Country Life

Country Life; architecture, gardens, countryside, property, the very best of British life.

Country Life1 min read
Miss Kirsty Worroll
Kirsty is a business development manager for a Fleet Management Solutions company and is the daughter of Peter and Janet Worroll of Benson, Oxfordshire. ■
Country Life2 min read
Westward, Ho!
ALL roads led west for recent holidays, it seemed, the M5 resembling a car park and the A303 a knotted thread of frustration. Yet why go abroad with the land of cream teas, whortleberries, Poldark and Arthurian legend only a tortuous car journey away
Country Life5 min read
Town & Country
THE Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Commonwealth Heritage Skills Training Programme was recently launched at the Commonwealth Secretariat in Marlborough House, London SW1. This project, organised by the Commonwealth Heritage Forum and supported w
Country Life1 min read
Country Life
Editor-in-Chief Mark Hedges Editor’s Office/Lifestyle Editor Rosie Paterson 6591 Deputy Editor Kate Green 4171 Managing & Features Editor Paula Lester 6426 Architectural Editor John Goodall Gardens Editor Tiffany Daneff 6115 Executive Editor
Country Life1 min read
Good Week For
A Natural England project to rescue the endangered waders' eggs laid on airfields in Norfolk is under way for a second year; they're beginning hatch and, once fledged, will be tagged and released Hordes from all over the UK gathered outside Binley Me
Country Life1 min readRegional & Ethnic
Country Mouse
IT was all of us at our best. The past week has been a great festival of Britishness, led by the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Mostly, these celebrations took place in villages, towns and city streets across the land and it proved that a lot of bunt
Country Life1 min read
Town Mouse
THE bunting went up, the flags came out and so did the people. The Platinum Jubilee has come… and gone. For a brief moment, London in all its variety and diversity flowered in celebration of the remarkable figure of The Queen. There were holiday crow
Country Life1 min read
100 years ago in Country Life June 10, 1922
I SEND you photographs of fox cubs, which I hope you will like. The vixen had, unfortunately, been caught in a rabbit trap and in crossing a stream by way of a bridge made by two fallen trees it became a prisoner again. The trap became fixed between
Country Life2 min read
Town & Notebook
1) Who was the mother of Edward VI? 2) The Dark Side of the Moon is a 1973 album by which band? 3) Which Shakespeare character has been played by both Mel Gibson and Sir Laurence Olivier? 4) A gall grows on a plant as a result of which type of ins
Country Life1 min read
In The Spotlight
Numerous garden flowers lure the hummingbird hawk-moth, one of the most charismatic of summer visitors. Flying by day, it may turn up anywhere in the UK, but most are in the South. The name aptly describes the hummingbird-like feeding habit, holding
Country Life1 min read
Unmissable Events
Until June 26 Fresh Air Sculpture, The Old Rectory, Quenington, Gloucestershire. Traditional and modern artworks in a Cotswold garden (01285 750358; www.freshairsculpture.com) Until October 16 ‘Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorativ
Country Life1 min read
Chadlington Village Gardens, near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. June 12, 1pm–5pm
Groups of gardens are opening all over the country this weekend and a good example is this selection of five opening for the first time in the Evenlode Valley. Gardens large and small offer a variety of planting treats and the chance for exploration
Country Life1 min read
Wines Of The Week
Punching above its weight, this is minty fresh, with cedar oak, eucalypt-tinged cherry, blackcurrant compote and red liquorice flavours. Elegant and juicy with inky tannins, a creamy texture and long finish. Fire up the barbecue! From organically cu
Country Life1 min read
Letter Of The Week
MANY rural bus services are being totally withdrawn, leaving residents with no access to essential services. Surely this is sealing the fate of town-centre businesses already struggling to compete with online retailers? Since the pandemic, concern ha
Country Life3 min read
Letters To The Editor
WITH regards to the gold knots on ceremonial dress uniform (‘To honour our Queen’, May 25), military lore tells us these were added to stop troops using their sleeves as cleaning cloths for eyes, mouths, noses and even wounds and that it was ‘The Que
Country Life3 min read
Beautiful And Useful
SUSTAINABILITY is not about trashing the countryside, but this is precisely what the unthinking National Grid and some parts of the Government are poised to do. The offshore-wind programme has been a triumph, being one of the cheapest ways we have of
Country Life2 min read
