After earning her doctorate at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design and working in Norway’s capital as a teacher and research fellow, architect Nina Edwards Anker came home to the U.S. with a refreshed perspective on environmental sensitivity. When the opportunity arose to build an eco-cottage on family land in Southampton, Long Island, Edwards Anker’s thought experiments resulted in a 1,738-square-foot vacation home completed in 2017, made striking for the combination of curved, shingle-clad walls that meet planes of glass, with some cast in bright, unexpected color.
Category Archives: Homes
Front Covers: Country Life UK Magazine – Aug 18
English Country Estates: Flete House In Holbeton
Twelve glorious acres of manicured grounds surround partly Elizabethan Flete House, former seat of the Mildmay family, which overlooks Ermington and Dartmoor, enjoying ‘probably the finest situation in Devonshire’ according to Cornish poet and historian Richard Polwhele (1797).
At Holbeton in the South Hams, not far from Georgian Modbury, it was used as a maternity hospital in the Second World War and has now been converted into 29 apartments, retaining the principal rooms (library, dining, drawing and billiard rooms and others) for communal use, exclusively for over 55s.
English Gardens: 19th-Century Brodsworth Hall In South Yorkshire
The mid-19th-century Gardens of Brodsworth Hall in South Yorkshire are striking. House and grounds are a perfect complement of Italianate green architecture and are linked by formal terraces with three staircases decorated by marble urns and recumbent — probably Italian — greyhounds acquired by the Italian sculptor Chevalier G. M. Casentini.
If this all feels rather unlikely in Yorkshire, that is because it reflects the taste of one man, Charles Sabine Augustus Thellusson, who came into an extraordinary inheritance in 1858 and devoted much of it to creating the hall and its gardens in his own personal style.
‘Today, he would be an oligarch,’ says Michael Klemperer, senior gardens advisor for the North and Midlands regions at English Heritage (EH), which now looks after house and gardens. ‘The money he received from the will was £700,000, which, with interest, equates to £140 million today.’ With the cash came the estate that had belonged to his great-grandfather Peter Thellusson, a Swiss financier, who had moved to London in 1760 and built up a fortune as a merchant and banker.
Charles Thellusson was an avid traveller, sailor and photographer. ‘He was a big, robust Victorian gentleman, a patrician walrus,’ notes Dr Klemperer, who sees Brodsworth as representing a transition between Continental styles and the Victorian era. ‘It is a garden that is interesting on a number of levels,’ he adds, citing influences as varied as Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) and Blackpool pier.
Previews: Country Life Magazine – August 11
SPA TOWNS: A mineral-laced spring could lead to a profitable resort for Georgian landowners. Clive Aslet dips into spa towns.
HOT AIR BALLOONS: Levi jeans, Van Gogh’s head and a dinosaur — they’ve all taken flight through Cameron Balloons in Somerset.
WALTER SCOTT: Despite inventing the historical novel, Walter Scott’s books are often left on the shelf. Why is that, asks Jack Watkins, on the writer’s 250th anniversary.
CARLA CARLISLE: Carla on dogs raging at the dying of the light.
GREEK ARCHITECTURE: Marking the 200th anniversary of the completion of St Pancras Church, Harry Mount considers the 19th-century enthusiasm for Greek architecture.
INTERIORS: Romantic sash windows have their fans and detractors.
LUXURY: Hetty Lintell is by the pool.
CHILLI: Tom Parker Bowles was drawn into the chilli’s fiery embrace from a young age.
ELTON HALL: Tilly Ware visits the transformed historic gardens of Elton Hall in Huntingdonshire, where much of the past is a mystery.
English Manor Houses: 15th Century ‘Rymans’ In Appledram, West Sussex
Rymans Manor House in Appledram, West Sussex, a picturesque coastal area three miles south-west of Chichester, is bounded to the west by the main channel of Chichester Harbour, to the north by the River Lavant and to the south by a stream that runs into the harbour below Birdham Mill.
It is described by Pevsner as ‘a delightful small 15th-century manor house’, which takes its name from William Ryman, a prominent merchant and lawyer who was knighted in 1420 and appointed Sheriff of Sussex in 1434. He built the house of stone from the Bembridge and Ventnor quarries in about 1410.
This oldest part of the T-shaped house, which remains largely unaltered, comprises a three-storey stone tower with trefoil windows and a south wing of two storeys under a tiled roof.
English Country Homes: The Old Watermill In Clophill, Bedfordshire
The word ‘idyllic’ doesn’t seem quite enough for some properties — and the Old Watermill in Clophill, Bedfordshire, with water rights over the River Flit and waterfalls in the garden, is a prime example of just how magical a house can be.
The stunning property is thought to date from the 18th century, with many of the bricks transcribed with the date 1725. However, as expected, the bricks are just the beginning of the many period features retained in this property.
Within the house is ‘an undershot wheel which drove three pairs of stones, grinding both wheat for flour and grain for animal feed’. Although, perhaps the most obvious feature are the exposed ceiling timbers, which run throughout every room, and juxtapose effortlessly with the exposed red brick work.
Front Covers: Country Life Magazine – August 4
Here’s a small selection of what you’ll find inside.
FLYING VISIT: Charles Harris takes glorious flight over the Lake District
ROCKPOOLS: Life in the rockpool can be cut-throat, says Adam Nicolson
INSECT APOCALYPSE: Dave Goulson on averting the impending insect apocalypse
MY FAVOURITE PAINTING: Sally Clarke, restauranteur, chooses a simple, restful study by Dürer
ELGAR: Jack Watkins examines Elgar’s ‘best of me’ oratorio
TURVEY HOUSE: Jeremy Musson details the refurbishment of neo-Classical Turvey House in Bedfordshire, by the seventh generation of the family that built it
Tours: Prefab Timber Home On Martha’s Vineyard
Faced with the challenges of building on an island, a New York–based family embraces the benefits of prefab design with a custom Axiom timber home.
British Estates: St. Peter’s House, Island Of Jersey
A traditional country property with about 20 acres of grounds, St Peter’s House is ideal for a buyer looking for a private retreat.
The interiors are full of charming features, including original panelling, moulded ceilings, stained glass and working fireplaces. The main residence has a striking reception hall with minstrel gallery, five elegant reception reception rooms, five main bedrooms and four secondary ones.
Boomers Daily 