MANOR The Arts Issue, no. 29

The Region’s Premium Publication Autumn 2018 | Issue 29 | £4.50

Philip Reeve As I See It

Lewis Pugh Channel swimmer, ocean activist

Lalage Snow Gardens in war zones

School art gallery Pupils’ talent on display

CULTURE FOOD SPACE ESCAPE SCHOOL 1 PROPERTY

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MANOR | Autumn 2018

MANOR | Autumn 2018

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SENSATIONALLY POSITIONED MODERNISED MANOR HOUSE WITH A DETACHED COTTAGE

CARBIS BAY, CORNWALL

West Cornwall Golf Club (Carbis Bay) – 0.8; A30 – 2; St Ives – 2.8; Penzance – 8.3; Truro – 22.7; Cornwall Airport (Newquay) – 37 (all distances are approximate and in miles)

Savills Cornwall

Impressive modernised manor house. Fantastic position overlooking the coastline. Master bedroom suite with balcony.

Up to 4 further bedrooms. Detached 2 bedroom annexe. Bespoke orangery. Gym with versatile studio space. Set within 2.5 acres. 4834 sq ft. EPC = F.

01872 243200

Guide £2,650,000 Freehold 4

MANOR | Autumn 2018

Ben Davies bmdavies@savills.com

AN EXCEPTIONAL REFURBISHED COUNTRY HOUSE

SAMPFORD COURTNENAY, WEST DEVON Exeter 23 mile, Okehampton 5 miles, Crediton 14 miles

A stunning country house built by the architect Henry Lloyd in 1870 set within manicured gardens and grounds.

6 bedrooms (4 en suite), 5 reception rooms and 2 established holiday cottages. Landscaped formal gardens, series of spring-fed ponds, outbuildings and productive pasture land. In all about 8.5 acres. EPC: F

Guide Price: £2,250,000

Savills Exeter

Edward Tallack edward.tallack@savills.com

01392 455755

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SPECTACULAR LATERAL LIVING IN THIS LANDMARK WATERSIDE DEVELOPMENT

REGATTA COURT, EXMOUTH

Town centre 0.5 miles, Esplanade 0.2 miles, Exeter 11 miles This contemporary apartment enjoys fabulous views across the Exe Estuary to Dawlish Warren and beyond to the Haldon Hills. Over 2,500 sq. ft. of accommodation including 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and south and west facing, open-plan living spaces. 2 balconies, private garden and garaging with allocated parking for 3-4 cars. EPC: B

Offers over £1,400,000 6

MANOR | Autumn 2018

Savills Exeter

Chris Clifford cclifford@savills.com

01392 455755

CONTEMPORARY AND SUBSTANTIAL FAMILY HOME SET IN IDYLLIC CREEKSIDE LOCATION

PILL LANE, CORNWALL

Loe Beach – 1; Devoran – 4; Truro – 5; Mylor – 7; Falmouth – 10; Cornwall Airport, (Newquay) – 24; (all distances approximate and in miles)

Savills Cornwall

2017-completed contemporary build. Countryside views with glimpses of the water. 4/5 double bedrooms (2 en suite). Large south west facing terrace. Versatile lower ground floor living room and games room / fifth bedroom. Triple glazed windows.

Parking for at least 4 cars. Double garage. Landscaped terraced gardens. 3344 sq ft. EPC = C.

01872 243200

Guide £1,300,000 Freehold

Ben Davies bmdavies@savills.com

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The 718 range.

The sporting gene is dominant.

Discover the 718 range at porsche.co.uk/718

Porsche recommends

and

Porsche Centre Exeter Matford Park Road Exeter EX2 8FD 01392 573 241 info@porscheexeter.co.uk www.porscheexeter.co.uk

Fuel economy figures for the 718 Boxster S and 718 Cayman S in l/100km (mpg): Urban 10.7-9.5 (26.4-29.7); Extra Urban 6.5-6.0 (43.5-47.1); Combined 8.1-7.3 (34.9-38.7). CO2 emissions in g/km 184-167. The fuel economy and CO2 figures quoted are sourced from official EU-regulated test results, are provided for comparability purposes only and may not reflect your actual driving experience.

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Contents

Autumn 2018

70

16

34 38

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

24

CONFIDENTIAL The Turner Locker Barnfield Revival 2018

28

AS I SEE IT...

Author Philip Reeve

Style & Beauty 16 TRENDS

Features 30 OLD SCHOOL, NEW APPROACH

Smooth as silk and animal magic

20

IN AND OUT OF THE SHADOWS Season eyeshadow palettes

26

MY FEEL-GOOD REGIME Writer Crispen Whittell

70

THE STYLE SHOOT Photographed by Remy Whiting

Krowji, Cornwall

34

OCEAN ADVOCATE Swimmer and environmental campaigner Lewis Pugh

Photostory 38 OASES OF PEACE Images by Lalage Snow

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88 52 Culture 52 SLOW BEAUTY Artist Richard Stone

56

BREAKING BOUNDARIES Effervescent

60

SOUTH WEST MUST SEES...

108

What’s on around the region...

64

THE EXHIBITION SPACE A guide to the region’s art galleries and exhibitions

66

WORTH MAKING THE TRIP FOR...

Cultural highlights from the metropolis and beyond

69

WORTH STAYING IN FOR...

Quality time on your sofa

Food 84 ART ON A PLATE Michelin-starred chef Michael Wignall

88

ON THE RISE Stable Yard Bakery

92

ALE AND HEARTY Recipes from The Beer Kitchen

98

BITES Food news from across the peninsula

105 THE TABLE PROWLER ...dines out at Rojano’s, Padstow and The Church House Inn, Rattery, Devon

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Out of the Valley

112 Q&A With Legacy Properties

114 SHOPPING FOR SPACE Eclectic Dreams

ANGEL DELIGHT Head chef Elly Wentworth

94

Space 108 TREE CHIC

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Escape 118 TUSCANY: AN INSIDER’S GUIDE Ideas for exploring Tuscany

122 CORNISH CLASSY Chapel House, Penzance

126 SHOWERING PRAISE St Michaels Spa, Falmouth

Autumn 2018 MANOR school 129 NEWS IN BRIEF News from schools around the region

132 THE ART GALLERY Showcasing artwork from South West schools

138 STARTING OUT Truro School Nursery

Property 142 PROPERTY OF NOTE

142

Penson Farm, Diptford, Devon

147 THE RELOCATOR Focus on Penzance, Cornwall

153 SNAPSHOT COMPARATIVE A selection of properties in the South West and one near London that would suit art lovers

Back Page 162 PRIZE DRAW Win an original painting by renowned French artist, David Jamin

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is brought to you by PUBLISHING EDITOR

Imogen Clements

imogen@manormagazine.co.uk

COMMISSIONING EDITOR

Jane Fitzgerald

jane@manormagazine.co.uk

FEATURES EDITOR

Fiona McGowan

features@manormagazine.co.uk

ARTS EDITOR

Belinda Dillon belinda@manormagazine.co.uk

FOOD EDITOR

Anna Turns

anna@manormagazine.co.uk

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Amy Tidy

amy@manormagazine.co.uk

ADVERTISING SALES

Jeni Smith

jeni@manormagazine.co.uk

CONTRIBUTORS

Jared Green Anna McMahon Kate MacLeod Claire Wheatcroft DESIGN

Eleanor Cashman Guy Cracknell

THE COVER Pink wave pleats top Issey Miyake, £340; grey wool trousers, Issey Miyake, £780 Photographer: Remy Whiting Stylist: Mimi Stott; Make-up: Fiona Miller; Hair: Jo at Yoke the Salon; Model: Carmen De Pons from Select © MANOR Publishing Ltd, 2018.

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 Wyndeham Roche Ltd.

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Welcome to The Arts Issue of MANOR. There’s a reason that we place such an emphasis on art in MANOR: it looks beautiful and we like to deliver a magazine, every issue, that’s worthy of coffee table status; and because the South West has a thriving arts scene, with much of it getting snapped up by collectors in London and worldwide. But it’s also because art touches every aspect of our lives, even when we don’t actively go out looking for it. It’s what we watch on TV, what we read, how towns are planned, buildings constructed, how food is presented in certain restaurants or packaged in supermarkets, and how clothes are made. We all appreciate art even if we’re not conscious of doing so, and the more obvious art helps us makes sense of the world by showing us aspects of it we might not have seen, and perspectives on the familiar that we might not have considered.

Which brings me on to Effervescent, an arts-led initiative to help traumatised children. Art, in its wide variety of forms, reconnects individuals who’ve felt isolated; it resonates in a way that reassures them they’re not alone and that others can relate. Equally, art can help a frightened, non-communicative child express themselves. Effervescent’s projects have resulted in a considerable rise in individuals actively seeking help, where a simple public health campaign would have failed, and Belinda Dillon finds out more.

Philip Reeve is a highly successful author of children’s books. He started out as an illustrator before deciding that in writing he could express himself better. His best-known book is Mortal Engines (2001), a futuristic novel about a post-apocalyptic London rapidly running out of resources. With the film version due to be released by Universal Pictures in December – with Peter Jackson of The Lord of the Rings as one of its producers – Philip talks to MANOR about how his career has evolved, and gives us a down-to-earth, light-hearted insight into his current view of the world.

Lewis Pugh swam the channel, lengthways. He was the first person to do so (1,800 have done it widthways), swimming the 348 miles between Land’s End in Cornwall and Dover, Kent, in 49 days. Pugh completed what he termed The Long Swim to draw attention to the poor state of our oceans, riddled with plastic and startlingly devoid of fish. He succeeded on a national stage, with Environment Secretary Michael Gove welcoming him onto the shore at Dover and calling him a national hero. Pugh talks to MANOR about what The Long Swim showed him, and what he’s doing as a result.

There was a newspaper report recently that revealed how supermarkets were miss-selling sourdough – that most esteemed and highly regarded of quality breads. Traditional sourdough should contain only four ingredients: flour, water, salt and a starter culture; four out of five supermarket loaves tested by Which? contained agents to speed up the manufacturing process.

Shock, horror… big corporate supermarkets cutting corners?! You’ll find no corners cut at the Stable Yard Bakery in Chagford – an artisan, two-women business that prides itself on delivering the very best product to their fast-growing customer base, even if it means getting up in the middle of the night to tend to the sourdough starter culture, or smuggling it to the local noodle bar to feed it mid-meal (the timing of which has to be precise).

There’s much more to feast your eyes on, this being The Arts Issue, not least an extensive gallery of phenomenal work created by school children from across the South West in our MANOR School section. And on the Back Page, there’s an original work of art to be won: Plaisir de Lire, a painting by David Jamin, a French artist who’s been represented by Falmouth’s Art World Gallery for 20 years, and whose work is now collected worldwide.

We hope you take much ‘plaisir de lire’ with this latest issue of MANOR, and we look forward to welcoming you to the next, which will be full of seasonal glitz…

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 Subscribe to MANOR for a year for just £25. Visit manormagazine.co.uk/subscribe

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

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

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

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

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Culinary inspiration.

Expertly gathered together at our showroom in Exeter, is a truly international collection of the ďŹ nest cookers, ovens and kitchen appliances, including one of the largest selections of Wolf and Sub-Zero products on show in the South West - designed to transform homes and inspire wonderful culinary creations.

Experience and explore live, working models from La Cornue, ESSE, Wolf and Sub-Zero. To whet your appetite, visit us in store and online or call to book a personalised appointment.

FINE STOVES & COOKERS Telephone 01392 797679 www.hearthandcook.com 14 MANOR | Autumn 2018 Showroom: 14 Oaktree Place, Manaton Close, Matford, Exeter EX2 8WA. Open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Saturdays 10am to 4pm or by appointment.

TOWN MOUSE, COUNTRY MOUSE Darling...

Eureka, I’ve got it! I’ve been wracking my brain of late trying to solve the crisis of the high street. Yes, the high street, sweetie – it is disappearing before our eyes because everyone is at home on their laptops, iPads, phones, shopping from their armchairs instead of physically going into shops. What are we to do to get them back out? It is a national crisis – if people don’t get out and engage with other sentient beings, civilization will wither before our very eyes. Food, it seems, was the knee jerk response to this crisis amongst those town planners, with first coffee shops popping up left, right and centre and then restaurants, so many restaurants. Too many restaurants. We have reached peak restaurant, with the result that we can’t eat fast enough. In any case, people need more than food and coffee, don’t they, sweetie? We need something that we have to go and see with our own eyes, then eat, drink and discuss. We need a mothership that restaurants and ancillary businesses can revolve around. And I’ve decided, it’s art. That mothership should be something to do with art because art, proper art in all its forms, rather than reproductions, you need to see in the flesh – you can’t get the impact from a screen, and you certainly can’t buy original art off a screen. One simply has to go there! Genius, eh?

I think I’ve single-handedly reinvigorated high streets across the land. What say you?

WHAT’S COOL IN THE COUNTRY? Be part of Pages of the Sea, Danny Boyle’s commission for 14-18 NOW to mark the centenary of Armistice Day, when the public is invited to gather on beaches across the UK to remember the men and women who left their home shores during WWI. The Eden Project will be leading events at Porthmeor Beach, St Ives and other beaches around Cornwall and Devon. Each event centres around a large-scale portrait of a casualty from the First World War, designed by sand artists Sand In Your Eye, which will be washed away as the tide comes in. A new poem from Carol Ann Duffy will be read by, and distributed, to individuals, families and communities as they gather on beaches nationwide on Sunday 11 November.

MAGI, the Winter Show from the White Moose Gallery, Devon, will be featuring gold and precious gems jewellery of Charmian Harris, abstract paintings on aluminium by Tim Bailey and the wonderful ceramics of Bruce Chivers. Perfect Christmas presents for the aesthetes amongst us. 23 November - Saturday 5 January.

Sweetness...

I cannot relate. Because here in the smoke we are positively awash in art and galleries and ancillary businesses. Be they restaurants, shops or galleries, there are so many motherships and satellites it’s tricky to distinguish one from the other. We are yet to feel the ghost of high street past – everyone’s far too busy spending, online, offline, every which way. They’re in town for work anyway, so they may as well shop while they’re at it. But that’s London. As for the provinces, I hear what you’re saying.

There are few things that people need to make the effort to go out and see for themselves these days, and art is one of them.

And it can be a positive draw of touristic proportions. I mean, who’d have bothered with Bilbao before the Guggenheim? The city was a chilly (in relative terms) industrial town on the north Spanish coast peppered with factory chimneys spewing smog.

It was hardly a go-to attraction. Not so now. Then there’s little St Ives… More galleries than pubs; almost more galleries than shops, and all of them teeming with people at the right time of year. Clearly, they make enough money selling art to last them through the low season. And, may I add here, that more galleries, big flagship displayers of art, wouldn’t just reinvigorate the high street; on a more profound note (and I’m nothing if not profound, sweetie), art is good for the soul. It is therapeutic. Doing as well as seeing. Churchill took it up to alleviate his depression, and doctors now prescribe looking at the clouds (nature’s art) over Prozac for their contentment-inducing qualities. We live in a mad world and need a balm for chaotic, over-burdened minds, and a reason to get away from dotcom and be moved, amused and informed as a collective, before the spiders and bots take us over, one by one…

WHAT’S HOT IN THE SMOKE? The Victoria Miro is displaying a major exhibition of new work by Yayoi Kusama. Across Wharf Road galleries and waterside garden, featuring painted bronze pumpkin and flower cultures and a large-scale Infinity Mirror Room.

Until 21 December.

For some proper romance, book one of the The Coppa Club Winter Igloos. Their Tower Bridge terrace is magically transformed: igloos are decorated with fairy lights, laden with blankets and sheepskin rugs - dine, stargaze and see the views of London’s Thameside skyline.

From the 26 October Barrafina extends its devine tapas offering to the Coal Drops Yard complex, King’s Cross. With their other three existing restaurants the new site will also extend the menu to introduce strong, Catalan influences in its dishes. It will be their biggest restaurant yet with 34 covers and an outside terrace for 60.

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Animal magic

Emilia Wickstead AW18

Leopard’s been around for a couple of seasons but now the full range of safari prints have been seen prowling, sliding and roaming AW18 catwalks. Go subtle with neutral tones and natural hues or be bold, with bright richer colours available in every print.

Compiled by Amy Tidy.

Earrings, Zara, £12.99

Coat, Mango, £149.99

Dress, Zara, £79.99

Belt, Hobbs, £59

Dress, Mango, £79.99

Bag, Next, £26

Jumper, Hobbs, £35

Earrings, Zara, £9.99 Boots, Marks and Spencer, £79 Skirt, Topshop, £39

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Bag, Zara, £49.99

Shoes, Zara, £99.99

trends Akris AW18

Earrings, Mango, £12.99

Jumper, Marks and Spencer, £17.50 Coat, Zara, £99.99 Bag, Next, £36

Skirt, Whistles, £139

Dress, Zara, £69.99 Top, Hobbs, £89

Dress, Oliver Bonas, £65

Boots, Zara, £119 Trainers, Mango, £29.99

Bag, Mango, £35.99

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Earrings, Mango, £15.99

Smooth as silk

Necklace, Zara, £17.99

Top, Zara, £29.99

Roksanda AW18

Silk and satin inspired pieces have never been so on trend, particularly pieces that are reminiscent of the silk scarves of old. The design world has adapted the traditional 1950s head and neckware into stylish and elegant dresses. It is easy to dial up the luxe with silk so, to get the most wear out of it, dress down with a leather jacket, sneakers or better still, cowboy boots – very much the footwear of the season. Compiled by Amy Tidy.

Dress, Topshop Boutique, £165

Jeans, Topshop, £45

Dress, Topshop, £49

Bag, Dune, £80

Jacket, Topshop Boutique, £225

Dress, Zara, £29.99 Trainers, Hobbs, £99

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Bag, Mango, £35.99

Boots, Zara, £99

3.1 Phillip Lim AW18

trends

Bag, Topshop, £32

Dress, Zara, £39.99 Dress, Zara, £69.99

Top, Topshop Boutique, £85

Jacket, Hobbs, £349

Skirt, Topshop Boutique, £85

Skirt, Zara, £69.99 Boots, Hobbs, £179

Dress, Marks and Spencer, £55

Bag, Marks and Spencer, £29.50

Necklace, Zara, £17.99

Boots, Topshop, £92

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beauty

In and out of the shadows Make-up artist Elouise Abbott guides you through a new seasonal palette for your eyes and how to max the look.

A

utumn-winter 2018 has well and truly set in and along with it some stunning new seasonal make-up releases from the top beauty houses.

I love the simplicity of a well-coordinated eyeshadow palette with colours carefully balanced to ensure your make-up application is a breeze. Here are my recommendations along with a six-point tip list to ensure you get the best effect.

First, a classic warm smoky eye never goes out of fashion. I love the Chanel Les 4 Ombres Multi-Effect Quadra Eyeshadow in Candeur et Expérience. This palette has a wonderful balance of deep browns, making it instantly wearable for all skin tones and eye colours. These classic deep brown shades include a warm brick red which adds instant depth of colour, perfect for the socket line whilst adding autumnal warmth to the skin.

Tom Ford encapsulates autumn within the Tom Ford Honeymoon Eye Colour Quad. The deep plum and warm champagne shades have made this a kit staple when working with brown eyes. Plum is incredibly flattering for brown eyes and draws out the green in hazel eyes. This palette contains four satin shades that strike the perfect balance between opulence and wearable chic.

Blue eyes always sparkle with a dash of gold.

The rich gold tones of the Bare Minerals Gen Nude Eyeshadow Palette are both wonderfully neutral and easy to blend with a versatile balance of both matt and shimmer shades, easily adaptable for both daytime chic and evening glamour.

When applying an eye make-up, I like to add a splash of gold to highlight the inner corner of the eye as it accentuates the white of the eye.

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The Yves Saint Laurent Couture Palette Collector in Yconic Purple has a super cool blend of white, teal, copper and lilac. If you have green eyes, then this is the palette for you. Purples really bring out the green eyes. I love to use the teal in this palette as a soft eyeliner for all eye colours, and you can never go wrong with a sweep of copper to spruce up a winter look.

The Bobbi Brown Camo Luxe Eye and Cheek Palette is a great everyday staple suitable for all skin tones and eye colours. It contains everything you need for a neutral brown eye with a selection of matt taupe and brown shadows, as well as everything you need to take your look to the next level with matt and metal shades in smoky brown and camo green. This palette also contains a beautifully flattering soft golden highlight for the cheeks that can also be used as an eyeshadow. I just love a multitasker.

If you like to have a big palette containing a range of colours, then look no further than the Laura Mercier Hidden Gems Eyeshadow Palette. Exactly what it says on the box, this little gem has something for everyone and every occasion with 12 colours inspired by the vivid shades of precious jewels. Wonderfully pigmented and beautiful to blend, this little treasure belongs in everyone’s make-up bag, so wouldn’t make a bad gift for Christmas.

SIX KEY TIPS 1. Use primer It’s always good to prime those lids for shadow – sorts out oily lids, creased lids, helps avoid eyeshadow smearing and makes your shadow go on better and look better. Nars Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base, £19.50 or Bare Minerals Prime Time Eyelid Primer, £16.50; Laura Mercier Eye Basics, £21.

2. Use a decent brush Cheap sponge applicators that accompany many palettes do no favours when it comes to gentle and precise application. A good makeup brush is required for decent blending, which is what it takes to bring an eyeshadow look to the next level. Bobbi Brown Concealer Brush, £23.50; Stila 33 One Step Complexion Brush, M&S, £21.

3. Blend a cut crease for easy definition A cut crease really helps to make your eyes stand out (especially if you don’t have naturally defined eyelids). Take a dark shadow and blend it really well along the upper crease of your eyelid, connecting the end of the line with the outer corner of your eye. Look downwards at a mirror while you do this instead of straight ahead; it will help you find your crease. Use a lighter shade on your mobile lid to create contrast. Then add eye liner and mascara. Brilliant.

4. Make colours more vibrant with white shadow If you really want to make your eyeshadow colours pop, apply a white

base first. We love NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk, Boots, £5.50 for this – the pencil makes it so easy to use. Blend it all over your lid and then apply your shadow on top for a more vibrant colour.

5. Look more awake You can also use white pencil eyeshadow to line your lower waterline. This will make eyes look bigger, making you look awake and alert. Great for those late nights followed by early mornings.

If you find that the white looks too harsh or obvious for you, a light nude shadow works equally well.

6. Know your eye shape (and work with it) Hooded eyes means eyeshadow won’t show when your eyes are open – so focus on the area underneath the lower lashes and at the outer corners instead. Wide-set eyes can achieve balance with dark colour at the inner corner, while close-set eyes should concentrate darkness at the outer corners instead. Monolids (that don’t crease) should experiment with cat eyes and highlights at the very centre of the lid, and deepset eyes can safely go bold with really dramatic, smoky eyes. Once you know what works for your unique eyes, you can easily adapt any shadow look accordingly!

Capture magic this Christmas with our free festive events: •

See what's on at

www.princesshay.com

Heliosphere 22nd November 5pm, 6pm & 7pm • Halo 29th November 5pm, 6pm & 7pm • Spark! 6th December 5pm, 6pm & 7pm • And more!

MANOR | Autumn 2018 27903_3 SF Princess Hay Christmas 18 – Manor Mag Entertainment 130x200.indd 1

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09/10/2018 11:52

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MANOR | Autumn 2018

Thoughtful It’s the detail that sets you apart

VISIT OUR SHOWROOM 6 Marsh Green Road North | Exeter | Devon | EX2 8NY touchdesigngroup.com | Telephone: 01392 364269 Kitchen Interiors | Furniture | Media Rooms | Dressing Rooms | Interior Doors | Staircases MANOR | Autumn 2018

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The Return of Turner Locker Barnfield Revival Every year, since 2014, Turner Locker Barnfield, the Commercial Property Letting Consultants, host a day dedicated to vintage cars and motorbikes. This year, despite the elements, the event was another success when come Sunday 23 September, some 60 cars and numerous motorbikes descended on Barnfield Crescent in Exeter with owners and drivers’ attire very much in keeping with the theme. Vehicles dated back to the 1920s through to the 1960s and regular headline act, Siren Sisters, performed followed by a vintage closeharmony vocal trio. This year, money was raised for Blesma, a British charity providing support to limbless and injured veterans for life. Photography by Andrew Butler. andrewbutler.net

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Emsworthy Mire, Dartmoor

My feel-good regime Crispin Whittell was born and raised in Africa, went to school in England, and then ran away to the United States. Just over two years ago he returned to the UK and now lives on the north edge of Dartmoor with his wife, two children and a puppy. For many years he wrote plays. He is now writing a new six-part spy thriller for television set in Devon and Germany for the producers of The Fall and The Crown.

We moved to Devon in 2016 from Los Angeles on the orders of our son, Arlo. He was four at the time and he

For me, the principal reason for moving to Devon was to bring up the children surrounded by nature. Nature, that

was sick of the sunshine. It was all he had ever known.

He wanted some real weather. We thought about it for about an hour before deciding he was right. Three months later we had packed up our home of 10 years and moved to a cottage in Drewsteignton with Arlo and his little sister, Matilda. We’ve had plenty of weather since.

is, that has no intention of eating you – coyotes prowled the fringes of the Los Angeles playground that Arlo used to play in, waiting for a stray toddler to snack on. And the hills were full of rattlesnakes.

I knew that if I was ever going to move back to England it would be to one of the river valleys north of Dartmoor.

This was where I’d always escaped to when I was young, and it was where we came every summer from California when we were back visiting my parents. It’s long been my favourite corner of this crowded island.

