Small house,big ideas

Architect Sophie and civil engineer Sarah certainly brought their work home with them when they took on the tricky extension of their own Victorian end-of-terrace. Making use of every centimetre of space possible, they designed side and rear extensions which...

Performance Power

Eastbourne College and Bede’s School discuss opportunities which give their students time to shine Director of Music at Eastbourne College, Dan Jordan, sings the praises of music at the school. It is 6.30pm, the night before a well-needed half-term holiday....

Artistic Achievement

Art is in itself such an abstract topic, so open to interpretation, that teaching it to a high standard can be an art form in itself. So we asked one high-performing local school how it’s done. Taught in their newly...

A Day in the Life

… of a boarder at Millfield Prep – named Independent Schools of the Year Awards’ Prep School of the Year, for proactively teaching about pupils’ mental health Pastoral care and wellbeing is at the heart of Millfield Prep School. Boarding...

Retiring Naturally

Jo Arnell speaks to Pegasus Homes CEO Steve Bangs and floral designer Jonathan Moseley about the wellness benefits of interacting with plants, especially as we age As we age, our need to connect with nature and with plants remains a...

A few of my favourite things…

Sue Whigham chooses a few firm plant favourites that have left a lasting impression A girlfriend and I spent a few days in New York a decade ago. It was rather like being in a film set to be honest...

Joined Up Thinking

Not shy of a serious challenge, Emma and Terry Hazelwood undertook a complicated listed barn conversion, successfully blending old and new to create a stunning family home House renovation, like many other adventures, is not for the faint-hearted, requiring not...

A Place in the Country

A true labour of love, Ian and Penny Ledger have tirelessly renovated their idyllic farmstead in Mayfield to be able share a slice of their beautiful, rural seclusion with groups who hire their multi-award winning retreat venue Tucked away in...

All is Calm

Architect-trained interior designer Hannah Benton’s relocation from London to Deal has opened up lots of new opportunities for her and her young family, including the chance to combine expertise with her interior designer mum, Belinda, to rebrand Evernden Interiors as...

A house, transformed

Following her appearance on Season 4 of Interior Design Masters, Charlotte Fisher’s interior design confidence has rocketed. Here, she guides us round her own home, a complete renovation project that she’s tackled over the past five years with her husband,...

Communication is Key

Mike Piercy, educational consultant and former Head of The New Beacon, shares advice on how parents can support their children at school Trust is such a fragile thing. It can take an age to build; but a moment to break....

A house well travelled

Alec and Heidy’s very unusual oast house is a delightful cultural melting pot of styles from all over the world Human resources leader Alec and his Mexican wife Heidy didn’t set out to become interior designers. However, having now renovated...

View Finder

Photographer Mel Smith has combined his work and home requirements to create the ultimate welcoming studio – a homely and stylish space to work from where his creative approach to reuse and recycle takes centre stage It is a rare...

Homemade ricotta with slow roasted pumpkin, sherry, walnut & sage

Serves 6 Prep time: 20 mins, plus resting time For the ricotta: Measure out the lemon juice and vinegar into a bowl and set aside, while you heat the milk, cream, and oregano in a saucepan over a medium heat,...

Trouble Ahead

Jo Arnell comes up with some practical solutions to help protect your plants during challenging periods of weather Many of the Mediterranean species – lavender, rosemary etc – can withstand the cold, but not prolonged periods of wet weather. This...

Meet the Head: Cranbrook School, David Clark

We’ve been finding out what makes the new Head of Cranbrook School, David Clark, tick With his passion for travel, languages and an internationalist outlook, David Clark enjoys the dynamism of Cranbrook School’s thriving and diverse community Tell us about...

Pattern & Purpose

Interior designer Justine Hodgson-Barker was tasked with creating a rural retreat for a couple who divide their time between town and country, taking into account their love of fabrics, texture and colour Down a leafy lane, in the picturesque middle...

Natural Blend

Recipe developer and cookery teacher Charlotte Butterworth’s house is centred around her spacious Neptune kitchen, where she has created a new heart for this impressively proportioned family home Sometimes, when buying a house, it’s all about a feeling. You’ve only...

A Destination of a Different Nature

Sue Whigham reflects on her natural findings on a recent trip to Sweden Whilst I’d been warned that this year Sweden had been having a very wet summer, I hadn’t taken into account what might be the result of this...

Creative Influence

Nicki Cox’s sublimely curated home is a real showcase of her talent for combining artwork and texture in her interesting interiors “I instinctively knew how I was going to decorate this house,” says interior designer Nicki Cox, the owner of...

Fair stands the wind

A history lover’s dream, Abbots Cliff House in Capel Le Ferne, near Folkestone, is full of stories waiting to be discovered by guests who book a stay at this very special clifftop house Iconic landmarks don’t come up for sale...

Meet the Head

We’ve been getting to know Ashford School’s Mr Tiley Nunn What did you study at university? Having known since as long as I can remember that I wanted to be a primary school teacher, I studied Primary Education at Canterbury Christ...

Trailblazing

We ask two high-achieving schools how they are staying ahead of the curve and designing a new path for the future of learning Parkside School, Cobham Parkside School is committed to innovative learning and so we’ve asked them to share...

Raising Voices

Read all about it! Gavin Bunker, Headteacher at Claremont Prep School tells us about what makes the news at his school At Claremont, ‘student voice’ is at the heart of the learning experience. It enables children to shape their own...

Paving the way

Jo Arnell discusses what you need to consider when embarking on a quest to create the ultimate hard landscaping in your garden Lawns are lovely to walk and sit on in the summer, but not so tempting when the weather...

Where the Wild Things are

Sue Whigham caught up with Lou Carpenter of Marden Wildlife and the Marden Farmer Cluster to learn about their inspiring work We had our first green-winged orchid flowering here this year and the excitement when we spotted it knew no...

Through the looking glass

A magical lodge nestles amid ancient woodland, creating a perfect haven – with minimal impact on the precious environment In the many years I’ve been writing about lovely houses for this magazine, there has been one constant: the outside is...

In the Frame

An art-filled house overlooking Alexandra Park in Hastings has provided the perfect living space for a couple who split their time between two properties in this creative town Camilla Ruiz Ramirez is a textile designer who was previously based in...

Message in a Bottle

Jo Arnell finds out that there’s so much more to terrariums than first meets the eye when she meets Sebastian Tribe, founder of Terrapy Making a self-sustaining botanical world filled with beautiful, miniature plants is – if Sebastian Tribe has...

Interior with real identity

Justine Hodgson-Barker’s personality-led approach to interior design has ensured the success of her interiors business. Here she shows us inside her own home which epitomises her love of combining different eras and styles to great effect On the day I...

An Artists’ Retreat

Creative couple Alexa and Robin Easterby have escaped the city to turn their lockdown relocation into a thriving artists’ community that continues to flourish The serious desire to change their lives and focus on new creative endeavours was one of...

Falling for you

Sue Whigham explores the magnetic attraction of majestic irises Whilst we all have regrets, my current one is not having made the effort to go to RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year. And whilst there’s good coverage on the TV,...

Up A Level

Fancy a trip to the seaside? The redesign of a much-loved family holiday home near Dungeness has resulted in a coastal escape with all the mod cons you could hope for Simon Tyler is a person who, ‘enjoys a project’....

Two Pocketfuls of Rye

Sisters Cherry and Heather formed the perfect partnership to revamp a pair of historic cottages in Rye’s picturesque Citadel Rye Citadel, sitting up on the hill above Romney Marsh, is a medieval high point in a sheep-speckled landscape that was...

Meet the Head

We’ve been getting to know The New BeaconPrep School’s new Head, Sarah Brownsdon Sarah Brownsdon is the newly appointed Head of The New Beacon Prep School, whose alumni stretch from Siegfried Sassoon to England sportsmen Zac Crawley, Sam Billings, and...

a little bit extra

Adding fun, broadening horizons and creating well-rounded pupils – extra curriculars are thriving at Marlborough House School School life extends well beyond the classroom at Marlborough House, where co-curricular activity afternoons have been introduced in the Prep-School aimed at increasing the enrichment...

Camber Caper

Step inside Dixie Daydream, a caravan with an interior that’s a riot of colour and pattern, a stone’s throw from the beach Something about the British seaside encourages us to let our hair down, throw caution to the wind and...

Style Council

Angie Bunyan has lavished a terraced cottage in the heart of Rye with her signature look that has cemented her success as an interior designer  Style can come in all shapes and sizes. To be a great designer it’s often...

Cool-on-sea

A Rye-based couple have succeeded in turning an aesthetically challenged 1980s bungalow into the coolest beach house The outside of this building is so unprepossessing, you’d hardly notice it, strolling along the sandy track that leads from the main road...

Space to Heal

Jo Arnell explores the undisputed health benefits of therapeutic gardens Research has shown – and most gardeners can testify, that gardening is good for us. More and more hospitals, homes for the disabled and rehabilitation centres are installing therapeutic gardens....

Weird & Wonderful

Sue Whigham digs deep into the world of lesser-known fruit and veg I’ve joined a waiting list for Apios americana (above) but it’ll be worth the wait and also gives us a chance to thoroughly prepare the ground and find...

Excellent Report

Marlborough House School tell us about their recent ‘Excellent’ rating by the Independent Schools Inspectorate Following a rigorous three-day inspection, staff and governors at Marlborough House School were delighted to be awarded the highest rating of “Excellent” in all areas,...

It’s a Colourful Life

Bedroom designer Evelyn M Lindley describes her journey to realise her creative passion, sharing how she incorporates playful colour into her dark-toned interiors I did something quite exciting recently, well I thought it was exciting. I did my first ever...

Something Blue

Amanda Lafontant, senior designer at Aston Matthews, explains how she transformed this family bathroom into an elegant retreat Creating a family bathroom in a period property is always a challenge. The bathroom needs to function, but there are also architectural...

Boys Own Adventure

A Kentish lass and her husband have restored a historic house near Ashford to create a magical dream of a hotel  Well, this was a new experience. All the houses I’ve had the pleasure to visit for this magazine are...

Vertical Gardening

Jo Arnell explains how to double your growing space by extending upwards If you are lucky enough to own a garden, remember that it’s not just the ground that is yours – the air above is also at your disposal....

The Glasshouse  Project  

Sue Whigham goes behind the scenes at a social enterprise which enables women approaching the end of their sentences to develop skills in horticulture before their release from prison 'I believe everyone should have a second chance,’said the lady in...

The house on the hill

With the help of a practice of skilled architects, the Elms have succeeded in creating a stunning multi-functional family space that works in perfect harmony with both their professional and home lives Garry and Camilla Elms had first glimpsed the...

Finding the light

Alex Jørgensen guides us around his Edwardian townhouse, a renovation project that he’s managed to complete in just one year It was a Monday in November and despite some unseasonably good weather recently, the rain had settled in today. Nevertheless...

Cracking the Code – Radnor House Sevenoaks

Pavel Malik, Assistant Head & Director of Digital Learning at Radnor House Sevenoaks (below), discusses the benefit of teaching coding skills from a young age Learning coding offers many educational benefits. From helping to develop digital skills and building future...

STRONGER TOGETHER – Eastbourne College

Eastbourne College tell us about a wide variety of projects which enrich their school life and beyond Eastbourne College is one of thirteen schools/colleges in the Coastal Schools Partnership (East Sussex). We love working together as it provides a high...

Social Life: Bede’s

Richard Mills, Registrar at Bede’s tell us how they build their boarding community For boarding pupils, building relationships at school is even more vital because their school peers are more than just classmates — they are a close–knit community, a...

Social Life: Sutton Valence School

Sutton Valence School share how they build social skills in students At Sutton Valence School, we place a high value on the importance of developing students’ and boarders’ social skills. We believe that these skills are essential for success in...

Meet the School Principal

We’ve been getting to know Claremont School’s new Principal, Severine Collins What excites you most about joining Claremont School? Claremont’s principles align with my own belief that every child is an individual who needs to be nurtured, developed and challenged...

Green Attraction

Jo Arnell looks into houseplants with benefits Keeping houseplants will make you more attractive. This is not just a ploy by the houseplant marketing board – according to some research commissioned by The Joy of Plants, all you need to...

Patience is a Virtue

Sue Whigham advises it’s worth taking your time to discover how your new garden grows as she contemplates the revamp of her son’s new outside space near Bath Having lived in a Brixton flat with a small but perfectly formed...

The best laid plans

The Surrey Homes house writer shows us round her own home – which didn’t turn out as she expected, but better When you buy a new house which is a bit of a project, you think you know exactly what...

Escape to the Country

The refurbishment of an elegant Georgian farmhouse has been a labour of love for talented interior designer Jessica Bax It was Monday morning and I was excited to be travelling to somewhere with a familiar name. Shoreham village in Kent...

Marlborough House School’s new programme for Years 7 and 8

For parents grappling with the age-old question of 11+ or 13+ entry, we spoke to Marlborough House School in Kent who have a new solution: an individualised enrichment programme for Years 7 and 8. A more bespoke path and greater...

Celebrating Difference in a Boarding Environment

By Simon Bird, Deputy Head, and David Mulae, Assistant Head Pastoral, Cranleigh School Cranleigh celebrates difference by first seeing and recognising that individuals are all unique and that each individual has worth and should feel valued. Considerable time and expertise...

Welcome to the Fun House

Justin and Imogen open the doors to their fabulously cool renovation project, tucked away behind the shops in Rye High Street It takes a brave man, or woman, to leave the buzz of East London for a quiet coastal town...

Take me to church

Jane Robinson has worked with the unusual fabric of a former church to create a comfortable and stylish family home   Church conversions can be tricky. The windows – although beautiful and large – are a peculiar shape and size,...

Keeping it Real

When it comes to lush winter foliage, the magic’s in the authenticity, as Jo Arnell explains Fake plants are getting more and more realistic – I often have to pinch a leaf, or even myself, when I see an impossibly...

Living Over The Shop

A creative couple found the perfect spot for their home – and their boutique – in the very centre of Hastings In a first for all the many (lovely) houses I have written about for this magazine, my visit to...

’Twas Brillig

A family home over a shop in St Leonards is as otherworldly as its Lewis Carroll-inspired name The first time I noticed the name painted over the windows of a new shop in St Leonards’ London Road, (right by my...

Duchess Diaries

Jo Arnell goes behind the scenes at Belvior Castle to find out how Emma Manners, the 11th Duchess of Rutland, has tranformed its formal gardens in line with a treasure trove of plans rediscovered in the castle’s archives Imagine plunging...

Getting Out & About

Independent girls’ school, Manor House, explains why prioritising school trips enriches their pupils’ education Speak to any past pupil and a school trip is often one of their fondest memories, a time to stretch their muscles of independence and venture...

Law & Borders

Local legal firms keep us up to date with their news Whitehead Monkton are getting the word out about new legislation and the importance of taking positive action during the tricky time of a divorce When the chips are down...

Art of the Home

There’s more to interior designer Charlotte Luxford’s suburban semi than meets the eye, with its charming, art-filled interiors – not to mention the view On the face of it, Charlotte Luxford’s 1930s home in central Sevenoaks is much like any...

Colour Theory

The inspiring bathrooms of a Sussex manor show how to embrace vibrant colour This magnificent Georgian manor house in rural Sussex has undergone extensive renovation work in recent years, benefitting from Catchpole & Rye’s distinct brand of luxury in both...

Past is Present

Miscellanea show us how to breathe new life into a historical kitchen while respecting and enhancing original features What was the brief behind this project? Our clients’ main criteria was that as well as being fully functioning – offering all...

Going Home

I didn’t have much information about the person I was going to meet, just a name, address and a few emails arranging our interview, so it was with more than a bit of intrigue that I travelled to north Kent’s...

Meet the Head – Mr Mark Scholey: Head of Sutton Valence Prep School

We get to know a bit more about the brand new Head of Sutton Valence Prep School, Mr Mark Scholey What are you most looking forward to about joining SVPS? As I join SVPS, I am especially looking forward to...

Dark & Interesting

A former shop in Horsham has been given a complete makeover by creative couple Calum and Jen No one wanted to buy it,” Jen says of the beautiful period home in Horsham that she and husband Calum have lived in...

Designer’s World

We speak to Ben Stokes – founder of KAGU in Tenterden – about his opinions on the latest trends, life as an interior designer, and design process What inspires you? Everything and anything. I love staying at hotels, drawing inspiration...

Changing Rooms

Berni and Peter Leach constantly tweak and switch up their house in Hastings Old Town – and their wonderful shop too The usual set-up for interviewing people about their beautiful houses for this magazine is one-on-one, because in the vast...

Skandi Style

Sue Whigham reflects on the natural beauty of Sweden Rain at last and I think that we’re all sighing in relief and that goes for our gardens too. We were in Rye when it started yesterday and we passed a...

Totally Tropical

Work with nature to create a lush oasis in our unpredictable climate, as Jo Arnell explains   Making a tropical garden or border means choosing plants that will give the impression of the humid tropics – a lush-leaved oasis dripping...

