoming a hotbed of purveyors of high-end design.

Be it joinery, lighting, furniture or fittings, Topsham is now considered by many to be the South West mecca for those looking to apply the very best interiors to their homes.

Driving this, without a doubt, is the well-documented migration to the South West of affluent professionals looking to kit out a primary or secondary residence. But it’s also the growing appreciation among residents, new or well established, for well-crafted quality that’s worth stretching the budget for. We’re all spending more on our living spaces, perhaps because we’re living longer to enjoy them; perhaps because we’re better aware of the psychological benefits; and perhaps more so in the South 110

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

West because it’s here that many residences are likely to be ‘forever’ homes from which we won’t move on and where the interior needs to reflect or come close to the beauty of the exterior. But maybe that’s getting a little too poetic?

Matthew Robinson leans back on the Ligne Roset sofa that occupies a corner of the new showroom that he and business partner Jose Cortizo opened in February, surveys the impeccably styled living spaces around him, and reflects, “A lot of our influence stems from spending much of our early careers on the Continent.

“On graduating, I worked in Barcelona in the textile industry for a period before moving to Silent Gliss, the leading global supplier of curtain tracks and blinds. Silent Gliss were at that time keen to move into the residential market and I helped them do so through a design

space collaboration with Kelly Hoppen, which was groundbreaking for the industry at the time and launched at the Decorex International exhibition. I went on to be MD for Benelux and remained on the Continent for four years, during which time I was struck by the fact that, unlike in this country, there was a real grassroots interest in interior design, such that every small village in Belgium and Holland had their own impressive showroom. That impression has stayed with me and doubtless influenced much of what you see today.”

It’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into curating the layout of this 350m 2 South West showroom. It’s less a furniture shop, more a style guide; a source of interiors inspiration. The room sets are much like those you’d find in some of the more aspirational interiors magazines, except here you can sit in them and touch them. The result is that you don’t just want that lamp or this coffee table; you want the whole lot to be lifted and set down in your own home.

“That was what we set out to achieve,” smiles Matthew. “We wanted to show how things work together.” And note, these are not run-of-the-mill ‘things’ that Matthew refers to. We’re seated on a Ligne Roset velvet ‘Exclusif ’ sofa by Didier Gomez, feet resting on The Rug Company ‘Leaf ’ rug; our coffees are perched on a Julian Chichester coffee table along with some rather lovely designer tomes and several tall glass vases, within which hang spherical moss bushes suspended in mid-air. The wall to our left displays an imposing mosaic of six-foot Bisazza Chinese warriors.

The space is opulent and lavish, quite daring in its component parts, but it works, and I’m told is already bearing fruit, in that not just pieces but complete room sets are selling.

“I suppose we’ve never been purely finishers when it comes to interior design,” Matthew tells me, in considering the trajectory that’s brought them to where they are now.

“Due to my expertise on window treatments and Jose’s on stone, we’ve always worked closely with architects who appreciated our early involvement.”

Devon Stone is the business that Jose Cortizo set up with Amy, his wife, who also happened to be Matthew’s sister. “We all met while at university,” Matthew explains.

“Amy, like me, began work in textiles, and on graduating she designed with lace for Agent Provocateur.” She had stints working in France and Spain, then she and Jose married and had children, at which point they moved from London to Devon and set up Devon Stone – Jose’s core area of interest. With the whole family relocated to Devon, Matthew decided to also make that his home on returning from Amsterdam, and created an interior design business called Inside Spaces. Both the stone and the interiors businesses worked closely together and their combined skillsets meant they could offer an end-to-end, floor-to-ceiling interiors solution, so it seemed obvious to merge the two companies – Devon Stone and Inside MANOR | Late Spring 2017

111

Spaces – into one, hence the birth of JAM Interiors: Jose, Amy and Matthew.

“Tragically, Amy died in March 2010, just as we’d created the company,” says Matthew. “She’d been diagnosed with cancer only six months previously. Jose and I, in large part to honour Amy’s involvement, rallied and resolved to drive the JAM Interiors business forward.

“Our stone and windows expertise meant projects from the outset were large – we were being brought in early by architects whose clients were demanding greater light and ever larger expanses of glazing and, once in, we were in a position to offer the rest of our interiors service.

We’d also acquired Curtain Call in 2010, our Newton Abbot-based workrooms where we make in-house all our soft furnishings: window treatments, upholstery, bed heads, and so forth. As a result, since day one we’ve been interior designers involved in every aspect of an interior.”

And it’s that end-to-end, floor-to-ceiling interiors expertise that Jose and Matthew clearly wanted the showroom to convey. Prior to opening in Topsham, the company worked out of a smaller studio on Pilot Wharf in Exmouth, a space from which to operate and talk through concepts with clients rather than physically show them.

Matthew and Jose are clearly proud of what they’ve achieved with the showroom. “Everywhere you look we’ve tried to incorporate an interesting technique or a different take, from the simplest thing like the rebated skirting to the dramatic Bisazza Chinese warriors on the wall. The space allowed us to show a wide variety of natural stone materials and techniques, including the medallion floor pattern in layers of two Italian marbles; 112

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

space

and the large floor-to-ceiling glazing allowed us to demonstrate our window expertise as a backdrop to our room sets. Josh and Joe Harvey of Barton Solutions played a large part in automating the entire showroom and really helped inject the wow factor. Our lighting design illuminating the entire showroom, and the array of blinds and window coverings, are all operated from a central point, which not only works from a practical perspective, but has allowed us to show off all the component elements at their very best through clever illumination. Yes, we have the patterns books and thousands of samples for flooring, carpets, fabrics, and wallpapers, which you’d expect from an interior designer; but we also have our own design studio space and a variety of ‘living’ spaces with atmosphere, where we can sit with clients and point out immediate, tangible examples of what they can also achieve.

“When I worked in Amsterdam,” Matthew recalls, “Silent Gliss, along with about 50 other interior brands, had a joint showroom on the waterfront in a large converted warehouse. Each company had their own

showroom space in this amazing building, along with a café where people could go, see the latest in design innovation and spec their entire house. That’s what we aspired to on a small scale in our showroom, aided by the presence of our neighbours, Amos Lighting and Sapphire Living, who share the same goal as us – to showcase the very best of design in their fields of lighting, kitchens and bathrooms. There’s no reason why Exeter shouldn’t be the destination design hub, where people come from all over the South West and beyond to source the very best for their homes. It’s what we all aspire to.”

JAM Interiors Group, Darts Business Park, Topsham, Devon EX3 0QH. Tel: 01392 879767. jaminteriorsgroup.com The showroom is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and Saturdays by appointment.

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

113

Hembury chair with Feist Forest Samara table

114

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

space

Justin and Hannah Floyd have created an innovative way of working with wool. They tell Anna Turns why sustainable design is at the heart of their business, Solidwool.

T

here’s a quiet rural revolution happening in Buckfastleigh, on the southern edge of Dartmoor. Hannah and Justin Floyd’s home town was traditionally a wool market town, and this creative husband-and-wife team are reinvigorating industry here by celebrating its heritage and giving wool a new lease of life. Solidwool is the first business in the UK to work with wool as part of a composite material, combining it with a bioresin to produce a sustainably sourced, environmentally friendly, strong material.

Justin, a product designer, and Hannah, whose background was in marketing, always dreamt of setting up their own business. “We wanted to do our own thing while using the skills we had in a positive way,” explains Justin. “As a designer, one of my philosophies is to make products that people need and have innate value. So, our furniture is designed so that it isn’t throwaway. It will hopefully last forever and there is an element of craft in the making, which we hope will create a couple of jobs, too, as our business grows.” So every Solidwool design has a positive output, with modern luxury at its heart.

Justin was always interested in making wool a structural material because, through his work as a product designer for equipment in the marine industry, he previously worked with composites such as fibreglass. “I started playing with wool, using it instead of fibreglass and carbon fibre, and we started off with some pretty crude experiments at home in the kitchen, mixing wool and resin to see what we could come up with – it wasn’t a disaster but it wasn’t pretty!” But those initial prototypes “sort of worked”.

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

115

Our furniture is designed so that it isn’t throwaway. It will hopefully last forever and there is an element of craft in the making.

Hannah and Justin Floyd

PHOTO: JIM MARSDEN

Herdwick sheep

116

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Then the cogs started whirring in Justin’s brain, and when the couple looked into it they realised no one else had done this before.

Once they started developing their ideas more seriously, Justin and Hannah decided to make the lowest-impact product possible, so they found the most natural, healthiest resin they could: “Our bioresin is about 30% natural and doesn’t pose any health risk to the people working with it, which is a big step forward from the highly toxic, petrochemical resin used in making fibreglass, for example.”

In February 2015, Solidwool launched its first chair from its small workshop on the outskirts of town, and the production recently moved to a larger factory in an old woollen mill in the centre of Buckfastleigh. “We’re a wool-based manufacturing business in the middle of this old woollen town,” says Hannah, “and we wanted to create a stylish, modern manufacturing factory. This mill was part of the site built in 1952 by the Co-op to handle all stages of wool production right through to weaving.”

And today, Hannah explains, it’s owned by Devonia, Britain’s oldest established sheepskin tannery.

