Designer Peter Ellis readily admits that he and his partner, Hamish Davies, did not have especially high hopes when they decided to view the 400-year-old Wiltshire malthouse that is now their home.
‘When we first saw the details, we thought it might be a bit too ‘beamy’ and traditional for our tastes,’ Peter laughs. But, intrigued by the garden, they decided to take a look, viewing the house on a chilly Friday in January five years ago.
‘A fire crackled in the grate, there was bread baking in the Aga, and the whole house had such a welcoming feel,’ Peter recalls, adding that their doubts about the beams were dismissed in the face of all the historic details and the ‘higgledy-piggledy layout’, which they loved. Within weeks, the deal was done and the pair had moved in.
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made the fire surround to fit the chimney breast exactly. - Richard Gadsby -
Settled deep in Wiltshire’s undulating valleys, the building, a former malthouse, dates back to the 1640s and is filled with architectural details relating to its early history, such as the tall window on the upper storey, which would once have been used for accessing the grain store.
The beamed entrance hall and reception room with its vast inglenook fireplace and flagstones form the original heart of the house, while a heavy oak door above a worn stone step leads to the vaulted kitchen at the back – this was, Peter guesses, where an outside barn probably once stood.
The far end of the house, meanwhile, was added about 30 years ago by the previous owners, and an elegant library now stands in place of what was once the stables and yard.
‘We don’t have any detailed records about the house, unfortunately,’ Peter explains. ‘Before the last people bought it, it had been in the same family for more than 200 years, but had fallen to rack and ruin: an old farmer nearby recalls the garden being full of broken cars and farm machinery.
There was even an outside privy by the front door.’ Sadly, none of the historic documents were passed on, so certain elements remain a mystery.
‘Like a lot of old properties, features were added or altered over the centuries,’ says Peter. ‘The original bones of the building are obvious, but there are also more ‘refined’ details, like some of the panelling and wood carving on the staircase, which intrigue us; we’d love to know the stories behind them.’
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Occasionally, little secrets reveal themselves. The couple came across a 1940s brochure of the village in which an exterior photograph showed the house looking pretty much the same, apart from the roof, which had been replaced.
‘And once, three elderly sisters knocked on the door,’ recalls Peter. ‘As children, they had lived in a cottage on the land at the back, and used to play in the garden.’
The previous owners had spent some 30 years as custodians of The Old Malthouse, and Peter and Hamish credit them with a sensitive and considered restoration.
Consequently, they approached their work with great care. ‘We didn’t want to make any sweeping changes, but felt it was important to bring a few things up to date,’ Peter explains, adding that one of their first projects was to alter the kitchen to their tastes.
The couple also decided to replace the contemporary tumbled limestone floor that had been laid in the conservatory with terracotta tiles from a local reclamation yard, to match those in the adjoining kitchen.
The narrow pine floorboards in the sitting room and library were also replaced with more sympathetic aged oak, while some of the shelves in the library were altered to create panelled oak cupboards, which neatly conceal modern-day necessities.
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Apart from one or two shots of dramatic colour and pattern, the overall palette is restrained in order to showcase the couple’s many treasures, which include fine antiques and vintage finds combined with luxurious textiles and decorative touches.
Family heirlooms, such as a rare, ornately carved table from Burma (allegedly, a matching example can be found in The White House), sit alongside the couple’s extensive collections of books, works of art, and ceramics.
And everywhere one looks there are the diverse discoveries brought home from far-flung travels; all are displayed with care and consideration.
‘We have a slightly eclectic style, and like the twist of combining solid period pieces with more contemporary or unusual additions,’ Peter says. ‘We seek out things that will suit our home without being too prescriptive – it’s never been the obvious items that catch our eye!’
bed were made by Mio Interiors, and
the red Chinese cushion on the chair
was brought back from Hong Kong. - Richard Gadsby -
Thanks to their judicious efforts, Peter and Hamish’s home is now stylish and comfortable as well as fully equipped for 21st-century living. Reassuringly, though, the character and charm of this historic building remain firmly intact.
Surrounded by the rolling landscape, which is dotted with cattle just as it was almost 400 years ago, the house would still, no doubt, be easily recognised by its original maltster tenants – at least from the outside. ‘Inside might bring a few unexpected surprises,’ notes Peter, ‘but hopefully they would approve!’