FarmingFashionCarsDesignDogsHorsesVintageTechFood&Livingthelife Autumn 2022 Give us a twirl
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next-generation
LETTER6 FROM THE DUKE OF RICHMOND
The Duke of Richmond
With Revival just around the corner, we turn our attention in this issue of Goodwood Magazine to all things vintage. Dandy Wellington, the New York-based vintage impresario and bandleader who will lead our Revive and Thrive Village at this year’s festival, coined a phrase that is very much in tune with our own love of retro style: “Vintage style, not vintage values” is his motto, meaning that revelling in the aesthetic pleasures and creations of the past does not equate to backwardlooking attitudes. Indeed, for many of the Vintage Radicals like Dandy who are interviewed in our feature on p60, the love of old clothes, mending and upcycling chimes with their commitment to sustainability and a progressive approach to life. Of course, the past contains seeds of the future – and so many creatives, designers and makers find their inspiration there. Now labels such as Gucci and Valentino have gone one step further, and are buying back wonderful pieces from past collections to sell alongside their latest designs (p80). Old is the new New, it seems. Elsewhere in the issue we enjoy the rich beauty of artworks inspired by the Sussex countryside in a stunning collection of paintings, sculpture and tapestry soon to be on show at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester (p52). As the show’s curator explains, the paths that criss-cross the Downs, which are so often depicted by artists, give a sense of “walking in the present moment and through time as well”. We also meet the New Farmers, a diverse tribe of men and women, often from non-farming backgrounds, who are embracing rural life and bringing new ideas and energy into the sector (p38). British farming is surely the richer for them. This year Ferrari is celebrating an important anniversary, something we will be marking at Revival. The marque has played a key part in many dramatic moments at the Goodwood Motor Circuit. We recollect five of the best on p72.
WHAT GOES AROUND
And lastly, not forgetting our canine friends – such a large part of Goodwood life – we meet Minnow, one of the stars of a new book that celebrates the British love affair with dogs (p16). As Minnow’s owner, the designer Jasper Conran, explains, “If you’ve had a dog it feels like a blank space when you don’t. They bring the house to life.” We couldn’t agree more, and we look forward to welcoming you and your friends – canine and otherwise – to Goodwood very soon.
travelsTimethe world.
VOYAGEUR TIME, A HERMÈS OBJECT.
ARCEAU LE TEMPS
Helen Bratby Ewa Dykas
Alun Callender
Deputy editor Alex Moore Art director Sara Redhead Sub-editor Damon Syson Design
Alyssa Boni
Alyssa, who shot this issue’s cover, is an award-winning photographer and film-maker specialising in fashion and beauty. Having started her career at Kurt Geiger in London, she has since become a multidisciplinary creative, directing editorial and campaign projects for global luxury brands such as Bulgari and Chanel.
Mia Aimaro Ogden
© Copyright 2022 Uncommonly Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission from the publisher. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for any errors it may contain.
8CONTRIBUTORS
The front cover shows a 1950s Fredrica dress from Modes and More, with Palter DeLiso heels, photographed by Alyssa Boni and styled by Tilly Hardy
Oliver Bennett
An award-winning commercial and editorial photographer,portraitAlunhas recently shot Tracey Emin, Jamie Oliver and Grayson Perry. For this issue of Goodwood he travelled to North Yorkshire to photograph aerophile Richard Menage with his collection of meticulously restored vintage aircraft.
In-House Editor for Goodwood Catherine Peel catherine.peel@goodwood.com
Goodwood Magazine is published on behalf of The Goodwood Estate Company Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 0PX, by Uncommonly Ltd, 30-32 Tabard Street, London, SE1 4JU. For enquiries regarding Uncommonly, contact Sarah Glyde: sarah@uncommonly.co.uk
Picture editor Joe Hunt
Former style editor of The Observer, Tamsin is now editor of Hole & Corner magazine. She has written several books, including Green Is the New Black: How to Change the World with Style (Hodder), and is special projects curator for Fashion Revolution, the world’s biggest fashion activism campaign.
Assistant to the editor Jonathan Wilson
Editors Gill JamesMorganCollard
After initiating the beauty pages at The Sunday Times Style magazine, Emma enjoyed a long stint as lifestyle director of Wallpaper* magazine. She now writes about emerging trends in design, wellness, grooming and gastronomy. For this issue she investigates fermented drinks such as kefir and kombucha.
Project director Sarah Glyde
Mia is an journalistAnglo-Italianandtheproud owner of a rescue dog called Parker, with whom she has had the pleasure of travelling around Europe. Mia has worked for The Sunday Times and The Guardian, and for this issue she takes a look at Hedi Slimane’s new canine collection for Celine. Emma Moore
Tamsin Blanchard
Oliver is a writer, journalist and editor who has worked for a wide variety of national newspapers. A keen believer in all things local, he recently set up a newspaper, EC1 Echo, in his andofheneighbourhood.ClerkenwellInthisissuelooksatthenewgenerationBritishfarmersfromdiversenon-farmingbackgrounds.
The ex-Bruce McLaren 1964 3.9-LITRE COOPER-ZEREX-OLDSMOBILE ENQUIRIES +44 (0) 20 7468 ukcars@bonhams.com5801 bonhams.com/motorcars NOW ACCEPTING ENTRIES The Golden Age of Motoring London | 4 November The Bond Street Sale London | 16 December Catalogue now online Important Collectors’ Motor Cars and Automobilia Chichester, Sussex | 17 September 2022
35 The power of the dog
20 Work it
Our guide to creating the ultimate home library
Don’t throw away that designer piece – vintage fashion is so in demand, luxury brands are buying back their own archives
96 Lap of honour
Remembering Lord George Bentinck, the man credited with inventing the horsebox
10
We visit Richard Menage, restorer of some of the world’s most beautiful vintage aircraft, including a stunning 1929 Klemm L.25 that will be on show at this year’s Revival
Wearing second-hand clothes isn’t just about nostalgia – it’s often a way to express your integrity, ethics and politics
Meet Mya-Rose Craig, author, birdspotter, environmentalist – and still only 20 years old
Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson on racing heroes, Revival and enjoying the ride
It's a dog's life
START finish
A new exhibition at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester celebrates the work of artists inspired by the Sussex countryside
16
It’s official: playing a round of golf is good for you
18
The humble overall has been given a glam makeover and is all over fashion catwalks
How a collector of antique bikes turned his passion into a fascinating online museum
14 Contacts
In the year Ferrari celebrates its 75th birthday, we look back at the marque’s most memorable appearances at the Goodwood Motor Circuit
27 Sitting pretty
British agriculture is undergoing a renaissance.
52 Force of nature
Radical vintage
32 Boxing clever
Parisian house Celine is the latest luxury brand catering to four-legged fashionistas
72 Horse power
24 Book smart
The miraculous health benefits of fermented drinks
Top: Gui Rosa shorts and boots from Gucci Vault, the brand’s new online concept store (p82). Above: Beach and Star Fish, Seven Sisters Cliff, Eastbourne by John Piper (p52)
The unmissable events at Goodwood this autumn, including Bonfire Night
38 The new farmers
Burt Glinn’s iconic 1966 shoot with a 16-year-old Twiggy
22 Time machines
46 Up, up and away
In praise of the Austin Seven, Britain’s rival to the Model T
The new Hermès Selle Rouge is saddle-making at its finest
29 Health club
What's brewing
Revival’s much-loved junior pedal-car race, the Settrington Cup, returns for its 10th outing
CONTENTS ESTATEPIPERCOLLECTION/THEJERWOODVAULT;GUCCITOP:FROM
68 High flyer
Jasper Conran, one of the stars of a new book about Brits and their canine comrades, on his beloved pet
30
Meet the new crop of farming pioneers who are helping to revitalise the industry
You’ve come a long way, baby
Shorts
80 What, this old thing?
Features
60
36 Whizz kids
89 Calendar
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Start
There’s often a clear link between women’s fashions and the popular dances of their era. What better for waltzing around a ballroom than a crinoline dress, for example? But only a fool would attempt a Charleston in one – not when you’ve got a drop-waisted flapper dress to hand. During the 1940s skirts got fuller again – all the more fabulous, surely, for women executing the dizzying “aerials” that characterised swing-era dances such as the lindy hop and jitterbug (as danced with aplomb at Goodwood Revival every year). And they got fuller still in the 1950s – the era of the twist and the cha-cha – when the frock gracing our cover was designed by Frederick Starke, a man about town who sold his upmarket ready-to-wear Fredrica label from his showrooms on Bruton Street (and who would later dress Honor Blackman in The Avengers). And let’s not forget the shoes, with heels high enough to produce that swishy walk – but not so high that you’ll come a cropper on the dance floor. These beauties were handmade by Palter DeLiso, a leading American brand stocked by Bonwit Teller –at this time a department store on New York’s Fifth Avenue, renowned for “stupendous luxury”. My, the glamour of it all.
SHORTS CONTACTS
The contact sheet shows Twiggy, impish as ever, yawning, pouting and fidgeting. Glinn did capture a more formal, pensive portrait, but it was another puckish test shot that really captured our hearts – on both sides of the Atlantic.
“To be honest I don’t really remember this particular shoot – it must have been very early on in my career,” says the model and actress, who was made a dame in 2019 for her services to fashion, the arts and charity. “I was shooting almost every day, with different photographers. My guess is that it was a magazine interview – probably for an American magazine – concerning my sudden rise to fame.”
“In the shot of me sticking my tongue out, I think I’d probably had enough and was mucking around,” Twiggy remembers. “I was only 16 and didn’t like sitting still for too long. It was such an exciting time for me. I’d gone from schoolgirl to world-famous model, travelling the globe and meeting amazing magnumphotos.com.people.”
In 1949-50 Glinn shot for Life magazine, and the following year he became one of Magnum’s first American members. (He later became the company’s president, twice.) Over the next decade he established a reputation as one of the leading photographers of his generation with vivid photo essays from the South Seas, Japan, Russia, Mexico and, perhaps most notably, Cuba. According to Magnum, on New Year’s Eve 1958, Glinn was at a black-tie party in New York when he received the news that dictator Fulgencio Batista had fled Cuba. By the next morning he was in Havana in a taxi, declaring, “Take me to the revolution.”
In 1947, the year when Capa, Cartier-Bresson, Chim et al founded Magnum Photos, a 22-year-old Burt Glinn was studying literature at Harvard University. He’d spent the previous three years serving in the United States Army, but found his calling while taking photographs for the Harvard Crimson college newspaper. He had a natural talent.
PHOTOSGLINN/MAGNUMBURT 14
Such gusto behind the lens made Glinn a favourite among the nascent breed of uber-celebrity during the 1960s. His portraits of Andy Warhol, Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Sammy Davis Jr and Liza Minnelli have become instantly recognisable, but none is quite as iconic as his 1966 monochrome study of a 16-year-old Lesley Hornby, better known as Twiggy.
Burt Twiggy,Glinn1966
In our series delving into the contact sheets of famous photographers, we revisit a memorable shoot with the Sixties icon, who was then just 16
Words by Alex Moore
It’s a dog’s life
TopDogs:ABritishLoveAffairispublishedbyTriglyphBooks.triglyphbooks.com.
space and to know where that is. Minnow has her basket under the stairs, so if you ever have to go out, she knows that’s the safe space. Generally she can go wherever she wants: she jumps on several chairs, sofas, armchairs and what have you. I worked out a long time ago that if you’re going to have dogs you must have loose covers on your furniture and then you’ll be happy. She sleeps in her basket unless I’m alone. If Oisin’s away, then I sneak her in for the night. She’s an extremely affectionate dog, so she’s very keen on that.”
The special relationship between British dogs and their owners is celebrated in a new book. Here, fashion designer Jasper Conran reveals the deep bond he shares with his Terrier Cross, Minnow
“The marvellous thing about Minnow is that you don’t need to take her to the hairdresser,” says designer Jasper Conran, one of the tribe of passionate British dog-lovers featured in the stylish new book Top Dogs. “She’s quite a clean, tidy dog, so it’s a bath just once in a blue moon, and only if she’s got very, very muddy. It takes so long to get an appointment at the best groomers these days, worse than the top hair salons.”
Conran, who is photographed in the beautiful 17th-century Dorset country house that he shares with his husband, Oisin, and Terrier Cross, Minnow, talks revealingly about Minnow’s personality and the central role she plays in his life: “I’ve only got one dog now and that’s the way I like it. Minnow’s her name because she’s small and wriggly and a mixture of all sorts. History doesn’t actually relate. The thing about a dog is that if you want it to be your dog you have to be with it all the time. I did have a pack of Tibetan Terriers – Buster, Frankie and Quincy – who soon became the scourge of the village. Any deer to be chased or trouble to be wrought, they’d work as a team. I decided that next time I wanted a smaller dog to put in a bag and take up and down to London with me.”
Right: Jasper Conran poses with his much-loved canine companion, Minnow. Above: Conran maintains that loose covers on furniture are the key to a dog-owner’s happiness
With a foreword by the Duchess of Cornwall (the proud owner of Beth and Bluebell) and a portfolio of touching dogand-owner portraits by photographer Dylan Thomas, the book is the creation of writer Georgina Montagu, who says she came up with the idea in order to combine three of her favourite things: dogs, people and interiors. But dogs are surely at the top of that list.
As we know, all dog love stories come to an end and Conran is open about the heartbreak we face when we lose a beloved canine friend. “If you’ve had a dog it feels like a blank space when you don’t,” he says. “They bring the house to life, though they are also a full-time job. When my first dog died, the sounds that came out of me were primeval. The crying was absolute. I think the bond between dog and man/woman is very special. The relationship goes deep into your soul.”
Words by Gill Morgan
Conran describes Minnow as a “homebody”: “She has a kind of radius, runs out to see her friend in the neighbouring cottage, but always comes back. She’s very territorial about her house. I think it’s important for dogs to have their own
16SHORTS TOP DOGS
With the Austin Seven, affectionately known as the “Baby Austin”, set to be honoured at this year’s Revival, we trace the influential legacy of this economy classic
you’ve come a long way, baby
SHORTS18 AUSTIN SEVEN
Words by Peter Hall
When motoring moptop James May introduced his 2014 TV series Cars of the People, he sidestepped the Ford Model T and focused instead on the Volkswagen Beetle, a car designed to do exactly what it said on the tin. It’s true that more than 21 million Beetles were built over 65 years, yet the Model T sold faster, finding 15 million buyers in the space of just 19 years (1908-27).
The Austin Seven will be celebrated at this year’s Goodwood Revival, September 16-18.
Named for its initial horsepower rating, the Seven was produced from 1923 until 1939, and with prices as low as £100 (less than £5,000 in today’s money), it proved hugely popular. Available in a variety of body styles, some 290,000 examples of the “Baby Austin” were sold in Britain alone, almost wiping out the cyclecar industry that had hitherto catered for cost-conscious motorists.
