Art, music and a remote and beautifullocation make Richard and Gina Farncombe’s

home and holiday cottage near Ullswaterespecially attractive. Sue Allan visits themand calls in also at Gina’s studio nearby

Photography by Phil Rigby

CROOKWATH BARN AND COTTAGE

It’s a glorious morning in Matterdale as I head to Richard and Gina Farncombe’shome at High Row, near Dockray, and when the hidden valley of

Dowthwaitehead and Aira Beck opens up infront of me I’m struck by how wonderful itmust be to live in a place like this.

The barn conversion where theFarncombes live is next to their originalcottage, which they now let as holidayaccommodation. Richard takes care of thecottage bookings and works as a remedialmasseur in Penrith’s Angel Clinic. Gina is an artist and yoga teacher and their childrenhave flown the nest, with son Jeremy inKendal and daughter Emily in Leeds.

Richard starts by showing me Lucy’sWood, just across a field, telling me about thewood as we walk with his labrador Jen: “Our daughter Lucy got cancer when she was15 and before she died said she wantedeveryone to be able to enjoy a wild place, so

Givingpeace

a chance

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when this 25 acres of fellside came up webought it, planted 6,000 English broadleavedtrees – and 16 years on we now have a wood.”

With the sun shining through the youngtrees, we walk a circuitous route via woodenbenches, Buddhist prayer wheels, carvedstones, a swing and a stone-built horseshoeseat with spectacular views over the Ullswaterfells and Aira Beck with its waterfalls andpools below.

It’s a quiet and contemplative place, withthe only sounds being birdsong and therushing of the beck. And it’s a place theFarncombes love sharing with other people –walkers who just happen upon the wood andaudiences for the Music in the Wood concertsthey put on in Lucy’s Barn, an ancientstructure Richard restored with friends andfamily in 1998. The four concerts they put onin 2012 raised more than £5,000 for Hospiceat Home Carlisle and North Lakeland, andtwo weekends of folk, classical and jazz music

are being planned for next year.The barn is always open so walkers can

call by any time, and judging by the visitorbook they often do and are entranced by thisunique space with simple wooden benchesand a labyrinth painted on the floor, in thecentre of which a lamp burns for world peace.

“It’s a wonderful place to listen to music,”Richard says. “The acoustic is perfect.”

Just four years after restoring the barn,Crookwath Cottage came up for sale and theFarncombes bought it. So, as Richard says:“Everything changed because of Lucy.”

The main rooms of the Farncombe’s home,Crookwath Barn, are all on the first floor: alight and spacious kitchen with pale bluepainted units and oak worktops andcupboards, an ingenious larder cupboardwith slate shelves, insulated doors and a ventto the outside, a cream Aga and views overthe valley from the large window. Theunusual kitchen table was made by Richard ➨

Gina in her studio bothy at Ulcat Rowin Matterdale; below: a carved stone

near the entrance to CrookwathBarn; opposite page: Crookwath Barn

and Cottage are on the far left

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and a friend from offcuts of oak gluedtogether: “The end grains are brilliant forchopping as they’re so hard,” says Richard.“And I always make my bread on it too.”

The kitchen opens onto a book-lineddining area, overlooking the sitting room andwith another table designed by Richard witha yin and yang inlay.

The double-height sitting room has loftybeams but is a cosy space with warm colours,floor to ceiling curtains, comfy sofas and arustic stone fireplace with log burner.

Next to it, the sun room-cum-sparebedroom has a clever pull-out bed andbreathtaking views to the Ullswater fells. Thetrompe-l’oeil bookcase on the wall apparentlyhides a secret passage, currently blocked off,to the next door cottage.

Above, there’s a little bedroom straight out

of a fairytale, with a bed tucked under theeaves and a shuttered window looking outover the living room. It’s a room any childwould love and the resident teddies show it’sused by the Farncombe grandchildren whenthey visit.

The barn conversion grew organically,says Richard: “We extended the cottage tocreate a bedroom and shower room first.Then a couple of years later we did the nextbit and so on. We didn’t use an architect butdid have some great workmen, including theDickinson brothers from Ullswater who didall the woodwork.”