Solidwool currently sources its wool from Herdwick sheep in the Lake District. “Some UK wools from mountain breeds such as Herdwicks have a coarser and rougher texture, which no one wants to use for clothing or carpets anymore,” describes Justin. “Because modern man-made fibres are so soft now, Herdwick became one of the lowest-value wools in the UK. The texture of Herdwick wool actually makes it easier for us to work with than fine wool, and it’s stronger.”

The applications of Solidwool are endless, and because this business gives a new purpose to this biproduct of hill farming in the Lake District, it is way more sustainable than other natural materials such as flax and hemp, which are specifically farmed from scratch.

“Ultimately, if we can somehow increase the value of this wool, it supports the hill farmers, so there’s a social benefit to that too,” says Justin. Provenance is a big part of the story, 95% of Herdwick sheep are farmed within 14 miles of Coniston, Cumbria, and Justin will soon be working with white wool from a different breed of sheep on Dartmoor. “Being able to educate people about where the product comes from and the benefits of using that material is very important.”

Justin starts his day at 7.30am, and each piece takes about an hour to mould then six hours to set, and by the end of the day, he spends time finishing the pieces.

“Other people had attempted to make a wool composite material before but they’d tried to make the strongest, most lightweight material they could – it wasn’t stacking up well, it was hard to process, so why bother,” says Justin, who came at this design problem from a very different angle. “We wanted to create products in this town from natural materials, which has beauty on many

space levels – visually, in terms of the story behind it and the good it is doing. We weren’t hung up on strength to start with, so that didn’t hold us back, and it allowed us to solve the other problems first.” As a result, they have actually ended up with a first-generation material that is fairly strong and comparable to fibreglass.

The finished composite material is far from monotone – each piece is unique, and the blue, silver-grey fibres create a individual, marble-effect texture. Justin adds value through design and he currently makes chairs, sidetables and flat sheets of Solidwool, which they supply to interior designers to make work benches and table tops from. Later this year, Justin hopes to produce a new design of chair, and they have also collaborated with companies that share their ethics, such as north Cornwall-based Finisterre, with whom they designed Solidwool surf wax combs. As well as reinvigorating the lost perceived value of wool, the story of the material and its innate beauty are such important components of Solidwool.

PHOTO: JIM MARSDEN

The Solidwool Hembury range is stocked by The Shops @ Dartington, TQ9 6TQ, or visit solidwool.com

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

117

Pioneering the concept of ‘natural sleep’, Devon-based mattress specialists Naturalmat open a flagship showroom in London.

Imogen Clements reconnects with founders Mark Tremlett and Peter Tindall.

118

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

space

I

t’s always fascinating to watch a business’s trajectory first hand. Naturalmat, the UK’s leading premium natural mattress company, was born in Devon 17 years ago, and in that time has grown to supply mattresses to leading luxury hotels across the globe, that trade in providing quality sleep, as well as selling their pioneering ‘clean sleep’ concept direct, across the age spectrum.

I first met Mark Tremlett and Peter Tindall, founders of Naturalmat, in 2011 when I interviewed them as a freelance journalist. At that stage, Mark and Peter had been selling their range of natural baby mattresses for nine years; they’d begun to attract the attention of and supply luxury hoteliers; and the pair were just turning their attention to the domestic market, targeting the adult consumer direct with their natural mattress range.

Fast-forward to 2017 and Naturalmat has just opened its first London flagship showroom in Chiswick; and business at the Devon showroom, which opened in 2014, as well as across all its core sectors – the premium hotel trade, adults and babies – is booming.

So much so, in fact, that it’s hard to recall that when I first encounted Mark and Peter, their office was installed on a bare-boarded mezzanine in a warehouse in Odhams Wharf, Topsham. You only needed one hand to count the administrative team (including Mark and Peter), which handled the business side of things, and their ‘office’ looked down on the team of cutters, stuffers, finishers and seamstresses who were busy handmanufacturing each of the mattresses, as the office team processed orders and issued press releases.

It was, nevertheless, a big warehouse, well stocked. I was shown the enormous rolls of raw Devon lambswool,

an important component of each mattress; the organic coir that’s derived from coconut husks and the natural latex that is made from the sap of the Hevea rubber tree.

They talked me through how they deliver an allnatural product by hand, from the base in Topsham, by controlling the entire production process, right down to ensuring their linen arrives unbleached and that the lambswool, which is naturally flame-retardant, is treated with a mixture of lavender, lemon and eucalyptus oil to make it anti-dustmite, bedbug-free and non-allergenic.

I was impressed. Indeed, if I’d been a dragon I’d have invested, because it occurred to me that given the amount of time we spend sleeping, what we sleep on had been woefully overlooked, even where the most vulnerable amongst us were concerned. Tiny newborns dressed in organic cotton Babygros were put down to sleep on a slab of pungent plastic lining wicker Moses baskets up and down the country. It was this irony, in fact, that led Mark and Peter into the sleep market in the first place, in 2002. Up until that point they’d been manufacturing all-natural upholstery for yachts, having discovered that natural fibres perform much better in this environment – they ‘breathe’ better, consequently dry better, and are therefore infinitely more comfortable and durable than synthetic alternatives. When Mark and his wife had their first child, he realized there was a glaring opportunity to adapt their product to one that promised an all-natural sleep – and where better to start than with newborn babies. They tested an all-natural baby mattress in focus groups of expectant mums and almost every one of them snapped it up. It was obvious that ‘sleep’ was the way to go.

The new flagship Chiswick showroom

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

119

From baby mattresses, the company attracted the attention of the premium hotel sector, particularly the more progressive ones who recognized the appeal of an all-natural, quality mattress amongst an increasingly ecoand synthetics-aware clientele. Some of the best hotels in the country, including Claridge’s, Cliveden, The Scarlet and Chewton Glen, as well as overseas luxury chains like Six Senses Hotels (whose business depends on quality sleep), started to place orders; in 2011, the hotel sector became Naturalmat’s main business. Given that the brand’s product was now being sampled and enjoyed by adult consumers, the logical next step was to sell direct to them. Peter and Mark invested in building awareness through PR and marketing, a revamped website, and by opening a new showroom in Topsham in 2014. In 2016,

they launched their range into Harrods, and are now about to open that Chiswick showroom, all 3,000 sq ft of it. This is a state-of-the-art clean-sleep haven, which not only showcases the full range of all-natural mattresses, linen and beds (Naturalmat acquired The Cornish Bed Company in 2015), but also boasts an in-store Sleep Zone offering customers a private, comfortable space to sample the goods.

A novel idea (and the first of its kind, I’m told), as buying a premium mattress is no small investment, be it from a cost or comfort perspective – you’ll be spending between six and nine hours a night on it for the next ten years or more, so it needs to be right.

As well as ensuring customers can take their time and be reassured about the comfort of their products,

The Sleep Zone in the new showroom, Chiswick

2000

2002

Natural marine mattresses designed after looking for a natural and comfortable alternative to synthetic ones found in yachts

120

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Baby mattress – Mark Tremlett’s first child came along, and after developing a natural fibre mattress for boats, he wanted the same benefits for his baby, Naturalmat Baby began

2003 Opening of Naturalmat Baby in Notting Hill

20082009 Naturalmat International – launch of Naturalmat USA

20112012 Hotel mattresses – secured first hotel contract for 600 rooms in New York

2013 Launch new showroom in Barcelona

space

Mark Tremlett and Peter Tindall

what both Mark and Peter are keen to convey in the new London store is the origin of Naturalmat. This is a Devon product sold UK-wide and internationally.

The lambswool is ostensibly Devonian, as evident from the branded sacks of wool, duvets and pillows dotted around the store, and ‘Made is Devon’ is clear from the Naturalmat label on each of the products, but the showroom also has audible and visual references to Devon throughout, as well as olfactory. Indeed: Naturalmat has developed its unique scent, and taken it to London.

This, it seems, has been a project in itself. An aroma specialist based in Japan combined seven specific essential oils to form a perfume that uses 100% natural essences from plants, trees, fruits, roots and flowers. The Naturalmat Scent includes Spanish lavender, Australian eucalyptus, rose and geranium from Africa, and a touch of spearmint from China. Mark says, “It’s magical to think that these essences from every corner of the world combine to create a scent which makes a perfect calming environment in your own home.”

It all fits. The Naturalmat mattress, alongside Devon lambswool, incorporates elements from around the

Summer

2014

Launch adult mattresses to the consumer market and opened Topsham showroom

2015 Launch new consumer website

world, be it coir, latex, cashmere or silk, which is then combined by craftspeople in Devon to create the highest level of sleep comfort available, and that is ‘natural sleep’ – Naturalmat has coined the phrase, because the team effectively pioneered it.

The Topsham warehouse where I first met Mark and Peter is now for manufacturing and storage only; the office team has doubled and now occupy a sleek open-plan (and windowed) office in the adjacent building that leads off the spacious, well-lit Devon showroom. But despite the rapid growth of the business, the bookend showrooms catering to the London and South West markets, the ever-growing hotel orders and the dynamic baby market, this duo, purveyors of clean sleep, haven’t changed at all. They’re still dynamic, fun entrepreneurs who hit on a simple concept and ran with it. Natural sleep. Obvious, really.

