Innholdsfortegnelse for 19-Sep-18 i Country Life

SCIENTISTS from the GWCT are donning waders and arming themselves with nets on their annual expedition to catch and tag as many young salmon on the River Frome as possible. Every September for the past 13 years, researchers from the GWCT’s Salmon & Trout Research Centre at East Stoke in Dorset have tagged about 10,000 juvenile salmon. Measuring just 12mm by 2mm, PIT tags enable staff to individually identify fish when they swim past detector antennae. Using monitoring equipment that’s been partly funded by Orvis, the scientists spend days in the river—where the number of Atlantic salmon returning from the sea have been quantified for 45 years—catching, tagging and weighing salmon parr in the hope of working out why populations have been on the wane since the 1990s. ‘The more…

Oh, to be in England! OH, England. It doesn’t matter that I’ve spent more of my life in Australia, England will always be my home. The gently rolling hills, the hedgerows, the fauna, the array of plants and the vivid green that engulfs everything, ringing with birdsong: I adore it all (especially the cold and rain, neither of which have we had in rural Australia for several months, despite it being what we dub winter). Every week, I go on a treasure hunt to the local news agency for the single weekly edition of COUNTRY LIFE that our town receives. We long to return home one day, but, until then, this magazine will continue to be our lifeline. You have no idea how lucky you are to be in England.…

THEY are, perhaps, some of the best-kept arboreal secrets in England. Huge, mature elm trees, their outline a sudden and thrilling surprise, billowing like thunderclouds above the hedges of a few scattered villages in Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire and East Anglia. In Steeple Gidding and Box-worth, but, above all, in the Cambridgeshire village of Abbots Ripton, the elm, quite remarkably, is still king. The English elm was, for the most part, wiped out 40 years go by Dutch elm disease, yet, here in Abbots Ripton, there are hundreds of mature, stately elms. Those dusty summer lanes in the heart of England that were half-black shadow, half-tattered sleepy sunlight among the cobwebs, nettles and leafy elm shoots that Gerald Wilkinson mourned in his 1978 Epitaph for the Elm are all around me.…

IT’S got this lovely rich, malty, candied red-fruit thing going on,’ Oscar Dodd from Fortnum & Mason’s wine-and-spirits team tells me, proffering a glass of whisky for me to sniff. ‘There’s a hint of festive spice in there as well, I think. Cinnamon, vanilla…’ We’re on the shop’s third floor, in the cosseting embrace of leather armchairs at the new 3 and 6 Bar. Like us, patrons are sipping single malts as they tackle their teatime rarebits. The one we have in front of us was made a bit closer to home—and the pheasant etched on the label gives a clue to its origins. English whisky. Sounds oxymoronic, doesn’t it? Like deafening silence or Microsoft Works. However, Fortnum & Mason’s first one, which is distilled in Shipston-on-Stour at the Cotswolds…

READY?’ My eyes were screwed shut and I was trying not to think about what I was about to do—not that I had much of a say, strapped to someone who was determined to propel us off the side of a mountain and into the clouds. Paragliding is just one of the exhilarating experiences that The Hideaways Club can arrange for guests at their four chalets in Nendaz. The concept is simple—the opportunity to invest in a global portfolio of holiday homes, with a bespoke concierge service. I was staying at Chalet Gingembre (above) —a ski-in, ski-out property, with views of snow-capped mountains and the Rhône Valley. Nendaz itself—an easy drive from Geneva, thanks to slick private transfers—is nestled to the east of Verbier. The pistes are clearer, the wait…

THE priest is summoned more rarely now than in days of yore. This is not a lament about our secularised society—I’m referring to that tiny billyclub, baton or bludgeon used for humanely dispatching a fish, euphemistically named a ‘priest’ as it administers the last rites. Once, we blithely tapped most wild salmonids on the head and although—in these years of dearth —I’m not advocating a return to the status quo ante, I’m also no fan of mandatory catch and release. In fact, I wonder whether we have a right to interfere with the innocent lives of fish if we have no intention of ever retaining one for the table. Coarse anglers will disagree, although attitudes are different on the Continent. Anyway, if you’re still intending to ‘hook and cook’,…