Round and Round the Garden

Dulwich Prep Cranbrook tell us about their wonderful Sensory Garden project During our wellbeing week in January 2022, Dulwich’s SEN team looked at additional projects which could enhance our wellbeing and the seed of an idea took root – to...

Books Club

Find your next favourite read with recommendations from students and teachers The Good Thieves by Katherine Rundell follows the story of Vita, who moves to New York after her grandfather was robbed of everything he owned. With the aid of...

Natural Identity

A unique family home – which also doubles up as an impressive holiday rental through Bloom Stays – caters for the needs of multiple generations in the idyllic Kent countryside  Over the past two years it has been the lack...

Past, Present, Perfect

The renovation of an early nineteenth century house was a labour of love for Caroline, Stephen and their family, who strove to keep the integrity of the building, whilst sensitively updating the interior for modern living  If you’ve found an...

Happy Hour

Cheers to these tasty local tipples Old Dairy Beer Old Dairy Brewery is an award-winning brewery that uses only the finest English malts and hops to brew their beers in cask, bottles, keg and can. Sitting just moments from Tenterden High...

Eat Sleep Breathe

These local stays are great for an evening meal and a sound night’s sleep Bliss at the Bell - The Bell in Ticehurst Location: A public house on the Kent-Sussex border, in what was a rather showy Tudor property around...

Dine with a View

From the airy blue of a far reaching seascape to endless heaps of rolling hills, one of our favourite things about living in the South East is the amazing scenery. And what better way to enjoy the many sights our...

Boxing Clever

Sue Whigham visits Benenden’s Balmoral Cottage, home to Charlotte and Donald Molesworth  I think I might have taken Charlotte too literally when she suggested an early meeting in her garden last Saturday morning. And I must say that my dogs...

Time To Shine

Liz Cruttenden has updated a much loved listed family home with her own skilled eye for interior design I’m not sure why this is, but country dwellers seem to use the back, or side entrances, to their homes rather than...

The G Plan Clan

A 20th century house in Rye has been made over with fabulous mid-century flair – groovy, baby In recent times, the ancient town of Rye has become something of a centre for home style, with lots of fabulous shops and...

Extra Help

We explore how tutoring can support a child’s studies 11+ Ready - Established local tutoring company, Griffin Teaching, tell us about their service What kind of tutoring do you offer? We offer our support in weekly club sessions, taught in friendly...

The Great Outdoors

Get kids outside to enrich their education with the help of nature Space explorers Somerhill uses its grounds to benefit work, sport and play Outdoor learning is a large part of Somerhill’s ethos, which is not surprising considering their 150...

Pamper & Preen 

We take a look at the relaxing treatments and experiences on offer at some truly memorable retreats and spas The Spa at Green Farm, Shadoxhurst Set amongst idyllic ancient woodland and meadow pastures, Green Farm is a wonderfully rejuvenating place...

Wild at Heart

Wedding florist, Becky Morris, celebrates the glories of the natural world in her village family house The morning drive through the springtime High Weald countryside, to this house in the village of Mayfield, is one of the most beautiful I’ve...

The New Contemporary

We explore Mill House, a project that demonstrates a new wave of contemporary family kitchens Inglis Hall, known for their honest and authentic approach to crafting kitchens, was the perfect choice to create a truly modern kitchen in which contemporary...

Plum’s the word

Ligneous Kitchens show us around one of their favourite projects From its clean, sleek lines to the spacious island and luxurious use of materials, this kitchen belongs on your moodboard if you're inspired by modern minimalism. What was this kitchen's...

Maker’s Motif

Relocating from Surrey to Kent, Alec and Sarah stumbled upon a beautiful barn conversion – not a style that they had been on the hunt for – and fell in love with its space and character Frittenden, that pretty village...

Quiet Command

A family home that keeps things cool, calm and collected  Sometimes it’s not what you put into a house that makes it special – but what you leave out. In the Staplehurst home of interior decorator Esther Bauer and her...

See my vision

Meet Reinhard Alexander Weiss, director of 3s, the architects behind this award-winning Greek paradise Can you tell us about a memorable project that you’ve worked on?  As well as individual houses in the UK, we sometimes design holiday homes abroad....

Case Study: Prefabulous

We find out what goes into building an eco-friendly, low-energy home like this Sussex prefab haven    A luxury Baufritz villa sitting on the edge of the South Downs National Park, built using pioneering, prefabricated construction technology. Skyhouse Sussex is...

Case Study: The Chocolate Factory

Because who wouldn’t want to live in a chocolate factory? This new development by Sunningdale House is a real treat Where is it located?  In Quarry Road, Tunbridge Wells within the exclusive TN1 postcode, on the old factory site of...

What’s the plan?

The experts at SJM Planning explain how a planning advisor can assist your project Why hire a planning consultant?  Anyone can make a planning application to a local planning authority, but the application process system can be very challenging and...

Meet the Trade: Managing Director of Brook Security Limited

Meet Terry Roffey, Managing Director of Brook Security Limited What do you specialise in?  Brook Security has a wealth of knowledge and experience in creating layered security solutions. We specialise in the design, installation, maintenance and monitoring of electronic security...

Adoorable!

Claire Manton, furniture artist and founder of Claire’s CraftHouse, shares her guide to sprucing up your front door A front door isn’t cheap to replace but, whether you have a solid wood door or composite, you can freshen it up...

New Shores

Social worker Ashia Redhead explains how her house renovation has been the outlet for her creative energy, embellishing her passion for interiors and antiques into a warm family home with character It was the start of the hottest weekend of...

Nourish to Flourish

Nutrition & Lifestyle Coach Charlotte Lau recommends small changes for a more sustainable diet A sustainable diet is one with a low environmental impact and helps contribute to the security of food and nutrition for the present as well as...

Garden Glory

If you’re planning a garden visit or two this year, then be sure to explore the wealth of horticultural delights the South East offers, as recommended by Sue Whigham Kent Gardens Trust is affiliated to The Gardens Trust and was...

On the Wild-ish Side

Jo Arnell gives her tools a well earned rest and lets the garden do what it does best – embrace nature  Stop weeding. Stop mowing. Dig a pond and plant a tree – then relax while the wildlife looks after...

Dressed to Thrill

Artist and designer Louise Hamlin-Wright’s vibrant home is a wonderful riot of colour, pattern and craft   I drive straight past Louise and John’s house. I think I’m looking for a larger or more outlandish building. Turning around, I see that...

Kitchen Drama

Interior designer Ben Stokes’ family cottage, painted in deep, rich shades and accessorised with natural woods and sumptuous textiles, is a wonderful example of the bold transformation of a small space   There’s no introduction to this three storey cottage....

The Big Questions

When taking on a landscaper, it’s important to know what you want ahead of time, so we asked Tim Sykes of Gardenproud for a list of key questions we should ask ourselves and have answers for What are the must...

Heaven Scent

Maximise on fragrance with Sue Whigham’s sweet-smelling picks So what are aromatic plants and how do they differ from plants with fragrant flowers? Yesterday, I layered up and meandered out into the garden in a search for any aromatic plants that...

Nourish to Flourish

Nutrition & Lifestyle Coach Charlotte Lau brings some calm to morning routines For many of us the relentless cycle of going to bed too late, hitting snooze on repeat and rushing out the door feeling highly stressed, is all too...

New Victorian

Driven by a love of colour and vintage, Sarah Hazebroek has stamped her signature style on a Victorian cottage, whilst her passion for interiors paid off during lockdown with the creation of her home accessories range, Huddle Collection  Situated right...

Sow Magical

There’s endless treasure to be found amongst the pages of this year’s seed catalogues, as Sue Whigham explains It is so lovely to receive a seed catalogue in the post and especially when it is as tempting and full of...

Family Comforts

We take a look inside the home of the creative founders of Maker & Son Despite the picturesque central front entrance and wonderfully rustic path, flanked on either side by some cloud pruned box trees, we are entering through the...

8 Ideas to Bring the Indoors Out

It’s a new age of garden rooms – filled with indoorsy luxuries but also seamlessly integrated into the outdoor world Lockdown left us all itching to get outside more, wishing our homes had a little more space, and desperately looking...

Windows on the World

Karen Hahnel’s grand apartment on the St Leonards seafront has views as impressive as its interior It’s always fascinating to visit someone’s home and see all the lovely things they have and find out where they got them from (that’s...

Rising Star

Manor House School tell us about one of their promising pupils Lola Fellows joined Manor House School as a Sports and Art Scholar in Year 7, and threw herself immediately into all that senior school life offers. Now in Year...

Fame Academy: Eddie Izzard

Emma Garrett, Development Director, Eastbourne College tells us about ex-student Eddie Izzard The Eastbournian Society (ES) is all about building relationships that last a lifetime across our two schools – starting from as early as nine months old at St...

Finding your way: Getting on Board

Benenden School tells us about the benefits of boarding Benenden Boarding brings enormous benefits for every pupil: she has the time and space to try new activities, develops great social and emotional skills, and makes friends for life. Boarding is...

Early Birds

Jo Arnell recommends jobs to get ahead with in the garden this month, and those to leave for the onset of warmer weather If you’re an early bird and in the habit of catching worms, February might not be the...

Strong Foundations

When Morgan and Jon moved from London to Tunbridge Wells, they embarked on a sizeable renovation project, breathing life back into a property’s late Victorian bones to create a beautiful family home If you want a sturdy heritage home with...

Stable Star

Interior designer Ben Stokes’ redesign of an old stables has resulted in a perfectly formed and popular airbnb rental with lashings of individuality  When we arrive at The Stables there’s a baby outside, lying happily in her pram. No crying...

New Beginnings

Jo Arnell takes a closer look at houseplants for Christmas – and beyond – with help from The Glasshouse Project It’s been a tradition to bring evergreen foliage into the home at this time of year for thousands of years....

Meet the Head: Eastbourne College’s Tom Lawson

Eastbourne College’s Tom Lawson explains what keeps him inspired as a teacher and head What inspired you to pursue a career in education? My English teacher at school, Poppy Anderson, inspired me to teach and I had many other great...

Meet the Head: St Andrew’s Prep’s
Headmaster, Tom Gregory

St Andrew’s Prep’s new Headmaster, Tom Gregory, discusses how his own fond memories of being a pupil at the school he now heads-up have made him realise his dream of becoming a teacher You’re brand new to St Andrew’s Prep,...

Coastal Drama

Interior masters, Fred & Ginger, have taken on the renovation of an incredibly positioned seaside property, transforming it from tired care home to design spectacular Not all period properties pass gently from owner to owner, sympathetically updated and treated with...

Rooms with a View

Having decided to make Hastings their home, writer Sue Dawson and her architect husband Paul Gammon were struggling to find the right spot, until they chanced upon a tumbledown bungalow with huge potential The great charm of Hastings Old Town,...

Make Your Winter Garden a Wildlife Haven

Follow Jo Arnell’s expert tips for a thriving outside space all year round Imagine sleeping in the garden all through the winter months. Where would you sleep? In the shed? Under a hedge? I could possibly eke it out for...

Expanding Horizons

Interior designer Cassie Williams’ family home is a masterclass in clutter-free accessorising – mixing new and upcycled seamlessly and stylishly You can tell a lot about a home – and its owner, from the front garden and as we approach...

History in Colour

The complete refurbishment of British Army General Sir John Moore’s Hastings home provided an irresistible project for George and Charlotte Rendall A long the East Sussex and Kent coast some of the country’s greatest military landmarks make their mark, from...

Paws 4 Thought

Therapy (PAT) Dogs have become an intergral part of school life at Holmewood House School, providing comfort and easing anxiety for pupils across the year groups. Here, we get to know a little bit more about the group of four...

Top Trunks

Sue Whigham takes a closer look at native trees and hedging and explains how we can all do our bit to provide year-round sustenance and shelter for wildlife What a peculiar year it has proved to be weather-wise and every...

A touch of Beverly Hills

An interior designer adds contemporary glamour to a Georgian family home It was the pool that did it. Out there on the pristine white non-slip flagstones, with the groovy all-weather sofa and armchairs, the dining area and the pool house,...

A World Beyond

Surrounded by countryside and forest, a beautiful country house with truly enviable gardens has been opened up for photoshoots by its owners Eight years ago when Michelle and Ian were looking to relocate from Otham, near Maidstone, they had decided...

Meet the Head: Head of Claremont Senior School, Ed Dickie

Head of Claremont Senior School, Ed Dickie, chats career progression, teaching, and the rewards of overcoming learning challenges with students What were you doing before you joined Claremont? Before I joined Claremont I spent 13 years at Bedes/St. Bedes School...

Knock on Wood

The combination of bespoke woodwork and choice mid-century pieces creates chic sophistication in this St Leonards maisonette When it comes to the dream team of people to transform a run-down maisonette into an apartment with the kind of quiet sophistication...

Home at Dormestone

Kim Partridge's vision for a Grade II listed farmhouse has seen its tranfsormation from a dark and gothic interior to an informal and relaxed space with a strong family vibe The dream of finding an idyllic rural retreat steeped in history and...

Haven Sent

Belinda Benton’s home is as elegantly calm and welcoming as the interiors she designs for others By the time you have wound your way along the almost impossibly beautiful country lane that leads to Belinda Benton’s house, you are already...

Meet the Headteacher at Manor House School: Tracey Fantham

Tracey Fantham, Headteacher at Manor House School, reflects on her life-long passion for sport and many happy memories of her own school days What was your favourite subject at school? My favourite subject was geography as we had an excellent teacher and...

Recipe for Success

Vinehall School, Brighton College and Reed’s tell us about the famous former pupils inspiring the students of today "Sir Tim Smit KBE is a much celebrated member of the Vinehall alumni. Sir Tim is known for his work on the Lost Gardens...

Meet the Executive Head at Shrewsbury House School: Mrs Joanna Hubbard

Mrs Joanna Hubbard, Executive Head at Shrewsbury House School chats challenges, achievements and how she helps her students to thrive What did you enjoy doing most at school when you were a student? Most of my time was taken up on...

Show Time

EM Forster Theatre is at the heart of the Tonbridge community, and is delighted to be opening its doors once again It is great to be open again. There is nothing quite like live performance, and the excitement and buzz...

What’s Cooking?

Benenden School describe their impressive food offering which has won them a Tatler School Award Can you run us through the school’s dining offering? Benenden is renowned for its excellent food – in fact it won the Best Food Award...

Starting small

Deputy Head & Head of Early Years at Parkside School, Mrs Madeline McMurdo explains how to ease a child into their first experiences of school Can you tell us a little about your pre-school offering at Parkside? Parkside nursery is...

Life in Colour

Brimming with pattern, colour and panache, Charlotte Guercio’s Kentish oast house is an interior to remember Charlotte Guercio loves colour, she loves print and she most definitely loves interior design, which is lucky for the large Kentish oast house that...

Room at the Top

Clare’s spacious apartment in the centre of the historic town of Cranbrook is certainly more house than flat. Retaining its plentiful character and charm, she has sensitively created an interior to suit her needs whilst experimenting with her own tastes...

Keep it contained

Sue Whigham gives her guidance for container planting success Last year I ordered a salvia collection from one of the national newspapers. The plants arrived but they really were miniscule and looking unlikely to survive until the end of the...

Artful Restoration

Utilising the skills of a hand-picked team of talented local trades, Tim and Eve have realised their dream of a home to grow old in with the carefully considered renovation of a pair of cottages with huge potential Down a...

The House That Instagram Built

Kooky, unique and oh-so-memorable, Margate Suites’ collaboration between local artists, interior designers and tradespeople has resulted in a vibrant collection of holiday apartments which provide the perfect place from which to explore this seaside town, alive with creativity For some...

How to: Personalise a new build

Transforming a white-walled, brand-new tabula rasa of a new-build can be a real mission! So we asked SGS Architectural Interiors for some expert advice We are fortunate enough to work with clients who are constructing architect-designed new-build homes, but it...

Case Study: Bringing Back the Barn

Architects Theis + Khan tell us the tale of a recent masterpiece of a barn conversion Burwash Barn was a real project right from the offset, it had enormous potential but was obviously going to require lots of work to...

Meet the Head: Marlborough House School

Mr Eddy Newton, Headmaster of Marlborough House School, reminisces on his own school days and how they’ve shaped the Head he is today What did you enjoy most at school?  Maths, Latin and History, as well as all sports –...

Agri Culture

The carefully thought out transformation of a derelict barn has resulted in a unique and sophisticated new home for a couple who were keen to preserve its agricultural history and heritage Driving past a derelict barn every day and dreaming...

Story Teller

Find quirky styling and artworks aplenty at one of the most interesting and magical places to stay in the South East, The Bell in Ticehurst   “The Bell’s ancient bricks could talk, they’d have a tale or two to tell.”  In...