Just like all the best ideas. naturalmat.co.uk

ANECDOTES ALONG THE WAY… “I first worked with Peter helping out cooking for a friend’s catering business and realized we got on well. I suggested the idea of starting a company making better mattresses for yachts.”

“Cycling in London with a baby mattress hanging in a bag from each handlebar, I hit a pothole. Fortunately landing on a mattress saved me from injury – they’re healthy and safe in more ways than one.”

“Moving into the hotel sector and signing our first invoice was a shock.

We realized this was way bigger than anything we’d ever written for the nursery market.”

“Looking at TripAdvisor at the hotels that we’d supplied was immensely satisfying – 75% of comments made noted the best night’s sleep and most comfortable bed they’d had.”

Summer

2015

Acquire The Cornish Bed Company

Spring

2016

Launch into Harrods of London

Spring

2017

Launch of adult mattress showroom in Chiswick, London

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

121

Shopping for space It’s all about quality, not quantity. An item of designer furniture will last you forever and never fail to impress, so long as it’s clearly seen. Clear out the clutter, neutralise your space, then add a statement piece or two to be right on minimalist trend. You can always add a splash of colour and the odd texture contrast, but start simple to increase a sense of space and calm.

Pendant light, Ligne Roset, £280

Napoleon bee cushions, Timorous Beasties, £108 each

John Lewis

Original 1227 giant floor lamp, Heals, £2,650

Alburni table, Ligne Roset, £502 Lamp by Noguchi Akari, Heals, £195

122

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

HAY chair, Amara, from £199

space Asymmetric shiny gold ceiling lamp shade, House Doctor, £59.50 House Doctor

LSA chimney vase, Black by Design, £75

Coffee table, Pyers, £389

Black and white butterfly kaleidoscope cushions, The Curious Dept, £30 each

Broste Copenhagen Chair, Amara, £212

Table lamp, John Lewis, £40

Eames RAR rocking chair, John Lewis, £465

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

123

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 124 MANOR | Late Spring 2017 Terms and conditions apply.

Escape Coombeshead Farm, Launceston, Cornwall | The charm of Chile

ValparaĂ­so street art, Chile

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

125

A taste for relaxation Fiona McGowan gets into the supper club spirit at Coombeshead Farm in Launceston, where London barbecue impresario Tom Adams has established a foodie getaway that combines top-notch dining in a laid-back, communal atmosphere.

T

here’s a pair of socks draped on some logs next to the fire; they are none too clean and are gently steaming. A couple in their early 30s lounge on a wide, low sofa, drinks in hands; they have the look of hip, young Londoners who’ve been thrust into the countryside – all rosy-cheeked and relaxed after an afternoon of exploring (complete with leaking wellies). I perch, slightly awkwardly, on an adjacent sofa. My friend and I are going to spend the evening here; we’ll be eating and drinking and sharing a table with a handful of complete strangers, and we’re a little circumspect.

Those familiar with supper clubs, or who’ve experienced eating at the ‘chef ’s table’ in upper-echelon restaurants, would no doubt be comfortable with this set-up. But here, in a re-purposed farm on the DevonCornwall border, we feel somewhat isolated. We’ve planned to stay the night in one of the rooms above. The lounge and bar areas are spacious, but still rather intimate – there’s not much room for separate conversations. Will it work, or will we feel as though we’ve been dropped into a Big Brother-style world of clashing personalities and contrived chat?

126

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

escape

PHOTO: CHARLIE MCKAY

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

127

PHOTO: CHARLIE MCKAY

PHOTO: STEPHEN PEREZ

PHOTO: STEPHEN PEREZ

PHOTO: CHARLIE MCKAY

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

128

escape

PHOTO: CHARLIE MCKAY

Tom Adams

But first, to the beginnings: arrival at Coombeshead along hedgerow-lined lanes brings you to a collection of flinty-stone farm buildings, and a large courtyard overlooked by an imperious granite farmhouse. It’s early evening, and the lights gleam welcomingly as we climb the stairs to the heavy front door. I tentatively push it open and shout a greeting. It feels like walking into someone’s home. We’re greeted by Lottie, a slender 20-something dressed casually in skinny jeans and a jumper. Her partner, Tom Adams, strolls through. Blond and bespectacled with a prominent tattoo of a fish on his forearm, he looks like a cross between the Milky Bar Kid and a Shoreditch hipster.

Tom grew up in a farming family in Winchester, so he’s actually completely at home in this environment.

“My summer jobs were oat rogueing, where we’d go and pick out wild oats,” he remembers, “cleaning grain bins and stuff like that. We always had pigs and chickens and horses.” And the kitchen was very much the hub of the home; it’s from his mother that he learned the value of cooking and preserving according to the seasons, and Coombeshead’s larder is well stocked with fermenting pickles, jams and chutneys – much of it sourced from the 66-acre farm itself.

Meat is Tom Adams’s main game, however. He’s renowned for starting the Pitt Cue barbecue brand, which began in a food trailer on London’s South Bank “in a dank, drippy, redundant space under the railway bridge. It was probably the only reason we were allowed in,” he grins, remembering the “clapped-out silver box” that launched his career. He and a friend ran their meatwagon to rapturous popularity. The smoked meats and free-flowing alcohol made the trailer the go-to place for lunch. By the time they opened around midday, there would be a queue of 30 or 40 people, and they would often run out of food by 2pm, but the range of ciders and beers kept the party going long after that.

A shift to a tiny venue in Soho put Tom and his Pitt Cue brand firmly on the foodie map. Right at the sharp end of the popular food movement, before the ubiquity of Dirty Burger et al, Tom was avidly sourcing the bestquality meat he could find. “At first, we were operating very much like a street food vendor – the food was very simple,” he says, but he became increasingly obsessed with the provenance of the meat. When he discovered the butcher Philip Warren – Launceston-based supplier to some of London’s top restaurants – the lightbulbs didn’t so much go on as blow out: “It’s an amazing family business and they’re farmers as well as butchers, and used to have their own abattoir,” Tom explains.

“They’re incredibly thorough about their supply chain.”

Tom began spending every weekend he could working at Warren’s, and made friends with local livestock farmer Charlie Harper; he even bought some pigs of his own, which his mum kindly looked after until he persuaded Charlie to take them on.

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

129

The door to the kitchen is open, and the three chefs are working to the sound of their Spotify playlist; in the lounge, a record player spins a quirky selection of vinyl for some vintage background tunes.

PHOTO: CLAIRE MENARY

130

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

After sweating it out in a minuscule kitchen, Tom relocated Pitt Cue to a cavernous venue a minute’s walk from Liverpool Street Station and Spitalfields Market. Its popularity has not waned one bit, but Tom’s focus has shifted. When he heard in March 2016 about a farm on the market just minutes from his friend Charlie’s place, and close to Philip Warren’s butchers, he and girlfriend Lottie Mew – with the support of one of his besties, US celebrity chef April Bloomfield – bought the place and began to create their dining experience. The house had been a spacious family home with a giant kitchen designed for entertaining, so by June 2016 they were open for business.

Reclaimed materials like old doors, upcycled furniture and pieces of timber have been used to create an interior style that can only be described as ‘countryfunk’. There are two reception rooms: one snug that houses a liquor-heavy, glass-fronted ‘honesty bar’ and a larger sitting room where we encounter our dinner companions, with an expansive ancient fireplace and piles of logs. The door to the kitchen is open, and the three chefs are working to the sound of their Spotify playlist; in the lounge, a record player spins a quirky selection of vinyl for some vintage background tunes.

Another couple arrives – local foodies booked in for a birthday treat – and the show begins. In the lounge, along with gin and foraged nettle cocktails, we’re served platters of cured duck (rich, rosy and fatty, with a gamey taste), and pig skin and plum (essentially, pork scratchings, but with a delicious ‘crunch and melt’ effect that has me salivating at the memory).

By the time we’re ushered through to the dining room, there’s a party atmosphere. The bread course – a kind of tapas of pre-starters – is an imaginative array of bowls of tingly beetroot relish, mackerel brandade (a creamy, smoky, fishy pâté), curds and crispy strands of seaweed, and creamed roe and sorrel, served with slightly charred home-baked sourdough bread. The conversation quickly collapses into a series of ‘mmms’, ‘ahhhs’ and ‘you HAVE to try this’ as we pass the bowls around the large wooden trestle table.

The starter of swede broth is rich, sweet and slightly spicy. Having got us yearning for more, we’re served some excellent wines, and then presented with the oxtail, butter, parsnip and swede main. A generous cylinder of tender meat sits on a bed of sweet root veg.

The sides – a dish of cabbage, leek and whey gratin and another of beetroot, fennel and nasturtium – are served in communal bowls. There’s something about the “pass the beetroot, please” that has a familial feel. The chat bounces around from global politics to farming and to our own life stories.

By the time we’ve got our spoons into our rhubarb, sloe and cream cheese desserts (billed as plain old ‘rhubarb and custard’ on an antique mirror serving as a menu board), our meal has most certainly become a

escape growth – and not just in terms of the business: there is scope for almost all the food to be produced on-site, from the fruits for the pickles, jams and desserts, to the livestock and the veggies. coombesheadfarm.co.uk

PHOTO: CHARLIE MCKAY

dinner party. Contrary to my expectations, the rhubarb is neither stringy nor sour, its natural tartness tempered with a sprinkling of sweet, grainy muesli, with the sloe jus and creamy sauce sliding down far too easily.