GIVEN his designs and his diction, anyone who’s met Veere Grenney might be surprised that the London-based decorator didn’t spend his formative years skipping along the flagstone floors of an English country house. In fact, he was born in New Zealand, from where he travelled to London in the 1970s. On arrival, he established an antiques stall on the Portobello Road that was so successful that he traded up to a small shop and he soon caught the eye of the the legendary decorator Mary Fox Linton. Before long, he was offered a role at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, where he spent eight years. He left in 1996 to establish his own practice in Chelsea, which designs homes all over the world that are distinguished by a distinctive mix…

FOR sale through the Cirencester office of Butler Sherborn (01285 883740) at a guide price of £1.55m, Woodlands is an impressive Georgian-style, family house, built some 25 years ago, in a mature walled-garden setting on the edge of the much-sought-after village of Minchinhampton, four miles from Stroud and 12 miles from Cirencester in Gloucestershire. The handsome, 5,150sq ft house, which sits on high ground with fabulous views over Gatcombe Woods and the surrounding countryside, boasts light, well-proportioned rooms on two floors, including an elegant central hall, three reception rooms, a kitchen/ breakfast room, cellars, master and guest suites, two further bedrooms and a family bathroom.…

THE newly published National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) should be a further prompt, if any were needed, for landowners to review the possibilities for development and diversification in the countryside. Furthermore, whatever the outcome, Brexit will mean changes—something landowners and farmers are very aware of. We have seen a significant increase in the number of land-based businesses considering their next best move, both for their assets and operations. Achieving planning permission in the rural environment can sometimes be challenging, but Rural Solutions is continuing to champion quality development by delivering innovative, high-quality schemes across the countryside. Executive director James Del Mar, who heads up the newly opened Oxfordshire office, says: ‘We believe that all landowners should be assessing how their land and assets can be used in more lucrative ways…

PUBLISHED in 1884, John Wood’s Hardy Perennials and Old-Fashioned Garden Flowers contains a sentence that changed British life: ‘It is a capital plant for the small town garden.’ The plant in question was Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica). Wood’s intentions were good. He was encouraging Mr Pooter to garden above his pay grade by experimenting with a plant that was then considered outlandishly splendid and smart. He wasn’t to know that ‘capital’ in this context would come to mean the £167 million or so now spent in the UK each year on dealing with the consequences of his recommendation. Others in this period eulogised the knotweed, but they tended to advise planting it only on sites large enough to accommodate its marauding and monopolising. Sir Joseph Hooker, William Robinson and…

September 28 Naunton (Stile Antico) (01451 850897; www.nauntonmusic.org.uk) September 29–October 7 Tetbury Music Festival (07885 106717; www.tetburymusicfestival.org) October 19 Parry’s Songs of Farewell at the Oxford Lieder Festival (01865 591276; www.oxfordlieder.co.uk) March 30, April 13, May 4 and 11, 2019 Painswick Music Society (www.painswickmusicsoc.co.uk) May 17–19, 2019 Highnam Court (01452 308251; www.highnamcourt.co.uk) May 11–25, 2019 Chipping Campden Festival, booking opens in October (01386 849018; www.campdenmusicfestival.co.uk) July 5–14, 2019 Cheltenham Music Festival (above, www.cheltenhamfestivals.com;01242 850270) July 19–28, 2019 Guiting Music Festival (www.guitingfestival.org) July 26–August 3 Three Choirs Festival, Gloucester. Programme includes Verdi’s Requiem, Handel’s Israel in Egypt, Rachmaninov’s Vespers and Elgar’s Cello Concerto (01452 768928; www.3choirs.org)…

AT the press launch for the Ashmolean Museum’s latest exhibition, its director performed a card trick. Among his more conventional accomplishments, Alexander ‘The Great Xa’ Sturgis is a magician and the subject of this show is close to his heart. As befits the University of Oxford’s Museum of Art and Archaeology, ‘Spellbound: Magic, Ritual & Witchcraft’ is about more than prestidigitation. A collaboration between researchers at three British universities, it shines an academic light into historically dark corners of demonology, witchcraft and superstition. It begins by ridding us of any smugness we might feel about the superior rationalism of our own era by confronting us inside the entrance with some searching questions, such as ‘Do you have a lucky charm?’, ‘Do little rituals make you feel less anxious?’ and ‘Do…

DEFRA’S promised Agriculture Bill was delivered last week, setting out how future generations of British farmers will fare after 50 years under EU regulations (see Agromenes, page 91). As expected, they’ll no longer receive payments from the Government based on the amount of land they own—a system that has seen the top 10% of recipients benefit from nearly 50% of total payments—but for the ‘public goods’ they provide, such as improving air, water and soil quality, animal welfare, flooding prevention and public access to the countryside. From next year, the new Environmental Land Management system will be in place under a trial basis. Farmers will be able to apply for research funding and, during the seven-year transition period (2021–27), leaving the Common Agricultural Payment system behind, they’ll be assisted…

