Beautifully restored thatched cottage
A 16th-century cottage that was split into two has been combined again to create a spacious family home
With its leaded light windows and chocolate-box thatched roof, the brick-and-flint cottage looks spectacular nestling amid lush green trees and bushes in the beautiful Hampshire village of Easton. Yet when Sarah Freethy, 46, and her partner, Philip Nockles, 42, first set eyes on it, it looked less than its now picturesque best.
‘There was a great view from the back garden up through the Itchen Valley, but you couldn’t see it from the house because there was a massive leylandii in the way. Plus, attached to one end of the cottage was a nasty 1960s extension,’ says Sarah. On top of this, it was only half a cottage, as the original building, which dates from the 16th century, had been split into two and only one side was for sale. But Sarah and Philip were entranced.
‘It was way out of our price range, but it was love at first sight,’ says Sarah. ‘We’d spent two years trying to find somewhere we both liked and had looked at dozens of identical Victorian terraced houses, but they were so expensive and didn’t give us much scope for improvement. This was perfect, so we decided to make an offer that was much lower than the asking price and were surprised and delighted when it was accepted.’
The cottage is Grade II listed, and thought to be one of the original homes built for workers on the estate of the local manor, Avington Park. Constructed from an oak frame with cob walls, it was altered in the early 1700s when it was split into two properties, the upstairs was installed, and the exterior walls covered with brick and flint. Although it was in reasonable
condition, the couple felt it still had bags of potential. ‘We wanted to open it all up, but we couldn’t afford to do anything major at that stage, so we settled for just revamping the bathroom and some decorating while dreaming of future improvements,’ says Sarah.
Their main hope was that one day they might buy the adjoining cottage and knock through to create one house. Then shortly after the birth of their daughter Esme, now five, their neighbours decided to sell and the couple jumped at the chance to own the entire building. ‘I still can’t quite believe it!’ says Sarah.
As the building is listed the couple worked with an architect to help them through the long process to get Listed Building Consent. It took almost two years of proposals, redesigns and visits, but approval was finally granted and work started in 2015. ‘We were only allowed to knock through in one place and this created the doorway from the entrance hall into the dining room,’ Sarah explains. ‘We also discovered that the floor on the other side of the wall was much lower, so the builders had to put in a couple of steps. Then we moved out of our cottage into the other house for a few months so they could renovate the kitchen and remove the back wall to install the oak-framed extension. Over the months we just moved around the house as they worked, with our space getting smaller and smaller!’
They also had to rethatch the roof to the whole cottage, which took three months. ‘It cost an eyewatering £25,000,’ says Sarah,
‘but it won’t need to be done again for another 30 years and it was a real privilege to see the incredible craftsmanship that went into it.’
Sarah used her experience in TV production, where she planned kitchens for filming cookery programmes, to design her own. ‘I knew exactly what I wanted – a big hob on an island, a double sink with a view, and a dedicated pantry,’ she says.
The room sits partly in the oak-framed extension, which means it’s washed in light and has incredible views. ‘In the summer we can throw open the doors and feel totally connected to the garden, while in the winter we sit and watch the weather as it rolls down the valley towards us, but still feel safe and cosy,’ she says.
For the rest of the house, Sarah has gone for a relaxed informal feel. ‘Overall we wanted a
‘The interior is a mix of vintage and simple modern pieces with a bit of mid-century design thrown in,’
SAYS SARAH
simple look with lots of natural materials and organic designs; kind of modern rustic. There are no straight lines anywhere and we needed to work with the original features, so we wanted everything we added to feel timeless and harmonious,’ says Sarah. ‘We’ve tried to retain the cosiness and character of the original cottages, but with sufficient space for family life.’
Sarah spent hours on Pinterest making moodboards for each room. She’d never put together a whole house before and the task felt daunting, but she gained in confidence as time went on. ‘When I went over the boards, I could see that I’d returned to certain themes, colours and items over and over again, so I knew they had to form the core of the design,’ she says. ‘Also, we didn’t want to look back and feel we’d played it too safe, so we wanted to be pretty bold in terms of colour choices and wallpapers.’
Each room has its own character, but works in harmony with its neighbour, creating a natural flow around the house. ‘Downstairs, the pale pink entrance hall leads into a grey sitting room on one side and a dining room and kitchen that has accents of French navy on the other,’ says Sarah. ‘Upstairs, both bedrooms are decorated in shades of pale green, but they’re linked by a monochrome hallway and shower room.’
A love of art, folklore, music and nature is reflected throughout, with wallpapers and murals depicting etchings of clouds, silver birch forests and botanical patterns. ‘We have our favourite works of art everywhere and lots of family heirlooms that we treasure. Everything has to be meaningful to us. It might look a bit cluttered to some, but we find it really comforting to surround ourselves with things that tell the stories of our lives,’ says Sarah.
‘This cottage has everything we want, and it’s in a really lovely village with a fantastic community, where we have great friends. We wanted somewhere special to bring up a family, so it makes me very happy to know that Esme will grow up here.’
‘We’ve tried to retain the cosiness and character of the original cottages, but with sufficient space for family life,’
SAYS SARAH