Key takeaways:
- A neglected property in Surrey has been changed into a storybook sanctuary for specialists.
- The nursery architect Anthony Paul has lived in a similar, highly contrasting house in the Surrey Slopes for over 40 years.
He is encircled by towns that review the trees that once characterized the scene: “Ockley, Woods Green, Ewhurst, Holmwood – these are backwoods names,” he says. “The oaks here were probably the best in Britain since we’re on dirt – and earth, for reasons unknown, develops lovely oaks. I call them the rulers of the backwoods.”
Anthony found his home in the pages of the Sunday Times in 1977 while residing in London with his drawn-out accomplice, Hannah Peschar, a Dutch writer, and running his nursery support organization (he was liable for the upkeep of Paul McCartney’s fix of land in St John’s Wood). The couple went through their ends of the week investigating the open country and plotting their getaway from London.
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The house they found was implicit the sixteenth hundred years. “At that point,” Anthony makes sense of, “there would have been alders developing along the stream, and birch makes the best charcoal, so this would have been a woodcutter or charcoal-creator’s home.
It’s actual crude,” he proceeds. “It has lovely oak woods, a superb history, and an exceptional air.”
