Innholdsfortegnelse for 16-Aug-2023 i Country Life

1905 Unpublished The formal gardens of the Villa Montalto, Florence, one in an extraordinary series of photographs of great Italian gardens taken by Charles Latham. The images were published as a book by COUNTRY LIFE and the negatives remain in the archive, but few appeared in the pages of the magazine. 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…

THE 21st-century chapter in the story of Hellifield, near Skipton in Yorkshire, is as dramatic as any in its eight centuries of existence. It also shows how the courage of one family can change the destiny of a place that was once considered doomed. Architect Francis Shaw and his wife, Karen, took on the picturesque, unstable ruin of the tower in 2004, then, over three years, always retaining the quality of the building’s ancient exterior, transformed it into a stylish modern home. The building they began work on, uninhabited since the late 1940s, had been stripped of much of its interior detailing and was literally crumbling away. Looking at it today, the idea that this comfortable tower house (Fig 1) was once listed on the English Heritage ‘Buildings at Risk’…

FORTUNE, if you believe the Latin proverb, favours the bold. It’s true that anyone brave enough to employ disproportionately large-scale pattern as an aesthetic device tends to be well rewarded, particularly in small spaces. It was not always thus. Conventional wisdom—often an unreliable guide—once dictated that small rooms required commensurately small scale. Anyone old enough to remember Laura Ashley’s spriggy Victorian-inspired furnishing fabrics will be aware of the slightly overwhelming impact this had on the senses. In fact, the opposite is true: over-sized pattern tends to be kinder to large and small spaces alike. In the work of classic English decorators such as Jean Monro—immortalised in fabric collections of the same name—it was the big cabbage-y rose. The late Roger Banks-Pye, of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, used the…

Castel, £25 million The St George estate is set in 35 acres of meticulously maintained gardens and grounds. Sitting on elevated land a mile from the island’s west coast, this historic residence was, for many years, the country seat of the Guille family, who traced their lineage back to William the Conqueror. A complete series of works was recently undertaken by the current owner, which updated and decorated the buildings across the estate, as well as the gardens. St George now comprises the main house (rebuilt in the Palladian style in the 19th century) three family/staff cottages, two outlying cottages, an estate office, indoor pool, tennis court, health suite and a squash court. Accommodation includes a drawing room, dining room, family sitting room, orangery reception room, private office/library, dining kitchen,…

For all the latest news, visit countrylife.co.uk Railway to ruin- or regeneration A RARE Victorian ticket office in Northumberland is to be demolished against the wishes of local people and heritage campaigners. At a time when there is huge debate about the planned closure of ticket offices by National Rail, the former station building at Bedlington is to face an even worse fate by being demolished entirely, as part of huge works to reopen the train line between Newcastle and Ashington from 2024. A ‘historic survivor from the days of steam’ according to the Victorian Society, which is campaigning against the decision by Northumberland County Council, the building is one of the few remaining on the defunct Blythe and Tyne Railway. The station has two elements; the south is…

LIKE its neighbour, the Jersey cow (Native breed, July 19), the Guernsey is considered to be French in origin, although several theories abound—during the 18th century, the Channel Islands were a regular conduit for cattle moving from France to England because it was a way of avoiding customs duty. The prevailing theory is that the Guernsey was developed from the Isigny of Normandy and the Froment du Léon from Brittany. However, it also shares similar genetics to African and Asian cattle. Another, possibly fantastic, idea is that it arrived with the monks banished from Mont St Michel in the 10th century. The Guernsey was first recorded as a breed in 1700 and, in 1878, the Revd Joshua Watson and James James started a register; a year later, imports of cattle…

CREATURES of the night made our ancestors nervous. If they couldn’t see them, or only caught fleeting glimpses, they drew alarming conclusions. And if misfortune struck, it was only too easy to blame unfriendly forces at work as men slept, especially among superstitious rural folk. A secretive dark-plumaged bird that materialised during the summer attracted particular concern—the nightjar. Ever since ancient times, the bird was reviled as a parasite that lived by suckling milk-laden nanny goats under the cloak of darkness. The animals it attacked would cease to produce milk and might go blind. The notion first spread in the Middle Eastern lands where goats were central to animal farming and the bird’s generic Latin name enshrined its bad reputation—Caprimulgus, from capra (a nanny goat) and mulgere (to milk), hence…

House of the holy STANDING at some 6ft tall and weighing upwards of 300lb, there were few bigger names in music than Peter Grant, the manager of Led Zeppelin. The ‘former bouncer and wrestler, was, in many respects, the physical embodiment of a Led Zeppelin’, according to music journalist Steven Rosen, and many in the industry credit Grant with not only assisting in the band’s success, but also improving pay and conditions for bands and artists across the world. After the breakup of the band in 1980, he retired to his Grade I-listed and moated manor house in East Sussex, Horselunges Manor. The six-bedroom property and its 30 acres of gardens and grounds is now up for sale. Batcheller Monkhouse (01424 775577) Living the high life THESE days, most…

Petit Bôt, St Martin Best for windy days This picturesque cove on the south coast is backed by grassy cliffs that rise from two wooded valleys. Not only does the landscape provide a spectacular backdrop for photographs, but the cliffs also provide shelter on a windy day and create a suntrap on a warm one. Below, pebbles give way to sand, which is expansive at low tide, but almost disappears at high tide. A Napoleonic loophole tower is free to visit and open from March to October. Outdoor Guernsey (www.outdoorguernsey.gg)rents paddle boards and kayaks from the beach for £15 an hour. There’s limited parking around the tearooms, but the beach is also on the coastal path—although beware, it’s a steep scramble down. Vazon Bay, Castel Best for surfing Guernsey’s largest…

