Surrey Homes | SH14 | December 2015 | Interiors supplement inside
The lifestyle magazine for Surrey - Inspiring Interiors, Fabulous Fashion, Delicious Dishes
The lifestyle magazine for Surrey - Inspiring Interiors, Fabulous Fashion, Delicious Dishes
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Above: the huge and informal family kitchen was once the library, and some<br />
of the shelves remain. Right: one of the many original fireplaces<br />
lovely sketches and watercolours of the house were kindly<br />
left behind by previous owners who felt they should stay<br />
with the house. In a kitchen drawer the Gunnings came<br />
across an old picture of a former owner taken about a<br />
hundred years ago, standing by one of the old oak trees<br />
on the estate that is recorded in the Domesday Book.<br />
A secret door in the wood panelling by the fireplace opens<br />
from the hall into what was a small and dark extension<br />
added to provide the Victorians with lavatories and sculleries.<br />
This whole area has been opened up and covered in jolly<br />
chicken wallpaper to create a wonderful bright and light<br />
laundry and cloakroom. Two original Victorian side-by-side<br />
loos (no one is quite sure why) each with its own cubicle<br />
have been kept, complete with beautiful elm seats, and not<br />
surprisingly the boys have each adopted one as their own.<br />
An original dark and stained double sink turned out to<br />
be a very rare John Balding ‘Trone’ (gasps here from anyone<br />
who knows their antique sinks) and, following a complete<br />
renovation, it now looks spectacular in an upstairs bathroom.<br />
Another secret door, this time a trap door carefully set<br />
in the wooden floor of the main hall, leads down to<br />
cavernous cellars that spread out like tentacles in all<br />
directions under the house. Old floor plans reveal the<br />
extent of the below-stairs activity with rooms marked as<br />
‘Knives and Boots’, ‘Brushing Room’, ‘Gun Room’, <br />
www.wealdentimes.co.uk<br />
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