Post-meal, the two lounges (one with the bar) enable my friend and I to slope off for a quiet chat, before rejoining the social buzz. Three more parties of guests arrive and the record player adds to a lively atmosphere.

We finally creak up the stairs to our room well after 1am.

The rooms are cottagey-small and minimal in a traddécor kind of way. Sated and tucked up in our dinky single beds, sleep comes quickly.

Breakfast is a smörgåsbord of homemade muesli, bowls of tender bircher, jams made by Tom, freshly baked bread and non-threatening portions of cooked breakfasts, complete with rich, creamy scrambled eggs and, of course, bacon, sausage and black pudding that tastes as you would expect from the Pitt Cue meat man.

The convivial atmosphere between the guests continues over pots of coffee and weekend newspapers.

There are plans afoot, say Lottie and Tom, to develop one of the large farm buildings into a separate restaurant, so the supper-club concept can continue for hotel guests, but the kitchen can supply a more traditional style of fine dining. Add to that a few planned weddings in the coming months, and this place has serious potential for

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

131

Offering beach and snow, wilderness and chic, starlit bistros, Chile has an untamed charm that is just begging to be explored, writes Lauren Williams. Photos by Lauren Williams

132

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

escape

S

Lauren at the top of the volcano

We climb to the highest point of the island and swear that we can see the curvature of the Earth.

ometimes, truth is stranger than fiction, and nowhere in the world does this seem more pertinent than when you’re standing under a sentry of Moai, 2,300 miles from the mainland in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. Easter Island is as weird as it is wonderful, and is the starting point of our grand Chilean adventure.

There is little to do on this volcanic hunk of rock – the Wi-Fi is bad, bars are dead and restaurants even more so. Here, it’s about kicking back and learning the art of doing nothing in magnificent and often bizarre surroundings. We read books and take naps with dogs under the stony glare of giant heads, explore caves that somehow end up at the sea, and hire a scooter to travel the length and breadth of Rapa Nui. We climb to the highest point of the island and swear that we can see the curvature of the Earth from just 511m above sea level; being on the only piece of land within thousands of miles will do crazy things to your sense of perspective.

One lazy afternoon by the ocean, we get talking to Cristian, a young park ranger from the mainland who is visiting the island for some time out. “Guys, if you love hiking you have to visit my hometown,” he says. “There’s a volcano there that erupted a few months ago that you can climb and look in the crater at the lava!” We don’t need any more convincing and swiftly add Pucón to our itinerary.

Before we take on the live volcano, however, we head to off beat Chiloé in search of penguins. This kitsch island dances to a different beat to mainland Chile; sunshine-yellow stilt houses gleam in the midday glare, mismatched buildings line higgledy-piggledy streets, and boldly independent, sea-faring people live by witchcraft, mythology and forest gnomes.

We beeline for Ancud, the home of a colony of Magellanic (and endangered) Humboldt penguins, where we excitedly jump on a boat with a guide and three other couples. The boats that take tourists to see these lovely birds do so with the creatures’ needs in mind they never get too close, keep their customers quiet and only one boat goes out to each island at a time, so the penguins don’t get stressed. We float around three small, penguin-riddled islets, and giggle as they flip and slip and jump into the water for the best part of an hour.

Our time on Chiloé is short, and after one night on this green and forest-thick island, we hop back on the boat and drive north to Pucón. We arrive in the dark, and when we drop our bags, our host excitedly ushers us to the roof: “Look, you see that glowing red over there in the sky?

That’s the top of the volcano!” I look at my boyfriend, filled with adrenaline. Were we really going to climb something so hot that you could see it radiating from 25 miles away?

In the light of day, Volcan Villarrica isn’t quite so menacing – its glaciers sparkle between wisps of cloud and it calms to a hue of sherbet-pink when the sun begins to set behind the lake. The town itself is like any pretty alpine town, kitted out with log cabins, cosy bars MANOR | Late Spring 2017

133

Stilt houses in Chiloé

Valparaíso street art

134

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

with roaring fires and mountain equipment shops at every other step.

On the morning of our climb, we scramble out of our tent at 5am to meet our crew and kit up. Crampons, ice axe, salopettes, snacks and a small plastic tray are all stuffed into our backpacks before our group of ten packs into a 4x4 and heads off to the base of the mountain.

We walk for an hour before we stop to put on our crampons and get a lesson in how to use our ice axe in case we slip. “And remember,” says our guide, “if someone falls from above you, don’t be a hero and try to catch them, or you’ll fall off the side of the mountain too.”

Our group zig-zags up the snow like a line of intrepid ants, the slowest at the front, stopping every now and then to catch our breath, fill our bellies with chocolate and stare in awe at the lakes below us and snowy peaks in the distance.

We stop to hear muffled Spanish coming from a pocketed walkie-talkie and our guide speaking with his colleague further up the mountain. “The wind is making the ice too hard on our usual route,” he tells us, as he huddles our group around him. “If you fall, your axe won’t save you. We have to go up this way instead,” and he points straight up the vertical ice above us. Slowly, slowly, we trudge on; sky above us, oblivion below. After two hours, we scramble over a ridge and stand peering over the smoking, sulphurous crater into hell itself.

“Everyone!” shouts the guide. “Take off your crampons, put on your salopettes and take out your sledges – we’re going down!” Packing away the things that were saving us just ten minutes before, we reluctantly do as we’re told.

“Now, to sledge down you put the plastic tray between your legs, sit on it and use your axe as your break. Got it?

escape Okay!” And with a holler and a shout, our guide is gone, flying down the mountain like a maniac with a death wish.

I am less than enthusiastic to follow suit – all that lies below is 90 degrees of ice and unknown cliffs. But with trepidation and a little coaxing from the professionals, we throw caution to the wind and slip and slide with laughter and whoops all the way to the bottom. In 20 minutes, we’re back at the beginning of our three-hour hike with sunburnt faces, grinning from ear to ear.

We leave Pucón and drive north to Valparaíso, a coastal city that tumbles chaotically in a carnival of colour and music down a cluster of hills. On every street is an artist adorning a wall with beautiful patterns, out of every café tinkles music and laughter, on every step is a mosaic and proclamation of expression.

This lovely hippy haven is connected by a network of small funicular railways trundling up and down the hotchpotch of ascents, transporting tourists and locals to the highest vistas and the best views of the sea and graffitied neighbourhoods. We spend three happy days ambling the streets, drinking coffee in boho cafes and sipping gorgeous Chilean Carménère in rooftop bars. At night, no-named speakeasies up onto the smooth double-bassists EXETER AIRPORTopen manor18.pdf 1 streets, 29/03/2017 09:26 strum in dark corners and street parties riot until dawn.

Chile has the best that this world can offer: highadrenaline adventure, big mountains, glaciers and unfiltered wildlife. You can flip-flop between beach and snow, the wilderness and chic, starlit bistros. It has an untamed charm just begging to be explored. So what are you waiting for?

There is one flight per day to Easter Island from Santiago with LATAM Airlines for prices varying from £450 to £600pp, depending on when you book.

A boat tour to see the penguins on Chiloé costs around £10pp. Walk on the beach at Ancud and book on arrival.

Hiking Volcan Villarica is permitted only with a guide, or if you can prove you’re an accomplished winter climber at the National Park gateway. Guided hikes cost £50pp with all equipment provided. We booked with Chilli Kiwi Hostel, but there are several companies to choose from in Pucón.

We camped for the entirety of our road trip through Chile. Note that wild camping is permitted, but be careful to check if the land is privately owned or not. Campsites with facilities are well signposted throughout the country and range from around £7 to £18 per pitch per night.

Award-Winning Holidays to Italy with Newmarket Holidays

HOLIDAY COTTAGES

Flying direct from Exeter Airport to Naples

CHECKED OUT BEFORE YOU CHECK IN

8 day breaks starting from just £639 | Pompeii Sorrento | Puglia | Rome

Departing 24 June 2017

exeter-airport.co.uk

This offer only applies to selected air-inclusive holidays. This offer is subject to availability and may be withdrawn at any time.

01647 434091 helpfulholidays.co.uk

Feefo Gold Trusted Merchant 2016 Sunday Times Editor’s Award Winner 2013

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

135

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

Super Saturday: Maynard girls compete in two National Championships in one day THE MAYNARD SCHOOL in Exeter’s students travelled across the country on Saturday 18 March for two major championship competitions. The under-14 netball team were competing as the South West representatives in the National Schools Netball Championships at Welwyn Garden City, whilst 15-year-old student Amelia Moody was running the National Schools Cross Country Championships in Norwich.

Cathy Gabbitass, Team Coach of the netball team, said: “Ultimately, we finished 11th nationally from every state and independent school in the country, which is Amelia Moody

Interested in creative study?

an amazing achievement for a school of our size. More importantly, however, we flew the flag high for Devon as a county and had a really memorable time in the process.

And that’s what it should be all about at this level.”

Amelia Moody finished 67th out of the 345 competitors and said: “All I wanted was to finish in the top 100, so I’m really pleased with my result!”

