Innholdsfortegnelse for 30-Aug-2023 i Country Life

1900 Unpublished A crowd exclusively made up of women and children play in the summer sunshine of St James’s Park, SW1. It’s not clear what the object of this photograph was and the informality of the scene is very unusual. The dusty lawn is almost worn out and a toddler struggles with a cart made from a Lyle’s Syrup box to the right. 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…

IN 1635, the eternally enthusiastic traveller and soldier Lt Hammond arrived at the ‘pretty haven’ of Arundel, ‘graced with an ancient, strong and stately castle… sweetly and naturally situated upon a graceful ascent close by a pleasant river [the Arun]’. In what he later describes as ‘this princely castle’, he enjoyed ‘a full ample and contentive view of all the stately rooms and fair towers, the delightful gardens, large wooded parks and pleasant waters’. Passing through the surviving ‘double strong gatehouse’ of the castle that served as the lodging of the constable, warder and porter, he entered a ‘spacious, large court built about every way’. To his right was a ‘lofty, large and stately old hall’, then under repair, with ‘ample pastries, kitchens and larders’ between it and the gatehouse.…

What is it? Britain’s second-oldest international horse trials (after Badminton), founded in 1961 by the 6th Marquess of Exeter, who was an Olympic gold medallist in hurdling. It is one of seven five-star (highest-level) horse trials across the world, famed for its gracious backdrop, autumn sunshine (we hope) and challenging cross-country course, which offers spectacular viewing on undulating ground. Horse trials—or eventing, as it is known internationally—is the three-phase Olympic sport that encompasses dressage, cross-country and show jumping. At Burghley, there is also Pony Club show jumping (Thursday) and the final of the Dubarry Burghley Young Event Horse competition, a shop window for equine stars of the future (Friday). Many spectators, however, will barely look at a horse all weekend—the shopping is famously smart. As well as all things horsey,…

WE have ploughed the fields and scattered the good seed on the land for centuries, reaping and sowing, sowing and reaping, taming Nature as we went along. With an ever-growing population, we have needed more food and the Agricultural Revolution of the mid 17th to late 19th century increased productivity through the innovative Norfolk four-course rotation, which effectively allowed a crop to be grown for four years on the trot, against the old system that had a fallow year. British agriculturist Charles (‘Turnip’) Townshend promoted the system that allowed stock to be kept over winter through grazing of root crops. The use of cover crops and nitrogen-fixing clover kept the soil in good, fertile condition. Most farms at the time were mixed, with cattle and sheep providing the critical part…

IF you spend much time on Instagram or Pinterest, you might be surprised to hear that few interior designers worth their salt seriously think that the success of a project relies on a scalloped lampshade. Nor an ottoman in contrast piping. Or even a lacquered yellow drinks trolley. Instead, they know that the true test of every well-designed room is its impact on the mood of its occupants, a quality that Bunny Turner strongly feels is predicated on the way it functions. ‘Design a room that works practically and the rest will follow, including a capacity to encourage people to relax,’ she says. Time spent in the revitalised space felt “like a holiday from the hospital” Relaxed and cosseted is how she and her business partner Emma Pocock want…

SOMEONE once described this garden as a bit quirky,’ confided head gardener Robert Lyle, as we walked through the gardens of Southwick House. Standing there, surrounded by an eclectic collection of trees, with beds bulging with shrubs and enveloped by high hedges and even higher granite walls, one cannot help agree that ‘someone’ neatly put their finger on the nub of the garden. It is undoubtedly quirky, but also majestic and very charming. Southwick House sits by the Solway Firth in the rolling pastureland of the Scottish borderlands. The house was built in 1750 and went through various extensions and enlargements over the next century before being bought by the magnificently named Sir Mark MacTaggart Stewart MP. He not only added another couple of wings to the house, but also…

For all the latest news, visit countrylife.co.uk In 1943, the entire population of the village of Imber on Salisbury Plain was told to pack their bags and leave. By order of the Ministry of Defence, the village was to be used as a training area for US troops preparing for the invasion of Europe and, after the war, the villagers were not allowed to return to their homes. However, one day every summer, the usual column of tanks that can be found roaming the plain is replaced by a fleet of Routemaster buses known as the Imberbus. The service ferries thousands of passengers across Salisbury Plain between the town of Warminster and Imber and, this year, raised £38,000 for local charities. ‘We chose Imber because it was such an…

