Innholdsfortegnelse for 5-Jul-2023 i Country Life

FROM his tall plinth on Weymouth seafront, the towering figure of George III in his finery surveys the sandy bay he helped popularise. The Dorset resort is still defined by its Georgian buildings erected in the wake of the King’s first visit in 1789, but, like every good seaside town, Weymouth has been shaped by the shifting tastes of generations of tourists and the architectural layers of multiple eras. Even the beach huts here are historic and varied and there is much to absorb. Beyond the King’s gaze, there are terraced post-war chalets around a paddling pool, rows of mock-Tudor style huts from the 1920s and a run of concrete huts with cast-iron columns that are unusual for being Grade II listed and for having a bowling green built on…

BIZARRE, sinuous shapes twist and turn, intertwining in a mass that looks impossible to disentangle. It may look as if the woodwind players of an infernal orchestra abandoned their instruments as they left the stage, but these are the remains of some of the earth’s strangest creatures: heteromorph ammonites. We know ammonites are the fossilised shells of extinct creatures that lived millions of years ago. Once the ocean’s dominant form of life, they are the spiral shells that pioneering 19th-century fossil hunter Mary Anning collected and sold ‘on the seashore’ in Lyme Regis in Dorset, transforming our understanding of the history of life on our planet. Fast forward to today and Wolfgang Grulke has spent many of his 76 years collecting the fossils that fill the private museum beside his…

USED for a multitude of quotidian tasks such as food preparation, cooking and socialising, the kitchen island is a multitasking space with a host of different lighting requirements. Although the era of dazzling strip lighting in the kitchen has well and truly been put to bed and the days of endless spots are fading, the infinite possibilities of LED have created new challenges. The default option is simply to hang a decorative pendant over the island; as the island is in a static position, there’s no concern that one day the lighting fixture will be at the perfect head-knocking height. Depending on the length of the island, a set of three pendants often work well together, as does a single fixture with three arms. Sally Stephenson, a lighting designer at…

Cornwall, £2.25 million There is living out in the middle of nowhere—and then there is living at The Count House. Situated on the headland of Ligger Point, next to Holywell Beach and Perran Sands, this Grade II-listed five-bedroom property was once the remote home of a mine captain. Sitting in glorious seclusion, the house comes with 1½ acres of grounds and gardens, as well as a well-appointed one-bedroom annexe and direct gated access to the South West Coast Path. The main property boasts some 2,900sq ft of living space over its three floors and has been refurbished to an extremely high standard. As for the sea views from The Count House, well, they might be among the finest in the country. Lillicrap Chilcott (01872 273473) Cornwall, £675,000 For sale…

TWO olive trees guard the door of the Thomas Cubitt pub in Belgravia, their sharp, narrow leaves silvery against the pretty sage-green front. Inside, waiters balance velvety chocolate cakes and trembling panna cottas as they weave their way among the tables and the barman plucks a bottle from a laden cabinet to work his alchemy into a cocktail. Taking in the scene from the panelled walls are two portraits of a long-whiskered gentleman clad in a fashionable black coat. He is Thomas Cubitt, the man who gave the pub its name—and much of central London its meringue-white buildings. That he managed to do any of it is almost a miracle. Cubitt didn’t have an easy start in life. He was only 19, a journeyman for a Norfolk carpenter, when his…

GROWING up in the early 1980s, cherry was everywhere—cherryade, Space Dust and cherry bombs were particular favourites—but I don’t think I ate an actual cherry until a holiday in France when I was in my teens. On the track leading to the house, a cherry tree leaned as if pulled sideways by the weight of its fruit, or perhaps to tempt us by being within easier reach. I plucked the first fruit not knowing quite what to expect. It was so intense, with a deep fruitiness—the sweet and tart in perfect balance. It also had a hint of something distinctly other that I didn’t place until I’d finished it: almonds. I sat in the tree’s shade eating sun-warm cherry after luscious cherry, each more satisfying than the last, finding just…

THE best way to reach Casa Chablé from Tulum is in a flat-bottomed fishing boat, capable of skimming across the shallow, peppermint-coloured lagoon that separates it from the mainland. As you speed past gnarled mangrove swamps, majestic tiger herons—named for the dramatic stripes on their gullets—keep a beady eye on proceedings. Egrets, blue herons and frigates glide past in pleasingly concentric circles The 12-acre site sits on an islet that separates the lagoon and Caribbean Sea, home to the second largest coral reef in the world, carpeting the seabed from Cancun all the way down to Honduras. There are 10 bedrooms, sprawled across the beach and main house, an open-air restaurant, gym and wellness cabaña. The whole thing can be taken on an exclusive-use basis—all the better for enjoying young…