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

136

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

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

Visit and apply now plymouthart.ac.uk

Welcoming children to The Prep Lodge THE PREP LODGE at Trinity School, Teignmouth, welcomes children aged three and over to join an environment where ‘the individual approach’ creates an enriching experience, making full use of everything the Prep Department has to offer. Learning at play includes specialist teaching in the Forest School, Art, Drama, Music and Swimming. In addition, ballet and tennis lessons are available for all. Parents are able to use the 15 hours’ government-funded childcare for sessions at The Prep Lodge. Early Years specialist key workers provide first-class care for children, with the added bonus of a seamless transition into Prep life. Regular parent and toddler sessions mean that those families who are keen to join The Prep Lodge gradually build up familiarity with the site and the staff awaiting their arrival.

Three Shebbear College pupils selected for the ISRFC Lambs U16 National Squad

E

G

IF

IN

EXETER SCHOOL celebrated the Ides of March with a visit by bestselling author Ben Kane, who has been writing books about Roman soldiers and gladiators for the past ten years. Ben visited the school on 15 March dressed as a Roman soldier, bringing with him a complete legionary’s equipment.

Pupils enjoyed trying the helmet and shield for size, and listened to Ben give a talk about his life, why the Romans have always fascinated him, and his tips for inspiring young people to become writers, followed by a special session on ‘Life in the Roman Army’ for pupils studying Latin and Classical Civilisation for GCSE.

T EIGNMOUTH

BR

Bestselling author inspires pupils at Exeter School

T RINITY SCHOOL

L

Three Shebbear College pupils have been selected for The Lambs English Independent Schools U16 National Rugby Squad 2017. Alessandro Aliberti, Sione Funaki and Charlie Short have joined a group of 28 to play a number of fixtures against opponents, including the U16 Academy Team of European Champions, Saracens. In their first fixture, the boys achieved a 22-15 win against the Boys Club of Wales U16s.

Headmaster Simon Weale said: “I am delighted for the boys and also for their families and coaches, who must be very proud. Shebbear has always had a passion for rugby and we have strong links with the local clubs in the area.

This is reinforced by the fact that Charlie and Sione play for Launceston RFC and Alessandro for Bideford RFC.”

IN

G

ON EDU CATI

T

O

What a catch during Book Week!

Staff and pupils made the most of Book Week. Story writing competitions, a food from famous books quiz and a nautical theme for staff and pupils in Prep as they wrote their own book (to be published next term) based on the adventures of the River Teign.

It’s a new gingerbread world for Nursery!

Families have been enjoying the ‘Explore’ sessions at the new Prep Lodge where children from 3 will be learning at play. Forest School, drama, music and art are all part of the timetable; building foundations for the highest quality education.

Join us at

DEVON COUNTY SHOW Avenue A Stall 81

www.trinityschool.co.uk OPEN Tel: 01626 774138 MORNING Trinity School (Teignmouth) is a company limited by guarantee (registered in England; company number 1399560) and a registered charity (number 276960).

Registered Office: Buckeridge Road, Teignmouth, Devon. TQ14 8LY. UK

10th June Tours start 10.15am

Day & Boarding. Nursery to Sixth Form.

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

137

Look who’s talking Listening to and engaging your child in conversation is key to their life-long learning. In the first part of this exclusive new series for MANOR, Professor Ruth Merttens offers advice on helping your pre-school child develop their emotional, cognitive and intellectual abilities.

O

kay, so your child has finally got past the ‘terrible twos’ and has become moderately civilised – even pleasant company! They go to bed and sleep; they can feed themselves and are (mostly) toilet trained; all attributes which may have seemed virtually impossible to achieve not so long ago. They speak in whole sentences, and every day sees them trying out new words, unusual phrases and bizarre sentence constructions. This preschool stage, from about three and a half to five years old, can be one of the most rewarding and challenging for both child and parent, not least because children are quite literally ‘learning something new every day’. So how can we, as parents and grandparents, help them to develop their emotional, cognitive and intellectual abilities to their very fullest extent?

OVER-STIMULATION/UNDER-STIMULATION One of the questions I am often asked by parents concerns the idea that it is possible to over-stimulate children. But equally, standing in virtually any staff room, we will hear nursery or reception teachers bewail the lack of 138

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

appropriate stimulation that some children suffer. So how do we know we have the balance right? And is it really possible to ‘over’ stimulate? What happens if you do?

Children at this age are learning to use language.

Words are not just about naming things or actions, nor even about describing them. Primarily, small children learn to use language just as we adults use it – namely, to make things happen. They want to use words to ‘prod’ and ‘poke’ the world and create an effect. They have discovered that language works; that it is powerful; that it can change a situation, produce a good result or avert a bad thing. If I ask nicely, I may get a cake. If I shout or swear, I may get put to bed early. If I apologise, it might not be quite so early. So, it is at this stage – as children are learning to control not just what they say, but how they say it – that they are perhaps at their most receptive for linguistic stimulation. They are like giant word sponges, picking up new phrases, wanting to understand just how to make the people around them do the things they want them to do. And the development of language is key to everything – to the development of emotional stability as well as intellectual capacity.

school So, we do want to stimulate children and it is essential that we do so. Children learn to use complex language because they are engaged in conversations where adults talk as if children can understand a complicated sentence before the child can actually understand it. And this is one of the most paradoxical and miraculous things about human development: babies learn to talk precisely because they are immersed in a talking community of adults and older children. They are treated as participants in conversations long before they have uttered a word or formed a sentence. Parents – and others – have conversations with babies. “Are you hungry then? I expect you are. It’s a long time since you had your breakfast,” we say to our six-month-old child. Gradually, being assumed to have a role in the conversation, the child takes a role in the conversation.

So, in this sense, it is impossible to over-stimulate.

Children at three, four or five years of age want to talk; they need to talk and they ought to be encouraged to talk – to caring, interested adults as well as to other children.

We can and should encourage their chatter, even though there will be times when all we want them to do is STOP TALKING! Of course, it is important for children to realise that mums get tired and need a bit of peace, and that dads can be told about a favourite superhero only so many times before they lose the will to live. But,

basically, it’s through talking – through participating in conversations, through discussion, through listening to, and subsequently being encouraged to tell anecdotes about their daily lives, through describing and being encouraged to describe in words how they feel about something and through narratives of all types – that children learn to communicate, to think and even to feel. Children who are not spoken to often and listened to seriously between the ages of three and five are disadvantaged by that lack for all their lives. They do not get those years back.

However, it is possible to over-stimulate in other ways. Children of three and four naturally develop interests, which might be better described as obsessions.

They will be fascinated by dinosaurs or dancing, superheroes or princesses, football or fairyland, trains or baby animals. Sometimes these interests last for a long while; sometimes they give way to a new one after only a few weeks (usually after you’ve just obtained some much-coveted item for which they have been pestering and pleading).

But there is a danger here. Children need a certain amount of what I call ‘benign neglect’ to develop their own ways of playing and acting out their interests. They have to be bored for long enough to find out that they can provide their own stimulation and cure their own

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

139

boredom. A child who is always stimulated by others never finds the wherewithal within him or herself to kindle their own obsession and motivate themselves into activity. The key here is to provide the resources, but not the personnel. So make sure that, as well as some toys, there are the following: a ‘cut, stick and make’ table (with sticky tape, Pritt Stick, paper, shiny bits, and so on), Lego or other construction equipment, cardboard boxes, other junk materials, old clothes (for dressing up) and bits of material (for making beds, house, and so forth), and an old sheet for making a tent/den.

In school, it’s as easy to spot the children who have had everything done for them, in terms of play stimulation, as it is to spot those who have never been given the opportunity to increase their conversational skills, express their interests or develop their thinking using language. Children whose parents have unwittingly helped them to avoid a moment’s boredom are as inept at devising their own amusements for long periods as those who were under-stimulated and therefore haven’t learned to articulate their activity or their curiosities. Creativity, and a certain type of intelligence, results from a certain amount of boredom in a safe space.

STORIES AND READING It would be remiss in the extreme to discuss what parents can do to help their pre-school child develop and learn without mentioning the all-important subject of books and stories. The importance of helping our children to develop a passion for reading cannot be over-estimated. Not only is ‘reading for pleasure’ a good predictor of academic success, but also it is only through stories, through immersing themselves in the experiences of other people, in fantasies and fiction, that children can expand their horizons, extend their imaginations and derive the wherewithal to express their own feelings or describe their own lives.

Television, films and, to some extent, computer games all provide alternative possible worlds and scenarios, but only reading books or listening to stories can introduce children to the vast world of traditional tales, myths, 140

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

fantasy or real-life fiction as well as enabling them to search for and gain a wide variety of information about anything that interests them – even superheroes!

NUMBERS AND COUNTING It is at this stage that many children really take off in terms of counting. Of course, this is a really useful skill, and parents are rightly proud when their three-yearold can count confidently to 100. But to be honest, this is not that hard. What is much trickier than chanting the numbers in order is realising that numbers are both places in a line or sequence and also markers of a quantity. Thus, ‘four’ can be used to record how many mugs are on the table. It can also tell me how old you are, or what day of the month it is or that it is time for tea. But children need to understand, right from the start, that numbers mark places in a line or sequence. Put a number line up in your child’s bedroom. Peg brightly coloured numbers from one to 20 along a line.

