SUBSCRIBE TO H&G Your favourite

SUBSCRIBE

Save 30% plus receive a free chopping board

WORTH £20

THIS BAMBOO VERSION OF THE JOSEPH JOSEPH AWARD-WINNING CHOP2POT™ CHOPPING BOARDS IS THE PERFECT SURFACE FOR CHOPPING YOUR FRUIT, VEG AND MEAT ON. WITH AN INNOVATIVE FOLDING DESIGN FOR EASY FOO TRANSFER, IT IS THE PERFECT ADDITION TO YOUR KITCHEN.

Annual subscription £42.99 Never miss an issue with every copy delivered to your door

TWO EASY WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE

Online at homesandgardenssubs.com/apr21 By phone 0330 333 1113

Quote Code 28BY Lines open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm (UK Time)

*T&CS: Offer closes 5 April 2021. Offer open to new subscribers only. Direct Debit offer is available to UK subscribers only. £42.99 payable by annual Direct Debit. Please allow up to six weeks for delivery of your first subscription issue (up to eight weeks overseas). Payment is nonrefundable after the 14 day cancellation period unless exceptional circumstances apply. Your gift will be delivered separately within 60 days after your first payment has cleared. Gifts only available to subscribers on the UK mainland. In the unlikely event that we run out of this gift, we promise to offer you an alternative gift of the same or greater value. For full terms and conditions, visit magazinesdirect.com/terms. For enquiries please call: +44 (0) 330 333 1113. Lines are open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm UK time or e-mail: help@magazinesdirect.com. Calls to 0330 numbers will be charged at no more than a national landline call and may be included in your phone provider’s call bundle.

THE COUNTRY FILES

Frieda Gormley, co-founder of House of Hackney, on getting back to nature and the hidden gems in her part of Cornwall

TEN years ago Frieda Gormley co-founded the luxury interiors and lifestyle brand House of Hackney with her husband Javvy M Royle. They were renovating their Victorian home in east London at the time and wanted to find products in their signature style, but that were manufactured in the UK. The brand has grown to include fabrics, wallpapers and furnishings, with many created working in collaboration with Royal-Warrantholding craftspeople. A decade on and two children later, the couple have moved to the Castle of Trematon in Saltash, Cornwall. In 2020, they turned their home into a pop-up B&B and this year they have launched their SS21 collection, The Fantastical World of Flora Fantasia, which is inspired by the fairy-tale gardens surrounding the castle.

n Being in Cornwall, surrounded by nature, has been so nourishing. The beautiful estate we live on is a place of fantasy and escapism, which is what we’ve needed in tough times. It can feel like being in another world. Nature is our biggest muse.

n I swim in the Tamar Estuary every day of the year, whatever the weather. Actually, it’s even more joyous in the rain. It gives me the most incredible health and wellbeing boost and I just feel so incredibly lucky to be able to do it.

n When we moved to Cornwall from London, funnily enough our main concern was ‘are we going to be able to get our favourite coffee?’. But we’ve found that Cornwall is actually amazing for coffee; Yallah is roasted in Falmouth.

n Moving here has made us so much more conscious of our environmental footprint. We’re trying to be more plastic-free and also support the local producers. We get a weekly produce delivery from a community of growers called Keveral, which includes a wonderful box of Coombeshead Farm sourdough bread.

n The Tamar Valley was historically one of the most fertile areas of the UK, but because of invasive farming the soil has become overused. People here are committed to changing that, such as Michelinstarred chef Dan Cox, who heads up the regenerative farm Melilot. This summer (if Covid allows) I think we’ll see more farm-to-table restaurants opening and putting this area on the map in a beautiful way.

n At the weekends we like to take our ridgeback dog and two children walking in Rame Head. Up there is The Canteen at Maker Heights, which was started by Nick Platt, an ex-River Cottage chef, and it has the most amazing breakfasts and Sunday lunches.

n We love Porthcurnick Beach because it’s got this incredible beach café called The Hidden Hut, which does lunches such as fresh mackerel salad and coconut dahl – so not your normal beach food.

