A 16th-century Herefordshire cottage filled with collected treasures
Phoebe Clive’s cottage in the pretty Herefordshire market town of Ledbury sits somewhere between an 18th-century cabinet of curiosities and a folly. With its trove of treacle coloured, traditional slipware platters, letterpress prints, folk-art frames and textiles, it is an ode to Phoebe’s love of pieces that bear the mark of their maker. Unlike a folly, however, this house is as functional as it is decorative, with its two bedrooms providing accommodation for a steady flow of guests and visiting artists, while Phoebe lives just 500 metres down the road.
She is at the helm of Tinsmiths, the cult homeware store on Ledbury’s High Street, which is known for its beautiful, hardworking fabrics, a thoughtful selection of studio pottery, distinctive lighting and just about everything else you could long to have at home – from a simple oak door wedge to traditional wool blankets. She founded the business almost 20 years ago and lives above the shop with her architect husband Alex and their two sons. Lovely as that space is, it is very tightly packed and could not be expanded, hence this cottage. An annexe to the house belonging to Phoebe’s brother-in-law and his wife, it seemed to offer an ideal solution when it became available to rent three years ago. It also provided a much-longed-for chance for Phoebe to ‘go to town’ with her collections.
With 16th-century origins, the timber-framed cottage was in good nick when Phoebe came to it. Spreading across two floors, it consists of a barrel-roofed sitting room, a kitchen with a dining area, a tiny bedroom on the upper floor, and a larger bedroom and bathroom on the ground floor. ‘All I really had to do was bring in the pieces I’d spent the past 30 or so years collecting,’ recalls Phoebe. That said, the kitchen became the subject of a more significant intervention. Phoebe zhuzhed up the beige rental-appropriate units with ‘Invisible Green’ from Edward Bulmer Natural Paint on the cupboard fronts and the addition of a playfully shaped pediment that almost gives the guise of a dresser.
In the tiny upstairs bedroom, a double bed was squeezed up against the window. It is boxed in with curtains made from Titley and Marr’s ‘Floral Stripe’ and a shaped pelmet decorated with paste paper, mixed to a traditional bookbinder’s recipe of flour and water by artist Mark Hearld, whose linocuts feature throughout the house and whose work is sold by Tinsmiths. ‘I love little projects like this,’ explains Phoebe, whose hands-on approach to decorating often sees her whipping up curtains or upholstering a piece of furniture. ‘My mother taught me how to sew and, when I was 14, I got a job in the workroom of an interior designer in Ledbury and spent every school holiday there.’ Phoebe went on to study 3D design at what was then Leeds Metropolitan University. ‘My policy is, if you can make it, make it,’ she says.
As in the shop, Phoebe is drawn to age-old crafts and pieces that are, as the oft-cited William Morris expression proposed, as beautiful as they are useful. In the cottage, they range from a traditional wooden chair in the main bedroom by Lawrence Neal, one of the last makers of rush-seated chairs in the country, to the old carved wooden desk now in the spare room, which has all the splendour of a cathedral piece. ‘It’s an odd piece of furniture, but I love that it is someone’s invention,’ explains Phoebe. ‘I’m interested in things that hark back to a pre-industrial era, when humble materials were turned into something completely beautiful and other,’ she says, gesturing to a long shelf in the kitchen-dining area, where a large handforged key (‘a nice bit of pre-literacy signage’) hangs next to an ornate folk-art frame.
Folk art and slipware form the bedrock of Phoebe’s collection. The pottery, a good chunk of which is housed on shelves next to the dining table, is a mix of pieces by potters that she sells in the shop, including Patia Davis and Andrew McGarva, alongside older pieces. Some, dating from 1780 to 1820, are the result of a rather extraordinary haul that Phoebe found buried in the ground when she was extending the shop 20 years ago. ‘Discovering all of these tin glaze and creamware pieces really fired my imagination,’ says Phoebe, who happens to be drinking coffee out of one of the cups from her discovery while we talk. ‘It is one of the most perfect pieces I own,’ she adds. Her collection of folk art frames, picked up over the past 20 years from markets, sits resplendently on a ledge in the sitting room above a wall curtained in a fabric that Phoebe developed herself, based on a Tudor wall painting that was discovered above Ledbury’s council offices
More frames – all ornate hearts and flowers – hang on the tongue-and-groove-lined staircase opposite a couple of letterpress posters printed at Tilley Printing. Phoebe often collaborates with this traditional printer’s workshop, which is located just down the road from the Tinsmiths shop. ‘I find it moving to think of the love and care that has gone into all of these pieces,’ she says. The cottage is a touching tribute to exactly that – to makers, to simple materials and to the hands that can transform them into something quite remarkable. And, in turn, it no doubt inspires the artists and makers who might spend a night or a week here.
Tinsmiths: tinsmiths.co.uk
Mark Anthony Fox1/6Two vintage French armchairs are upholstered in Linwood’s ‘Lana’ wool in a favourite shade of green. Brass wall sconces from Tinsmiths flank an antique mirror beside a framed 19th-century red floral gouache textile design from Starched & Crumpled.
Mark Anthony Fox2/6Victorian shopfittings showcase Phoebe’s slipware collection.
Mark Anthony Fox3/6Ceramics, including platters by Andrew McGarva, line the shelf above a grouping of small works of art, among them a Nasturtiums woodcut by John Hall Thorpe.
Mark Anthony Fox4/6The eye-catching letterpress posters are from a selection by Ledbury-based Tilley Printing, available from Tinsmiths.
Mark Anthony Fox5/6A blind in ‘Clover’ linen union in honey by Angie Lewin for St Jude’s, a headboard in Ian Sanderson’s ‘Peverell Check’ in tarn and a 19th-century quilt and wool kilim, both from Tinsmiths, create a colourful, homespun look. The rush-seated chair is by Lawrence Neal.
Mark Anthony Fox6/6A pelmet decorated with paste paper by Phoebe frames bed curtains in ‘Floral Stripe’ by Titley and Marr beside a treasured antique desk. The ‘Broadstripe’ wool blanket in red is from Melin Tregwynt.