IT is a mystery that the pure Cleveland Bay’s status is precarious—it’s categorised as ‘priority’ by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust—because it is one of the most versatile and handsome native equine breeds, valued as a sport horse, and has had a number of scholarly champions over the years. It dates to the Middle Ages, when the local North Yorkshire—or Cleveland—horse was an upstanding bay originally known as the Chapman horse because it carried the wares of a chapman (a travelling salesman), often trotting for 70 miles a day. It was one of the first coach horses, a farm horse, a pack horse carrying wool to mills, a hunter and a smart gentleman’s conveyance. In the 18th century, a time of ‘improvement’ generally in livestock, it was crossed, for quality,…

SYNDICATION as a form of racehorse ownership hit the headlines in April when Corach Rambler, owned by an eclectic bunch of seven Scots, including a 21-year-old business student from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, won the Grand National. Cameron Sword, whose interest in racing developed during covid to alleviate the boredom, had paid less than £4,000 for his share on trainer Lucinda Russell’s recommendation—wonderfully undersold, as it turned out—that the slow-burning point-to-pointer would be a ‘good starter horse’. He became the youngest winning owner in the race’s history. Corach Rambler originally cost £17,000, so none of the ‘Ramblers’ have had to dip into their pockets for training fees yet. On top of £500,000 for the National, the Irish-bred gelding has also won the Ultima Chase twice at the Cheltenham…

AN August dog-day afternoon, the very earth panting. I went up the farm track with a pair of shears, thinking only of cutting off the arcing tendrils of bramble in the hedge that whip every car and tractor that passes, including the cabless Ferguson and its blood-clot-faced driver. I started snipping the barbed tentacles, then looked at the hedge: nothing tells you that your summer is shot so much as a 6ft-high hedge in the country. Overhead, the sky might be blue and blinding and, after rain, there can even come a brisk gust of oxygenating air carrying a simulacrum of spring. Then look at the hedge: the museum dust at its skirt, the abandoned spiders’ webs, the mildew on the oaks, the pox on the field maple, the coarseness…

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Find the best properties at countrylife.co.uk SET in the heart of unspoilt Shropshire countryside, four miles from Oswestry and 22 miles from Shrewsbury, Grade II-listed Woodhill Park is described by the agents as ‘a glorious Georgian house standing in the privacy of a magnificent park and woodland estate’. For sale for the first time since 1987 at a guide price of £4.5 million, the ring-fenced 156-acre estate has remained largely intact since the mellow red-brick house was first built in the early-to-mid 18th century. Although altered and extended in Victorian times, the house remains true to its origins, having the beautifully balanced, well-lit rooms and fine decorative detail that are the hallmarks of the Georgian era. The estate itself comprises mostly wooded parkland, with a range of cottages and…

WANDERING around the garden this week and seeing the tatty, browning and slug-ravaged foliage of the bearded irises, it is difficult to remember how thrilling they were only a few short months ago. The heatwave of last summer had baked the plants’ rhizomes, so that May and June of this year saw a dazzling display of iris flowers. Irises have always had a strong presence at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (they start to flower naturally in May, so growers don’t have to artificially force or hold back their plants). This year, they drew particular attention in the garden designed by Sarah Price, which was many people’s favourite show garden. The beautifully composed space was inspired by the artist and plant breeder Cedric Morris and displayed the irises he…

Since clever old Bess of Hardwick persuaded her second, much older husband, Sir William Cavendish, to give up his lands in Suffolk and move to Derbyshire, where, in 1549, they spent £600 buying the Manor of Chatsworth (above), the place has never looked back. In his friend Alan Titchmarsh, the present (12th) Duke of Devonshire (he and the Duchess are moving out of the house to make way for their son, the Earl of Burlington, and his family) has found a writer able to tie in the many strands of the story beautifully. From commissioning the best in their field—from Capability Brown and Joseph Paxton to Dan Pearson and Tom Stuart-Smith—the horti-culturally minded Cavendish family has never stinted on that astonishing Peak District landscape. Long may it remain in…