n My secret antiques treasure trove is actually in Somerset, but it’s worth the drive. It’s called Wessex Beds, although they sell actually everything. The owner Jeremy has the most amazing eye.

n I love art and there’s a gallery that I go to that has famous Cornish artists called Livingstone St Ives. I particularly love an artist called Henrietta Dubrey.

n Over the last year I feel that people have become increasingly attached to the idea of having beautiful products in their home knowing where they’ve come from and who has made them. It’s the same as caring about the provenance of the food you eat. I believe in the positive energies of an inanimate object. &

n houseofhackney.com

Frieda and Javvy The trove at Wessex Beds

NEWS

Livingstone St Ives gallery Porthcurnick Beach’s The Hidden Hut Melilot Farm is committed to regenerative agriculture

“THE BEAUTIFUL ESTATE WE LIVE ON – WITHIN THE CASTLE OF TREMATON – IS A PLACE OF FANTASY AND ESCAPISM, WHICH IS WHAT WE’VE NEEDED IN TOUGH TIMES”

Sourdough bread from Coombeshead Farm

The house and gardens in the grounds of Castle Trematon

NEWS

THE SUSTAINABLE HOME

Designer Sebastian Cox charts the renovation of his home, one inspiring and innovatively eco-friendly idea at a time

We’re lucky to live within a shell’s throw of Margate beach. It has been a lifeline offering sea air to clear the mind. Daily, the beach changes. The Westbrook end, nearest our home, can go from being a narrow slither of sand, to a 10-minute walk to the shore over slippery chalk, depending on how the moon pulls the water, sand and kelp. On an outing with the toddler and the terrier recently, I received a callback from our energy supplier, Ecotricity. In view of the 13.5 square mile Thanet Offshore Wind Farm, with a hooley blowing my little girl to her knees, and the caller’s charming Gloucestershire accent rolling down the phone, it felt like the kind of brand experience 21st-century marketing can only strive for. I like green energy.

Britain is a gentle landscape; no vast wildernesses, extreme temperatures or unconquerable mountains. Reputed for fog, drizzle and pastoral hills rather than snowstorms, surfing or heatwaves, it’s rare to find ourselves top-ranking in macho-natural charts. But we lead on global wind resource potential, with a combination of high wind speeds and large shallow seabeds. Our position geographically means we could be, as Boris Johnson put it, ‘the Saudi Arabia of wind’. Handily, wind blows hardest in winter, when we need more energy. This could give us the backbone of a green energy mix fit for Net Zero, currently targeted for 2050. Some argue, and I believe them, that 2050 is cutting it too fine, so I urge people to switch to a green company, like Ecotricity, to keep green technology improving.

Wind saves the day, then. Well, not quite. The effort of powering up our energy must also be balanced by powering down our demand. Despite our renewable energy potential, we cannot meet our current consumption levels with green sources alone. Ten thousand offshore turbines would just about cover half of it, and that’s ambitious. As with all environmental convictions we must reduce too, halving what we use.

I’ve written previously about the importance of insulating homes, so here I invite consideration of our

Wind power is one of the UK’s best sources of renewable energy

other domestic energy demands via the appliances we buy. Technological efficiencies are making our gadgets more energy efficient and household electricity use is declining, back down to mid 1990s levels. This is a trajectory that must continue. Buying A+ energy rated goods makes a difference, reducing energy use and bills. Importantly, it also casts a vote. Accumulated consumer spending can become more potent than an election ballot when it comes to environmental issues, because companies are listening. Micro-votes like these have been contributing to a feedback loop between consumers, companies and legislators with businesses now so attuned to our preferences and motivations to buy, that the loop is shorter and faster paced than five year electoral cycles. This has formed part of the picture of the recent palpable shifting culture and public mood, and will continue to as we reinforce positive products or services with our green pounds. Whether it’s a fridge or the electricity that supplies it, buying the greenest version you can afford both invests in improvement and signals to the company that makes it that progress matters. &