In the 1970s, when the celebrated architectural scholar Sir Nikolaus Pevsner visited the Oxfordshire house that Antonia Stewart and her family have since moved into, he was particularly impressed by its splendid, pineapple-topped gateposts. However, what Antonia, an interior designer, and her husband Henry, who works in the City of London, were most struck by when they arrived in 2009, was the house’s potential for ‘great games of hide-and-seek’. They felt it was a place to give their children – Serena, seven, Alexander, five, and Annabel, three – an idyllic upbringing.
“Ever since I first met him, my husband talked about moving to the countryside, even before we were married,” Antonia says. “It was always the dream.” Their search started in 2007 and by 2009 they had decided to concentrate…