Early Learning – Claremont Nursery and Pre-Prep

Claremont Nursery and Pre-Prep’s Head, Rachel Potter, talk through their early years offerings and how their younger pupils are prepared for joining big school How integrated is the nursery with the rest of the school? Our happy and very busy...

Stepping Stones

Sue Whigham investigates the appeal of gravel gardening  In the spring of 1986, Derek Jarman, film maker and life long gardener, was on the hunt for a bluebell wood to use in a film that he was making (The Garden)....

Ready, set, grow!

Keen to ensure 2021 is filled with a bountiful supply of home-grown edibles, Jo Arnell gets cracking in the veg garden with super-speedy early crops Phew! It’s April. The days are filling with light and new growth – and possibly...

The same, but different

With her eclectic vintage style Susan Chester put her own mark on a Victorian terrace house – while allowing it to keep its own character It never fails to amaze me, that while 26% of British houses are terraces –...

Island Escape

With a focus on sustainability and conservation, Georgina Fulton and her husband, Gareth, ensure that Elmley Nature Reserve and its working family farm preserves the natural habitat on the Isle Of Sheppey, sharing their portion of beautiful marsh landscape with...

Pesty Problems?

Sue Whigham gives handy tips to tackle garden pests without harming the wildlife that feeds on them One of my ancient greengage trees was uprooted during one of January’s downpours and so I thought that this was a good excuse...

Feed Me!

Jo Arnell gives her soil-enriching recommendations to ensure your garden plants never go hungry Above: Sweet peas are greedy plants Restore, Replenish, Renew This is not the beauty page, or an advert for skin cream, but I do want to...

Pretty in pink

Treasure hunter Cat Ridley knows what she likes – and if it’s pink, glittery, neon or gold, she’s in (preferably all of them) My first glimpse of the gloriously pink, glittery, neon, petal-strewn world of Cat Ridley was when I...

The Archivist

Jules Haines set up her online business, Haines Collection, to offer leftover stocks of beautiful high-end fabrics, preventing them from ending up in landfill and providing the chance to snap them up with substantial savings. Her environmental awareness naturally extends...

9-5 In Style

If you’ve made the decision to continue to work from home, why not invest in a beautiful outdoor space that will allow you to take control of your working life, maintain work/life balance and provide a gorgeous focal point in...

The Right Foot

After a year of home schooling and social distancing, sport represents a unique challenge. How will we get up and running with a new-normal after lockdown? As the winner of the Sporting Achievement award in the 2020 Independent Schools of...

Adapt Adopt Improve

The last year has been anything but an easy ride, especially when it comes to education, but our schools have worked tirelessly to keep their students engaged and maintain a sense of normality – and this is how they’ve achieved...

Meet the P.E. Pros

We get to know two P.E. teachers that were once professional sports people – Mark Howell, Director of Sport and Head of Rugby at Sutton Valence School and Emily Starr, Assistant Director of Sport at Mayfield School Why did you...

Taking Responsibility

Dulwich Prep Cranbrook explains how they’re fostering planet-friendly values throughout the school The majority of the eco initiatives introduced at Dulwich Prep Cranbrook have been very much child led, we have found that the children genuinely care and want to...

A Very Bright Future

Headmaster of Babington House School, Tim Lello, explains how the school strives to provide its students with the support, advice and expertise needed to secure a successful career when they finish school With the news full of “mishandled A Level...

Welcome to real Tunbridge Wells

When Cathe and John Wheatman moved into their generously proportioned Victorian town house four-and-a-half years ago they were only the third family to live in it, since it was built in 1870.  That must be a pretty rare record –...

The Haven

After buying buildings they had admired for years, a couple well-versed in renovating properties have created a uniquely peaceful and welcoming home they now open as a B&B sanctuary It’s hard to pinpoint what determines the atmosphere of a house....

Interior Vocation

With an eye for design that she has honed working on the complete renovation of her own period cottage, and following a career in events management, interiors lover Rebecca Middleton has hit the ground running with the start of her...

Cover Girl

Former Fashion Director turned upholsterer, Sadie Dorchester takes Antonia Methuen on a tour of the interior of her spacious Victorian terrace, the gorgeous result of a seven-year renovation project Like many people who move to Hastings, Sadie Dorchester and her...

A Taste of the Exotic

Tom Hart Dyke, Curator of The World Garden at Lullingstone Castle, shares his passion and top plant care tips for orchids – which aren’t always as tropical as you may think Orchids are now considered to be the largest family...

Shape it up…

Sue Whigham makes a statement with unusual colours and shapes Well, the usual deluge hasn’t happened today. Perhaps spring is definitely on its way. Actually, I think it is and so do the bumblebees. I saw a huge one collecting...

House of Beulah

Using her own professional skills, Zoe Joannou has transformed a classic Tunbridge Wells villa into a glamorous space for modern living I started off interviewing interior designer Zoe Joannou about her own house – but I was soon asking questions...

Dressed to Impress

The transformation of a Grade II listed building, which once served as a public house before becoming an oriental restaurant, has been 20 years in the making for creative couple Jane and Rob – enlisting the help of many talented...

Dreaming of a French Escape?

Are you lusting after the idea of owning a rural property in France, but not sure how and where to start your search? WT asks the advice of French property finders, Country Homes France How does Country Homes France work?...

Retire in Style

Stunning Surroundings at Wildernesse House A collection of 31 one- and two-bedroom apartments in the historic Grade II listed Wildernesse House, and eight new mews houses set in the sprawling Wildernesse Estate, Sevenoaks, are now available from luxury retirement home...

It’s good to talk

With the baby boomer generation set to pass on a significant amount of wealth, discussing plans and goals with beneficiaries can give everyone a head start, as Anna Murdock explains “Communication is something we as a nation have always been...

Join the Club

We talk to schools about what goes on outside the classroom Mayfield School, East Sussex “Mayfield School has a tradition of developing academic excellence. Our curriculum encourages questioning, reflection, creativity and the freedom to learn from mistakes.  While maths and...

The Forever Home

When it came to renovating their dream house, Andy and Ran turned to their friend and interior designer Justine Hodgson-Barker to ensure they ended up with a home fit to start the next chapter of their life Andy Clark and...

The House of Magical Objects

Maggie Alderson takes a step through the looking glass into this Hastings writer’s home Sally Gardner writes award-winning children’s books of extraordinary imagination – and has the house to match. Some houses are family homes, some are private havens, others...

Naked Attraction

Jo Arnell strips the garden back to beautiful winter basics Winter can stretch on into spring sometimes, remaining colourless and drab for longer than necessary, dragging its grey heels even as the days lengthen and the green shoots start peeking...

Plant Hunters

Sue Whigham explores the origins of many popular plant species and how they were discovered   I must say that when my son and daughter-in-law announced that they were going to take a sabbatical in the summer of 2019 and,...

Hillside Haven

Maggie Alderson explores the ultimate fantasy home – an architect-designed eco self-build, complete with indoor pool Making my way along the impressive tree-lined drive to this house, I feel like Kevin McCloud when he goes back to revisit the owners...

A House to Truly Love

After documenting the transformation of her Victorian villa on social media, Olya Lammas decided to trade in her career in fashion to follow her passion for interiors  “I wasn’t planning on buying a home like this!” says interior designer Olya...

Starting Out

Your child’s first steps into education can be daunting. These local independent schools share advice to get things started on the right foot Pre-School - Spring Grove School  Why choose an independent pre-school? The choice of pre-school is a very...

Grow Your Own Sun

Jo Arnell injects some mood-lifting yellows into the winter garden  When most of the colour has withered back into the earth and the natural world is dark and dormant it can seem a bit bleak outside. We can admire the...

Treading Lightly

A rental property has become a stylish stop-gap for a family in search of their dream home in the country. Creating a beautiful, personal home doesn’t always involve a wrecking ball – simply decorating can transform a space. Every house...

Return to Splendour

Alex Jørgensen has worked a design miracle on this Tunbridge Wells property, transforming it from fluorescent strip-lit office space to contemporary home In the heart of one of Britain’s most classic towns a great change is afoot. In a Tunbridge...

Dream of a Green Christmas

Jo Arnell shares her top tips and tricks for an eco-friendly festive season It’s the most wonderful time of the year. And the most wasteful – if my rubbish and recycling bags are anything to go by. Every year I...

A Classical Approach

With their lifelong love of design and architecture, Toby and Megan Osborne have restored a down-at-heel guest house to its stately elegance After enjoying an early morning coffee in the picturesque country town of Cranbrook, I can wholeheartedly understand why...

A box of delights

There is a particular joy in returning to visit a home you have seen only very much in the ‘before’ stage. In this case, the last time I saw Kimberley Watson’s flat in a Regency terrace on Hastings Old Town...

Structural Assets

Jo Arnell shares her recommendations for plants with year-round staying power A herbaceous border in full swing at the height of summer is a wonder to behold, but come the autumn it does rather collapse into a heap of old...

Anna’s Top 10 Christmas Planning & Cooking Tips

1. Book an online shop for all your non-perishable items. With most supermarkets you can do this three weeks in advance; so, for delivery on 23rd, book on 2nd December. As you remember items over the three weeks you can...

Village Person

A six-month sabbatical in the countryside turned into a whole new life for Kate Monckton, in an old village house lovingly brought to its full potential There is a special kind of satisfaction in visiting a beautiful house, when you...

A Family Affair

Inspired by travels across the world, interior designer Alexis Wylie has delivered her signature warm, vibrant, lived-in style with a redesign of a much-loved family home, combining old and new furnishings whilst retaining the house – and family’s – vivid...

Sweet Dreams

Sue Whigham goes in search of the lesser-seen members of the Lepidoptera order of moths. I know that many of us, no, all of us, when we think of moths, have dark thoughts about clothes moths, or at least their...

Winter Sports

What’s on offer to keep pupils active during chillier months? WT speaks to Dulwich Prep Cranbrook and The King’s School, Canterbury about the range of sports available. Mrs Jo Wilson, Head of PE and Games at Dulwich Prep Cranbrook What...

Bakehouse White Sourdough

Mix all ingredients together for approximately 10 minutes – check the temperature of the dough, it should be 24°c. Cover and leave in the mixing bowl for 60 minutes.Knock back the dough and cover for another 60 minutes. Knock back...

Longtooth Gimlet

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and pour in the Longtooth Gin, lime juice and simple syrup. Stir vigorously with a long cocktail spoon until very cold.Strain into a chilled coupe or martini glass, or strain over a rocks glass...

All that Jaz

Jaz Rosten-Edwards had always wanted to have an art gallery – so she turned her house into one. Houses on a residential street can blend into one. Especially if there is a row of them built as a set at...

Course Work

Our pick of the best adult education courses across the South East. Kent Adult Education With almost 4,000 wide ranging and diverse courses to choose from, Kent Adult Education offers adults the opportunity to reach their full potential by trying...

A Pebble’s Throw

Experienced house renovators Robey and Kelly Hilliard’s latest project – a three-storey wreck of a home cut into the Sandgate hillside – has been a labour of love for the couple, who wanted to preserve as much of the original...

Off the Scale

With soaring ceilings, contemporary décor and the most beautiful views across the Kentish countryside, Bayham Hall’s restoration has allowed the building’s original features to shine through whilst providing an enviably spacious family home for owners Jaime and Justin Cooke.  [showhide...

The Forever Plants

Jo Arnell explains what makes succulents such strong survivors. Technically, a succulent is any plant with thick, fleshy (succulent) water storage organs. Succulents store water in their leaves, stems, or roots, so they can go for long periods without needing...

Join Our Club

We explore the vast range of after-school activities on offer across schools in the South East. From tug of war to mindfulness colouring, there's no shortage of options. [showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] Dulwich Prep Cranbrook At Dulwich Prep...

Green and Pleasant

Childhood memories and favourite holiday haunts are the inspiration behind Karen and Rafe Easter’s charming family home. It’s difficult to believe just how much of England’s green and pleasant land lies a mere hour’s train journey from the capital, and...

Too Cool for School

The colourful history behind Juliet Maingay-Cooper and Jake Mintrim’s Hastings home, part of a mansion built by eminent Victorian travel writer Augustus Hare, saw it once serve as a convent and school before its current incarnation as a chic and...

Late Bloomers

Sue Whigham gives her tips for glorious autumn colour.  A few years ago a group of us went to have lunch at Gravetye Manor, home to the Victorian gardener, William Robinson. Robinson bought the Elizabethan house and about 200 acres in...

Fairground attraction

When Laurie and Sol bought a derelict listed building in St Leonards they’d never done a renovation before, but with boundless resourcefulness they have created an unforgettable family home. All the houses that feature in this magazine have required leaps of...

Planting the seed

Gardening is good for everyone’s wellbeing – and children who grow their own vegetables are far more likely to eat them. We hear from two schools where pupils grow their own. Dulwich PrepCranbrook Dulwich Prep Cranbrook has a Gardening Club...

School of Rock

Violins and flutes are all very well, but a great way to engage a wider swathe of young people with music is to allow them to play the style they most identify with. [showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] Claremont...

A fine vintage

Claire and Henry Warde take us inside Squerryes, the splendid historic home of the award-winning Kent sparkling wine . All houses have a vibe – but not many have one you can bottle. Squerryes, however, is not only the splendid 17th...

Educating the whole child

Our education writer Hilary Wilce explains the new – and ancient – philosophy which is coming back to the fore in British schools. A radical and exciting revolution is taking place in education and it’s one guaranteed to produce happier...

Going up to big school – ask the experts

The New Beacon - Mike Piercy, Headmaster How involved should the child be in the choice of upper school?  Involved yes, but not the ultimate decision-maker. Often, a child will be influenced by where his/her friends are going, which again should not...

Meet the matrons (or house parents as they are now called)

Boarding can be a wonderful experience, producing independent young people, ready to go out into the world – but the prospect can be daunting, so who better to ask for advice about it than matron? (sorry, house parent) [showhide more_text="READ...

The life scientific

In every aspect of life, science is more important than ever – and schools are rising to the challenge. Just as technology is now involved with every aspect of life, the school subjects that used to be considered the preserve...

Heal Headaches

Henrietta Norton explains how a holistic approach to your health and wellbeing can help to ease problem headaches. A headache is one way your body can tell you that something is out of balance – whether this is a psychological...

Water retention in Pots

Get water-saving savvy with Sue Whigham’s tips for keeping your pots’ occupants happy, healthy and hydrated this summer. The weather is like a yo-yo. Temperatures soar, then the following day it is overcast and drab – now, as we speak,...

Open House

Interior architect Susie Pfeiffer has breathed contemporary life into an old farm building, whilst celebrating its original features, in her incredible barn conversion. After many happy years in a barn they had converted into a family home, interior architect Susie...

Hidden beauty

Just a stone’s throw from the heart of Tunbridge Wells, a sensitively renovated  Georgian townhouse has become a downsizing couple’s secluded sanctuary. This elegant Georgian townhouse has to be approached on foot, because it is tucked down a narrow leafy...

The Outbuilding

Journalist Amy Maynard’s effortlessly chic converted outbuilding is the result of her ‘warehousey, not twee’ vision for a holiday rental that is a home away from home. The Danes call it hygge – meaning the feeling of contentment that comes...

Pattern Repeat

Just along the coast from Margate, with views out over Westgate-on-Sea’s sandy seafront, Hamilton Lodge was chosen by its current owners as the perfect foil to the bustle of London, making it the ideal weekend retreat. Everything you’ve ever read...

Points of interest

Looking for a horticultural day out with a difference? Explore WT’s pick of glorious gardens, garden centres and nurseries, each offering something a little unique. Garden Style Run by garden designer and plantsman Tony Howard and interior designer Sebastian Haywood,...

Fern Times

Sue Whigham marvels at these most ancient of plants, which were around before the dinosaurs and still have a lot to offer gardeners now. You always learn something from being out in the garden and this morning I heard from...

Make History

Part of the Leeds Castle estate, Battel Hall has been given a makeover by interior designer Francesca Rowan-Plowden in keeping with its 14th century origins – and its 1930s party heyday. Anyone with a penchant for the roaring Twenties is...

Light and Space

When a seaside house long-coveted by art director Clare Clarkson came onto the market, she jumped at the chance to rework its interior to create an open-plan home, perfect for her large extended family. [showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"]...

An edible paradise

Jo Arnell tells us how to make a productive garden beautiful with deliciously attractive plants. There are a couple of boring old phrases that hover, Jiminy Cricket-like, in my ear when I’m plotting out my vegetable garden: ‘cut your coat...

A Year of Wellness – The home front

From plastic oceans to record air pollution, the headlines would have us believe that we’re on course to leave this planet in a bit of a mess. Eminé Rushton believes that there’s still hope – and that our homes are the best...

A cocktail of grandeur

Will and Nick live in a one-bedroom flat, decorated in glorious palatial style (and have great parties…) Above an antiques shop in the picture postcard village of Alfriston sits a very special home indeed. The moment the door opens to...

