This is the centre of Newent which is about seven miles north of Gloucester. On the left is the 16th century market hall. Straight in front is Harwood House where we used to live. Mostly 16th century but with 14th century bits. The arched door on the left leads into the remaining 14th century bit. Over the central front door is written HARWOOD HOUSE which was painted by Michael and is still there after 30 years. This is actually a jettied house but it has been infilled at some time. The walls are over 2 ft thick on the ground floor where they were infilled.
The house was built on the module of 18ft which is the space needed by a yoke of oxen. So each of the three floors contains two 18ft square rooms and then there is another room out the back on each floor. On the left is a view of the back. The house is a dress shop now and the owner kindly took me out to look at the garden. The figtree and conifer we planted are both enormous.
I spent some time wandering around Newent - pretty much the same as 30 years ago. The green grocer had a fine selection of local plums. There is a good quilting shop where I bought needles for book binding, more cotton and calico, a rotary cutter and some interesting stuff called Fast2Fuse which you can glue fabric to on both sides.
The other thing of note yesterday was that a book that Annette Lucas recommended arrived from Amazon (£1.43 + postage - the money side of that transaction defeats me but my daughter, Anne, says if there is no additional marginal cost then it is worth it to the bookseller. The book is Aimone 'The Fibrearts book of Wearable Art'and it is wonderful. Superb clothes by Randall Darwal and Candiss Cole among many others. I am inspired!!
My daughter, Anne, is here and she wants to go through our slides. We dug them out last night. There are all sorts of strange labels on the boxes. Then we spent some time looking on the web for a firm which would turn them into jpegs and decided we did not want to entrust to a strange firm we did not know. So I am going to call a local firm today and see what they can offer.
Thanks, I've also managed to get a cheap copy!Rosie
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty quirky inside as well, none of the floors are level with 5 to 6 inch difference across the living room/kitchen and slamming the heavy shared front door makes the whole building shudder. Net curtains were a must during tourist season as the steps to the market hall gave a great view of me in my dressing gown. Fungus in the disused chimney, rain water seeping along the exposed wooden beam in the bathroom and pigeons nesting under the eaves. Yet strangely I still miss the place.
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