Houston’s Historical Homes

I have been trawling through Rightmove, examining properties to write about and becoming increasingly irritated with the poor taste and total lack of imagination on view in English period houses. Property after property is as bland as  possible.  They may be lovely, full of light with well designed and maintained gardens, but there is a total lack of understanding of how to make use of the vertical plane. A period house after the last  quarter of the 17th century and certainly by the first quarter of the 18th century, will have fairly high ceilings.  The higher status the property the higher the ceilings and doors and windows.  And yet neither modern interior designers who ‘do up’ the more expensive properties, nor Joe Bloggs, seems to have a clue about the ‘up’ part of ‘doing up’. Over and over again, even where period furniture is included in a decorative scheme or ordinary arrangement, it is small pieces, spaced out around the edge of a living room, at ...

Fantastic old custard coloured and flint prop. in Norwich.  Who could ever be miserable living in such a place? I suppose it’s probably rather dear, as it’s only half of it, but how lovely it is anyway.  https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-82079426.html I’m not sure if this is the dining room or the library, but it is very lovely and bright and cheerful

Here’s a beautiful little thing.  Listed Grade ii* with seven bedrooms, for only £450k. The house is currently divided up as a farmhouse and separate office, but is being sold as one piece.  I think if I was shown only the photograph and not given the address I would guess the house was in Somerset and put a price tag of £750k on it.  As it is way up north in West Auckland though it is good it has its own walled garden as spring comes very late in that neck of the woods (about 5 weeks later than sunny East Yorkshire.) https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-57787479.html Sorry, Iforgot to edit the pictures.  Anyway, you can see what a beautiful darling it is.  Do you like that shade of green that the front door is, with the golden stone?  I do, but I think I would have chosen a Heavenly blue instead.   You’ve heard of the elephant in the room, here’s the elephant on the landing.  T...

There are so many historic properties of this sort for sale, in Suffolk, that it seems hardly worth choosing one over any of the others.  They are the usual sort, beamish boys, with thatched, roofs, wooden framed and infilled construction, oozing charm and chocolate box appeal and demanding one uses the Q word when attempting to describe them.  I think I will put links to half a dozen or so similar ones at the end so you can see how you are spoiled for choice, if this is your thing. This one is considerably more expensive than similar properties, though it as been added to and now has a total of over 4k sq ft. It also has particularly good gardens, though Suffolk, being such a warm and sunny county is full of beautiful gardens.  This one begins with a well clipped knot garden by the front gate. The dining room is a good size with two, striking fireplaces.  The early Suffolk bricks, which one sees in the first picture, look remarkably long to me.  Thi...

I think I like this bastle rather more than Callaly Castle, at least as far as the interior decor goes.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastle_house It is strong and masculine on the outside, though it has rather piggy eyes. It has crow stepped gables on the very steep roof of the tall, central portion.  It is listed grade ii*. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1087069 There are a great many musical people who don’t live in period properties and collect period furniture.  There are a great many people who live in period property who are not musical.  But the best period properties are decorated and furnished by people who own instruments. This house is no exception and the double manual harpsichord could not be better placed. I wonder what the acoustic is like there?   The dining hall is a wonderful room, with its flagged floor and red walls. It is suitably furnished, and  one can imagine how love...