Wealden Times | WT176 | October 2016 | Kitchen & Bathroom supplement inside

Above: Light pours into the breakfast room through two floorto-ceiling
windows. The oval table was designed by Marcus and
Francesca and made to order by the project’s main contractors,
BW May. The stone surround was custom made based on a
fireplace in the cellar, with the FitzWalter coat of arms added.
The painting over it is by Luke Hannam from McCully & Crane
Art, Rye. Marcus found the wonderful collection of leaf pressings
in the attic. Right: Between the dining room and the drawing
room is the Oval Hall, the original entrance of the house with
exquisite painted panels in the Georgian neo-classical style
the leader of the baronial opposition to King John, one
of the twenty-five sureties of Magna Carta in 1215, and
finally slipped into legend as the father of Maid Marian.
The stunning gardens of Julian’s much-loved family
seat, Goodnestone Park, have long been open to the
public but now the main house, too, will welcome
visitors – and not merely the kind who will wander
about, appreciate and leave. Julian’s visitors will be able
to rent the entire house and stay as long as they wish.
“My mother was the last of the family to live here and
she really only used three or four rooms. In winter it was
a pretty chilly business running down unheated passages
between them,” he says. “When she died, the house was in
need of extensive renovation and it was also clear that, in
today’s world, it was going to have to pay its own way.”
Built in 1704 by Julian’s ancestor, Sir Brook
Bridges, Goodnestone is a truly lovely Palladian
country house enjoying that uniquely Georgian
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