Encourage children not just to say the correct number when you point, but to be able to say the next number along to that. Getting the concept of the ‘number one more than’ is crucial to the next stage of their mathematical development. It is actually more important than being able to count how many in a set! So, focusing on one more, and indeed, one less, is very helpful.

BUT SPEECH IS KEY The key I have been stressing here is language.

The development of language, oral and written, speaking, listening and reading, is critical. Between the ages of three and five years old, the foundations of all their future learning are laid down. As if this were not enough, they also develop the ability to express themselves in words, and, importantly, that of communicating with others about their feelings and actions. Emotional intelligence as well as cognitive is developed at this stage through language. So all that chatter is immensely worthwhile, as are the anecdotes, the counting, the stories and the shared fantasies. Keep flying, Batman!

school HOW PARENTS CAN HELP – SOME ‘DOS AND DON’TS’ • DO have extended, long conversations with your child. Make sure your utterances are not limited to instructions or prohibitions – do this, don’t do that!

Enjoy talking to your child about a subject that they are passionate about, even if you find it dull yourself.

The conversation, the way you lead the discussion and the more complicated language you use, will scaffold their ability to articulate things for themselves.

• DO keep reading to your child, sharing books and stories. Choose books, get them from a library, share books with friends and borrow theirs. The more the child is read with, the greater his or her desire to read for him/herself when the time comes. And stories help children to express themselves, and to understand others.

• DON’T be negative. Even if your child can be badly behaved, a negative attitude is likely to make things worse. Children need encouragement and positive reinforcement to be confident, and a confident child is likely to have more control over their behaviour.

• DO reward good behaviour, even if you sometimes feel that you have had to search to find some! Praise works wonders, and all children seek attention. It is

•

•

•

an old teacher adage that with children, what you pay attention to, you will get more of. So if you only give your child attention when he or she is behaving badly, it is likely that you will get more bad behaviour.

DON’T make threats you are not prepared to carry out. Consistency is vital and children very quickly learn to ignore threats if parents are constantly making them and never following through. Only make a threat if things have got to a pass where you must do so – and then make it realistic. And be utterly prepared to act on it.

DO try to give a choice. This puts the ball in the child’s court and helps them to be in control of their own behaviour. “You can either stop kicking that football in the kitchen and do something else or I can take it away and you can be without it for the rest of the day.” Make it clear that it is their choice. This is much more effective than a bald threat.

DON’T forget that depriving a child of something can be more effective than an active punishment. So removing a toy for a day, for example, putting it on top of a high cupboard where it can be seen but not accessed, can be a very effective way of making sure that a transgression is not repeated. “Remember what happened last time you went in and woke your baby sister…?”

The highest achieving school in North Devon Five-year average: A-level 71% A* to B GCSE 51.5% A* to A

Open Day Monday 1st May 2017 10.00am West Buckland is a friendly school with an impressive record of academic achievement and exceptional facilities. Please join our Open Day and discover what makes West Buckland such a happy, unique and successful place of learning.

Reg Charity No 1167545

Forward Thinking

To confirm your attendance, please register on line: www.westbuckland.com or phone the Registrar on 01598 760178 or email: admissions@westbuckland.com Boarding and Day

Girls and Boys 3-18

Nursery, Prep, Senior, Sixth Form

www.westbuckland.com MANOR | Late Spring 2017

141

•

DO give your child opportunities to share their interests with other adults. “Tell Granddad about your new dinosaur…” Children love to share and this reassures them that their interests are valued and important to other people as well as themselves.

AND ONE MORE THING… Remember, the higher-level thinking skills can be developed in a whole variety of ways. Story CDs are a fantastic way of helping a child to develop a love of stories at this age. Find some suitable oral stories by a reputable children’s storyteller on YouTube (e.g. youtube. com/watch?v=ZiPgmTvSU-w ) and make a point of curling up on the sofa and listening with your child to some really good ones. These help children to acquire the skills of being able to follow a narrative, discuss the characters and plot, and predict what may happen next or how the tale is going to end. Once children have got the ‘listening bug’, they will listen to a story every night if given the chance. The value of this is extraordinary as it means that a whole set of higher-thinking skills are being developed and the process is enjoyable. Most libraries lend CDs and it is now possible to download stories at very little cost. Happy listening!

142

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

school GAMES AND FUN ACTIVITIES All the activities below are for two people.

Six in a row

Superhero princess

Preparation: Cut up a large cereal box to make nine cards.

Draw one large coloured dot on three of the cards. Draw two large coloured dots on three of the cards. Draw three dots on the last three cards. Draw a grid like the one illustrated. Each space should fit one card.

Preparation: You need post-it notes and a pen.

To play • Spread out the cards face up.

• Take turns to take a card and place it on the grid.

• The aim is to make a line of cards that has six dots in it. The line can be in any direction, across, down or diagonal.

• Each person who completes a line with exactly six dots scores a point.

• How many points do you each have when all the cards are on the grid?

One more than Preparation: Make a grid as shown. You will need lots of dried beans or other counters – small Lego bricks are fine. You also need a small coin each – they must be different!

Dinosaur numbers Preparation: You need brightly coloured paper, felt-tip pens, scissors, Pritt Stick, shiny things like sequins, ribbons, buttons, feathers, etc.

1

To play • Each player writes the name or draws a quick picture of a superhero or princess on a post-it note. DO NOT SHOW the other players.

• Each person sticks their post-it gently onto the forehead of another player.

• Everyone should now have a post-it on their head, and no-one should know what their post-it has on it.

• Take turns to ask questions to find out who you are, i.e. the name of the superhero or princess on your head.

• The questions can only be answered by yes or no.

• First person to find out who they are is the winner!

2

Make your own number line • You are going to make a line of large pegged numbers 1-12. Each number will be in a theme to suit your child’s interests. So, it could be a line of dinosaurs, or a line of superheroes or a line of princesses or a line of fairytale characters or a line of little cuddly animals… Whatever interests your child!

• The key here is making the line together. In advance, cut out the shapes (dinosaurs or rockets) or else download and print the images (Disney princesses or superheroes).

• Now, with your child, decorate each one. First stick a large numeral on it: 1, or 2, or 3… etc. We need 12 of these to peg on our line.

• Now stick feathers, sequins, ribbons to add to their attractiveness and make your number line special to you.

• Finally – peg it up!

8

3

4

1

5

9

6

7

2

To play • Each take a coin. One of you places your coin on eight, and one places their coin on two.

• The aim is to reach the opposite corner with the most counters.

• Take turns to play.

• You move one square along or down (NOT diagonally).

• You must say the number one more than the number you move to. E.g. If I start on eight and move to three, I say ‘four’.

• If correct, you collect that many counters.

• Now it’s your partner’s turn to do the same.

• You keep moving and saying the number one more than the one you move to. If correct, you always take that number of counters.

• Who has most counters when they reach the opposite corner from the one started on?

• Person with most counters, wins!

HELPING YOUR CHILD WITH LEARNING In the next part of this exclusive series, Professor Merttens will focus on five to six year olds. If you have missed an issue and would like to access a part of the series, please write to school@manormagazine.co.uk.

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

143

CONTEMPORARY HOUSE WITH DIRECT WATER ACCESS DITTISHAM, SOUTH DEVON Outstanding estuary views n recently renovated property n versatile accommodation including 1 bedroom annexe n private location n pool house with heated swimming pool n double garage and ample parking n EPC Rating D

Guide Price £1,650,000 Web Ref: DAR160101

144

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

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

Property The Bulletin | Property of note: Crown Yealm House, Newton Ferrers Snapshot comparative

Luppitt House, Honiton Guide price: ÂŁ1,650,000. See page 159 struttandparker.com

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

145

FARMHOUSE AND BARN CONVERSION SET IN GROUNDS WITH ARBORETUM SLAPTON, SOUTH DEVON Superbly presented farmhouse with plenty of character n detached spacious barn conversion n further barns with potential to renovate subject to planning permission n gardens and grounds extending to 7 acres n 360o views over sea and moor from land n no EPC required

Guide Price £1,600,000 Web Ref: KIN160283

146

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

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

property

The Bulletin It’s The Design Issue and Imogen Clements researches the importance of presentation and how to ensure you don’t let your own homeliness scupper the sale of your home.

T

here’s an old adage in marketing circles, which is that the sell is 90% presentation and 10% content; that is, it’s invariably down to how you present rather than what you say, and when it comes to how you say it, images on those PowerPoint slides make more of an impression than words.

Much can be said about property. When it comes to getting the best valuation, and a quicker sale, presentation is imperative. Once upon a time, to impress the agent or a potential buyer, all that was required was fresh flowers on the table and coffee percolating on the stove.

Nowadays, it’s worth a little more investment; you want this big ticket sell you have on your hands to interest as many as possible, so it’s worth accentuating the positives, and more importantly, taking away anything that might put certain segments off.

