Period collector gathers a forest of pine furniture
Period collector gathers a forest of pine furniture
A Gloucestershire farming
couple are successfully
husbanding acres of pine –
without having planted a
single sapling, as
Michael Charity discovered
when he paid a visit to
Twigworth Court
THE period pine furniture enterprise run by Gloucester farmers wife Amanda House started as a Saturday morning interest – something to supplement the family income and give her a break from domestic chores.
Drawing on experience gained from owning an antique shop before she was married, Amanda began selling the odd item of bric-a-brac at the farm gate.
The artefacts, culled from house clearance sales, junk shops and auction rooms, were displayed in the corner of an old barn at the family farm, Twigworth Court, near Gloucester and slowly the collectors and the curious began to turn up.
That was seven years ago. Now the enterprise has spread into redundant calf sheds. The buildings, no longer practical for modern day farming methods, have become the deposi-tory for the largest stock of 18th and 19th century pine furniture in Gloucester. Covering two floors of the 60ft by 20ft buildings, stripped pine cupboards, tables and chairs are crammed cheek-by-jowl alongside wardrobes, chests, dressers and beds. The business is now a seven-days-a-week affair and plans are afoot to convert further outbuildings into extra display areas for the several hundred period pieces on offer.
Amanda and her husband Rob, who runs the 101ha (250-acre) pedigree Holstein dairy farm, also employ a full time furniture restorer, Paul Drury, and have a specialist workshop within the farm complex.
"Many farms have to diversify and we are no different from the rest but its not easy. It takes time and effort to build up a new business and naturally it brings fresh problems. We had to obtain planning permission for change of use and elect for commercial rates on that area of the farm which is not being used for agriculture. But it is important that these details and costs are sorted at the outset of any farm diversification scheme to avoid unexpected expenditure in the future," says Amanda.
"When our two boys, Tom and Fred, became more independent, I needed something to do and thats when the idea came to go back into the world of antiques. Initially I planned to keep it low-key, just one of two mornings a week, but like all these things, it started to take over.
"Then, with the set-backs in the farming industry it seemed sensible to expand this side of the business," Amanda explains.
"There has always been a strong demand for good period pine pieces. It is easy to live with, never goes out of fashion and looks right in both old and new houses. Also the current vogue for free-standing country cottage style kitchens has really taken off, so that items such as Welsh dressers and waist-high cupboards are highly sort after."
Amanda still attends the occasional furniture auction but now most of her stock comes in from other dealers. This in turn is sent to specialist strippers, before being restored and polished at the farm workshop. Like most antiques, pine furniture is also an investment. Five years ago a Victorian chest of drawers fetched around £250, now the same item commands upwards of £400.
"Some of my older customers have moved to smaller houses and have returned pieces for resale, they are always pleasantly surprised at the increase in value," says Amanda.
Among the more unusual antiques currently on offer at Twigworth Court Farm, is a 14ft long pine table that once lived in an Irish convent, an original "refrigerator" – a lead-lined pine cupboard in which blocks of ice provided the chill effect; a unique two-person Victorian "thunderbox" seat from an earth closet and a pair of Victorian coffin stands! But these are the oddities amid a vast selection of period pine furniture to suit all tastes and budgets.
The growing number of visitors, both buyers and browsers, treat a visit to the farm almost as a day out, with mums and dads sauntering among the furniture, while their children are kept amused by the farm animals. The most popular are the flock of a dozen geese who double up as security guards in the farmyard.