Let’s face it, with two small children and, now, a puppy, you’re not looking for a regime that makes you feel good so much as one that keeps you sane. Work helps,

and so does coffee. I drink a lot of coffee and do as much work as I can. It’s not really that I love writing – though it’s a satisfying feeling to have written – I’m just a better dad if I’ve had time to be a grown-up. I’ve always written in cafés. I need to get out of the house to write, partly to kid myself that I have a real job, but mostly because I like a little noise around me, a little life. Some writers need silence and isolation to write.

This wouldn’t inspire me, it would send me to sleep.

I’ve settled in a warm corner of a lovely Chagford pub.

I go there when I’ve dropped off the kids. They have a pot of coffee waiting for me.

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MANOR | Autumn 2018

Devon seemed perfect. And full of birds. I’ve always

loved birds. Not all birds – I have a deep-seated and completely irrational prejudice against ducks and gulls.

But I’m at my happiest walking around Devon Wildlife Trust’s magical reserve at Emsworthy Mire in the shadow of Hay Tor, or lying flat on my back on the shingle beach at Weston Mouth watching peregrines hanging in the wind, or waiting in the gloaming with Arlo for the nightjars to start churring at our secret site close to home.

My favourite British bird, though, is the swift. They’re in

trouble because people tend to block up their nest holes in buildings when they’re renovating their second homes.

But Drewsteignton has a healthy colony thanks to people in the village putting up nest boxes. I love to watch them screaming above the churchyard on warm summer evenings. Once they leave their nest boxes, they fly to Africa and back without ever landing. They can fly 500 miles in a day and sleep on the wing. They have sex in mid-air, a trick I have yet to master.

When I wrote plays, I would always try and get them produced in theatres close to good birding spots. From

the rehearsal rooms of the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis

you can watch bald eagles fishing in the Mississippi. I once accepted an invitation to a theatre conference in Cleveland purely because my all-time favourite bird, the cerulean warbler, nested in a national park nearby. The conference was terrible. I ran away almost immediately, rented a car and headed south to Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Soon I was being serenaded by a male cerulean warbler from a branch above my head in a thunderstorm on the banks of the Cuyahoga River, a river most famous for having once caught fire.

Now that I’m writing for television, I try and locate pivotal plots in migratory hotspots. It’s in the hope that

I can convince the producers that I won’t be able to do a decent job on the script without actually visiting the place. Sometimes it works. Last spring I found myself in Cyprus – it’s also the money-laundering capital of Europe and the preferred getaway spot for Russia’s oligarchs – racing around the island in a rental car, finding an isabelline wheatear near Aphrodite’s Rock, a masked shrike in an olive grove in the Troodos Mountains and greater flamingos on the Akrotiri salt flats. As I listened to a Cyprus warbler singing its heart out from a bush nearby, a U-2 spy plane lifted steeply

out of the nearby RAF base heading for the upper reaches of the atmosphere.

With children, the bird thing has expanded to include butterflies. We turned our Los Angeles garden into an

official monarch butterfly sanctuary. What’s great about butterflies – for young children – is that they fly when it’s sunny (when kids want to be outdoors) plus you can actually see them. Birds tend to skulk about in bushes and are often green or brown and it’s hard to get children excited about things they can’t see. But butterflies…

Bright colours, visible, and in the UK there are less than 60 regular species so you’ve a chance of working out what you’re looking at. And on Dartmoor we still have butterflies because not everything has been soaked in pesticides.

When I’m not doing any of these things or going to any of these places, I’m dreaming about it. After the kids are

tucked up in bed, I can usually be found in front of the fire, searching the internet for cheap flights to places to escape to, a slice of my wife’s sourdough bread in my hand, toasted and dripping with honey. I don’t actually have to book a flight – I’m more than happy where I am – but it feels good knowing what’s out there.

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PHOTO: SARAH REEVE

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As I see it...

Philip Reeve is an author and illustrator of children’s books. From his first story as a fiveyear-old about spaceman Spike and his dog Spook, the Dartmoor resident went on to create legendary tales such as Mortal Engines about a futuristic London, soon to be released on film.

Interview by Fiona McGowan.

It’s when I’m writing that I’m really drawing on my subconscious.

I’ve been writing and drawing for as long as I can remember. At first, I went for illustration because it seemed an easier path. I studied it at art college and carved out a little illustration career – partly because I wanted to move to Dartmoor and needed something I could do from home. I was mostly doing cartoons for children’s books like Horrible Histories, but while I enjoyed the humour, it wasn’t something I had any great investment in. I wasn’t expressing myself in the way that I do when I’m writing.

I was just the right age when a bunch of tremendously influential films came out – Star Wars and Alien and Blade

Runner and all those turn-of-the-80s science fiction movies.

They haven’t really been bettered. They’re still being remade and referenced now. I wouldn’t watch the likes of Doctor Who because it was much too frightening, but when Star Wars came along in 1977, I thought, “OK, yes, I like this”.

Film was a very important thing for me, because it combined both the visual element and the narrative. I did make some

small-scale films when I was younger – this was before the days of mobile phones, even video, using Super 8 – but the idea of getting into the film industry was beyond me. Much rather be working on my own in a little room on Dartmoor than up in London in a huge studio with lots of people. It must be tremendously frustrating, working in film, and I don’t think I’ve got the patience. With writing, if I get an idea, I can sit down and start writing that day, and it might end up in the finished book a year later. If you have an idea for a movie, you have to spend years scraping the money together, by which time it will probably have been compromised beyond all recognition.

When I first wrote Mortal Engines, I wasted a year sending it out to various agents who weren’t interested. I was trying

to flog it to a grown-up audience – but the slightly retro, neo-Victorian feel was unusual in 2001. Now, of course, it’s become incredibly popular, tediously so. There’s so much of it, I wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole if I was starting to write now. Back then, I was way ahead of the wave… not something to boast about, because you absolutely don’t want to be ahead of the wave – you want to catch it. Then I thought that maybe a children’s publisher would be interested in it instead. I hastily re-jigged it and sent it to Scholastic, who took it pretty much straight away. Once I worked out the actual target audience, getting published was quite easy.

I don’t illustrate my own stories. When I’m writing, I can see

everything very clearly in my mind’s eye, as if I’m watching a movie. But there’s a level of detail you need when you’re drawing something, which you can kind of glide over when you’re imagining it and writing. As someone who can draw a bit, I really admire people who can draw a lot. The Mortal Engines series has some very nice covers by Ian McQue, one of the great sci fi concept artists of his generation.

When I write the younger children’s books with Sarah McIntyre, it’s a different process. We came up with the idea of creating

funny adventure stories heavily illustrated by her. I do most of the putting the words on the page, but it’s all done in consultation. And with the illustrations, I help out at the rough stage and Sarah does the final inking. It actually gives me a great deal more enthusiasm for my own stuff. I don’t think Railheads [Philip’s latest series] would exist without Sarah, because it was the burst of creative energy I got from working with her that prompted me to start writing them.

I’m surprised that people take Mortal Engines very seriously – it’s actually supposed to be a slightly cartoonish black comedy.

In fact, I’ve always written comedy on one level or another – even if it’s just knocking out scripts for the village panto. The humour stuff is able to find its outlet in the books I do with Sarah so that my own writing can be more serious.

I didn’t have any great involvement in the film of Mortal Engines.

They kept me informed, and I saw early versions of the script but haven’t contributed to it. I’ve seen the trailer on YouTube.

My wife and son and I also went to New Zealand last year to see some of the shooting underway. I know roughly what things will look like, but I look forward to finding out what they’ve done in the finished film. Interestingly, being on set was remarkably like my silly little film sets in the 80s and 90s but blown up on a vast industrial scale. So many people involved, so much kit, and sort of laborious… It made me glad that I hadn’t got into movies.

I used to be quite optimistic, but things are so bleak at the moment. I think in the UK we’re in for a desperately bumpy

five or 10 years. After that, who knows? Hopefully we’ll pull through and all will be well. It makes me very glad that I write about these imaginary worlds. Because if you’re writing about the real world, it must all go out of date so fast. You have Trump who is beyond satire. If you’d written him in a novel five years ago, everyone would have thought: “No, this is completely unbelievable”. And now, how do you top that? I always think it’s very difficult to write about the present because it isn’t quite in focus. All these fads and panics blow up and seem hugely dramatic and then just fade, with no real ramifications at all.

When the film comes out, I’m sure people will see it as a Brexit analogy. They’ll see it as London turning itself into a city state

and tearing off across the world. I’m not claiming any sort of prescience, but, when I’m writing, little bits of real-world history creep in. If done successfully, it sometimes becomes an analogy for things that haven’t happened yet. I wouldn’t want to say that’s why I write or what I’m trying to do. But things do just keep repeating.

The Legend of Kevin: A Roly-Poly Flying Pony Adventure is out now.

Universal Studios release Mortal Engines in December. philip-reeve.com

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For evidence of the cultural growth in Cornwall this millennium, look no further than the creative arts hub that is Krowji. Words by Fiona McGowan.

PHOTO: LUKE HOLLAND

Alasdair Lindsay in his studio at Krowji Open Studios

B

ased in a haphazard collection of buildings – a grand Victorian school house, a maze of flat-roofed 60s institutional classrooms and a modern warehouse-like building – Krowji is ostensibly a hub of workspaces for local artists and creatives. It is run as a business and is self-sustaining: the mortgage is paid for by the rents and the spaces are competitively priced. It is home to painters, ceramicists, furniture makers, theatre companies, graphic designers, web builders and even a publishing company. But it is actually the visible tip of a deep root system whose offshoots reach throughout the county, quietly and steadily transforming the creative sector.

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The last 20 years in Cornwall has seen a renaissance in the arts. It will likely be an era that people look back at with fondness, if not awe: at the transformation that occurred in this economically depressed county. This is, of course, a region whose history is imbued with engineering prowess, mining and naval enrichment, with a cultural background that spans from ancient Celtic history to the early modernist art movement, and whose magnificent landscapes and wild oceans never stop drawing people in – and spitting them out.

When an economy collapses, the arts usually suffer.

Seen as less than vital when survival is more important, they start to be regarded as unnecessary, even elitist. Even

feature as recently as the mid-90s, Cornwall was something of a cultural desert. There was no Falmouth University – back then, it was a small art college; now, it’s one of the UK’s most highly regarded centres of creativity and design innovation. There was no Hall for Cornwall in Truro – back then, it was a glorified village hall with one employee: a caretaker who swept the floors; now, it is a theatre that attracts 180,000 people annually, draws major touring shows and is a driving force for performing arts in the county. There was no Eden Project. No Tate St Ives. The only theatre company was Kneehigh, which employed one part-time member of staff.

It was into this fallow ground that Ross Williams fell – feet first, as it turned out. Ross grew up in Redruth.

His family owned a well-known local construction business. He went to school at what was then Redruth Grammar, and then left the region for university and a life in London. After years working in production for small theatres in London, he decided to return to Cornwall with his young family. It was the late 90s, and he didn’t have a clue what to do for work. Very quickly, he was asked to volunteer for a small-scale arts organisation organising theatre tours in venues around the county: village halls, beaches, National Trust estates… Within a month, and by what he says was an enormous stroke of luck, the directorship opened up and he got the job. It was the beginning of a 20-year journey to bring art and culture into Cornwall’s centre stage.

Ross now sits in his friendly office at Krowji – there’s a table loaded with leaflets detailing the cultural goings-on in Cornwall, and a wall lined with files that reach back to 2002. It feels like a headmaster’s office, which it probably once was. It is in these headmasterly

surroundings that Ross conducts the business of Creative Kernow – an arts charity under whose umbrella exist no less than nine projects. Krowji is the business end of the organisation; the other independently run projects are there purely to bring the work of creatives into the community. The original small-scale theatre tours enterprise still exists – under the moniker of Carn to Cove – along with C Fylm, which supports community film screenings throughout the county. There’s Cornwall 365 – dedicated to connecting culture with tourism and providing a comprehensive what’s on guide for tourists and locals alike. The concept, explains Ross, is to educate tourism providers in the cultural aspects of Cornwall. “Often it’s simple things like the front of house staff of a big campsite being trained to say: how about trying out this theatre company, this gallery, this quirky little museum.” The Cornwall 365 team, based in Krowji, is on hand to provide seminars and familiarisation visits for the tourism sector to places of cultural interest.

Ross speaks very fast, packing information into every sentence like someone cramming a box file with vital memos. We have only scratched the surface of Creative Kernow’s many tendrils. There’s Feast – which funds community-led projects to bring artists and communities together. There’s the Cornwall Music Network, supporting and promoting music in Cornwall, and the perennially popular Open Studios Cornwall – a sort of annual treasure hunt of open house studios throughout the county. And there’s Cultivator – a practical organisation dedicated to helping creatives get on their feet financially and practically, providing mentoring and business advice.

PHOTO: KIRSTIN PRISK

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PHOTO:KIRSTIN PRISK

PHOTO:KIRSTIN PRISK

Kerry Harding in her Krowji Studio

PHOTO:KIRSTIN PRISK

Tristan Harris of Boot & Saw in his Krowji Studio

The Arts Council joined forces with Cornwall Council… They made a strategic decision that the creative sector was a real growth area for the Cornish economy.

And they had the opportunity to do it with European money.

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Jo Reed in her Krowji Studio

Ross’s enthusiasm is matched by his financial acumen.

It is people like him who really drive things forward: it’s not just providing words and support but being adept at reining in the money. He knows more than anyone the great debt Cornwall owes to the EU. Every other sentence contains the words: ‘European funding’. He points to the moment when his small arts organisation got a rocket up its proverbial backside.

“There was a real step-change towards the end of the 90s when we started getting European funding,” he remembers. “The beginning of the 2000s was the start of the big European programmes for Cornwall. At the same time, the Labour government had invented the term ‘creative industry’. They recognised the economic significance of it and so they started putting a lot more money into the Arts Council and into areas such as cultural development.” This dynamic combination led to the creation and development of two of the biggest cultural projects in the county: the Eden Project and Falmouth University. Add to that the superfast broadband that was introduced county-wide over a 10year period, and there was a definite shift in Cornwall’s economic picture. “There were more and more people working in Cornwall,” says Ross, “either because they’d been to university here, or because they lived here already, or because they’d moved back down… many of them doing jobs that use the internet.” By 2002, the Arts Council joined forces with Cornwall Council: “They made a strategic decision that the creative sector was a real growth area for the Cornish economy. And they had the opportunity to do it with European money.”

Krowji was born out of this synthesis. Searching for a location for a creative cluster for the various elements of what is now Creative Kernow, Ross and his board of trustees quickly realised that a bigger venue that provided space for creatives as well as the projects that supported

feature

One of the reasons we were here in the first place was to soak up some of those graduates from Falmouth – to stop them going away.

Otherwise… it’s a loss to the Cornish economy.

PHOTO:LUKE HOLLAND

Krowji Open Studios

them would make more of a positive impact – with a duality of interests that would enable cross-pollination between the creatives. They settled on Redruth, not just because of Ross’s roots, he insists. It made sense for lots of reasons: easy access from the A30, more likely to get funding in an area of economic need, and its geographical location making it accessible for anyone west of St Austell.

It was a long process. They bought the land and buildings from Cornwall Council in 2005. Charity Bank gave them a mortgage, and the team began patching up the vandalised school buildings while they were applying for funding. Because, although European funding is without doubt the biggest boon for Cornwall, it is still a nightmare of bureaucracy. Luckily, managing this seems to be one of Ross’s talents. Krowji’s doors opened in 2010. “The demand was amazing,” says Ross. “As soon as we opened, the studios got taken straight away, without any advertising. Over the next five years, we gradually refurbished most of it on a shoestring. We had about 100 artists and users here in pretty basic surroundings. They were just old classrooms, really – we hadn’t done any major improvements.”

Eventually, Ross and the trustees’ work paid off: they received European funding in 2014 – “we just squeezed in at the end of a European programme called Convergence” – and ethical bank Triodos provided a 50 per cent mortgage to build a purpose-build studio complex on the site. The project cost £3.5 million. And the results are stunning. While there are still plenty of artists and makers in the characterful (and freezing) old classrooms, the studios in the Percy Williams Building (named after Ross’s granddad in thanks to the family firm for their cashflow support) are state of the art. The spaces are unheated, but their highly insulated eco construction means they never get properly cold. There are power points and IT connectivity – the sort of clean spaces that could appeal to a graphic designer or a book publisher as much as a painter

or a ceramicist. The sort of space, as studio manager Elisa Harris says, that people can feel comfortable bringing clients to. She has been working with Krowji for 12 years and has overseen every aspect of its growth, and it’s clear that her easy warmth and charisma are key to making the place feel so welcoming.

Ross leans forward over his desk. There’s another plan in the pipeline. He clearly thrives on these challenges and is understandably feeling the urgency of trying to tap into European funding now that the future looks more unstable. They are aiming to demolish a building and create another 1,000 square metres of space, adding a ‘modern contemporary accessible space’ and renovating the existing spaces. It will be an eightmonth building project. He sighs as he thinks about the future of funding for the arts in Cornwall. “It’s all such madness,” he says, but there is some optimism in his voice: “I think there will still be government funding, and Krowji has always stood on its own feet financially.”

His biggest concern is Cultivator, the creative skills programme which has received £3m over three years to provide business support, training and seminars for graduates, disadvantaged young people and anyone in the creative industry trying to go it alone. Krowji is here to support the workforce, explains Ross: “By supporting the workforce, you’re supporting the economy. One of the reasons we were here in the first place was to soak up some of those graduates from Falmouth – to stop them going away. Otherwise, you put a lot of investment into students, then they go back up to Bristol and London or whatever. It’s a loss to the Cornish economy.” krowji.org.uk Krowji means ‘shed’ or ‘cottage’ in Cornish. It feels more like a college campus. But there is so much more to it than that. If anything, it stands as a symbol of the cultural growth in Cornwall – a base from which the arts spreads like an ecosystem.

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The first person to swim the length of the English Channel from Cornwall to Kent is on a mission to urge governments to better protect our seas. UN Patron of the Oceans Lewis Pugh tells Anna Turns why action is urgently needed. Photos by Kelvin Trautman.

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feature

S

wimming in just a cap, goggles and Speedo trunks for 49 days, endurance swimmer and environmental campaigner Lewis Pugh saw virtually no wildlife between Land’s End and Dover. “I saw lots of jellyfish, some birds, a few dolphins, one turtle and not much else. Our ocean is so very badly overfished, and I’ve seen plastic on every beach I’ve visited from Cornwall to Kent,” says the Plymouth-born swimmer who has been the UN Patron of the Oceans since 2013. “It’s as if we have replaced the fish with plastic.”

Five days after his gruelling swim began at Land’s End in mid-July, Lewis joined the Ocean Plastic Solutions Day organised by Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) at Wheal Kitty Workshops in St Agnes. Here he addressed royalty as well as many other influential environmentalists and innovators. The CEO of SAS, Hugo Tagholm, believes that Lewis is ‘one of the most passionate and committed voices of marine conservation of our times’. He says: “Lewis Pugh’s protest swim along the English Channel is an awesome feat for the marine environment. He’s such a legendary environmentalist and endurance athlete, capturing the hearts and minds of the public with his unique challenges. I’m delighted that Surfers Against Sewage was one of the official partners for the swim, engaging communities with direct action on plastic pollution at beaches along the length of the south coast.”

Of course, plastic pollution is just one aspect of ocean health but it’s a tangible, accessible way of engaging the masses with environmental issues. “When we are talking about plastic pollution, retailers and manufacturers have got an important role but we as consumers also have a very important role,” says Lewis, who joined SAS-organised beach cleans at various points along his journey. “SAS has been a game-changer in this aspect, not just in terms of more than 75,000 volunteers cleaning beaches around the UK but also by interacting with government about what ordinary members of the public can do. Ultimately though, change does have to be led by government.”

Now, Lewis is insistent that governments need to make significant changes to policy and act fast before it’s too late. “It’s time for politicians to start taking actions rather than discussing the issues. At the moment, the government is well-meaning, but it has been very slow out of the blocks and it’s distracted. The issues of ocean health are pressing and urgent – they are growing in scale and growing in speed. It requires urgent action.”

Lewis’s 348-mile-long journey marks a firm call to action for global leaders to tackle the impact that plastic pollution, climate change and commercial overfishing have on ocean health. “When you have swum for 49 days and got the ear of the media, the public and politicians, it’s important to capitalise on it but now the really hard work begins. There has been a lot of talk, meetings and scientific studies, but ultimately we need action, and we need it fast.”

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The issues of ocean health are pressing and urgent – they are growing in scale and growing in speed. It requires urgent action

The team picked up floating plastic en route

Lewis swam through a lot of jellyfish, a sign that our seas are warming

This, The Long Swim, kickstarts the worldwide Action for Oceans campaign, calling on governments to fully protect at least 30 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2030, and Lewis believes the British government has the opportunity to lead the way, though this involves significant changes to policy: “Our response to the crisis in ocean health simply isn’t keeping up with the scale of the problem. We are an island nation but only seven of our 750,000 square kilometres of water is protected – we desperately need more Marine Protected Areas here and in our overseas territories.”

Lewis lived in Devon for his formative years, going to the then Mount House prep school near Tavistock until he was 10 years old: “My first memory as a little boy was swimming with my parents off Whitsand Bay near Plymouth,” he recalls. “Swimming that stretch of coastline again felt like coming home and I received a lovely warm welcome when I got to Plymouth, Britain’s Ocean City, so it really felt special.” After speaking at the National Marine Aquarium and discussing the importance of education with some of the world authorities in marine research, he was joined by dozens of swimmers for a short swim back out to his support boat.

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Next, paddleboarder and SAS champion based in North Devon, Cal Major, came aboard and motored out with the team towards the Eddystone Lighthouse for the next leg. She soon realised she wouldn’t be able to keep pace swimming alongside: “I consider myself a fairly strong swimmer, but even at full pelt I could only keep up with him for about a minute! Lewis makes it look like he’s swimming at a steady pace, but he’s fast even though he’s maintaining his speed for all those miles. I got onto my board and paddled with him instead!” The duo were joined by a curious pod of dolphins in Whitsand Bay for 10 minutes or so: “They were magical to watch, and it felt very special being out there with them in their environment. We also came across a lot of jellyfish, and of course plastic.”

Cal, who recently paddleboarded solo from Land’s End to John O’Groats to raise awareness of the need to reduce single-use plastics, has been inspired by The Long Swim: “It’s certainly helped to continue to energise my own campaigns moving forward. The tenacity with which he is approaching government figures and business leaders impresses me the most, demanding change with no doubt of its importance or ability to achieve it.”

feature

With Prince Charles and Hugo Tagholm at the Ocean Plastic Solutions Day

Lewis meets other keen wild swimmers at Tinside Lido in Plymouth

Lewis joined an SAS-organised beach clean at Marazion, Cornwall

Despite a shoulder injury, bad weather which meant he had to play catch up with some night swims, and the resulting sleep deprivation, Lewis conquered mental, physical and emotional exhaustion to complete his swim in 49 days. As Lewis approached the white cliffs of Dover, Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, came on board. On reaching Shakespeare Beach, Lewis spoke directly to him and he was apparently a good listener: “Listening is one thing, but we need action and that was my message to him.” Lewis has since continued his talks at 10 Downing Street with Lord Randall, the Prime Minister’s environment advisor, and has been asked to debate these issues with Michael Gove at the Conservative Party Conference, too.

The British government wants to be an ocean leader, according to Lewis, and they have said so in many forums from the Commonwealth Heads of Government and United Nations to G7. “The PM has said they see themselves as a world leader on plastic pollution. They can become that, but it takes time,” explains Lewis, whose determination never falters.

With so many overseas British territories, we are seemingly well-placed to lead the way globally by strengthening Marine Protected Areas. But Lewis explains that there is a blockage occurring with South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the southern Atlantic. “They are singularly the most important biodiversity hotspot under UK jurisdiction and on the whole planet – it is simply an amazing place,” says Lewis, who for two years has, along with the UN, half of British MPs and many leading scientists from around the world, been urging the UK government to fully protect this crucial British Overseas Territory. “But that still hasn’t happened. There are ongoing discussions in the Foreign Office about this so I am going to keep urging the UK government to prioritise it, I think it’s only right. The problem is, until it’s sorted out, change won’t progress with other overseas territories in the pipeline – for example, Ascension Island, St Helena and Tristan da Cunha. I’m hoping the new Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, will look into this immediately – we want to get these important issues on his plate straightaway.”

It’s no quick fix though, and Lewis knows he is playing a long game. “When I ran the campaign to get the Ross Sea in Antarctica protected, we had to get 24 countries to agree and, trust me, that was exponentially more difficult. We were dealing with Russia, China, America, India, Argentina, Japan and Korea – these countries have disagreements with each other on the international stage and that can often be reflected in their policies relating to Antarctica. I thought I could get them to agree it within one year: it took three years in the end,” says Lewis, not one to give up easily. “There is a promised land, you just have to find it.” No doubt, he will keep swimming until he does. lewispugh.com

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Schlomo and his nasturtiums, Nir Am Kibbutz, 2013. “My plants are lucky, they don’t have to deal with sadness like me, only the dust encroaching from the desert.”

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Oases of peace War Gardens by Lalage Snow is the fruit of seven years of photographing gardens and interviewing their gardeners, from Afghanistan to Iraq, Ukraine to Syria, Kashmir to the West Bank. It shines an empathetic light on conflicts to which we have become desensitised and examines war through the personal stories of those living through it. It studies the importance of gardens in war-ravaged countries as a means of creativity, therapy and hope, and for the common bond of humanity they instil.

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Igor in his garden, Donetsk, 2014. “I can’t leave, this is my family’s home. Where else would I go?”

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Gulam Hazrat in the garden at FOB Lashkar Gah, September 2013. “If the Taliban come back they will cut off my head for working here.”

Esti, Kfar Azar Kibbutz, 2013. “If women were in charge there wouldn’t be any war.”