The little Austin’s influence extended even further, and not merely as the first mass-produced car with a modern pedal layout. In Germany, the inaugural BMW car, the 1928 Dixi, was a Seven built under licence; in Japan, Datsun (Nissan) used the Seven’s design as the basis for its Type 11 in 1932, while American Bantam derivatives of the Seven informed the design of the Second World War Jeep. At home, Sevens rebodied by the Swallow Sidecar Company of Blackpool sold so well that the firm took on bigger premises in Coventry, re-emerging in 1945 as Jaguar Cars.
Austin’s Longbridge factory had expanded to produce military hardware during the First World War, and postwar sales of its conventional 20hp car were insufficient to keep the business afloat. Company founder Herbert Austin saw a demand for more affordable vehicles, particularly after the introduction of the 1921 Road Tax – calculated at £1 per horsepower – but faced opposition from his directors. Undeterred, he took the idea home and hired 18-year-old designer Stanley Edge to draw up plans in his billiard room.
19
However, statistics are only one measure of success. One might also ask, firstly, whether a “people’s car” fulfils its brief and, secondly, how influential it is – and here the Model T had a worthy rival in Britain’s own Austin Seven.
The Baby Austin also made an immediate impact in motor racing, prompting the introduction of two sporting models, and for decades after the Second World War Sevens were used as the basis for home-built “specials”, notably the first-ever Lotus of 1948 and the first car raced in 1952 by a teenage Bruce McLaren. Reliant Motor Company had acquired the tooling for the 747cc engine in 1938 and developed it until 1962, while engineers such as Jem Marsh of Speedex (and later Marcos) sold tuning parts and sports bodies. The 750 Motor Club, founded by Austin enthusiasts in 1939, still thrives today, running the sports-prototype 750 Formula Championship (the world’s oldest race series) alongside other low-cost categories including historic Austin/Reliant-engined cars.
Indeed, the Seven was so well loved that its name was invoked twice more, most notably on another miniature marvel, the 1959 Mini, which likewise emerged from the Longbridge factory, blew away the bubble-car industry and became a familiar sight on road and track. But that’s another story…
Left: Herbert Austin at the wheel of the first Austin Seven in 1922
IMAGESIMAGES/GETTYMUSEUM/HERITAGEMOTORNATIONAL
As it turned out, their new baby was smaller than the billiard table. With a simple A-frame chassis, a wheelbase of just 75 inches (1,905mm) and a track of 40in (1,016mm), it was 25in shorter and 16in narrower than Ford’s Model T, and weighed less than half as much, requiring only a tiny 696cc engine producing 7.2hp – although this was soon increased to 747cc and 10.5hp.
meanwhile, has dressed up its version with a plethora of zip pockets. None of these fashionable takes on the overall resembles a garment you’d put on to actually mend anything, proving that what was once a purely functional piece of workwear has moved a long, long way from the farm and the forecourt.
Possibly inspired by Norfolk farmcore or, more likely, the wider workwear, motorsport and general “functional” gear trends that have been infiltrating menswear of late, the racing/biking/fixing a tricky transmission overall is all over the runway right now. Kenzo’s artistic director, Nigo, has doubled up on selvedge denim – or tripled up if you include the matching baker-boy hat. Prada appears to be channelling “hazmat chic” for those who haven’t had their fill of PPE over the past few years. Dolce & Gabbana,
Below: fashion overalls in the autumn/winter 2022 collections of, from left to right, Kenzo, Prada and Dolce & Gabbana
SHORTS20 FASHION OVERALLS
Words by Finlay Renwick
IMAGESGETTY
Think of the humble overall – that perennial blue-collar staple – and you might conjure up an image of a farmer manning the controls of a combine harvester; or perhaps a car mechanic in washed-out bleu de travail, smeared with motor oil, working under a bonnet; or maybe a hotshot fighter pilot barrel-rolling at Mach speed. You might even think of Steve McQueen, sideburned and pensive in his famous Le Mans uniform, that white Gulf racing suit with the TAG logo and myriad team sponsors – so iconic that it sold for $336,000 (£280,000) at auction back in 2017. What you might not think of are the runways of Europe’s top fashion houses. But, against the odds, that’s exactly where the overall has ended up.
Once the preserve of mechanics, pilots and farmers, overalls are now all the rage with fashion’s tastemakers. Wear yours in tactile silk or stylish selvedge for a glamorous take on traditional workwear
Of course, Goodwood’s racing-inspired overalls have long been a bestseller, but they are undoubtedly used for practical reasons as well as simply to be seen in. Perhaps most interestingly – and relevant to the overall’s automotive origins – is that two of motorsport’s biggest names are going all in on the luxury fashion market. AlphaTauri, Red Bull’s Italian diffusion line, and Ferrari have both launched meticulously designed, luxury-leaning fashion collections, with catwalk shows and creative teams lured away from some of Europe’s leading design houses. And yes, Ferrari does have Ferrari-red overalls in its autumn/winter line-up. The bet is that – much like in the world of watches, where brands have long partnered with the world of racing – affluent shoppers will want a hit of the high-octane lifestyle with their clothes as well as their cars. Time to zip up.
work it
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Examples include: “Velocipedes & Hobby Horses”, the early19th-century precursors to the modern bicycle, propelled balance-bike-style with a walking motion; and “The Bloomer Club”, which charts the development of ladies’ cycling – amid initially stiff opposition from society. (Victorian physicians gave dire warnings regarding the potential ill effects of such speed on the frail feminine physique, not to mention the sheer indelicacy of sitting astride a mechanical device in public.)
A visit to the website is something of a nostalgic experience, in the best possible way. There are no popups, ads or other Web 2.0 distractions, just a glance back to the days when the internet was populated by… perhaps “eccentrics” is unkind, but the type of people who love sharing information for information’s sake. As Colin puts it, the site is “modelled on a backstreet antique shop, with ephemeral bits and bobs waiting to be discovered in the nooks and crannies of cyberspace”.
Stroll along the broad promenade between the chalk cliffs of Rottingdean and the English Channel, and you may be passed by a white-haired chap astride a distinctly retro bike. No great surprise there, you might think – after all, you’re just a shingle-skip away from Brighton, home to many a hipster with an eye for a vintage fashion accessory.
Over more than 1,500 pages, he has collected a wealth of detail on just about every bicycle that has passed through his hands in the past 15 years. By any measure its scope is remarkable, let alone as a one-man project, assembled in that man’s spare time. “Insomnia is my saving grace,”
Colin laughs, “otherwise there would be no time for any of this!”The exhibits can be searched by age (from 1800 up to 1999) and are grouped thematically in guided tours.
And it’s not just bicycles that are on display – you’ll also discover scans of contemporary magazine articles, advertisements and other artefacts that give social context to the development of cycling and the freedom it delivered. One of the most striking revelations is how rapidly the bicycle evolved into what is still recognisably its current form. Colin’s 1890 Swift looks not too dissimilar to a modern road bike. Rewind even a few years further back through the collection and you’re confronted with penny-farthings (or “ordinaries”), which even today’s most adventurous social media influencer might balk at.
Sussex collector Colin Kirsch has turned his love of Victorian and Edwardian bicycles into an online treasure trove of remarkable antique machines
Time machines
SHORTS22 VINTAGE BIKES
Opposite page: a 1930 advertising poster for the foundedTriumphNottingham-basedCycleCompany,in1884
But Colin Kirsch is no dilettante on a 1970s Chopper. His mount of choice is a Swift Model C safety bicycle, built in 1890 by the Coventry Machinists Company. It features a diamond frame and rear-dropout chain adjustment, both novel features at the time. When new, it would have set you back £15 10 shillings. I know all this because Colin’s Swift is just one of the hundreds of vintage machines he has painstakingly catalogued and displayed in his remarkable Online Bicycle Museum.
“It all began because I was a vintage car and motorbike dealer,” he explains. In 2008 the recession hit his business hard, so Colin switched to something more affordable: bicycles. “When I started, nobody knew much about the sort of bicycles I was buying and selling. So I created a website for it, and over time I realised it was a museum.”
One thing the Instagram crowd would certainly approve of, though, is Colin’s gorgeous photography. These extraordinary machines pose proudly beside the sea, in bluebell woods or propped against flint walls amid rolling downland. Loving close-ups pick out rare decals, design innovations and the patina of age in the Sussex sun. All of which makes the Online Bicycle Museum not only an educational delight, but also the perfect shop window for the dozens of bikes Colin has for sale. Might I suggest the 1907 Rudge-Whitworth No 20 Special Light Roadster? Just the ticket for a spin along the Brighton prom. onlinebicyclemuseum.co.uk.
Words by Rob Kingston
IMAGESGETTY
From cosy reading corners to lofty double-height spaces, home libraries have never been more coveted. Read on for our guide to showcasing your treasured tomes
Right: a contemporary take on the traditional library. Below: allow the room to breathe by interspersing books with eye-catching objets
If you’re lucky enough to own both a large book collection and a house with ample square footage, the ultimate dream, of course, is a double-height library equipped with ladders on rails. But even more modest variations have certain basic requirements: a quiet location, good lighting and comfortable seating, whether it’s an antique chaise longue or a slouchy armchair by a window in which to read, daydream and doze.
book smart
MEDIALIVING4MEDIA/OURRIGHT:BRANDO.LIVING4MEDIA/CIMAROSTILEFT: SHORTS RETURN OF THE LIBRARY
Words by Damon Syson
Every cloud has a silver lining, and in the case of the global pandemic it’s the unexpected reading boom that swept the nation. And with books – real ones with spines, covers and pages – very much back in vogue, our thoughts are now turning to how we should display our prized volumes.
24
For many, converting a room, or part of a room, into a library has become a pressing aspiration. Over the past year, interior design firms such as David Collins Studio, creators of opulent spaces for the likes of Claridge’s and Harrods, have seen a rise in requests for dedicated reading zones. “We’ve gone from being asked to dress a room with a few decorative coffee-table volumes to accommodating sizeable book collections,” says Simon Rawlings, the studio’s creative director. “Now that we live in a digital age and you can read and look at images anywhere, having a space with all your books together has become so much more important to our residential clients. People increasingly want to build something really special – a place where they can totally immerse themselves in the world of print.”
When asked to sum up what inspires someone to create a library, Dunne replies: “Curiosity – a profound interest in the world. But what all our clients have in common is a reverence for the printed word, and for the incomparable company that books provide.”
Before you embark on your home library project, it’s important to decide what kind of mood you want to achieve, from classic mahogany-lined haven to sleek modernist space, complete with Eames Lounge Chair and Vitsoe shelving system. And when filling those shelves, remember to leave some spaces – it’s important to let the room breathe by breaking up the serried ranks of spines with interesting objets. Rawlings also has strong views on lights. “I would avoid integrated lighting in the shelving,” he warns. “Keep it simple. Ideally you should light from the ceiling, half a metre away from the shelves, so you can skim the spines of all the books and easily find what you’re looking for.”
When space is an issue, dual-use rooms are a clever way to accommodate your treasured tomes, with some bibliophiles choosing to line their dining rooms with bookshelves or create a cosy, book-filled snug-cum-sitting room. A home library is also a place to display your passions, says Rawlings: “We’ve had a few clients who wanted to combine their book collection with their wine store. It’s also a great place to house your vinyl records. And we’re often asked to install a bar, so it becomes a room for entertaining as well as escape.”
For Nicky Dunne, chairman of bookshop Heywood Hill, the urge to create a library is about “reflecting your interests, your psyche, the innermost aspects of your personality”. For more than 80 years, this Mayfair institution has helped book-lovers assemble their ultimate collections. Today, Dunne’s team curates about 25 private libraries every year. Recent compilations have included the 300 novels every intelligent teenager should read, a series of tomes recounting the story of modernism, and a bucket-list library containing every good book you should read before you die.
27 SHORTS HERM È S SADDLE
Named the Selle Rouge, Hermès’s new showjumping and flatwork saddle sees a return to nature’s ultimate recyclable performance material. “After three years of tests, we have established that wood remains the best option for the saddle tree,” says Ly Lallier, director of Hermès’s equestrian métier, explaining the decision not to go with carbon fibre for the core of the saddle. “The suppleness of beech is used for shock absorbency as well as for comfort, as it moulds perfectly to the horse’s anatomy and offers the right resistance.” Incredibly light, the wood imbues the saddle with an almost “living” structure.
Aesthetically, the Selle Rouge strips everything back to deliberately highlight its construction. The wooden tree is exposed at the cantle, the canvas straps are visible underneath, the curve of the streamlined fil-au-trait single seam proudly outlined. “Because of all the innovations brought to this saddle, it felt right to display the intricate work that went into its making,” Lallier says of Hermès’s latest creation, where every part is produced locally and each saddle is made by a single artisan from start to finish.
While the Selle Rouge facilitates the jump position with an ideal centre of gravity and balance, it also borrows from the classical deep dressage seat to allow the rider to really sit and ride the horse comfortably between obstacles – the latter a request from Guéry. “With the Selle Rouge, he feels very close to his horse, almost like there is no saddle,” Lallier says of the technical sophistication of the deep yet open seat, which, she notes, “stabilises the pelvis and improves the perception of the horse’s movement”.
“It’s a way to show the beauty of the artisan’s knowhow.”
Stripped back to reveal the innovative features and craftsmanship at its core, the new Selle Rouge from Hermès offers a masterclass in luxury saddle-making
Simply extraordinary: each Hermès Selle Rouge saddle is made entirely by a single artisan
Words by Susanne Madsen
Like the finest horsemanship, the art of saddle-making lies somewhere between skill and divine “feel” (to use the equestrian terminology). The right saddle is a crucial interface between horse and rider: choose the wrong one and it’s comparable to having a pristine engine in your 1958 Jaguar XK150, but a failing transmission. At Hermès, where the saddle has been studied, revered and advanced for 185 years, the latest embodiment is the culmination of the French artisanal saddlery’s unparalleled craftsmanship, its cutting-edge understanding of biomechanics and a close collaboration with one of its partner riders, Belgian Olympic showjumper Jérôme Guéry.
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“Meanwhile, we know that golf is a moderately intense physical activity for certain age groups, and we know that these activities reduce anxiety and can help with mild depression. There has been some really interesting work done on social interaction, which golf can claim to offer plenty of. If you look at older people and all of the risk factors for them dying over a five-year period – blood pressure, cholesterol, etc – the biggest risk was lack of social interaction.”
HEALTH CLUB
emerged from that strange pandemic era, the lessons of the
Dr Roger Hawkes is the executive director of the Golf and Health Project, an organisation leading research into the potential health benefits of golf. “Golfers will enjoy telling you that on average they live five years longer than nongolfers – it’s pretty well documented,” he says. “But my more cynical friends are often quick to reply, ‘What’s the point in living longer if you have to play golf?’”
Words by Alex Moore
So next time your other half harrumphs as you set off for an afternoon’s game and a couple of swift G&Ts at The Kennels, tell them it’s all on doctor’s orders. For more information on golf, visit www.goodwood.com/ golf. Please get in touch to arrange a juniors taster session. Special events this autumn include: Revival Golf, Friday September 16 – step back in time with hickory shafts and mashie niblicks on the Downs Course; Greenkeepers’ Revenge, Saturday October 15 – our greenkeepers set up the course in weird and wonderful ways; and Christmas Roll Up, Saturday December 17 – enter the festive spirit with this popular event.
