Tag Archives: The Cotswolds

Previews: Country Life Magazine – May 1, 2024

Country Life Magazine (April 30, 2024): The latest issue features

Local distinctiveness

  • Kate Green and Agnes Stamp take a geological tour of our islands to dig out what makes them special; granite country, chalk downland, The Fens, Wealden clay, Welsh slate, Yorkshire mill-stone grit, The Highlands and Cotswold limestone
  • Matthew Rice sketches the myriad architectural styles
  • Mark Diacono rubs the soil between his fingers
  • Victoria Marston wraps her tongue around dialects
  • Harry Pearson downs a pint or three of local ale
  • And finally, the ultimate quiz

Et in Arcadia ego

For Constable, the countryside was a lover, for Samuel Palmer, it offered an escape from the real world and for Paul Nash it held an inescapable lure. Michael Prodger examines the effect of British landscapes on art

The Duchess of Marlborough’s favourite painting

The ceramicist chooses an evocation of her childhood

Let us now praise the Nanny State

We should embrace Mary Poppins-esque common sense, believes Carla Carlisle

The legacy

Kate Green salutes the 10th Duke of Beaufort on the eve of the Badminton Horse Trials that set British riders on their gallop to three-day-eventing victory

Cometh the ice men

Don’t cast those jumpers out just yet, advises Lia Leendertz

Interiors

Get ready for the warmer weather with Amelia Thorpe’s pick of outdoor furniture

London Life

  • Royal photographs
  • All you need to know about cloth, cheese and Trafalgar Square
  • Jack Watkins tells the tale of Covent Garden
  • Adam Hay-Nicholls relishes the roar of engines in Savile Row

Up hill and down dale

Kathryn Bradley-Hole finds that formality is leavened by verve and personality in the gardens of Dalemain at Penrith, Cumbria, where the blue poppies bloom

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson gathers bunches of fresh watercress

Native herbs

Unmistakeable in scent, versatile in use, wild garlic is a forager’s dream, but don’t let dairy cows graze it, warns Ian Morton

Travel

  • Mark Hedges escapes to our nearest paradise, the Isles of Scilly
  • Tom Parker Bowles feasts on a proper club sandwich
  • Pamela Goodman dares to swim the Dordogne

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell takes her time choosing the latest wonderful watches unveiled in Geneva

Previews: Country Life Magazine – April 24, 2024

Country Life Magazine (April 24, 2024): The latest issue features

The summer Season

  • Ben Lerwill looks forward to high-speed sporting action
  • Tom Chamberlin and Sophia Money-Coutts reveal how to keep your cool when the heat is on
  • Hetty Lintell presents glorious ensembles for hot days
  • Paul Henderson asks top chefs for their picnic picks
  • Julie Harding meets the wicker weavers
  • Harry Eyres and the Country Life tasting team find English fizz in sparkling form

Every picture tells a story

As the National Gallery counts down to its 200th anniversary, Carla Passino delves into the fascinating stories behind 10 paintings in the collection

John Booth’s favourite painting

The chairman of the National Gallery board of trustees picks an exquisite, skilful work that resonates with deeper meaning

The private made public

In the second of two articles, John Goodall investigates the 20th-century evolution of Stansted Park in West Sussex

Luxury

Hetty Lintell reveals the secret to staying fresh faced and fashion artist David Downton shares a few of his favourite things

The legacy

Octavia Pollock hails the talented Stevenson clan, who saved countless lives at sea thanks to their prolific lighthouse building

Interiors

Giles Kime on how decorative frames can give a room an extra edge and Arabella Youens on the creation of a family kitchen

Processions, proclamations and punishment

Time has not been kind to way-side crosses, once beacons of the British landscape. Lucien de Guise follows a trail of destruction

Supporting acts

Amelia Thorpe selects the best structures for growing climbers

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson gets creative with fresh, cooling spearmint

Dropping down to Derwentwater

Lakeland fells form a dramatic backdrop to the captivating Arts-and-Crafts garden at High Moss in Cumbria, finds Non Morris

Satan on six legs

Crushing one is said to absolve you of all your sins, but the Devil’s coach horse beetle is also the gardener’s friend, says Ian Morton

Flying between extremes

A booming bittern and a colossal crane make it a memorable return to the Norfolk Broads for John Lewis-Stempel

Blessed among plants

It may be named after the Virgin Mary, but, warns Ian Morton, there is a hint of the profane about lady’s mantle

