The American Museum in Britain is just outside Bath, in a big old house at Claverton. It’s well worth a bit of a trek to visit, especially if you like your textiles. It is the only museum of American decorative and folk art outside the United States. They have a fine collection of quilts in…
DetailsBurfield’s – Glove Makers of Martock. And not just any gloves, but gloves of quality and superlative design. This post is about a little exploration, research and general snooping about. It started with a post on Instagram (from @henpinn) of various items at Castle Reclamation. Curiosity piqued; day or two later and it was off…
DetailsThe sweetest little book turned up the other day – ‘The Story of the Willow Pattern Plate’ – published in 1963. It runs to a whole 33 pages. First it gives a little history of the origins of the willow pattern – a fixture on the dressers of cottages and the dining rooms of grand…
DetailsRomantic ruins of Dorset (which sounds like a coffee table book) or just some derelict farm buildings? It depends on your outlook. A pair of old barns in a beautiful setting is a property developers dream, it’s good to see that they haven’t got their hands on everything, let it remain so. These are hidden…
DetailsFollowing the acquisition of more bantams from Dorset Hens a couple of weeks back there are plenty of eggs around here at the moment. Time to try making lemon curd (which requires a fair few eggs). And as the birds lay eggs with particularly bright yellow yolks it seemed an obvious recipe to try. This…
DetailsJohn Arbon Textiles is a small scale worsted spinning mill in South Molton, Devon – but that doesn’t explain the half of it. They just held their annual open weekend and it was well worth the trip. Sitting in an unremarkable, modern business park you enter a world of great clunking lumps of vintage…
DetailsLast week’s Thursday afternoon jaunt was to Athelhampton House, a few miles east of Dorchester at Puddletown. It’s not National Trust so involved handing over cash to get in (a not insubstantial å£13). But if you take the time to snoop into every nook and cranny then it’s worth the entrance fee. The house, complete…
DetailsThey love their roses in Beaminster. And roses seem to love Beaminster. roses. It’s one of those perfect little market towns, snuggled into the rumpled west Dorset hills. The back streets are charming – lined with neat and pretty cottages and some very elegant, more substantial houses. These dwellings are ideal for climbing roses of…
DetailsNothing beats apple blossom to say ‘Spring is here!’ So time to see some – orchards full. Back in August last year a hunt for orchards led to Mid Lambrook, just over the the border into Somerset. This trip featured in a previous post. Now it was time to make a return visit. The flowering…
DetailsDorset Feather Stitchery has its origins in the feather stitch embroidery traditionally used for borders and collars on rural workers’ smocks. It was conceived as a particular form of embroidery by Olivia Pass in the 1950’s – an indomitable Dorset WI lady by all accounts. She used feather stitch and combined this with buttonhole stitch…
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