Print perfect

Textile designer Molly Mahon and her husband Rollo have created a family home and thriving business in a cottage in the Ashdown Forest. Textile designer Molly Mahon’s woodsman’s cottage is tucked along a wooded lane on the edge of the...

Holidays in Sussex

Welcome to one of northern Europe’s best surviving Medieval landscapes. The south east of England is a pleasant land of plenty; green and luscious, criss-crossed with sunken droveways and cut through by the steep-sided little streams known in this part...

Kent College – An Outstanding Independent School

An outstanding independent school for boys and girls aged 0 - 18 Kent College offers care and education for boys and girls aged 0 - 18. Whether you are looking for wrap around care in our nursery or studying the...

Exciting year ahead as buyers recognise Church View’s unique charm

This year looks set to be another fantastic one at Church View, Dandara’s beautiful development in the heart of Tenterden, Kent. Since its launch in October 2017, an ever-increasing number of buyers have discovered the unique combination of traditional Kentish...

House and garden

With a skilled eye for uniting inside with out, interior designer Lisa Evans has made a High Weald cottage into a sophisticated home. [showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] Using nature as an inspiration for interior design is appealing; many...

Material World

Mix a touch of medieval with a helping of Georgian – and throw in some thoroughly modern touches. The result? A unique family home perfect for 21st century living. Tucked away in a pretty Kentish village, The Den has been...

Elegant imperfection

A textile conservator and an antique dealer combined to create a home where patina is prized. There is cold – as in chilly – and then there is cool. The Tunbridge Wells home of textile conservator Charlotte Casadéjus is definitely...

Winter’s promise

The days are lengthening and Jo Arnell is getting excited for the new gardening year. [showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] The light is slowly streaming back and I’m beginning to get excited for the spring. It’s usually a false...

Natural wisdom with Sophie Parker

Sophie Parker is the founder of Betony and Sage, creating organic scented candles, incense, room mists and smudge sticks to keep your spaces (rooms and head...) naturally clear and fresh. Sophie is a keen environmental conservationist, passionate about the natural...

Sport outside the box

Not all kids love the classic team and gender-assigned games, so forward-thinking schools are introducing different activities to inspire a lifelong love of exercise. [showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] Dulwich Prep Cranbrook recognises that team sport is not for...

Seeds of hope

The days are short, damp and dark, but Jo Arnell doesn’t care – she’s got her head deep in the seed catalogues. As soon as the last Christmas card is in the recycling, or even before, I am flicking through...

Cranbrook School

Address: Cranbrook School Waterloo Road, Cranbrook Kent TN17 3JDTelephone number: 01580 711800Registrar: Andrea BakerAdmissions email: registrar@cranbrook.kent.sch.ukSchool website:www.cranbrookschool.co.uk Cranbrook School is a mixed state grammar school with 842 pupils aged 11 -18 years, including 234 boarders. For its first 400 years...

Marlborough House School

Address: Marlborough House School, High Street, Hawkhurst, Cranbrook, Kent, TN18 4PYTelephone number:01580 753555.Registrar:Mrs E HouchinAdmissions email:registrar@marlboroughhouseschool.co.ukSchool website:www.marlboroughhouseschool.co.uk Marlborough House School is an independent Preparatory School situated in Hawkhurst in beautiful countyside on the Kent/Sussex border. The School is fully co-educational...

Stairway to heaven

A gloomy 1930s chapel has been brilliantly converted into a light-drenched modern townhouse. Back in 2011, when Ian and Lisa decided to make the move from Tunbridge Wells to Hastings, they had an offer accepted on an old pub which...

Gothic glamour

Cinematic, dramatic, palatial... it’s hard to know where to start describing the bold interior style of this historic building and family home, inspired by the films of Jean Cocteau – and Hammer horrors. It was Valentine’s Day when fashion designer,...

Restore Your Feminine Wellness

As a result of childbirth, and the natural aging process, experiencing looseness, dryness, and other symptoms in your vaginal area is common. The side effects of which can be diminished physical sensation during intercourse and urinary incontinence. Stress incontinence (releasing...

Keeping it real

Ditch the plastic says Jo Arnell and decorate your home with boughs of real holly (and other lovely things). Our Christmas decoration box is full, we’re wading through clutter and I really do want to cut back on plastic and...

Shining in the shade

It’s not all about the sunny spots – Sue Whigham celebrates the beauty of the darker parts of the garden. There has been a garden at the Inner Temple in London since the 12th century and mediaeval papers record an orchard...

Let the grasses grow

Not just something dull that needs endless mowing Sue Whigham exhalts the subtle effects of feature grasses in borders and for striking autumn colour. In 1871 William Morris travelled down from London to see a house near Lechlade and fell...

Dahlias, darling!

Sue Whigham celebrates and investigates the most joyous of late bloomers. Whether the name ‘dahlia’ was bestowed by the great Carl Linnaeus himself – the Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist who formalised ‘binomial nomenclature’, the modern system of naming organisms –...

Taking stock

It’s not the end of the gardening year, says Jo Arnell, but time to look back on the seasons gone by and plan for the next ones. November is a great month to reflect on the growing year gone by....

The new kitchen mood

Whether you prefer a country feel, or a more contemporary vibe, there is a fresh new mood in kitchen design, packed with great practical ideas. Trends in kitchens move much more slowly than in other areas of the house. Not...

Recipe for your perfect kitchen

Putting in a new kitchen is very exciting – but with so many choices to make, it can be daunting. So we’ve asked expert kitchen designers for practical advice on how to ensure you make the very most of your...

Personal space

A converted malthouse, with soaring ceilings, provides ample growing room for Rachel Ford and her family. Destiny, chance, karma or plain old coincidence… it’s interesting how some things in life just happen to fall mysteriously into place at just the...

Bold and beautiful

With a background in set designing, event styling and painter-decorating, Annemarie St Vincent Farr has transformed a Victorian terrace into something extraordinary [showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] Annemarie St Vincent Farr likes to make things. Whether it’s from her...

Cool yule

Giving Christmas a contemporary rethink, with Scandi styling in a brilliantly renovated 1950s beach house. As you head out across Romney Marsh towards the sea, Rye’s medieval citadel is the most prominent view on the skyline. Along the coast is...

Fronting up

Take pride in your front garden, says Sue Whigham, and the whole neighbourhood will thank you (gnomes optional...) A few weeks ago I was early for an appointment in Canterbury. It was raining hard. To fill in half an hour...

Grass roots

It’s that time of year when you suddenly notice your lawn is not at its Wimbledon best – time for expert advice. No matter how much you love gardening, there is one job you really shouldn’t try and do yourself: fix...

In full bloom

Jennifer Stuart-Smith of Blooming Green shares her expert knowledge on how to start your own cutting garden and fill your house with flowers Nothing gives a house a lift like vases of fresh flowers – there’s a reason interiors stylists...

Animal magic

Creating a pond in your garden will bring in wonderful wildlife says Sue Whigham The big chill of February and March were very unkind to my lovely little water lily (Pygmaea rubra) that has spent eight years in a large...

Late bloomers

The roses may be over, but don’t despair, says Jo Arnell, there are plenty of plants to bring colour to the borders yet It’s easy to think that the garden is on the way out this month. The early summer...

Home on the farm

It’s often said, by the owners of very grand houses, that they are not so much the owners of a property but more its custodians. For those of us of a romantic nature, the same could be said for any...

Picture perfect

One of the wonderful things about East Sussex is that as soon as you think you know the place, you will quickly realise that you don’t know it at all. Nestled at the bottom of that lane, the one you drive...

The mother of reinvention

Sassy Luke cites her two big interior loves as “the ridiculous and the sublime”. That’s her approach to the wonderfully idiosyncratic paintings, etchings, icons, greetings cards and cushions she makes. But it’s also true of her home. The Georgian flat...

A Passage from India

A bona fide legend of British interior design, Sasha Waddell has embarked on a charitable project designing beautiful textiles which will benefit impoverished children in Delhi – and are used to glorious effect throughout her own home. As soon as...

The House of Many Words

As Hastings launches its very first literary festival, we visit the extraordinary home of a theatrical collective where the house itself is an inspiration and performance space. Some of the most celebrated houses in the world have become such, not just...

Big is Beautiful

Sue Whigham rejoices in the splendour of plants with outrageously large leaves It was serendipitous that we discovered that Blenheim was to be closed for two days recently, as we had to put our visit off and decide on a...

Portrait of a Garden – Great Dixter

Jo Arnell shares her impressions of a year at Great Dixter, one of the great gardens of England, inspired by a new tribute by esteemed photographer Julian Anderson Everchanging, always interesting, often breathtaking, Great Dixter is a fascinating place to...

God’s acre

Every house has a story – but it’s very rare to find one that feels like a story in itself. With this dwelling, in the south east corner of Kent, even before you turn into the gravel drive that slopes...

House of scarves

Textile designer and pattern maker, Melanie Laslett, has transformed a 19th century fisherman’s cottage in Hastings into a light and airy home peppered with mid-century modern finds. It was William Morris, who said “Have nothing in your house that you...

Good Garden Bugs

Early summer is the time for maximum growth in the garden. The new stems and leaves on our plants, plumped out by rain, fertilisers and human kindness are luscious – and irresistibly delicious to some of our garden visitors. Pesky...

Sing! – St Paul’s Cathedral School

An insight into St Paul's Cathedral School along with the unique school life – and opportunities – of a St Paul’s chorister. We talk to a member of staff, a pupil and a parent. Member of staff: Jaco Brand, Deputy Head...

City slickers or country mice?

Of course, children themselves don’t question their surroundings. They accept either trees or tower blocks as completely normal. But to parents it can be an agonising choice, and in our part of the world there are many families who have...

Centre stage: Manor House School

We talk to Teresa Williams, Head of Drama at Manor House School about the benefits of studying drama. At Manor House School, we pride ourselves on our all-inclusive approach to drama. We believe that drama is for all and that...

Centre stage: St Catherine’s

Studying drama enriches a young person in many ways beyond the glory of the curtain call. We talk to Sally Gallis, Head of Drama and Alice Phillips, Headmistress at St Catherine's Drama plays an important part in life at St...

Start right

A child's first steps in education – even before they start school – can set them up for the years to come, and there are interesting new ideas how to approach this crucial stage.  We talk to Reigate St Marys and Dulwich...

10 things I wish I’d known when my kids were young…

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. With the wisdom of looking back, we’d all be perfect parents. Now that I’ve had the chance to watch my children grow up, navigate through university, embark on their careers, find partners and start their...

Park Life

A stunning Georgian townhouse, next to a royal palace, combines modern flair with sublime elegance. It is hard to beat the elegance of a large Georgian house. We love them because they tap into something deep within us; a naturally...

A Slice of Heaven

She has a shop called In House Junkie – and we’re finding Samantha Bruce’s Tunbridge Wells house very hard to resist. The devil is in the detail as the saying goes. But in Samantha and Dougie Bruce’s house the details...

Scents of spring

Even before your garden is in full bloom it can be heavenly scented says Jo Arnell It seems positively greedy to expect flowers to be fragrant at this time of the year – a glimpse of colour is treat enough...

Interiors notes from a stylist

Blogger and micro influencer Sara Delaney of Notes from a Stylist shares home-styling tips from her cleverly updated Victorian house in a dream location in the Surrey Hills. Artists seek the north light: a pure, pale reflected light that is...

The rebirth of cool

Houses by the seaside always have a special atmosphere. It might be the marine light and big skies, or perhaps it’s the sense of finality to the view, knowing that nothing will ever replace the seascape that ebbs and flows...

Keep calm and carry on (revising)

Exams are coming up fast, and there will be many households where tensions are running high about revision – when, where and how much? But psychologists have discovered that many traditional revision techniques don’t work at all. High on that...

Seed the day

Sue Whigham celebrates the spring joy of swapping and sewing seeds I’m kicking myself for not making the effort to go to Seedy Sunday in Hove last weekend. It was the thought of a long journey on a wet and...

Cool veg for warmer days

It’s the moment Jo Arnell has been waiting for since October – time to get going in the veggie patch It’s all about to take off in the vegetable garden and the first of the summer harvests are just around...

Family favours

The Weald of Kent is a very special part of the world, with its beautiful rolling landscape peppered with postcard-worthy villages – and an unusually high volume of dream homes in ideal family proportions. This house is one of them....

Jobs to do in April

Spring is the time for investment gardening, so the more effort you put in now, the less you’ll have to do later in the season. There ought to be a saying for it - a weed pulled today keeps thousands...

Coastal haven

This old coastguard’s cottage is gloriously free of all those corny seaside decor clichés thanks to interior architect Marta Nowicka’s sophisticated vision. If it’s not wall-to-wall tongue-and-groove it will be the pots of beach stones and assorted weather-beaten flotsam and jetsam...

Pots of love

Jo Arnell shows how easy – and enjoyable – it is to make a Mother’s Day treat for mum yourself. The garden centres are packed full of springtime loveliness, much of it already made up into generic containers in readiness...

New England Style Beach House

Converting a tired old weatherboard cabin into a spacious coastal retreat, Atlanta Bartlett and Dave Coote were sure of one thing - that it would end up pale and interesting... This talented husband and wife team are behind the company...

Hollywood Glamour

This Hastings house is a glorious tribute to high fashion, Hollywood’s golden era and – of course – Mr Elvis Presley (thank you very much...) A notice hanging in the kitchen of this Victorian terrace says it all: ‘Some girls are...

Dream Family Home

Through the invaluable help of a property finder, media guru Caroline Kyriazis tracked down a spacious Victorian terrace in Tunbridge Wells with all the period qualities she and her husband had been searching for. With a love of DIY and...

Kaleidoscope of Colour

Central Saint Martins graduate Amy Exton’s terraced Margate home is a riot of clashing pattern, vivid paint and leopard print in many guises – a love of which she lavishly pours into her work as a set designer.    ...

Savoir-flair

After years of living abroad, Mike and Caroline decided to move back to England. It was to be a permanent move, but they still travel extensively and so needed to find a place that would be easy to extricate themselves...

Fresh Learning

Chinthurst School What are they? A ‘Forest School’ is an outdoor learning programme which originated in Scandinavia. It brings tremendous benefits to children and the sessions, run by qualified Forest School practitioners, develop confidence, creativity and self-esteem. It is also great...

Let There Be Light

While the words ‘barn conversion’ sound very romantic, the resulting homes can be a bit problematical – no longer a barn, but not quite a house, with furniture sitting slightly oddly within. Dark, oddly proportioned rooms in unexpected places, windows...

Comfort and Joy

It can sometimes take a while to find a rewarding occupation, especially one that has to fit around a busy family, is both creatively satisfying and enables a connection with people. [showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] But when the stars...

The House on the Hill

Going round a house with the owners for this magazine is always a journey. How they came to live there, the changes they’ve made to tailor it for their needs, the lovely things they’ve collected along the way... Touring the...

A Touch Of Frost

We’re still dreaming about a visit to Sweden one December some years ago. The snow was piled high and this particular day was exceptionally beautiful with an intensely blue sky. We were attempting to get to the old school house...

Home to Shop

Craving a dramatic change from the stresses of London life, David Page and his partner, David Baker, chose to set up home – and shop – in Hastings Old Town. And they couldn’t be happier that they did. [showhide more_text="READ MORE"...

Nurture in November

Do you have a beauty regime? To call it a regime would be stretching it a little. I like to keep it simple, but there are a few things I swear by. If I’ve worn make up then I use a...

Award-Winning Mushroom House

Children often have dreams of making a magical space of their own, but it’s not often that they are able to make their dreams come true. Elsie Swanborough has been able to do just that, making the story of the...

Pancetta Pizza with Tuscan Kale, Parmesan and Chilli Oil

Preheat the oven to 250°C/480°F/gas mark 9 or as high as it will go. Place a pizza stone or an upside-down baking tray in the oven to heat up too. Get all your ingredients and equipment ready, including taking the...

Light and Bright Kitchen Inspiration

In need of some inspiration to revamp the heart of your home? Take a look at a few of our favourite light, bright kitchens to help you on your way to a brilliant new kitchen. California Styling [caption id="attachment_1582" align="aligncenter"...

The wonderful world of WACI

Toby Payne-Cook, Head of Science at Marlborough House School, discusses the Weald Award for Creativity and Innovation Jobs that exist today may not exist tomorrow and as paths to careers become less linear and the workplace demands increasingly broader skillsets,...

How Do Schools Quantify Success?

Vicky Ellis, Head at Banstead Prep How does Banstead Prep quantify success? I strongly believe that success within school is about far more than exam results, it encompasses everything we do. I subscribe to Winston Churchill’s definition of success: “Success...

Any Old Iron?

“Annyauld-iern! annyauld… iern!” The scrap metal man would bellow from his horse-drawn cart, as he slowly trawled up our street collecting old water tanks, broken bedsteads and scrap metal. When I was little (in the nineteenth century, by the sound...

