Innholdsfortegnelse for 29-Mar-2023 i Country Life

1957 Published September 19 A bench offers the perfect springtime prospect over Hagley Hall, Worcestershire, built in 1754–60, and its spectacular landscape setting. The park, which was developed from 1743 by George, 1st Baron Lyttelton, with temples, buildings and monuments, has long been celebrated for its views and variety. Every week for the past 125 years, COUNTRY LIFE has documented and photographed many walks of life in Britain. More than 80,000 of the images are available for syndication or purchase in digital format. To view the archives, visit www.countrylifeimages.co.uk and email enquiries to licensing@futurenet.com…

THIS elegant, heavy duck breed was created by the renowned waterfowl and poultry breeder Reginald Appleyard in the 1930s at his Ixworth farm in Suffolk, by crossing Rouen, Pekin and Aylesbury ducks. His aim was for ‘beauty, size, lots of big white eggs and deep, long, wide breasts’—the perfect duck, in fact (Appleyard was also responsible for developing the prolific white Ixworth chicken). However, although a popular exhibition fowl thanks to its good looks—the drake has a green head and silver eyebrows and throat—the breed was not standardised until 1982. That confirmation was largely thanks to the broadcaster and journalist Tom Bartlett, who, in addition, created the Miniature Silver Appleyard—about one-third of the size of the original—which was standardised in 1997. Bartlett at one stage kept probably the largest collection…

Cheek to cheek My face was recently perfectly pummelled by the experts at David Jack’s newly opened clinic at 59, Ebury Street, Belgravia, SW1 (above). Dr Jack (an avid COUNTRY LIFE reader and the nicest man in the business) ensures his treatment spaces are less clinical than the rest through his passion for beautiful interior design and collecting fine antiques. The facials use lymphatic drainage, which lifts cheeks with astonishing results, and the Skintech Studio offers speedy treatments with clever LED light therapy. Facials from £130, LED facial £70 (020–7589 6309; www.drdavidjack.com). Fanatical about food FOR those interested in food and drink (that’s everyone, then) iconic grocer Fortnum & Mason, at 181, Piccadilly, London W1, has developed a new Food and Drink Studio on its third floor (opening March…

Find the best properties at countrylife.co.uk THIS week sees the launch of Otterburn Castle, a splendid, Grade II-listed historic landmark sitting in 32 acres within the Northumberland National Park at the heart of the Redesdale Valley. The origins of Otterburn can be traced back to 1076 when William the Conqueror, having enjoyed a full decade of life on these shores, gave the land to his cousin, Robert d’Umfraville in recognition of his services. He instructed Robert to hold the land and ‘keep it free from wolves and enemies’. A survey commissioned in 1308 shows evidence of a peel tower that was built on the site, together with a park stocked with ‘wild beasts’; some 80 years later, the English army suffered a bloody defeat during the battle of Otterburn…

I NEVER quite remember how glorious it is going to be, that first day in spring when I can stay out all day in the garden, not doing anything unpleasant such as pruning roses, but simply fiddling about—a bit of weeding, a bit of tying in, but mostly just wandering, fitting myself back into the plot. It’s like being at a party, where people you haven’t seen for ages suddenly loom into view. Meeting them again, you remember why you liked their company. The equivalent of the party pooper is bittercress, pushing in round a juicy peony where it’s not wanted. By early spring, the bank, rising from the yard by the house, is on the move. There’s a lot of small stuff, snuffling about, low down, and I’ll get…

AN irascible Samuel Pepys was unimpressed by proceedings in the Council Chamber at Whitehall in September 1667. Charles II, Pepys noted, was distracted. ‘All I observed… is the silliness of the King, playing with his dog all the while, and not minding the business, and what he said was mighty weak.’ Evidently, the pleasure-loving monarch struggled to absorb himself in Alderman Barker’s complaints about the Council of Ireland, preferring instead to stroke his spaniel as his mind wandered. Which dog lover among us fails to sympathise with Charles? The King’s view was almost certainly akin to that of French naturalist the Comte de Buffon. In his Natural History of 1755, Buffon celebrated canine elegance and good nature: ‘The dog, independent of the beauty of his figure, his strength, vivacity, and…

NO 520 Industria Street may not sound like the most evocative or romantic of addresses, but, to cigar lovers the world over, it has the resonance of Tower Bridge, the Taj Mahal and la tour Eiffel. It is, of course, the home of Partagás or, at least, it was. Back in the middle of the 2010s, production moved to what had been the El Rey del Mundo factory when I first visited it, in a warren of streets in Central Havana near the Romeo y Julieta factory. Although the building no longer made cigars, it continued to sell them at the sprawling cigar shop. However, in 2020, at the height of the covid pandemic, this, too, closed and has now reopened at a very convenient location in the old town,…

