My Favourite Room
A haven for foodies
Joyce Brownless was a high-powered executive, but cherished memories of her mother’s and grandmother’s baking skills tugged at her heartstrings. So she changed tack and created a home where she welcomes lovers of good food
Brownless may be her surname, but Joyce Brownless will never find herself in that situation — brown bread less, that is. There are many things that strike a person about Blackwell House, Joyce’s warm, welcoming home in Banbridge, but once inside, the seductive scent of home baking wafting through the gorgeous reception rooms momentarily overrides all the stunning visual effects. The smells draw all to the kitchen, where drop scones, shortbread and, of course, brown bread fresh out of the oven await. “I come from a family of great cooks. I remember my grandmother, Lily — she had a big farmhouse and cooked for her family of 13. Nothing was written down, nothing was measured. It was just a wheen of this, a wheen of that,” Joyce recalls, adding, “A wheen was a handful. I remember standing on a stool when my mother was baking, and learning from her as she went along.”
Joyce is even more into baking than either her mother or her grandmother; indeed, baking and cooking in general became such a passion that she decided to change career in her mid-50s. She gave up a high-powered job with Vodafone and opted instead — with the full support of her husband, Steve — to open her stunning six-bedroomed home, Blackwell House, less than two hours north of Dublin, to paying guests and, of course, to ply them with her delicious home-made breads and cakes.
The high-powered job with Vodafone was an unusual position for Joyce, given that she had originally opted to train as a home economics teacher, but home economics did lead her in a roundabout way to Vodafone.
“I studied home economics at Jordanstown, now part of the University of Ulster,” says Joyce, “but I discovered when I did my teaching practice that no way could I become a teacher — if the kids were to remain safe,” she recalls with a laugh. “I had no patience. So instead I went on to the business side of home economics. I got a job with Sharp
“I remember my grandmother, Lily, she cooked for her family of 13. Nothing was measured. It was just a wheen of this, a wheen of that”
Electronics.” Microwaves had just come on the scene, and everyone wanted one, but first they had to learn how to use them.
“Sharp were big suppliers of microwaves, and I travelled up and down Ireland demonstrating. I’d arrive in, say, Kinsale. The town hall would be decked out with 200 to 300 chairs, the locals would fill them, and I’d show them how to use a microwave,” Joyce says, adding, “It was a hectic but lovely life.”
Joyce stayed 20 years with Sharp and was promoted to the point where she was managing a team of 80. After eight years, her base changed from Northern Ireland to Manchester, and she commuted for many years from Sunday to Thursday, not an easy task, since by then she had married and had three children. “I was lucky, I had a wonderful mother and a long-suffering husband, and they looked after the children,” she says. “I can remember leaving the clothes laid out on the landing, and I batch-cooked and froze all the meals for when I was away.”
With each promotion, Joyce found herself moving further and further away from food, and more and more into training, but she did enjoy her new roles.
After 20 years, she moved to Vodafone, and ended up as a talent and development manager there. “I went into soft-skills training, the behavioural skills. I was responsible for the talent and development of about 30,000 people,” she says. “There was a huge appraisal system in a company like Vodafone; out of that appraisal system you would say, ‘Right, where’s the talent here, what country are they in?’ It was spotting someone who could possibly be a leader for the future, and looking at how you could help them develop,” she says.
“I met some wonderful people. I met so many people from so many cultures, and each culture was fascinating.”
Joyce’s first marriage ended 18 years ago, and she met her second husband, Steve, three years later, after she joined Vodafone. As it happened, Steve had also worked in Sharp in the early days, but they only met two or three times in those early years and it was purely as colleagues. When they next met, it was different.
“We met in the K Club just outside Dublin. There was some conference on. I was standing at the lift, and he walked around the corner and we bumped into each other. And we just clicked. Steve is my best friend. When we first met, we moved slowly, we didn’t push anything; we put the children first, Steve has two boys, and I have two boys and a girl. We married 10 years ago, and it’s fantastic being married to your best friend,” she muses. “And all five children get on famously. My kids even ring him up if they need to know something. Steve is known for being a mine of useless information,” she laughs indulgently.
Steve is English, but once Joyce
“I was responsible for the development of about 30,000 people, It was spotting someone who could possibly be a leader for the future”