If the past few years have taught us anything, it is how important fresh air, exercise and social activities are for our wellbeing. Anyone for a round of golf?
Over the past two years the amateur golf scene has blossomed. While some sports took a hard hit during the pandemic, life on the links up and down the country pretty much sailed on regardless, after a mere seven-week hiatus. In fact, around Europe and the US, more rounds were played during lockdown than ever Apparently,before.much of the increased footfall came from non-golfers looking for an outlet and a way to ease the malaise of the sort of constrained, screen-dominated life so many of us endured during that time. But now that we have emerged from that strange pandemic era, the lessons of the benefits of golf are still being felt. New studies increasingly show that the sport is not only good for our physical wellbeing, but also for our mental health.
consultants, describes in his book Golf Flow, in order to play well, golfers must enter that elusive zone known as “flow state”, in which time slows down, awareness is heightened and focus is absolute. There is a meditative aspect to all of this, akin to the sort of mindfulness practice that is so often recommended by doctors and therapists advising patients on stress. No surprise, then, that golf brings such emotional as well as physical benefits.
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Golf is often described as the most mentally focused of games. As Dr Gio Valiante, one of the PGA Tour’s performance
29 SHORTS GOLF BENEFITS
Apparently, much for
The answer is: quality of life. Hawkes and his team have proved that golf is good for strength and balance, especially in the elderly, which means that those who play should be less likely to fall and injure themselves. What’s more, they’ve seen particularly profound results with dementia and Parkinson’s disease among golfers. “Policymakers and politicians are more interested in these kinds of facts,” he says. “It costs an awful lot of money for people to live longer if they have no quality of life.
golfers – it’s pretty well documented,” he says. “But my more
If you were told that a gently effervescing bottle of liquid had the power to banish stress, help with weight loss, clear the mind, improve immunity and nurture mental health, would you believe it? It sounds rather like the magic cordial Lucy was given in Narnia, to deploy as needed. But these are some of the health benefits credited to fermented beverages such as kombucha and kefir, which have been nudging their way onto refrigerated shelves lately.
WHAT’S BREWING?
noticing how much less bloated, more energetic and unstressed she became when drinking it regularly. It was the impetus to give up a job in the fashion industry and set up Momo once she was back in London.
Words by Emma Moore
Fastidious about capturing all the drink’s power as well as its authentic flavour, Momo brews its liqueur in small batches in glass jars. Kombucha, which is thought to have originated in China and travelled via Korea and Japan back along the Silk Route to Russia, is traditionally made from a live culture called a scoby (short for “symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast”) and black or green tea. Momo, like other modern kombuchas, is enhanced with enticing flavours such as ginger and lemon, elderflower, hibiscus and raspberry and turmeric.
SHORTS30 FERMENTED DRINKS
Perez also left a high-powered London job to pursue a simpler life with her family, making pure, nutrition-packed kefir from unhomogenised single-origin milk – from herds she knows around her Sussex home. Her infectious devotion to the drink, and her commitment to high production standards, have been strengthened lately by an encounter with a cancer-research doctor who has been using it to bring the digestive systems of chemo patients back to health. And should any more convincing be required, recent research suggests that kefir can stimulate sleep hormones, an effect enhanced with the addition of cinnamon and honey. This is self-care we can definitely make time for. For more information about Goodwood’s five-day Gut Health Programme, visit goodwood.com.
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Fermentation has always played a part in our diets; it is, after all, the natural process that gives us sauerkraut and soy sauce, beer and pickles, miso, kimchi, yoghurt, cheese and sourdough bread. But the recent surge in interest reflects both our increasingly exploratory palates and a burgeoning appreciation for the importance of keeping our microbiomes in balance (that’s the yeasts, bacteria, fungi and viruses that live in our digestive system). Nurturing gut health is now seen as essential self-care, like exercise and meditation; it’s preventative medicine of the first order. And it’s why Goodwood has devised, with nutritionist Stephanie Moore, a five-day health programme to massage microbiomes back into shape with diet and holistic therapies. As part of the programme, fermented food and drinks are on the menu three times a day.
Fermentation fervour set in earlier, meanwhile, for Susana Perez, who makes kefir from the bounty of Goodwood’s dairy herd. As a young judo black belt in her native Catalonia, Perez was fed kefir by her family to fortify her. “It made me feel stronger and gave me a clear mind for competing,” she says. Made from milk and a culture of grains, it is considered a Middle Eastern tradition with origins in the Caucasus Mountains.
Right: drinks such as kombucha and kefir offer a wide range of health benefits
Maintaining a balanced microbiome is an essential part of self-care, which is why fermented drinks play a starring role in Goodwood’s five-day health programme
“Moods and emotions are steered by the gut,” says Lisa Puddle, co-founder of the kombucha brand Momo, which is served during the programme. She was alerted to the benefits of nurturing your inner probiotics on a trip to New York in 2016, when the city’s culinary landscape was already fizzing with fermented foods and drinks. The intrepid Momofuku chef, David Chang, had a whole team dedicated to investigative fermenting – principally in search of untapped umami – and Jori Jayne Emde had set up a fermentation farm to supply restaurants and locals with punchy probiotic-packed condiments, tonics and tinctures. Puddle, meanwhile, fell for the newly ubiquitous fermented tea, kombucha, as a tasty alternative to alcohol, quickly
COACHBUILT BY RADFORD MOTORS O FFICIAL DEALE R HROWEN.CO.UK/RADFORD01753505905OFFICIAL RADFORD DEALER IN THE UK LOTUS TYPE 62-2 Goodwood Festival of Speed Michelin Showstopper Award Winner 2022
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Words by Alex Moore
From 1841 until 1846, Goodwood was home to the country’s foremost horseracing stables, thanks to a fascinating friend of the 5th Duke of Richmond, Lord William George Frederick Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, aka “the leviathan of the turf”. “Bentinck was a complex character with seemingly conflicting interests in racing,” says Dr Alexandra Fletcher, Packard Curator at the National Horse Racing Museum in Newmarket. “He was a gambler who engineered a number of major betting coups, yet he also made strenuous efforts to eliminate fraud in racing.”
Still, as the owner of 38 competing racehorses, he was more than capable of making his own luck. His coup de maître came in 1836, when, unhappy with the odds given for his horse Elis, he gave the impression that the colt would no longer be racing. The fact that no one had seen the horse being walked the 200-or-so miles from Goodwood to Doncaster – as was customary at that time – served to reinforce this rumour. Only after the odds lengthened to 12/1 did he covertly transport Elis to Yorkshire in the world’s first recorded horsebox. On fresh legs, Elis galloped to victory, leaving Bentinck with a considerable profit – much to the consternation of the other trainers.
“Yet he championed fair play,” says Fletcher, and when Bentinck sold his stables in 1846, his close friend Benjamin Disraeli said, “He not only parted with the finest racing stud in England, but he parted with it at a moment when its prospects were never so brilliant; and he knew this well… He had become the Lord Paramount of that strange world, so difficult to sway, and which requires, for its government, both a stern resolve and a courtly breeding.”
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Disraeli added, “The turf was not merely the scene of the triumphs... He had purified its practice and had elevated its character, and he was prouder of this achievement than of any other... Notwithstanding his mighty stakes, and the keenness with which he backed his opinion, no one perhaps ever cared less for money. He valued the acquisition of money on the turf because there it was the test of success. He counted his thousands after a great race, as a victorious general counts his cannon and his prisoners.”
The recklessness of Lord George’s wagers staggered even the most profligate gamblers of the time. At the St Leger of 1826, for example, he lost £30,000 (about £3 million today), and when he was reluctant to settle his bets – usually when he suspected foul play – he would often find himself in hot water. Once he even found himself embroiled in a duel on Wormwood Scrubs with legendary huntsman and cricketer Squire Osbaldeston. The encounter ended with Bentinck shooting his pistol into the air and the flustered squire firing a bullet through his opponent’s hat.
SHORTS LORD GEORGE BENTINCK
CHRONICLE/ALAMY
Dubbed “the leviathan of the turf”, Lord George Bentinck ran a hugely successful racing stable at Goodwood and is credited with inventing the horsebox
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Below: an 1837 painting by Abraham Cooper showing Lord George Bentinck’s horse Elis with the horsebox in which he was secretly transported from Goodwood to Doncaster
EVERY CREATESMOVEMENTITSOWNICON. # bornelectric NEWTHE i7 FORWARDISM
35 SHORTS CANINE ACCESSORIES
while the Mr Porter e-commerce site stocks lines from brands such as Fendi and Loro Piana. “Our pet parents want to be stylish in all areas of their life, and to extend the idea of luxury to their much-loved animals,” says Mr Porter’s Jessica Owens. “They want only the most fashionable accessories, such as cashmere dog-beds and high-end collars.”
The Power of the Dog
Words by Mia Aimaro Ogden
Four-legged fashionistas are big business these days, with Celine the latest luxury brand to release a canine collection
Celine is just the latest luxury brand to create a line of pet accessories. The LVMH-owned fashion house follows in the pawprints of Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Versace, Ralph Lauren and Moschino in offering a canine collection,
Muses come in all shapes and sizes. For Celine’s creative director, Hedi Slimane, the inspiration behind his latest collection is a 20kg-plus furball called Elvis. When Slimane’s labradoodle couldn’t find the doggy accessories he was looking for, his human designed them for him – resulting in Celine’s first luxury dog and saddlery line under Slimane’s aegis, rooted in the brand’s “rich expertise in leather goods”.
Celine’s deliciously cool accessories include monogrammed leads, studded collars, a clip-on wallet for waste bags and treats, and a chew toy in the shape of Celine’s Triomphe logo. Dog bowls are encased in a lambskin-covered box with tan calf handles, while the fashion house’s Voyage carryall, made from Triomphe canvas with tan lambskin trimmings, has been repurposed as a pet carrier: versions come printed with “Dog” or “Cat”. The Triomphe motif recurs throughout the collection, meaning humans can match their doggy accessories with Celine’s handbags and leather goods.
And what does Elvis think about his role as the new Celine muse? Sadly he’s unavailable for comment – too busy chewing on his brand-new rubber Triomphe toy.
Celine’s luxury canine accessories, clockwise from top left: Voyage 50 “Dog” pet carrier; Triomphe toy in black rubber; wide dog leash in tan smooth calfskin with studs; double dog bowl in tan Triomphe canvas
Accessories from £120; celine.com.
Elvis – who also stars in the new ad campaign, Portrait of a Celine Dog, shot by Slimane – joins a long line of highfashion canine muses: Yves Saint Laurent’s four generations of french bulldogs, all called Moujik, immortalised by Andy Warhol; Marc Jacobs’s bull terrier Neville, dubbed “the hardest-working dog in fashion” by The New York Times, and photographed by David Sims; and Toutou, Simon Porte Jacquemus’s dachshund, recently seen on billboards with supermodel Laetitia Casta for the label’s L’Année 97 campaign.
whizz kidS
Below: pedalling to victory in the Settrington Cup, a perennial Revival favourite
This year’s Revival marks 10 years of the Settrington Cup, which sees junior racers competing in Austin J40 pedal cars for fame, glory… and chocolate
Words by Erin Baker
I can still see my boy staring hard at me – or rather at my right hand, which was raised aloft, until I dropped it in synchronicity with the starter’s flag. Then, as the crowd roared and commentator Murray Walker (who else?) yelled “And it’s go, go, go!”, he sprinted to his red Austin J40, jumped in and pumped his spindly legs for all they were worth, the entire 220 metres of the Pit Straight, weaving past some cars, being overtaken by others, and crossing the finish line, where Sir Stirling Moss was waving the chequered flag.
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than that, and realised at its inception that the success of the Settrington Cup (the name derives from one of The Duke of Richmond’s family titles) lies in its adherence to strict race rules and regulations, and in the fact that it is just another proper race in the calendar. The intrinsically absurd nature of the spectacle – which sees the diminutive competitors parading down the Pit Lane in their vintage finery of flat caps and mechanics’ overalls, parents pushing their chariots beside them – is gloriously brushed over. Hence there is a serious drivers’ briefing, as well as an opportunity for official testing at a Breakfast Club meeting, and whoever starts on pole position on the Saturday begins at the back of the grid on Sunday in the second part.
Occupying pride of place in my teenage son’s bedroom is an old beige-and-red race suit, which hangs on the back of his door. It evokes a precious moment when he stood, aged seven, in the middle of the Goodwood Motor Circuit, a breathless hush all around, heart pounding, under starter’s orders in the Settrington Cup, a Revival Meeting race in Austin J40 pedal cars for children aged 4-11.
Unsurprisingly, the race has fuelled not only dormant competitive spirits in parents, but also a huge hike in the value of Austin J40 pedal cars. Seven years ago, I found a J40 body in need of total renovation on eBay for £600; now there are none, but, tellingly, you will find plenty of parts for the aftercare market. The cars themselves exchange hands for several thousand pounds and arrive at Goodwood on race day with gleaming liveries and new upholstery.
Now, the majority of the world’s surviving J40s appear on the Settrington Cup grid every September, each an evocative symbol of 1950s and 1960s childhoods. Indeed, you half expect to be viewing the entire grid in sepia. The determination of Goodwood to shine a spotlight on these classic toys, to give them a new richness of life, is a rare joy that is being carefully nurtured at the Estate, a decade on. The fact that it comes with a healthy dose of the charmingly absurd is the cherry on this very British icing.
This year the race celebrates its 10th birthday. As The Duke of Richmond recalls, “We dreamt up the Settrington Cup a decade ago, after taking the view that the Austin J40 pedal car deserved its own moment of race glory at the Revival Meeting. The race has exceeded all our expectations to establish itself as a firm favourite with visitors each year, and we’ve got great plans for it in the future.”
37 SHORTS SETTRINGTON CUP
In the event, having drawn pole position, he lost five places because, ever his mother’s boy, he had run to the far side of the car at the start of the race so as not to mess up the 50-year-old red leather seat by stepping on it. No matter: he won a slab of UBS-sponsored Swiss chocolate and those overalls, but sadly not the car, which was on loan from The Duke of Richmond’s family and will be raced by another lucky child at this year’s Revival.
The best part of the story today is that the J40s are part of a miniature (in every sense) circular economy: a sustainability and ethics success story concerning recommissioning rather than manufacture that modern-day car brands can only dream of. The humble Austin J40 began life in South Wales in 1949. Production was paid for by the government on a not-for-profit basis to give disabled coal-miners work. The car metal came from offcuts from the Longbridge Austin factory, so really these cars are several lives on from inception. Production ran until 1971, and J40 pedal cars were exported to children’s homes all over the world. The ethos brilliantly exemplifies Revival’s upcycling mantra, “Revive and Thrive”.
It would be easy to drown this race in a saccharine outpouring of nostalgia, but its organisers are more astute
It should come as no surprise that this event has become for many the secret highlight of Revival races. Hang the rare Aston Martin DBR1s and the Jaguar D-Types: the sight of muddy knees revolving on a human crankshaft fuelled by sweets and lemonade, shoulders hunched over steering wheels, concentration constantly wavering and tugged back with a well-timed parental yell from the crowd, is enough to reduce the stiffest of upper lips to jelly.