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Kaka Khalil watering his garden in the old city, Kabul, May 2017. “The situation is not good in Kabul now, security, unemployment, you know.

And the city is so noisy and polluted these days, but at least flowers bring you peace.”

Teenager Esra Ahmad in her father’s hydroponic rooftop garden, Gaza city, April 2013. “I feel free up here.”

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Bracha, Male Ifrahim, West Bank, 2016. “They [cacti] are the plant of Israel; patient to take root with little water.”

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Fayez and Muna Taneeb in ‘Muna’s field’ next to the separation barrier, Tulkaram, West Bank, April 2016.

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Huda with a lime in her garden in Gaza City, April 2013. “I like to be here all the time.”

Daram on the military cot bed with his granddaughter in his hospital garden, Lashkar Gah, Helmand, April 2014. “I encourage my patients to sit and read here while they are waiting or recovering from a treatment. It is a restorative, fresh place.”

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Ramesh in his greenhouse in the Old City, Kabul, November 2015. “Children now are only interested in their phones and Facebook. That is their only hobby. Flowers freshen your mind, mobile phones destroy it.�

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LALAGE SNOW Dorset-based photojournalist, writer and filmmaker Lalage Snow has covered war and unrest in the Middle East and Afghanistan since 2007, making Kabul her home for over five years. She has worked for The Sunday Times, Financial Times, The Telegraph and Granta. Most recently she produced, filmed, directed and narrated The Gardeners of Kabul, a half-hour documentary for the BBC. War Gardens: A Journey Through Conflict in Search of Calm is published by Quercus. ÂŁ20. lalagesnow.co.uk

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Regional relevance with glossy magazine

The Region’s Premium Pu blication

pizzazz!

WHAT READERS SAY ABOUT MANOR “I bring my copy into work where it is read by hundreds of people.”

“For someone planning to move to the West Country it’s the best magazine on the newsagent’s shelf, and even if you’re not planning a move, it’s a great magazine.”

“A fantastic magazine that looks and feels like Harper’s yet manages to use local content without becoming parochial.”

WHAT ADVERTISERS SAY ABOUT MANOR “We were delighted to hear from a couple who bought work in our exhibition ‘Coast’, that they had travelled from Exmouth to our North Devon gallery, White Moose, after seeing our ad in the Summer issue of MANOR Magazine.”

STELLA LEVY AND JULIE GAVIN, WHITE MOOSE PARTNERS.

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

PRUNELLA MARTIN, DIRECTOR, MARCHAND PETIT

WHAT THE UK MEDIA INDUSTRY THINKS OF MANOR In three and a half years and 29 issues since we launched MANOR in March 2015, it has been nominated for no less than six prestigious UK media awards, including Consumer Magazine of the Year in the PPA (Professional Publishers Association) Independent Publishers Awards two years in a row, and Regional Brand of the Year in the British Media Awards 2018 for which it won Silver!

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Autumn 20

18 | Issue

29 | £4.50

Philip Reeve As I See It

Lewis Pugh

Channel sw immer,

ocean activ ist

Lalage Sno w

Gardens in war zones

School art gallery Pupils’ talen t on

display

CULTURE FOOD SPACE ESCAPE SCHOO PROPERT L Y

Culture Richard Stone | Effervescent South West must sees | The Exhibition Space | Worth making the trip for | Staying in

Richard Stone, i want to be a sufi dancer, statuario marble 35 x 30 x 30 cm richardstoneprojects.com

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Artist Richard Stone balances life between his east London studio and the Tuscan marble town of Pietrasanta. But it was his upbringing in Devon that led him to appreciate the importance of slowness, which he now sees as intrinsic to his work.

Words by Anna McMahon.

locket, oil, oil stick on canvas, ivy, sunflower overprint, tulip wood moulding, dark oak finish, 90 x 120 x 4 cm

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culture

P

ietrasanta at first glance looks a typical Italian town, located between the foothills of the marble-bearing Apuan Alps and the beach resorts of Tuscany’s northern coastline. The town square, founded in 1255, is crammed with buildings clad in terracotta tiles and dark green shutters. In the early afternoon there is a bustle of locals going about their daily routine, chatting and stopping for aperitivi.

Pietrasanta literally translates as ‘Holy Stone’. Here, local artigiani for generations have shaped stone quarried in nearby Carrara. It may be an urban legend, but it’s said that Michelangelo travelled from Florence to Pietrasanta to acquire the marble for many of his works, and it is at Café Michelangelo, under a striking medieval church tower, that Richard Stone and I dig a little deeper.

Born in Torbay, Devon, Richard spent his childhood and early adulthood there before finally moving to London where he studied fine art at Central Saint Martins after being awarded a British Academy full bursary. His early life in Devon, close to the coast, instilled in him an appreciation for the rhythm of seasons and the ebb and flow of the tide, nature’s calm but unremitting pace of life. It was Pietrasanta that had him truly channel this into his art. Richard first visited Pietrasanta in 2013 after being awarded a scholarship by the Royal Society of Sculptors in bronze casting at Fonderia Artistica Mariani, one of the most established foundries. He remembers, “I instantly connected with the pace, the energy, the abundance of beauty both for creativity but also as a cornerstone of everyday life.”

With days spent cycling to work through cobbled streets to bronze and marble foundries, Richard’s focus was both on making and on deepening his connection to the artists and artigiani who reside here.

His most influential connection was Helaine Blumenfeld, the American-born sculptor who is a mainstay of modern British contemporary sculpture, recognised for the seemingly alive flowing forms she creates. Helaine’s public works are installed in cities across the world, most recently in London’s Canary Wharf with Fortuna. Awarded an OBE for her contribution to the arts, she would oversee Richard’s process, urging him to move away from the traditional sculptural schools of thought – figuration and abstraction – and instead to dance in between. Moreover, she encouraged him to look within, rather than to draw on conceptual influences or existing art historical movements.

“I’ve always been drawn to the sensuality of things,” he reflects, “and this is no different in the materials I work with. When I am sculpting, the work emerges directly from the wax or clay, without any preparatory sketches. I’m mindful of not overthinking, I’m much more interested in an unhindered conversation between psyche and physical form. When I’m making, there is a recurrent sense of colliding the figure and landscape, of connecting to the weather, or movement in its purest form.”

Richard Stone in his studio

Stone’s largest marble work to date: tutelar, 2018, statuario marble, 95 x 50 x 50 cm

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only in the ruins will you be free, 2014, statuario marble, 91 x 61 x 12cm

This is most striking in Richard’s recent abstract paintings, which, despite the intense movement, appear balanced and especially cohesive when they sit alongside his sculpture.

Asked whether memories of the South West coast influence his work, he responds: “That’s hard to answer, as I’ve never been interested in intentionally portraying one specific place, more a sensation of many places.

That said, there are dark rocky outcrops on the north coast of Devon and of course the striking beauty and light of Land’s End, which always resonate with me. If I feel something profound when I see a landscape, then I suspect it lingers within me on a deeper level and, with time, it may emerge in my work.”

Working in this way requires a certain patience.

Richard’s practice guides him wherever it needs to go.

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He flits between sculpture, painting and sometimes installation. “To me, the flitting is really important.

Working on a painting can allow a sculptural form to sit, meaning I can return to it with fresher eyes.” I’m curious as to whether this causes any frustration or rubs against commercial goals. “Well, it can,” he smirks, “but it reminds me in some way of growing up in Torbay.

Each year, the town would change completely with the coming and going of the tourist season, but there was never any use in fighting it, only learning to surrender to it, to go with this sharp contrast of rhythms.”

There is a common language in all of Richard’s work regardless of medium, in that in each case the viewer is asked to slow down, to observe and to allow a certain feeling to be evoked. It’s this focus, on the experiential aspects of his work, for which only in the ruins will you

culture

I’ve always been drawn to the sensuality of things… I’m mindful of not overthinking.

his key monochrome, 2018, oil, oil stick on canvas, ivy, tulip wood moulding, dark oak finish, 90 x 120 x 4cm

be free – a shimmering, flowing white flag – has special resonance. “At first this work may seem to simply be a white flag, but the movement of the flag is actually quite visceral and haunting.”

Sometimes the influence of the local environment is more direct. Reflecting on a bronze work he made in Pietrasanta, “in the shade of the magnolias was a reworking of buds and branches growing near my studio.” The work embodies both strength and fragility, and, cast in 12 parts, perfectly balanced – the branch appears to float. “It was a real honour to have this piece selected for the recent Royal Society of Sculptors Summer Exhibition because it’s an organisation that I’m extremely proud to be a fellow and trustee of, but also because I was among some very talented peers.”

The last couple of years have been busy for him, with his works increasingly collected in the UK and the US. He was recently featured in Michael Petry’s book Nature Morte, which put him alongside artists including Damien Hirst, David Hockney and Ai Weiwei. The exhibition of the same name travelled to several European museums before returning to London’s Guildhall in late 2017. “It was a privilege to have a bronze sculpture travel with this show, but the return to London was particularly important to me, not least because it signalled a real acceleration of interest in my work and the start of a busy period which continues to date.”

Since then, Richard had his second solo show with his London gallery, Kristin Hjellegjerde, and in May

he appeared in a Sky Arts documentary which explored Helaine Blumenfeld’s work in depth. In April of this year, he released tutelar, his largest marble work to date at Art Brussels, one of Europe’s premier art fairs. “There was something quite profound about making a piece of work which, upon its plinth, stands life size. Creating a figure at that scale, whilst retaining refinement and elegance, was quite a challenge.” tutelar, alongside Richard’s other recent marble works, again crosses back into a style of classicism with a contemporary twist, being carved from heavy stone.

But with his skill, the edges are so refined, the works are softened substantially, they appear to float and glisten.

“There is beauty but also joy in these works. Maybe they say something about hope, about the future, about remaining focused on what beauty is. And given where we are, politically, I think that’s more important than ever.”

There is heightened demand for Richard’s work, but creativity requires pause. “I’ve learned that I must take time out to nurture my own creative process. London is amazing because of all of the connections and constant encounters that take place, but whenever I set foot on an English coast, or return to Pietrasanta, I immediately feel a change come over me. I can stop ‘doing’ and instead begin to allow myself ‘to be’.” And from that, the art develops.

For further information, visit richardstoneprojects.com

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POI:SON

I

Effervescent is driving social change through shows that put the adverse life experiences of children and young adults centre stage.

Belinda Dillon finds out more.

t’s the last hurrah of the summer holidays, and Plymouth is hot and frantic, so it’s with relief that I step into the welcoming embrace of Rumpus Cosy, a quirky café right on the corner of Derry’s Cross.

I’m here to meet Eloise Malone and Phil Innes, who, much like the name of their space next door, Radiant Gallery, exude calm and warmth, but with the crackle and fizz of creatives loving what they do. They’re like the kids you met when growing up who you immediately wanted to hang out with because you knew their imaginations would take you to extraordinary places.

Behind the groundbreaking team at Effervescent, Eloise and Phil roam imaginative spaces voraciously.

They make films shot entirely under water and create installations out of ice. For their latest show, they’ve built 56

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a working carousel – but they’re not simply creating ‘entertainment’. Describing what they do as ‘social alchemy’, Effervescent bring their extensive expertise in theatre, dance, sound art, play therapy and creative boundary-breaking to work with children and young people who’ve had adverse childhood experiences.

Together, they create shows and campaigns that raise awareness about subjects such as child sexual exploitation, psychosis and displacement, shows that straddle visual, performance and conceptual art.

“Over the last 10 years, funding has been pulled out of working with children and young people who are traumatised, who’ve suffered poverty, mental health issues and difficult family situations,” says Eloise. “At the same time, we’ve increasingly realised that when they’re

culture supported with integrity, and given enough time and resources, they are capable of producing world-class, exciting work that makes a difference.”

Although both engaged in their own socially motived practice, the first time Eloise and Phil worked together was in 2008, when they responded to a call from the NHS about young men suffering from psychosis.

“They’d been struggling with how to reach audiences in an honest, authentic way,” says Eloise. “We found that the people who know it best, when given opportunities to play, can come up with stunning metaphors that convey complex information in a way that those without lived experience can’t. Our job is to gently hold that process, to help the group come up with conceptual ideas, and then bring in practitioners, such as Hana Backland, who’s worked for Lucas Films, to help them make something polished and beautiful – something that looks like it’s been put out by a professional campaign team, but it’s made by a 14-year-old in Cornwall who’s been in his room for six months and hasn’t spoken to anyone for three weeks.”

How Long Would You Wait?, a stunning underwater film sequence that was launched in cinemas and on the internet, triggered an uplift in referrals to the mental health service of 70%. It’s an incredible achievement, and no doubt Effervescent could have continued responding to crisis calls from agencies and organisations – such as the NSPCC, for instance. But seeing the effect their practice and methodology was having on project participants led to the decision in 2014 to really test the boundaries of what an arts organisation could do.

“Instead of the council ringing us up every year to work with this group or that, we asked them to tell us

their problems and we’d show them how young people can design services to be more effective,” says Eloise.

Plymouth City Council clearly had faith in them, and with funding from the Arts Council – “they could see this was a development of contemporary art practice, not just working with 500 people with Sellotape” – plus the unswerving support of The Arts Institute at the University of Plymouth, Effervescent made a former bank in the city centre its permanent home, and has subsequently spent the last four years making challenging, edgy work that people didn’t think could or should be done.

Notable in that regard was 2016’s The Cold Truth, made in partnership with Barnardo’s, which saw the team working with five local young people who’d experienced sexual exploitation by adults to fill Radiant with pairs of children’s shoes cast in ice and glass; some plinths related harrowing realities, others a reminder that 72% of children who are exploited don’t tell anyone at all.

“The received wisdom to that point was to only work with these young people individually, due to their vulnerability,” says Eloise. “The downside of that is a child in care, feeling isolated and terrible, can take it upon themselves to believe it’s their fault. When they’re given the chance to meet others, to realise that they couldn’t see what had happened to that child so perhaps what they’d been through wasn’t written all over them, helped them understand that they weren’t to blame.” And as Phil adds, “it allows those young people to direct that conversation from a position of power,” which is hugely important in any recovery process.

It strikes me that Eloise and Phil must be a soothing presence in the room when they get together with their

The Cold Truth

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participants to make each piece of work – a valuable attribute when you’re working with people whose realities can be fraught with chaos and unpredictability.

Both of them come from “unprivileged backgrounds, places where we’ve felt to be the black sheep,” says Eloise.

“It’s one of the reasons our value systems are the way they are, about being inclusive, and having empathy for people who are capable and artistic but have never had the chance to work in that way.” Both cite the importance of key adults in giving them opportunities to shine when they were young: for Phil, it was the “brilliant, crucial adults who gave you the keys to the youth club so you could rehearse with your band”; for Eloise, it was the teacher who gave her the task of directing her first school play, aged seven. It’s about being the person who asks what someone needs and helps them to achieve it. It’s about listening without judgment.

“So much of our mission is about changing how people understand how you can work with people,” says Eloise, “how you can collaboratively design services and campaigns and the world.”

Key to that is the intense devising process – definitely one of co-creation – which sees them in the studio at Radiant with the group of participants and their support workers, playing with ideas, pinning up images and words that spring into being from creative tasks designed to help with that process. “In the room, it’s both structured and entirely able to go anywhere,” says Eloise.

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“Children’s natural language is play – give them a task and they play out what’s on their minds. We note it in their own words, why it feels relevant, and day after day we’re teaching them about emotional impact – they’re learning to be artists.” After two weeks – they also spend time visiting galleries for inspiration – the walls are covered in material, which they sift through carefully, and notice what emerges. “With this new show, we saw unicorns, moons, spheres, a 10-day walk… How do we pull all that together? Of course, it’s a blighted carousel with all these dandelion clocks, ghosts of flowers that have no choice but to journey,” says Phil. “We never start out with a format for the final work – the piece tells us what it needs to be.”

HALF/LIFE has been created with children and (for the first time) adults from the Kurdish diaspora, alongside young people in Plymouth who also consider themselves displaced, whether through their sexuality or mental health issues. Featuring a full working carousel – “I can’t imagine what idea would be too much for us to make,” muses Phil – it includes a soundscape of people’s stories of impossible journeys. “It’s a show about fate and being blown off course and having nothing to do but endure it,” says Eloise. “It’s about the horror and the hope of trying to gain normalcy and joy in your life when you’ve lived through a level of misery and cruelty. We worked with a man who walked for 10 days to escape Iraq because he was terrified; with girls born on a sinking ship who spent

Children’s natural language is play – give them a task and they play out what’s on their minds 14 years on a military base, waiting for citizenship. But it’s not saying that this is what it’s only like because of those specifics; it’s completely relatable. I was a child who grew up in a home full of domestic violence, so I also know what that feels like – to endure that bizarre thing where it seems like you should be OK, but somehow everything is really wrong. That’s what I hope we’re doing here. We’re saying we’re all human, we all live through it, and rather than saying we don’t want refugees over here, can we begin to relate to their experiences why they might need kindness and some care right now.”

Kindness, care, empathy…. these guide Effervescent’s work and are at the heart of what they hope to provoke in audiences. Their 2018 show POI:SON, which explores the issue of hidden harm – the emotional, physical and neurobiological effects on children of growing up with parents with addiction issues – aimed to encourage people to see beyond the symptoms. During the devising process, they used binding shoes from China to help the participants explore ideas around how the body adapts to its confines. “The young people saw a lot of relevance with those shoes – this idea that you grow in response to your environment,” says Eloise. “One of the young men was in a constant state of pain, he felt everything was wrong with him. The scientific reality – known as epigenetics, and how trauma becomes encoded in your DNA – is that of course it’s not your fault; we turn into monsters because we’re brought up in a monstrous way.

We try to cope with that and reach out, but if people just analyse us and don’t give us the comfort we need, we’re left there.”

The result was an interactive performance piece that saw audience members playing the part of a trainee neurologist examining a child who’s suffered abuse at home, while listening to conflicting narratives from the child and a scientist relayed via wireless headphones.

The idea was to convey how just seeing and treating the outward behaviours leaves these young people desolate.

For frontline workers in health and social care, the experience of seeing the show was profound: “A lot of people who work in those fields said that this was the first time they really felt so much about this issue,” says Phil. “Scientific research is an important part of what we do, but the route in is always the lived experience of the people we work with. That guides us. From the big story to the personal, and back and forth.”

Sitting in the calm of Rumpus Cosy, it’s easy to understand that having a permanent space to occupy gives some much-needed stability to the young people they work with, some of whom end up working in the café, some returning as mentors to future participants.

“It’s an honest commitment in a safe space where they know they’re wanted and cared for,” says Eloise. “One of the women on The Cold Truth project said that she’d never had anyone be just interested in her ideas, or care for reasons other than they’re about to take her in a room and rape her. For some of these young people, we are the first adults they’ve encountered who don’t control them, and I think they begin to learn about trust. That’s why the gallery is important, the glass, the visibility… we’re the safe people they need to know are there. This is how we are at our best, and we love them being here.”

But the gallery isn’t just about creating a place of continuity, it was also about putting the children who create and curate at the top of the artistic food chain. “Young people curate much more honestly,” says Eloise. “They look at the work in front of them and ask if there’s merit in it. Does it speak to a broad audience, does it convey truth about what it means to be a person in all its guts and glory?

World-class artists are showing here alongside students in a show curated by 10-year-olds with fears about waiting to be rescued from the pressures of being a young carer, and never being sure it’ll happen. We’re very interested in the control that gives to young people.”

And that’s what Effervescent specialises in: making work that tackles difficult subjects, that allows others suffering similar experiences to feel less alone, that stands up against professional work, and which enables the young people involved to start thinking about themselves differently. As well as being ambitious for the young people they work with, Eloise and Phil give them the space and resources to be ambitious for themselves. What a gift.

HALF/LIFE is at Radiant Gallery until 17 November. eff.org.uk

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South West must sees...

Underground colour

19 October – 8 December at Amina-Mundi, Street-An-Pol, St Ives TR26 2DS. anima-mundi.co.uk

PHOTO: THOMAS JENKINS

Born in Zennor in Cornwall, Onya McCausland is all about minimalist paintings, murals, installation and land art, through which she shows how specific materials and processes can be used as a vehicle for interrogating changing economic and environmental conditions.

The new exhibition, ‘Landscapes’, examines new uses for waste materials found in ex-coal mining regions across the UK and has seen the artist collaborating with the Coal Authority and University College London to turn minewater ‘ochres’ into usable coloured pigment for paint. Her research repositions this ‘waste’ ochre as significant cultural material that can be used to change perceptions of post-industrial landscape sites. In 2014, between 4,000 and 5,000 tonnes of ochre were being sent to landfill because an economically viable use could not be found. By reusing this otherwise redundant material in her work, McCausland has demonstrated the uniqueness and cultural value of these colours and their landscape contexts.

STLBN 0616, ochre from minewater treatment scheme (discovered and collected by artist) in oil on canvas, 167cm x 137cm, 2017

Last chance!

A renowned potter, writer and teacher, Peter Lane has been working in ceramics for six decades, describing himself rather humbly as “basically a vessel-maker”. He has a particular interest in form and surface rather than simply in function, with much of his stimulus coming from his love of natural shapes and landscape. This exhibition reveals recent work that incorporates the use of brightly coloured ceramic stains on unglazed, polished porcelain, exploring qualities of light and colour as experienced in skies and on terra firma. In addition to the continuing influence of nature, some of his designs reflect his experience of modern architecture seen during his travels abroad.

Until 28 October at Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Riverside Mill, Bovey Tracey TQ13 9AF. crafts.org.uk

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In two parts ‘Luminous Ground’ is a mixed exhibition of two parts, examining the way memory can affect the artist’s observations. Luminous Ground (one) features recent works from Euan McGregor, Jennifer Pochinski and Sarah Spackman. Euan’s work shows his representations of local landscapes; Jennifer’s figurative art in thick brush strokes is dramatic and atmospheric, while Sarah’s still lifes and landscapes are delicately composed. Luminous Ground (two) comprises the work of three further artists: Jason Bowyer, Dana Finch and Kay Vinson, who all place drawing at the forefront of their differing approaches.

Luminous Ground (one), until 3 November; Luminous Ground (two), 13 November–8 December at Tregony Gallery, 58 Fore Street, Tregony, Cornwal TR2 5RW. tregonygallery.co.uk

Jennifer Pochinski, Family

Dawn to dusk Benjamin Warner, born in Cornwall in 1970, studied at Falmouth School of Art and Design. Upon graduation, he moved to London to begin a career in illustration. Since returning to Cornwall in 2004, Benjamin’s paintings have been regularly shown at the Lighthouse Gallery. In November, the gallery will exhibit a solo show of new Cornish paintings by Benjamin that are both timeless and contemporary in their surface, quality, texture and atmosphere. The panorama of West Cornwall is the inspiration for this upcoming collection.

3-17 November at Lighthouse Gallery, 53, Causewayhead, Penzance TR18 2SS. lighthouse-gallery.com

Benjamin Warner, Dawn Newlyn II

Four diverse talents White Space Art in Totnes has brought together four diverse talents from as far afield as Sweden, Wales, Dorset and Devon to complete a vibrant exhibition this autumn. Seasonal flowers, light-filled interiors and coastal views are all on display with each artist offering a different perspective, but together they form an uplifting, rich exhibition.

‘Still Life & Sea Views’ will feature work by Vanessa Bowman, John Button, Lynne Cartlidge and Mark Rochester.

From 13 October – 3 November 2018 at White Space Art, 72 Fore Street, Totnes TQ9 5RU. whitespaceart.com

Lynne Cartlidge, Aquilegia and Blue Patterned Plate

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Capturing the moor Anita Reynolds manages her artistic week by dividing her time between working on site from her campervan – where she mixes sketching, painting and printmaking – and developing ideas back in her studio on the southern edge of Dartmoor. Rapidly changing light and weather conditions require her to work quickly, forcing her to focus on the essential details, resulting in the excitement and vigorous marks that come out of an emotional response to the landscape. In the studio, memory and compositional processes come into play. ‘Dartmoor – 365 Square Miles’ features an installation, new paintings, prints and a series of mini postcard prints made on location, using the portable press in her campervan.

Until 27 October at Green Hill Arts, Greenhill House, 23 Fore St, Moretonhampstead TQ13 8LL. greenhillarts.co.uk Cold East Cross IV

Starman ‘A Space for Humans: The Moon on Earth’ is the culmination of a multi-year project exploring the heritage of US astronaut training in Iceland.

In his first solo exhibition in the UK, award-winning Matthew Broadhead will return to his North Devon roots to show 25 artworks that have been inspired by this project and the Icelandic landscape. Out of this world…

Until 17 November at White Moose Gallery, Moose Hall, Trinity Street, Barnstaple EX32 8HX. whitemoose.co.uk

Seltún Geothermal Area

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People like us

The team at RAMM restoring Gerald

‘Origins and Endings’ is the theme of this year’s national Being Human festival, which looks at how the humanities can inspire, enrich and bring meaning and understanding to our everyday lives. Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, in partnership with the Arts & Humanities Research Council and the British Academy, events are happening around the country. Once again, the University of Exeter is a regional hub, hosting events linked to ‘Journeys in Place and Time’. For history lovers, a free ‘Walking the Exeter Dead’ tour explores the city through stories of death, disease and disaster. Come and hear about witchcraft, skulduggery, a fatal duel and even a saint who carried off her own severed head (24 November, starting at Central Library). Foodies might have more of an appetite for ‘Protein Pressures’ at Exeter Cookery School (17 November), an interactive event on the archaeology, history and literary genres of meat consumption, while considering our changing attitudes and the consequences for humans, animals and the environment. And ‘Invasions! Extinctions!’