Native herbs

John Wright reveals how the pretty, but unpalatable ground ivy found its true calling as an ingredient in the brewing of ale

Previews: Country Life Magazine – April 17, 2024

Country Life Magazine – April 16, 2024: The latest issue features:

Where the wild things are

Archibald Thorburn’s talent for capturing the essence and atmosphere of Nature set him apart from his contemporaries, as Charles Harris discovers

A (crab) apple a day

The mainstay of jam and jelly may have been the fruit that tempted Adam and Eve, suggests Ian Morton

The sound of centuries past

From theorbo to the viola da gamba, ancient musical instruments hold a fascination for a growing number of today’s players, finds Henrietta Bredin

Smart Thinking

James Alexander-Sinclair visits a home near Godalming, Surrey, where a blank canvas has been transformed into a beautiful, functional garden

The legacy

Sir John Soane’s acrimonious fall out with his favourite sons was their loss and the nation’s gain, declares Agnes Stamp

A hungry heart

Holly Black examines the stellar career of Wassily Kandinsky, who pioneered two major artistic movements in turbulent times

Arts & antiques

Carla Passino meets ‘ice queen’ Polly Townsend, who spent five fascinating weeks as an artist-in-residence in Antarctica

Christopher Price’s favourite painting

The Rare Breeds Survival Trust CEO selects a magical work that celebrates food production as well as the wonder of nature

From royal favourite to stranger’s heir

John Goodall charts the rise of Stansted Park, West Sussex, from medieval hunting lodge to spectacular country house

Too divine

A quartet of actresses take the plaudits from Michael Billington in leading roles ranging from Charlotte Brontë to Sarah Siddons

Previews: Country Life Magazine – April 3, 2024

Country Life Magazine – April 3, 2024: The latest issue features:

Spring fever

The reawakening of Nature has inspired artists from Botticelli to David Hockney and beyond. Michael Prodger revels in the artistic beauty of the season

Prepare to be a-maze-d

Few can match the twists and turns of Adrian Fisher’s stellar career. Deborah Nicholls-Lee meets the maze designer behind the chilling climax of Saltburn

London Life

  • Tianna Williams visits a Scottish corner of the capital
  • Need to Know has all the latest happenings
  • William Sitwell welcomes back the big business lunch
  • Richard MacKichan joins the Noisenights crowd

The icing on Nature’s cake

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage celebrates an annual explosion of pink and white blossom with excerpts from his new book

The legacy

Kate Green on how Sir Joseph Banks sowed the seeds of Kew

Leading by example

In the second of two articles, John Goodall puts the spotlight on the superb school buildings of Lancing College, West Sussex

Little April showers

Discover why a thunderous start to the month suggests a good harvest as Lia Leendertz delves into the weather lore of spring

Interiors

Green is the natural choice for a kitchen, as Amelia Thorpe and Arabella Youens discover

A garden from scratch

Caroline Donald marvels at the rapid transformation of the charming seven-acre garden at Charlton Farm in Wiltshire

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson puts British asparagus — a verdant harbinger of spring — back on the menu

Travel

  • Camilla Hewitt raises a glass to Cognac
  • Richard MacKichan explores the Alps in summer
  • Hetty Lintell falls in love with Mallorca
  • Pamela Goodman is in awe of the Alhambra

Gen Sir James Everard’s favourite painting

The president of the Army Bene-volent Fund chooses a wonderful depiction of the Battle of Waterloo

Déjà vu all over again

Carla Carlisle attempts to sort the tragedy from the farce in the baffling world of modern politics

Get the London look

Matthew Dennison charts the rise and fall of fashion label Biba

The good stuff

Mesmerising opals are having a moment — Hetty Lintell dives in

The Arts

150 years of the Impressionists

Previews: Country Life Magazine – March 27, 2024

Image

Country Life Magazine – March 27, 2024: The latest issue features:

A prickly subject

Marianne Taylor examines how we can help to halt the worrying decline of the humble hedgehog, Britain’s favourite mammal

Country Life International

  • John Lewis-Stempel reflects on an old way of life in rural France
  • Russell Higham visits Mozart’s Italian muse
  • Arabella Youens hails Mondrian’s De Stijl movement
  • Tom Parker Bowles celebrates Greek cuisine
  • Holly Kirkwood selects the best Iberian properties for sale
  • Eileen Reid explores love and logic in Paris

Bold and beautiful

Charles Quest-Ritson is wowed by the woodland garden created during the past two decades at Broughton Grange, Oxfordshire