British agriculture is undergoing a renaissance, with a much-needed growth in diversity and an influx of new ideas. From former musicians, hairdressers (and the odd rather famous motoring journalist) to LGBTQ+ campaigners and a Kenyan-born pig farmer, this is not the usual green welly brigade. Oliver Bennett meets the new crop of farming pioneers
THE NEW
FARMERS
A few years ago British farming was thought to be moribund. Sir Julian Rose of the Soil Association spoke in 2000 of a “crisis in the countryside”, noting that bankruptcies and suicides were rising. Few people were entering the industry, with many deterred by tales of despair. It was as if, to quote Stella Gibbons’s 1932 rural satire Cold Comfort Farm, there was “something nasty in the woodshed” when it came to agriculture.
Events like the regenerative farming show Groundswell began six years ago with a handful of guests. Today, attendees number in their thousands. Books such as Rooted: Stories of Life, Land and a Farming Revolution by Sarah Langford and
THE NEW FARMERS
MIECHOWSKIMAXLEFT:BOTTOMANDSPREADOPENING
In many ways, Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones MBE, aka “the Black Farmer”, can be credited with sowing the seeds of change. For a young Jamaican immigrant growing up in 1960s inner-city Birmingham, farming was not an obvious career option. It was only thanks to his remarkable resolve that Emmanuel-Jones succeeded in becoming one of the nation’s most celebrated farm-owners. It is telling, however, that his latest initiative, New Faces for Farming – a collaboration with Writtle University College that invites teenagers to spend a weekend learning about farm life – is still described as a “crusade to stop the drought in diversity”.
New entrants to farming, typically driven by values rather than profit, share all kinds of motivation, from the ecological to the spiritual. They’re also introducing a significant element of diversity into the once dynastic farming fraternity.
Opening spread, from left to right: Edd Lees, Andy Cato and George Lamb, co-founders of Wildfarmed. Left: Wildfarmed aims to change the way crops are grown and food is produced by replicating natural processes. Top right: Flavian Obiero
Of the new crop of fledgling farmers, it’s perhaps Andy Cato, one half of electronic music duo Groove Armada, who holds the most sway. In 2018 his farm in Gascony was considered one of France’s most innovative, and he became the first Briton to be made a chevalier de l’ordre national du Mérite agricole – equivalent to being knighted for services to agriculture. The National Trust subsequently awarded him a 20-year tenure at Colleymore Farm in Oxfordshire, where he’s been tasked with restoring biodiversity using his own brand of regenerative farming. Indeed, Cato’s Wildfarmed method – co-created in 2018 with former TV presenter George Lamb and Edd Lees, who left his job in the City to join the company –is now being used at more than 40 farms around the country. By 2030 these should collectively remove as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as a 100-year-old rainforest the size of Greater London.
But farming in the UK is undergoing a renaissance. The mood is optimistic, bolstered by three key factors: the culinary trends focused on food miles, supply chains and “farm to fork” dining; the urgent ecological mood for action against climate change, landscape conservation and regenerative farming; and the various technologies dubbed the “fourth agricultural revolution” (the third having been the 20th century’s chemical fertilisers, pesticides and monoculture).
Cato’s epiphany occurred in 2006, when he happened to read a magazine article about industrial food production, which inspired him to buy his farm and start growing. “I put these tiny things in the potting compost and saw them sprout,” he told the FT. “Then six weeks later I was eating them. It sounds so simple but it was transformational for me. My first thought was, ‘Why is this not the first thing you learn at school?’” He now believes that new farming methods could have far-reaching benefits: “The world’s most complex problem has a simple solution: food. If we fix food, we fix the planet. It all starts with the soil.”
A Year on Our Farm: How the Countryside Made Me by Matt Baker underpin the movement. Even, dare we say it, Jeremy Clarkson’s hit documentary Clarkson’s Farm has played its part. And helping it all along is social media. New farmers are often “digital natives”, accustomed to broadcasting their lives via smartphone, and they aren’t shy of posting Instagram pictures and blogs. Some have called them “farmfluencers”.
The last micro-agricultural moment occurred during the “Good Life” 1970s and 1980s, when self-sufficiency crossed over into the wider population, fuelled by the books of Richard Mabey and EF Schumacher. This time around, climate change, biodiversity and food security have put muddy boots on that movement, ushering it into the 21st century. And consumers can help drive the revolution by choosing to eat ethically grown produce. It’s no longer a case of “get off my land” – more a call to “come and join us”.
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Thankfully, that drought is already showing signs of improvement. There are growing numbers of men and women from a range of ethnic and social backgrounds farming across the UK. Whether it’s former pop stars and hairdressers turned born-again farmers, LGBTQ+ campaigns by the National Farmers’ Union, a Kenyan-born pig farmer or the Cotswolds family who farm according to Islamic principles, British agriculture has been invigorated by a new wave of talented and ambitious sons and daughters of the soil.
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“We’re now seeing more people from non-farming families joining the industry, which is great because different cultures bring different ideas”
Long before the filter-through effects of Brexit created staff shortages throughout the farming industry, Flavian Obiero was insisting on the need to diversify the workforce. “We’re constantly talking about diversifying businesses and biodiversity, but we don’t talk enough about diversifying the people who diversify the land,” he says. “We are now seeing more people from non-farming families joining the industry, and that’s great because different cultures bring different ideas.” He goes on to bemoan the fact that such diversification of labour skills is arriving too late for many sectors: “At the soft fruit farms, there isn’t anyone to pick the strawberries and apples, and at Christmas last year there weren’t enough people to pluck turkeys.”
When he got into farming at the age of 19, Obiero says he was still naive and that “anything that might have been untoward – racial or otherwise – I took on the chin. I thought that was how people got accepted into a group. Now I’m older, I think perhaps there are things I should have raised at the time. But I’ve certainly not experienced anything that might have put me off farming. I’m still here, aren’t I?”
“Farmland costs about £10,000 an acre on average, but last week a farmer friend in Abergavenny [Wales] told me their neighbour had sold an acre and a half for £80,000 to a company planting trees for carbon credits. So that changes the market altogether. If you’re a young person trying to get into farming, and you’re competing against Microsoft, then good luck to you. What can we do if corporations are buying up land to try to offset their emissions?”
“People from different countries approach things differently,” Obiero adds, “so the way I would do something might be different to how a Turkish person or an English person or an American would do it. And new ideas mean people aren’t tied to the whole ‘granddad did it this way so I’ve got to do it like that’ way of thinking.”
FLAVIAN OBIERO, 31, moved from Kenya to the UK when he was 15 in the hope of becoming a vet. But after doing a week’s work experience on a pig farm in Hampshire, he discovered a new calling
Though many of “granddad’s” methods now seem passé, much of this country’s farmland remains in his bloodline. Having worked as a pig farmer for more than a decade – at Newlyns Farm in Hampshire and Plumpton College in East Sussex – Obiero now harbours a desire to run his own farm. But like so many non-traditional farmers, he can’t see a way to buy land. “What land is available is usually passed down from generation to generation, so it’s rarely sold on the open market,” he sighs. “And if it is, the price is now so high that only the other big farms and estates can afford it.
Growing up in the town of Kilifi, on the coast of Kenya, Obiero was surrounded by farming in various shapes and sizes. He says that most people in Kenya have access to land – or a relative who does. “We call it subsistence farming,” he says, “similar to a smallholding, so I’ve always had access to livestock. The plan was to be a vet like my uncle, who I admired growing up.”
Has she ever felt isolated since leaving behind her old life and moving to the country? “Our friends are always interested in visiting,” she grins. “I thought they’d just want to cuddle baby animals, but they come all year round and hang out with us. Our hours are long, so they have to fit in around our work – but they love it.”
She adds, on a final note, “Running a farm full-time with just the two of us is challenging. But now we couldn’t do anything else – or work for anyone else. Mother Nature is the only one who’s the boss of us.” thelittlefarmfridge.co.uk.
And while she feels passionately about people eating seasonally and knowing where food comes from, Colville insists she’s not trying to impress anyone or impose her principles on them. “I was a vegetarian when I met Chris and could never have imagined that I’d farm animals,” she says. “But as people do eat meat, I want them to do so with respect and good welfare. I’ve been in the abattoir and I’m comfortable with the process, and while I thought [slaughtering] lambs would be tough, the second that they go to grass as sheep, they couldn’t care less about you, so there’s no sense of attachment. But I’d still say, don’t give anything a pet name that may end up in the slaughterhouse. Chris really struggles with the goats.”
THE NEW FARMERS
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Then Colville’s father died, and she soon came to realise that being around animals was the most cathartic way to process her loss. “The ‘nature’ aspect is important for me,” she says. The blood, sweat and tears of farming are a far cry from the glossy, filtered images we’re used to associating with social media, but Colville seems to have cleverly bridged the gap: “When I lived in London I used social media, as hairdressers do. So when I began farming and uploaded funny things the animals did, it turned out that loads of women enjoyed it. Now 80 per cent of my followers are female. They see someone who looks like them, but who does something completely different. During the pandemic my Instagram page went mental, often from people who only got an hour in the park each day.”
“A lot of people want me to have had an epiphany,” says Zoë Colville. “But it wasn’t really like that, and at first the farm was very much Chris’s thing. I was a hairdresser and Chris a plumber, but he got a virus and became bed-bound. His dad had been a farmer, and running their farm became part of Chris’s rehabilitation.”
ZOË COLVILLE, 31, left her hairdressing job in London to farm full-time in Kent with her partner, Chris Woodhead. Her Instagram account, @thechiefshepherdess, has 38,600 followers, making her a key “farmfluencer”
Above: former hairdresser Zoë Colville, who is now a leading “farmfluencer”. Opposite: Young Farmer Ambassador Mike Wilkins
ASTLEYPAUL
Coming from a farming family, Mike Wilkins believes there was never any doubt that he would go into the trade. “Why would you give up this amazing opportunity?” he asks, looking genuinely bemused. “A lot of my contemporaries experienced this, too. Some rebelled. But in my mid-teens I realised there was a lot more to agriculture than sitting in a tractor. The science behind it, the environmental impact, food security and how carbon functions within soil – all really piqued my interest.”
Ruefully, Wilkins points out that the gay community is far from alone in its fight to be accepted into the world of farming. “Sadly, there are far fewer people of ethnic minority backgrounds working in the industry than we’d like, but I’ve been fortunate enough to speak to many of them. Talking to them about farming is fascinating, although I’ve heard some harrowing stories about discrimination. Even being female can be difficult. I’ll have meetings with female employees and suppliers where the women will be dismissed completely.”
While many people see farming as an exclusively conservative environment, Wilkins says they would be surprised to discover how many LGBTQ+ people there are in the industry. “In the past few years we’ve had the organisation Agrespect broadcasting to queer farmers, which has been great,” he says. “I’ve met a surprisingly large network of people, which has been humbling. Since I’ve written a couple of pieces, several people have been in touch. Someone we work with told me that their daughter is getting married to her wife – I had no idea he had a gay daughter.”
He adds, however, that “there have been some negative comments. Not necessarily pointedly, but part of daily language. Within farming communities it’s still more
MIKE WILKINS, 27, a Young Farmer Ambassador for the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), grew up on the family farm in Wiltshire. He is engaged to his boyfriend and manages a 3,200-acre mixed estate in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire
“My grandparents lived in a tiny village and never had any interest in leaving it. Now, young people in our industry are much more connected”
ingrained than it is elsewhere. I have to strike a balance between calling it out or letting it go.”
Still, it’s not all doom and gloom, and Wilkins believes the situation is gradually improving. There remains a rural-urban divide, but the internet and social media are helping to narrow that gap. “My grandparents – sadly no longer with us – were much more isolated,” he says. “They lived in a tiny village and would never have had any interest in leaving it. Now, younger people in our industry are much more connected and have a good opportunity to engage with people. I know people through the NFU Ambassadors scheme who’ve got no farming background, but are inspired by the potential to make a difference. New smallholders are really good connectors out to wider networks, while charity and community farms are doing amazing work in raising the profile of agriculture.”
So how can the industry nurture these green shoots? “We need to grow new farmers from all life stages and backgrounds,” says Wilkins. “The money needed to get into the industry is a fundamental barrier. But outreach from the industry can help, including school campaigns. The more young and diverse people there are working in the industry, the more we can change people’s perspectives.”
Before starting Willowbrook, Lutfi Radwan worked as an academic at the University of Oxford, Ruby as a psychologist, reflexologist and teacher. The farm was a manifestation of their desire for a spiritual connection with the earth. “With the Islamic factor, some don’t think beyond tabloid headlines,” says Khalil. “But Oxfordshire is very educated and environmentally aware, and every week we sell at East Oxford Farmers’ and Community Market, which is full of people who make direct connections. Online sales are excellent, and people come to us because we’re Halal as well as natural and chemical-free. The Cotswolds is a good area to be in for us. There are lots of farmers in the area producing good-quality organic produce, in full awareness of climate change, environment and animal welfare.”
willowbrookfarm.co.uk.
Above: brothers Khalil, left, and Adam Radwan of Willowbrook Farm. Right: Sandra Baer, left, and Lynn Cassells at Lynbreck Croft
Technically speaking, as second-generation farmers, Adam and Khalil Radwan aren’t exactly “new”. In the context of British agriculture, however, there’s no denying that sustainable Halal and Tayyib farming is still very much a nascent practice. “Our parents started the farm on Tayyib principles,” says Adam, “rather than focusing on Halal, which often gets reduced down to strict rules about slaughter. Tayyib interprets the welfare of animals and the impact on the environment in a holistic way.”
“Our farm is closely tied to our way of life. When Willowbrook started 20 years ago, there wasn’t a farm like it in the UK”
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Indeed, Tayyib farming shares many of regenerative farming’s tenets: crop rotation, fostering biodiversity and grazing animals on nutrient-rich pastures with plenty of space. “Our farm is closely tied to our way of life,” says Khalil. “When Willowbrook started 20 years ago, there wasn’t a farm like it in the UK. I’m proud of that, but sad that few others have taken up the mantle. I suspect it’s because farming isn’t well respected in immigrant communities, as they’ve often left farming backgrounds and want their children to become doctors and lawyers.”
ADAM AND KHALIL RADWAN, 32 AND 29, help to run Willowbrook Farm, a 50-acre plot near Oxford that was founded in 2002 according to Islamic principles by their parents, Lutfi and Ruby Radwan
“We want to be able to market to general consumers,” says Adam, “but we’re small, we don’t have an economy of scale, and the product is priced accordingly, so people who are committed to these issues or know about us buy from us.” He adds that while business is good, that they’ve made the decision not to grow purely to keep up with demand, but to hark back to their parents’ founding principles when they embarked on the project, “both in terms of animal welfare and leaving space for nature. That’s crucial.”
The Radwans are acutely aware of under-representation in farming and encourage people from diverse backgrounds to visit their farm in the hope of nurturing interest. It’s also a chance to show off the quality of their produce. “Our next step is open days,” says Adam. “If someone doesn’t want you to visit their farm, no matter how many nice words on their marketing, I wouldn’t trust them. When you see farming in reality, without wildlife being destroyed or rivers polluted, you realise that this isn’t just theoretical.”