(18 November at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum and other venues) looks at how Britain’s animals reflect the island’s cultural history. When and why did dogs and cats get introduced whereas bears and wolves became extinct?

Sessions will be led by some of the country’s leading natural history experts in a rolling programme of activities, debates, storytelling and musical performance.

15-24 November at various venues around Exeter. See beinghumanfestival.org for full listings and how to book tickets.

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The Exhibition Space WHITE MOOSE

ART WORLD GALLERY

Trinity Street, Barnstaple, Devon EX32 8HX | 01271 379872 whitemoose.co.uk

62 Church Street | Falmouth TR11 3DS 01326 219323 artworldltd.com

A Space for Humans: The Moon on Earth Matthew Broadhead 19 October – 17 November 2018 This exhibition is the culmination of a multiyear photographic project exploring the heritage of US astronaut training in Iceland. In his first solo UK exhibition, Matthew will be showing artworks which have been inspired by this project and the landscape of Iceland.

Seltún Geothermal Area

by Matthew Broadhead

A Time Before, Joseph Capicotto 122 x 91cms, acrylic

NEW CRAFTSMAN GALLERY

WHITE SPACE ART

24 Fore Street , St. Ives TR26 1HE | 01736 795652 newcraftsmanstives.com From 20 October to 17 November, paintings by St Ives artist Colin Orchard, inspired by his favourite subjects of Venice, Suffolk and Cornwall as well as potent scenes of people in art gallery spaces, alongside a collection of new work by contemporary ceramicist Tanya Gomez.

Bailey’s Lane St Ives, Colin Orchard

72 Fore Street, Totnes TQ9 5RU | 01803 864088 | whitespaceart.com ‘Still Life and Sea Views’ Vanessa Bowman, John Button, Lynne Cartlidge & Mark Rochester 13 October - 4 November Primitive and impressionist paintings by four artists whose work oozes charm and warm, radiant colour.

Gallery member of the Own Art scheme. Buy art interest free over ten months.

Vanessa Bowman: Pink Dahlia and Seashell, oil, 30x25cm

ALCHEMY TILES

WAVE 7 GALLERY

Mel Chambers | 07768 193848 info@melchambers.com alchemytiles.com

Plain Street, Trelights, Port Isaac PL29 3TW | 01208 880605 wave7gallery.co.uk Wave 7 Gallery, located just outside the picturesque fishing village of Port Isaac, is a unique gallery exhibiting contemporary art and crafts in two buildings, the main gallery and the granary.

“Be like the trees in pursuit of your cause. Root deeply, reach out widely and sway with the winds of change.”

Currently exhibiting is Michael Moss whose breathtaking abstracted seascapes are widely exhibited throughout the UK.

Bringing ancient 13th Century inlay techniques into a modern day era Alchemy Tiles individually hand carves, rather than paints, inspiring images, quotes and poetry into beautiful bespoke and unique creations.

All held eternal in earth and time.

Be Like the Trees

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Stunning figurative paintings

by Joseph Capicotto; this artist paints with passion, wishing only to portray the ultimate beauty one can find in both landscapes and the human form.

Open 10:30 am to 5:00 pm Tuesday to Saturday Alan Stratford ,I think they call it a Squall, oil on canvas, 90 x 90cm

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HOST GALLERIES

MAYNE GALLERY

12 Whimple Street, Plymouth, PL1 2DH | 01752 241234 hostgalleries.co.uk

14 Fore Street, Kingsbridge, Devon TQ7 1NY | 01548 853848 maynegallery.co.uk Art’s ability to capture our feelings about time and place, in ways that go far beyond the literal depiction of moments, is part of the delight in exploring and discovering what the canvas conveys. The emotional connections felt that are revealed in the colours, textures and atmospheres enriching and enlightening our sense of who we are.

November Exhibition Sat 17 Nov - Sun 2 Dec ‘Meet the Artist’ Alison will be in the gallery to discuss her work with you on Saturday 17 November at 12 midday - 4.30pm Alison’s atmospheric oil paintings are vibrant and seductive and focal points for any space. By expressing the power of light playing amongst the water drops, this artist shows the abstract, surreal side to the natural world.

And a recent discovery to be found at Mayne Gallery - Alison Johnson – vividly showcases this painterly love of the wild, untamed aspects of nature and the raw humanity therein.

The Clash by Alison Johnson

Columbus Alison Johnson

THE SUMMERHOUSE GALLERY

TREGONY GALLERY

Market Place, Marazion, Cornwall TR17 0AR 01736 711 400 | summerhousegallery.co.uk

58 Fore Street, Tregony, Truro TR2 5RW | 01872 530505 tregonygallery.co.uk

The Summerhouse Gallery is a beautiful, welcoming space showcasing the very best of Cornish art. Located only a stone’s throw away from the wonderful St Michaels Mount, we aim to create the perfect place to discover beautiful artwork in a relaxed manner.

“The artist run Tregony Gallery… the outcome, as ever with this gallery, is something very far indeed from the ‘tourist tat’ that once used to pass for ‘art’ in many smaller Cornish galleries.”

Galleries Magazine

This Autumn sees new work in the gallery from Maggie O’Brien, Helen Jones and Flynn O’Reilly as well as our other much loved Summerhouse artists.

‘Luminous Ground (one)’ until 3 November ‘Luminous Ground (two)’ opens 13 November

Lone Tree, Maggie O’Brien

Jennifer Pochinski, Running Man, oil on panel, 50 x 40 cm.

LIGHTHOUSE GALLERY

PORTHILLY GALLERY & STUDIO

53, Causewayhead, Penzance TR18 2SS 01736 350555 | lighthouse-gallery.com

Rock, Wadebridge, Cornwall PL27 6JX 01208 863844 porthillygallery.co.uk

Penwith Nocturne A special collection of Cornish paintings by Benjamin Warner on show show at the Gallery from 3 November

Evening, St Michaels Mount

by Benjamin Warner

Porthilly Gallery & Studio of Jethro Jackson is a contemporary space for the exhibition of paintings, ceramics, studio pottery and sculpture by some of the UK’s finest artists and makers.

With a focus on art and objects inspired by the surrounding landscape, Porthilly Gallery is a creative gem in the heart of North Cornwall.

Terrain Jug, Paul Jackson, 2018

To advertise your gallery, exhibition, show or event here please email advertising@manormagazine.co.uk or call 07887 556447

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Worth making the trip for...

All Quiet 2018

Painting reality New York-based painter Sue Williams came to prominence in the 1980s for work that made no bones about her anger around gender inequality. In the 90s, she moved away from the figurative and began making large-scale abstract expressionist pieces. From afar, they looked like colourful, elegant and exuberant calligraphic lines. But up close, they revealed figures of genitalia, severed body parts and internal organs – the bleakness of her message about the mistreatment of women being concealed in the colourful compositions. ‘Sue Williams: New Paintings’ is her first solo exhibition in the UK in 20 years and it demonstrates the artist’s continued interest in exploring the fluid boundary between figuration and abstraction. As ever, gender roles and politics are alluded to while she also explores memory and personal experience. Her work is always playful, but she continues in her commitment to raising issues about what’s actually going on in the world.

Until 24 November at Skarstedt, 8 Bennet St, St James’s, London SW1A 1RP. skarstedt.com

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culture

Pride of place Based in London and Berlin, Jesse Darling refuses to be limited by definitions of either a work or personal nature. She creates art that takes in sculpture, installation, text, sound and performance, described as being a practice “concerned with the vulnerability of the human body within the socio-political structures we live in and the strategies for dwelling and surviving that help us carry on”. ‘Jesse Darling: The Ballad of Saint Jerome’ revisits the legend of St Jerome and the Lion, invoking an ambivalent love story charged with new meanings.

Until 24 February at Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. Free. tate.org.uk

PHOTO: COURTESY ARCADIA MISSA © JESSE DARLING 2018

Jesse Darling (b.1981). Lion in wait for Jerome and his medical kit, detail 2018. Paint pen on packing paper, gold leaf, parcel tape 730 x 1100 mm

PHOTO: DAYLIGHT PHOTO FRANCIS UPRITCHARD, COURTESY KATE MACGARRY, LONDON

Francis Upritchard, installation view of A Long Wait, 2012, Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati

Sculptural innovation Known for her depictions of archetypal figures ranging from medieval knights to meditating hippies (all handmodelled from polymer clay), New Zealand-born artist Francis Upritchard has more recently been experimenting with form and material. For ‘Francis Upritchard: Wetwang Slack’ – and to mark the Barbican’s 30th Curve commission – she has created a new, site-specific installation, using a spectrum of materials (including glass, bronze and textiles), vibrant figures and eclectic objects. Drawing from both figurative sculpture and craft traditions including ceramics, glassblowing and enamelling, she pushes these practices in new directions, bringing them together to create a striking and original visual language of her own.

Until 6 January at The Curve, Barbican Centre, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS. barbican.org.uk

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The fabric of art As a female student at the radical Bauhaus art school, Anni Albers was discouraged from taking up certain classes. She enrolled in the weaving workshop and made textiles her key form of expression, being inspired by her artist contemporaries – among them her teacher, Paul Klee, and her husband, Josef Albers. A long overdue recognition of Albers’s pivotal contribution to modern art and design, this is the first major exhibition of her work in the UK and it illuminates her creative process and her engagement with art, architecture and design. Alongside more than 350 objects, from small-scale ‘pictorial weavings’ to large wall hangings and the textiles she designed for mass production, there is an exploration of Albers’s influential 1965 publication On Weaving and the wide source material she gathered to create the book.

11 October – 27 January at Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. £18 (£17). tate.org.uk

Study for an Unexecuted Wall Hanging, 1926.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Constant Dullaart, PVA Formation (mirror_ fields), 2017

Picture me this Traditionally, photography has played a unique role in documenting the world. Now, in a time when digital images multiply and accelerate online with unparalleled speed, the cultural responsibility of understanding an individual photograph is being usurped by the industrial challenge of processing millions of pictures. ‘All I Know Is What’s On The Internet’ considers the changing status of photography, as well as the role and agency of the photographer within this new context, and asks what new forms of economic value and media illiteracy arise from the endless recirculation of content. Participating artists – including Constant Dullaart, Stephanie Kneissl & Max Lackner, Franco & Eva Mattes, Sebastian Schmieg & Silvio Lorusso, and Andrew Norman Wilson – draw attention to the neglected corners of the photography and global image economy, making visible the scale of human labour required to support it. Their ‘interrogations’ draw on the experiences of content moderators, Google Street View photographers and the global workforce employed by Amazon Mechanical Turk to describe images for machine vision algorithms.

26 October – 24 February at The Photographers’ Gallery, 16-18 Ramillies St, London W1F 7LW. thephotographersgallery.org.uk

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culture Worth staying in for...

Buying time After giving us all the fear of dark water, unnoticed undercurrents and all things slithery, Sarah Perry has turned her attention to Charles Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer. This forgotten Gothic masterpiece tells the story of a scholar who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for 150 extra years of life, then searches the world for someone who will take over the pact for him. Perry’s Melmoth begins in the present day, then takes its ensemble cast of characters on a journey through time, with Perry once again displaying her dazzling narrative invention and her ability to conjure eras long spent with beautiful precision. Both terrifying and fantastically gripping, Melmoth will make readers think deeply about the human capacity for good and evil and how often the two are intertwined. Perfect for those autumnal nights in…

Melmoth is published by Serpent’s Tail.

Whatever walked there, walked alone Shirley Jackson wrote unnerving novels: stories that resonate beyond their pages and their era. She’s probably most famous for the short tale The Lottery (1948), in which a small town’s annual event is revealed as… well, I won’t spoil it for you – seek it out and feel the unease creep through your veins. But one of her most celebrated, and filmed, is The Haunting of Hill House (1959), which tells the story of an unlikely group of individuals brought together to chart the apparent paranormal occurrences at an isolated mansion. The house itself is a collection of disconcerting angles and confusing geometry, as if its very foundations cause it to heave off-kilter. And that’s before it starts to call out to its various visitors, not least Eleanor, a woman whose limited life experiences make her the perfect foil for the house’s specific longings… So there are high hopes for Netflix’s new interpretation, which updates the story to focus on five siblings who grew up in the house. Now adults, they’re reunited by the suicide of their youngest sister, which forces them to finally confront the ghosts of their own pasts.

Fix yourself a hot chocolate, curl up in a cosy chair, and prepare to sleep not a wink afterwards.

The Haunting of Hill House is streaming on Netflix now.

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Rich colour combined with classic lines, this issue’s Style Shoot mixes tradition with vibrancy against a red autumnal backdrop, to deliver an element of quirk.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY REMY WHITING STYLED BY MIMI STOTT MAKE-UP: FIONA MILLER HAIR: JO AT YOKE SALON MODEL: CARMEN DE PONS FROM SELECT MANOR | Autumn 2018

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Pink wave pleats top Issey Miyake, £340; grey wool trousers, Issey Miyake, £780

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Pink wave pleats top, Issey Miyake, £340; pink chromatic eagle jacket, Issey Miyake, £2,150

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Velvet blazer, DAKS, £700; polo top, DAKS, £150; skirt, Marks and Spencer, £35; boots, Zara, £119

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Polo top, DAKS, £150; skirt, DAKS, £400; boots, Zara, £119

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Marther blouse, Ted Baker, £149; trousers, Marks and Spencer, £39.50; boots, Zara, £119

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Jumpsuit, Zara, £49.99; boots, Zara, £199; gloves, stylist’s own

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Food Michael Wignall | Stable Yard Bakery| Elly Wentworth Recipes from The Beer Kitchen | Signature Dish | The Table Prowler

PHOTO: PATRICIA NIVEN

Proper Scotch Eggs. See page 94 for the recipe, taken from The Beer Kitchen by Melissa Cole

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PHOTO: JEAN CAZALS

Food by Michael Wignall, ceramics by Sarah Jerath

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food

Michelin-starred chef Michael Wignall explores how beautifully handcrafted serveware in wood, ceramics, glass and metal impacts the visually artistic wow factor of dishes of food. Words by Anna Turns.

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PHOTO: DAVID GRIFFIN

Michael Wignall

ome dishes of food are true works of art, but how much does serveware contribute to aesthetics? The colour, texture, shape of the cutlery, crockery, tableware, even the chair you sit on, all contribute to any fine dining experience. Two Michelin-starred chef Michael Wignall, formerly of Gidleigh Park, explores these ideas in his exhibition, ‘Plate Up’, at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen.

Here he showcases some of the finest examples by artisans who use contemporary craft to present food.

Their work echoes Michael’s own food philosophy, from sourcing the best ingredients and materials to using technical skills and authentic craftsmanship. “‘Plate Up’ is totally new – it’s a very diverse project and something I believe in strongly,” says Michael. “We can’t produce lovely plates of food without these crafts – they make our restaurants amazing places.”

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Hand-crafted woodenspoons by Marie Eklund

PHOTO: JEAN CAZALS

Food by Michael Wignall, ceramics by Sarah Jerath

“It’s so important as a chef that I reflect my own personality through the food and also through what I am serving it on – it’s about the whole guest experience.”

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No. 8 dining chair by Anna Sibast

exhibition. “I source ingredients from food producers and I also do the same for the tableware, the crockery and glassware I serve it with. It’s so important as a chef that I reflect my own personality through the food and also through what I am serving it on – it’s about the whole guest experience,” says Michael, who previously worked closely with the Devon Guild of Craftsmen to showcase pieces he particularly loved in the restaurant at Gidleigh Park. “Each artist has been selected for a reason, from the silverware to the wooden spoons – I love a certain element of all of them,” says Michael, who for a long time has admired the handcrafted wooden chairs and tables made in Denmark by Sibast Furniture. “This furniture is so beautiful and elegant and Scandinavianly precise as well.”

Interestingly, the inspiration works both ways. “I might start with a dish and think about the sort of crockery that might fit with it but it sometimes works in reverse and I might see an amazing ceramic and wonder what dish I could create to match it, depending on its colour, shape and texture,” says Michael, who over the

food

PHOTO: GRACE ELIZABETH

Whinblossom Ceramics by Chloé Rosetta Bell

years has commissioned many ceramicists and woodwork craftsmen to create bespoke pieces. He loves the oneoff handmade bowls made from foraged clay using traditional techniques just as much as he loves using the elegant fine bone China plates produced by bigger companies such as Limoges. “The combination of the two really works,” he says, and the mood of the season is another factor to consider. Just as with ingredients, the style moves with the seasons: “Spring and summer ceramics need to be lighter and vibrant like the food.

Winter feels warmer, rustic and heavier,” says Michael whose interest in visual arts began at a young age. “Art and drawing were my strongest subjects at school and I have always shown a great interest in art. I want my food to show a uniqueness and I want my personality to shine through and hopefully people like that. There’s no point in being the same as everyone else.” And this instinct for artistic experimentation is perhaps what makes his food so special.

The exhibition is structured into five elements (fire, earth, metal, water and wood) and is based around functional pieces that would be used in a restaurant, from individual handwoven leaf platters made by basket maker Hilary Burns to a pair of ash tongs crafted by Ashburton’s Ambrose Vevers. “All these makers are excited because nothing has been done like this before. We all appreciate and admire each other’s work – sometimes from afar until now; it is amazing how many people there are creating

amazing things that we hadn’t heard of before. You just don’t realise how much hard work and training goes into everything. Some of them are naturally brilliant and others have trained ever so hard to perfect their techniques. Some are relatively unheard of and others are world-renowned,” comments Michael on the 20 or so artists, some of whom are making things on such a small scale that they become niche by the very nature of their craft. Just as a smallholder wouldn’t be able to supply a huge restaurant chain with asparagus, these artisans wouldn’t be able to make these items on a mass scale and probably wouldn’t want to anyway.

“As a chef who appreciates nice things, the first thing I’d do once I have eaten a dish and enjoyed the look of something is turn the plate over and look at the markings and find out where we could get some from. A lot of these makers are very small businesses and they need shouting about and need supporting. If I see a maker that I love the style of, we would collaborate with them and commission bespoke designs so that we’d be the only restaurant who would have that – the problem then is that when a plate breaks, we struggle to replicate them!

Nothing is in a mould, it is all so different and unique.

That’s the beauty of it.”

‘Plate Up’ exhibition runs until 4 November at Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Riverside Mill, Bovey Tracey, Devon TQ13 9AF. crafts.org.uk

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Take a passion for baking, ingredients with provenance, and an enchanting Dartmoor setting. Add in some serendipity, joie de vivre and community spirit.

Kate MacLeod gets a taste of Stable Yard Bakery.

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Zsa Zsa Shea and Julia Cotts

P

icture the scene: another busy weekend afternoon in Exeter’s Wagamama and among the cacophony of customers talking loudly, slurping ramen and trying to negotiate noodles with chopsticks is a mother sat quietly, anxiously, tending to a bundle concealed under her cardigan. The bundle is not, as you might assume, a suckling newborn, but something far more testing and unpredictable; it is sourdough starter culture in a bowl and it has her full, furrowed-brow concentration as she gently stirs it, while her ‘other’ children flick noodles at each other and try desperately to attract her attention.

This was summer 2018. Rewind to June 2016 and said mother, Julia Cotts, had walked into a café in Chagford on Dartmoor looking for a snack for her children and inadvertently set the ball rolling that would lead to a highly productive artisan bakery at the heart of a highly appreciative Devon community.

That day in 2016, Julia had asked the young woman behind the counter what sort of flour the apple cake was made with. The woman’s name was Zsa Zsa Shea. After 20 minutes discussing the differences between buckwheat and spelt flour, Julia remembered her kids were in the car and left. But a friendship was born, which became a business partnership, which a year later became Stable Yard Bakery. Now, every Friday at the Chagford Flea Market, Stable Yard Bakery sells more than a hundred loaves of sourdough bread alongside a cornucopia of cookies, galettes, cakes and gigantic cinnamon buns.

Zsa Zsa had recently come back to Chagford where she was raised, after attending art school in London.

She returned eager to play her part in the community and threw what little money she had into turning a derelict stable close to the village centre into a bakery.

She quickly realised that her savings weren’t going to be nearly enough to build the bakery of her dreams and that, frankly, it would be more fun doing it with someone rather than alone. Enter Julia (quite literally, looking for that snack), who’d recently moved to Devon with her young family from California, where she’d worked as a private chef. The Stable Yard Bakery was exactly the sort of project she was looking for.

“When I landed here,” Julia says, “what would become the bakery was a bare-walled, 15 square metre box without electricity or plumbing, let alone a single bread tin, but Zsa Zsa had magicked up the most beautiful and enormous Belfast sink, ten metres of granite countertops, hand-painted tiles and various other bits and bobs. She’d then run out of money to install it. I offered to help her raise the money.”

In a month the pair managed to raise £15,000 from the local community by offering people a loaf of bread a week for the next five years. “People were so incredibly generous,” says Zsa Zsa, “they didn’t just want to help us – they really wanted to help the community.” The bakery started trading three months later.

We’re basically two women in a tiny room trying to knock out the best products that we can. It’s amazing to find that we can sell pretty much everything that we bake.

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It wasn’t just money that got them there. A seemingly endless stream of people showed up offering their time, talents and support. “We found the build phase quite an emotional process,” says Zsa Zsa. “We couldn’t believe how much people were willing to help make our dream a reality. Handmade aprons, a reconditioned 1948 mixer that had never left the village, all manner of tools and supplies, people volunteering their time to help in any capacity needed, not to mention an endlessly supportive and visionary landlady. The one piece of equipment we couldn’t do without was a shaping bench. Our good friend and incredible furniture maker Joe Delfont built us a beautiful bespoke workbench that really is the centre of the bakery; it will last forever and brings us so much joy on a daily basis.”

Their vision has been a huge success. On a good day they sell out in a couple of hours at the Friday flea market. “It’s been really gratifying,” Julia admits. “We’re basically two women in a tiny room trying to knock out the best products that we can. It’s amazing to find that 90

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we can sell pretty much everything that we bake. It’s now really just a question of what, and how much, do we want to bake.”

She’s right. The bakery is tiny, the size of a stable, with a postage stamp-sized window at one end looking out over a beautiful walled garden, two ovens, and Joe’s workbench. Julia and Zsa Zsa are perched at a couple of stools by the workbench, drinking coffee.

How does it work? “At the beginning of every week we sit down and write our menu,” Julia explains.

“This can include conversations about friends who’ve offered produce, how long it’s going to take to prepare the vegetables and ultimately what we feel like eating ourselves! There are certain things that are always at the market: the village loaf (our staple sourdough), spelt loaves, cinnamon buns, American-style cookies and some kind of cake.”

Stable Yard Bakery cakes are not, though, your average cakes. “Generally speaking, I don’t like cakes,” reveals Zsa Zsa. “They’re too sweet and often eating a piece of fruit

food

is more satisfying. A cake has to enhance the collection of ingredients that are going into it. For example, it’s apple season and an apple cake has to bring a wonderful autumnal sat-by-the-fire feeling to the taste of apples – otherwise just eat an apple, right? The ingredients in our cakes are of a quality that hopefully ensures that eating cake feels worth it, and special.”

Zsa Zsa adds: “We don’t advertise. We just let everyone know what we’re doing and post it on Chagford Hub, the local Facebook page. People then place their orders in the comments section. It couldn’t be simpler.”

“We have an Instagram feed,” says Julia, “actually Zsa Zsa does most of the work, and people order that way, too. Just don’t expect picture-perfect shots of the two of us dressed in vintage dresses dusting perfectly-formed

tarts with icing sugar. You’re far more likely to find Zsa Zsa shaping baguettes in a nightdress at five in the morning because her clothes haven’t dried in time.”

It all sounds so perfect. Do things ever go wrong?

“Oh, all the time!’ exclaims Zsa Zsa delightedly. “Most of the time the problem is with the starter. The starter’s a sort of third business partner.”

“She means it’s like our three-year-old child,” says Julia with a look that tells you she knows what she’s talking about. “Maybe a bit quieter, but just as moody, and each parent constantly wants to make it the responsibility of the other.”

“Julia’s already killed three starters,” adds Zsa Zsa. “If it had a phone, it would have called social services long ago. You often find yourself carrying it around with you to make sure it gets fed at the right time.” Hence the need to take it to Wagamama. “She had to feed it halfway through the noodles, but it turned out the starter didn’t like the excursion. The next day the dough didn’t rise and we had to give 100 loaves to the pigs.”

“The pigs thought they were delicious though”, says Julia.

If you get the impression that they don’t take it seriously, you’d be half right. “You can’t take it too seriously, can you?” Julia says. ‘What would be the point? Where would be the fun? But there’s lots of things we take very seriously indeed. We’re very serious about the quality of ingredients that we use and where they’ve come from. We only ever use grains that have been grown organically and sustainably. People have become used to spending so little on food, but the hidden costs of that – both human and environmental – are huge.”

Zsa Zsa agrees: “We can’t solve the world’s problems, but we can make sure we’re not part of them. We’ve a pretty clear idea of what we want to do in the future, namely to connect what we do with what others in the community are doing, so we help each other to do stuff for everyone else. For instance, we’ve teamed up with a wonderful local florist, Joanna Game, who grows the most beautiful flowers right behind the bakery. We always use her flowers to decorate our cakes and sell them at our stall.”

What else is ahead? “We want to do lots of things,” says Zsa Zsa. “We’d like to bring more people on board so we can bake more on more days. And we’re working away on a dream project involving growing a therapeutic garden in the walled garden producing the most delicious selection of fruit and herbs you can imagine. But before then, we’ve got Christmas! We’re already taking orders!”

To place orders or commission cakes email info@stableyardbakery.co.uk or visit stableyardbakery.co.uk

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Anna Turns meets a rising star on the Dartmouth restaurant scene – new head chef Elly Wentworth.