St Benedicts Victorian B&B

Over time, Paul Oxborrow and Stephen Groves have succeeded in buying each floor of a grand nineteenth century St. Leonards house. Staying true to the period of its construction, Paul and Stephen have completely refurbished its four floors and now run several rooms...

Artists’ Model Home

Sue and Dave Donkin’s converted farm building, tucked away down an idyllic Kentish country lane, offers the perfect space for the couple to pursue their artistic interests. You know you’ll be in for an interesting visit when the front garden of...

Creatives’ Rye Home

Backing straight onto the River Rother with uninterrupted views across the salt marshes, the unique collection of buildings that creative director and film-maker John Carver and branding and personal curator Anna Carloss call home are testament to the couple’s creative...

Karen Birchwood’s Gallery and Home

Artist Karen Birchwood has turned her own living space into a gallery – the ideal place for prospective buyers of her paintings to visualise the artworks in a home setting.[showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] Karen’s Victorian cottage is familiar,...

Lavender’s Blue

Lavandula (common name lavender) is a genus of forty-seven known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae, and surely must be one of the best known and versatile plants in the world. I expect most of you know...

Some Like it Hot

The garden can be a sultry place in August; it’s often warm and humid, sometimes thundery, but (fingers crossed) it can also be hot and dry. The light is different at the end of the season and the fresh, clear...

What’s New?

A four minute walk from Victoria Station takes you to Eccleston Square, a wondrous three acre garden tended by Roger Phillips for the past twenty-four years. Roger is not only a long term resident of the square but a complete...

Feeling Bored?

It’s the summer holidays – when we tell our children and anyone else who cares that they get bored by the second day. If it’s true, and I’m not convinced it is, then it’s a new thing. I wasn’t a...

Instagram Interior

Having decided to swap London life for a home in the countryside, Lucinda Mitra took to Instagram to document the refurbishment of her new family home. After rapidly amassing over 30,000 follows, Lucinda’s account, nest_twenty_eight, is now an online destination...

Gorgeous Seaside Home

Since opening her first store in the late 1970s, Helen Robinson has consistently been ahead of the game when it comes to cool locations for her to share her effortless sense of style. Her current project, SHOP in St. Leonards...

Creative Healing

What is art therapy? Children often find it difficult to express their feelings. At this highly formative period of their lives, the behaviours that they develop will have an impact on the whole of their future lives. When a child...

Stylish Seaside Home

Karen Hahnel’s apartment is a stunning example of how to successfully employ proportion and scale. She has cleverly combined design classics with online finds to create an enviably stylish seaside home.[showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] From the moment you...

Spacious Family Home

When a former St John Ambulance station in Rye came up for sale, it took interior architect Marta Nowicka only three hours to decide to take on its renovation. After removing endless partitioning and flattening a 1970s extension, she has...

Extra Help

Tutoring is a mixed blessing. In my time I’ve done plenty of it – teaching all day in school and then coaching children privately from other schools in the evening because I had a young family and there was never...

Lawnmower Parents

Through my work as a life coach, I know a young woman who is a well-qualified City lawyer with a good job and excellent prospects. But she is unhappy. She wants to be a lawyer in the arts, she told...

Meet The Heads

Gareth Doodes MA Hons Headmaster of Dover College Favourite subject when you were at school I absolutely love History. My imagination as a child was vivid, and I had an exceptional teacher who made history something interesting and something relevant. A love...

The Great Escape

Katherine Gomes decided to take a year out before heading off to university. She explains why she made the choices she did and how her year has worked out so far What made you take a year out before starting university?...

Road Trip

Marlborough House School What type of school trips do pupils go on? Typical educational day trips range from The National Gallery, Battle Abbey, Eastbourne Jazz Festival, Olympic Park, Richborough, The Science Museum, Herstmonceux Observatory and every year our Year 8 children visit the Houses of Parliament....

The Makings of a Garden

It was 1996 when we first saw the garden, and it was love at first sight. There was a paddock for our donkeys and an orchard behind the house with old lichen covered apple trees. And many of them are...

Plant Therapy

It’s official. Gardening is good for you. How do I know? Well apart from a lifetime’s gardening (and you could say that gardeners are biased) there is significant evidence from organised research that gardening is one of the best, and...

Twin Peaks

In some families, things seem to go in twos. When Susie McLean told her older sister that the flat directly underneath her weekender on the West St Leonards sea front had come up for sale, Caroline Egan jumped at the...

War On Weeds

Early summer is the time of maximum growth. The soil is warm and the danger of frost has passed. Everything in the garden should be rosy, except that sometimes it isn’t. One of the main issues that can sap our...

A Treat in Store

Picture the perfect getaway. Where do you fancy? Paris? Rome? Or perhaps somewhere exotic and further away? Well, yesterday I might have been imagining a faraway place too, but today I want to stay in Rolvenden Layne. I only live...

The Home of ‘Posh’ Storage

Fuelled by a shared passion for block printing, Trudi Savin and her friend Sophie Morton created Yateley Papers. Trudi’s own home in Surrey is a showcase for their ever evolving range of beautiful storage solutions and accessories.[showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ...

Plants That Heal

The Chelsea Physic Garden has been tucked behind a wall in the Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea, SW3 since it was founded in 1673. It’s an ancient botanical garden with a unique microclimate due to its proximity to the Thames...

Bright Contemporary Home

Seeing the potential in a project that had been overlooked by other potential buyers, and working to a strict budget, Ali Kittermaster has remodelled a 1950s bungalow in the heart of a Kent village into a bright and surprisingly roomy...

Intriguing Historic Farmhouse

Anyone who has ever read The Secret Garden will understand the magic and intrigue that can be conjured up by a sprawling, ancient building surrounded by an equally fantastical garden. Immersed within three acres of glorious gardens, Peter and Jane’s historic family...

Made to Measure

For those that don’t know, how did you get into gardening? Both sets of my grandparents were very keen gardeners. My paternal grandparents had a large garden and I would spend hours following my grandfather around. He taught me how...

Course Work

Like gardens themselves, often a gardener needs a little nourishment before their real talent blooms into life. Whether you’re an experienced gardener interested in learning something new or a complete novice who just wants to know where to begin, there...

Vegetables With Meals in Mind

The soil is warming and it’s time to sow some vegetables. This year I’m trying to tailor the crops I grow to what – and how much – we actually eat. I’m sure that I’m not alone in suffering from...

Wreck Of The Week Remarkable Refurb

Originally built to house the poor in the nineteenth century, Cheyneys Almshouse is now home to Fortnum & Mason in-house milliner Adrian Howard and his partner Sven. After stumbling across it in The Guardian’s ‘Wreck of the Week’ feature and...

Healthy Home

Household Cleaning Products - Commercial household cleaning products are absolutely riddled with chemical nasties. Phthalates are commonly used in air fresheners and dish soap, and have been linked with asthma and neurodevelopmental problems. Ammonia is used in polishing agents, chlorine is...

New England Seaside Styling Comes to Camber

If you've ever wondered how to give your home a beautiful seaside look, this is how it's done. This 1970s bungalow has been transformed into a nautical New England style holiday home, by the inspired owner, Nicola. Camber, famed for its long...

Home of Victorian Curiosities

The fabulously curated Winkenhurst Manor, near Heathfield in Sussex has one marvellously curious room, leading into another. The owners, who work together in the antiques and interior design business, have made an art form out of creating unique displays of collectables...

Early Bird Gardening

Jo Arnell gets ahead this month in preparation for a productive year in the garden. In the quiet of late winter I’m easily pleased by the faintest signs of life – it fills my heart to see a bare branch...

A Spacious Villa

Kent houses can be deceptive. Many of those that appear to be classical Georgian and Regency structures like the ones that line the high streets of towns like Tenterden and Cranbrook are actually, upon closer inspection, much older than those...

Exquisite Design in a Victorian Hastings Home

  Retail brand consultant James, stylist David and their Boston Terrier, Cooper, moved into their Victorian property in the heart of Hastings Old Town just one year ago. In that time they have completely transformed the interior with their bold...

Let it Shine

Don’t we all long for a conservatory, whether it’s one of those gorgeous concoctions displayed at the Chelsea Flower Show that we look longingly into or something more down to earth. And conservatories get plenty of use all year round...

My Cool Kitchen

We take a look at this fresh and inspiring kitchen design book from the author of the ‘My Cool’ series and co-author of George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces... My Cool Kitchen – a style guide to unique and inspirational kitchens – is a breath...

Clever Kitchen Storage

No one likes a cluttered house or having to hunt high and low to find what they need. Thankfully, there are now a host of clever storage options available, for every room in the house. Here we show you some...

From Shelter To Sanctuary

After a hectic couple of months, January is the perfect time to stop and reassess. Many begin their New Year diet and exercise regime, to cleanse and invigorate the mind and body for the year ahead. Often, however, our homes...

Arts and Crafts Roots

Geoff and Annie Waring had a history of taking on major projects and with their combined artistic talent they have created an incredibly stylish, light and contemporary family home but one that still pays a respectful nod to the original...

Gardening Resolutions

Here we go again – out with the old and in with the new and all the happy resolutions are sitting there looking shiny and achievable. Hopes are high and all is ‘plans and perusing’. I’ve been looking out of...

Farmhouse with African Heartbeat

Through her inventive and unique approach to interior design, Alexis Wylie has sensitively updated her ancient farmhouse to create a quirky, yet organised, family space. The Wylie family's delightful Bodiam farmhouse is a breath of fresh air. The eye catching...

Historic Family Home

This house, down a rough farm track near Staplehurst, is not a show home, neither is it a designer home full of the latest interior trends. It’s not bling and doesn’t have electric gates with an intercom where visitors have...

The Wallpaper Designer’s Home

Wallpaper and fabric designer Louise Body and her husband Jonny's Hastings home is testament to ten years of ‘doing it themselves’ and to Louise’s incredible creative talent. They wouldn’t have it any other way. Their home reveals a passion for...

Deck the Halls

Traditions surrounding mid-winter celebrations have been wreathed in evergreen foliage down through the ages. The Romans decorated their villas with evergreens to mark the winter festival of Saturnalia, the Pagans celebrated the winter solstice with holly and ivy and the...

The Quirky Townhouse

Anthropology, Arabic, art history… the lady of this house is erudite, well-read and widely travelled and it shows at every turn. Being a landlord can be a stressful business, especially when the building you are renting out is a stunning,...

Industrial Glamour Comes to St Leonards

The regeneration of St Leonards is hitting the news. Stuart and Sarah Taylor's house, a classic redbrick late Victorian villa with decorative plasterwork, is an excellent example of the kind of properties which attract couples with young families to decamp...

Gorgeous Goodnestone Park

Built in 1704 by the current owner's ancestor, Sir Brook Bridges, Goodnestone is a truly lovely Palladian country house enjoying that uniquely Georgian combination of welcome, warmth and elegance. Jane Austen was a regular visitor and wrote of the ‘great...

Francesca Rowan-Plowden’s Beach House

The interior design work of Ms Francesca Rowan-Plowden is in need of serious celebration. In Field View at Winchelsea Beach she has created an idyllic beach holiday home.[showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] Every month, when I walk into yet...

From a Tiny Acorn

On the first day of college we were instructed that the only book we would need at this stage was The Hillier Manual of Trees and Shrubs. We were pretty horrified to see that it didn’t have any pictures. But...

Californian Styling Comes to East Sussex

Hollywood inspired glamour has arrived in Hastings, courtesy of Alexa and Sebastien and their Chaletfornia home. Following a huge renovation project, the couple have succeeded in creating an interior as stunning as the East Sussex views which inspired them to...

Words of Wisdom

Dr. Vadgama talks straight about braces... You offer adult braces and orthodontics, what are the benefits of these? Adult braces and orthodontics allow us to treat patients who have always wanted straight teeth, but previously thought they had left it too...

Whether the Weather

Back in July I was trying to count the swifts swooping over Wye – five, six, seven. They moved so fast that it was very difficult. But just a few days later there were none and Dave King, the retired...

Ultra Modern Scandi Styling

After several sunny years downunder Jenna and Andrew didn’t want to leave the light and airy mood they loved in Australian houses behind when they moved back to the UK – so they re-created it in Hersham.[showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ...

Creative Home in Hastings

With inspiring views looking out to sea and glorious opened-up spaces within, Ginny and MJ have made a commanding terrace house in Hastings as harmonious as the choirs they run.[showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] There’s something rather charming, and...

Contemporary Coach House Conversion

Mix together an interior decorator and a bespoke kitchen designer and you have the perfect recipe for creating a 21st century home from a Victorian coach house.[showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] However hard we try to think outside the...

Country Home Filled With Natural Light

In an area famed for its atmospheric, timber houses, Mark and Tara were hard-pushed to find one that provided the light-filled home they were after. After a year of searching and a year of negotiating, they finally moved into this...

Country Cottage with Alpine Inspired Interior

There can be few weatherboarded cottages in the Weald of Kent that offer visitors such a welcome and refreshing surprise. Forget low ceilings and dark corners, or chintzy, rustic styling, and prepare yourselves for a trip to the Alps.[showhide more_text="READ...

Opening Up A Whole, Other World

Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame," once wrote P.G. Wodehouse, "the shifty hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is...

School Farms – Hadlow College

 How long has Hadlow had a school farm? Hadlow began running the Princess Christian Farm site over seven years ago, in partnership with Kent County Council, who own the land. What animals or crops do you have? Our farm animals...

How Boys and Girls Learn at Primary School Age

Neuroscience studies have for years revealed subtle differences in the rate at which certain regions of the brain develop in young boys and girls. These genetic distinctions are often used to explain why it is thought that language and communication...

Cut Above the Rest

Imagine floating serenely down rows of beautiful blooms, pausing every now and then to pick some perfect buds on long sturdy stems – then filling the house with delicately arranged vases of flowers. Just the thought of growing your own...

Meet The Heads – Jill Milner

What was your favourite subject at school and why? My favourite subject at school, by far, was English. I've always loved reading and have been fascinated by the power of words, either in text or on the stage, to transport...

Smugglers’ Haunt Becomes Rural Retreat

In the 18th century, Ingram House was a coaching inn and a favourite haunt of the infamous Hawkhurst Gang. Fortunately for its owners, Anthony and Simon, shoot-outs are a thing of the past. It is now a tranquil rural retreat,...

Broadening Horizons – Ed O’Connor

Does your school give equal weight to non-academic subjects? I am fortunate in that Sackville appreciates the importance of the creative arts in developing confidence and wellbeing. All students experience a wide range of Visual Arts, Drama, Music and Film...

Farmhouse Renovation

A childhood love of horses led Jenny and her husband Dave to look for a home near to where they stabled their horse in the Sussex High Weald. After much searching, they finally found the perfect project – transforming a...

The Cowdrey Cricketing Family’s Offham Home

Few things are as quintessentially English as cricket. The same could almost be said of the Old Rectory at Offham, with its ragstone gateway, sweeping gravel drive and classic Georgian facade. It’s the perfect setting for a period drama –...

Arts & Crafts Surrey Home

When Victoria and David left London for Surrey they had no idea that such a wonderful home was just around the corner, down a pretty leafy lane. An expansive Arts & Crafts house, with more than a touch of Betjeman...

Containing Your Joy

I don’t know if any of you have been down to Hanham Court Gardens near Bath. Julian and Isabel Bannerman, Chelsea Gold Medal winners and whose commissions include incredibly imaginative creations at Highgrove, bought the house, part of a glorious mediaeval...

Goudhurst Country Refurbished Retreat

Despite moving to London and starting a family, the Weald will always be home to Ben Parker. So, when he and his French wife, Perrine spotted a large Georgian farmhouse in need of refurbishment, a deal was struck and the...

Georgian Style Grand Design

Grand, imposing and seemingly a Georgian rectory, this family home in the heart of the High Weald is not what it seems. For, behind the rambling roses and historic facade lies a thoroughly modern house – built only 10 years...

We Talk to Kate Whyld…

Do you have a beauty regime? I don’t have a particular beauty regime (I’m very low maintenance!) but I always make sure that I take my make-up off at night and moisturise. I just use make-up remover wipes and any moisturiser...

From Blank Canvas to Family Home

Leaving behind an Arts and Crafts house to move nearer their boys’ school, the Smith family were faced with a huge, unfinished shell of a building – but one that was surrounded by wild-flower meadows and incredible rolling hills. This...

Country Lodge Guest House

Setting the scene has been Emma Clarke’s professional role for many years. So, when the opportunity arose to create her own, domestic show-stopper, she was more than qualified – as her magnificent home demonstrates.[showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] Very...

Small and Interesting

We couldn’t quite decide who was to get the sunflower seeds this morning. Us or the birds? The birds won but that was only because it was the Great Garden Birdwatch this weekend and sunflower seeds on the bird-table bring...

Signs of Spring

Nature is ultimately adaptable, however, winters are unpredictable, and there’s still time for a big freeze to stop everything in its tracks. Whatever the weather brings in the next few weeks, I’m always hopeful – watching the ground closely for...