Like so many new-generation farmers, their approach is underpinned by a strong ethos: “We uphold a number of values. The first comes from the belief that food represents health – mental, physical, social, ecological and financial. That’s why we were motivated to change our lives. We
Our Wild Farming Life: Adventures on a Scottish Highland Croft (Chelsea Green Publishing); lynbreckcroft.co.uk.
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Lynn Cassells never meant to be a farmer, and nor did Sandra Baer, but, having met while working as apprentice rangers for the National Trust, they decided to embark on their agricultural adventure together. “We had a dream to live closer to the land,” says Cassells, “so we bought our place in the Cairngorms with a loan and started farming from scratch. It’s a 150-acre mix of trees and grass. If you were to look at it, you’d say we’d never make a living. One farmer said he would have called us ‘certifiable’. But we saw huge potential in its diversity of habitats, including pasture, and only wanted to produce food with regenerative impact. We finally went full-time in 2020.”
She adds, “Since Ukraine there’s been a global discussion about food security. We produce about 95 per cent of our vegetables and our priority is to educate our neighbours to grow their own. Our goal is to be mutually beneficial, collaborative and co-operative.”
Although the pair acknowledge that women farmers are still in the minority, they emphasise that they have been welcomed with nothing but enthusiasm by the community. One local farmer referred to them as “hearty lasses”, which they took as the highest compliment. “We’ve learned a lot from farming and costing models from 100 years ago. That’s the beauty of farming. It comes in all different shapes and sizes. Get it right and it’s good for us – and our customers.”
believe the most productive, efficient and financially beneficial way of producing food is to work with natural processes. Then there are social elements – we really value sharing the food we produce with our local community. It’s our contribution to social wellbeing.”
Cassells accepts that the natural approach can increase costs: “I embrace the word ‘premium’. The prices we charge for our food are as close as we can get to what it actually costs. Many acknowledge that food prices in supermarkets don’t reflect what it costs to produce. Because we have a direct sales model, we can look at what the market is saying. If it doesn’t make a profit then we don’t do it – because it’s not working somehow. Everything has to be run profitably.”
LYNN CASSELLS, 43, from Northern Ireland, and SANDRA BAER, 38, from Switzerland, have farmed at Lynbreck Croft in the Scottish Highlands since 2016. They have appeared on BBC2’s This Farming Life
UP, AWAYUP1941page:atDukeandinAbove,ANDclockwisefromtopleft:KlemmL.25flight;Focke-WulfFw44JStieglitz,top,deHavillandTigerMoth;andthe9thofRichmond’slicence-builtKlemmL.25GoodwoodAerodromein1936.OppositeRichardMenageinthecockpitofhisDH82TigerMoth
Photography by Alun Callender
Richard Menage, whose 1929 Klemm L.25 will be on show at this year’s Revival, has spent decades restoring some of the world’s rarest and most beautiful vintage aircraft. But for him and other like-minded afi cionados, as he tells Alex Moore, it’s a plane’s history that makes it truly special
Just as some of the most committed car enthusiasts will always choose a barn-find doer-upper over a shiny new speed machine, so there are pilots for whom a modern plane just doesn’t cut it. For the small number who occupy this niche corner of the aviation world, it is vital that their plane should tell a story. And if it takes the better part of a decade to discover and restore it, even better.
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Each fitting had to be stripped to bare metal, inspected, subjected to non-destructive testing and repainted. Fortunately, the Stieglitz is well documented, with parts lists and manuals readily available, but the plane’s technical drawings are harder to come by. A few remain in the FockeWulf archives, now held by Airbus, and the Swedish and Austrian national aeronautical archives were able to help with some of the others.
When it came to reassembling the plane, Menage did seek some assistance, admitting, “I trust myself to maintain
Today his business acumen is rather more discerning – he founded a protective textile firm Industrial Textiles & Plastics Ltd (ITP) 30 years ago – and when it comes to purchasing aircraft, his priorities have changed. “As a young pilot, you’re more into touring and aerobatics and planes that are capable of doing those sorts of things,” he explains. “Whereas nowadays I’m more interested in rarity and history. Where was a plane built? Who flew it? And who owned it?”
aircraft, but not so much when it comes to repairing them.” Henry Tuke, a retired precision engineer and a dab hand on the lathe and milling machines, replaced any spent parts; Sue Bland, a retired saddler, was drafted in to replace the cockpit’s perished leather upholstery; Joachim Altman, a dentist and horologist, serviced and recalibrated the instruments; and aero engine specialist Dirk Bende helped to reconstruct the engine. “The restoration project was made all the more interesting by the involvement of so many willing and helpful people,” says Menage. “Tracking down manuals, engineering drawings, spares and missing instruments was all part of the excitement.”
In the hangar on his farm a few miles north of York, Menage keeps another two planes of “extraordinary provenance”. The first, a 1941 DH82 Tiger Moth, G-ASPV, was the plane in which family friend and distinguished Second
“I was looking for a project,” says Richard Menage, 65, running his hand affectionately down the fuselage of his pride and joy, a 1936 Focke-Wulf Fw 44J Stieglitz, G-EMNN, parked in a hangar at Bagby Airfield in North Yorkshire. To his credit, the German biplane has been so lovingly restored, it could be fresh off the factory floor. Parked opposite is its British counterpart, a 1941 de Havilland Tiger Moth belonging to Menage’s close friend and great mentor, David Cyster, with whom he shares the hangar. In 1978 Cyster famously flew said plane to Sydney with little more than a compass and a stopwatch.
“Tracking down manuals, engineering drawings and missing instruments was all part of the excitement”
HISTORIC AIRCRAFT
“The poor thing really was in dire straits,” recalls Menage. “It was 50-50 whether it could be salvaged or not, and ultimately it boiled down to whether the engine could be rebuilt.” Fortunately, he and Cyster knew a fellow enthusiast with an unflyable engine gathering dust, with whom Menage was able to offer a swap for the engine’s best cylinder. In the world of aircraft restoration, very little money changes hands. Spare parts are exchanged or IOUs are written, and so, with luck seemingly on his side, Menage trucked the aircraft back to his workshop and began slowly and meticulously dismantling the entire thing.
Menage found his “project” languishing in the Gillstads Bilmuseum in Lidköping, near Gothenburg, Sweden. He was specifically looking for a Stieglitz (German for goldfinch) – a training plane used by German flying schools and subsequently the Luftwaffe – and with the help of a crack team from the Shuttleworth Collection (home to a unique assemblage of historical aircraft), he managed to locate a plane he describes as “rarer than hen’s teeth”. It is one of only five remaining flyable German-built Stieglitz aircraft – the rest were scrapped after the war.
Five years later the Stieglitz triumphantly took to the skies. For the pilot and his family, it was a moment that had been a long time coming. Menage learnt to fly when he was 22, considerably older than his three sons, who’ve “been flying since they were in nappies”. He started in Cessnas but always had an interest in military aircraft, attributing it to the fact that “Guy Hamilton’s Battle of Britain [1969] was shot over my school [St Peter’s Prep School, Seaford] and we grew up on a diet of Commando comic books”.
So no one was too surprised when in 1981, he returned from a Christie’s auction of Sir William Roberts’s collection in Strathallan, having acquired a Miles M.17 Monarch, G-AFJU, for the discount price of £50. “It cost £400 to transport it home, “grins Menage. “Only for the inspector to turn round and say, ‘I’m sorry, Richard, but basically the glue’s had it –it’s a major restoration job.’ Sadly at the time I had no money, so I sold it to East Fortune [National Museum of Flight].”
“To this day I remember Jean-Michel Munn’s sage advice to photograph and note the location of every item before removal, right down to the last nut and bolt,” says Menage. “This paid dividends when it came to refitting the components months, if not years, later.”
Below left: Richard Menage at work on his Klemm L.25, which will be on display at Goodwood Revival this year, in the hangar at his Yorkshire farm. Below right: Menage’s de Havilland Tiger Moth at the farm’s airstrip
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To see Menage recount the stories of past owners and pilots of yesteryear is to see a collector who cares as much about preserving history as he does about getting his aeronautic kicks. He accepts that his flying days may be dwindling – “I’ll fly as long as I can pass my medical” – but insists that he’ll continue to restore planes for as long as he can. In fact, he’s already halfway through restoring a second Stieglitz – “a historical gem” – one of only two surviving examples used by the Luftwaffe. He reckons it will take a few more years at least, adding, “They always say with aircraft restoration that you’re 90 per cent there with 90 per cent to go. The final stages are always the trickiest.”
HISTORIC AIRCRAFT
The second plane in the hangar – an immaculate 1929 Klemm L.25, G-AAUP, which Menage will be exhibiting at Goodwood Revival this year (and which his wife, Alison, has affectionately dubbed “the flying lawnmower”) – is currently the 16th-oldest plane on the British register. “The original logbook reveals the interesting history of the previous owners and aviators who flew this sedate and dignified machine,” says Menage. “I’ve managed to trace eight of them, including a quite remarkable lady, Miss Nancy Bagge, the second of five siblings known as the ‘Flying Sisters’ from Gaywood Hall, King’s Lynn.”
What does Alison, a non-flyer, make of her husband’s passion? “Let’s just say it’s not surprising that many pilots are on their second wives,” she jokes, goading him. “It’s allconsuming. I am supportive, but there surely comes a point.”
Below, from top: Menage’s immaculate 1936 Focke-Wulf Fw 44J Stieglitz in the hangar at Bagby Airfield; Terence Spencer’s logbook, with his illustration of a manoeuvre called “turtling”, whereby Spitfire pilots would tip the wings of V-1 flying bombs, sending them off course
50 World War flying ace Terence Spencer learnt to fly. During a cinema-worthy military career that included escaping from a POW camp (Spencer’s autobiography is justifiably entitled Living Dangerously), he entered the Guinness Book of Records for the lowest successful parachute jump ever recorded. In 1945 his Spitfire was hit by enemy fire at a height of just 30 feet but as it broke apart, his parachute somehow deployed, landing him battered but alive in the Bay of Wismar – though he was captured moments later.
Recently, Menage had a close call of his own in Spencer’s Tiger Moth. After flying with the Tiger Nine Formation Team at the Midlands Air Festival, he was forced to make a precautionary landing at Leicester Aerodrome when the airframe and rudder pedals started vibrating. On
further investigation, the cause was a sticking valve in the No 1 cylinder of the Gipsy Major engine. “It’s all part of flying these old ladies,” he chuckles. “But I must say, the few minutes it takes to land can feel like hours.”
Are we close to that point? “Well, we’ve just had our 40th wedding anniversary, so probably not that close. I must admit, Richard’s not like most other pilots…”
The all-new Mercedes -AMG SL Official government fuel consumption figures in mpg (litres per 100km) for the Mercedes-AMG SL range: combined 17.7(16.0)-31.0(9.1). CO2 emissions* from 206-291 g/km. The indicated values were determined according to the prescribed measurement method - Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP). Figures shown may include options which are not available in the UK. *CO2 figures have been converted into NEDC-equivalent values for use with the current VED and BIK tax legislation. Figures shown are for comparability purposes; only compare with other cars tested to the same technical procedures. Figures may not reflect real life driving results, which will depend upon a number of factors including factory fitted options, accessories fitted (post registration), variations in weather, driving styles and vehicle load. Further information about the test used to establish fuel consumption and CO2 figures can be found at www.mercedes-benz.co.uk/WLTP. Information correct at time of print 01/07/2022.
OFFORCENATURE
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A new exhibition at Chichester’s Pallant House Gallery celebrates the many British artists – from Turner to Ravilious – whose work has been inspired by the landscape of Sussex. Claire Wrathall admires the view
Left: Chalk Paths by Eric Ravilious, 1935, watercolour on paper. (Bridgeman Images)
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Constable loved Sussex less for its towns (he judged Brighton “the receptacle of the fashion and offscouring of London”) than for its landscape, as have generations of artists since, praising “the magnificence of the sea […] the breakers – and the sky”. Hence his almost geometric Seascape Study: Brighton Beach looking west, two-thirds of which is comprised of louring clouds captured in such a way that you can almost feel the wind. “There’s this sense
Constable’s contemporary JMW Turner was also captivated by the county. Thanks to his patron, the Earl of Egremont, who gave him a studio at Petworth House, he made dozens of paintings and drawings of the Sussex Weald. “We’d negotiated with Tate to bring Turner’s painting of the Chichester Canal back to Chichester for its 200th anniversary this year,” says Weller. “And that got us thinking about the range of artists who have worked in Sussex.” Specifically, the Pallant House team focused on how the county’s varied topography has inspired artists as they’ve sought to convey its defining characteristics, from the towering cliffs that seem to typify “an idea of English landscape [as much as] an actual geographic location” to the ancient footpaths that criss-cross the Downs.
John Constable may be thought of as a Suffolk artist, the Stour Valley and Dedham Vale have long been branded Constable Country. “But he was working on a painting of Arundel the night he died,” says the art historian Louise Weller, curator of a new exhibition at Chichester’s Pallant House Gallery that investigates the enduring influence Sussex has had on British art. He produced perhaps 150 paintings and studies in the county. “All here sinks into insignificance in comparison with the woods and hills,” he wrote. “And the trees are beyond everything beautiful.”
of freedom in the work he made there that is very exciting,” says Weller. He would go out and paint what he saw in the open air, laying his paper “in the lid of my [paint] box on my knees as usual”, he wrote.
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Right: Whiteways, Rottingdean by William Nicholson, 1909 (Pallant House Gallery/Barney Hindle). Opposite: Ditchling Beacon, Dewpond by Jem Southam (Image courtesy of the artist and Huxley-Parlour)
The team focused on how the county’s varied topography has inspired artists as they’ve sought to convey its defining characteristics, from towering cliffs to ancient footpaths
If his painting Cocking Millpond is the oldest work on display, the most recent is a new commission from Tania
Kovats (born 1966), who grew up in Brighton and has created an installation: a vitrine displaying an arrangement of glass vessels, each containing water collected from a different chalk stream. “She’s really addressing her personal connections with the landscape of her childhood,” says Weller, explaining how Kovats revisited the streams, tributaries and rivers she knew in her youth as part of a meditation on life as a stream, “from source to mouth. It’s about place and geography and the importance of chalk streams, but it’s also quite a personal reflection.”
Not every artist in the show has an innate connection with the county. There are, for example, two paintings – of Storrington and Rye – by the French impressionist Lucien Pissarro. The majority of the works, however, are by 20thcentury British artists: Vanessa Bell, Frank Brangwyn, Edward Burra, Duncan Grant, David Jones, Paul Nash, Christopher Nevinson, John Piper, Graham Sutherland and William Nicholson. “It’s almost impossible to look at
The earliest painter to be represented in the Pallant House exhibition is George Smith (1714-76), a Chichester artist revered during his lifetime (and surely due a revival) for his academic landscapes. These are very much in the tradition of the constructed pastoral scene, “with the tree to the left in the foreground and the light in the distance” –think Claude Lorrain – “but always,” notes Weller, “rooted in a particular place”.