BRIGHTON may have been George IV’s favourite seaside haunt—the town he made fashionable—but it wasn’t John Constable’s. ‘Brighton is the receptacle of the fashion and off-scouring of London,’ the painter wrote, with a curled lip, to his friend Archdeacon Fisher in 1824. The emotions summoned up by its vistas of the sea were, he said, ‘drowned in the din and tumult of stage coaches, gigs, flys, &c. and the beach is only Piccadilly or worse by the sea-side’. He then went on to list its denizens: ‘Ladies dressed and undressed; gentlemen in morning-gowns and slippers, or without them or anything else… footmen, children, nursery-maids, dogs, boys, fishermen, and Preventive Service men with hangers and pistols.’ As if all this weren’t bad enough, the resort was further tarnished by the miasma…

Reuse me or lose me SOME 67 new entries have been added to the Buildings at Risk Register, it was announced last week. The register, which is collated by SAVE Britain’s Heritage (SAVE), is designed to highlight disused historic buildings of all ages that could be repurposed rather than demolished. The register is in its 34th year and contains more than 1,400 structures that are either derelict or in disuse. One place to make this year’s list is the Withy Grove Stores (right) in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. The largely abandoned and derelict building has hosted a family business since 1840 and fine architectural detailing marks it out as a structure of note. It is the only survivor of the other Victorian industrial and commercial buildings on the street. Another…

THE northernmost of the Orkney islands is only four miles long and two miles wide, but it has its own rare breed of sheep, which are an integral and distinctive element of local culture, being reared on the shore and living off seaweed; their unique metabolism means they can die of copper poisoning from the wrong grazing or commercial sheep mix. Their meat is an important island export, renowned for its distinct, gamey flavour. In 2021, North Ronaldsay received a grant of more than £100,000 from the Island Communities Fund to create a meat larder powered by a community-owned wind turbine. In 1832, a 12-mile drystone dyke was built to keep the North Ronaldsay sheep on the foreshore. Along it, there are nine circular stone pens, or ‘punds’, into which…

Find the best properties at countrylife.co.uk LAST week saw the launch onto the market of two of southern England’s most beautiful and historic small country estates, each one set in an idyllic location at either end of the South Downs National Park and restored to its former glory by dedicated owners. Crispin Holborow of Savills Private Office (07967 555511) quotes a guide price of £13.5 million for illustrious, Grade II*-listed Shawford Park, set in 59 acres of formal and informal gardens, parkland and woodland between two branches of the River Itchen, a mile from the village of Twyford and four miles south of Winchester. A plantation of more than 2,000 trees has resulted in a proliferation of natural life Following the Restoration in 1660, Sir Henry Mildmay, who supported…

WE all grew up thinking of central London as Topshop at Oxford Circus,’ quips Charlotte Alexander-Stace, communications director at the Maybourne Hotel Group, who might not reside right in the heart of the West End, but is still closer than most. She and her husband, Jon Stace, a DJ and owner of The Talbot pub in De Beauvoir, bought their Hoxton flat four years ago, but have lived in the area for far longer. ‘Our whole relationship has been in this patch of London; we’re massive foodies and love the bars and culture. There’s Columbia Road flower market, which I go to at the crack of dawn to avoid the crowds; the Barbican is a nice walk away; and we took over our favourite restaurant, Bistrotheque, for our wedding,’ she…

The ultimate Bloody Mary prawn cocktail Method ▶ First, prepare the dressing by simply whisking all the ingredients together. Refrigerate until ready to use. ▶ To make the salad, pull away the leaves from the cos lettuces, keeping the large ones intact. Chop the smaller ones and put in a bowl. Halve the cherry tomatoes, finely slice the celery, dice the cucumber and avocado, thinly slice the spring onions and add them all to the same bowl. Refrigerate until ready to serve. ▶ When ready to serve, heat the splash of olive oil and butter in a frying pan. When the butter has melted, add the grated garlic, chopped parsley and chilli flakes and stir. All 12 prawns go in next and should be tossed for only a couple…

Quiz of the week 1) Cox’s Orange Pippin, Egremont Russet and Beauty of Kent are all varieties of which fruit? 2) The heiress Portia is a character in which Shakespeare play? 3) Despite being known as killer whales, orcas are the largest species of which other cetacean family? 4) The withers are which part of a horse’s body? 5) William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais were founders and leading members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood together with which artist that was also a poet? Word of the week Nipcheese (noun and adjective) A ship’s purser, a miserly person or (adjective) mean, miserly 100 years ago in COUNTRY LIFE July 7, 1923 UP to the present, the slim line has unquestionably predominated for dance dresses. But... it is pretty…

