Old Meets New

Making very little changes to the exterior of this 19th century stable block, the celebrated gardener June Blake has cleverly incorporated a contemporary two storey house into the shell of an existing old stable building.

June was born in the big house on the Tinode estate and as a child would wander down the hill to help out at the farm steward’s cottage. Her parents kept cows in one of the buildings and turkeys in another, and June recalls having to pluck the turkeys at Christmas, so the buildings harbour many memories for her.

June’s parents sold Tinode house in 2010. June had been living in the stewards house since 2000 and she retained the house, and farmyard. She had renovated the old farm steward’s house in 2005, with the help of architect Michael Kelly, and was determined to get him on board her next planned project to convert the outbuildings into holiday homes; phase one being the Cow House and phase two the Turkey House.

Read more in the November issue…