The Power Of The Bigger Picture
ONE positive outcome of the past two years of lockdown has been an unusual outpouring of books, as people have turned enforced time at home to account. Among them is one very unusual publication that richly deserves attention, but which might escape
Country Life1 min read
The Way We Were
1935 Unpublished Immaculately dressed cooks at work in the kitchen of Christ's Hospital, West Sussex. With white tiles on the walls to reflect the light, the photograph did not need to be posed. The clock on the wall shows the time as 10.07 and this
Country Life1 min read
My Favourite Painting Xanthe Arvanitakis
IN 1684, Godfrey Kneller and Jan Wyck collaborated on an equestrian portrait of the Moroccan Ambassador Mohammed bin al Attar, who had visited England in 1681–82 to promote an anti-Spanish alliance between Morocco and England and had been welcomed in
Country Life3 min read
The Brilliance Of Thomas Telford
THE great canal-building age of Britain left a legacy we all enjoy. We trundle happily along these quiet waterways by narrowboat, foot or bicycle, scarcely appreciating their tempestuous history and miraculous survival. My walk (a nice long one) is a
Country Life3 min read
Adlestrop
EXASPERATED publishers of Edward Thomas’s travel books complained that he showed scant interest in describing crowd-pleasing beauty spots or recognisable topographical features, preferring to digress into what biographer R. George Thomas called ‘the
Country Life1 min read
The Prose Poet
Interest in the life and work of Edward Thomas (1878–1917) continues to grow. The past decade has brought Jean Moorcroft Wilson's Edward Thomas: From Adlestrop to Arras (2015), the most substantial biography to date. It followed on from Matthew Holli
Country Life1 min read
What They Said
‘Nebulously intangibly beautiful’ Ivor Gurney ‘When… Edward Thomas was killed in Flanders, a mirror of England was shattered’ Walter de la Mare ‘The most authoritative poetry critic of his time, the innovator of new forms and approaches in a nu
Country Life7 min readArchitecture
An Ideal Manor House
MAPPERTON HOUSE answers the popular ideal of a time-worn English manor house, with its rambling outline and mellow stonework. The property and associated estate have been owned since the Middle Ages by minor gentry families and, until 1919, had never
Country Life5 min read
‘A Partly Real, Partly Dream Country’
WE feel a frisson when a real place plays a key part in a novel. The Cobb at Lyme Regis will always be associated with silly Louisa Musgrove and her tumble in Jane Austen’s Persuasion and Knole in Kent with Virginia Woolf’s hero-heroine Orlando. Thom
Country Life1 min read
Exploring Hardy's Wessex today
Despite great changes, much remains of Hardy's Wessex. Today, it's possible to visit his birthplace at Stinsford and his later home Max Gate, both National Trust properties, and to have lunch at the King's Arms in nearby Dorchester (right), where Hen
Country Life5 min read
Fishing In Troubled Waters
AT 4.30am, in darkness, skipper Darren Passmore fires up the engine on Resolute and sails out of Brixham Harbour in Devon. The vessel is a small trawler, a minnow’s width under 32ft 9in from bow to stern, with a crew of two. An hour later, it’s being
Country Life1 min read
A Helping Hand
Originally known as King George's Fund for Sailors when it was formed in 1917, The Seafarers' Charity supports better lives for all seafarers and particularly works to improve life for traditional small-scale fishers, making a career in fishing more
Country Life5 min read
To Have And To Hold
IT was the supermarkets that did for stave baskets,’ says maker and forester John Williamson from his open-sided barn high above the Teign Valley, on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon. Not because they started selling cheaper plastic versions, but ‘becau
Country Life1 min read
Earn Your Stripes
PERHAPS the most enduring of patterns, stripes have never been out of style. Having originated in 1858 as part of the French navy’s uniform, Breton-striped or marinière shirts were a helpful way to make sailors overboard more visible. The original de
Country Life7 min read
Furniture With A Future
It takes more time and imagination to make furniture that lasts a lifetime. Custom pieces help to promote longevity because clients are involved in the story from the start. The piece has an inbuilt attraction that, I think, helps to ensure it’s love
Country Life5 min read
Et In Arcadia Ego
THE fertile Vale of Taunton Deane, bounded by west Somerset’s three hill ranges—the Brendons in the west, Quantocks in the east and Blackdowns in the south—is an area of rich soil and plentiful water, described in 1609 by cartographer and antiquary J
Country Life4 min readArchitecture
Walk On The Wild Side
