{"id":10093,"date":"2022-04-22T11:00:50","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T09:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homesandantiques.com\/?p=29307"},"modified":"2022-04-22T11:14:21","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T09:14:21","slug":"a-writers-georgian-red-brick-home-in-dorset","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/homesantiques\/rss_feed\/a-writers-georgian-red-brick-home-in-dorset\/","title":{"rendered":"A writer\u2019s Georgian red brick home in Dorset"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Poppy Benner\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 22 April 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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\u2018The first thing I remember about the house was walking into the drawing room and thinking, \u201cThis is fabulous\u201d,\u2019 says Janet Gleeson<\/a> of the moment she and husband Paul first viewed the house that would become their family\u2019s Dorset home. \u2018It was a big step because we had always lived in London. We hardly knew anyone in Dorset and until then we\u2019d worried we were doing the wrong thing. But the children had left home and we wanted a complete change, and at that moment the realisation that this was the<\/i> house was instantaneous \u2013 like falling in love.\u2019<\/p>\n

The three-storeyed red brick house hides behind a high wall in the centre of a picturesque Dorset village, not far from the coast. It was built c1760, to a conventionally symmetrical Georgian plan. A central corridor once led to the staircase, with two rooms on either side on each floor, and a servants\u2019 attic. \u2018Then, in the early 19th century, the owners must have wanted to aggrandise the house, so they added a new wing to the south, moving the front door, and installing a new columned porch made from local Purbeck stone.<\/p>\n

You might also like<\/strong> explore Deans Court in Dorset<\/a><\/p>\n

As a result, the layout became quite unusual. The stairs are now slightly oddly placed off centre, but we have a wonderfully spacious drawing room,\u2019 explains Janet. The house was altered again in the early 20th century, when another wing was added to the north for a larger kitchen and more servants\u2019 bedrooms. \u2018It was probably around that time the panelling was installed in the drawing room. It gives the room its richness,\u2019 says Janet.<\/p>\n

This is the backdrop for paintings that the couple have collected over the years. Janet started her working life at Sotheby\u2019s, later worked at Bonhams and as an editor for Miller\u2019s Guides <\/i>and now works on the Antiques Roadshow<\/i>. The couple have always loved going to junk shops, auctions and galleries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018Our taste has shifted over the years, from 19th-century prints, watercolours and oils, to more modern works and anything with a local connection. One of our recent additions was a pair of oils of the local coastline by Elizabeth Muntz, an artist who lived in the neighbouring village and is buried in the churchyard.\u2019<\/p>\n

Janet is also fond of colonial furniture, having been born in Sri Lanka. \u2018The Ceylonese-Dutch cabinet in the hall was inherited from my grandmother, but I bought the 19th-century specimen table that was made in Ceylon (as it was then) in a local sale. The table was in pieces and had to be carefully restored,\u2019 she recalls.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You might also like<\/strong> a careful restoration of a Georgian home on the coast<\/a><\/p>\n