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She points to Chalk Paths, a rarely seen 1935 watercolour by Eric Ravilious that graphically examines “the design and structure of these paths” as they snake over the hills before disappearing into the distance. More than just a means of getting from place to place, “those are pathways that have been trodden for generations”, she says. “So there’s a sense you’re both walking in the present moment and through time.”
Right: Landscape, Sussex by Duncan Grant, 1920, oil on canvas. Bequeathed by Frank Hindley Smith (copyright: Tate)
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Not every work in the exhibition is literally evocative of the landscape as nature intended. Take Helen Sear’s Cold Frame, in which a massively enlarged courgette plant becomes something “monstrous and surreal”, calling to mind Eileen Agar and Paul Nash’s studies of found objects amid nature, or Lee Miller’s haunting images of villages around Farleys House, where she and her husband, Roland Penrose, lived for 35 years, visited by Leonora Carrington, Picasso, Max Ernst, Man Ray, Joan Miró and Dorothea Tanning.
“It is expansive,” Weller says of the breadth of the exhibition. “But I wanted to explore as full a range of work and methods and styles that have been used to represent Sussex as I could.”
Below: Sussex River, Near Midhurst by Ivon Hitchens, 1965, oil on canvas, Pallant House Gallery (Estate of Ivon Hitchens)
the Downs and not see a painting by him,” says Weller. Part of the appeal of those rolling hills, she suggests, is the way they offer a perspective that gives the impression of having been painted at altitude, drawing the eye down onto the landscape rather than seeing it on the level – certainly true of his paintings Cliffs at Rottingdean and A Downland Scene (With Figures)
There is sculpture, too, not least by Andy Goldsworthy, and a new commission from Jo Sweeting, who carves in chalk, as well as landscape photography by the likes of Richard Billingham and Wolfgang Tillmans, woodcuts by William Blake and Ravilious, and a textile work – another chalk-inspired commission – by the Petworth-based tapestry weaver Katharine Swailes.
Hitchens’s surroundings – those flowers and trees, that dappled light – were to inspire the splashy double-square “Eye Music” paintings for which he is best known
Ivon Hitchens is considered one of the great Sussex artists, despite only moving to the county at the age of 47. Staying with friends shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, Hitchens had bought six acres of woodland on the edge of Lavington Common, near Petworth, intending it as an escape from family life in London. But during the Blitz his Hampstead studio was hit by a bomb, so they all decamped to Sussex, dragging an old gypsy caravan onto the plot. Gradually they created a garden, planted with dahlias, poppies and sunflowers. And in time he built a studio, then a house, Greenleaves, where he lived until his death in 1979. “I seek to recreate the truth of nature by making my own song about it in paint,” Hitchens wrote in the year they moved there. For his surroundings – those flowers and trees, that dappled light – were to inspire the splashy double-square “Eye Music” paintings for which the artist is best known.
Sussex Landscape: Chalk, Wood and Water, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, November 12 to April 23 2023. pallant.org.uk. A catalogue of the same name by Simon Martin and Louise Weller is published by Yale University Press.
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Above: Beach and Star Fish, Seven Sisters Cliff, Eastbourne by John Piper, 1933-34, gouache, pen and ink (Jerwood Collection/ The Piper Estate). Left: Catherine de Villiers and Princess Dilkusha by Eileen Agar, 1941 (Tate Archive)
Dandy Wellington, the bandleader and vintage-fashion aficionado, proudly wears a badge with the slogan “Vintage Style, Not Vintage Values” on the lapel of his 1940s jacket. In addition to his work as a musician and entertainer, Wellington describes himself as a style activist. “I was born and raised in Harlem, New York City,” he tells me when we met on Zoom, speaking from the dressing room where he records sartorial jaunts through his extensive vintage wardrobe for his brilliant eponymous YouTube series. “I have no choice but to celebrate the great artists who walked these streets and changed lives in America and around the world.” Duke Ellington, Teddy Wilson and Fats Waller are some of the musicians he grew up listening to. “We can’t help but be inspired. Not only by the artistry, but by the story, the style, the things they overcame. And so, as a Black American who loves history, loves the music and loves the style, I can’t help but honour these people – with every tie of the bow Wellington’stie.”
love of vintage tailoring and sartorial codes, not to mention a minor obsession with buttonholes, is certainly not born out of some sense of backward-looking nostalgia for an apple-pie ideal of the past. He is acutely
This viewpoint demonstrates that there is nothing regressive about vintage dressing and illustrates the theme of the Revive and Thrive Village at this year’s Goodwood Revival. The vintage community is global and diverse, often driven not by tone-deaf nostalgia for past times, but by a yearning for clothes that are beautifully crafted and made
VINTAGERADICAL
aware of how difficult life was for these pioneers. “We’re not even just talking about inequality, you know,” he says. “In the face of their fame and brilliance, in the face of thousands of records sold, people being able to sing the songs that they wrote back to them, they couldn’t walk in the front door [of a venue]. They couldn’t stay in the same hotel as where they were playing. They had to go to the Black part of town and sleep on someone’s sofa or in someone’s spare room.” So when Wellington is getting dressed in the morning, selecting a truly eye-catching tie and waistcoat combination, and perhaps a jaunty hat and pocket handkerchief to complete the look, this is no mere frivolity, and his spectacles are far from rose-tinted. “To this day, when people say ‘Oh, yeah, we’ll just have the musicians come in the back’, I’m, like, ‘No, we’re not doing that. I’m acutely aware of the history of that practice. And it won’t continue.’”
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For many people, buying second-hand clothes is much more than a fashion statement – it’s a potent way to express your integrity, your ethics and your politics. Tamsin Blanchard talks to the style pioneers who wear their hearts on their sleeves
The resale market is big business, and getting bigger by the day, whether it’s a bedroom business or a luxury fashion resale start-up like the recently launched Reluxe, which sells designers cast-offs from the fashion industry’s models and influencers. According to recent research by GlobalData for the US platform ThredUp, the second-hand sector is going to be worth $84 billion by 2030, far outstripping the fast-fashion sector, which will be worth about $40 billion.
But for those dedicated to the art of second-hand dressing, it’s not about business, it’s about style and a sense of identity. Here, we talk to three fashion pioneers for whom not buying new, and looking after the clothes they become custodians of, is as much about politics, ethics and integrity as it is about expressing the very soul of who they are.
Previous page and left: bandleader and vintage-fashion aficionado Dandy Wellington, for whom wearing vintage clothes is a way to honour the pioneers who came before him. Above, right: Orsola de Castro, author of Loved Clothes Last
The vintage community is driven not by nostalgia for past times, but by a yearning for clothes that are made to last
to last, and a freedom to express your identity away from the conformity of mass-produced style. Increasingly, new generations are embracing old clothes, whether it’s teenagers finding 1990s style at car-boot sales or on Depop, fashionlovers discovering the impact of the industry on the planet and opting to buy less and not buy new, or style leaders deciding that the most creative way to express themselves is by sourcing their clothes anywhere but the high street. Even Love Island has moved on from fast fashion to embrace the world – and sponsorship – of eBay.
HAUGHTONTAMZINABOVE:HUGUS.ANNEBYPHOTOPAGES:OPENINGLAHMADIKAMAL
Vintage impresario Dandy Wellington will lead Revival’s new lifestyle hub, the Revive and Thrive Village, in a joyous celebration of all things vintage and second-hand.
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She also has a free approach to holes, stains and other wear and tear. She views them in the same way we think about wrinkles, grey hair, scars or other signs of having lived. She might crochet around a hole in a jumper to stop it getting worse, or simply leave a moth-hole in a jacket, just because. She has a collection of pins, brooches, hair clips and elastic bands that are used to creatively adjust sizing issues, cover up stains or help with the odd emergency repair. “If I have a wine stain, I’m now thinking, OK, why get rid of it? Just get more wine and we’ll do a decoration with wine,” she says.
Nevertheless, she is a longstanding fan of her local vintage clothing store, Cenci in southeast London, and confesses to
finding it extremely difficult to pass a charity shop without going in for a quick browse through the rails.
The clothes keeper | @orsoladecastro
For de Castro, clothes are like relatives – they are with you for life. “I have four cousins, and we’ve had a common wardrobe since we were little. We’ve always shared. In fact, I’m still wearing my 60-year-old cousin’s hand-me-downs.” Each of those cousins also has clothes circulating among their friends and family, so the communal wardrobe is everchanging. “I’m a committed clothes keeper,” she says.
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When Orsola de Castro, founder of Fashion Revolution, which campaigns for a clean, fair and transparent fashion industry, wrote her book Loved Clothes Last (Penguin, 2021) the words poured out onto the page. Here was a lifetime’s experience of loving not just clothes, but the actual clothes in her wardrobe, the ones she has inherited, borrowed, been given, mended, passed on to her daughters, swapped with her cousins and rotated through her extensive wardrobe system in an elaborate game of hide-and-seek. “I often give an item to one of my daughters, then ask if I can have it back five years later in case I change my mind,” sheNowsays. in her fifties, she is attracted to specific pieces because of their colour or shape, preferring more of a pickand-mix approach. “I buy second-hand irrespective of whether it reminds me of a period, but obviously I’m literate enough to recognise a good thing when I see it. But it’s not era-specific. It’s not ‘vintage’ in that sense.”
ORSOLA DE CASTRO
“Just as a scar is a memory, I see clothes the same way.”
Right: Emma Slade Edmondson uses clothes to discuss a range of topics
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Slade Edmondson can’t remember the last time she went into a high-street store to shop for clothes, a process she describes as “like painting by numbers”. There’s something robotic, she feels, about the idea of buying clothes where it’s all laid out for you. She prefers the thrill of finding treasure in a vintage or charity shop. “I suppose I’ve always wanted to be somebody who is unique and expresses themselves in their own personal way,” she says. “And it turns out lots of people are like that – that’s what’s inspiring about style.”
Slade Edmondson, who has worked with a host of brands, charities and retailers, including Cancer Research UK, Shelter and Westfield, has been using second-hand clothes as a way to talk about a range of topics, from overconsumption to identity, since 2009, when she set up her consultancy, Back of the Wardrobe. She and a team of stylists would help clients make the most of the clothes already in their wardrobes. “It was always really about the person and what was going on with them more than it was about clothes,” she says.
The style chameleon |
She describes her own style as “chameleon-like – I enjoy the mixing of the items rather than one specific item”. There’s a connection here with her Jamaican British heritage, she muses. She hosts a podcast, together with co-creator Nicole Ocran, called Mixed Up, which explores ideas around mixedrace identity. “There’s something in being mixed – Nicole and I talk about this all the time – which is that we do have quite fluid ways of expressing our identity.” It’s more about dressing for an occasion or a particular mode, she says, than about creating characters for herself: “I like making things that look like they should be too much look chic.”
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Emma Slade Edmondson’s recent Instagram series “Come Second Hand Shopping with Me” is an invitation to be completely intoxicated by her joyful approach to buying vintage. The enthusiasm of this retail marketing and behaviour-change consultant is wonderfully infectious, and the feelgood factor of the series is about much more than simply finding the perfect 1970s sundress.
EMMA SLADE EDMONDSON
That’s what fashion is. That’s what style is. And that’s how we express ourselves.”
“The fun isn’t in the newness, it’s in the creating. That’s what style is. And that’s how we express ourselves”
One of the most influential things she did around the same time was Charity Fashion Live, for which she challenged herself to recreate looks from the catwalks of London Fashion Week in real time. “It’s that idea that there’s so much value and excitement in creating from things that already exist, and that the fun isn’t in the newness, it’s in
@emsladeedmondsonthecreating.
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The upcyclist | @ matthewneedhamstudio
Whatever he needs, whether it’s for his home or to wear, he will always check out his local charity store first
When Needham was in Amsterdam on a work trip last year, he bought some red 1970s mechanics’ overalls from a vintage store to add to his collection. “I’ve always loved boiler suits,” he says. “I like the idea that there are multiples of something – it really feeds into the idea of hyper-masculine companies and institutions. And the idea of them being industrial. They also work perfectly as a uniform.” He now has four sets, but the red overalls are his favourite because they give him an instant identity, almost like a brand. “People understand – oh, yeah, it’s the guy in the boiler suit. He’s the one who’s always talking about the environment and whatever.”
MATTHEW NEEDHAM
How Needham dresses is part of this ethos. “I love functional clothing because I literally dress like my dad,” he laughs. He’s got some of his father’s overalls that he upcycled, and he enjoys finding clothes that might have been worn by operatives from recycling companies. He has a favourite jacket from a Dutch waste-recycling company, as well as a top from a fracking company that looks like it’s masquerading as something far more environmentally wholesome. He finds items such as these in flea markets and sometimes just lying about on the street.
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During his year out from his fashion degree at Central Saint Martins, Matthew Needham was disturbed by the amount of waste he saw at the luxury fashion house in Paris where he was interning. His reaction wasn’t so much about being sustainable as the fact that the waste was at odds with the values he had grown up with. His dad was a carpenter, making windows and renovating old buildings, something Needham reflects on in his installation work, which celebrates the things he finds on the street that have been broken or discarded by society.
For Needham, who is now employed by his alma mater, Central Saint Martins, as sustainability lecturer in fashion Design, buying new is never the default, as it is for most people. Whatever he needs, whether it’s for his home or to wear, he will always check out his local charity store first. “Buying second-hand involves a change of mindset,” he explains. “I smoke and I go out with my friends. We travel, we take aeroplanes, that’s just the way the world is – but I think it’s about making those small changes as a first step.”
FLYERHIGH
She’s written two acclaimed books, been honoured with a string of prestigious awards and travelled the world spotting rare birds –and she’s still only 20. Mya-Rose Craig, aka Birdgirl, tells Alex Moore why sometimes it’s important to ruffl e a few feathers
“Birdwatching has never felt like a hobby I can pick up and put down, but a thread running
“I had friends who knew I was into bird-watching, and they were fine with it,” Craig says graciously from her parents’ home in the Chew Valley, North Somerset. She’s awaiting her exam results after her first year at the University of Cambridge, where she’s studying human, social and political sciences. “But I didn’t have any friends who shared my passion. So I started a blog [also called Birdgirl] in the hope of building an online community of birdwatchers my age. It was supposed to be a very quiet little corner of the internet for me just to find those people, but suddenly more and more people started to take notice.”
While most teenagers spent the pandemic punctuating periods of endless ennui with hours trawling TikTok, Britain’s ornithologist wunderkind, Mya-Rose Craig, used it as an opportunity to write her second book, Birdgirl. Having just been presented with an honorary doctorate from Bristol University – making her the youngest person ever to receive such an award – and on the verge of finishing her A-levels, the then 17-year-old was planning to take a year out to go travelling. At this point Craig had already seen half of the world’s 10,738 species of bird (again, she is the youngest person to have done this), and she was intent on augmenting that tally. But, as with so many of her contemporaries, those hopes were unceremoniously dashed.