COMFORT food’ is a term familiar to anyone who enjoys a good meal. ‘Comfort flowers’ has yet to make its way into the public consciousness as a means of describing those blooms with which we feel most at home, especially those that give their all in the height of summer. This is a time rich in memories of holidays past and, to this particular gardener, floral associations can be every bit as potent as that first bowl of pasta on arriving in Italy or a hand-raised pork pie in a Yorkshire pub. I write this on the Isle of Wight, surrounded by flowers, among which my children grew up and beside which many a glass has been drained and many a meal savoured. The surrounding blossoms do much to contribute…

THE summer-holiday period is not a time for new art-market openings and many galleries close for several weeks, or at least enter a period of semiaestivation. Nonetheless, there are still exhibitions to be visited that will run on until the reawakening in September. Here are one or two continuing commercial shows, together with one distinctly uncommercial one in France that looks well worth a detour. When Dame Elizabeth Blackadder died in 2021, she bequeathed more than £7 million to the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) to provide prizes, travel awards, bursaries and other opportunities, not only for graduates, but, importantly, for artists in mid career. It is intended that 60-plus individuals will benefit from this Blackadder Houston Bequest each year. Blackadder was the first woman to be elected to both RA…

WHEN I wrote last month about Old Testament rain (Farming life, July 19), little did I know it was turning into one of those years that, before the technical miracles of modern agriculture, would have led to harvest failure, famine and a superstitious hunt for the parish witches who might have been responsible. Not to mention lines of emaciated people making their way to the estate’s jetty, which still pokes out of the mud in Carsethorn, to escape to America. We still can’t do much about it, but we now know the weather has been, in understated idiom, ‘inclement’, because the jetstream is stuck, as I’m sure it was in the famine years. Unless it does go on raining until Doomsday, our tattie fields will still provide chips for the…

THE words baby shark may have you humming a maddeningly catchy tune for the rest of the day, but they transport me to a Devon beach and an up-close encounter with the most adorable shark I’ve ever seen. A small-spotted catshark, it was swimming lazily around a rock pool. Roughly the size of a cigar, it was covered in speckles and it must have only just hatched out of its egg case, where it had been wriggling and growing for close to a year. I couldn’t resist picking up the little shark for a moment and gently holding it in the palm of my hand. Britain is not renowned for its sharks, yet, beneath the waves, there’s a rich mix of species. The tiny catshark I found is one of…

THE Hampshire-based decorator Nels Crosthwaite Eyre was asked by a young client to design an apartment that is part of a development of an Edwardian sorting office in Islington, north London. Converted in 2020, it offered a blank canvas and she was asked to bring it to life with a rich mix of patterns from designers such as Soane Britain, Penny Morrison and Robert Kime. The hall, stairs and landing are devoid of windows, so there was no natural light to soften the feel. Even in large houses, these are areas that can be quite featureless, so a dramatic pattern was deemed to be the most effective option. Sameera, a wallpaper from Lee Jofa (020–7351 7760; www.gpjbaker.com), created by the fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, was chosen. Sold as…

Find the best properties at countrylife.co.uk BACK in 1100, the myth suggests, twins Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst were born. As well as being joined at the hip, Mary and Eliza were joined at the shoulder and went on to be known as the Biddenden Maids after the village in which they were born. In what was surely an impressive feat for those living in the 12th century, they were said to have survived for 34 years and, upon their deaths in 1134, bequeathed five plots of land to the village, which became known as the ‘Bread and Cheese Lands’. The income from these parcels of land went on to provide food and drink to those in need every Easter, a tradition that continues in some form to the less…

THANKS to its rich soil and temperate climate, everything grows with abandon on this little garden island, marooned in the English Channel a few miles from the French coastline. Hatched by hedgerows and parcelled up into an orderly patchwork of fields, this is an island where food is more than a staple: it’s a way of life. Many of the island’s farms are centuries old. ‘Guernsey’s history is essentially a tale of farming and fishing,’ explains Sara Lampitt, who works for the National Trust of Guernsey and helps organise the island’s biggest food celebration, Lé Viaër Marchi, held once a year in the parish of Castel. ‘That’s not really surprising—we are an island, after all. Most Guernsey recipes are connected with the land or the sea. And you can’t even…

Honey-roasted apricot and raspberry pavlova Ingredients Serves 4 150g egg whites210g caster sugar1tspn cream of tartar1tspn white wine vinegar8 apricots3tbspn honey300ml double cream200g raspberries50g toasted flaked almonds (optional) Method ▸ Preheat your oven to 180˚C/350˚F/gas mark 4. ▸ Draw a 20cm (8in) circle on a piece of parchment paper, then place it on a baking tray, ink side down, and set aside. (You can make individual meringues, if you prefer.) ▸ To the bowl of a stand mixer, add the egg whites, caster sugar and cream of tartar. Whisk on a medium speed until frothy and then increase the speed, mixing for a total of eight minutes, by which time it should be thick and glossy. Add the vinegar, give it a quick swirl to mix it through, then…

The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of History at Hampton Court Gareth Russell (William Collins, £25) ONE might have expected a tongue-in-cheek, rollicking ride of a book from the author of Do Let’s Have Another Drink (about the Queen Mother) and the host of a podcast entitled Single Malt History, featuring ‘demented and delightful stories from the past’. However, as a result of the 2020 covid lockdowns, Gareth Russell has compiled a serious, densely researched and fascinating portrait of Hampton Court Palace, focusing on the people who lived and loved there. His historical narrative, continental in its political scope, ranges from the Tudors to the Windsors and is informed by lively social history. This is a ‘biography’ of the palace rather than an architectural…