Country houses are famously more than the sum of their individual parts. The greatest not only unite landscape, architecture and art to symphonic effect — each element setting off the others to advantage — but reveal in countless ways the changing personalities, circumstances and fashions that have shaped them. Each house has its own story to tell and every story rightly told has details to fascinate and amaze.
Therefore, although it remains important to cherish these buildings as physical manifestations of history, as well as for the quality of their architecture and contents, it is also possible to enjoy them for the insights they offer into the personal experience of those who have lived, loved and worked in them through time. It is to explore this theme of the human interest of such homes that Country Life launches a new series this week titled Country-house treasures.
We have asked the present owners and custodians of houses great and small, ancient and modern, to choose an object from their home for which they have a particular affection and to explain the significance it has to them and the history of the building. These individuals necessarily have an unrivalled understanding of the buildings and collections they care for, so are both well placed to choose and to explain their choice. Added to which, they are presently making their own contribution to what will become the story of their homes.
'In the bonds that link the three together is the very essence of what keeps the British country house — in the face of so many challenges — loved, living and vigorous in the 21st century'
In making their selection, the only guiding principle has been to steer away from things of intrinsic value, such as Old Master paintings or fine pieces of furniture. Such objects tend to advocate themselves to a wide audience and command respect because of their perceived value. Rather, we have asked the owners to think of something that has an engaging story attached. These are the things — we suggested — that are pointed out to enliven a tour or which naturally catch the attention of visitors as curiosities. Alternatively, they might be commonplace objects that it would be easy to look straight through, but which benefit from having their presence and significance explained.
The choice has not necessarily been easy, but the results are invariably fascinating, varied and unexpected. In each case, the person who has made it has been photographed with the object in the house, sometimes in company with their spouse. We are grateful for their enthusiasm and time contributing to this series. The result on the page is a short explanatory text with a happy trinity of commanding images: caretaker, curiosity and house. In the bonds that link the three together is the very essence of what keeps the British country house — in the face of so many challenges — loved, living and vigorous in the 21st century.
Signatures from the past — Stedcombe House, Devon
Graffiti incised in the window panes of this fine 1690s house, which Paul Zisman has been restoring with his wife, Sybella. The graffiti includes the repeated signature of John Hothersall Hallett and the date April 15, 1788.
At the time he scratched his name, John would have been 12 years old. He had eight siblings, one of whom was Nancy Hallett, who also signed her name.
Hallett inherited Stedcombe in 1814, by which time he had already built his long-term home nearby, called Haven-cliff. This was a Gothic villa overlooking the mouth of the River Axe, which he attempted to develop, cutting a channel through the beach to make — in the words of a local press report — a ‘commodious harbour… capable of admitting vessels of 150 tons burden’. He secured an Act of Parliament in 1830 ‘for maintaining and governing the harbour of Axmouth’. It lists the duty to be paid on such commodities as coal, eggs, nails, gunpowder and cattle, associated with Hallett’s diverse business ventures.
The harbour was hit hard by the arrival of the railway in the 1860s and the family’s fortunes declined with it. The estate was auctioned by order of the Chancery Division in 1890.
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Affordable, sustainable, rural: How a group of volunteers embarrassed the government and built some of the best new homes in the country
Hazelmead has won almost every RIBA award going. The development on the outskirts of Bridport might be a springboard for a rural housing revolution, much like the Arts-and-Crafts movement more than a century ago.
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