For all the latest news, visit countrylife.co.uk Fit for a king-or you FOR those who dream of restoring a Scottish castle, but suspect that steep, spiral staircases, small windows in 6ft-thick walls and vertically stacked rooms with turret closets might not be entirely practical for permanent residence, the Landmark Trust has the perfect answer: rent one for a holiday. The conservation charity, which was founded by Sir John Smith in 1965, has 200 unusual buildings in its portfolio, ranging from 15th-century Llwyn Celyn in Monmouthshire and Wyatt’s model dairy at Cobham Hall, Kent, to the Gothic Temple at Stowe in Buckinghamshire and the Frank Lloyd Wright-style Anderton House in Devon. Among the gatehouses and prospect towers, ornamental poultry and pig houses, chapels and banqueting pavilions, Scottish castles stand out…

Oliver Gerrish is an architectural historian, bespoke country-house tour operator and building consultant. In 2016, he cofounded Historic Decoration Edgar Wood is one of my favourite architects. He had always wanted to be an artist, but his cotton-magnate father did not think it suitable as a career. After his father’s death in 1909, Wood devoted much more of his life to art. Only a year before, he had created perhaps his most remarkable house, Upmead, Stafford (November 18, 2017), for my grandfather’s aunt and uncle. This painting shows the Ligurian city of Imperia viewed from a spot close to Wood’s last house on Monte Calvario. He started his life beneath the smoke billowing from Manchester’s chimneys, built some of the most remarkable domestic architecture before the First World War and…

ONLY a man rotavating. To the front of the machine, through the cobwebby mist, the bare ground around the troughs and racks where the sheep stood eating in the bleak days on the hill; behind the spinning steel blades churned earth, for re-sowing. One view is winter, one is spring. The rotavator hits a subterranean rock, pitches and rolls; the operator, although gripping the ox-horn handlebars tight, stumbles among the waves of red earth. A drunken sailor. The engine whines as it works; it is as deafening as conches. Yet, if the rotavator is modern, the tilling of soil is ancient, dating back to time almost beyond measure, when fur-clad humans scraped at the ground with a deer horn. The means change, the practice remains the same. Gradually, in…

IT’S fair to say that the Walbrook Club is distinct in the modern City of London, with the offices of N. M. Rothschild towering over it. The club, akin to a doll’s house, looks as if it has always been there, as if during the Blitz everything but the Walbrook was destroyed. In fact, it was built in 1952 by the property developer Rudolph Palumbo. Far from a city relic, it is only 71 years old. In 2000, Palumbo’s son Peter, now Baron Palumbo, opened the building as a private members’ club designed by clubland king Mark Birley, founder of Annabel’s. Today, it is run by Lord Palumbo’s 30-year-old son, the Hon Philip Palumbo, who, after a tour, settles us down in a meeting room, wallpapered in William Morris, with…

The beauty of British buildings ENTRIES are open for the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust’s 2023 Building Beauty Awards, sponsored by Ballymore. The overall winner of this year’s awards will take home a cash prize of £12,000 and will go on to represent the UK in the race to be crowned the world’s most beautiful new building at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore in November. To qualify, the project must have been completed and visible since the start of 2022 and the deadline for entries is May 2. Everyone from members of the public to architects are invited to apply; visit www.buildingbeautyawards.com to enter. Last year’s engineering and overall winner was the Tintagel Castle footbridge in Cornwall (above), which was praised for its ‘boldness that suits the rough…

Spring cabbage with roasted garlic and meatballs Method Preheat your oven to 180˚C/350˚F/gas mark 4. Wrap the whole garlic bulb in foil and roast it in the oven for 45 minutes. On a large baking tray, arrange the spring cabbage, cut sides up, together with the sliced red pepper, diced aubergine, chopped leeks, sun-blushed tomatoes and meatballs. Pour over the olive oil and toss everything to coat. In a small bowl, combine the breadcrumbs and herbs and then scatter the mixture over the quartered cabbage pieces to give them a crisp texture. Place the tray in the oven for 45 minutes. Slice the garlic bulb across and squeeze the roasted garlic cloves into a bowl. Mash them with a fork and then mix in the Greek yoghurt and lemon…