THERE are no similarities between buying from London wine merchant Justerini & Brooks and a shop on the high street, declares buying director Giles Burke-Gaffney. ‘We offer a personal service, storing £200 million worth of wine for our clients, advising them on what to buy and when to drink it,’ he explains. ‘We also import wine, providing access to things our clients know they want and introducing them to things they know nothing about.’ The company’s history extends all the way back to 1749, when an Italian called Giacomo Justerini fell in love with a soprano and pursued her to Britain. He established a company selling liquors on Pall Mall and its offices have remained close by ever since. ‘We are very proud of our history,’ acknowledges Mr Burke-Gaffney. ‘We…

‘Ministers know that farmers will be forced off the land and many will be ruined’ POLITICIANS know perfectly well that last week’s Agriculture Bill will drive many farmers out of business. They may talk about ‘taking back control’ and suggest a golden environmental age is about to dawn, but the plain fact is that they’re paving the way for cutting farm support by at least two-thirds. Let’s bin the hype and stick to the figures. Under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), British farmers receive £3 billion a year, which ensures that we produce more than 60% of our own food at prices that are among the lowest in Europe. Those prices have fallen year on year during most of the 40 years of EU membership. Our present support also enables…

THE nation divides into two camps: people who say ‘Aren’t we lucky to live in London’ and those who say ‘Aren’t we lucky not to live in London’. I think both have a sneaking suspicion and a nagging anxiety that the others might be right. To comfort ourselves about where we’ve chosen to live our lives, we’ve become very defensive and thin-skinned when it comes to any criticism. I’m guilty of it. I’m still reeling from all the small digs during the late summer holidays about how awful it must be to live in London. I’ve had ‘It’s been very hot here, but, of course, you must be used to the heat in London’. I’ve had ‘I’m afraid your bedroom’s a bit noisy as it’s on the main road,…

FOR at least the past 100 years, Chipping Campden, in heart of the Cotswolds, has been widely regarded as a paradise. This was certainly the view of the etcher Frederick Landseer Griggs (Fig 6), who came to live there in 1904 and was its doughtiest defender. He sympathetically restored houses on the High Street, battled against a tide of ugliness that engulfed other towns and villages and used money he could ill afford to safeguard its surroundings. He also strove to demonstrate the continuing viability of the domestic architecture that he admired from the past by building his own house, out of the scant income he received from his artistic projects. It was a heroic struggle against the world—perhaps an unequal one as regards his own domestic aspirations, but triumphant…

‘Haws was a military man and where there was a problem, he looked for a solution’ WHEN John Haws poured precious rainwater on his tropical garden in the Maldives, he was dissatisfied with the performance of his French-made watering can. It looked the part, all right, but when he leant over to irrigate his beloved orchids, the strain tweaked his back. Haws was a military man and where there was a problem, he looked for a solution. He set about designing a better can—first in his mind’s eye, then on paper and, eventually, with painstakingly created examples. Years later, when he made it back to Britain, Haws patented his new design and it proved to be something of a hit. Some 132 years later, that design is still being made.…

ORIGINALLY a farmhouse on the Blenheim estate, Grade II-listed Fawler Manor, at Fawler, near Charlbury, west Oxfordshire, stands in just under 18½ acres of gardens, paddocks and woodland on the banks of the River Evenlode and is now for sale through the Cheltenham office of Butler Sherborn (01451 830731) at a guide price of £2.5m. A much-loved family home for 25 years or more, its Historic England listing dates the manor from the mid to late 17th century, with late-18th- or early-19th-century additions and 20th-century alterations. The main house offers 5,376sq ft of generous accommodation on three floors, including three main reception rooms, a kitchen/ breakfast room, six double bedrooms, three bath/shower rooms and two attic rooms. There are four further bedrooms in the converted former stables, next to which…

IN January 2015, when the Oxford Mail reported on the sale of contents from Yelford Manor near Witney, the newspaper confirmed that the house had been in the hands of only five families in 1,000 years. The new owners, Christian and Pip Hoyer Millar, were about to become the sixth. Looking at the timbered, gabled house in its setting of broad, big-skied Oxfordshire farmland and with a glimpse of a modest Norman church on the far side of the garden, you imagine that not a great deal has changed through the centuries—certainly not since the present house was built in 1499 on the site of the Norman original. Of course, as we shall see, there has been a succession of changes, but the present, very new, garden skilfully perpetuates a…