REACHED along a narrow country lane or via the footpath between Helford village and Frenchman’s Creek in the western reaches of Cornwall, the farmstead at Kestle Barton served its quiet purpose for at least 400 years until vacated in 2004 by the last
Country Life2 min read
The Call Of The West
Set in Witheridge, between Exmoor and Dartmoor and within easy reach of Tiverton, this traditional, thatched house is thought to date from the 17th century and is full of period charm. The 2,175sq ft interior has plenty of exposed beams, stonework an
Country Life1 min read
Kestle Barton highlights
Height and spread 3ft by 2ft Charms Everybody loves a bit of zing -it is as orange as a melting lollipop, with great leaves Height and spread 2ft by 18in Charms Late-summer light always works well with strong yellows Height and spread 8ft by 3ft
Country Life1 min read
In Good Time
With a diameter of 62cm (24½in), the large Astronomic polished brass spherical armillary, £800, is impressive, from British Ironwork Centre (0800 688 8386; www.britishironworkcentre.co.uk) This vertical sundial is a bespoke design by David Harber, a
Country Life3 min read
Time For Tea
COMFREY is an upright, clump-forming perennial that looks a little like borage a couple of gins into a long weekend off. Its pointy leaves—somewhat furry and papery to the touch—are carried below drooping clusters of pinky-purple and white flowers th
Country Life1 min readRegional & Ethnic
Kitchen Garden Cook Samphire
Serves 4 4 salmon fillets with skinA splash olive oil1 shallot, diced1 clove garlic, grated300ml vegetable stock150ml Champagne/ Prosecco3tbspn double cream180g samphire1 lemon, zest and juice50g flaked almonds,toasted2tbspn fresh dill Sprinkle sa
Country Life1 min read
Horticultural Aide-mémoire
The tomato absorbs our attention on a daily basis with its routine tasks. One of these, for cordon plants, is the removal of side shoots. , run your one to the base and apply gentle downward pressure until it breaks cleanly off. Work through all the
Country Life1 min read
More Ways With Samphire
Thinly slice one cucumber, skin on, and tip into a colander. Sprinkle with salt. In a saucepan, heat 125g of caster sugar with 175ml of water until the sugar has dissolved. Pour in 50ml of white-wine vinegar, stir and cool. Squeeze out the liquid fro
Country Life4 min read
With Fairy Shoes In Every Flower
CROUCHING along hedgerows, field margins, grass verges, in disturbed soil and on waste ground, it barely catches the eye. Its modest flowers, although among the earliest to appear and the last to quit the year, cannot compete for attention either in
Country Life2 min read
Grasping The Deadnettle
• Deadnettles are native to Europe, Asia and North Africa and are naturalised across the temperate world. Traces found in Bronze Age digs suggest a long history of human use and Pliny recommended them to keep snakes out of the garden • The leaves of
Country Life3 min read
The Slug Of The Baskervilles
SHORT of re-enacting a scene from The Hound of the Baskervilles, you might think there is little reason for prowling the wilds of Dartmoor at night. A naturalist wouldn’t find it so strange, however, given that some of the area’s most intriguing wild
Country Life1 min read
Feeling Sluggish
• Slugs and snails are members of the gastropod class of molluscs • Although Limax cinereoniger is dark in colour in Britain, on the Continent, where it is widespread, its colour and markings can also include white, yellow and red • The Conchological
Country Life5 min read
The Meat Of The Matter
A RED line now divides us and it is drawn with the blood of farm animals. On the one side, there are omnivores/carnivores, on the other vegetarians/ vegans. If not yet as rancorous as Brexit, this political-cultural split may become the great matter
Country Life4 min read
I Love Paris In The Springtime
PARIS was the world capital of drawing for one week last month. It was frustrating to have only two days, with so much on offer: superb exhibitions, including the Louvre’s drawings owned by Giorgio Vasari, the founder of art history, and ‘True to Nat
Country Life1 min read
Pick Of The Week
After 40 continuous years of organising art fairs, Brian and Anna Haughton have retired, but their seminars continue. This year's is at the British Academy, 10–11 Carlton House Terrace, SW1, on June 29 and 30. The programme takes the form of a tour o
Country Life3 min read
The Last Cast
MANY fishermen have a weakness for the latest tackle, gizmos and ephemera. The Swedish word lagom, meaning ‘just the right amount’, was not coined with the average angler’s rod room in mind, but recent kit trends among game fishers have lowered the t
Country Life1 min read
Tottering-by-gently
Visit Tottering-By-Gently on our website: www.countrylife.co.uk/tottering ■

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