The Stylish Family Home

After spotting the potential of this Victorian house near Camden Road in Tunbridge Wells, Justine Hodgson-Barker, an interior designer, and her husband James set about transforming it into a stylish yet functional family home.[showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] They...

Belvidere Place – Broadstairs Boutique B&B

When Jilly Sharpe left Peckham, south London, for Broadstairs, she needed a home and a way to make a living. Belvidere Place, a run-down and dilapidated Georgian building that had been neglected for 200 years, was to be her saviour...

Modern Styling in a 1920s Home

It is often said that ‘mother knows best’. In the case of this 1920s home in Dorking, Surrey, it would be hard to dispute this – especially when you discover that the mother in question is an award-winning artist and...

Restored Rustic Wealden Farmhouse

When Sarah and Dean made the decision to move to Kent from Hertfordshire, they agreed that they would only buy a house they both truly loved. When they found this 16th century Wealden farmhouse near Ulcombe, in need of restoration...

Sackville West Gardener’s Cottage in Sissinghurst

A gardener’s cottage built in the 1930s by Vita Sackville-West, which overlooks Sissinghurst Castle, makes a tranquil retreat for National Trust gardener Claire Abery, whose ‘make-do-and-mend’ approach is perfectly fitting for this former Land Girls’ billet.[showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS"...

Wonderful Whitstable Chalet

Francine Raymond’s house on Joy Lane in Whitstable is proof that the Arts and Crafts movement didn't come to an end in the early 20th century. An appropriate address for such a joyous home, this ‘chalet house’, built in 1906...

Beautiful Farmhouse and Wedding Venue

Rob, Caroline and family brought the Woolpack Hotel in Tenterden to life and since then, it has also won plaudits for its décor, which is no real surprise – Rob originally trained as an interior designer. So, with such obvious...

Lay Down Your Shears

Last week we were having a leisurely walk in Brockwell Park, an estate set out in the early nineteenth century, complete with mansion, walled gardens and huge greenhouses, and now a park bordered by Brixton and Tulse Hill in South...

Fisherman’s Cottage Turns Coastal Retreat

Linda Carter’s Hastings retreat has provided her and her family with a convenient coastal bolt hole, not too far from their main home in Kilndown. Filled with finds that she has tracked down at French brocantes over the years, Linda...

Spacious Family Farmhouse

Peter and Jilly Burnet’s spacious farmhouse has provided the couple with a glorious family home for over twenty years. Spread over three floors, this stunning beamed property has borne witness to many a party, celebration and even church fêtes.[showhide more_text="READ...

Brilliant Bulbs

A garden without spring bulbs is somehow a cheerless place; forget-me-nots and wallflowers definitely need a few bulbs bobbing above them and it really is the easiest way to inject some early colour into containers and borders. Planting bulbs is an...

Welcome Home

After coming to Goudhurst as a hop picker at 19, Suzanne Stobbs knew she’d love to return one day to live in the village. Now Suzanne and her husband Tim have found their perfect family home in an idyllic position...

Remarkable Renovation

When curtain maker Annette Poole decided to move from Battle to Hastings, she researched lots of properties before finding a hillside home to suit her family. After three years of renovation work, she has created a unique interior to reflect...

Whats Cooking at Holmewood House School?

Can you talk us through a typical lunchtime meal? Every day we offer: a healthy, traditional main course meal using fresh seasonal ingredients; homemade soup and rolls; a freshly prepared salad bar with a choice of protein; pasta or baked...

Minimalist Chapel Renovation

When Nick and Sonja walked into Goudhurst’s old disused Methodist Chapel they knew they could make something truly special from the 2,000 square feet of space bounded by solid Victorian brick and soaring Gothic windows. A year and a half...

Mynthurst Mansion – Victorian Splendour

After deciding to sell a home in Camberwell and let another in Canterbury, Dan and Chris made the decision to settle in a graceful apartment in an elegant Victorian house. A little over three years later, and after an extensive...

Strong Front

I’ve been driving up to London on the South Circular Road for about thirty years and, despite being not much fun, it gives you a chance to look at front gardens when you are sitting at endless sets of traffic...

New Build Home with Scandi and 60s Design

When Jenny and Doug Branson decided to make a move to Dorking they initially set their sights on Victorian properties. But for interior designer Jenny, a chance viewing of a new build property proved to be an irresistibly blank canvas.[showhide...

Novelist’s Charming Victorian Home

For twenty-six years Debbie Rix and her husband Tony have been evolving their generously proportioned Victorian home to suit the various stages of family life. Peaceful and calm, the beautiful gardens which surround the house now provide Debbie with the...

Vita Sackville-West’s Grandaughter’s Home

In light of the release of her new book Have You Been Good? Vanessa Nicolson shows Wealden Times around the house that was once owned by her grandparents, Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. Following a few alterations, Vanessa has created...

Monochrome Home – Remarkable Rebuild

After years of rural living, seasoned property renovators Catherine and Rupert decided to move their growing family to a spacious Victorian townhouse in the heart of Sevenoaks. After extensive modernisation, in a very short timeframe, they have succeeded in creating...

Informal Design

Classic herbaceous perennials, like Delphiniums and Geraniums have been gracing our gardens for centuries and have come to symbolise our ideas of high summer and of simpler times (those happy days when most of us lived in cottages and toiled...

Born Survivors

On a recent Friday afternoon it was pouring with rain as we drove through the sprawl of Camber, past the shooting ranges at Lydd and then turned off to Dungeness. The rain stopped just as we reached The Pilot, still...

Victorian Townhouse with a Modern Twist

After years of rural living, seasoned property renovators Catherine and Rupert decided to move their growing family to a spacious Victorian townhouse in the heart of Sevenoaks. After extensive modernisation, in a very short timeframe, they have succeeded in creating...

Harry Potter Jeweller’s Magical Home

When jeweller Catherine Hills and her family decided to relocate from the hustle and bustle of Islington to Tunbridge Wells they happened upon a Victorian villa tucked away down a peaceful street. Several years later, and with a wonderful new...

Luxury Coach House B&B

When Nina and Nick found Chilverbridge House, a stunning 17th century, Grade II-listed manor house with a semi-converted granary and coach house in Arlington, they knew it was exactly what they had been looking for. Over the last eight years...

Barn Conversion with Moorish Charm

Blending soaring ceilings with middle-eastern furniture finds, the success of Lorraine Kerr’s barn conversion lies in her ability to inject a little quirkiness into a traditional, beamed interior to create a stunning family home.[showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] Interiors...

Poultry SOS!

Red Mite This grim little pest is a curse for the poor chicken, coming out of the crevices in the house at night and feeding like a minute Dracula on the hens’ blood. Left unchecked it will kill your fowl...

Home From Home

Knowing I was to write a feature on boarding, I recently subjected my elder son to a viewing of Lindsay Anderson’s 1969 film If, a limited but not entirely unfaithful depiction of public school life in the 1960s and based upon...

Why Gardening Is Important For Your Children’s Health

This year my eldest daughter Chloe is going to try a tomato. I dare to hope that she may even like it. One thing’s for sure, it won’t be a shop-bought variety as she would never eat one of those!...

The Forever Family Home

When Jenny Tudor and her husband moved into their spacious double fronted Victorian house they knew they had found a home to settle in. After a few careful moderations this sizeable property is now perfectly suited to accommodate the couple’s...

Vibrant 60s Design Home

  Using her keen eye for vintage and unusual design, Sam, with the help of her husband Richard, has transformed her family’s award-winning sixties-built home into a haven for unique and fascinating finds.[showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"]   A...

Courtyard Cottage Open-Plan Living

When Christine and her partner Kevin decided to downsize they chose to design and tailor the perfect space to meet their new requirements. Through careful planning and a knack for maximising on space, they have transformed a small courtyard cottage...

Contemporary Gadget-Filled Home

When Katie and Richard yearned for a change from their 1960s family farmhouse, they embarked on an epic project to realise their dream home from scratch. Twenty-one months, and 35 tonnes of Turkish marble, later the couple have created a...

Natural Predators

Thank goodness, we have more insect ‘allies’ than pests. So why not abandon all those half used, half dried up containers of chemicals in the shed and work with our ‘allies’ to strike a healthy balance in the garden? Organic...

Leading Veg

If you’re pacing up and down indoors like a caged, vegetable growing tiger, eager to get out and onto the plot, there’s a chink of good news, because the light is coming back and there are quite a few crops...

The Home of Pickle Pie Gifts

Over a relatively short period of time, Sandra Dowse has grown her idea of creating personalised homewares and accessories into an incredibly successful online business with orders coming from all over the world. John Graham-Hart finds out how she and...

Port Lympne’s Dramatic Restoration

When John Aspinall acquired Port Lympne in the 1970s, he rescued the impressive mansion from decades of neglect. Flanked by endangered species on all sides, this grand building opened as a hotel and wedding venue in 2014, and offers a...

Artists’ Vibrant Hastings Home

When Anna Deacon and John Taylor decided to downsize, Hastings’s art scene lured them to the coast where they have transformed a hillside property using their enviably creative approach to interiors.[showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] Life, it seems, has...

The Christmas House – Tudor Restoration

After five years of painstaking restoration, chef, writer and photographer Alastair Hendy has succeeded in returning his Grade II listed 16th century merchant’s house in Hastings Old Town to its pared-back Tudor glory.[showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] Come with...

Pelham Hall – Opulent Burwash B&B

Inspired by the Charleston principle – to seek out only the most beautiful or interesting pieces to furnish their interior – Matthew Fox and his partner Chris have transformed a dilapidated antiques shop on Burwash High Street into an enviably...

Creative Couple Relocate to the Countryside

When creative London couple Roni and John decided to relocate to the country, they initially set their sights on a Kentish Georgian property. But once they’d happened upon a pretty 17th century cottage they knew they had found what they...

Strong Foundations

The garden is putting itself to bed for the winter and it’s up to you how much you want to help it do this; you can tidy up behind it, or leave it to its own devices as it sheds...

Little Treasures

Buds are already forming on the Sarcococcas ready to burst into flower just when it seems that nothing else will. And this small genus is really my Number 1 amongst winter treasures. It should be compulsory for all of us...

Seagulls & Stripes Hastings B&B

Following the birth of their first child, Jon and Sara decided they would like to return to England from Stockholm to begin a new life. Having always talked about starting their own business, the couple decided on Hastings to begin...

Beautiful Butterfly Cottage

Over the years Tina Atkins has turned her love of homemaking into a successful business, Liberty Bee. Taking inspiration from her travels across the UK and Europe, Tina has steadily grown her brand whilst maintaining a busy family lifestyle.[showhide more_text="READ...

Neat & Tidy

I think it was on a recent Gardeners’ Question Time that one of the panellists said that he was constantly being asked: ‘What do you find to do in the winter?’ As he said, he was busier then than in the...

Recycle Your Garden

To everything there is a season (‘turn, turn, turn’ – you’ll be singing that all day now, sorry). A time to live and a time to – let things softly and quietly decompose back into usefulness. This is the season...

Artist Luke Hannam’s Residence

When Luke Hannam and his wife Tess decided to relocate from their South London home to a sleepy village near the South Coast, they found the perfect place for their young family to grow and stumbled upon an ideal opportunity...

Triumphant Burton Home Restoration

When Louise Convert and her family bought their seaside home they’d already tackled the renovation of three local properties. The building they had settled on – a Burton, in a lovely secluded position – had been converted into three flats,...

Eat Well

Ruth Kitchener, Head of Food Technology at Sackville School, shares her secrets for encouraging pupils to develop their cookery skills At what age do children start to learn how to cook at Sackville School? Here all students study Food Technology...

Lidham Hill Farmhouse Near Rye

Sally and Rob yearned for a change of scenery, making the decision to move from bustling city to tranquil countryside. After a two year search, they finally found their dream home near Rye and embarked on a considerable renovation which...

Treasure Trove in Tenterden

Having downsized from a large Georgian property where they ran an award-winning bed and breakfast, Pippa and Mike Carter decided to move to a small cottage just down the road in order to buy a place in France. Having devoted...

Fantastic Eco Conversion

Vicky and James have converted a cluster of former farm buildings into a superb, eco-friendly 21st century family home that won them the Ashford Borough Council 2009 Design Award for Building Conservation.[showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] Over the 17th...

Fashion Insider Transforms Georgian Hastings Property

Fashion insider Lionel Copley’s home is testament to his unique eye for design. The Georgian property is the latest in a succession of transformative projects that Lionel has undertaken across Hastings Old Town as well as being a wonderful showcase...

Take it to the Next Level – Ashford School

Dr Marcus J. Allen FSB Higher Education & Careers Adviser, Ashford School How do you ensure that each student is guided towards the most fitting GCSE and A Level choices for their strengths? I am the school's specialist Higher Education &...

A Question of Choice

The Government's drive to raise standards has increased the number of core subjects students have to study, so there are in fact fewer GCSE choices to make. Nevertheless, for parents new to this game, talk of options, blocks, EBaccs and...

Out & About

Go Ape, Bedgebury Forest, nr Goudhurst Go Ape offers action-packed forest days out. Experience a 2-3 hour Tree Top Adventure where you'll fly down zip-wires, leap off a Tarzan Swing and tackle a range of obstacles whilst enjoying some of...

What is an Academy?

It is relatively rare that a policy of one government is so enthusiastically embraced by its successor as has been that of academy schools. Launched by the Blair government in 2000, academy schools are now the apple of Mr Gove's...

A Portrait of War

On a bright desert day in June, 1918, a young Icarus fell from the timeless skies of Egypt and in those few short moments of his fall was transformed from a joyful and charismatic son, brother, friend and comrade into...

Adult Education – Catching Up

The Weald of Kent Computer Club Dates: Monthly, throughout the year Location, time & cost: New Village Hall, Biddenden, 7.30-9.30pm, guest members £3 per evening: free on first visit, full members £10 annually and £2 per evening The club is...

Victorian Grange Transformation

Philippa MacKinnon has employed her enviable organisational skills to sensitively transform her Victorian grange from a dilapidated space, untouched since the 1960s, to a chic and functional family home with ingenious storage solutions.[showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] On the...

Vibrant Georgian Home of Ragged Rose Furnishings

Keen to embark on a new challenge, Dawn Rose has capitalized on her experience as former head of Home Buying for both Selfridges and House of Fraser to launch her own homeware and soft furnishings business, Ragged Rose, which she...

Interior Designer’s Tunbridge Wells Home

Phoebe Oldrey and her husband Miles knew that they wanted to move out of London, but were adamant that, unlike many Londoners, they didn’t want to ‘escape to the country’. They wanted to live in a nice rural town, somewhere...

Grow Your Own Wedding Flowers

What lovelier thing than to grow some gorgeous wedding flowers? If you’re the bride reading this, don’t take the title of this piece literally – I’m hoping there’ll be a loving relative or friend eager to help, or (preferably) grow,...

A Taste of the Exotic

I love TimeOut’s description of Brixton Market as a ‘sensory fiesta’ for that is what it is. And in the course of my weekly grandmotherly duties, I’ve found myself exploring the shops in the market selling fruit and vegetables from all...

Flamboyant and Creative Seaside Family Home

Carmel and Mick have transformed their seaside home into a flamboyant and creative space perfect for their family to pursue their musical talents. Bexhill-on-Sea is better known for bungalows than for period houses – even the seafront boasts a long,...

Georgian Farmhouse Transformed into Colourful Family Home

Much is written of the Georgian house – its perfect proportions, its soaring rooms, its windows that allow light to flood into every nook and cranny. However, these eulogies tend to be about grand Georgian town houses or elegant country...

Action Plan

Eddie Erith from GardenEye Why gardening? I was brought up on a farm in Essex and grew to love the great outdoors, the fresh air and the amazing versatility of the landscape. We were in Elm country and those years...

Minimum Effort, Maximum Yield

It’s hard to imagine, but there really are some vegetables that will just grow, without fuss or tantrums, regardless. But low maintenance doesn’t mean no maintenance – your plot will still need preparing and then weeding and feeding, but the...

Humble Garage to Gorgeous Guesthouse

Converting a building that was never designed for human habitation into an attractive home can be a rewarding challenge. Oasts, barns, coach houses, urban industrial or commercial buildings – all have proved popular with architects and their clients and have...

Costless Cures

Spied in a garden down in Devon last July was a big clump of what was to me an unknown plant or certainly something I hadn’t really noticed particularly. It was in the hedgerows too, along with any manner of...

Medieval Hall House

If one is looking for a historic Wealden building that has provided some of the most attractive and practical homes in our corner of the world it wouldn’t be the oast but a considerably more ancient contender – the medieval...

Stunning Renovation

Grasping the potential of a spacious Georgian or Victorian house, whatever its condition, is not exactly brain surgery. The basics are all there. A little re-modelling here and there to adapt it for 21st century living, an eye for colour...