And do it sooner rather than later, not least because the first stage in this world of internet browsing is the photography. As Patrick May of Q West Property Finders advises, “Stop if you hear yourself saying to the agent, ‘Ah yes, we plan to do this and that before it goes on the market’. Instead, decide if you’re ready to get estate agents in yet. Agents will always assume works will not be completed and therefore will be more cautious when estimating a sale price. Have the house looking its very best and as you expect potential buyers to see it, when getting an agent around.”

In American real estate, they’ve gone one stage further. They call it ‘staging’ a home to ensure the prospective buyer can see past the vendor’s own styling.

Homely clutter is cleared out, photos of family and children taken down, and the seller’s items of furniture put into storage to be replaced with the interior design company’s highly tasteful key pieces, provided on loan.

So, effectively, a stylist comes in and readies your home for selling by transforming it from hovel to show home, the kind that graces the pages of interiors magazines. It’s not a bad idea and I can see a whole new line in ‘interiors to sell’ joints springing up across the UK, but until they do, it’s worth at least adopting the concept partially in your own attempt to secure that sale.

A quick peruse of the web and all the experts are pretty much aligned: take a good, honest look at your home, put yourself in the place of the buyer – Patrick May suggests getting a friend around whose taste you trust and opinion you respect – and clear out everything that looks unsightly and obstructs the view inside and out, along with those items highly personal to you but perhaps unlikely to be of universal appeal. On clearing the place, you’ll see the obvious reparatory

and decorative work that needs doing. A neutral hue paint refresh will be of widest appeal, and given that the kitchen is the heart of the house, consider investing in new cupboard doors to freshen it up – much cheaper than a new kitchen.

These days, the garden is the extra room to any house, so prune and spruce and get in some good garden furniture, perhaps a chimenea and a few pots, without adding clutter. Finally, cleaning the windows makes a big difference to the overall gleam of a property as well as maximizing light.

So, there you have it – de-clutter and depersonalize, refresh paintwork and kitchen cabinet doors to something sleek and non-garish, make sure the garden feels like an extra room that you’d like to spend time in. It’s all relatively straightforward – maximize appeal by taking a clean, minimalist approach to your home.

That way it’ll seem bigger, more spacious and have more universal appeal amongst those who can’t easily visualize and are put off by personal knick-knacks.

Then put the fresh coffee on, fill the vase with tasteful flowers, get some well-angled photos done (not too many), and prepare to welcome the hordes of interested buyers.

House Doctor

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

147

148

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

property of note

Occupying an enviable riverside location in Newton Ferrers, Crown Yealm House, with spacious accommodation of 4,300 sq ft, might be a contender for best-positioned property in the South Hams. Words by Phoebe Tancock.

T

here’s a certain appeal to small villages that’s drawing increasing numbers of people away from large urban areas and towards the quiet familiarity of the countryside. They attract ages across the spectrum, from young families yearning for fresh, open spaces to retirees seeking peaceful serenity – all looking to escape from the hustle and congestion that comes hand in hand with densely populated cities. Newton Ferrers is one of those rural oases. Tucked away in South Devon, in an area of outstanding beauty, the small village is situated on the estuary of the River Yealm, opposite its equally small twin village, Noss Mayo, and has become a highly desirable location – large, beautiful properties line the water’s edge, and yachts and boats are a permanent fixture on the water. And yet it’s only a 20-minute drive from Plymouth and a 35/40-minute drive from Exeter.

For many people living in Newton Ferrers, the water holds most of the appeal. It was certainly a major factor in Mr and Mrs Adams’s decision to buy Crown Yealm House, an imposing three-storey property sitting on the edge of the River Yealm, with a private quay MANOR | Late Spring 2017

149

and outhaul mooring. “It’s a unique waterside property, and has the biggest private water frontage in the whole of the River Yealm and we wanted a life by the sea,” says Tim Adams. “Life revolves around the water here, everybody who lives between the two villages is connected with or enjoys the water in some way, and the community spirit is very strong.”

The property was at one time a B&B with three flats, but when the Adamses bought it in 2010, they spent a year extensively renovating it to create the large family home it is today. From its elevated position, the house boasts spectacular views: “If you stand in front of the house and look to the left, you see gentle, rolling South Hams countryside, which is quintessential Devon,” says Tim. “Look in front of you, and you’re right on the water’s edge, and then as you look out to the south-west, you can see the river running out to the open sea.”

The property makes the most of these views without using massive expanses of glass but rather large windows and doors that open up to a courtyard overlooking the river, while the sunroof in the kitchen helps to open up the space even further. As a result, the house is light and airy but doesn’t lose the warm, homely feeling privacy provides. “We re-built the inside completely, so it’s moulded in our image,” says Tim. “There’s a good flow of public areas and quieter rooms, but it does naturally open up into large, people-friendly spaces.”

The house was definitely re-constructed to be people150

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

property of note

There’s a good flow of public areas and quieter rooms, but it does naturally open up into large, people-friendly spaces.

friendly, and there are rooms to cater to every sensibility.

The ground floor is the main hub for all activity; there’s the open-plan kitchen, which merges with the large open space of the dining and living area, creating ample room for family downtime or for entertaining dinner guests.

The music room is perfect for the budding Mozart, while the separate sitting and television rooms are a practical solution to any remote-control conflict. The private office makes working from home a breeze, and both the utility and boot rooms provide practical extra storage space.

Upstairs, five bedrooms are spread out over two floors, including the master suite, complete with its own dressing room and en-suite; a luxury that doesn’t come at the cost of lost space elsewhere.

It’s the sheer size of the property that has prompted the Adamses to put Crown Yealm on the market – with both their children now grown, they’re looking to downsize.

“It’s the perfect family home,” says Tim. “There’s plenty of space for people to stretch out and do what they’ve got to do and have their friends round. We’ve always had the house buzzing with people and kids from the village. It becomes a focal point for people to return to.”

Outside, there’s parking and a gravel driveway for up to six cars – a premium in waterside villages – and the double garage provides further storage space. Raised vegetable beds have been set up in the adjoining garden, adding a homely touch.

The house is as warm and welcoming as the village it’s located in, and neither loses their charm throughout the quieter seasons, when the buzz of visiting tourists has faded. “There is a really strong element of visitors in the summer,” explains Tim, “but the local community keeps the amenities – the pub, the post office, the butchers – going through the winter, which is not the case in a lot of places that have either high levels of tourism or a lot of second homes. In that respect, in this part of the world, it’s almost unique.”

Crown Yealm House is on the market with Marchand Petit at a guide price of £2,650,000.

Tel: 01752 873 311 marchandpetit.co.uk

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

151

A TRULY SPECTACULAR POSITION OVERLOOKING ENGLAND’S ONLY CAPE

CAPE CORNWALL, WEST CORNWALL

Land’s End Airport: 3.2; Sennen: 6; Penzance (mainline station): 8.6; Mousehole: 10; St Ives: 15 (Distances are in miles and approximate) A beautifully finished cottage with views of some of England’s most magnificent coastline. Finished with a subtle, chic nod to the seaside, Cove Cottage has a small but tastefully finished interior. With three bedrooms, charming living areas, south and east facing terraces. Surrounded by National Trust land and set in around 1.7 acres of gardens, including a fisherman’s hut. 1,327 sq ft. EPC= F Guide £795,000 Freehold 152

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Savills Cornwall Jonathan Cunliffe jcunliffe@savills.com

01872 243 200

A FORMER LODGE TO THE BUCKLAND ESTATE IN A STUNNING POSITION

BUCKLAND TOUT SAINTS, SOUTH HAMS

Kingsbridge: 3, Totnes (with main line rail link to London): 9, The beach at Blackpool Sands: 8.5 (Distances are in miles and approximate) Southerly views across South Hams, kitchen/breakfast room, atrium style dining room, sitting room, 4 double bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, outbuildings, 3/4 acre gardens, EPC – E. Guide £725,000

Savills South Hams Sarah Jane Chick sjchick@savills.com

01548 800 462

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

153

154

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

155

SOUGHT AFTER VILLAGE HOUSE WITH POTENTIAL SOUTH POOL, SOUTH DEVON Charming spacious and versatile 4 bedroom property n 2 bedroom annexe n delightful large garden n many character features n sought after village close to the Salcombe Estuary n in need of renovation n excellent potential n no EPC required

Guide Price £895,000 Web Ref: KIN160230

156

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

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

FARMHOUSE WITH EXCELLENT EQUESTRIAN FACILITIES NEAR KINGSBRIDGE, SOUTH DEVON Pretty farmhouse set in rural location n 1 bedroom annexe n stabling and yard n barn with outline planning permission for conversion n walled garden n further land available by separate negotiation n EPC Rating D

Guide Price £900,000 Web Ref: PWC160054

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

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

157

158

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

property

Snapshot comparative A selection of properties with stunning gardens in the South West and London.

Biddlecome House, Chudleigh Guide price: £925,000

Devon

A four-bedroom period home, set within 2.6 acres of land, with a self-contained annexe paddock. The house has undergone many renovations but maintains many period features. The orangery overlooks the landscaped gardens and uninterrupted views of countryside, and benefits from sliding doors with solar glass and a cantilevered lantern roof. The property is close to Chudleigh (two miles), and Exeter (11½ miles), with good links to the M5. struttandparker.com

Luppitt House, Honiton Guide price: £1,650,000

Devon

A spacious Victorian property, Luppitt House comprises an entrance hall, dining room, sitting room, study, kitchen, orangery, master bedroom with en-suite, three further bedrooms, a dressing room, a family shower room and a utility. Outside there is a triple garage, workshop, a separate three-bedroom coach house, and a two-acre wildflower meadow. struttandparker.com

Whitehall Manor, Cullompton Guide price: £950,000

Devon

Located in the Culm Valley, Whitehall Manor is a fivebedroom Grade II listed residence set in just under an acre of land. This spacious property stems from the 15th Century and retains many period features.

