Victoria English Cottage 2023

This Victoria Classics issue, a perennial favorite among our readers, evokes the settings of books that enthralled me as a child. C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series piqued my interest in seeking passage to a world of wonder, such as the magical land to be entered from the back of a seemingly ordinary armoire. As a budding horticulturist, I dreamed of joining young Mary Lennox in cultivating natural bounty in The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. And although my heart ached for the hardships endured by Burnett’s main character in A Little Princess, I longed to steal way away to the transformed attic hideaway of Sara Crewe. Promising an array of storybook havens, English Cottage brings to life childhood fantasies of exploring the many British abodes that captured my…

Lucy and Andy Orr were living in a farmhouse near Bodmin Moor in Cornwall while running a holiday-cottage venture when they decided to sell the business so Andy could start his own brewery. A friend mentioned that an old stone house on the nearby Heligan Estate was available to rent, which prompted the couple to take a look. Lucy immediately fell under the spell of the property, with its 3 acres of woodland gardens offering endless adventures for the Orrs’ two young boys. Though the place had been empty for nearly two years, its neglected appearance didn’t faze them. “It hadn’t been modernized for years and needed rewiring, replumbing, and replastering,” says Lucy. “But we had done loads of work to our last property, so the prospect of all that work…

Soon after retiring from an interior design career, Sylvie Mills and her husband, Robin, moved from a large estate on his family’s ancestral lands bordering Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire to a smaller structure on the same acreage, with dreams of opening their new home as a welcoming bed-and-breakfast. The stone-clad farmhouse, standing at a towering three stories, forms a storybook setting in the quiet countryside and attracts visitors near and far to this beloved region. “People come here from all over the world to learn something about the history of the Cotswolds area,” says Sylvie. “Over the years, many of the guests who have come to stay with us have become our friends.” Before moving in, the couple rearranged the floor plan, trimming the number of bedrooms from the original eight down…

Sheila New has restored sixteen homes during her lifetime, and after six years on the Dorset coast, she decided it was time to move again. This time, the interior designer’s search would be for a quaint property that wouldn’t be too much to manage. Walking through the gates of this double-fronted Georgian charmer for the first time, Sheila quickly declared, “I’ll have it!” The place was captivating, and it isn’t difficult to see why. Set in a small walled garden, with the tower of the handsome fifteenth-century parish church as its nearest neighbor, the house is a quintessential country cottage. The original front door, with its little canopy, is flanked symmetrically by windows, and a paved courtyard at the back soaks up all the morning sun. Part of a probate sale, the…

After spending years transforming an old stone barn into a beloved family home, Sarah Lamb was quite hesitant to move. But circumstances were changing, and she wished to relocate closer to her children’s schools. “In my heart of hearts, I thought we would never find anything to match our last house,” explains Sarah. “I steeled myself to the thought of renovating all over again.” At the time, the real estate market was in a downturn, so the move was put on hold. When things picked up eighteen months later, her house sold within a week. Knowing she needed to find a new place quickly, Sarah viewed numerous properties, but most required more work than she wanted to take on—and none of them measured up to her previous residence. And then, at the…

After renovating a house on Guernsey and a listed cottage in Wiltshire, Geraldine and John Whittaker were experienced in breathing life into historic properties. Still, nothing could have prepared them for what lay ahead when they bought this eighteenth-century townhouse on Alderney, the most northerly of the inhabited Channel Islands. The couple lived around the world before moving to the islet, which measures less than five square miles. They relocated here in order to be closer to their children, Henry and Allegra. “We also wanted to live someplace where we felt part of a real community,” says John, “and Alderney has that.” The resplendent mansion they purchased was regarded as the island’s premier residence and former home of the last hereditary governors. But it wasn’t supposed to be a restoration project. Geraldine…