IT’S the beak, of course. There’s no other beak like it. The bright colours, the wedgy proportions and the bold profile command the eye. Yet, behind this head-turning display lies a unique working tool. Beaks usually open like the blades of scissors or shears. Not so the puffin’s: it is hinged to allow the top and bottom to operate in parallel and accommodate a neat rack of fishy fare. Its edges have inward serrations for a firm grip on the slippery catch and a rough-ended tongue, plus spines on the upper palate, complete a design that permits the adult bird to return from miles out to sea to feed its land-bound young without spillage. The largest rack recorded in this country is 61 sand eels and a rockling. One of…

THE kitchen of this Victorian house in north London was previously on the lower ground floor and offered neither the light nor flexibility its owners wanted. Working with Leicestershire-based kitchen designer deVOL, they decided that the only solution was to create a new layout, converting the main reception room to provide a large, sociable space that includes both a kitchen and a dining area. DeVOL’s classic fitted cabinetry has the distinctive look and fine detail of classic freestanding furniture that makes it the ideal choice for multipurpose rooms of this type. Senior designer Alexa Jacobs worked with the clients on this project and suggested the installation of a Lacanche range cooker into the existing fireplace, which is flanked by a pair of tall, open-shelf countertop cupboards (01202 733011; www.lacanche.co.uk). Extra-deep…

ON Binnel Bay, a mile-long stretch of deserted beach on the southern tip of the Isle of Wight, just below the village of St Lawrence, you’ll find an unlikely monument to a German chemist. William Spindler inherited a fortune from his father and, having come to the island for health reasons, decided to develop St Lawrence as a rival resort to Ventnor, the seaside town that was then at the height of its popularity. What Spindler possessed in wealth, he lacked in diplomacy. He printed pamphlets, which he distributed, accusing the islanders, among others things, of laziness. He planted more than a million trees and developed a seawall in Binnel Bay that has since collapsed in the clay, leaving stacks of stones in the coves that are known locally as…

Shop of the month With Nothing Underneath, 47, Elizabeth Street, SW1 ON Belgravia’s palmy Elizabeth Street, With Nothing Underneath (‘WNU’ when it’s at home) is a temple to a single product: the button-down shirt. ‘I first had the idea when I was working at Vogue,’ explains Pip Durell, the owner and founder. ‘Women’s shirting was so underserviced in the industry and I felt it needed more focus.’ Shopkeepers guide newcomers through the uncluttered racks: there are six cuts, from boxy (The Weekend) to extra-long (The Boyfriend), in 11 materials. ‘We say that WNU has a shirt for every woman and we really mean it,’ says Ms Durell. The bricks-and-mortar, New England-esque shop only opened in 2022, but the BCorp-certified brand has been an online, word-of-mouth success for years. ‘It’s safe…

IT’S like going to Narnia’ is how garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith described his first visit to Encombe, hidden away on the coast of Dorset’s Isle of Purbeck. The combination of complete seclusion and a breathtaking natural setting have for centuries given Encombe a fabled reputation that successive owners have embellished, not least James and Arabella Gaggero, who bought the estate in 2009—and became only the sixth family to own the property in 1,100 years. The estate goes back to 948, when it was given to the Abbess of Shaftesbury by King Eadred. It was dissolved by Henry VIII and eventually passed into the hands of the Culliford family. In 1734, the story of modern Encombe began, when the estate was bought by George Pitt. He gave the property to his…

WE spent much of that glorious end-of-May Bank Holiday weekend playing with the cuckoos. Wherever we seemed to go on our forays up various mountains in Snowdonia (or Eryri as the Welsh would now maddeningly have us call it), the sound of a cuckoo would drift up from some distant woodland. ‘Cuckoo’ we’d all call back, as if trying to engage the poor bird in some kind of romantic conversation. Someone had the brilliant Merlin app on their phone—an absolute must for anyone keen on identifying birdsong—but it felt like cheating, and possibly rather unfair on the bird in question, to play a recorded strand of cuckoo song in order to elicit a response. The exercise, however, reminded me of a holiday, way back in the mists of time,…

What an Owl Knows: The new science of the world’s most enigmatic birds Jennifer Ackerman(Oneworld, £16.99) UNTIL I read this book, I never realised exactly how many different types of owls there are out there; from the snowy Arctic to tropical jungles, desert to pastoral, owls have adapted to so many specialised lifestyles worldwide. The bird might be easily recognisable, thanks to its distinctive shape, but it means so many different things to different cultures, from knowledge and wisdom to being a harbinger of death, widely admired for its staggeringly silent flight and ability to hunt with pinpoint accuracy by hearing alone. ‘An owl is an owl is an owl. Not so,’ writes Jennifer Ackerman. ‘Owls vary dramatically from species to species and even from individual to individual…