Opening spread and above: Mya-Rose Craig looks out for rare species at Chew Valley Lake, Somerset. The author and activist’s blog, Birdgirl, has been viewed over four million times. Top right: a glossy ibis in flight
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Craig has been a prominent figure in the UK’s birding community since appearing on BBC4’s Twitchers: A Very British Obsession in 2010. At the time she was seven and, having seen 324 birds that year – a remarkable and dogged achievement in itself – was beginning to ruffle a few feathers. A small contingent of the twitching old guard disputed Craig’s numbers, questioning whether a young, mixed-race girl like her could, or even should, be as knowledgeable as she was. It was the first sign that birding wasn’t perhaps as inclusive as she’d imagined.
The Birdgirl blog has been viewed more than four million times and has catapulted Craig into the public eye. She has appeared on television alongside the naturalists Steve Backshall and Bill Oddie (who describes her as “a superhero… intelligent, informed, passionate, and persistent”); given over 50 lectures, including a TED Talk on Passion, Priorities and Perseverance; become the youngest member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds’ advisory committee; and been named Young Conservationist of the Year in the Birder’s Choice Awards 2021.
g through the pattern of my life”
In 2016, at the age of 13, Craig founded Black2Nature, an organisation that hosts nature camps for inner-city VME children while campaigning to make the conservation and environmental sectors more ethnically diverse. Over the course of a weekend, participants might learn to bird-ring, bat-walk, pond-dip, moth-trap, toast marshmallows and “bio blitz” (a race to find and identify as many species as possible). “One of the reasons I started my charity,” she says, “is that I had this understanding of how important nature is for our mental health and wellbeing, and I just thought how much of a tragedy it was that so many kids weren’t getting access to that resource.”
Like her father, an ardent activist who spent his youth campaigning for animal rights, Craig has been relentless in her own fight. She has spent much of the past few years
Indeed, it is testament to her precocious empathy that Craig manages to address such weighty issues through the lens of birding. She talks candidly about her mother’s bipolar disorder and how the family has used the meditative and mindful aspects of birdwatching as a tool to aid mental health. She also quickly identifies that the luxury of the great outdoors isn’t something everyone can take for granted. “I noticed that I never saw anyone else who was Black or Asian out in the countryside, and that made me incredibly sad,” she says. “So I started digging around and quickly realised that there was something much more deeply ingrained going on. Racism and discrimination are interwoven into environmental causes. The question is always, ‘Why can’t we get people to care? Why aren’t people engaging? Why aren’t people out in the street protesting?’ But people have no reason to care about biodiversity loss [for example] if they’ve never experienced biodiversity. What is their frame of reference? And so, if we chip away at discrimination, allowing VME [Visible Minority Ethnic] people to develop a relationship with nature and the outdoors, they will be much more likely to engage with wider environmental issues.”
Again, representation, or the lack thereof, is a theme that has helped to shape Craig’s unique trajectory. For her first book, We Have a Dream, she met 30 activists who perhaps weren’t getting the platform they required or the recognition they deserved. “I started to become aware that within the climate-change movement you’d only ever hear from the same handful of western voices, over and over again,” she says. “And, of course, they are doing brilliant things, but there are so many other incredible activists that we don’t get to hear from. So I decided to track some of these people down – specifically non-white and indigenous activists – and write a book about them.”
speaking at events and appearing on panels, so comparisons have naturally been drawn with her Swedish counterpart Greta Thunberg – with whom she has shared a stage on a number of occasions, notably at COP26 (which Craig believes was a huge opportunity for the UK to take the bull by the horns, but ultimately fell well short). “Being compared to Greta is a compliment because she’s amazing, but it can also be conflicting,” says Craig. “It has become a lazy media shorthand: the British or the Indian or the African Greta Thunberg. Vanessa Nakate is more than just the Ugandan Greta Thunberg. What we’re all doing is very different and people deserve to be celebrated in their own right.”
In Birdgirl, she admits: “Birdwatching has never felt like a hobby or a pastime I can pick up and put down, but a thread running through the pattern of my life, so tightly woven in that there’s no way of pulling it free and leaving the rest of my life intact.” So what exactly is the fascination? “They’re just these amazing, beautiful creatures that are everywhere, all of the time,” she says. “I wrote the book primarily for people who have never really had an interest in birds, because I wanted to help them understand the obsession. If I can get people to notice birds a little more, hopefully they will think differently about their relationship with nature and the outdoors – and that would be a wonderful thing.”
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“Originally I was just talking about birds and birdwatching and stuff like that, but I realised quite quickly that this platform gave me an opportunity to talk about some of the bigger things going on in the world,” says Craig. “Things like environmentalism, conservation, mental health and racial inequality” – issues that feature prominently in her new book. “People are calling it a memoir, which feels strange given that I was 18 when I wrote it.”
Not only did this serve as a crash course in activism, it allowed her to add several megas (birding slang for extremely rare sightings), including the harpy eagle and the swordbilled hummingbird, to her list. For the Craigs, travelling has always been bird-centric. “Whenever I came home from a holiday and my friends asked what we’d done, all I ever said was birdwatching,” beams Craig. “We’ve always chosen the countries we travel to based on how many birds there are.”
HORSEPOWERFERRARI’STOP5GOODWOODMOMENTS
Ferrari and the Goodwood Motor Circuit were born within a year of each other, in 1947 and 1948 respectively. The first Ferrari to come to the UK was immediately raced at Goodwood, and these two great names of motorsport grew together, their histories intertwined, until professional racing ceased at the circuit in 1966. Here, we tell the story of Ferrari at Goodwood through five key moments, each involving a beautiful setting, a tough contest, some of the most seductive racing machinery ever constructed, and many of the greatest, most glamorous and occasionally most tragic talents to take a wheel.
Words by Ben Oliver
With its “bonnetful of engine” the Ferrari was the star of the paddock, according to Motor Sport magazine. “Driving beautifully and with the car holding the road like a leech”, Folland won the first race, the five-lap Lavant Cup, watched by the 9th Duke of Richmond, future prime minister Anthony Eden and those 40,000 motorsport fans – plus an unrecorded number of others who’d broken down the fence, Glastonbury-style, and invaded the track, such was the draw of the spectacle. It was Ferrari’s first win in the UK, in the first car to arrive here, more than a decade before you could buy a road-going Ferrari from a dealer. And perhaps it was an omen: two years later Ferrari’s first-ever Grand Prix win would happen in the UK, at Silverstone.
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How must the nascent Goodwood Motor Circuit have looked in perfect spring weather to the crowd of 40,000 who packed it for the Easter Monday meeting in 1949? Britain was still deep in postwar austerity then. Life for most was gritty, and those who drove down from London would have used more than the 90 miles of fuel they were rationed to each month.
Dudley Folland’s 166 Spyder Corsa was the first Ferrari in the country, and the first thing he did with the single-seat, open-cockpit, open-wheel racer – after painting it green and adding Welsh dragons to its nose – was to race it at Goodwood. The Ferrari came to the circuit via a circuitous route. It was originally a 125S, the first model Enzo Ferrari had built under his own name in 1947, but it had been crashed and rebuilt as a more powerful 166, with a tiny jewel of a 2.0-litre V12 engine.
It was bought (along with two others) in 1948 by Prince Igor Troubetzkoy, a French nobleman of Russian descent, probably with help from his new American wife, the troubled “poor little rich girl” Barbara Hutton, heiress to the Woolworths fortune. Unbeknownst to the prince, while the car was in for repair Ferrari loaned it to Tazio Nuvolari to use in the 1948 Mille Miglia, the gruelling thousand-mile road race through Italy, from which both car and driver retired exhausted. Folland, a wealthy Welsh amateur sportsman and racer, then bought it, avoiding the 66 per cent import duty on cars costing over £1,000 by handing more than £4,000 in a bag in a London hotel to a Ferrari mechanic called Boschi, who’d transported the 166 from Modena in a van.
But what joys awaited them: seven races featuring the stars of British motorsport, among them a 19-year-old Stirling Moss, at a beautiful new circuit that had only hosted its first race the previous September. And in its still-grassy paddock were bright, beautiful, exotic Italian race cars from Maserati, Cisitalia and a new Modenese manufacturer named Ferrari.
While events like that Easter Monday meeting in 1949 were hugely popular with the crowds, with seven or eight races providing the excitement of seven or eight starts and finishes, those who really knew their motorsport craved a British answer to the great European long-distance races such as Le Mans. The spectacle of the sports-racing cars of the period thundering into the gathering gloom, headlamps glowing and exhausts flaming, was a tantalising prospect.
Aston Martin won the race, as it did all three Nine Hour events. The cost of putting the races on meant the 1955 running was the last, but Hawthorn’s drive in that gorgeous Ferrari was arguably the high point of all of them.
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MIKE HAWTHORN DRIVES THE NINE HOUR RACE LIKE A SPRINT IN HIS FERRARI 750 MONZA
Goodwood’s response was the Nine Hour race, first run in 1952 and for which its hallmark pits were constructed. The circuit provided “a fairyland scene for the occasion”, according to Motor Sport magazine, with Ferrari providing arguably the race’s greatest performance. For the 1955 running it entered a works 750 Monza for Mike Hawthorn and Alfonso de Portago. The car was light, nimble, achingly pretty and so compact that it looked like a three-quarterscale model of itself. De Portago was even better-looking and more glamorous than his car – a Spanish/Irish nobleman, racing driver, jockey, pilot, bobsledder and playboy who seemed to excel at all he did.
But Hawthorn was the real star of the pairing, and soon to become Britain’s first Formula 1 World Champion. He took the first stint and scorched into a lead, driving the Ferrari so hard he was lifting an inside wheel through the chicane. On one lap he lost it there, crashing through a fence and narrowly avoiding a sign before careering down the pit road and rejoining the track.
His lead lasted half an hour before a gearbox problem forced a 12-minute pit stop. But even a deficit like that can be made up over nine hours, and Hawthorne drove harder than ever, setting a new lap record for his class on the car’s 176th lap. Conventional racing wisdom says this shouldn’t be possible in an endurance race, but in treating it like a sprint he and de Portago charged from 42nd to third before a rear axle failure forced them out.
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Another Goodwood Easter Monday meeting, another Ferrari and another glittering performance from Mike Hawthorn. The Formula 1 season had already begun by the time the Easter meeting was held in icy weather on April 7. But there was a four-month gap between the Argentine Grand Prix in January, which was won by Stirling Moss, and the European season, which was due to commence in May with the Monaco Grand Prix. In advance of that, Goodwood’s Easter meeting included a race – the Glover Trophy – for Grand Prix cars, and, even though it wasn’t part of the World Championship, Ferrari sent its star driver in its latest Formula 1 car, the 246 Dino.
Hawthorn’s most likely rival was the pugnacious Jean Behra in the BRM Type 25, a driver whose combative style on track was visually reinforced by the ear he’d been missing since a crash in 1955. He was perhaps a little too combative this time, tearing into the lead, but tearing a wheel off, four laps later, on the chicane wall. In his less
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75 HAWTHORN AGAIN, GIVING THE GOODWOOD CROWD A PREVIEW OF THE COMBINATION THAT WOULD WIN THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
powerful Cooper-Climax, Moss went from last to third place after four laps, setting exactly the same new track record as Hawthorn in the Ferrari, but blew his engine. His team-mate Jack Brabham was quick, but couldn’t get anywhere near Hawthorn, who won by 36 seconds.
He would go on to win that year’s Formula 1 World Championship in the same car, and the Goodwood crowds saw them together first. But any recollection of that time in motor racing is invariably tinged by the dark toll that scythed through the sport. Hawthorn’s partner in the 1955 Nine Hour, Alfonso de Portago, had been killed the year before in an accident that claimed nine spectators’ lives and ended the Mille Miglia. Within a year Behra and Hawthorn were gone too, Behra while racing and Hawthorn, ironically, in a road accident. (Mentally scarred by the loss of so many friends, he had quit racing straight after becoming world champion.) Those moments at Goodwood in Ferraris are among his lasting monuments.
By 1960 he was finally racing a Ferrari at Goodwood –and what a race, and what a Ferrari. The Tourist Trophy was Britain’s oldest and most prestigious motorsport event, run since 1905 at five circuits and already won five times by Moss. It was originally intended for road-going cars and the subtle, stunning, dark blue 250 GT SWB coupé that he raced for team owner Rob Walker was just that: an elegant grand tourer with a body designed by Pininfarina and made by coachbuilder Scaglietti, as capable of effortlessly crossing a continent as it was of winning a top-flight race.
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Stirling Moss was present at each of our three previous Goodwood Ferrari moments: either at the meeting or in the same race, but never in a Ferrari. He impressed Enzo early in his career, but they fell out in 1951 when Moss arrived in Italy to find that the Ferrari he’d been promised for the Bari Grand Prix had been given to another driver. He vowed never to drive for the Scuderia, but later relented, winning in Ferraris in the Bahamas and Cuba in the late 1950s.
Moss’s 1960 car did both. Driven from Modena directly to its first race at Silverstone, chassis number 2119 GT is now owned by former Ferrari F1 technical director Ross Brawn. Given its beauty and significance, it would be valued deep in the tens of millions of pounds were it offered for sale again.
STIRLING MOSS WINS THE TOURIST TROPHY TWO YEARS IN A ROW AT GOODWOOD, DRIVING A 250 GT
No race victory against the fields the TT attracted was ever easy, but Moss and his Ferrari made it seem that way, twice. In 1960 he won by two laps, listening to the race commentary on his Ferrari’s radio. In 1961 his lead at the end was just a lap, but the race organisers were so confident of his seventh TT win that they had a cake waiting for him.
They would also have assumed that there would be more Moss victories at Goodwood, and more in cars from Modena – a deal had finally been done to supply him with Ferraris for both Formula 1 and sportscar races for 1962 – but it was not to be. A heavy crash in a Lotus at Goodwood early in 1962 forced his retirement and meant that Moss’s 1961 TT victory was his last at the circuit he saw as home.
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Sometimes in motorsport it’s just a privilege to witness a driver, car or team in their prime, the predictability of their victories outweighed by their combined significance. But it wasn’t quite like that at Goodwood that dry, cool August day. Jim Clark was on sparkling form in his lithe, light Lotus 30, using kerb and verge to carve out an impressive early lead that he lost only to mechanical failures and pit-stop errors. With his pencil moustache, Hill looked as if he was from an older generation than Clark, and he drove the same way, perhaps in part because he’d injured his neck and was racing in a collar composed of three inflatable rings. There were “no fireworks”, a contemporary race report noted, but instead he eased his Ferrari around with the maturity and restraint that makes a car last 24 hours, and won him this 130-lap classic when Clark’s front suspension failed.
What a way for Ferrari to bow out at Goodwood. The TT was held elsewhere the next year, and the year after that top-flight racing at the circuit ceased. But the relationship between these two great names reflected the rise of Ferrari from its infancy to its pomp and has been celebrated at Goodwood’s three historic motorsport events ever since.
GRAHAM HILL SEALS FERRARI’S FIVE-RACE LOCKOUT IN THE TOURIST TROPHY AT GOODWOOD
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Ferrari was in its imperial phase, winning not only the TT five times in a row, but every Le Mans over the same period. Ferrari’s 1964 Le Mans one-two-three came in June, a few months before Hill lined up at Goodwood in the same car in which he’d placed second at Le Mans.