Downstairs from the kitchen – past a tinycarved wooden door to a hole in the wallGina had made especially for children toexplore and hide their treasures in – off theflagged hallway, are the master bedroom anda shower room with custom-made curvy

wooden shelves and a circular shower linedwith travertine marble tiles. The bedroom isanother room with an amazing view – of MellFell across the valley and red squirrels, temptedon to the windowsill by a feeder full of nuts.

Despite being a holiday cottage,Crookwath Cottage next door feels like awell-loved family home with its books,games, open fires and big and beamedfarmhouse kitchen with Aga, bookshelvesand squishy sofa. The original range is nowan open fire in the long sitting room, whosedeep red walls show off Gina’s paintings oflocal landscapes and sheep. All threebedrooms sport original art made by familyand friends as well as great views.

After I’ve seen round the Farncombe’s homeand holiday cottage, Richard takes me to meetGina, who is working at her studio two milesaway at Ulcat Row. The quaint bothy she rents

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The bright kitchen, which has a table Richard uses to make bread, opens onto the dining room

The sun room, with views of Watermillock Common The yin and yang table made by Richard The master bedroom with custom-made shelves

➨

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Above: the holiday cottage has acolourful interior, with many of Gina’s

paintings hanging on the walls

➨

Left, from top: Richard on a swing hung on abeam between the kitchen and dining room inhis home; the tiny door for the Farncombes’grandchildren; Gina doing yoga in her studio

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as her studio is lined with paintings as well asworks in progress and boxes of cards featuringher work. She took part in the C-Art OpenStudios in September when more than 200people came to see her work.

“Of course we’re also on a footpath and acycle route, and I did offer teas and coffeesand lemon drizzle cake,” says Gina. “I made£330 for Eden Community Outdoors, thecharity my son Jeremy works for.”

Much of Gina’s work on the walls appearsto be watercolours and pastels, but she saysshe is primarily an oil painter: “This year,though, I broke out and decided to dowatercolour as I love the fluidity of it. I wasinspired by an artist called Ann Blockley, whojust lets the paint do what it wants and onlyslightly controls it. It means you never quiteknow it will turn out – which I like.”

Sheep seem to be a popular subject. Ginasmiles: “Yes. Two years ago when we wereblocked in by snow I just painted the sheep inthe snow all around me. I absolutely fell inlove with Herdwicks. They just accept the lifethey’ve got, trotting out every morning to digand get at the grass and eating reeds.

“This ram here is called Percy,” she sayspicking up a portrait of a Herdwick tup withcurly horns. “Percy was a prize ram, althoughhe always walked with a limp because hisback leg was badly pecked at by crows justafter he was born.”

Ilove the vibrant colours she puts into theCumbrian landscape, although Gina saysthey sometimes frighten people: “I reallysee that vibrancy in the landscape and

often paint a warm colour like red on thecanvas first. It’s the complementary colour ofgreen and creates a vitality and excitement.”

Many of Gina’s landscapes were painted inFrance including a woodland scene inBurgundy with dappled light among theleaves. It was created in an unusual way, saysGina: “It was a very hot day but beautifullycool in the wood, so I sat in this ride in thecentre of the forest with much rustling in the undergrowth, which I think was wildboar. Eighty per cent of it was done upsidedown, painting marks which seem to give itenergy and movement before turning it overto finish.”

Nature informs her work, whether it’slandscape or animals, and she likes sketchingpeople’s faces too. Lots of her drawings areon her computer – puppies snuggled together,Richard driving, Richard reading the paperand grandchildren – so she can show people,believing that sketches are a glimpse into themind of an artist.

Does she paint primarily for herself orwith an eye on a potential market?

She laughs. “Oh, I’m too long in the toothfor that. I just do what I want to.”

■ www.crookwathcottage.co.uk,tel: 01768 482378 or 07826 822914www.musicinthewood.co.ukwww.ginafarncombeartist.co.ukwww.northlakesyogagroup.org.uk

Lucy’s Wood and Barn

‘Before Lucy died she said she wanted everyoneto be able to enjoy a wild place, so when this

25 acres of fellside came up we bought it’

Life

Richard and Gina with their black Lab Jen in Lucy’s Wood, planted in memory of their daughter

Above and below: Lucy’s Barn, with Gowbarrow in the background

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