Chrissy Harris visits a perfectly lovely gentleman’s residence, thought to have been owned by the famous British banker Edward Baring. Lambside House sits on a working organic dairy farm near Noss Mayo.
Lying down in a dark room full of bang on-trend colour schemes and vibrant patterns was exactly what was needed on the day I visited Lambside House, near Noss Mayo.
It had been one of those journeys across the South Hams - road closures, a late ferry, teeny tiny lanes, a bus, two tractors, a lost Amazon driver, a crazy sat nav. It happens every now and then and it can break your soul.
Seeing this handsome Georgian building appear up the driveway (which I’d already passed once) was just the architectural tonic. The pint of gin would have to wait.
‘Where have you been?’ says the photographer, slightly smugly. There’s no time to flick him, however, the very welcoming owner Zoë Sayers has just appeared in the flagstone floor hallway.
Lambside House is the latest in a long line of rural buildings that Zoë and her dairy farmer husband Geoff have transformed into luxurious retreats for weary travellers.
Carswell Holidays runs alongside the family’s working organic dairy farm, providing guests with a slice of country life from the comfort of one of their cottages, or the beach hut or the clifftop caravan site.
Zoë and Geoff also offer foraging workshops and wildlife safari tours on their farmland, as well as activities and sessions for local schoolchildren to help teach them where their food comes from.
It’s a real empire of loveliness that’s taken more than two decades to perfect.
‘Our first holiday cottage was a proper, old fashioned type of cottage that had all our old furniture in that we didn’t want anymore,’ says Zoë, who moved to Devon from London 22 years ago when she “married a man with lots of cows”, as she puts it. ‘Now we have everything in our house that isn’t good enough for the holiday cottages. We joke about it but it’s true. If one of the glasses gets broken, I can’t throw the whole set away, so I’ll keep them. You should see them – every one of our glasses at home is different!’
Zoë worked in radio and television on political satire shows, such as Weekending (BBC Radio 4) and The Armando Ianucci Shows (BBC Two) before she became a farmer’s wife.
After having three children, now aged 19, 15 and 13, Zoë decided to focus on the world she’d married into, putting her TV career on pause and concentrating on the farm (it’s actually a series of four small farms stuck together) and their buildings.
She and Geoff have slowly added to and improved their holiday let portfolio to keep up with the demands of the now quite demanding business.
‘Although… it’s not as stressful as live TV,’ says Zoë. ‘And I love the interior stuff – it’s a bit like dressing a set, really.’
Lambside House is the latest in the Carswell collection to be given the ‘aspirational property’ treatment that many holiday guests have come to expect these days.
The gentleman’s residence is thought to have been owned by the famous British banker Edward Baring and has been in Geoff’s family since his father, Arnold Sayers, first started farming around here back in the 1950s.
Zoë knew it was a special building but also that it was a big project to take on by herself. The house had been split in two and then made whole again, lived in by the farm manager and rented out for a while. It needed a rethink, so Zoë drafted in friend and local interior designer Siobhan Hayles to help redesign the space, look and feel of this large, blank canvas.
‘The bones of the building were pretty good and we’d painted it all back in about 2005,’ says Zoe. ‘But it was just too big for me to get my head around without Siobhan’s help. We had to start again,’ she adds. ‘That’s the thing with holiday cottages. You can replace things along the way but then there comes a point when you need a completely new look.’
Lambside House has been a given a real dose of glamour and style, thanks to brave choices of colour and pattern clashes that Zoë and I agree we’d never have the guts to do but we both absolutely love.
The living room is a particular triumph of texture and moody lighting which this high-ceilinged, symmetrical building can more than deal with.
Upstairs, the bedrooms are softer and sometimes frillier, each one inspired by the colours of the different sets of wonderfully chintzy curtains that Zoë and her mum sourced from a second-hand shop in Putney, East London.
That’s the other thing to love about this place. Many of the finer details have been reused and upcycled.
‘We’ve done a lot of that here,’ says Zoë, explaining that she and Siobhan are totally on the same page when it comes to making the most of what’s already available. Vintage furniture has been sanded and painted, even some of the artwork is homemade, as well as the finishing touches. ‘I made that splashback yesterday,’ says Zoë, pointing to the eye-catching metalwork in the kitchen. Its patterned design was created by pouring acid over a sheet of brass (recommended only in controlled conditions and preferably if you’ve done it before).
‘I did it for a splashback in my own kitchen years ago and thought I recreate it,’ says Zoe. ‘I’m actually quite pleased with how it turned out!’
When more time and money becomes available, Zoë wants to add a ‘super sexy’ bathroom upstairs and a couple of ensuites, recarpet the landing and maybe turn the playroom into a dining room.
But Lambside House is booked up for the foreseeable future, with families flocking to enjoy spending time together in this elegant countryside residence.
‘It’s nice seeing it dressed in the right coat,’ says Zoë. ‘Before we’d just painted the walls and hoped for the best but now I think we’ve been able to honour the building.’
We chat for a good while longer about the house, about Zoë’s work inviting local schoolchildren to come and spend time on the farm, her tv career, curtains, kids but then, it’s no good. I have to leave this sanctuary and get back on the (available) roads.
Surely the drive back will be kinder to me..? It was.
carswellholidays.com
siobhanhayles.com