WHAT’S in a name? A great deal, judging by an extraordinary row that’s broken out in north London over the rechristening of the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn as the Kiln. People have been picketing outside, demanding the restoration of the old name, but the artistic director, Indhu Rubasingham, backed by local actors such as Jim Carter and Imelda Staunton, fiercely denies that she’s disowning the refurbished theatre’s distinguished past. What is amazing, however, is the passion her decision has provoked. Does it really matter what a theatre is called? Clearly it does, although it’s fair to point out that the majority of West End theatres have, at some point in their history, been renamed. The Adelphi Theatre in the Strand started life in 1806 as the Sans Pareil: a…

Joanna Hardy reminisces about her brushes with some of the most sought-after stones in the world DIAMONDS were formed billions of years ago, deep within the Earth’s mantle, when extreme heat and pressure forced carbon to crystallise. We all recognise the white or colourless diamond, but the presence of trace amounts of colouring elements—such as boron or nitrogen—and deformities or stress in the crystal structure can cause a diamond to be coloured. Such diamonds are, therefore, less likely to occur than colourless ones: for every 10,000 diamonds found, only one will be a natural coloured stone. Until recently, diamonds were the hardest material known to man and we didn’t work out how to cut them until about AD 1400. You wouldn’t be chastised for thinking that a pile of rough…

SINCE David and Judith Cohen retired in 2016 after more than three decades as the specialist dealers in the art of the World Wars, their place has been taken by Andrew Sim, a comparatively young art dealer with a nose for discoveries. In this, he is like his father, Michael Sim of Chislehurst, and finds by both have featured here in the past. Andrew puts on occasional exhibitions or special displays at fairs and will be at the revamped British Art Fair at the Saatchi Gallery on the King’s Road, Chelsea, from tomorrow to Sunday (www.britishartfair.co.uk). Until last year, this was the 20/21 British Art Fair, which took place at the Royal College of Art before a less satisfactory move to the Mall Galleries. The founders and organisers Gay Hutson…

EVERY YEAR, the Heritage Crafts Association (HCA) awards five craftspeople £1,000 each, with funding from the Marsh Christian Trust and others, and applications for 2019 have just opened. Those with traditional skills have until November 30 to apply or be nominated for Maker, Trainer or Volunteer of the Year and Made in Britain and Endangered Crafts Awards. A training bursary worth £2,500 is also available, with support from The Arts Society. The winners will be announced in March next year. ‘The heritage-crafts sector in England alone contributes £4.4 billion Gross Value Added to the UK economy each year, as much as the petrochemical industry,’ explains HCA chair Patricia Lovett. ‘However, for many years, heritage crafts have been completely ignored and are still not supported by the Government. These awards are…

Quiz of the week 1) A bird’s furcula bone is more commonly known as what? 2) Which Croatian dog breed is synonymous with the historical role of coach or carriage dog? 3) What is the smallest number containing an ‘a’ when spelled out? 4) The viral disease Herpes zoster is more commonly known as what? 5) Genuphobia is a fear of which body part? Time to buy Goodwood picnic hamper, from £475, Amberley Hampers (01252 793389; www.amberleyhampers.com) Scottish Seaweed Infused Rapeseed Oil, from £8.99, Weed & Wonderful (0191 308 2222; www.seaweedandco.com) Antler shawl, £110, Evemy & Evemy (https://evemyandevemy.com) Five things you (probably) didn’t know about… Gloucester cattle • Once found throughout the UK, by 1972, there was only one herd of Gloucester cattle remaining: the Wick Court herd. The…

Lord Patten of Barnes, a former MP and the last governor of Hong Kong, is chancellor of Oxford University ‘Velázquez, who painted fewer than 120 pieces, is one of my favourite artists. I recall being blown away a few years ago by an exhibition of a large part of his work at the Museo del Prado in Madrid. This is one of my favourites of his masterpieces. It exemplifies one of the most important values in public life–or in all life, for that matter–namely, magnanimity. It’s a beautiful example of graceful and generous leadership. Several other painters, including, I think, Picasso, said that, after Velázquez, there was nothing more to learn about painting’ John McEwen comments on The Surrender of Breda VELÁZQUEZ’S picture shows an episode in the 80-years-long…

