VINTAGE VIBE

Ann Jarvis wanted to buy and renovate a country cottage as a family retreat... but that was before she fell for the existing design of this Cotswold conversion

When Ann Jarvis decided to look for a weekend retreat in the country for herself and her family, she had definite ideas in mind. ‘I was looking for somewhere I could decorate myself and where I could recycle some of the excess furniture we seemed to have accumulated in our numerous moves,’ she says. Thanks to the demands of her husband Mick’s job, the couple had spent several years living in various American states before finally settling in Berkshire.

Their search for a second home took them to the gentle hills and honey-stone villages of the Cotswolds, where they pounced on a small stable conversion, called The Skirret (which, depending on your sources, is either the name of an obscure vegetable or an archaic building tool). ‘It was detached and in a super location near Stow-on-the-Wold,’ says Ann. ‘It had also been beautifully transformed by its previous owner. Although I didn’t intend to buy an “up and running” house, The Skirret was too good to pass up. And as Mick hates decorating mess, he was delighted that there was virtually nothing to do!’