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t’s the start of a new era at The Angel on Dartmouth’s embankment with the arrival of ambitious head chef Elly Wentworth. Over the years, this restaurant has been key in shaping the careers of many female chefs.

Joyce Molyneux first opened The Carved Angel in Dartmouth in 1974 and she nurtured up-and-coming female chefs including the likes of Jane Baxter. Joyce, now in her 80s, was always an innovator. For example, she was one of the first to set up an ‘open’ kitchen, something The Angel has reinstated as a nod to her legacy. She was also one of the first British women to ever be awarded a Michelin star in the 1970s and was a judge on the first series of BBC MasterChef.

Since those heydays, the restaurant has been through many forms, none quite so successful as with Joyce, but now there’s another woman at the helm. At just 26 years old, Dorset-born Elly is taking on her first head chef role and she’s got all the ingredients for success. In 2016, she was a finalist on BBC MasterChef: The Professionals and has since been mentored by the highly-esteemed Monica Galetti. Plus, she has spent many years working hard in various Michelin-starred kitchens, from The Elephant in Torquay to the luxury hotel Lucknam Park near Bath.

“As well as creating food that showcases brilliant local ingredients, The Angel is about remembering Joyce as a head chef – she had this place for 20 years and became one of the most well-known chefs in the country. Being female, that’s even more special,” says Elly. “We want to get this restaurant back to what it was when she ran it. Joyce was quite pioneering and, as a chef, she is an inspiration to everyone. She is a legend.”

Elly certainly wants to put her own stamp on the menu, and having always visited Dartmouth as a child, she feels that it’s quite special to come back here to work.

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River Dart back up to the moors. “My cooking is simple, but I want to show off the best flavours using modern techniques. Every plate has a story to tell and most things come from within walking distance – we can walk to get fish from Mark Lobb or he phones us when he’s at Brixham fish market. And we use the butcher down the road and buy native Devon breeds of lamb direct from The Dartmoor Shepherd or pork from Kitley Estate.”

And nothing is wasted – the fleeces from the Devon longwools are even used on the bar stools!

Elly heads up a team of six in the kitchen, which includes three other women – one from the Michael Caines Academy and two from Dartmouth College.

“These female chefs are hidden gems – you won’t see many top ones. We want to start introducing women

food

Yuzu cream; burnt coconut merguine, mandarin and coconut sorbet

when they are young to this part of the industry…this is where they learn the most and develop,” says Elly who is intent on nurturing more female culinary rising stars here at The Angel, just as Joyce did.

Elly didn’t study cooking at school; she was more focused on sport and business studies. “My first job was in a pasty shop and then when I was 14 I got a job as a pot washer at Tanners in Plymouth, so I was watching people cook in the kitchen and that’s what intrigued me.

I loved tasting things and learning,” she says. “You’ll learn so much more in a kitchen working alongside any capable chef, it doesn’t matter what accolades they have; that’s what develops chefs the most.” She agrees that it’s harder for women to progress in the kitchen as it’s such a male-dominated industry. But for Elly, there’s no stopping her: “If you really want to achieve something you’ll do it no matter what. You just need to put your head down, listen and work hard,” says Elly, whose college teacher at Coombe Dean secondary school in Plymouth, David Beasley, used to work alongside Joyce.

“Every guest is a VIP no matter who they are. We need to be consistent and treat everyone the same,” she continues, obviously proud of her achievements so far and relishing this next opportunity. “This is my first ever open kitchen, and I want to see the customers, watch them eating and interacting. Because I can see front of house, it flows better, and customers sometimes come up to us and say thank you, and we can all see the estuary view, too, which is amazing.”

Fillet of beef, broccoli textures; spring onion and truffle

So, how about those dreaded invention tests? “It’s all about being creative when you’re put on the spot and I like that. As a chef, that happens all the time, it’s a constant learning process.” Her ethos ultimately comes down to keeping her whole team motivated and challenged: “Happy chefs means happy food and happy customers.” theangeldartmouth.co.uk

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Melissa Cole is an award-winning writer who has spent almost two decades writing about the beer and pub industry. The Beer Kitchen combines her two greatest passions in life – beer and food. Here we’ve selected a handful of delicious recipes from the book that show beer’s versatility as both delectable ingredient and perfect mealtime accompaniment. Cheers to that!

Proper Scotch Eggs Serves two

Somewhere between a snack and a meal in itself when you cut into a well-made Scotch egg and the yolk makes a lazy bid for escape, it’s a source of instant salivation. You can absolutely mess about with this recipe. Don’t like black pudding? No problems, substitute it with extra sausage meat.

INGREDIENTS

• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

3 medium eggs, at room temperature ½ medium onion, very finely chopped 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper ½ tsp chilli flakes, crushed ½ tbsp very finely chopped sage leaves ½ tbsp each of very finely chopped thyme, parsley and mint leaves Small knob of unsalted butter 1 litre groundnut, grapeseed or other neutral oil, plus extra for greasing 50g black pudding, at room temperature, finely chopped 100g sausage meat (breakfast sausage), at room temperature 100ml traditional bitter (you may not need all of it) 2 tbsp milk 50g plain flour 100g panko breadcrumbs

COOK WITH Black Sheep Bitter – UK Kereru Brewing Silverstream – New Zealand Goose Island Honkers – USA Timothy Taylor’s Landlord – UK Magic Hat Barroom Hero – USA PAIR WITH West Berkshire Good Old Boy – UK Alaskan Amber – USA Firestone Walker DBA – USA Deschutes Bachelor ESB – USA Tsai’s Bitter – Taiwan METHOD

Put a saucepan of salted water on to boil. Fill a large bowl with cold water. Put the ice cubes in it.

Place two of the eggs in the boiling water for four and a half minutes, remove with a slotted spoon and put straight into the iced water.

Gently fry the onion, pepper, chilli and herbs in the butter over a low heat for about 8 minutes until the onion is softened.

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Place the onion and herb mixture in a bowl lined with paper towels and put in the freezer to cool for 10 minutes.

Take the onion and herb mix out of the freezer and remove the paper towels. Rub your hands with a little oil and squidge the black pudding and sausage meat together (it’s joyously mucky this bit!) with the onion mix, slowly add the beer a splash at a time, making sure you don’t make it too sloppy a paste and that there are still small chunks of whole black pudding. Pop the bowl into the freezer for 20 minutes to infuse and become firmer. Peel the chilled boiled eggs carefully. (The simplest way to peel a boiled egg is to firmly rap the more pointed end of the egg on a hard surface. There’s an air bubble in there that will help lift the shell and membrane away from the white and make it easier to peel.)

Whisk together the remaining egg and the milk and pour into a medium-sized shallow dish. Put the flour and breadcrumbs on two separate plates. Take a 30 cm piece of cling film, oil it lightly, then place half the meat mixture on it. Lightly flour one of the carefully peeled eggs and place it in the centre of the meat then, using the cling film, very gently mould the mixture around the egg, twisting the cling film closed once you’re done. Repeat with the other egg. Place in the freezer for 10 minutes to firm up. Heat the oil in a large pan or deep-fat fryer to 170°C (340°F). Remove the eggs from the freezer, unwrap and roll in the flour, then the egg and milk mixture and then the breadcrumbs, using one hand for wet and one hand for dry. Repeat at least once on both eggs. Using a slotted spoon, carefully lower the eggs gently into the hot oil and fry for about 8 minutes, turning occasionally, until golden brown and the internal temperature of the meat is 69°C (156°F).

This is a couple of degrees below the safe temperature, but the eggs will continue to cook after you remove it.

Be careful not to probe too deep with the thermometer and pierce your egg!

Place the Scotch eggs on paper towels to drain and allow to cool slightly. To serve, cut in half and serve with your sauce of choice.

food Magnificent Malt Loaf Makes a 900g loaf I love malt loaf. It’s something that was a feature of my childhood because either my mum had made it or because my friends’ mums had or it was from a yellow packet – whichever way it came, it was always handed to me toasted and with lashings of salted butter on it.

My heart doesn’t want to give you a beer pairing for this, because I think it should be enjoyed for the innocent treat it is so, just like fish and chips and any form of breakfast, I’m not going to directly suggest a pairing, I’m just going to mention that the mild you cooked it with wouldn’t be terrible on the side.”

INGREDIENTS

• 75ml strong, cold black tea • 75ml mild beer (just to be clear here, mild refers to the type of beer not the flavour) plus 25ml to finish • 150g raisins • 150g dried prunes chopped into raisin-sized chunks • Unsalted butter, for greasing • 175g malt extract, plus 4 tbsp extra for finishing • 85g dark muscovado sugar (this is a must, do not substitute) • 2 large eggs, beaten • 100g wholemeal flour • 150g plain or spelt flour • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) • 2½ tsp baking powder COOK WITH Hillside Over the Hill Mild – UK Rudgate Ruby Mild – UK NOLA Brown Ale – USA Moorhouse’s Black Cat – UK Tooheys Old – Australia METHOD

In a saucepan, gently heat the tea and mild until bubbles just start to break the surface. Add the dried fruit, remove the pan from the heat and leave to stand for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F), making sure the shelf is in the middle. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin or baking dish with an oversized piece of lightly dampened and scrunched baking parchment.

Stir the malt extract and sugar into the beer and fruit mixture until the sugar is fully dissolved. Still stirring, add the beaten eggs.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flours, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder. Add the liquid

ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring vigorously until well blended, then leave to stand for 15 minutes. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. It’s likely to look a bit collapsed, but don’t worry, it’s part of the character.

Take the loaf out of the oven and leave to cool in its pan on a wire cooling rack. Leave for 10 minutes. While the cake is still cooling, warm the finishing malt extract and extra malt together in a saucepan over a low heat.

Don’t allow it to boil. Remove from the heat. Poke holes into your loaf with a skewer and brush the cake liberally with the malt and beer mix, allowing each application to seep into the holes. Leave to cool. Lift the cake out of the tin, still in its baking parchment, wrap it in more baking parchment and then tightly in cling film.

If you can manage it, leave in a cool, dark place for at least 3 days, before enjoying.

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food Lamb Boulangère Serves six to eight This is one of my go-to lazy Sunday roast recipes. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not renowned for my patience and normally for a dish like this you’d be exhorted to poke little holes in the lamb skin and stick anchovies, herbs and slivers of garlic in them – but it’s such a lot of fuss, so I’ve devised a simpler and, pleasingly, more efficient way to infuse these flavours into your meat.

Two quick notes on this: firstly, buy a cheap mandoline – it’s an invaluable kitchen tool, but always use the guard. Don’t argue with me!

Cutting yourself on a mandoline blade is a sickening feeling that you’ll never forget – trust me. Second, you will need a BIG roasting dish and some turkey foil or a large roasting tray (pan) with a lid.”

INGREDIENTS

• 2.25–2.5kg bone-in lamb shoulder • 4 tbsp anchovy paste (if you can’t find the paste, pound 20-30 preserved anchovies to a paste in a pestle and mortar) • 10 large sprigs of lemon or ordinary thyme, leaves picked and finely chopped • 1.5kg waxy potatoes • 2 red onions • 1 large garlic bulb, cloves lightly crushed • 2 tsp fine sea salt • 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper • 330ml spruce or pine beer • 500ml chicken or lamb stock (or however much will fit, reserve the rest) For the gravy

• 1 tbsp cornflour • 1 tbsp dark soy sauce • 1 tbsp red miso paste COOK WITH Williams Bros. Alba – UK Finlandia Sahti – Finland Pihtla Beer – Estonia Pinta Koniec Šwiata – Poland Rogue Yellow Snow Pilsner – USA PAIR WITH Tripel Karmeliet – Belgium Unibroue La Fin du Monde – Canada Westmalle Tripel – Belgium Wäls Trippel – Brazil St Austell Bad Habit – UK METHOD

Preheat the oven to 140°C (275°F). Turn the lamb shoulder skin side down and make three centimetre deep incisions to create a large diamond grid pattern in the flesh. Take the anchovy paste and a tablespoon of the thyme leaves, mix them together and rub them into the incisions. Set aside.

Into the base of the roasting tray, slice two-thirds of the potatoes and all the onions, evenly scatter over the garlic cloves and the remaining thyme leaves, season with half the salt and the pepper. Mix together with your hands, breaking the onions up into rings as you go.

Roughly smooth out the top of the potato mixture, add the beer and the chicken or lamb stock, then, with the remaining potatoes, make two neat overlapping rings, one inside the other on the top around the outside. Put the lamb shoulder, flesh side down, in the middle of the potatoes and very lightly score the top in a smaller diamond grid pattern, literally just scratching the surface with the knife. Season with the remaining salt and pepper.

Put the lid/foil on and pop in the oven for 30 minutes. Turn the heat down to 120°C (250°F) and cook for five to six hours. When the lamb is ready, you will be able to pull the shoulder bone out with little or no resistance. At that point, lift the lamb out very carefully and place on a large plate, cover with kitchen foil and pop back in the oven. Carefully pour off any excess roasting juices from the potatoes (it’s helpful to have an extra pair of hands for this if you can) into a large saucepan. Turn the oven up to 200°C (400°F) take the lamb out and put the potatoes back in. Leave the lamb somewhere warmish to rest.

To make the gravy, mix the cornflour, soy and miso in a small bowl, add a ladle of the cooking juices and whisk together with a fork. Add this mixture to any juices in the saucepan and allow to bubble gently over a low heat and reduce to your desired gravy consistency.

When the potatoes are browned, turn the oven off, crack open the door slightly, and return the lamb to the middle of the dish. Put your serving plates in to warm.

Cook whatever vegetables you require and bring everything to the table to serve.

Spruce, juniper and pine beers can often be seasonal, so feel free to substitute a tripel, gently heated for a few minutes with some rosemary or pine/spruce tips and left to stand for 10 minutes.

Recipes taken from The Beer Kitchen by Melissa Cole, published by Hardie Grant, £20.

Available from 18 October. Photography by Patricia Niven.

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Artisan aperitifs A new bottle shop and tasting lounge has just opened in the historic port of Charlestown on the south coast of Cornwall. The Winestore, run by the Pollocks Pub Company, offers an impressive selection of wines supplied by small artisan producers from around the world. Located next to The Longstore, the company’s award-winning flagship restaurant, The Winestore is the perfect venue for diners to enjoy an aperitif and for enthusiasts to hone their palates by sampling the evolving wine list.

“The Winestore continues Pollocks’ ethos of exceptional quality and service. It’s about making wines more accessible to people by creating a relaxed and informal environment where they feel comfortable trying varieties they’ve never tasted before, and learning more about them in the process,” said the co-director, Mel Marquis. “We’ve recruited a very experienced team and have started hosting wine tasting events and ‘meet the winemaker’ sessions, where both novices and enthusiasts can sample wines and learn more about the regions where they’re produced.” The Winestore also serves artisan cheeses and charcuterie boards, individually chosen to complement specific wines and wine flights.

8 November: Join Knightor Winery’s winemaker to taste a range of wines, nibbles included. 7-9pm. £20pp. To book your place, email hello@thewinestorecharlestown.co.uk or call 01726 61777. 15 November: Beaujolais Nouveau Party from 6pm. Serving Beaujolais nouveau by the glass, along with cheese from the region, to celebrate the release of the new wine. Just turn up.

The Winestore, Charlestown, Cornwall PL25 3NJ.

Harry’s makeover

PHOTO: MATT AUSTIN

Harry’s Restaurant in Exeter has reopened after a grand refurbishment, a quarter of a century after it first opened in a gothic-style building on Longbrook Street. Chef proprietor Samantha Pounds says: “This year marks the 25th year Harry’s has been open so, we thought, what better way of marking the occasion and celebrating than to pour some love into the old building. Last year, we welcomed more than 34,000 people through our doors, which can take its toll on any establishment. It has served us so well for the last 25 years that by investing in a well thought out refurbishment we’ll be able to offer our guests an even better experience when they visit.”

The new interior design of Harry’s includes features such as curated historical images of Exeter, a new bar area and comfortable banquette seating.

Inspired by the beauty of the building, space and architecture, marble, wood and brick features add a contemporary and timeless feel to the inside. harrysrestaurants.co.uk

Fresh new Cornish sardines?

Ben Palmer, chef patron at the Greedy Goose in Plymouth, has opened a new restaurant in his hometown, Looe. The Sardine Factory overlooks the pretty Cornish harbour with a menu reflecting the ethos of Looe and a passion for local seasonal produce, with an abundance of sustainable fish dishes. thesardinefactorylooe.com

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Cuppa chai?

Little’s have launched Chocolate Chai and Gingerbread Cookie flavours of instant coffee (50g, £2.99). Made using quality Arabica coffee and infused with natural ingredients, the Chocolate Chai contains cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and cloves with a hint of cocoa and it’s delicious with a little warm whole milk to make a comforting chai latte. And for a hit of sweetness, try Gingerbread Cookie coffee infused with warming ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and dark molasses. As recalled by Will Little growing up in Finland, the scent of Nordic gingerbread cookies, or ‘Piparkakku’, meant the arrival of the festive season. Add a spoonful of brown sugar to bring out the natural sweetness. wearelittles.com

Cooking up a storm Anicca O’Nions and her husband Dom have created a new business, Thunderflower, to bring to the market two products that they have been lovingly creating themselves.

For years, Anicca has been making a delicious granola for her family: “After coming across a mass-produced ‘healthy’ granola brand that was full of preservatives and packaged in plastic, we just felt we had a better product and could do better with the packaging,” explains Anicca.

“Dom is a designer and it really didn’t take us long at all to come up with the brand. We sourced compostable bags, labels and cellulose inserts to create a 100 per cent compostable package which we are happy with. I think if more consumers knew what can be achieved with a bit of effort they would demand more from the big brands and supermarkets on packaging.”

Meanwhile, Dom got busy perfecting his own gin, using the best quality traditional London Dry Gin, and the duo came up with the name Thunderflower whilst researching local gin botanicals: Says Dom: “We came across an old Dartmoor legend that the little white stonecrop flowers that sometimes grew on thatched cottage roofs could ward off both lightning and witchcraft and we thought these were fine qualities for a drink to possess.”

“Devon has so many world-class growers, food producers, chefs and eateries as well as a really sophisticated population of food lovers who understand the value of local produce,” comments Anicca. “There is so much passion and energy and quality in the food scene in this county and it’s exciting to be part of it.” thunderflower.co.uk

Top of the menu Food Drink Devon’s annual awards have celebrated an exciting mix of independent food businesses, new restaurants and gastropubs plus the best artisan producers from across the region. Held at Highbullen Hotel in North Devon and compered by broadcaster Nigel Barden, the winners include Hanlon’s Brewery (best producer), Pretty Local (best online retailer) and Broadhempston Community Shop (best community shop). The Husbandry School was declared the county’s best training school while Topsham’s Salutation Inn won best fine dining restaurant and South Sands Hotel won best hotel restaurant. For more info about the full line-up of winners go to fooddrinkdevon.co.uk MANOR | Autumn 2018

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An ode to the countryside Quicke’s new journal This Land is a tribute to Britain’s ancient rural landscape and traditions, from the people to the pastures. Journeying through the seasons, it features Mary Quicke MBE’s reflections on the land at Home Farm near Exeter that her family has nurtured for 14 generations. It also includes essays by chefs Gill Meller and Ben Quinn, Slow Food UK’s Shane Holland and Dr Katharine Earnshaw from the University of Exeter. Inspired by the hedgerows, woodlands and pastures that provide the foundation for every award-winning truckle that leaves the farm, the journal begins with an ode to the earth that lends itself to cheese.

This Land is available to purchase from quickes.co.uk, priced at £15.

Learn by the glass been described as the ‘West Country Renaissance’, as entrepreneurs, start-ups and tech companies flock to Devon, Somerset and Cornwall, attracted by the space, accessibility and enviable lifestyle on offer. Food and drink have always been an important draw to the region, but now producers and restaurateurs find themselves at the very heart of what’s happening.” southwestwineschool.co.uk

PHOTO: HAMILTON BRANDING

South West Wine School launches in October with support from some of the biggest wine connoisseurs in the region, including the award-winning Susy Atkins, Master of Wine Liam Steevenson and Rebecca Mitchell DipWSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust). Founders Jonathan and Hayley Reynolds are determined to make learning about the subject fun and enjoyable, for enthusiasts of all levels.

As Jonathan says: “South West Wine School offers an exciting range of events and courses, whether you’d like to learn about wine one-to-one, as part of a group, to gain a professional WSET qualification or as an innovative corporate activity.” From January 2019 onwards, WSET level 1 and 2 courses will be held at Kenton Park Estate and Vineyard near Exeter, and various seasonal pop-up events will take place in the coming months.

Hayley believes the region offers businesses and foodies the very best, and wine is very much now part of that offering: “We are living through what has

Mix it up PHOTO: ORIGINAL IMAGE PHOTOGRAPHY

Luscombe Drinks continue to innovate with their new range of mixers made with soft Devon spring water. The new flavours include cucumber tonic water, hot ginger beer and Sicilian bitter lemon. luscombe.co.uk

On cloud nine The new Cloud Nine waterfront pop-up bar is open at Dart Marina Hotel in Dartmouth until the end of October. The vintage Citroën van has been transformed into a riverside bar with eclectic modern and stylish seating. Enjoy delicious Exmouth mussels or a pint of prawns with a draft beer or a glass of chilled rosé. dartmarina.com

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Chef’s new table

Visit chrissherville.com or call Chris on 07792 617028.

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PHOTO: STEVE HAYWARD

A new cookery school experience has launched in Dartington, with courses and private dining delivered by chef Chris Sherville. The school is based at his own home where he has transformed a floor into a state-of-the-art professional kitchen and an atmospheric private dining room.

Courses will take place around a large, purpose-built chef’s table, enabling intimate groups of six students to observe the theatre of the kitchen, while getting hands-on themselves.

Courses start at £125 for a day’s cooking experience and include dinner with wine for the student plus guest.

Commenting on the new venture, Chris says: “Nurturing those you love and impressing friends with delicious home-cooked food is a real pleasure, so it’s been a lifelong dream of mine to share my passion and cooking experiences through my own cookery school. With food being at the heart of the home, I couldn’t think of a more apt venue than launching this venture from within my own home.”

Save the date GIN & CHEESE

EXETER CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL

Match up your gin (made from potatoes harvested on site) with delicious artisan Cornish Gouda made in nearby Looe.

Join the chocolate revolution and celebrate ethically produced bean to bar chocolate. Book a chocolate-tasting workshop or make your own bar.

20 October. 7-11pm. £10pp includes a distillery tour, one G&T at the tasting bar with Cornish Gouda samples. Colwith Farm Distillery, Lanlivery PL24 2TU. colwithfarmdistillery.co.uk

25 November. 11.30am-6pm. Exeter Phoenix. Free. exeterchocolatefestival.co.uk

FOODFEST Visit this annual celebration of the region’s best tasting produce and discover some new treats made in North Devon.

21 October. Barnstaple Pannier Market. Free.

Follow @NorthDevonFoodFest on Facebook.

RIVERFORD’S PUMPKIN DAY Share in some autumnal cheer with your little ones – activities include pumpkin carving, face painting, seed potting, worm digging and plenty of seasonal food and drink.

27 October, 11am-4pm at Wash Farm, Buckfastleigh TQ11 0JU. £5 adults, kids free. To book tickets: riverford.co.uk/pumpkinday

CORNISH WINTER FAIR Meet some of the county’s best artisan food producers and farmers – children can have a go at milking a cow and will also love exploring food and farming in the educational discovery zone.

17 November. 10am-5pm. Free. Royal Cornwall Showground, Wadebridge PL27 7JE. royalcornwallshow.org

FIRE IT UP!

CLOVELLY HERRING FESTIVAL Visit this historic village and celebrate the silver darlings of the sea, still sustainably fished to this day from Clovelly harbour.

18 November. Standard admission charges apply. clovelly.co.uk

WOoD FIRED fiSh & seaFoO

Manna From Devon Cooking School’s next book, Wood-fired Fish & Seafood (£9.99) will be released this autumn. Full of delicious recipes cooked in the unique wood-fired kitchen at the Kingswear cookery school and photographed by Nick Hook, it will be the second in the series of Wood-fired Adventures and follows on from the success of Wood-fired Flatbreads & Pancakes and the Woodfired Oven Cookbook.

“Fish and seafood are outstandingly good when cooked over a wood fire,” says Manna From Devon’s David Jones. “The high heat and quick cooking means that the fish stays succulent, with a little added flavour from the smoke.” Recipes WOoD include mussels FIREd fiSh & seaFo a la plancha and Od wood-fired lobster thermidor. ? d

“I have attende d a few courses at Manna from David is an abs Devon, and the inte olute master grity of the with brea courses Holl y and David teac d h are simply David’s knowle brilliant. dge of wood ovens and coo he is undoub king wit h tedly the UK’ live fire is imm s lead eas and I marvel at the ease wit ing expert on the subject urable, h which he use and flavour s fire to cook foods with such if there is one eas book you sho uld have on the e and confidence; subject it’s def initely this one ” Mitch Tonk s - Chef & Resta

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PHOTO: GUY HARROP

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food

Signature Dish Christine McFadden’s rum-soaked prune and sultana cake Dorset-based cookery writer Christine McFadden’s latest book, Flour, is a comprehensive guide on all types of flours, from cassava and coffee to cricket. And as Christine quickly discovered, there are differences between brands of flour and varieties of cricket: “A brand made with Acheta domesticus (‘house cricket’) resembled clumpy soil with an unpleasant whiff of fish food. On the other hand, one made with Gryllodes sigillatus (‘Tropical house cricket’) was free-flowing, warm brown and twinkling with what looked like specks of fool’s gold – ground cricket wings, perhaps? The aroma was malty, redolent of old-fashioned milky bedtime drinks, and the flavour pleasantly savoury,” comments Christine, who shares her low-fat cake recipe which is ideal for cricket flour novices. “A relatively small amount of cricket flour is combined with wheat flour, sweet spices, rum-soaked prunes and sultanas. The flour adds extra protein, making this a particularly nutritious cake.” Christine suggests allowing plenty of time for soaking the prunes and sultanas, but if you’d like a sweeter cake add a couple of tablespoons of muscovado sugar.