WE are past the peak of environment hysteria.’ This might sound like a Conservative politician today, but it’s a land agent quoted in Farmers Weekly in 1973. I’d gone through my old farming magazines because we appear unable to hold a discussion about land management without using the prefix ‘re-’: re-store; re-cover; re-generate; re-wild—all as part of our great post-Brexit re-form package. It suggests that we’re trying to regain the past, which strikes me as an ambition to follow carefully. By all means learn from previous causes and effects, but the past can bask in a sunlit glow. That’s why I enjoy reading old contemporary writing, for real-time reactions, hopes and fears. I wanted to know what language, if any, was used to discuss environmental issues in the year…

I KNOW nothing more delightful than to sit behind two perfectly broken horses or ponies, going well together and well in hand, passing rapidly through the air,’ wrote Lady Georgiana Curzon in 1888. It was not always so. Imagine you woke one morning in 1750 (the year the Jockey Club was founded and Bach died) and felt like going out. At that time, country roads were vestigial and dangerous and urban streets deep in mud and filth. What then? In London, you could call a sedan chair, patented in 1634 by Sir Sanders Duncombe (to the annoyance of the watermen), or perhaps a brouette—a wheeled cabin pulled by one man —or hail a yellow, four-wheeled hackney carriage. There were private vehicles, too, and your bright matutinal mood might prompt a…

THE kitchen of this Tudor country house in the Shropshire Hills AONB hadn’t been touched for 25 years when the team from Tom Howley was asked to redesign it. The owners had bought the house in 2018 and embarked on an extensive renovation project that was established to retain its authenticity and distinctive features, as well as coax the house gently into the 21st century. The brief was to design a classic country kitchen that harmoniously blended traditional craftsmanship with modern comfort and efficiency. ‘Our first move was to open up the space by removing some internal walls and incorporating the old walk-in pantry into the kitchen,’ says Marianne Batham, designer at Tom Howley. ‘Plasterboard was removed to create a vaulted ceiling with exposed timber trusses and beams.’ Symmetry and…

Surrey, £3.25 million Remodelled, renovated and ‘reinvented’ into a New England-style family home, five-bedroom Heather Farm House sits in a delightful location that backs directly onto Hankley Common with fantastic hacking and walks on the doorstep. With some 20 acres in total, the property would be a more-than-pleasant home for a family with a few horses: the equestrian facilities include a sand school, stable block, 11 boxes, two tack rooms and nine post-and-rail paddocks, some of which enjoy direct access onto protected common land. For humans, the setting is deliciously private, with the nearest village of Elstead some 1½ miles away. The main house has been renovated to an excellent standard, with plenty of modern comforts throughout, and features superb of views of the surrounding countryside, especially Thursley Common…

Harissa and honey chicken and sweetcorn flatbreads Method ▸ Using a sharp knife, slice the kernels from the cobs and add to a bowl with the olive oil, cumin and paprika, then season well. Set aside. ▸ Whisk together the harissa and honey and pour it over the chicken breasts, mixing well to evenly coat. Arrange the chicken snugly in an ovenproof dish and place the dish on an oven tray. Roast for 10 minutes before adding the corn onto the tray outside the chicken dish and roast everything for a further 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. ▸ Mix together the Greek yoghurt, grated garlic, chopped herbs and lemon juice in a bowl and season well. ▸ Remove the cutlets from their marinade and grill…

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) first hit the mainstream headlines in 2017 when DeepMind’s AlphaGo beat the world’s top Go player (Go is an abstract strategy board game), a feat thought to be decades away because of the complexity of the game. This breakthrough was originally hailed as a triumph, but, today, many of the founders of AI are warning against the speed at which things are moving. As CEO of DeepMind technologies, Demis Hassabis, told Time: ‘When it comes to very powerful technologies—and obviously AI is going to be one of the most powerful ever—we need to be careful.’ For the education sector, the development of AI tools is a hugely hot topic. Most independent schools are already using AI in the classroom, but, as its prevalence increases, many parents are…