DESPITE the weather, it was a great pleasure to be back in Maastricht earlier this month as the TEFAF fair returned to its traditional place in the calendar. Last year’s catch-up summer edition was somewhat underwhelming, but, this time, the confidence of the exhibitors and splendour of many exhibits reaffirmed the fair as the art world’s most important forum. By an unscientific test—the numbers of well-dressed wheelchair users with attendant retinues —very serious money was attracted to two days of previews before the public opening. Representatives of 250 museums and institutions were also there, apparently, with Americans much to the fore; some of their groups were 10-strong, despite all claiming to be short of funds. Both the London and Edinburgh National Galleries were observed, but other British institutions less in…

THE State Apartments in the Upper Ward at Windsor Castle occupy the shell of a palace constructed in the 14th century by Edward III. These interiors have been repeatedly reworked on the most opulent scale by a succession of monarchs (Fig 2), with particularly notable changes undertaken by the architect Hugh May for Charles II in the 1670s; by James Wyatt for George III in the 1790s; by Jeffry Wyatville for George IV from 1824 and by Anthony Salvin for Prince Albert and Queen Victoria. More recently, the disastrous fire in November 1992 prompted a massive programme of rebuilding and restoration. It was in the course of these works that the then director of the Royal Collection from 1996 to 2010, Sir Hugh Roberts, first conceived the idea for upgrading…

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. John Ruskin WE know that the climate is changing as a result of our activities and that this is beginning to happen at an accelerating pace, but it is still a slow process, whereas weather can change in an instant. All over the world, scientists and politicians are working on ways to modify the climate by slowing down the heating of the atmosphere, which is now becoming manifest. Suggesting that we might try and manage local weather, however, is usually met with either cynicism or alarm—and quite rightly so, as it is a complicated challenge and the implications of bringing it about…

On board for the maiden flight in 1959 was an anxious Cockerell, serving as “moveable ballast” YOU knew you were living in the age of the hovercraft when James Bond (Sean Connery), impersonating a jewel smuggler, boarded one to cross the English Channel in Diamonds Are Forever (1971). They even blasted out the thrilling 007 theme as the camera zoomed in on a hovercraft symbol above the Port of Dover entrance as if it was an exotic beast, then cut to the SR-N4 Princess Margaret surfing away from the white cliffs. Time would leave the hovercraft behind, but if its Bond cameo looks a bit clunky today, in its heyday the vessel was a British invention to be proud of and it was considered a genuine thrill to travel on…

VEN, near Milborne Port, Somerset, has to be one of the most romantic houses in England. Begun in about 1700 and extended in the reign of George I, it remained in the same family until 1957, at which point it seemed to be in terminal decline, before being rescued in the 1980s and magnificently restored. It was built for James Medlycott, an ambitious London lawyer who bought the manor and its existing farmhouse mainly, it would seem, as an easy route into political power: Milborne Port was a classic rotten borough, fielding two MPs despite its diminutive size, and, after showering the local people with cash, Medlycott was duly returned to Parliament in 1710. In 1725, presumably to underline his upgraded social status, he commissioned the Wincanton architect Nathaniel Ireson…

WHEN Pete Boyle and his wife, Ciara Denvir, bought crumbling Ormiston House, outside Belfast, in 2014, they had no plans to reinstate the derelict three-quarter Olympic-size swimming pool—it was too much of a money pit. Instead, Mr Boyle tried to forget about the pool and focus on a different plan: creating a natural swimming pond to enjoy with his children. Yet, when Andrew Cox of natural-pool company Origin Aqua visited the house, which once belonged to shipbuilder Sir Edward Harland, he took one look at the enormous area and suggested they transform it into a natural swimming pool. ‘We didn’t know such a thing existed, but we’ve never looked back,’ Mr Boyle enthuses. ‘It’s a delightfully pure swimming experience, rather like diving into an Alpine lake, as there are no…

Pevsner’s Isle of Man Jonathan Kewley (Yale, £45) UNTIL the publication of Jonathan Kewley’s book, my scant knowledge about the ancient kingdom of Man amounted to the deathly TT motorcycle races, Manx cats without tails, Baillie Scott’s inventive Arts-and-Crafts houses and Sir John Betjeman’s elegiac essay, when he went ‘tramping knee-deep in blaeberry bushes on the wild west coast’, was exhilarated by the narrow-gauge railways and transfixed by the Tynwald Day celebrations. Now, Dr Kewley has transported me there in a rarity for Yale’s ‘Pevsner Architectural Guides’: a ‘Pevsner’ without any input from the great man. The author believes Man “has long had a chip on its shoulder” about its architecture and he rectifies this Although recent guides have been revisions of his originals, Pevsner never got round…