Extract taken from Flour by Christine McFadden (Absolute Press, £26). Photography: Mike Cooper.

Makes one 23cm (9in) cake INGREDIENTS

• 250g soft pitted prunes • 85g raisins or large sultanas • 150ml rum (for an alcohol-free cake, use apple juice • • • • • • • • • • • •

instead) Oil for greasing 100g self-raising flour 100g wholemeal self-raising flour 25g organic cricket flour, such as Crobar (available online from souschef.co.uk) 1 tbsp mixed spice ½ teaspoon sea salt 2 tbsp rapeseed oil 2 eggs, lightly beaten 4 egg whites Apple juice concentrate or clear honey to glaze 40g skinless toasted hazelnuts, halved 40g good-quality candied citrus peel, such as orange, bergamot or lemon, diced

METHOD

Soak the prunes and raisins in the rum for 3 or 4 hours, or overnight. Drain, reserving the liquid, chop the prunes roughly and set aside.

Grease the base and sides of a 22–23cm (8½–9in) loose-bottomed cake tin. Line with baking parchment and grease the paper too. Preheat the oven to 170°C/ Gas Mark 3.

Put the three flours, mixed spice and the salt into a sieve set over a bowl. Muddle with your fingers, then shake through the sieve. Sieve once or twice more until well blended.

In a large bowl, beat together the oil, 100ml of the reserved rum and the whole eggs. Stir in the prunes and raisins, followed by the flour mixture.

Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff but not dry. Fold about one-third of the whites into the batter to slacken it, then gently fold in the rest. Pour into the prepared cake tin.

Bake for 50–60 minutes, rotating every 20 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Leave in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Paint with the apple juice concentrate while still warm, then strew with hazelnuts and candied citrus peel. Leave to cool completely before slicing.

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Food Pioneer Nicholas Rodda FIFTH GENERATION MANAGING DIRECTOR AT RODDA’S, CORNWALL The Rodda’s family business started 128 years ago.

My great-great grandmother, Eliza Jane Rodda, began making Cornish clotted cream in her farmhouse kitchen and in 1920 her daughter, Frances Rodda, developed a clever technique for longer shelf life clotted cream in glass jars. This meant it could be transported all the way to London for the first time.

Stores such as Fortnum & Mason and Harrods were so impressed by our Cornish delicacy, they started putting in big orders. Today, our clotted cream is made in the very same way, through cherished family recipes and time-honoured traditions.

Clotted cream is so special it has become a treasured Cornish export. When I walk into a shop or restaurant

and I see they sell our clotted cream, it gives me a huge sense of pride. The brand continues to represent Cornish regional foods on the national and international stage.

Rodda’s is now considered the most loved Cornish clotted cream brand in the world, being enjoyed from Land’s End to John O’Groats and as far away as Australia and Asia.

It’s always jam before cream. As a Cornishman, there’s

nothing better than a generous dollop of Cornish clotted cream atop a freshly baked scone, with jam spread on it first.

The Rodda family spearheaded a campaign which resulted in Cornish Clotted Cream gaining Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status in 1998, joining the prestigious ranks of Champagne, Stilton cheese and Parma ham. Under the PDO label, Cornish clotted

cream has to be made in Cornwall, with Cornish milk and in the traditional way. Unlike other creams, clotted cream is gently baked, and that is where the magic happens. The delicate golden crust is a mark of quality and it starts to appear just as the tastiest and richest bits rise to the top in the cooking process.

I’m a Cornishman born and bred. As a county, we have a

huge sense of provenance when it comes to food. You’ll often see some of the best chefs coming out of Cornwall.

As well as being home to some incredibly unique products and personalities, we’re good at celebrating our heritage – Cornwall is home to some amazing food festivals all year round.

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Three generations of the Rodda Family: (from left to right) Alfred (Nicholas’ dad), William, Edward, Nicholas and Alexander

I represent the fifth generation of Rodda’s. My son

Alexander (sixth generation) now works for us learning about the business from the shop floor up. My eldest son William is working in the insurance industry, while Ed is still at school – he wants to be the boss one day, but he’ll have to work his way up like we all did.

We only ever use the very best Cornish milk. To make

our signature clotted cream, we need rich creamy high butterfat milk which is sourced directly from Cornish farms within a 30-mile radius of our creamery, who produce milk with the perfect properties for making clotted cream. It gives our cream that rich golden colour.

We produce clotted cream all year round from our creamery in Scorrier. The summer cream tea season

runs from May to August. In 2015, Rodda’s co-founded National Cream Tea Day with Tiptree Jam, which falls annually in June. Rodda’s is also ‘the official cream of British tennis’ through our sponsorship of the Lawn Tennis Association, bringing together our nation’s love of strawberries, clotted cream and tennis. Christmas is very busy – our clotted cream is the perfect accompaniment to many festive dishes, from Christmas puddings to mince pies. The smoothness of the cream really complements the gentle spices and sweetness. roddas.co.uk

food

The Table Prowler Rojano’s, Padstow, Cornwall On various visits to Cornwall of late, this prowler has come to the conclusion that there’s something of an east-west divide when it comes to culinary offerings on the Camel Estuary. Polzeath has houses that sell for millions. Developers are forever building more and more grandiose, elaborate architectural feats as expensive holiday residences, with the estuary’s east bank seemingly taking up the mantle of the UK’s holiday hangout of the super-rich. And yet, despite the money sloshing around, there is no standout restaurant.

The Spar in Polzeath, I’m told, is the most profitable in the county, which doesn’t surprise as every time you go in there in holiday season there is a 40-deep queue of Londoners stocking up, presumably to eat in. Polzeath, it seems, cannot hold a candle to Padstow when it comes to food. Take the five-minute crossing on the passenger ferry and suddenly a whole world of quality culinary options opens up, from the long-established, highly regarded Stein institution, The Fish Restaurant, to Rick Stein’s fantastic fish and chips, to Paul Ainsworth’s Michelin-starred No 6 and Rojano’s.

Rojano’s in the Square was taken over by Ainsworth in 2010.

It was launched in 1975 by Stanley Rojano, who created a pizza joint for the town and Ainsworth has kept the menu classically Italian - pizzas, garlic bread and carbonaras - and broadened it with other Italian rustic fare such as Tuscan bean stew and Sicilian arancini. We arrived as a family of four and were seated in the front terrace, which has floor-to-ceiling glazing looking out directly onto

Mill Square as the Padstow throngs pass by. We chose garlic bread and margarita pizzas for the children, and for the adults: Cornish baked ‘gypsy eggs’ with chorizo and cannellini beans, and the arancini followed by pork chop and the Caprino pizza with goat’s cheese. The arancini was phenomenal – neat balls of risotto in a crisp golden crumb, alongside a Madeira mayonnaise dip. The baked eggs sat upon a bed of Tuscan beans and chorizo chunks in a rich tomato stew – the eggs baked impeccably to release a golden runny yoke into the chorizo bean mix. Two rounds of hot buttered sourdough toast helped mop up all the deliciousness. The pork chop was succulent, not in the least dry, delicately chargrilled with a generous teaspoon of green tasty chimichurri sauce on the top – a thick strip of crackling laid across it. Both the pizzas and garlic bread were baked with the freshest thin crisp of pizza dough – the garlic bread daubed in plenty of garlic butter and fresh parsley, the pizza topping the freshest mix of ingredients.

It was a classic Mediterranean meal, tasty and relaxed, and a menu substantial enough to go back time and again to try something new. Something tells me, regardless of what you choose, the level of excellence will extend to all without exception.

Food 10 | Service 9 | Ambience 8 | Location 8 | Value 8 paul-ainsworth.co.uk/rojanos-in-the-square

The Church House Inn, Rattery, Devon In the small village of Rattery, on the south side of Dartmoor, is an ancient, squat pub. Dating back to 1028, its walls seemed to have been built to withstand a siege.

It makes it incredibly cosy inside – the perfect place to hide away on a winter’s evening or a rainy lunchtime.

The Inn has gained something of a reputation among the foodie population of South Hams, and, being located close to the River Dart Country Park and the delightful Ashbourne Woods wild campsite, it also draws in a lot of discerning tourists. The menu is mostly classic gastropub fare (although they declare on the website ‘we have no intention of being just a gastropub’) but the difference is in the produce: like so many good chefs in the region, Isaac Cohen takes advantage of the local fare, sourcing meat from local farms and keeping the food as seasonal as he can. Of course, it is the trimmings and flavours and the preparation that really make or break a dish. The menu includes the likes of slow roasted pork belly with a Devon cider cream sauce and mustard mash, or a monkfish, salmon, mussel and fish stew (locally landed, of course).

I chose a ‘locally shot woodpigeon’, which was maybe a little too much detail for me (the kids immediately asked

if that meant it was murdered nearby). When it arrived, after a very long wait, it looked exquisite – a juicy, deep pink in the centre and warm brown around the edges – and it was served on green lentils with cubes of roasted sweet potatoes and greens. Unfortunately, the meat did not live up to its expectations – it was extremely chewy – and the large mound of lentils was way too salty for my taste. The children’s fish and chips were bang-on average gastropub fare, although the sausage and mash was more of hit, thanks to delicious big sausages bursting with sagey flavour and lots of gravy that definitely didn’t taste as though it came out of a packet… The inn was busy by the time we got to desserts, but a 45-minute wait for sticky toffee pudding and ice creams definitely took the biscuit.

Admittedly, we all agreed that the sticky toffee was the best we had ever tasted. And the ambience of the pub (there were lots of other families and it was very convivial indeed) made the wait ever so slightly more bearable.

Food 7 | Service 6 | Ambience 8 | Location 8 | Value 7 thechurchhouseinn.co.uk

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Space Out of the Valley | Q&A with Legacy Properties | Shopping for space

An oak cabin built by Out of the Valley See page 108 outofthevalley.co.uk

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It’s a cabin fever we all want to catch as creations from Out of the Valley are unveiled in all their gorgeous, natural splendour.

Words by Imogen Clements.

Oak Cabin

E

arth, water, fire, metal, wood… whatever your element, the appeal of wood is pretty much universal. There is something gentle and almost wise about trees – calmly watching over us as generations come and go, climbing them, engraving initials on their trunks, then in later years seeking shade and solace while sat beneath their branches.

Which goes some way to explain the cosiness and sense of security you get inside a log cabin – you’re at one with nature, protected by it, its walls warm to the touch unlike stone, brick or metal.

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Rupert McKelvie was born the son of a cabinet maker and a botanical artist. Design was in his blood, as was a deep appreciation of nature, and try as he might to take it in a different direction to his forebears (by studying 3D Design at Falmouth then moving to London to work in contemporary industrial design), he was always drawn back to wood.

“I suppose you have a resistance to follow exactly in your parents’ footsteps and find your own path, but after a period in the metropolis I was keen to return to Devon and wood as my principal craft.”

space London was not for him. “The relentless daily commute to do a job in which I was trying too hard to conform to urban design requirements didn’t suit me. I had a barn on my mum’s farm in Devon, so I started to come back and convert it into a workshop. I realised I could work from there retaining clients I’d acquired in London, so I made the move.”

McKelvie became known as an independent cabinet maker with an artistic bent and following a couple of jobs for renowned Young British Artist Alastair Mackie (who also moved, soon after, to Cornwall from London), he developed a body of work that ranged from furniture to modern art installations.

The move from furniture to cabins, and the resulting business Out of the Valley, came almost by chance. “I built a cabin because there was, on the farm, the perfect location for a summer holiday rental, and I’d always dreamt of building one. There was no intention then of creating a business. It was a personal project, but when I’d completed it I decided to do a Design Week furniture show in Clerkenwell. The idea was to exhibit pieces inspired by cabin life and I took photographic panels of the cabin I’d built, which attracted a lot of journalistic attention.”

McKelvie was approached first by The Guardian and then The Sunday Times, who granted his cabin front page status in their Home Section, and so Out of the Valley, born out of one designer’s desire to fulfil his own creative ambition, was launched on the biggest stage. A classic entrepreneurial tale of a personal project done so well, everyone wanted it.

Today, Out of the Valley creates several types of cabin, all bespoke in accordance with the client’s requirements, but derived from one of three templates: the small Nomad Cabin, at 11m² a micro mobile configurable cabin with wheels, not dissimilar to a shepherd’s hut; the Estuary Cabin, again 11m² clad in wrap-around, charred larch with a corner-less cantilever to allow for panoramic views; and the Oak Cabin – a more substantial 24m² – with kitchen, soft furniture and panelling, complete with a canvas awning over a solid oak veranda, solar power, a convectional stove, king size bed and mezzanine.

What’s ingenious about Out of the Valley cabins is the use of space. The floorplan of the Oak Cabin is arranged to achieve the unusual combination of cosy, contemporary and ergonomically effortless. Its kingsize bed is raised on a platform to allow for storage and is neatly tucked into the corner of the studio space adjacent to the bathroom to allow the occupant(s) to ‘retire’ from the heart of the living area in a cabin measuring just 6.7m x 3.65m. This is compact living that never feels cramped, and the design and colourways have a contemporary feel, some way off the traditional rustic log cabin. McKelvie’s style and approach has, I assume, come from his training at Falmouth and time in some of London’s modern industrial design houses, so time well spent after all.

Nomad Cabin

Oak Cabin

Oak Cabin

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The colour tones are kept simple and unimposing, such that the environment in which the cabin sits becomes the colour.

Estuary Cabin

“It’s all about maintaining simplicity, really. I keep all the lines very simple and the materials palette to a minimum – just green oak, ash and brass for the purposes of highlighting. Then, likewise, the colour tones are kept simple and unimposing, such that the environment in which the cabin sits becomes the colour.”

Working so close to nature, with it and within it, he gives significant consideration to the environmental factors of each cabin’s structure and their sustainability. “I work with a great team of architects and we focus on the thermal qualities of the building, its solar gain, aspects and degree of natural light. I’ll always try to use fast-growing timber. I feel vaguely nauseous when I go into a yard and see racks of mahogany. It’s depressing that there’s still such a demand for such a slow-growing wood.”

McKelvie follows closely the technological advances in the sector that are being explored to make fast-growing timber more durable. “Thermal stabilisation is something that they are looking at with English Ash right now. They heat it to a very high temperature under pressure and it stabilises the wood by removing the water particles out of it, specifically from the rot points. The effect is to turn soft wood into a hard wood, similar to oak.”

He has planted his own forest – lines and lines of saplings of Hazels, Ash, Rowan, Sycamore, Oak, Hawthorn, Hornbeam and Cherry stretch across a sizeable tranche of land at the family’s farm. “It’s not really to use. I’m not relying on it for my business. It’s 110

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more to create a habitat and offset. I’m not sure how sustainable any wood is really – it takes so long to replenish. We’ll try to use coppice timber where possible as its natural response to being cut is to grow back – it almost relishes it.”

Asked what it is about wood that makes it such appealing material to work with, Rupert replies: “It’s the smell of it, the texture of the grain, having to really observe it – each piece you work with is different – so you have to look at it carefully to work out what you can do with it. It’s more complicated than metal, more unusual in what it can do and its characteristics. And, of course, at the end, you’re left with this quite beautiful finish.”

Which brings us back to the carpenter that is Rupert McKelvie. Out of the Valley, as a business, is not just about the cabins, but what you put in them. Having tried so hard to distance himself from his father’s cabinetmaking trade, Out of the Valley is developing kitchens and interiors as a standalone arm of the business, in tandem with the cabins. “I started out developing pieces of furniture inspired by cabin life, pieces that engendered that feeling of being in the wood. The ultimate of course is the cabin, but the furniture enhances the rhythm of the space, and the interiors arm allows us to bring our work and ethos into people’s homes.”

The language McKelvie uses when he describes his trade belies more than zeal for carpentry. There’s something vaguely spiritual about trees – nature’s gift

space to shelter and warm us that imbues in many of us a real affection for them, particularly those who work with them. Trees are beautiful; their wood is beautiful. Out of the Valley celebrates that, providing, with their cabins, both base and viewpoint, and McKelvie’s respect for his material ensures that not only does he strive to show it at its very best, he does so in the most environmentally kind way he can. It makes you want to escape a mad world and hunker down in one of his cabins, pot on the stove and fire flickering in the wood burner, cosy and safely cocooned by trees, as only trees can. outofthevalley.co.uk Oak Cabin

Oak Cabin

Estuary Cabin

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The Rocks, Holywell

Q&A

Nick Long is managing director of Legacy Properties, a multi award-winning prestige developer based in Newquay. Nick lives in Cornwall with his wife Hannah and their son Ted, born in July this year.

How would you describe Legacy? What is its appeal?

Legacy Properties builds luxury coastal properties to the highest standard of design and finish. The business has been running since 2008 and currently employs 17 full-time staff (along with two office dogs, Charlie and Hendricks). We’re an ambitious and innovative company, focused on delivering highend properties in the most sought-after locations along the north Cornish coast. We’re a familyowned business, which truly values the benefits of an inclusive, happy, team-working environment. We’re always friendly, but tough on ourselves, demanding the highest standards to ensure our properties are aesthetically beautiful, sustainable, and practical for every day coastal living. It’s this firmly-held ethos which has made us multiple award-winners in the industry, including a double win at this year’s UK Property Awards for best apartment and best development, which, of course, is a major boost for the entire team.

What is your point of difference that impresses the judges?

I believe it’s our meticulous attention to detail, from concept through to design, build, and completion. We 112

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work closely with our architects to maximise living space, and our customer-centric approach means that some of our properties can be 100 per cent bespoke.

Our buyers should have exactly the house they want, built and finished to the highest possible standard.

I think this is of immense appeal. For example, we launched Woodlands, our flagship development overlooking the Gannel estuary, in June this year, and almost all of them have been snapped up by buyers, off plan, before foundations have even been laid. We’ve just one plot remaining. And this approach applies equally to all of our Legacy Homes projects, such as Halwyn Meadows, our development in Crantock, where we’re about to start building 59 new homes in a beautiful Cornish village location.

What, or who, inspires you?

First and foremost, it’s the Cornish landscape: the shapes, contours, textures and materials. Hannah and I moved to Cornwall several years ago and chose to start a family here. We both love the county and the lifestyle it affords - I love sailing and hold a commercial skipper licence. We have an acute appreciation for the environment and believe in sourcing local labour and materials. Our respect for

promotional feature the region and its heritage ensures a sensitivity of design in accordance with the local vernacular. To that, we take inspiration from places we visit: we love to travel, especially to coastal areas. We frequently visit Mallorca and are hooked on everything Sri Lanka has to offer. We’re fortunate that we get to see some impressive hotels, bars and restaurants, incredible living spaces and galleries, both here and abroad, which are all sources of design inspiration.

Beyond that, it’s the team at Legacy and the people we work with, including CSA Architects, CAD Architects, Iroka Interiors in Hayle (their product knowledge is second to none), Sanders Studios in Falmouth, experts at bringing our plans to life using cutting edge CGI technology, and Oracle Design in Newquay (Andrew’s professionalism and eye for creative brand design is spot on).

Woodlands kitchen

How do you approach a project?

We choose sites based on location, views, outlook, orientation, and the potential for integrating with local communities. We always think carefully about the consumer experience, how buyers will live and enjoy the property - special touches, for example, like surf stores, dog showers, communal gardens, large balconies, audio visual ‘smart’ technology, sociable living spaces, built-in storage.

We always ensure that Legacy delivers a certain hallmark on quality, prioritising the highest standard of design to maximise space, open plan kitchendining-living areas, luxury bathrooms, beautiful lighting, and interior styling which complements the space and views. We want our properties to truly celebrate their prized locations, which usually means floor-to-ceiling glazing to maximise views and bring the outdoors in, whatever the season.

Thirty Six, Pentire

Give us some examples - tell us about your portfolio to date.

One Eighty in St Ives comprises four luxury apartments in the centre of town, close to the recently-renovated Tate Gallery. Seascape and Thirty Six are two developments of stunning apartments and houses on Pentire peninsula.

The former won a UK Property Award 2016/7. Fistral House, which comprises ten apartments overlooking Fistral beach, recently clinched two UK Property Awards for best apartment and best residential development, and our senior site manager won a regional NHBC award for the scheme. The Rocks at Holywell Bay comprises ten contemporary homes and is due for completion in November 2018. Woodlands, which was featured as Manor’s Property of Note in June, comprises ten magnificent four and five-bedroomed houses overlooking the Gannel, with vistas of Crantock beach. We have just one remaining with all the others now reserved. Build completion is set for winter 2019/2020.

Fistral House living space

What’s next for Legacy?

In November, we’ll complete our build at The Rocks. There are just two plots left – both fourbedroomed houses with master bedroom suites and sea view balconies. We’re extremely busy starting site works at Woodlands, which is a truly inspirational development. And we’re about to launch our Legacy Homes offering, with a preview event for Halwyn Meadows in Crantock on Saturday 17 November.

This development will comprise 59 family homes with the Legacy stamp of quality, with prices starting from £265,000. legacyproperties.co.uk

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Pendant, Audenza, £298

Eclectic dreams Create a bohemian sanctuary with deep rich shades and textures. You can be brave with your palette of dark tones, brass and glass. It will increase the allure factor of any room. Compiled by Amy Tidy.

Pendant, John Lewis and Partners, £450

Mirror, Debenhams, £60

John Lewis and Partners

Bloomingville table lamp, Amara, £129

Abigail Ahern Kimpton table, Amara, £330

Sofa, Cult Furniture, £799

Chair, John Lewis and Partners, £299 Cushion, Amara, £50

Cushion, John Lewis and Partners, £35 114

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west elm Sputnik coffee table, John Lewis and Partners, £499

space Mirror, Debenhams, £18

Candlelabra, John Lewis and Partners, £78

Throw, Debenhams, £125

Vase, made.com, £59 Fruit bowl, Debenhams, £14

Vase, Orange Tree @ Darts Farm, £69.99

Amara

Cushion, Dunelm, £20

Coasters, (set of four) Oliver Bonas, £30 Cushion, Jo & Co Home, £35

Floor lamp, Debenhams, £180

Florence Chair, Orange Tree @ Darts Farm, £599

Table, John Lewis and Partners, £119

Rug, Amara, £155

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Escape Tuscany, Italy | Chapel House, Penzance, Cornwall | St Michael’s Spa, Cornwall

PHOTO: JARED GREEN

Terme Tettuccio, Montecatani Terme, Tuscany See page118

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The Thermal Pool, Grotta Giusti

Tuscany: an insider’s guide Jared Green presents his little black book of Tuscany, a place he knows well, and some ideas on how to get the best out of your travels there.

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T

he vastness of Italy, culturally and geographically, presents a conundrum to the visitor. To settle on a holiday itinerary is no mean feat. Over many years and many visits, I have realised that Tuscany, like no other part of Italy, has a special gift. Maybe it’s the sheer number of iconic cities and towns, or the varied landscape: ranging from straw-coloured rolling hills in the south to rugged mountains in the north. But something beyond these tangible and somewhat obvious noticings is a subtler Tuscany. Every moment in this place is drenched in an archetypal beauty: of colour, of texture. The food, the tradition, the architecture are so unmistakably Italian, that you can’t help but feel a stirring in your heart, a stirring that tells you this place is like no other.

Tuscany is far more sophisticated than to simply be a summer beach holiday destination, though it does offer that. But across this province, especially in the north, the cultural and sensate experiences are varied and dense.

Take four days, minimum. This gives enough time to base yourself somewhere as well as a few full days to explore. Fly into Pisa or Florence, they are best connected from UK airports and offer great connections to northern Tuscany. An ideal city for a base is the thermal spa town of Montecatini Terme.

Montecatini Terme found fame with American tourists in the 80s, at the time recognised for its thermae (thermal baths) and during its heyday attracting visitors from European royalty to Hollywood icons. It still has some intriguing connections, including endorsement by Madonna for cosmetics made from the thermal waters. A legacy of this heyday means some 14,000 bedrooms are available, of comparatively good prices if compared to rooms in Pisa or Florence.

Visitors should see the wonderful vibe in the centre around aperitivo time. And do check out the historic baths which here are as much focused on the health benefits of drinking and inhaling the waters as they are in bathing in them. Take the funicular to Montecatini Alto with historic thermae to see the stunning views and architecture. But the real benefit to being here is how accessible you’ll be to the rest of Tuscany.

Visit Pisa if you’ve never seen the leaning torre, but there’s little else to do or see. Nearby Florence and the more accessible Lucca both have much more to offer.

You’ll need at least a day. Museums, galleries, streets filled with unique fashion, food and homeware stores alongside brilliant bars, cafés and restaurants. But simply walking the streets of these cities, taking an espresso or a gelato is an experience in itself.

I have a rule when I land in a new country. Eat the food and swim in the water. It helps to truly sense a place. While northern Tuscan beaches aren’t known for their crystal waters or white sands, there are some good beach options. And to the delight of many British visitors, temperatures in recent years have been shooting up into the 30s even in May and September, so pack your swimwear, just in case.

The Italian beach experience has certain rules. The more resort-oriented beaches require hiring deck chairs or even membership. If you prefer not to make the investment, there are usually public beaches available and, if you prefer, some stunning wild beaches.

The most important thing about Tuscany, though, is to let it take you its own way. Wander cobbled alleyways until you are lost, venture to an agriturismo when you see a roadside sign. Stay a little longer at your aperitivo café, to see how the setting sun reflects across the marble of a nearby church. In moments like these, you’ll come to your senses and experience the magic of this place, the magic that memories are made of.

