Wealden Times | WT164 | October 2015 | Food supplement inside

This page: Beyond the kitchen is Jilly’s office from where she and her friend
Van Keeling run JV Productions, a company that regularly brings the best of
comedy from the Edinburgh festival to London and to deepest Sussex – now
resident at The Bell in Ticehurst. It’s a very peaceful room, painted in pale
green with lots of treasured objects picked up in her travels to Tibet, India
and Morocco interspersed with paintings from local artists and some of Jilly’s
own work
but discovering the partition to be a flimsy new addition
it is now one really expansive open-plan room.
The kitchen end is much larger than most kitchens with
lots of useful cupboards and island, an Aga – of course – and
enough work space for a team of cooks and bottle washers,
should one have them, which evidently Pennybridge once
did. On the wall is the original, and still working Servants
Bell Box – used to summon staff to whatever room ‘rang’.
I am much amused when Jilly tells me they still use it…
Peter is an early riser, especially in the summer when he
likes to be in the garden soon after the sun is up and so
when Jilly wakes a little later she rings the bell and if she’s
lucky a cup of tea arrives. Everyone should have one!
A splendid old oak table that easily seats 14 fills the
other half of the room which then opens out into a
seating area around the fireplace that is the back of the
chimney in the hallway. Two captain’s chairs, a ship’s light,
riding boots and lots of teapots which Jilly has collected
since she was fifteen form an interesting display.
Beyond the kitchen is Jilly’s office from where she and
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