Perfumed Petals

Imagine the moment when the plant hunter, Ernest (Chinese) Wilson first came across a ravine in Szechuan Province in China which was alive with L. regale in full flower. In his excitement and desire to get closer, he slipped and...

Memories Are Made Of This

"It is so important to keep a history of a school, or any building." These are the words of Karen Brock, who took it upon herself to become the archivist of Dulwich Preparatory School, Cranbrook. Now, seven years later, this...

Gypsy Tart

Heat oven to 190°C/Gas 5. Roll pastry to fit a 6” pie dish and gently prick base – bake blind for approx 20 mins. Place milk and sugar in a large bowl and whisk with an electric whisk, starting slowly...

Heritage Conversion Success Story

Taking a building that has lain derelict or neglected for decades, perhaps centuries, and breathing new life into old stone and brick can be a hugely rewarding experience. At first, there is the realisation and then conviction that the potential...

Reaching Out

Much misunderstood, maligned and ignored, ivy does have some supporters, amongst them famous gardeners including William Robinson, EA Bowles, Rosemary Verey, Roy Strong, Christopher Lloyd and Margery Fish whose garden at Lambrook Manor was host to her large collection of...

Victorian Townhouse Doubles As Antique Showroom

An American catching sight of a friend’s particularly fine painting, sculpture or piece of furniture would have no hesitation in paying the appropriate compliment and casually adding ‘Waddyagiveforit?’ We Brits are considerably more reticent when it comes to discussing money....

Renovated Period Cottage

Renovating a period cottage is always a challenge. The lives we lead are very different both from those of the 17th century villagers and farm workers for whom these homes were originally built and from the families who have updated...

Promenade Paradise

There are things in this world that go effortlessly together. Things that seem made for each other. Bagels and cream cheese, Bogey & Bacall, Champagne and caviar, Farrow & Ball – and it’s the same when we walk into one...

Killing Them Softly

I’m not sure I’m the right person to be telling you about garden pests, having come to gardening via a childhood spent communing with them. I kept snails in my doll’s house, ants in matchboxes and earwig families in a...

Coach House Conversion

Arriving at Alli Williams’s home on the Kent-Sussex border, it’s almost impossible to remember that you’ve come to write about a house and not merely draw up a garden chair, pour yourself a glass of something crisp and white and...

An Enduring Legacy

Decimus Burton was quite a gent. Born in 1800, the son of James Haliburton, one of the most significant builders of Georgian London, he studied under John Nash and designed his first major public building – Colosseum in Regent’s Park...

State-of-the-Art Country House Apartment

It’s an impressive approach to David and Louise’s apartment, through large gates and into immaculate country house style grounds. It’s situated on the third floor of a large, elegant block so we take the lift. There are stairs, of course,...

Neat & Tidy

Gridlocked on the M25 recently, we were consoled by the thought that when we eventually reached home, half an hour’s blackberrying would revive the spirits. But no, we were greeted with the ominous sound of the hedgecutters at work and...

Remodelled Victorian Home

As a six-year-old child, I had just one ambition. Not to be a train driver or super-hero, not to slay dragons and rescue damsels in distress, not to ride into the western sunset with the Lone Ranger. My ambition was...

Wow-Factor Wealden New Build

Philippa and Stephen’s new house in East Sussex re-ignites – should it need any re-ignition – the important debate surrounding the question of how and what should we in the Weald be building for the future. Houses are not ephemera....

Kitsch & Chic Family Home

Hannah Gee’s house is set back from the road, much further back than all the others, hanging back, in case anyone notices that it doesn’t look like the rest, that it isn’t a period house. Hannah was curious to know...

Wildlife Friends

I’ll be honest, I do sometimes go round the old fencing around the perimeter of my garden trying to find out how those wily badgers get in. And of course at this time of the year, there is always evidence...

17th Century Farmhouse

Stella Hayes initially fell in love with the property's glorious garden. She has gone on to create a beautiful home filled with her impressive art collection. [showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] “I walked in through the gate, saw the...

Preparation Is Key

In this new climate for business and the economy, the competition for jobs is becoming increasingly fierce. Businesses want employees who can read and write, of course, but they are also looking for the 'soft skills' of common sense, team-working,...

Art Collector’s Inspired Hastings Home

It takes many of us a lifetime to discover that treasure lies closer to home than we think, but when Robert Amstad was trying to find a property to live in a few years ago, he realised that a building...

We Hear It From The Kids

Hector, age 2½ says... What's your favourite thing to do with mummy and daddy? (When I wake up at 5am everyday...) I like to build things out of Duplo with Daddy. What's your favourite story? 'The Elephant and the Bad Baby.' What's...

Boutique Bouquet

Brought up in the tropics, I have never lost my awe of the beautiful chameleon landscape in which I now find myself nor have I lost my admiration for those who work within this landscape to create gardens so at...

Kaffe Fassett’s Colourful Home

Without doubt, a visit to the Hastings home of internationally renowned contemporary craft artist Kaffe Fassett and his partner and studio manager Brandon Mably, would bring joy to even the most downhearted of people. Filled with an explosion of colours...

Rural Retreat

It’s a steamy and umbelliferous (as in lots of floaty cow parsley) morning in the Weald as we arrive at Wendy’s secluded house, which is tucked away from view down a narrow leafy lane. We’re warmly greeted with a, “Mind...

Walnuts Farm: Film Location and Family Home

There must be those among you that occasionally, in a quiet moment, stroll through your homes and think that, yes, after all the planning, plotting and hard work, you’ve at last got it right – on a good day this...

Delightful Modern Country Cottage

Building new houses in traditional Wealden villages has always been a problem and one with which architects are still grappling today. Just how do you design a home that satisfies the varied needs of a modern family while ensuring it...

What’s Hot in the Garden

Thankfully even at the Chelsea Flower Show most gardening trends tend to last more than a year and it often takes a while before a fashion really sets in, which is a relief, otherwise by the time the feature is...

Onto a Good Thing

Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) I’m not sure how unusual comfrey can be considered to be but not everybody has it, and actually not everybody wants it as it spreads like mad (but does suppress the weeds) but what a plant. It...

60s Themed Seaside Holiday Home

I’m sure we’ve all thought about buying a house by the sea – perhaps after an idyllic holiday, or a bracing walk, even just a drive along the coast. On the morning we visit James Rourke’s house, as the sullen...

Outside In

Less,” famously said architect Mies van der Rohe, “is more.” Arithmetical nonsense, perhaps, or an architectural truth that becomes self-evident when you see, for the first time, either his sublime 1929 Barcelona Pavilion or The Farnsworth House, a retreat he...

A Family Affair

It is a pity indeed to travel and not get this essential sense of landscape values,” once said poet Lawrence Durrell. “You do not need a sixth sense for it. It is there if you just close your eyes and...

Rooms Outside

In my Ladybird book Talkabout Gardens (circa 1972) there are pictures of a back garden. It has a bit of paving across the back of the house, a lawn with a swing and a whirligig in it, a few flowers...

Georgian Home

When talking about the enduring popularity of Georgian architecture one can bang on endlessly about its classical heritage, its proportion and balance and the strict mathematical rules that govern every detail but the truth is that when we see a...

Back to Basics

When you’re starting from scratch with a new garden, it’s quite useful to peer over your fence to see what your neighbours are growing or what sort of trees are growing in the nearest piece of woodland to you but...

Artist Karen Birchwood’s Beautiful Home

There is nothing quite like waking up in the morning and mumbling down to breakfast to be greeted by Radio Four at 90 decibels. The dog, in one corner, is chewing thoughtfully through a 240-volt cable while in another your...

Cultural Retreat

At first glance The Cloudesley is an ordinary, if imposing, bed and breakfast establishment, with nothing much to hint that something more exotic lies within. We walk up the path past a whispering curtain of bamboo, over the inauspicious threshold...

Pro-Active

Kelli Hooper BA Hons Physical Education, Head of PE at Cobham Hall What were your favourite sports at school? Netball - I played for a ladies team from 13 and county level at 16+ - both fantastic experiences. I also...

Speaking The Same Language

In the new National Curriculum, languages are an 'entitlement' area for learning, which puts them in the same box as history and geography, as opposed to one of the core subjects. Learning a language is not just about words, it...

Primary Palette Country Cottage

Oeda O’Hara’s cottage appeared on its Wealden village green just in time to see the end of the Boer War, although one has the feeling that this happy event attracted its interest as little as many other world milestones over...

Jessica Zoob’s Joyful Home

There are many times when visiting the houses that we feature in these pages that one is delighted by what one finds. One departs impressed, even inspired. A visit to the home of artist Jessica Zoob, however, is – and...

Town & Country Home

Living the rural dream, yet within walking distance of a vibrant town community are surely mutually exclusive ideas. Paul and his wife Jane certainly thought so, until a 17th century moated property nestling off a busy Wealden High Street, reached...

White Christmas

Steph Virgo’s house is getting dressed early for Christmas and even from the outside, bathed in winter sunshine rather than snow, it looks appropriately festive. The handsome 18th century lodge house with its stucco walls rather resembles a giant Christmas...

Opulent Oast Conversion

Oast conversions are not uncommon in Kent, but few have been as skilfully updated for modern family life as well as Claire Horrell’s. The box edged front garden and sparkling white weatherboard façade hint at a sophisticated approach to country...

A Passion for Arts and Crafts

Part of the great attraction of a town like Rye is that with its ancient walls, cobbled streets and buildings, it seems almost suspended in time, but while many such towns can fall into the trap of becoming rather twee...

The Room Outside

Louise Bamford Oak Designs What type of outdoor building do you have? I have a three bay oak framed cartlodge garage which has a handmade claytiled roof with a rear catslide and a home office/gym in the third bay. It is...

Carmelized Onion Tartlets with Thyme

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Using a 5cm round cutter, cut out 24 circles of pastry. Place in a mini canapé tin in the oven for 15 minutes. Slice onions, either by hand or in a food processor. Place in...

Tiny Parmesan & Olive Shortbreads with Parsley Pesto & Goat’s Cheese

Preheat oven to 180°C Place flour, pinch salt and cayenne, butter, Parmesan and 1tsp black olives in a food processor. Pulse to form a smooth dough. Roll out dough on a floured surface to a 0.5cm thickness. Stamp out 40...

Summer Cottage

There are many adjectives that are easily associated with an English country cottage. Cottages are warm, charming, quaint, atmospheric. Light, bright, airy or spacious rarely make it into the top 10 – and yet these are exactly the descriptors that...

Life Aquatic

The predecessor in our cottage who lived on the Isle of Oxney for many years before leaving for the depths of Herefordshire, wrote such an interesting letter to us following a query we had about a particularly damp area of...

Hailsham Grange

Hailsham, in East Sussex, has like most English market towns, seen a number of changes to its building stock over the centuries, but the 15th century St. Mary’s Church still rises above all other newcomers and seems to draw the...

Secret Garden

Five years ago, at the beginning of what proved to be a life changing journey through the Kimberleys in Western Australia, we arrived in the old pearling town of Broome just at the right moment. For a few days every...

Domestic Heroes in Training

We are in a new era of make-do and mend so it is no surprise to learn that many of us are re-visiting the knitting and sewing skills we were taught at our mother's knee. There are a host of...

The Art of Debating

Everywhere you look these days, someone is offering an opinion. From social networking sites to radio phone-ins, it's simple to give your view - anyone can do it. But to debate properly is a skill and an art that can...

Here To Help

Claremont School What's on offer for pupils after school? Our working day incorporates both the children's needs and those of parents. Children may be dropped off any time after eight o'clock in the morning and collected, after supervised homework, up to...

Colonial Style Kentish Home

A house of the New World seems to have sprung up in the Old. Along a meandering Kent lane, a white picket fence is not so unusual, but the huge white weatherboarded house with its wide verandah and shiny corrugated zinc...

For Sale

The number of students applying for places at university this September has dropped by around 50,000 according to the University and College Admissions Service (UCAS), a fall which has been partly attributed to the increase in tuition fees - but...

Phil Oakley Illuminations’ Home

The old Admiral Benbow in St Leonards used to be one of the roughest pubs on the south coast, regulars exiting the windows as often as the doors. Even today, no longer a pub, it is still perhaps just a...

Life at the Top

Some of the grandest Victorian houses in Hastings and St. Leonards were built on quite a different scale to what we are now used to, so it takes some stamina to reach designer Charlotte Elfdahl’s flat at the very top...

Last of the Summer Salads

Did you think it was all over in the vegetable garden for the year? That you could harvest your spring sowings, clear the patch and then relax? I have some news. Whether it’s good or bad depends on how you...

Interior Designs

With hundreds of fabrics, wallpapers, and paint colours to choose from, many of us are confused, perplexed, or out of our depth when it comes to decorating a room. The thought of refurbishing an entire house from top to bottom...

The Siren Sound of the Sea

Sea Gem is aptly named and a Modernist treasure. It echoes the style of 1930s English seaside architecture but is no imitation or pastiche. The angular forms and spiral outdoor stairs, reminiscent of an ocean liner, have the elegance of...

An Agricultural Gem

Converted oasts can be rather like those childhood Christmas presents from Great Aunt Hermione – they look the biz from the outside but inside they are too often architectural socks. Oasts are, after all, industrial buildings built for hops not...

Luscious Leaves

At the beginning of April, a headline to an article in one of the national dailies read, ‘Chelsea Flower Show goes dry as traditional blooms take a back seat’ and succulents were certainly prominent in the show gardens this year...

Russian Royalty’s Kent Home

Kent seems a rather unlikely spot for Russian royalty to choose to settle in. Its gently undulating landscape is more likely to be filled with apple orchards than fir or birch forests. But one branch of the Romanov dynasty came...

Ash Cottage

When its current owners, Alice and James, first saw Ash Cottage it wasn’t love at first sight, rather a growing understanding of its potential and what it could one day be to the couple and their growing children. “I used...

Butterfly Borders

Last year was a bumper butterfly year. The unusually warm, dry spring we had benefitted those species that breed early in the season. This is heartening news, as the overall theme in the butterfly world is one of decline, due,...

A Darling House

We actually found this house for my husband Richard’s sister and brother-in-law, Hilary and Jeremy,” recalls Moyna Edmondson as she divides up a wonderfully fragrant Italian orange cake that she has just baked. “But they got cold feet and in...

Renovated Retreat

We have loved Rye for a long time,” says Rosemary as she ushers the WT team into her home in the centre of the historic ‘citadel’. “Every year for about 20 years my husband Richard and I came to stay...

Need for Seed

The early rush is over – peas, carrots, beetroot and broad beans could well be growing away nicely in your plot (if not, just throw some in now and they’ll do their best to catch up). The weather is warming...

Keeping Chickens – Pets with a Purpose

There are 24 billion chickens in the world – that’s a fact, not a line from a Katie Melua song. If you divide that by 7 billion humans, that’s three and a half hens each, which is about the number...

The Old Rectory – Hastings B&B

Two years ago I read a piece in the Best Buys column of a Sunday supplement property section about The Old Rectory and admired it then. So how lovely to be able to satisfy one’s curiosity and discover what happened...

Florals with Morals

I love plants and flowers. When I receive a bouquet of wonderfully scented blooms, my whole being is lifted and I try not to think too much about where they may have come from. It really wouldn’t be polite. Therefore, when...

Textile Artist’s Beautiful Home

The entrance hall to Nancy Nicholson’s home is enticingly adorned with intriguing objects and ‘finds’. There is a sun-bleached sheep’s skull, an apothecary’s jar filled with shells and several sprigs of dried wild flowers and sea grasses. [showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ...

Mosaic Artist’s Home

Second-generation artist-craftsmen are not common in the 21st century, but mosaic artist, Oliver Budd is just such a rarity, and although he fulfils commissions as far away as Oman, his extraordinary creations are designed and made from a quiet village...

Colour Burst

I thought it was cold this week until I heard what the temperature had dropped down to in Eastern Europe, but biting north-easterly winds and low temperatures rarely deter professional gardeners from their winter jobs. And at Hole Park in Rolvenden,...

Restoration Dream

A move to the country from London can sometimes make an interesting career a little more difficult for some professions at least. Job opportunities for Art Historians (of the university academic variety) are not to be found in many villages in...

Laura Oakes’ Vibrant Home

It is said that to be creative one must have an inner life, a kind of storehouse of impressions, ideas and feelings to draw upon and reinterpret. That notion certainly seems appropriate to Laura Oakes an artist and designer who...

Heritage at Home

For some people demolishing any period cottage is heresy, a loss of irreplaceable national heritage, and, certainly, serious questions must always be asked before swinging the wrecker’s ball. But one must remember that many rural cottages – particularly those built...

A Snapshot of Family Life

It’s a slightly odd feeling to be writing about a house that belongs to someone who is normally occupied with photographing other people’s. David Merewether is the Wealden Times’ photographer at large and the sort of man who quietly charms...

