Wealden Times | WT166 | December 2015 | Interiors supplement inside

Above: a galley kitchen continues in the retro theme Above right: there is no
shortage of flowers for the dining table in this cottage Right: Patterned quilts
are folded up on a bedside chair, ready for use when the weather gets cold
or rather, a sewing station. “I love sewing,” says Claire.
The views from the upstairs windows are captivating —
you can look out in one direction across the roofs towards
the castle, then in the other direction to a vista across the
Kent countryside to the Greensand Ridge in the distance.
What happens here in the winter once the gardens are
closed to the public? “Well, the winter is really when we do
all the work,” says Claire. “As soon as the garden shuts at
the end of the season we get stuck in pruning roses,
hedge-cutting, clearing herbaceous beds. There’s lots
of preparation to do before we get ready to open
again in March.”
Then there are the bulbs. “This year we’ll be planting
37,000 bulbs! It used to be a nightmare but now we have
a spreadsheet to help us work out what goes where. Every
week in summer we have our Friday Tidy, we sweep and
dead-head, collect seed and generally clear out the beds;
‘primping and preening’, is what Adam (Nicolson) calls
it,” she laughs. Back downstairs, the cosy little sitting
room is the perfect space for Claire to spend winter
evenings in front of the fire, making things and sewing
smaller items like Christmas decorations. Striking
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