Somerset, Dorset, Wiltsh#12572A
8/1/08
09:30
Page 112
The Old Forge DORSET
Somerset, Dorset, Wiltsh#12572A
9/1/08
15:00
Page 113
[
Sailing sedately down Dorset lanes in a 1929 Morris Minor, sunlight dancing on the shiny blue bonnet, a picnic hamper resting on the front seat… the prospect of smoked mackerel pâté, lemon drizzle cake, ginger ale and homemade elderflower cordial moments away. This happy adventure is not lifted from the pages of ‘The Wind in the Willows’ – this is the Kerridges on a grand day out. And the picnic and is one they can rustle up for you – accompanied by Tim and the Morris Minor. Tim Kerridge takes pride in his cars – old, lovingly recycled cars. His father had raced his 1930s Lagonda at Silverstone, and handed down both the car and the passion, so vintage cars are in the blood. Now Tim runs a post-war car restoration business from home. When he and Lucy discovered The Old Forge twenty years ago they had no jobs, no money and two small children. The site originally housed a wheelwright’s workshop and a blacksmith’s forge; the history went back 300 years. The moment they stepped into the yard, they fell in love with it. The place was a ruin. Tim salvaged what he could, from massive elm beams to blacksmith’s bellows, and brought it all slowly back to life.
DORSET
It came with an antiques business up and running, which Lucy decided to take on while also setting up a small museum on site. Sharing resources – Tim’s engineering skills, Lucy’s optimism, their combined love of recycling of old materials – they found a way to make it work. Lucy was a nurse, and had spent a season on Iona immersing herself in the organic way of life. She’d done everything, from catching lobsters to making beds. Gradually The Old Forge has evolved into a charming B&B. The exteriors are smothered in wisteria and ‘Rambling Rector’, fragrant from April to July. Cosy attic bedrooms, reached by steepish stairs, have homemade quilts and country antiques; bathrooms are scattered with sea shells; Pears soaps sit on basins in nostalgic fifties’ style. Warm peaceful corners full of books invite readers and the Smithy has a honeysuckle-entwined pergola where you may sit on hot days. Children love it here; there’s even a willow tunnel for them to explore. Walkers love it too, but this is one of those B&Bs where, if you want to, you can stay in all day. Which would be a shame, for much of the scenery is breathtaking. This area of the English countryside is perfect for cycle rides, the North Dorset Cycleway taking you through the 113
]
Somerset, Dorset, Wiltsh#12572A
[
DORSET
8/1/08
09:31
Page 114
]
hills and vales of Cranborne Chase, the Blackmore Vale and the Dorset Downs. Then there’s Shaftesbury to visit, home of the steep and cobbled hill immortalised by the Hovis ads – and the Georgian market town of Blandford Forum. Tim and Lucy have raised a delightful family, too – Millie, Lottie, Sophie and Jack. They have never had much money yet no one seems bothered. “The children remember nothing else,” says Tim. All the money they make is ploughed straight back into the
“A more recent project has been the restoration of a 1934 gypsy caravan, meticulously painted in Romany style” enterprise. Hard to believe that before he met Lucy Tim was, in his view, “an utter failure”. Harsh words from someone who has so successfully made engineering skills his tools for life. Each year sees a new project. One year it was the restoration of the old blacksmith’s forge into The Smithy: a cosy self-catering house with a galleried bedroom, a wood-burning stove and a sense of history – along with sweeping views of Fontmell Down. A more recent project has been the restoration of a 1934 gypsy caravan. Once a showman’s wagon built for itinerant fairground workers and performers, it has been meticulously painted in Romany style and is now planted on the edge of a field full of buttercups and daisies where horses and hens roam (its shower and loo in a converted outhouse thirty yards away). Clamber out of the small but perfectly formed bed – three foot seven inches wide, surprisingly popular with Americans – brew some tea on the old brass electric kettle, fling open the ‘stable’ door and the world is yours. The views are spectacular. Their passion for recycling shines through. In the B&B, an iron bedstead, wonderful old typewriters, dolls’ houses and a rocking horse; in the yard, old enamel advertising signs and petrol pumps. Cabbage green and ointment pink… the mellow shades washing the walls and furniture are in complete harmony with the place. 114
Somerset, Dorset, Wiltsh#12572A
8/1/08
09:31
Page 115
[
DORSET
It’s worth getting Tim going on about recycling; he has an unusual perspective on it. His contribution lies in persuading people not to dispose lightly of their vehicles; after all, disposal requires tremendous heat energy. One solution is not to produce quite so many new cars; another is to make existing ones less environmentally damaging and longer-lived. As well as the car workshop and Smithy there are two acres of land behind the house, creating a paddock for the horses and a village green, to which guests have their own entrance. Lucy and her daughter Sophie have a passion for long-distance riding and are often on horse-back in this rolling Hardy country and out along the Jurassic coast. From the orchard planted in 1993 come old apple varieties such as Newton Wonder and Peasgood Nonesuch, which Lucy presses into sweet, cloudy juice for the breakfast table. For breakfast, the Marran and Black Rock hens deliver speckly brown eggs with rich golden yolks – it seems that Black Rocks just keep laying. Trusted local butchers supply rare-breed sausages and bacon, and Lucy makes jams from hedgerow fruits and marmalade when the Sevilles come in. Delicious coffee is served in vast blue china cups. For dinner, the pub is a mile away, and serves good food. As well as the hens and the horses (two Arabs: Jasmine and Ariel) there are Molly and Willow the labradors, Daisy the westie and Pudding the labradoodle. The restoration is superb – and continues. Life is lived to the full. “It’s a great place – it always helps us, and finds a solution,” says Tim. “We plan to live and die here.”
Tim & Lucy Kerridge The Old Forge, Fanners Yard, Compton Abbas, Shaftesbury SP7 0NQ • 2 rooms & 1 double in gypsy caravan. From £70. • Vintage picnics available. • 01747 811881 • theoldforge@hotmail.com • www.theoldforgedorset.co.uk 115
]