Artist’s Impression

In Victorian times, Britain was a manufacturing colossus, the workshop of the world. A new architecture was born, the architecture of the machine. Strength and space were the new priorities but the Victorians were, of course, never above a little...

Kale and Hearty

I love kale - the look of it, the taste of it (not tough and bitter, despite its looks, I promise). For a member of the fussy and temperamental brassica family, it’s also incredibly easy to grow. I’m sure it would...

Photo Perfect

One would never for a moment describe Fuller House in Staplehurst as a mad house but it is certainly a touch on the eccentric side. I speak, I hasten to say, architecturally. [showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] Its owner, portrait...

Deck the Halls

For some people Christmas comes around all too soon, but for others, it can neither be too soon or too often. Jacquie, or ‘Kitty’ as she is now more commonly known, definitely belongs to the latter category, which is probably...

Sugar and Spice

For some, the idea of a tea party conjures images of a rather staid affair, with matronly ladies sipping Earl Grey while enjoying a slice of Victoria sponge, but Anastasia Hutton-Summers, the founder of Kent Vintage Tea Parties doesn’t exactly...

Life on Mars

"I was on Britain’s Best Dish!” says Alastair Fairley with a grin, as he shows me into his kitchen. “I cooked pear and frangipane tart with homemade vanilla ice cream, and John Burton-Race said my ice cream was the best...

Best Kept Secret

There is, tucked away just behind the smart shops of one of the Weald’s most attractive towns, an extraordinary little secret street – ancient cobbles, weatherboard cottages tumbling with flowers and, at its end, fields rambling away into distance. Live...

Desert Island Discs

Tim Dix Director of Music Wellesley House School What's your first disc and why have you chosen it? As I am only being marooned for a week, I don't have to worry about overexposure to any of the music and so...

Home Comforts

Arriving at Lucinda Hamilton’s oasthouse, it seems that she can best be found by following the aroma of baking that wafts from the open French windows at the rear. A glance across the garden prompts a cartoonish double take as...

Speaking The Same Language

"It's true what they say," muses financial analyst Sam, "children are like sponges – they soak up the language and then just start speaking it." The mother of three saw this extraordinary ability at first hand with her own young...

Tender is the Veg

There is something about the distinctive, slightly earthy smell of tomato plants that transports me back to (an entirely fictional) childhood, where I have a grandfather who grew tomatoes in his greenhouse (he also smoked a pipe for similar reasons)....

Photo Finish

There are few more iconic structures in Kent than the oasthouse and fewer more popular farm buildings for conversion to private homes. Ever since the first oast was converted in 1903 at Millar’s Farm in Meopham by Sir Philip Waterlow,...

Softly, Softly

Joanna Osborne and Orlando Gough’s Brighton home is a classic late Regency gem. Icing sugar white with a wrought-iron and zinc fan-like canopy over its upper ground floor bow window and balcony, its decorative flourishes epitomise the early 19th century...

Air & Space

Widowhood prompted the move here,” says Ro, without much preamble. “I was rattling around in the house I had shared with my husband Geoff and after he died I needed a change. By chance, my daughter Alexis saw this place...

Vintage Calm

Few find what they want in life right under their noses and some of us have to travel a lifetime and many miles to find what we are looking for. But Madeline hasn’t even had to step foot outside the...

Artistic Licence

There is no better air than here for work.” Is how John Maynard Keynes described the atmosphere at Tilton House in East Sussex, the country residence that he shared with his wife Lydia for many years. Just a little further...

Real Life Therapy

Ann Edwards opens the door of her East Grinstead late Victorian villa with something of a flourish. As she asks about my journey here, her face is animated and kindly enquiring and I get the distinct feeling that she is...

Sleeping Beauty

Gabby Eagar’s house could be viewed as the stuff of dreams or nightmares, depending upon one’s enthusiasm for a ‘project’. It’s dreamy, because it is a classically proportioned Georgian grange that looks as if it has sprung to life from...

Restored with Love

When a grand house falls into decay, there is rarely any shortage of worthy bodies and individuals to rush to its rescue, lavishing cash and compliments and ensuring it’s saved from the bulldozers. There are, however, hundreds more properties, more...

Natural History

Claudine and Robin Cecil’s brick and timber cottage is situated on a twisting East Sussex lane. It sits almost in the centre of an unspoilt valley, surrounded by farmland and small copses of oak and beech. Birdsong and the hum...

The Homemade Home

Mandy and Phil Shaw have lived in their East Sussex home for 26 years and in that time, they have transformed it from a fairly anonymous late Victorian semi-detached villa into a space that is the ultimate expression of them...

Continental Chic

If Sevenoaks seems a typical English commuter town, not all its residents are quite so predictable. Candy is really Catharina, but her Dutch parents always called her Candy and it has stuck. Living in the Kent town with her Dutch...

Making History

Lullingstone Castle and its owners the Hart Dyke family have been the subject of several television documentaries and a great deal of press attention in the past decade. Tom Hart Dyke, the son and heir of the present incumbents Guy...

The Old Curiosity Shop

On a rainy winter’s day, a journey across Romney Marshes easily evokes images of Magwitch emerging from the mists to frighten poor Pip in Dickens’ Great Expectations. Patchily inhabited, and with its ancient churches and little new development, it somehow...

A Grand Design For Living

Most people who build their own country houses take one of two approaches: either opting for high design and commissioning an architect to create a ‘statement’ house which usually means that it is contemporary in style and quite unlike those...

Let There Be Light

Having spent twenty years living in a huge, draughty and quite dark Tudor pile, Bill and Ingrid knew that their next home would be full of light, warm and cosy! This ended up being in Gothenburg, Sweden where all the...

A House Reformed

Our friends thought we were mad when we moved here,” says Sally Russell as she and her husband Brad show us around their home. “Not because they didn’t like Tunbridge Wells, but simply because for eleven years we had lived...

A Towering Achievement

Anyone who knows Tenterden will know The Tower House. One of the Georgian lovelies that line the east end of the High Street, the building was so named because the classically fronted square doll’s house of a residence also sports...

East/West Home’s Best

When Phil Russell’s job brought him back to London after 18 years of living and working in Tokyo and Hong Kong, he had only a short time to find his family a new home in England. But the house that...

Back Home

Coming back ‘home’ to the Weald has been good. It righted a lot of the wrongs,” Louise Dean tells me after just a few minutes’ acquaintance. She has a disarming, if not slightly unnerving, frankness of manner that perhaps comes...

Baby, It’s Cold Outside!

When even the dog won’t go outside willingly, it can be hard to get the children into the garden, away from screens and inactive play. I’ve tried frightening mine on a health level – “Fresh air is good for you....

Designed for Living

There are some period houses that seem, over the centuries, to have drawn the short straw. Time and again, caring, loving, well-meaning owners have extended and modernised, re-decorated and re-furnished with such breathtaking insensitivity that immediately one steps through the...

At Home With Style

Glamour” is not a word usually associated with the country cottage, but Andrew Fionda’s home is rather different. Andrew is one half of the fashion duo Pearce Fionda. Having met in the mid-1980s, and established their partnership in the mid-1990s,...

Room With A View

Finding the right house has never been easy. Typically, it means kissing swampfuls of frogs before one finally compromises, moves in and, with a little or a great deal of TLC, ultimately coaxes out the promised prince. On rare occasion,...

Natural Gallery

Generally, the mention of an old mill house conjures up idyllic pastoral images of ancient millstones grinding corn trundled to the doors in brimming cartloads from surrounding golden fields – a sort of Constable-Hovis hybrid seasoned with a little Vaughan...

Grand Dutchy

Having rung the bell at Sarnia’s cottage, seemingly without result, I am beginning to wonder whether I have made a mistake about our appointment. Knowing that she is an interior decorator, I am at least in no doubt that I...

Micro Chic, Eco Style

It’s hard to believe that Claire Potter’s grade II listed cottage in Portslade, on the outskirts of Brighton, is just a slice off the house next door “We think it must have been the kitchen,” she explains, “as there’s a...

Food For Thought

Food has always been important to my family,” laughs Mary Gwynn. So it’s not surprising that, after attending Leith’s School of Food and Wine in the year between school and university, Mary decided not to pursue her university place.[showhide more_text="READ...

Photographer’s Home and Studio

Any illusion you might have that you are visiting a traditional Kent family household is neatly dispelled at the gates. There, dozing in the shade amid wild flowers and ornamental rhubarb is a 1960s Morris Minor. Not that unusual, you...

Ship Shape

Sophie and Jason both confess to having led nomadic lives until they met. A former divorce lawyer and ski instructor, Sophie is now a massage therapist and reflexologist, working in London, Sussex, and Kent, visiting clients in their own homes....

An Elegant Touch

Grand period buildings can not only be a joy to their owners but also, on far too many occasions, a tyranny, dictating not only physical spaces but décor and ultimately even the lifestyle of the families they should be serving...

Rustic Charm

As an Australian, Michael Ristic had been making trips to the UK for a few years. “I absolutely loved it here,” Michael explains. “So, in 1972, I decided to move to London for good.” For the next thirty years or...

Living The Thai Life

A quintessential 19th century English country estate majestically surveys the gently rolling scenery that surrounds it. The vast red brick house has recently been restored and converted into large apartments, with new buildings constructed in similar style to the west of...

On Location

One might expect a house belonging to both a film and television set designer and a professional gardener to be well-presented, and Derek and Tony’s Regency town house in Hastings does not disappoint. [showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] No...

Staycation House

Tim and Sue Ball’s house seems to hug the hill that it is not so much built upon, but into. While only one storey rises above the highest point of ground, Tim, an architect, cut away the earth on one...

Contemporary Twist

Behind the red brick façade of an early 20th century building, is a contemporary piece of architecture that is home to Anna Deacon and John Taylor, artists and designers with a prolific creative output and an extensive collection of art,...

Vintage Values

Hospitable though home-owners are when the Wealden Times team visits, not many could match the welcome afforded by Flora, the wire fox terrier puppy who greets me in Stella Wilson’s garden.   [showhide more_text="READ MORE" less_text="READ LESS" hidden="yes"] Flora races...

Food for Thought

It is hard to believe some of the surveys about children, their eating habits and their knowledge of food. One wonders whether they liven up quiet news days or are simply to infuriate those adults who grew up before main...

A Miller’s Tale

Approached from its leafy drive, Hedera House looks like a perfect Regency villa: a confection of pale plasterwork and neo-classical mouldings. With its white louvred shutters the house almost looks as if it belongs in a warmer location and this...

A Love of the Land

Moving out of the Georgian farmhouse that has been your family home since 1968 might seem a daunting prospect for most people, but Steven and Emily Hall saw it as just another stage in their lives together. The couple had...

A Rich Tapestry

Helen Grant welcomes us into her seaside home with hot coffee and irresistible, honeyed baklava. While she kindly makes sure that she has made everything just as the WT team like it, I nose around her kitchen. It’s made up...

A Passion For Pattern

Tucked away, at the end of a leafy driveway, is a typically Kentish house. Its fish-scale hanging tiles are that particularly rich orange-red that produces a sentimental glow in the heart of almost every Kent resident (though perhaps it is...

Decorative Living

It’s odd, perhaps, but the expression ‘living over the shop’ somehow now seems to conjure 1950s images of a middle-aged, Fair Isle-sweatered tobacconist and his aproned wife settling back, Horlicks in hand, while on the black and white television Percy...

Through A Georgian Looking Glass

To step into the house we are visiting today is like time-travelling and I am fortunate to have a most amiable guide in the form of Bob, an engaging Australian who left his native land for England for good when...

Home From Home

After a lifetime of running a successful catering business, most of us would relish the thought of putting our feet up and taking it easy, which is exactly how Fanny Brogden felt after retiring from Fanny’s Kitchen in 1998. [showhide more_text="READ...

Barn Free

Access to the barn isn’t by any means impossible but if you’re lucky enough to be invited to dinner, take the Humvee. A quarter mile of mogul field gravel leads to a Sussex pasture where sheep lounge across the way...

A Gardener’s World

Sometimes, no matter how hard you are looking, the right house for you just doesn’t seem to be available. Sophie Hall, chairman of Oak Park Landscapes, had been house-hunting for some time when a friend mentioned a converted barn that...

Talking Heads

Nick Dorey - Bethany School I loved my time at school. Life for me both at primary and secondary school was always busy, fun and fulfilling. There were many reasons for this, but the key ones were excellent teachers who...

By George They’ve Got It!

It may not be advisable to move house with a newborn baby, but many of us do. But how many of us exchange a comfortable life in London for a run-down hotel with 24 bedrooms – and all the hard...

Roses are Blooming in Picardy

Over the centuries there have been times when the Entente Cordiale has been anything but cordial and the French have been not a little dismissive of things English, truly taking only Shakespeare and rugby to their hearts. But suddenly and...

Art House

The best moments in this house often feature a cup of tea, a good book and a cat,’’ says Christine Wilding, about Mill House, the beautiful and charming family home she has created. Her sentiments come as little surprise because...

The Linen Shed B&B

Many of the houses we feature are English thoroughbreds, their lineage proudly evident and easily discernible – Medieval, Tudor, Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian. They may have moved with time and fashion – an addition here, an alteration there – but the...

A Courting Couple

The courtyard gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show this year were, as usual, incredibly popular with the public. Once the Show was in full swing it was hard to get near them to admire the sheer ingenuity, imagination and love...

A Pocket Full of Rye

At the summit of cobbled Mermaid Street, Rye’s most famous thoroughfare, stands Lamb House. A quintessential Georgian town house, it is quietly elegant, almost modest, but when one climbs the stone steps and prepares to knock, the enormous size of...

Portrait of a Lady

Do people find houses or do they find us? By any yardstick, the story of how artist Victoria Threlfall came about hers is fortuitous. Married and living in Brixton with four young children, the urge to give her girls the...

Calm and Collected

The first clue that I have arrived at the right house is the gleaming paint on the front door with its incredibly highly polished brass handle and spotless front step. Dee Martyn is a stylist and interiors expert, so I...

Doddington Place Gardens

To escape from the dreariness of the A20 up into the lanes of the North Downs was a treat in itself but to arrive at Doddington Place Gardens, with its really quite fabulous collection of mature trees lining the, drive...

Former Editor Of Elle Magazine’s Colourful Home

Despite its quaint seaside charms, Hastings Old Town on a grey blustery day, is, well, just that, grey. But as I step over the threshold of Maggie Alderson’s handsome Georgian house, it’s rather like when Dorothy in The Wizard of...

The Glass is Greener

I hadn’t realised that I had much in common with a darting ruby-throated hummingbird until last autumn, when, meandering along the late-flowering borders at Wisley with a friend, we simultaneously spotted a particularly scrumptious velvety burgundy salvia. Being delicious to...

A Butterfly Unfurled

When Sally Harrington opens the huge front door of her Kentish weatherboard home I assume that the 1950s bungalow that once stood here was demolished to make way for the new house. “No,” she says, “it’s still in here somewhere,...

Degrees Of Light

Although it’s formidable from the outside, Martyn, a specialist in Russian art, and his partner Käthe have created a calm, family home within. Käthe is an artist and the daughter of renowned artists, Eric Doitch and Mary Fitzpayne.  [showhide more_text="READ...

Taking A View

Making the decision to downsize can be daunting to consider, but Margaret and her husband David seem to have embraced the process. “I saw it as a great opportunity to choose from the best of what we have collected over...

We’ll Gather Lilacs

At first glance, Edenbridge House looks like something from the pages of a P.G. Wodehouse comedy or Agatha Christie mystery – the kind of rambling, well-appointed country house where well-to-do types gathered for “house-parties”. It’s part Edwardian and 1930s mock-Tudor,...

Welcome Aboard

On a cold, rainy day, Eileen and Tony’s houseboat offers a ray of sunshine and a stark contrast to the greyness of the landscape of Kings North power station and a restless wintry sea. The boat was bought fourteen years...

Business As Usual

Arriving at John and Sandy Schofield’s house in the heart of the Weald, the welcome is a picturesque one. A flock of pure white doves take off from their dovecote and flutter above our heads before settling on the red...

All’s Fair

Ahandsome front door stands squarely in the centre of a gorgeously pretty house on the Kent/Sussex borders. It’s a classic Georgian farmhouse, broad and solid, though it contains a few surprises and the low set windows offer a clue to...

A Rural Retreat

Some of us suit city living; others prefer the country. Julia is lucky to enjoy both lifestyles – which was fortunate when, in the early 80s, her husband relocated his business interests to the UK. Having lived happily in the...

Full of Eastern Promise

In the heart of the Weald stands a medieval house, the home of Jemima, her husband and two daughters. The house, built in 1292, is 700 years old and is known to be one of the oldest houses in East...

Up The Garden Path

Among the well-kept front gardens of a Wealden high street, the garden of one pretty Georgian villa stands out. This one features a few slightly more unusual plants and the space has been carefully utilised. Perhaps this should not be...