Wealden Times | WT182 | April 2017 | Gardens supplement inside

a bathroom. Luckily, the front is listed but the ugly
extension wasn’t so it was fine to knock that down and
start again. Although the outside loo is listed…”
The main feature of the lovely spacious new
kitchen, with French doors out onto the garden, is a
huge classic kitchen dresser, which Adrian’s parents
bought at an auction in Rye. “It was so big we had to
have it cut down to fit in the space,” says Sven.
And it needs to be that size to showcase just a tiny
fraction of their collection of china. The day we visited
Sven had it dressed ready for Easter with figurines of Peter
Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck and various sheep, decorative
eggs in egg cups and a whole set of china resplendent
“When we lived in Germany,” Adrian
explains, “I had a shop called ‘Brit Bits’
selling bric-a-brac I would bring over from
England. I used to get bored sitting in
there, so I got a sewing machine and started
making cushions. That led on to door
sausages and aprons and then I made some
tea cosies out of bits and pieces I had lying
around. People would always put them on
their heads, so I started making hats...”