Coleton Fishacre is a bit of a faff to get to – tucked below Torquay and Paington in Devon. But it’s well worth the effort if you can survive the bottle neck on the ring road. It was home to the D’Oyly Carte family, an arts and crafts/art deco bolthole built in 1926. The house…
DetailsDorset buttons have become something of a fascination. Having started with the cross wheel buttons from this post last year, things have moved on, thanks to the finding of this unassuming little booklet, dating from the the 1970’s by the looks of things. It covers all the basics, the history of button making in Dorset…
DetailsNatural Dyes – they are all around, in the garden, in the fields and hedgerows, in the larder and the supermarket. And the last couple of weeks they have become something of an obsession around here. They are AMAZING – it’s total magic (well not really, it’s just chemistry). Looking into sock yarns (following the…
DetailsThe 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…
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