MORE than 100 years since the architect Charles Robert Ashbee bemoaned the ‘vanishing traditions of the Cotswolds’, Gloucestershire’s historic textile valleys are awash with studios. In former woollen mills, piggeries and stable yards, a new generation of artisans is producing the finest textiles, furniture and jewellery. ‘We take our links to the Arts-and-Crafts movement very seriously,’ explains the chairman of the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen, Ursula Jeakins, a bookbinder. ‘The guild has strict entry requirements: you need to be earning a living from your craft and have a high standard of execution and design, while also demonstrating innovation.’ For the guild’s 75 members, the Cotswolds’ stunning landscape, coupled with its 900-year-old history of cottage industry, makes it an inspiring place to work. These makers also relish the chance to be…

• Gardman watering cans are attractive and also come in a variety of colourful metal finishes. From £17.99 (01406 372222; www.gardman.co.uk) • Sophie Conran’s dear little indoor watering can looks good and does its job. £19.95 (020–7603 1522; www.sophieconran.com) • Sarah Raven has also tackled the ‘pretty but practical’ watering can with aplomb —try her multi-coloured brood. £49.95 (0345 092 0283; www.sarahraven.com) • Burgon & Ball’s five-litre workhorse has a no-nonsense look and comes in a variety of shades. £27.99 (0114–233 8262; www.burgonandball.com) • Fiskar’s unusually shaped can may be for you if you’d prefer the tough durability of plastic. About £20 (www.amazon.co.uk)…

Serves 4 Ingredients For the sorbet 500g blackberries1 lemon175g caster sugar300ml water For the tea cake 175g softened butter175g caster sugar½tspn vanilla-bean paste3 eggs175g self-raising flour50ml double cream225g blackberries2 tart apples, peeled, cored and finely sliced1tbspn brown sugar Method Whizz up the blackberries in a food processor, pass them through a fine-mesh sieve to get rid of the seeds and return them to the bowl of the processor. Squeeze in a little lemon juice to taste. Boil the sugar and water in a saucepan until they reach the short-thread stage (or 106˚C on a sugar thermometer). With the food processor on, pour the sugar syrup in with the blackberries. Process, then freeze in a container. Once frozen, return the sorbet to the food processor and break up the crystals, before…

THIS week’s launch onto the market of the lovely 519-acre Sudeley Lodge estate at Winchcombe, between Cheltenham and Stow-on-the-Wold in Gloucestershire, reminds us that death, debt and divorce are not the only reasons that treasured country houses and estates find their way onto the open market. In the case of Sudeley Lodge, its owner’s recent bout of ill-health has forced the reluctant disposal of this ‘rare and wonderful’ sporting estate, reveals Mark McAndrew of Strutt & Parker (020–7318 5171), who are joint agents with Knight Frank (020–7861 1078) in the sale, at a guide price of £16.5 million. The decision coincides with the closing stages of a total redesign and renovation, not only of the principal house—Grade II-listed, Georgian Sudeley Lodge, a former shooting lodge on the magical Sudeley…

MANY property hunters fall for the pretty houses and idyllic villages of the Cotswolds. As an AONB, the landscape is enchanting, but its topography also happens to provide top-class sporting opportunities, from shooting to hunting, cycling and sailing, and this is a big attraction. As Bruce Tolmie-Thomson, partner at Knight Frank in Cirencester, puts it: ‘Why join a gym when you can have such a marvellous time getting fit and healthy out in the open air?’ Sailing With 150 lakes, stretching for more than 40 square miles, the Cotswold Water Park is a major destination for almost any water-based activity. ‘From jet skiing to water skiing, paddle-boarding or windsurfing, you can try anything there,’ promises Mr Tolmie-Thomson. It also offers the very best inland sailing, with gentle breezes that…

HAVING spent some time recently watching wasps invade and then devastate two of my beehives, I was aghast to discover from Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees, (Icon Books, £16.99), that my honey-gathering friends did, in fact, evolve from their mortal enemies. It happened one day, squillions of years ago, when a (clearly very clever) wasp accidentally fed its young with nectar and worked out that it’s less hazardous to gather food from flowers rather than by attacking other insects. I just wish someone would tell the wasps who ripped through my hives and killed every bee inside. That’s just the headline fact from Thor Hanson’s fascinating journey of discovery through the world of bees and the people who research them. There are 20,000 different species, apart from your…