Thatch me if you can
Country Life UK|March 18, 2020
When looking for a compact country home, the cottage is surely perfection
James Fisher
Thatch me if you can

SOME three years ago, I sat in an office, anxiously, being stared down by the Editor of this very magazine. ‘What’s your favourite part of COUNTRY LIFE?’, he asked. ‘I adore the features,’ I replied, reading from the script I had mentally prepared. ‘They’re of an extremely high quality, varied, eccentric and always interesting and engaging.’ I got the job and the rest is history.

I lied of course. Not about the features (they are all of those things, and much more), but they were only my second favourite part. What I loved, and still love—and I’m sure I’m not alone—are the houses.

I love the Gothic masterpieces, the Palladian mansions and the Arts-and- Crafts style so perfected by Lutyens. However, nothing can beat the picturepostcard English cottage. That gentle wisp of smoke rising through the thatch on a crisp winter’s evening; the borders of the garden bursting with colour in the spring—it is, as Rupert Sweeting, head of national country sales at Knight Frank, says, ‘the quintessential English idyll’.

‘When I picture a traditional English cottage, I envisage a quaint thatched home on the outskirts of a Cotswolds village, with a pub and local shop only a short walk away,’ he adds.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March 18, 2020-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March 18, 2020-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

WEITERE ARTIKEL AUS COUNTRY LIFE UKAlle anzeigen
Happiness in small things
Country Life UK

Happiness in small things

Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming

time-read
3 Minuten  |
September 11, 2024
Colour vision
Country Life UK

Colour vision

In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan

time-read
3 Minuten  |
September 11, 2024
'Without fever there is no creation'
Country Life UK

'Without fever there is no creation'

Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines

time-read
4 Minuten  |
September 11, 2024
The colour revolution
Country Life UK

The colour revolution

Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili

time-read
6 Minuten  |
September 11, 2024
Bullace for you
Country Life UK

Bullace for you

The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright

time-read
3 Minuten  |
September 11, 2024
Lights, camera, action!
Country Life UK

Lights, camera, action!

Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary

time-read
5 Minuten  |
September 11, 2024
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
Country Life UK

I was on fire for you, where did you go?

In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one

time-read
5 Minuten  |
September 11, 2024
Bravery bevond belief
Country Life UK

Bravery bevond belief

A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth

time-read
4 Minuten  |
September 11, 2024
Let's get to the bottom of this
Country Life UK

Let's get to the bottom of this

Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply

time-read
5 Minuten  |
September 11, 2024
Sing on, sweet bird
Country Life UK

Sing on, sweet bird

An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds

time-read
6 Minuten  |
September 11, 2024