Wealden Times | WT166 | December 2015 | Interiors supplement inside

Above left: A much-loved teddy sits guard on the upstairs landing, next to Claire’s bedroom, which looks towards the castle and was once the bedroom of a
Land Army matron. Above right: Chunky knits and bright fabrics hint at Claire’s love of sewing and making, while a Lloyd Loom chair look perfectly at home
gave the dimensions to a friend who made it with me.”
The cottage and the adjoining cottage were originally
built by Vita Sackville-West as accommodation for workers
on the estate. Claire’s cottage was once the home of former
head gardener Pamela Schwerdt and her partner Sibylle
Kreutzberger. They gardened here at Sissinghurst for many
years, originally working for Vita, then continuing to work
in the gardens after her death in 1962 and once the National
Trust took over the running of Sissinghurst in 1967.
Claire often finds echoes of Pam and Sibylle popping up in
her garden: “Plants that they once grew appear unexpectedly
from time to time, which always makes me smile,” says
Claire. It is Pam and Sibylle’s work – their planting schemes
and landscaping – that we can still see at Sissinghurst today.
The latest head gardener, Troy Scott Smith, has
plans to bring the garden closer to the way it was
when Vita was around — “allowing a rose to billow
or a meadow to flourish”. He has been working on
the ‘loosening’ for a couple of years now but, as Claire
explains, “it’s a big thing to turn around. The changes
are happening, but they’ll take a little while to show.”
The kitchen is small and neat with a secluded view
out across the back garden. “I think originally it was a
scullery and pantry, with the main kitchen in the other
room,” says Claire. “There must have been a range where
the fireplace in the living room is.” The space is now
beautifully crammed with logs for the fire in the room
next door. The front room is the largest downstairs space,
with plenty of room for a rustic table and chairs and
some additional comfortable seating. Not much has been
installed by previous occupants, but Claire thinks that
the ‘built-in’ cabinet in the front room must have
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