My H O M E
A home on Rutherford Street that once housed one of the early settler families of Nelson is now home to the Ransom family of five (plus four chickens). Tom Ransom and his family have spent much of their time over the past five years restoring the heritage home in the most sustainable ways they can to be a comfortable family home, sometimes taking a break to enjoy camping in their much-loved tipi.
Tess Jaine
Where is your home and who lives here?
with pictures, beach photographs and a framed Isle
Our home is up near Rustic Cuisine Café (best lemon tarts in town) at the top of Rutherford Street. It’s the original 1862 house of the Snow family who arrived on the settler ship ‘The London’. It’s built covering the top of a small rise, known locally as ‘Snows Hill’. Marijke and I and our three children, Ollie, Esme and Zoe live here and have been in the house for nearly five years.
of Wight Festival poster.
What inspired this look?
Commission. This rug and several other possessions
The house itself, inspires you to remember the past. We often think of all the different people who have slept, worked and relaxed here. Our possessions fit that feel as they are mostly all second-hand and have memories from our past. Our kitchen is kind of a shrine to the Isle of Wight where we used to live,
What piece would you never part with? I have a massive Persian rug that my mum, who was once an antiques dealer, gave me. It’s been with us both here and in the UK. Before I could afford a house, I lived in a tipi in a former royal hunting forest where I was a ranger for the Forestry in the house come from this time. I also have a collection of metal trunks I used to keep the mice out and a mini wood burner with an oven to do baking. We still have a tipi now and use it for camping trips. With a fire inside, rugs and cowskins on the floor, the tipi is still as much our home as the house.
ABOVE: Marijke and Tom Ransom with their daughter Zoe, in the living room of their 1862 heritage home.
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