The house benefits from a large south-facing paved terrace and a spacious conservatory. Outside, there are a number of stone barns that have the potential to be converted into further living space. humberts.com

Cairns Road, London Guide price: £695,000

London

This two-bedroom, ground-floor flat boasts an openplan kitchen and sitting room, providing a warm and modern living space; the French windows leading out onto the south-facing garden offer plenty of light.

The property is close to the small shops and wine bars on Northcote Road and, a little further, to Clapham Junction, which has direct train services to Victoria and Waterloo. savills.com

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

159

Stunning show homes now open How very Redrow SAXON BROOK ~ PINHOE Pinn Hill, Exeter, Devon EX4 0BB 3, 4 and 5 bedroom homes available We are delighted to announce the door to our fantastic Marlborough show home at Saxon Brook is now open.

Images typical of a Redrow home. Details correct at time of going to press.

Open daily, 10am - 5.30pm Call: 01392 339637 Visit: redrow.co.uk/saxonbrook 160

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Contact us today to find out how we can help you move to your brand new Redrow home with our range of incentives.

Be part of the South West’s Premium Publication WHY READERS LOVE MANOR...

“Very impressed. Best magazine I have seen in the South West. Good mixed content and excellent photography” SHEILA T, WIGAN

The Region’s Premium Publication Autumn 2016 | Issue 14 | £3.95

Steve Backshall

Bridget McCrum

As I see it...

Her work past and present

Stan Bolt

Carinthia West

Timeless architecture

Memories of Bowie and Jagger

PLUS

FOOD SPACE ESCAPE SCHOOL PROPERTY

The Region’s Premium Publication Winter 2016 | Issue 15 | £4.50

Chris Tarrant

“Brilliant! How nice to find such a glossy, high end feeling magazine that is full of local content!”

REBECCA B, MORETONHAMPSTEAD

A-list stars

As I see it

Unique portraits of Daniel Day-Lewis,

Franny Armstrong World-changing filmmaker

Samuel L Jackson, Michael Palin and more

Helen Moore

Michelin stars Where they’re shining

Acclaimed faux furrier

Cocktails

Stellar gifts Something for everyone

A taste of glamour

“Great magazine...stylish and full of interesting articles” KRISTA L, YELVERTON PLUS

“Lovely magazine to read - it has shown me so much about my homeland! Good mix of articles on food, fashion, eating and homes!” JOHANNA D, PERRANPORTH

CULTURE FOOD SPACE ESCAPE SCHOOL PROPERTY

MANOR | Winter 2016

1

WHY ADVERTISERS LOVE MANOR...

“Since we started advertising in MANOR we have found it a highly effective title. It’s a great source of enquiries but has also been widely admired by our vendors who are very impressed with the quality of the publication.

The standard of journalism and photography is second to none in the region.”

The Region’s Premium Publication Late Winter 2017 | Issue 16 | £4.50

PRUNELLA MARTIN, DIRECTOR, MARCHAND PETIT

“We’ve just received a really strong lead for an exciting project which we know came as a direct result of advertising in MANOR. Very pleased.”

Win a trip to The Scillies

As I see it

The Countess of Devon

CAROLINE SHORTT, BARC ARCHITECTS

Victoria Milligan

Four years on

Grand design

PLUS

Tom Raffield’s house

CULTURE FOOD SPACE ESCAPE SCHOOL PROPERTY

‘In the last year we have received a lot of interest, in particular from interior designers, which we know came as a direct result from our advertising in MANOR. We couldn’t be happier.’

ELLIE IXER, ART WORLD GALLERY, FALMOUTH

“Really interesting articles, stunning and utterly beautiful photographs, but, most of all, it makes me so proud of my county.”

Spring 2017 Issue 17 | £4.95

The Region’s Premium Publication

Fay Weldon

CHRISTOPHER BAILEY, HEAD OF NATIONAL WATERFRONT, KNIGHT FRANK

As I see it

John Brown Publishing pioneer

Kit Heath

A silver success story

MANOR is available throughout the South West and sold on all major routes into the region: road, rail and air including at Paddington, Bristol Station and Airport, and City Airport, London.

It is placed in the bedrooms of over 50 of the region’s most premium hotels and present in the most exclusive holiday cottages in the South West.

Moor creativity

Unique portraits of Devon artisans

PLUS

CULTURE FOOD SPACE ESCAPE SCHOOL PROPERTY

With a readership of approx. 100,000 affluent individuals and a 95% recommendation rate among readers, there is no better or more highly rated publication in the South West.

To find out more about advertising in MANOR, please email advertising@manormagazine.co.uk or call 07887 556447 or 01392 690429

The Region’s Premium Publication Late Spring 2017 | Issue 18 | £4.50

Charley Boorman

As I see it

Trelowarren

A Cornish estate diversifying

Blooming marvels

PLUS

Landscape designers Isabel and Julian Bannerman

CULTURE FOOD SPACE ESCAPE SCHOOL PROPERTY

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Coombeshead Farm A foodie’s haven

The charm of Chile

Travel adventures in South America

161

back page

BLACK BOOK

Libby Milla, founder and interior designer at Studio Môr, moved to Cornwall in 2012 and has been drawing inspiration from its understated hidden gems ever since.

With her husband and three children, she converted a farmhouse and two barns on the fringes of rural Lostwithiel and moved their lives and businesses into the new space.

Five years ago, my husband Scott Manning and I decided The Hidden Hut at Porthcurnick, and the Talland we needed to get out of London. We’d got to a point Bay Beach Café, which the children love. Outside the where we just needed some space, and Cornwall seemed cafe are steel planters that have rusted in the weather; the ideal place to find an escape. We run our design filled with globe artichokes and verbena, they create an agency, Felt Branding, and interesting pool of colour and Studio Môr, our domestic texture, and standing next to interiors agency, from our the planters are painted beach home in Cornwall. huts that are fun to shelter in if I love to go down to the weather’s poor.

Penzance for inspiration.

The New Yard Tremenheere Sculpture Restaurant at Trelowarren Gardens is perfect for on the Lizard has great local wandering around, and there’s food, some of it foraged. It’s a great café as well. In the located in the old coach house town, I head down through to the Trelowarren estate, Chapel Street, my favourite in so it’s full of character with Penzance. I pop in to see Polly another story to tell. The best St Tudy Inn in East of Here, where I often coffee in Cornwall is from source furniture for clients and Olfactory Coffee Roasters if I’m just shopping for me – in Penryn. Espressini in Scott tries to stop me going Falmouth has a reclaimed feel in and buying everything. I to it and their coffee and cake love buildings that tell a story, is also very good. connecting their past with how I just discovered the the building is now used. The Hay Studio near the Camel Chapel House renovation is Valley. We needed a location a good example; it nods to its for a filming project and previous life as the home of stumbled across it. It’s just Admirals and The Penzance one of those fantastically Arts Club. Original features creative spaces where you can sit alongside a contemporary hire the studio for filming or kitchen, and eclectic furniture photography, hold events or prevails throughout. Kestle creative workshops. It’s another Barton on the Helford River repurposed building conversion is another restoration I love, that I’m always drawn to. as the buildings have been Every year I go to converted in a way that’s Falmouth University’s sympathetic to their original end-of-year show to get some use but with a new function; inspiration and keep an eye Chapel House it’s completely unexpected. out for new artists. Last year, I I like to eat at the St Tudy Inn. It’s beautiful and discovered Mimi Robson and I’m hoping to use her art understated and the food is always good. We also go to on a project soon.

162

MANOR | Late Spring 2017

Audi Vorsprung durch Technik

The all-new Audi Q5 Now is calling Test drive at Exeter Audi

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 Q5 range in mpg (l/100km) from: Urban 26.2 (10.8) – 52.3 (5.4), Extra Urban 41.5 (6.8) – 58.9 (4.8), Combined 34.0 (8.3) – 56.5 (5.0). CO2 emissions: 195 – 132g/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. Image shown for illustration purposes only. Audi Q5 Sport model shows Adaptive Cruise Control Plus £750 RRP, Audi Pre Sense Basic £250 RRP, Matrix LED Headlights £1,750 RRP, Parking Assistance Pack £900 RRP, Electrically Adjustable Mirrors £225 RRP and Technology Pack £1,100 RRP. Choice of wheels and other options may affect fuel consumption, BIK and emissions data (which may also affect the amount of Vehicle Excise Duty payable and therefore the ROTR price). More information is available on the Audi website at www.audi.co.uk and at www.dft.gov.uk/vca MANOR | Late Spring 2017

163

164

87 Queen Street, Exeter, EX4 3RP, Tel 01392 279994, Email websales@mortimersjewellers.co.uk MANOR | Late Spring 2017