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'We managed to finish the house, including removing the ducklings that had settled in': James Alexander-Sinclair on his first house in the country

The garden designer and RHS Chelsea judge built his own home, but forgot a few radiators.

Julie Harding's avatar
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Published In Features
A female mallard swimming along, closely followed by seven ducklings
'Which way to Towcester?'
(Image credit: Alamy)

Where was it?

Near Towcester, in Northamptonshire.

A quick description

We built the house from scratch. Living in London with small children, we wanted to move to the countryside for two reasons: so that they could grow up running through fields and so I could do more interesting work than putting up fences (I was a landscape contractor at the time).

How did you find the plot?

We went to stay with my parents-in-law. They mentioned that the farmyard next door was for sale, so we took a look. It was a concrete courtyard with tumble-down barns, but we thought we could do something with it, and the idea of having grandparents close by appealed.

'No sooner had we assembled the slates than they were all stolen'

What did you build?

We took down the existing structures to re-use the bricks and the roof slates — although no sooner had we assembled the slates than they were all stolen. The house was L-shaped and had six bedrooms, all sitting within the original courtyard.

Any mistakes?

We ended up with a house that was too big for our budget, which enforced some economising, such as the number of radiators installed. Until we could afford to fix that, we had to run from the Aga to an electric blanket at night during the winter.

The garden designer James Alexander Sinclair in a blue shirt.

James now lives in Oxfordshire with his wife Celestria.

(Image credit: Unknown)

Favourite aspect?

The fact that we could walk through a gap in the garden wall to [my wife] Celestria’s parents’ house and the woods. We loved the garden, too.

Best memory of living there?

We managed to finish the house, including removing the ducklings that had settled in the unoccupied end, just before the birth of our youngest child.

What happened to it?

We sold when all the children left home and we moved to Oxfordshire.

James Alexander-Sinclair is an award-winning garden designer. He co-presents a podcast 'The James & Joe Garden Show' with broadcaster Joe Swift, which is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

Julie Harding
Julie Harding
News and Property Editor

Julie Harding is Country Life’s News and Property Editor. She is a former editor of Your Horse, Country Smallholding and Eventing, a sister title to Horse & Hound, which she ran for 11 years. Julie has a master’s degree in English and she grew up on a working Somerset dairy farm and in a Grade II*-listed farmhouse, both of which imbued her with a love of farming, the countryside and historic buildings. She returned to her Somerset roots 18 years ago after a stint in the ‘big smoke’ (ie, the south east) and she now keeps a raft of animals, which her long-suffering (and heroic) husband, Andrew, and four children, help to look after to varying degrees.