Home is where the art is

Iron-man Sir Antony Gormley is taking over Houghton Hall in Norfolk with 100 life-size figures, as Charlotte Mullins discovers

The Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle’s favourite painting

The Dean of Westminster picks a striking work that is all about looking — and then looking again

A silent witness

In the first of two articles, John Goodall visits Lancing College Chapel, West Sussex, a masterpiece 154 years in the making

The legacy: Roy Plomley

Kate Green tunes in for Roy Plomley’s Desert Island Discs

A real nest egg

John Lewis-Stempel marvels at one of the smallest, yet mightiest miracles in the natural world

Room with a pew

Your seat in church once told a lot about your status in the parish, reveals Andrew Green

Once more into the abyss

It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it: John Lewis-Stempel hauls an errant heifer from a ditch

The Editor’s Easter quiz

Spring has sprung — how many native wildflowers can you name?

Luxury

Hetty Lintell explores exquisite gilets, bespoke tailoring and sparkling aquamarine jewellery

Interiors

Giles Kime is armed with a crystal ball for his latest building project

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson on spinach

Don’t mock them

Plant a Philadelphus, says John Hoyland, and enjoy an explosion of blooms and scent this summer

And much more

Previews: Country Life Magazine – March 20, 2024

Country Life Magazine – March 20, 2024: The latest issue features:

Riding to the rescue

James Alexander-Sinclair hails the remarkable revival of the gardens at Dowdeswell Court, Gloucestershire, the charming Cotswolds home of Jade Holland Cooper and Julian Dunkerton

The cutting-garden diaries

In the second of a series of articles, Oxfordshire flower grower Anna Brown shares her tips on creating a floral spring spectacular

Great nurseries

Growing sweet violets has been a family passion since 1866 at Groves Nursery in Bridport, Dorset, as Tilly Ware discovers

 ‘After everything they do, we owe them’

Service dogs and horses risk life and limb to keep us safe. Katy Birchall salutes the work of a charity supporting these animal heroes in retirement

Mark Cocker’s favourite painting

The Nature writer lauds a work by a masterful wildlife painter

Where traffic stops for sacred cows

Dairy farmer Jamie Blackett is heartened to witness cattle worship on a trip to Rajasthan

New series: The legacy

In the third instalment of this new series, Kate Green celebrates the Revd John Russell’s role in the emergence of the terrier

The very nature of Middle-earth

James Clarke visits the magical Malvern Hills to explore a land-scape that so inspired Tolkien

Planters punch

Amelia Thorpe picks garden pots that make a sizeable statement

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell ushers in spring with a selection of floral favourites

Interiors

Soak up the style with an array of elegant bathroom fittings and furnishings from Amelia Thorpe

Kitchen garden cook

Fresh spring onions steal the show, says Melanie Johnson

Grandeur in granite

The restored Cluny Castle in Aberdeenshire is equipped for a future as prosperous as its colourful past, finds John Goodall

It’s a kind of dark magic

Whitby jet and mourning go hand in hand, but is it time to reassess this beautiful heritage gemstone, asks Harry Pearson

How to revive a classic

Michael Billington puts himself in the director’s chair as he ponders spectacular remakes of plays by Ibsen and Chekhov

Back to square one

What is it about cryptic crosswords that has kept us racking our brains for the past 100 years? Rob Crossan has all the answers

The Cotswold: Historical Tour Of Daglingworth

The Cotswold Explorer (May 28, 2023) – Nestled near Cirencester, we explore the beautiful English village of Daglingworth.

Daglingworth is a charming village in the Cotswolds, located 3 miles north-west of Cirencester. It is situated in the Duntisbourne Valley.

#travelvideos #UK #England #TheCotswolds #Daglingworth

Travel & Living: Cotswold Life Magazine – May 2023

Cotswold Life (@cotswoldlife) / Twitter

COTSWOLD LIFE MAGAZINE – MAY 2023: The issue features the folklore, sayings and celebrations of Maytime; 24-hours in Burford; @Benfogle on health scares, hope & homesickness; from Elgar to Beatlemania at @AbbeyRoad; an illustrated guide to #Uley; a folkloric walk by the River Severn.

Cotswolds Tour: Cowley Manor Country House

The Cotswold Explorer (February 19, 2023) – Cowley Manor is a 30 bedroom contemporary country house hotel and spa located in the glorious Cotswold countryside surrounded by 55 acres of parkland, woods and meadows. The gardens feature natural springs, lakes and Victorian cascades.