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MONTECATINI TERME Sleep: After all your travelling you’ll be exhausted, so check into Grand Hotel Vittoria (Via della Libertà) with a sunny outdoor pool, great terrace breakfast and very comfortable beds.

Eat and Drink: In a delightful forum, Foody Farm (Viale Giuseppe Verdi) is heaven for Negroni, small plates and romantic evening outfits. Osteria Di Poneta (Via Solferino), showcases authentic Tuscan dishes of pasta, meats, antipasto. For a low-key neighbourhood bar with local food and craft beer, try Brutto Anatroccolo Caffe (Viale Alessandro Bicchierai).

Treat yourself: End your trip with an evening flight and spend the morning of your last day at Grotta Giusti, just 15 minutes’ drive from Montecatini. There’s an international crowd of all ages here. A huge outdoor spa of 34ºC mineral-rich spring water awaits you. The temperature is stable all year and 40 hydro massage stations help ease you into complete relaxation. Don’t miss a massage or a 50-minute gentle steam in the thermal grotta. If getting out of town isn’t an option, try a mud treatment at Plant Terme Redi (Viale Alessandro Bicchierai).

The Thermal Grotta

CITY DAY TRIPS FLORENCE The capital of Tuscany and the heart of Italian fashion, this bustling city is jam-packed with attractions that would entertain a family, plus a romantic vibe that will make for a memorable romantic getaway.

Must see: Via de’ Tornabuoni is perhaps the most famous shopping street in Florence. The Uffizi museum (Piazzale degli Uffizi) is a must-see and the most important gallery. Michelangelo’s David can be viewed at Galleria dell’Accademia (Via Ricasoli). Walk the Ponte Vecchio, preferably in late afternoon light, and cross to the southside of the city to explore the many parks and gardens.

Eats: Book in advance so as not to miss the upmarket Ristorante Giglio (Piazza del Giglio) for traditional food with a modern twist and complimentary prosecco. Gigi Trattoria (Piazza del Carmine) is a much-recommended option with daily fresh bread and pasta.

Gelateria Veneta has several outlets across the city and has some of the best flavours we tried.

Eats: For a high-end lunch, try the acclaimed seasonal menu at Ristorante Cibreo (Via Andrea del Verrocchio). To eat with locals, Ristorante Trattoria Angiolino (Via Santo Spirito) offers traditional food in a classic atmosphere. Cross the Ponte Vecchio for gelato at Gelateria della Passera (via Toscanella) and, for drinks with a view, try the rooftop at Grand Hotel Minerva (Piazza di Santa Maria Novella).

Piazza Anfiteatro, Lucca

LUCCA An ancient walled city surrounded by hills and mountain ranges provides a true Tuscan city experience without the drawbacks of larger cities. Centrally located car parks and train stations make access easy, and the hour-long walk around the tree-lined city walls provides a great orientation to the city while inspiring an appetite.

Must see: Climb the 230 steps to Torre Guinigi (Via Sant’Andrea) for views across the city and to experience the oak-filled garden in the sky. Explore the unique circular Piazza Anfiteatro and the surrounding streets for shopping of all types. Visit some of the hundreds of churches in the city, many of which have evening music and opera performances.

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Florence

escape BEACHES OF TUSCANY MARINA DI VECCHIANO A truly wild delight. Here you can bathe in the warm Mediterranean waters while gazing toward the Apuan Alps. Located not far from Pisa and accessible by car, this beach is set within dunes and forests, giving a truly natural vibe.

TORRE DEL LAGO Accessible by train and the most gay-friendly coastal town. The resort has the added benefit of a frontage onto the magnificent lago, which boasts wildlife sanctuaries, coastal walks and historic sites.

CASTIGLIONCELLO

PHOTO: JARED GREEN

A favourite for Florentines escaping the heat of the city, Castiglioncello is a picturesque town with an air of calm. It’s further afield, but accessible by train and well worth the trip. There are rocky and sandy beaches with deck chairs from €10 to €30.

Marina di Vecchiano

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Fiona McGowan visits Chapel House in Penzance and sees a boutique hotel mixing Georgian grandeur with contemporary style – to ravishing effect.

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enzance has something of a multiple personality.

The poverty is present for all to see: the homeless and the hope-less addicts are there on the streets, which many locals tend to blame on the fact that Penzance is the ‘end of the line’ – the furthest place in the country that people can run to. I’ve even heard people theorise that there’s an increase in homelessness in Penzance after a big cleanup effort in London – such as for the 2012 Olympics or a royal wedding. But the struggles of the town are just as much due to the issues that affect much of Cornwall: the scarcity of economic opportunities, a shrinking fishing community and its remoteness from major cities.

Yet, in spite of this, the townspeople are fiercely proud of their community. The fishing industry has certainly

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not died – the daily catch in Newlyn is exported to top restaurants and supermarkets all over the country.

There is a vibrant arts scene, with Newlyn School of Art, the Acorn Theatre, the contemporary art space of the Exchange Gallery, and numerous smaller galleries throughout the town. A number of independent shops, cafés and restaurants stand in counterpoint to the charity shops and low-cost high street stores. There are some highly recommended eateries (foodie bloggers have been putting it on the virtual map recently), some delightful sub-tropical parks, and the much Instagrammed, recently renovated art deco Jubilee Pool (soon to be heated allyear round).

To say the town is becoming gentrified is something of an anomaly – partly because of the economic issues it

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is facing, and partly because it has always been home to Cornish gentry. There are still streets of genteel houses that have been maintained as single residences, unlike in most urban environments where the big old houses are divided into flats and quickly become run-down. There are numerous hotels and traditional B&Bs around the town, but surprisingly few hotels have taken advantage of the upswing in higher-end tourism here. Chapel House is one of those. The classy boutique hotel in Chapel Street opened its doors three years ago and has been much in demand ever since.

It’s a handsome building. Constructed in 1790, it has maintained its symmetrical Georgian grandeur through various iterations in its 220-odd years of history. At one point, it was the Portuguese Embassy – all polished wooden floors and carved marble fireplaces. It was a family residence for many years, and in 1993 became the Penzance Arts Club – a sort of Bohemian members’ club-cum-hotel. By 2011, the Arts Club closed down and the building was in a pretty shabby state, according to new owner Susan Stuart. Her vision was to return it to its elegant former glory, while maintaining a contemporary feel – mostly through the use of muted Farrow & Ball-esque palettes, a scattering of midcentury modern furniture, and a gallery-like display of modern art: from paintings from Newlyn Art Gallery to sculptures and contemporary ceramics.

It took Susan two years of hard work to get the place to the standard of luxury boutique hotel that she wanted.

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grand sofas. It’s certainly not the cosiest of lounge areas – it feels more like a very stylish gallery than a place to laze about with the papers or to chill with a post-prandial digestif – and the wooden floors make you feel as though you need to tiptoe to avoid thundering around like a bunch of schoolchildren in a library. The stairs lead up past a big arched window that overlooks the harbour and the sweep of Mount’s Bay to the six large guest rooms.

They all have lots of light and great views (Georgians really knew how to do a window), and the fittings and furniture are top-end, classy and minimalist, without detracting from the original style of the rooms. Many of the bathrooms are semi-separated from the sleeping area – divided by a half-wall behind the bedhead, or with a free-standing tub just a few steps from the bed.

Downstairs in the basement is the kitchen – feeling very much as it would have done back when it was built – and this is the engine house of the building. But instead of having an army of staff to ferry the food up to a dining room upstairs, the kitchen is now the dining area. Featuring a few large antique tables, it is open-plan 124

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eating, with guests sitting together, supper club-style.

Susan serves dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, but it is the breakfasts for which she is gaining renown (see below for details). At one end of the kitchen is a large island, big wooden-topped counters and a vast range.

It feels cosy and friendly, and Susan and her staff are on hand to dish up the breakfasts straight from pan to plate.

After three years of running the hotel to critical acclaim – it won an Editor’s Choice award in the Good Hotel Guide 2017, and a whopping 93 per cent of its TripAdvisor reviews give it ‘Excellent’ – Susan has seized an opportunity to raise her game. Behind Chapel House’s stylish courtyard was a small, slightly dilapidated pebble-dash cottage, which sat in a rather run-down walled garden. Last year, the house came up for sale, and Susan bought it.

Over a period of several months, she employed a local architect and the same builders who fastidiously converted the original building to rebuild the cottage into two ‘super suites’. Part clad in Cornish larchwood, part render and glass, they nestle surprisingly well into

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Add to that a large wood-burner, a balcony and big window overlooking the harbour and St Michaels Mount in the distance, and it feels very much like a five-star lodge.

the now opened-up courtyard area. One of the suites is now open for use, and the other one is likely to be completed by the time you are reading this. These standalone ‘suites’ (Americans would call them duplexes) literally add another dimension to Chapel House. The bedroom is on the ground floor – a stylish, simple room with a comfortable, but not huge double bed, and a semi-separated wet room made from buffed concrete with a giant rain-shower. A flight of stairs leads up to a sitting room-kitchenette. You could say this is the pièce de résistance. With golden oak flooring, a babysoft leather sofa, slick white kitchen units and one wall clad in wood, it feels very Scandi. Add to that a large wood burner, a balcony and big window overlooking the harbour and St Michael’s Mount in the distance, and it feels very much like a five-star lodge. It will certainly appeal to those who prefer their privacy – as you are completely detached from the main hotel across the perfectly preserved cobbled courtyard.

Justifiably contented with the completed additions to the hotel, Susan is turning her attention to the garden area.

With high walls, it is exceptionally sheltered and private.

There are various small nooks and levels that invite some interesting garden design, and she’s considering turning the old cold-house into a low-key treatment room. Having worked for 30 years in finance in the City, it is clear that Susan’s drive and ambition is undimmed by coming to Penzance – it’s not so much the end of the line for her as the launchpad for her aesthetic vision. chapelhousepz.co.uk

BREAKFAST Breakfast at Chapel House feels very relaxed and homely. Laid out on the kitchen island is an array of fibrous cereal options in Kilner jars, with vanilla or Greek yoghurt and freshly made superfood juices (choices of berries, kiwis, or beetroot with punchy additives like spinach, ginger and even chilli). The food is healthy and as filling as you want it to be. But it is advisable to restrain yourself on the buffet. The breakfast menu is varied and hearty to say the least – including smoked fish (sourced from Newlyn, of course), samphire, eggs any way you like them and breads and pastries from the local bakery. It would be rude not to the try the full Cornish breakfast, and it lived up to expectations. The ingredients are fresh and the produce is mostly locally sourced – long, succulent rashers of bacon, small fat sausages that ooze with juice and drip with herby flavour. The hog’s pudding is a treat – dense and rich, and far more flavoursome than your average slab of black pudding. On the side are fried mushrooms and juicy, herbed tomatoes, along with creamy, buttery scrambled eggs on sourdough toast. My friend ordered smashed avocado on sourdough toast with smoked salmon and poached egg. The tangy flavours were an ideal counterpoint to the richness of the fried food, and we ended up sharing both plates – not leaving a single morsel.

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escape

When the swish new St Michaels Spa opened in Falmouth, Fiona McGowan just had to try it out.

T

here’s a lot going on at St Michaels Resort in Falmouth. Over the last five years, it has seen £4 million worth of investment – the finale of which was the completed conversion of a neighbouring hotel that was devastated in a fire in 2012. As well as adding 32 rooms to the St Michaels Hotel complex, it has become a state-of-the-art health centre with a proper gym – none of this piddling one-exercise-bike-one-treadmill-and-a-rack-of-weights that you might expect to find in a hotel – and a proper swimming pool. The sort of pool where you can actually take more than five strokes before smacking into the wall… It is a sensible way to work around the perennially challenging problem of seasonal trade – the health centre already has 1,800 members, serving the local community (including the students of Falmouth University) as well as the more sports-inclined guests of the hotel.

However, the real pull for those staying at the fourstar hotel is over in the main building. This has also seen some renovation and interior refurbishment in the last year. The restaurant has been restyled as an evening-

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only eaterie (Brasserie on the Bay), and the ‘all-day casual dining’ Garden Kitchen is a healthy, stylish place designed to serve the all-new spa downstairs. The spa opened in August this year and is very much a flagship addition to the hotel. The reception is a comfortable lounge area overlooking the dark blue thalasso pool and beyond is a large, sheltered garden with sun loungers – adorned, when I visited, with white robe-clad guests soaking up the late summer sun. There’s a large barrelshaped sauna in the garden, with a glass wall facing out into the greenery beyond (not the most private of saunas, but it is pleasing to have something to look at other than a load of cedar planks).

Inside, there are no less than 10 treatment rooms and a large nail salon. There are even themed steam rooms – one scented with sea-like minerals and imbued with Cornish Sea Salt – and a rainforest room, which is slightly more stifling and luckily smelled of tropical aromatics rather than the rich, rotting odour of the rainforest floor. Cold showers are on hand to douse you after your steam – in beautifully designed semi-private alcoves – presumably so you don’t offend anyone with your sudden exhalations of breath. (I heard at least two people screaming in the Ice Bucket Challenge alcove.)

Sensibly, I opted for a tepid shower.

The pool is like one giant jacuzzi, with independently controlled sousing or bubbling features all around the edges. For those who haven’t booked a massage, the powerful overhead water sprays will do some serious deeptissue work on your shoulders. It is strangely addictive – like being jet washed and pummelled at the same time.

The treatments are as wide-ranging as you would expect from a high-end spa. I tried out the rhassoul mud treatment, in which you lock yourself into a dimly lit Moorish-style room with a shower and a steam room and return to your inner toddler by taking big handfuls of grey mud and smearing it all over your body. As North African muzak plays calmly in the background, you sit and steam until the caked mud seems to fuse to your skin. Just as you begin to drift off, your heart is jumpstarted when four water jets suddenly burst out from the wall and start to hose you down. They are, blessedly, warm, but you have the option of adding your own hand-held cold water shower to help tighten the pores.

(I tentatively tried some on my face but was not brave enough to go full monty.)

The results? Pretty darn good. Not only did I relax in the general vibe of the spa, but my shoulders felt looser, the skin on my legs tauter and my cheeks felt babysmooth. As I left the hotel, with the sun beaming down on my flushed face and zinging body, it made me think that we should all have more of that sort of thing in our lives – before the sleepless nights, coffees and G&Ts take their toll again… stmichaelshotel.co.uk

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

Exeter School announces new partnership with Exeter Swimming Club EXETER SCHOOL is opening the doors of its new indoor pool to enable swimmers from Exeter Swimming Club to train every week. Members of the Junior Performance, Competitive Fitness and Masters swimming squads will use the indoor swimming pool five days a week to train for competitions across the country. The Chair of Exeter Swimming Club, Dean Drury, said he was very grateful to Exeter School for the opportunity From left to right: Andy Mason, Director of Sport, Dean Drury, Chair of Exeter to use the pool. “It is great to be able to expand Swimming Club, Gary Robb, Master in Charge of Swimming and Jo Johns, our swimming provision by linking in with Head Coach at Exeter Swimming Club Exeter School,” he said.

Director of Sport at Exeter School, Andy Mason said: “The inauguration of the new pool in June 2017 marked the completion of an extensive Sports department build that includes a new fitness suite and free weights room, new indoor rifle range and studio area as well as new changing rooms. Working in partnership with Exeter Swimming Club complements our swimming provision for five Exeter primary schools whose pupils receive swimming lessons, taught and lifeguarded by Exeter School staff, as well as the transport to and from the pool, all free of charge.” As part of the partnership, Exeter School’s sixth formers will be lifeguarding for the Club’s training sessions every evening.

Excitement as cricket stars return to West Buckland PUPILS OF WEST BUCKLAND PREPARATORY School were thrilled when Somerset and England cricketing twins Craig and Jamie Overton returned to their former school accompanied by the Chairman of the North Devon Youth Cricket Association. The players, who have been selected for the England Lions’ forthcoming tour to the UAE, presented young cricketers with their league and district cricket awards and were happy to take part in a lively Q&A session, followed by a quick game out in the playground, facing some impressive U11 bowling. Deputy Headmistress Jan Witheridge was delighted to see the pair. “The twins are great supporters of the school and are always willing to give something back to grass roots cricket in North Devon.”

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Millfield Prep pupil raises over £2,000 for Bath Royal United Hospitals HECTOR REES-DAVIES, from Bath has raised £2,124.50 for the Forever Friends appeal at the Royal United Hospitals in Bath by taking part in an epic bike ride.

Hector was inspired by the former Millfield and Bath rugby player pupil, Ed Jackson, who is raising awareness and funds for rehabilitation charities after suffering from a severe spinal injury in April 2017. During the summer, the 12-year-old cycled 100 miles around the Bath area in 12 hours and collected donations and sponsorships to raise the money. Millfield Prep’s Headmistress, Shirley Shayler, says: “It is fantastic to see our pupils going the extra mile and using their initiative to help others. Pupils like Hector are a great credit to our school, and I am always impressed with our pupils’ creative ways to help raise money for charities. I hope Hector’s bike ride will inspire others to raise money for good causes.”

Colyton opens its doors for external applicants to join the Sixth Form COLYTON GRAMMAR SCHOOL is pleased to offer places in its sixth form to external candidates from 2018/2019.

Due to the students’ achievement of getting into the most competitive higher education courses, Colyton wants to assist more students to reach their potential at A level.

The dynamic sixth form programme is designed to enable students to develop through the Colyton Baccalaureate, which includes 3 A levels, the Extended Project Qualification and structured personal development. The first cohort were welcomed in September and achieved a minimum of 50 points from their best 8 GCSEs (at least grade 5 in English and Maths).

For further information for admissions, there will be a Sixth Form Information Evening on Thursday 15 November or please see colytongrammar.com

Miranda Krestovnikoff is guest speaker at Exeter School’s annual Speech Day GUEST OF HONOUR, the wildlife and diving TV presenter, author and public speaker, Miranda Krestovnikoff, gave an insightful talk to pupils, parents, teachers and governors regarding teachers that had inspired her career at Exeter School’s annual Speech Day evening in September. A biologist and trained diver, Miranda is a resident wildlife expert on BBC One’s The One Show and has presented natural history stories, ranging from robotic ants to rare dolphins, from all around the country. Miranda also specialises in history and archaeological programmes including Channel 4 series Wreck Detectives, BBC2 series Hidden Treasure and the UKTV History production Time Trail. During an afternoon at Exeter School, Miranda spent time with junior school and sixth form pupils, answering many questions and enthusing them about her love of animals and wildlife. In the year Exeter School celebrated its 20th year of coeducation, the Head Boy Ben Harvey and Head Girl Beth Pittman closed proceedings with a vote of thanks to the guest speaker and to the Deputy Lord Mayor who was also in attendance.

CORRECTION

In the last issue of MANOR, in an article entitled Finding Their Feet in the MANOR School section we mistakenly referred to STC Expeditions (thestc.co.uk), as The School Travel Company. This has been corrected on the digital version of the magazine, which can be found at manormagazine.co.uk/issue-archive under Issue 28. We apologise to all those concerned and for any confusion this may have caused readers.

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school

King’s Hall pupils raise money for genetic disorders UK STUDENTS FROM KING’S HALL SCHOOL wore their finest Levis in support of the nationwide ‘Jeans for Genes’ campaign. This is an annual fundraiser for Genetic Disorders UK, the national charity that supports individuals and families affected by these conditions. Money raised on the day helps to fund the work of the charity and provides grants to organisations that transform the lives of over 500,000 UK children living with such disorders. This year, King’s Hall was pleased to support the initiative, with pupils donating £2 in exchange for a day of denim fun. Year 6 pupil Grace, who raised the campaign at a school Pupil Council meeting last year, helped to organise the event alongside Pupil Council Coordinator, Karen Foster. Through the generosity of staff and pupils, a total of £353.51 was raised for the deserving charity.

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THE ART GALLERY The MANOR Art Gallery showcases selected artwork from students of various ages from schools across the South West. In this issue, we present an array of innovative pieces from these budding artists. The standard is exceptional and exhibits the strong, artistic talent emerging from pupils throughout the region. Compiled by Amy Tidy.

Exeter Cathedral School

Chalk Pastel Shell Medium: Pastel Artist: Louisa Chambers, 13 (Year 8) Head of Art and Design, Zoe Reavill: “Louisa is an incredibly talented artist. Her pastel shell was just one of the many pieces of impressive artwork she has produced so far.”

Sea Coral Medium: Ceramic clay Artist: Pablo Gonzalez, 9 (Year 4) Head of Art and Design, Zoe Reavill: “Pablo produced this intricate clay coral sculpture as part of our sea life study project.”

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school THE MANOR SCHOOL ART GALLERY

Maynard School Still life Medium: Acrylic paints on canvas Artist: Helen Du, 17 (Year 11) Head of Art, Zoe Vingoe: “Helen has a wonderful ability to observe, draw and paint with great skill. Helen draws beautifully and with sensitivity. She has a good eye for colour and her work is vibrant and visually exciting. Helen is currently studying A level Art.”

Colyton Grammar School

Little Deer Medium: Clay, wire and acrylic Artist: Hedi Hauskeller, 17 (Year 12) Head of Art, Zoe North: “A fantastic response to an artist she had studied in her sketch book. The tiny wire frame was delicately built up with clay, to produce this finely detailed sculpture. An exquisite piece.”

The Cormorant Medium: Wire, straw and plaster Artist: Max Weavin, 17 (Year 13) Head of Art, Zoe North: “Max did this project instinctively; conceptually, this is a brilliant idea; and structurally, the use of straw and plaster provides a great texture to the oiled bird. It was a delight to see him enthused by this project.”

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THE MANOR SCHOOL ART GALLERY

Kingsley School

Untitled Medium: Oil paint Artist: Finn Ho, 18 (Upper Sixth) Head of Art, Lorayne Southam: “This was only Finn’s third time of using oils and she has done an incredible job. It is the visual image she saw when listening to music by Erik Satie.”

Truro School

The House on the Hill Medium: Acrylic paints Artist: Lara Owen, 18 (Sixth Form) Head of Art, David Meads: “My reason for picking Lara’s painting is that Lara has been one of our art scholars and has performed highly at GCSE and A level gaining an A*. She found her way of working and was able to showcase her skills and experience by producing this painting during her final art exam last summer.

It shows a great confidence and maturity and is the standard we like to aim for at Truro School.”

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school THE MANOR SCHOOL ART GALLERY

Okehampton College Head of Art, Naomi Le Couilliard: “This is a small selection of our current Year 11 Art and Design students’ responses to the project ‘Self Image’. The students looked at a range of artists and experimented with different materials to produce their own individual final pieces.”

Self Image Project Medium: Acrylic on paper Artist: Ella Bowden, 15 (Year 11)

Self Image Project Medium: Acrylic on board Artist: Beth Green, 15 (Year 11)

Torquay Boys’ Grammar School

Burnt Out

Solitude

Medium: High density foam and acrylic paint Artist: Jake Slay, 18 (Year 13) Head of Art, Dave Reshad and Art Teacher, Michele Torocisk: “Jake has found beautiful, aesthetic qualities in an unusual subject.

These sculptures have been produced with great attention to detail that shows a real understanding of his core theme.”

Medium: Oil on canvas Artist: Tallulah Street, 17 (Year 12) Head of Art, Dave Reshad and Art Teacher, Michele Torocisk: “Tallulah’s sensitive handling of materials helps to take the audience to a different place. This harmonious composition feels like a very therapeutic experience.”

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THE MANOR SCHOOL ART GALLERY

Exeter School The Big Draw Medium: Mixed media Artist: Whole School initiative, 7-18 (Junior and Senior School Pupils) Head of Art, Alison Escott: “Each year, the Senior School Art Department encourages pupils from across the Junior and Senior School to participate in The Big Draw. In Autumn 2017, the school community was challenged to create their own portrait in David Hockney’s famous chair from his ‘82 Portraits and 1 Still-life’ exhibition. Over 180 entries were submitted using a diverse range of materials and an animation of the submissions was created for the Private View in the Art Gallery. Such activities promote visual literacy and the universal language of drawing as a tool for learning, expression and invention.”

Stover School Nordic Hound Medium: Embossed copper panel Artist: Sorrel Penman, 15 (Year 11) Teacher of Art, Caroline Wightman: “This piece demonstrates the pupil’s eye for detail and yet her reflective response to different media. Sorrel is an accomplished painter but enjoys experimenting with a range of media and exploring a variety of traditions. She achieved a well-deserved grade 9 for her GCSE Art and Design.”

Our World Medium: Mixed media Artist: Madison Cooper-Thompson, 13 (Year 8) Teacher of Art, Caroline Wightman: “Our World was created with mixed media and using the young artist’s view of her world as her inspiration. We encourage all of our pupils to think creatively and independently to discover their potential and to produce exciting and original outcomes.”

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school THE MANOR SCHOOL ART GALLERY

West Buckland School Head of Art: Cameron Main: “The diversity of responses from one singular starting point never ceases to amaze me. Watching a personal outcome develop has to be one of the most satisfying aspects of teaching and we are very lucky to be part of this process.”

Lake Victoria Medium: Oil on canvas Artist: Miriam Eskandar, 17 (Year 13)

Isobel is dead… long live Isobel Medium: Mixed media and make-up Artist: Natasha Pickering, 16 (Year 12)

The Confessions of Isobel Gowdie Medium: Oil on canvas Artist: Eliza Weeks, 16 (Year 12)

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Starting out

E

Kate Williams, Head of Truro School Nursery, explains why she believes a holistic approach to Early Years education sets children on the very best path.

arly Years education lays the foundation for children’s future. It is the opportunity to develop the intellectual, social, emotional and physical qualities they will need to grow up healthy and happy adults and engender a healthy curiosity for the world around them.

