MEANDERING streams and rivers form an irregular web, carrying water down and away from the woods and heaths of the Surrey Hills, eventually flowing into the Thames. In days long ago, the banks of those waterways were peppered with many mills, used for a variety of local industries, such as leather dressing, paper production, fulling wool and grinding grain. Some of them even created a far more volatile substance-gunpowder-a commodity much in demand in the warring 18th and 19th centuries, although, occasionally, it had the unfortunate result of exploding the mill during the process of manufacture.
Many of the mills have perished in the past 130 years, but a few still survive, including Emmetts Mill, once used for grinding cereals and now part of an elegant home. Its current owner understands there has been milling on the site since the 1570s, with the present three-storey mill, attached to the south end of the house, having been built in 1701. It is a matter of interest that the mill's splendid, bladed wheel is still intact, although it has long been in retirement.
The stream that powered it, known as the Mill Bourne, cuts through the land along an east/west axis, its lively flow being a wondrous addition to the garden. It also conveniently separates the 3½-acre, wedge-shaped property lengthways, into roughly two halves, like side-by-side blocks of Parmesan cheese, each with a different character. North of the Mill Bourne lies the house and its elongated stretch of designed and cultivated garden, ending in a wood; the south side consists of mixed woodland, including some naturalised rhododendrons and a water meadow, which reliably floods during extended winter rains.
この記事は Country Life UK の June 19, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Country Life UK の June 19, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Give it some stick
Galloping through the imagination, competitive hobby-horsing is a gymnastic sport on the rise in Britain, discovers Sybilla Hart
Paper escapes
Steven King selects his best travel books of 2024
For love, not money
This year may have marked the end of brag-art’, bought merely to show off one’s wealth. It’s time for a return to looking for connoisseurship, beauty and taste
Mary I: more bruised than bloody
Cast as a sanguinary tyrant, our first Queen Regnant may not deserve her brutal reputation, believes Geoffrey Munn
A love supreme
Art brought together 19th-century Norwich couple Joseph and Emily Stannard, who shared a passion for painting, but their destiny would be dramatically different
Private views
One of the best ways-often the only way-to visit the finest privately owned gardens in the country is by joining an exclusive tour. Non Morris does exactly that
Shhhhhh...
THERE is great delight to be had poring over the front pages of COUNTRY LIFE each week, dreaming of what life would be like in a Scottish castle (so reasonably priced, but do bear in mind the midges) or a townhouse in London’s Eaton Square (worth a king’s ransom, but, oh dear, the traffic) or perhaps that cottage in the Cotswolds (if you don’t mind standing next to Hollywood A-listers in the queue at Daylesford). The estate agent’s particulars will give you details of acreage, proximity to schools and railway stations, but never—no, never—an indication of noise levels.
Mission impossible
Rubble and ruin were all that remained of the early-19th-century Villa Frere and its gardens, planted by the English diplomat John Hookham Frere, until a group of dedicated volunteers came to its rescue. Josephine Tyndale-Biscoe tells the story
When a perfect storm hits
Weather, wars, elections and financial uncertainty all conspired against high-end house sales this year, but there were still some spectacular deals
Give the dog a bone
Man's best friend still needs to eat like its Lupus forebears, believes Jonathan Self, when it's not guarding food, greeting us or destroying our upholstery, of course