Five Tourist Trophy races were held at Goodwood from 1960 to 1964, and Ferrari won all of them. What Stirling Moss had begun in 1960 and 1961, Innes Ireland continued in the 250 GTO in 1962, and Graham Hill finished with a 250 GTO in 1963 and the 330 P open sports-racing prototype in 1964. The three models used to win the five races defied the convention that all Ferraris ought to be red. Moss’s 250 GTs were blue, Ireland’s 250 GTO was a pistachio green and Hill’s cars sported the distinctive red and Cambridge blue of Colonel Ronnie Hoare, whose Maranello Concessionaires imported Ferraris to the UK and ran an impressive privateer racing team.
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THING?THISWHAT,OLD
Decluttering your wardrobe? Vintage fashion is now so in demand, writes Alice Newbold, luxury brands are buying back their own archives
“Brands increasingly realise the importance of heritage in navigating their way to the future,” says Marie Blanchet, a vintage-fashion expert who founded the sourcing service Mon Vintage in 2020. “Heritage is our anchor, and the future of fashion is in the past. That’s the magic of vintage, or what I like to call ‘modern vintage’.”
Valentino’s resale rollout followed in October 2021. Phase one saw the Italian house invite customers to sell their old Valentino clothes in exchange for store credit. For phase two, these reconditioned pieces went on sale during an exclusive two-week window in June at vintage stores in Milan, New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo. Phase three will involve
Vintage fashion is booming thanks to the success of consignment stores – digital platforms such as Vestiaire Collective, Depop and 1stDibs, where you can buy and sell second-hand clothing, accessories, shoes and more. Industry analysts McKinsey & Company estimate that the resale luxury market will grow by 10-15 per cent annually over the next decade, so it’s no surprise that fashion houses are waking up to the consumer demand for vintage and embracing its commercial potential.
Opening spread: Ganni Repeat (photo: Sarah Stenfeldt Hansen). Below: the launch of Gucci Vault, starring actor and musician Jared Leto. Opposite: sartorial treasures from Gucci Vault
Every year millions of tonnes of clothing are made, worn and thrown away – and with 70 per cent of discarded garments ending up in landfill, shopping vintage isn’t just a growing style trend, it’s a great way to buy better.
Labels looking to the past to make a profit include Gucci, which was first out of the blocks in September 2021 with its online Vault collection, an edit of restored pre-loved pieces, in some cases customised by creative director Alessandro Michele. These reworked classics were accompanied by current looks from a raft of new-wave designers, including Bianca Saunders and Priya Ahluwalia. The timing was impeccable – with the arrival in cinemas of House of Gucci, which saw Lady Gaga make headlines in a series of retro logoed outfits, and a string of house classic bag releases, including the Jackie, named after Jackie Kennedy, and the Diana, a nod to the Princess of Wales, everyone wanted a slice of the new/old Gucci.
“Brands realise the importance of heritage in navigating their way to the future… the future of fashion is in the past”
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Below and right: Milan’s Madame Pauline Vintage, home to Valentino Vintage gems like this stunning red dress
The modern vintage market was a natural career shift for Jean Paul Gaultier, who officially retired in 2020, but has never gone out of fashion. In May 2021 Vestiaire Collective reported that sales of his label had risen by 300 per cent thanks to Gen Z supermodels fuelling an appetite for his Venus de Milo line. Gaultier Archive started as an edit of 30 pieces, all available to rent, including a Madonna-esque cage-style gown, but it has now become a destination for JPG devotees, both renting and buying.
Next year Ralph Lauren – a brand that has channelled vintage style since its inception – is expected to follow suit with a line of reconditioned vintage pieces. Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen, meanwhile, have collaborated with resale platforms Reflaunt and Vestiaire Collective respectively, while their parent company, Kering, bought a five per cent stake in the latter. Multi-brand etailers such as Farfetch and Net-a-Porter are getting in on the act with dedicated second-hand product pages, while popular Danish brand Ganni has teamed up with Reflaunt to launch a resale and rental service, Ganni Repeat.
Ganni founder Nicolaj Reffstrup described his business’s hybrid model, which prioritises the environment, to Vogue with these words: “The whole point is that we want to
Valentino Vintage, described as “a path born from the idea of collecting and giving back”, taking its treasures of the past to fashion schools, “where the newest and most original stories are born”, according to the label.
make anything that pertains to the afterlife of our product so seamless and fluid that the consumer won’t necessarily notice if he or she is buying a new product or a second-hand product, or renting a product,” His partner, Ditte Reffstrup, added: “I do hope sustainability is the force behind it – that people actually want to do better.”
carbon-neutral by 2025, but will need to drastically decrease the transportation of its goods, which accounts for 80 per cent of its carbon emissions, by encouraging customers to shop locally and use eco-friendly shipping methods.
In the meantime there is little need for big-budget global advertising campaigns – celebrities, including Rihanna, who wore an array of covetable vintage buys during her first pregnancy, and all of Louis Vuitton’s brand ambassadors, who wore archival house looks to this year’s Met Gala, are doing an excellent job of promoting a second-hand way of dressing up. Going old school, it seems, is the new way to wear it well.
Sustainability is a key driver of the vintage boom, with the waste charity WRAP noting that extending a garment’s life by just nine months can reduce its carbon, waste and water footprints by between 20 and 30 per cent. The big challenge for brands now is to maintain this growing industry’s green credentials. Vestiaire Collective, for example, aims to be
Left: a Charles de Vilmorin flower-print shirt from Gucci Vault
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Sustainability is a key driver… the big challenge for brands now is to maintain this growing industry’s green credentials
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IN BLACK
BOLDER
Visit www.rolls-roycemotorcars.com A powerful force emerging from the shadows. Bolder in expression, bolder in performance, bolder in attitude. Discover Black Badge Ghost. Rolls-Royce Black Badge Ghost: WLTP combined: CO2 emissions: 359 g/km; Fuel consumption: 15.8 mpg / 17.9 l/100km. The values of fuel consumptions, CO2 emissions and energy consumptions shown are based on the new WLTP test-cycle and determined a ccording to the European Regulation (EC) 715/2007 in the version applicable at the time of type approval. The figures shown consider optional equipment and the different size of wheels and tyres available on the selected model. Changes of the configuration can lead to changes of the values. For vehicle related taxes or other duties based (at least inter alia) on CO2 emissions the CO2 values may differ to the values stated here. They do not relate to any one particular vehicle, nor are they part of any offer made, rather they are solely for the purpose of comparing different kinds of vehicle. Further information about the official fuel consumption and the specific CO2 emissions of new passenger cars can be taken out of the “Guide to Fuel Consumption, CO2 Emissions and Electricity Consumption of New Passenger Cars”, which is available at all selling points and at https://www.gov.uk/co2-and-vehicle-tax-tools/ in the United Kingdom, https://www.dat.de/co2/ in Germany and or your local government authority. © Copyright Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited 2022. The Rolls-Royce name and logo are registered GHOSTtrademarks.
Wednesday October 19
Our ever-popular Bonfire Night celebrations return to The Kennels, with two nights of sensational fireworks lighting up the skies.
VEE-POWER SUNDAY –BREAKFAST CLUB AT GOODWOOD MOTOR CIRCUIT
GAME MASTERCLASS WITH HEAD CHEF DAN TURNER
Dr John Mason returns to The Kennels to talk about whether there was, or still is, life on Mars. After dinner, head out onto the Duchess’ Paddock to look through the telescope for some planet-gazing.
Our Head Chef, Dan, will teach you all about the different game cuts and preparation. Goodwood Gamekeeper, Robert Nicholson, will also be part of this practical masterclass.
Sunday November 6
Tuesday November 29 and Wednesday November 30
Nothing says Christmas quite like a beautiful wreath hanging on your front door! So please join us for a practical wreath-making workshop, where you will learn how to create your very own festive decoration.
Our two-day event celebrating all things canine returns, featuring a wide variety of dog-related activities such as workshops, talks by veterinary experts and the fastest dog competition (see overleaf for further details).
Friday November 4 and Saturday November 5
Wednesday October 12
Sunday October 9 GOODWOOD RACECOURSE SEASON FINALE
DR JOHN MASON – WAS THERE (IS THERE) LIFE ON MARS?
OCTOBER - MAY
Nik Westacott, restaurateur, chef, caterer and mushroom expert, will guide you through the fascinating kingdom of fungi.
Covering everything from Ducati 916s to heavy metal Americana, Vee-Power Sunday showcases some of the most sonorous and exhilarating machines the world has ever seen.
Wednesday November 23
WREATH-MAKING
Saturday May 20 and Sunday May 21, 2023
GOODWOOF
ESTATE FORAGING WITH NIK WESTACOTT
Thursday October 13
calendarHIGHLIGHTS
BONFIRE NIGHT AT THE KENNELS
EXCLUSIVE GUSBOURNE WINE TASTING DINNER AT THE KENNELS
Celebrate Goodwood’s final fixture of the season in a laid-back country-style atmosphere. In between some fantastic racing, enjoy merry tunes against the atmospheric backdrop of roaring firepits and toasted marshmallows.
Enjoy a selection of Gusbourne wines with our four-course tasting dinner, which will be accompanied by some of the vineyard's finest wines.
Top: Hound Lodge, a 10-bedroom retreat at the heart of the Goodwood Estate. Right: Goodwood is a magical place to spend Christmas
Hound Lodge is a magnificent 10-bedroom country retreat at the heart of the 12,000-acre Goodwood Estate. A celebration here offers a true sense of freedom and an intimate atmosphere that can be rivalled only by a party held at your own home, but with a team of staff to make sure you and your guests are perfectly looked after at all times. Whether you wish to celebrate Christmas in the countryside, see in the New Year with close friends or simply get away from it all, Hound Lodge offers an exceptional stay with delicious food and drink. To book, please enquire via goodwood.com/visit-eat-stay/ hound-lodge or call 07929 752876.
Christmas at Goodwood
December 2022 – January 2023 CALENDAR 91
The Goodwood Hotel is the perfect place for a blissful three-night Christmas stay, beginning with a festive cocktail and four-course dinner on Christmas Eve and culminating in a relaxing breakfast before departure on December 27. Christmas lunch at Farmer, Butcher, Chef will be a gastronomic treat inspired by our organic, estate-reared produce, and you can enjoy scenic winter walks around the Estate, with splendid views of Goodwood House and the surrounding parkland. To book, please contact the reservations team at hotel@goodwood.com or call 01243 775537.
Saturday May 20 – Sunday May 21, 2023
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Right: watch world-class canine athletes in action. Below: the two-day extravaganza features activities that you can take part in with your dog
goodwoof
After the successful launch this year of Goodwoof – a two-day extravaganza celebrating our love for our canine friends – we are delighted to confirm that we will be holding a second event on May 20 and 21, 2023. Goodwoof 2023 will feature even more world-class competitions for top canine athletes, including international champions. There will be gundog and sheepdog competitions and demonstrations, wellness workshops, talks from key behavioural and veterinary experts, and lots of free-of-charge activities that you can take part in with your dog – such as the fastest dog, which will return bigger and better – plus plenty of opportunities for play. Next year the event will include a puppy corner and even more activities for a great family day out. For more information, visit goodwood.com/goodwoof.
Stockings are a centuries-old clothing staple, but they were traditionally made of wool and worn for warmth rather than glamour, and by men as well as women. But when women’s hemlines went up in the 1920s, the stocking emerged as musthave kit for women the world over – especially for a big night out. Flesh-toned, sheer and gossamer thin, these accessories are fragile and easy to ladder, as every woman knows. Initially made out of silk, then rayon or nylon (Dupont having patented nylon stockings in 1940), they became incredibly scarce during the Second World War, as supplies of these fabrics were diverted towards the production of parachutes and other wartime necessities. Women resorted to drawing lines down the back of their bare legs to imitate seams, while in Britain the fact that American GIs and pilots might have some precious “nylons” in their gift only enhanced their considerable appeal to local women. But even in the land of the free there were shortages, which caused a series of “nylon riots” in US department stores. Of course, by the 1950s, wartime shortages were over. But rioting over stockings? It just goes to show that glamour is a serious business.
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I’M SO EXCITED to be coming to Revival, and my excitement is evenly matched by that of my wife, who can’t wait to dress the part. Right now we’re working on our attire!
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IN RACING THERE ARE MOMENTS when fear is present in your body. You learn to manage it – but it’s always there in the background.
NASCAR VEHICLES achieve very high speeds, so the speed of an IndyCar is similar on straights – over 200 mph. But in the braking zones and corners, the IndyCar’s performance is at least two, if not three, times higher than the Nascar vehicle. It’s been such a rush to think I’m driving aggressively and over the vehicle’s limit, but then discover I’m only halfway there! It’s been a great challenge to drive these cars and scare myself a little.
MY DAD WAS working for a team in an off-road racing division and he found a vehicle for me to race. I started competing at 15 and was spotted by the head of Chevrolet Racing. He signed me up at 16 and began guiding my career.
I GREW UP IN Southern California and was hugely influenced by Carroll Shelby [the automotive designer and racing driver], as his business was there. I'd hear my dad and his friends tell stories of their racing heroes. The fastest car – the car they all wanted to drive – was a Cobra. It’s incredible that I now get to come to Goodwood and drive an original 1963 Cobra: a car with an amazing pedigree.
MOCHELIZABETHBYILLUSTRATION LAP OF HONOUR
I’VE HAD AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE in IndyCar and would like to continue that. Le Mans is pretty high on my list, so hopefully I’ll get there in the next year or two.
Jimmie Johnson is a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion who now races in the IndyCar Series. In his spare time he likes to run, cycle and swim, adding marathons and triathlons to a long list of accomplishments. Jimmie lives in North Carolina with his wife and two daughters
Jimmie Johnson
GOODWOOD IS A COMMUNITY of people who love racing and want to spend time together, and have a drink and some fun. There's a great combination of competition and socialising, which is a very nice prospect!
Words by Catherine Peel
THE ADVICE I WOULD GIVE to my 18-year-old self would be to enjoy the ride. I was so worried about the next thing, I’m not sure I absorbed the experiences to the fullest. That’s part of this next step in my career and life: to slow down and let it all soak in.
I STARTED RIDING MOTORBIKES aged four. My grandparents owned a motorcycle store and my father worked there and would go to local racetracks. The San Diego area was a real centre for motocross. All the world champions came from there – Marty Smith, Rick Johnson, Broc Glover, etc. As soon as my brothers and I could ride two wheels, my dad put us on a dirt bike and there was no turning back.
A MAJOR MENTOR for me was Jeff Ward. He didn’t grow up in the South – and didn’t race stock cars – but he transitioned to Nascar and was so successful that he opened the door for me and for a lot of other people. I ended up driving for my hero and eventually competing against him for wins and championships.
Jimmie will participate in the St Mary’s Trophy saloon car race, as well as the blue riband Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration on the Sunday afternoon of Revival. One of the cars he will drive is a 1963 AC Cobra. He’ll be joined by Hélio Castroneves, Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti, who have eight Indy 500 victories and 10 IndyCar championships between them, completing the line-up of legendary US-based drivers.