At Truro School Nursery located on the fringes of Truro in Cornwall, we’re lucky to be able to draw on a wide variety of outdoor experiences to assist children’s learning. We believe in a learning experience that is totally holistic.

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opportunity, from Gruffalo hunts in our ‘enchanted garden’ to beach trips to the surrounding coast, we factor these experiences into not only developing the core academics of speaking, reading and writing, but also personal development skills such as self-confidence and self-awareness.

Every child is different, and our teachers are specially trained to identify individual learning styles and adapt their teaching as appropriate. A typical week for our pupils could include swimming, forest school, music, drama, German, French and PE, all led by a subject specialist.

promotional feature

Our forest school lessons are devoted entirely to learning through wildlife. Whether that’s understanding how plants grow or using the garden as part of a maths lesson, it provides the chance to understand something in a practical context that stimulates all of the senses, then feeds back into their learning in the classroom. We’re also able to draw upon a diverse network of alumni and some great partnerships. A recent trip to St Agnes beach involved local fishermen and RNLI lifeguards who led a session dedicated to educating our pupils on the importance of respecting our oceans and the life within them.

Good nutrition, as well as an appreciation and love for food is a priority for children of all ages at Truro School as is our focus on creating a good social network.

Nursery and mealtimes provide a fantastic opportunity for children to establish relationships with one another, and forge some of the very first friendships that could last a lifetime. The holistic approach goes further than what our pupils learn or how they eat; each child becomes part of the Truro School community allowing a seamless transition to Truro School Prep, which applies the same approach to learning and development.

At the end of Reception year, our children are assessed across 17 key areas as part of the Early Learning Goals (ELG) criteria, which covers academic, cognitive and function skills. We believe our holistic approach to nursery education has led to Truro School Nursery pupils achieving 100% scores in not just Speaking,

Kate Williams

Reading and Writing, but also in Being Imaginative, Technology, Health and Self-care, The World, People and Communities and Exploring Through Media.

Truro School is fortunate enough to be surrounded by some of the best beaches, coastline, moorland and woodland in the UK. We make it our duty to not just incorporate our surroundings into our education, but to engender in all our pupils a respect for the outside world that lasts a lifetime.

Truro School’s next Early Years Open Morning for children aged 3+ takes place on 24 November, 10am – 12pm. For more information, visit truroschool.com/nursery-truro/

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Prime Waterfront & Country House

SO U TH H AMS’ L EAD I N G ESTATE AG EN T

Guide price

Georgian house set in approximately 10 acres - Ermington

£1,500,000

A stunning Grade II listed Georgian house set in approximately 10 acres of grounds and gardens, with 2 bedroom gatehouse cottage. Separate office, workshop and gym. Paddocks, American barn, stables and wonderful countryside views. No EPC required.

Plymouth 13, Exeter 34 miles

hotel 6 Bedrooms bathtub 3 Bathrooms furniture 3 Reception Rooms Web Ref: PWC180037

Prime Waterfront & Country House department: 01548 855590

DARTMOUTH 01803 839190

KINGSBRIDGE 01548 857588

MODBURY 01548 831163

NEWTON FERRERS 01752 873311

Modbury office: 01548 831163

SALCOMBE 01548 844473

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TOTNES 01803 847979

PRIME WATERFRONT & COUNTRY HOUSE 01548 855590

Property Property of note: Penson Farm, Diptford, South Devon The Relocator: Penzance, Cornwall | Snapshot comparative

Penson Farm, Diptford. On sales with Marchand Petit for ÂŁ1,750,000 See Property of Note, page 140 marchandpetit.co.uk

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Penson Farm is a prime country house in South Devon with land stretching down to the Avon, and in which old character stylishly meets state-of-the-art function. Imogen Clements has a lingering look.

D

avid Barlow doesn’t hesitate when asked what attracted him to Penson Farm when he bought the property. “The view,” he replies.

“It’s phenomenal. You can make a house as you want it, but you can’t create a view like that.” He’s right. It is breathtaking. Penson Farm sits in its own valley with land rolling down away from it to the River Avon. It is a stone farmhouse, parts of which date 142

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back to the 16th century, updated by the family David bought the property from, but since, under David’s ownership, it has been extended impressively to make the most of its unique and glorious setting.

The main farmhouse has four bedrooms and is a considered and highly tasteful blend of Grade II listed character, and bright airy modern-day architecture. A successful businessman whose work involves a lot of

property of note

travel, David has also made the house fully conducive to his professional needs. He installed a home office in one of the barns set away from the main house and fitted out the entire property with fibre optic cabling to deliver 100MB superfast broadband. This not only ensures perfect connectivity for work needs but also quick and easy streaming of films – which is pertinent, as the house has a substantial, lower ground floor cinema room. For the fitness-focused, the barn housing the home office on the first floor, has a gym on the ground floor – handy for when those work negotiations get stressful and you need to let off steam – and there is planning permission for an indoor pool.

Furthermore, there is a three-bedroom stone barn which could be an obvious source of holiday-letting income. Penson Farm therefore has much to tick the practicality boxes of busy working professionals looking to move their family to the country, particularly if they value privacy. It is set in its own 40 acres of land that comprises fenced pasture and woodland down to the banks of the Avon. The river is apparently just a 10-minute walk from the house. So, with the rational

boxes – connectivity, home office, privacy and holiday let potential – ticked, how does the house stack up on the more emotive measures?

The approach alone pretty much answers that question. Penson Farm is set in the middle of the valley and as you drive down to it you get a sense of its rather special location from the stunning views. The property boasts gardens beautifully landscaped with an abundance of camellias (around 100), azaleas and rhododendrons, and David claims he bought the house pretty much before viewing it, just from what he’d seen online, then on approach. The original stone farmhouse is what greets you. Handsome, welcoming and well-balanced in its layout, it had been renovated by the previous family, but it was David who decided to fully exploit the house’s unique position over its own valley. “The original farmhouse made nothing of the view [practicality and warmth being the key objectives in days of olde] – all the main rooms were facing the wrong way and the windows that looked out over the valley were tiny.”

So he went about tackling that with a nigh-on 900 square foot, fully glazed extension to house the openplan kitchen-dining room. The double aspect glazed walls allow uninterrupted panoramic views over the valley, and the windows open completely onto a terrace which, in turn, looks out over a wide pond. “I’d always wanted to buy a property on water but had never had the budget. The property had a small pond, so we increased its size and brought it closer to sit directly beneath the terrace.” As such, from the kitchen-diner looking out, your eye leads from terrace to water to pristine view, the water adding to the tranquil beauty of the perspective in the way infinity pools do.

Such a wide expanse of water beyond the terrace invites you in and a natural swimming pool immediately comes to mind. Natural swimming pools are in ascendance. Indeed, we have featured them previously in MANOR. “It could be,” agrees David. There is in fact the opportunity to create a natural pool in front of the MANOR | Autumn 2018

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The Snug

Cinema room

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house but, this being the UK, an indoor swimming pool has year-round appeal, so he’d already sought planning permission to turn the orangery into a leisure complex, which was granted. He is, however, selling the house prior to embarking on this, for family reasons. “My parents are both old and quite infirm now, and a long way away in Manchester. I need to be closer to them and recently sold my business, so it seemed the right time to move back.”

David’s business wasn’t actually property development but he’s enjoyed renovating and extending houses before and clearly has an eye for it. In Penson Farm, he’s created the perfect family home. The home office is set away from the main house so offers peace and quiet and concentration; the cinema room and music room can keep the younger members of the family amused for hours, and the impressive state-of-the-art kitchen-dining room leading out onto the terrace with those exceptional views, makes the perfect location for entertaining.

Beyond these man-made qualities, there is, with the farm, nature in abundance – endless fields and valley to roam, right down to the banks of the Avon, where Penson Farm has a half share of 70 yards of fishing rights.

The farm’s 40 acres of pasture, currently rented by local farmers, is suitable for sheep or horses (there is an old manège on the grounds also) and leads down to the woodland that adjoins the river. “I cleared some of it in order to create a wood cabin down there, but that will

property of note

need to be something the next owners choose to do, or not.” (Should they wish to, it may be worth referring back to page 108 of this very same issue...). Plus, of course, in Bantham, there is one of the best surfing beaches in the South West just around the corner.

Penson Farm has what few houses muster – it has evolved to combine the mod cons typical of a new build with the character and cosiness of the more historical building that it started out as. The reception rooms and bedrooms retain the beams, nooks and crannies that you would expect in a house that dates back to medieval times. “There is,” reveals David, “a magnificent inglenook in the sitting room adjacent to which is an ancient circular smoking room for smoking meat. When the inglenook was opened out by the previous owners, the smoke room revealed itself and it was these features that ensured the house became listed.” The result is prettiness combined with sleek; architectural wow factor alongside medieval character; connectivity and entertainment potential (wired or social) with a homely, in-front-of-an-open-fire appeal. Plus of course for the green-fingered, there is the impressive garden.

Penson Farm essentially has something for everyone packaged tastefully into a highly liveable home, and

one that’s easy to get back and forth to/from the capital, either by train via Totnes (direct line to London and just six miles away) or by air from Exeter (28 miles via the A38 Devon Expressway, which itself leads to the M5).

As such, it seems the ideal solution for any family looking to break free from the city but wary of not coping with a traditional country home (which they may perceive as being isolated and devoid of mod cons). Penson Farm is located in Diptford, a village with a good primary school, village tennis court and a strong local community, and is just seven miles away from Totnes with its rich array of shops, galleries and restaurants. This house is effectively easy transition for townies looking for rural idyll.

Penson Farm, a four-bedroom farmhouse with additional three-bedroom stone barn, home office, gym and further outbuildings, set in 40 acres, is on the market for £1,750,000 with Marchand Petit. Tel: 01843 847979 marchandpetit.co.uk

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Prime Waterfront & Country House

SO U TH H AMS’ L EAD I N G ESTATE AG EN T

Farmhouse with adjoining cottage and sea view - Near Holbeton Plymouth 11 miles, A38 7 miles, Mothecombe Beach 1.5 miles

hotel 6 Bedrooms bathtub 3 Bathrooms furniture 3 Reception Rooms

Guide price

£1,300,000

A rare opportunity to purchase a well-proportioned coastal farmhouse with sea view, adjoining 3 bedroom cottage, walled garden, outbuildings and about 5 acres of gardens and paddocks, in a superbly unspoilt yet accessible location. EPC Rating G.

Web Ref: MOD150174

Prime Waterfront & Country House department: 01548 855590

DARTMOUTH 01803 839190

KINGSBRIDGE 01548 857588

MODBURY 01548 831163

NEWTON FERRERS 01752 873311

Newton Ferrers office: 01752 873311

SALCOMBE 01548 844473

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TOTNES 01803 847979

PRIME WATERFRONT & COUNTRY HOUSE 01548 855590

property

The Relocator tours the South West on your behalf to get an on-the-ground insight on hotspots in the region in order to assess their relocation potential. We do our research and talk to residents, businesses and estate agents to get the lowdown on…

PENZANCE, CORNWALL

St Michael’s Mount

Penzance is a port town on the south coast of Cornwall. It is a gateway to Land’s End and was the first town in the UK to achieve the ‘Plastic Free Coastlines’ approved status in December 2017. Boasting exotic palms and a wide array of Georgian architecture, Penzance also has a thriving arts scene, with many independent galleries and attractions that include the Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens and Morrab Gardens. It has M5 easy access to a wide selection of beaches, the majestic St Michael’s Mount and pretty little fishing harbours SOMERSET such as Mousehole.

Over recent years, Penzance has received considerable investment leading to a number of A303 exciting projects – for example, to make the town’s Jubilee Pool the UK’s first geothermally M5 DEVON heated pool and for the Penzance Heliport A30 to begin restoring Penzance as the helicopter DORSET Exeter Airport gateway to the Isles of Scilly.

Penzance has tended to be A30 Exeter outshone by its neighbours St Ives, Padstow and Falmouth, but Dartmoor seems now on the radar A380 A38 amongst property Padstow prospects – so what exactly does it have Newquay Airport CORNWALL to offer?

A385 Plymouth Dartmouth St Austell Truro St Ives

Falmouth

Penzance Sennen

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AN ESTATE AGENT’S OPINION… Jonathan Cunliffe, who has worked as an estate agent in Cornwall for 25 years, gives his opinion: “Penzance is a place where people fall in love with the housing. There’s a vast amount of Georgian property, a lot more than in most parts of Cornwall. There are quite a lot of Georgian streets and mews around gardens – so, very similar to certain parts of London.”

He goes on to cite value: “Compared to other parts of the county, you can get more for your money and there is a wider selection of property available. If you were looking up to £600k in the Penzance area, you’d have a lot more choice than what you would in Falmouth or St Ives – a lot more.”

Beyond architecture and property value, it’s the variety that Penzance offers that makes it attractive.

“Penzance has a bit of everything: If you just think about the combination of the sea, Georgian property and the arts, that’s quite rare really.”

Jubilee Pool

Located on the picturesque Chapel Street is the art gallery, Cornwall Contemporary, with three floors of exhibition space. Director Sarah Brittain-Mansbridge reveals how Penzance is a fitting location for business. Knowing the area well, Sarah chose Penzance as the location for the gallery back in 2006. “I could see the potential of starting a business here and it’s been the best decision I ever made. What I love about Penzance is its large variety of independent traders: clothing boutiques, retro shops, bookshops… it’s a treasure trove of interest with considerable character.”

Sarah explains how, over recent years, there’s been a shift from St Ives. “In the 12 years that I have been running Cornwall Contemporary, I have seen Penzance grow to become a major player in the arts scene,” she explains. “It has a real community and people are keen to be involved in the arts, whether they are artists themselves or not. It’s a very integral part of society.” Logistically, Penzance is easier to get around, with better parking facilities and has direct access by train to London. “St Ives is beautiful and will always attract a huge audience for its scenery and arts history, but lately I think people are preferring to use Penzance as a base for their holiday or even to relocate permanently.”

Suzie Sinclair and Alastair Till are the owners of the highly acclaimed Newlyn Filmhouse, the first cinema in Newlyn for more than 50 years. Newlyn is part of the Penzance civil parish about a mile along the coast.

With the region demonstrating a heightened curiosity for arts and culture, in 2016 the pair decided to restore a former fish merchant’s premises and convert it to an independent cinema, showing an array of NT Live and other performances (including ballet, theatre and opera), 148

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PHOTO: DANNY PARKER

WHAT THE SMALL BUSINESS OPERATOR SAYS…

Newlyn Filmhouse

alongside arthouse and independent films. There was clearly a demand – the cinema has had a keen following ever since its inception. “We found December through to March to be our busiest times (other than the odd wet day in August), and attendances proved just how much Newlyn/Penzance was in need of our facility,” explains Suzie. People are coming to the region, enticed by the arts and culture that is on offer.

Community is an important element for many when choosing an area to live and venues such as the Newlyn Filmhouse bring communities together. Suzie considers today’s flexible lifestyle to be an important factor in the region’s resurgence: “With the internet much improved, young families are moving here for a better way of life, whilst still working in their chosen field.”

WHAT THE RESIDENT SAYS… In 2015, Susan Stuart opened Chapel House, a boutique hotel on Chapel Street. “When I decided it was time to move from London, Penzance was on a fairly short list of possible places to live. Chapel House stole my heart and made the decision for me!” It wasn’t the massive transition that you’d imagine. “Penzance has a distinctly urban feel to it. It’s certainly not chocolate box and it’s not sleepy, so in many ways there wasn’t a big culture shock moving down here. The biggest difference is being so close to the

property SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION There are many primary schools nearby, most having good or outstanding Ofsted reports. There is a good selection of secondary state schools, with Mounts Bay Academy and Penwith Alternative Provision Academy achieving ‘outstanding’ from Ofsted. Independent schools – Truro School, Truro High School and Powlhele House School – are all located 45 minutes away in Truro. St Piran’s School in Hayle is only 20 minutes away.

Supporting Penzance’s artistic colony, Newlyn School of Art is around 10 minutes from Penzance while Falmouth University can be reached in an hour and is renowned for encouraging a cross section of creative talent at higher education level.

TRAVEL AND GETTING AROUND

Georgian five-storey, four-bedroom terrace house on South Parade. On the market with Marshall’s for £535,000.

sea and countryside. Where I lived in South London, it could take an hour to just get to the main road!”

Susan feels the hospitality sector, in particular, has potential. “I’d like to see the hospitality sector become more recognised and viable, but wages are often low and seasonality remains an issue. The issue needs to be tackled with better wages and wider career opportunities which will lead to a higher standard of service and more value for customers.”

Kelsey and David Lynch have always lived in Penzance. Kelsey works in the town and David commutes daily to Camborne by car, which takes half an hour on a good day. Kelsey explains how they’ve seen the town change over the years: “Penzance has definitely become busier with tourists and people visiting the region. It has been really noticeable over the past couple of years and for longer periods of time. It used to be just the summer months where you saw an influx of people, but now it can be just as busy in October.”

It has been the easy access to the coast and countryside that has prevented lifelong residents Kelsey and David from moving elsewhere. “Behind our house we have a public footpath that leads through Gulval and on towards St Ives or Ludgvan. Some days we do think we should move for better job opportunities but being surrounded by such an amazing setting, we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” David says.

The geographical location of Penzance has pros and cons.

It sits on the south facing shore of Mounts Bay, boasting exceptional views, but is fairly remote and takes a lengthy five and a half hours to reach London on a direct train.

However, there is a good and improved sleeper service from Penzance to London popular with commuters. GWR has invested considerably recently in its service improving not only the trains’ accommodation but also shower and refreshment services available to passengers on arrival at Paddington. Alternatively, Cornwall Airport at Newquay is an hour’s drive and there are flights daily to the capital.

PROPERTY As Penzance is one of the largest towns in Cornwall, there is a wide variety of property available, including detached homes, town houses and terraced houses.

Chapel Street to Parade Street boasts classic Georgian townhouses, close to the sea with considerable appeal. A big family home with five or more bedrooms and a sea view can be found for between £500k–£600k, which, compared to other parts of the county, is good value.

The Relocator’s verdict…

Penzance is looking to many to be the ‘new Falmouth’ – arty and authentic with a good urban vibe, but close to the sea offering easy access to picturesque beaches, harbours and sights that draw people from across the country. Moreover, property in Penzance, including substantial and impressive family houses, offer better value than many of its Cornish coastal town counterparts.

As the potential of the town is realised, more inward investment will create wider job opportunities. Access to Penzance, however, has been a barrier to many, but with GWR’s sleeper services and Newquay’s airport, coupled with broadband facilitating flexible lifestyles, this is likely to change.

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Prime Waterfront & Country House

SO U TH H AMS’ L EAD I N G ESTATE AG EN T

Guide price

Beautiful barn conversion in 3 acres - Near Stoke Gabriel

£1,000,000

An immaculately presented 4 bedroom home in the heart of this popular hamlet with approximately 3 acres, detached garage and separate detached workshop, ideal for conversion if required, with lovely countryside views and ample parking. EPC Rating C.

Totnes 4 miles, Exeter 24 miles, Plymouth 25 miles

hotel 4 Bedrooms bathtub 3 Bathrooms furniture 2 Reception Rooms Web Ref: TOT120118

Prime Waterfront & Country House department: 01548 855590

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TOTNES 01803 847979

PRIME WATERFRONT & COUNTRY HOUSE 01548 855590

Prime Waterfront & Country House

SO U TH H AMS’ L EAD I NG ESTATE AG E NT

Georgian farmhouse in lovely grounds - Down Thomas, Nr Plymouth

Guide price

£850,000

An immaculately presented and substantial detached former Georgian farmhouse in established private grounds on the edge of a delightful South Hams coastal village and set within a superb rural setting enjoying captivating views across rolling countryside.

Located close to beaches. EPC Rating D.

Wembury 1.3 miles, Plymouth 4 miles, A38 7 miles

hotel 5 Bedrooms bathtub 2 Bathrooms furniture 3 Reception Rooms Web Ref: MOD180089

Prime Waterfront & Country House department: 01548 855590

DARTMOUTH 01803 839190

KINGSBRIDGE 01548 857588

MODBURY 01548 831163

NEWTON FERRERS 01752 873311

Newton Ferrers office: 01752 873311

SALCOMBE 01548 844473

TOTNES 01803 847979

PRIME WATERFRONT & COUNTRY HOUSE 01548 855590

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01803 505115 info@chartsedge.co.uk

Jubilee Road, Totnes, Devon

Impressive Detached Victorian Home Situated in beautifully landscaped gardens in one of the best roads in Totnes this is a very well maintained family home set behind electric gates. It is a short walk into town and benefits from garages, ample parking and a workshop.

• Large Victorian Home • Beautifully Presented • 5-6 Bedrooms, 3 Bathrooms • 3 Reception Rooms

• Potential Annex • Large Gardens • Garages and Ample Parking • Solar Panels (Income approx. £572 pa)

Price £875,000 152 chartsedge.co.uk

MANOR | Autumn 2018

35 Fore Street, Totnes, Devon TQ9 5HN

property

Snapshot comparative Properties in the South West and one from London that would suit art lovers.

Old Stone Court, Newton Abbot Guide Price: £645,000

Devon

Old Stone Court is one of five houses on Halwell Farm, accessed via a no through lane. A three-bedroom contemporary barn conversion located in an idyllic position. Upon entering, there is an impressive living/ kitchen and dining space with vaulted beamed ceilings.

The property offers a stone built outbuilding, currently being used as a ceramic studio and a store room/ workshop with shaded patio area and grape vine above. marchandpetit.co.uk

Cornwall

Goenrounsen House, near Newquay Guide Price: £1,350,000 A double-fronted, Grade II listed Georgian residence, Goenrounsen House has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a relaxing garden room and, with a number of outbuildings, has potential for an artist studio. The surrounding gardens create a parkland setting, leading to a lake, orchards and large planting area. There is a sought-after option of additional income – a delightful two-bedroom detached holiday barn, set away from the house. rohrsandrowe.co.uk

Devon

Uphill, Dartmoor National Park Guide Price: £975,000 Uphill is a five-bedroom, Grade I listed property with many character features and a charming twobedroom holiday cottage. Originally part of the old 14th century Manor House, which was divided in the 1950s. It has an inspiring Solar sitting room, beautifully preserved with striking beams within the high vaulted ceilings, a wood burner upon a slate plinth and Gothic windows. struttandparker.com

Rainville Road, London Guide Price: £1,350,000

London

Thames Reach is a popular riverside development designed by renowned architect, Richard Rogers. This spacious, twodouble bedroom, two-bathroom apartment has views of the River Thames across to the iconic Harrods Depository building and down to Hammersmith Bridge. The property offers a large reception room with an open plan kitchen. Located 0.8 miles from Hammersmith underground station, offering easy access to Central London and an abundance of galleries. savills.co.uk

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In an unrivalled position overlooking Cathedral Green in the heart of Exeter, these first-rate residences are unmatched in the area.

A prestigious development of just seven luxury apartments in a Grade II listed building dating back over 200 years, the apartments enjoy direct views over the historic Cathedral and bustling high street.

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MANOR | Autumn 2018 155 burringtonestates.com/residential/cathedral-view

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Spend Christmas in your new Bovis Home and receive

£3,000 towards your Christmas festivities We’re adding to the excitement this Christmas by offering you £3,000 worth of John Lewis Vouchers for you to spend on your dream Christmas in your brand new Bovis Home.

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bovishomes.co.uk Photographs shows a typical Bovis Homes interior. Available 158 MANOR | Autumn 2018 on selected plots only and subject to completion on or before 19th December 2018. Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or purchase assistance scheme. Vouchers will be issued on completion. For further details please see your development specific sales advisor.

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To advertise here please email advertising@manormagazine.co.uk or call 07887 556447 FASHION OSKA 18 Fore Street St Ives TR26 1AB T 01736 797219 Mon to Sat 10 am – 5.30 pm Sunday 11 am – 4.30 pm stives.oska.com

INTERIORS

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To advertise here please email advertising@manormagazine.co.uk or call 07887 556447

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back page prize draw

an original painting by renowned French artist, David Jamin

F

or this issue’s prize draw, MANOR has teamed up with Art World Gallery, Falmouth, to offer an original framed painting by David Jamin, along with a book compiling the artist’s work. Plaisir de Lire is painted with acrylic on canvas and measures 41 x 33 cm. It is worth £750 and featured on page 66 of the book, which shows the variety of the artist’s work and demonstrates his collectability.

David Jamin has been represented

by Art World Gallery for over 16 years. David started as an emerging artist and the gallery set about building his career throughout the UK. He is now world-renowned.

Art World Gallery was established nearly 20 years ago by Chris and Ellie Ixer. Originally from the Cotswolds the couple moved their art business to Falmouth four years ago. The gallery has built a reputation for selling high quality art from France, Italy, Austria, Ireland, Canada and of course the UK, not forgetting some very special Cornish art.

Plaisir de Lire on page 66 of the book

Plaisir de Lire by David Jamin from Art World Gallery (artworldltd.com)

HOW TO ENTER To win this work of art, the book and have all shipped directly to you (free shipping applies to UK residents only; any winner based abroad will need to cover transit), go to manormagazine.co.uk/backpageprizedraw. The draw closes at midnight on 30 November 2018 and the winner will be informed within 48 hours by email along with details on how to claim their prize.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS : The prize is an original work of art by David Jamin titled: Plaisir de Lire, framed, Art World Gallery, Falmouth

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and a book of the work of David Jamin. The prize cannot be exchanged for a cash alternative; nor will any negotiations be entered into regarding exchange of the prize. All terms and conditions along with MANOR Magazine’s Privacy Policy can be found at manormagazine.co.uk

ABSOLUTE | ETHICAL | LUXURY

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MANOR | Autumn 2018 87 Queen Street,

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