The age of the house had been one of the things that appealed to Brita and Mick most when they saw it, and a chance encounter soon provided them with an unusual level of insight into its history. A local solicitor, clearing out their files, found the deeds to the house dating back all the way to 1705, which revealed that their house had, over the years, also been a manse for two different churches. The deeds also gave them the names and occupations of all the previous inhabitants, as well as, in some cases, an inventory of what was in the rooms. The diverse list of occupants in the 18th and 19th century included weavers, tanners, a sea captain and an aunt of Elizabeth Gaskell. Charmingly, Brita painted portraits of all of them, along with their successors, on the back of the sitting room door, from where they can now keep an eye on the present day comings and goings of the house.
Brita at work on a painting in the dining room, behind her on the blue dresser is one of Brita’s depictions of Hilda the lurcher her Hilda painting on their beloved blue kitchen dresser.
Elliot Sheppard
Another Art Nouveau light hangs over the dining table, where dahlias from the garden catch the light. Mick’s collection of rescued taxidermy pieces hangs on the wall, along with an owl painted by Mick and a C.F. Tunnicliffe etching – The Water Trough – over the door.
Elliot Sheppard
Once they were established in the house, Brita and Mick proceeded, as they put it, to fill it up, partly with their work and the things they acquired, and partly with children (they have four boys, all now grown-up). Their first priority was to establish a studio on the top floor from what had been two attic bedrooms, each with their own avocado hand basin. All that went, and the pair commissioned local joiners to line the walls with whitewashed timber boards in the style of an airy Swedish cabin. Unimpressed, the Geordie joiners told them the space looked like ‘an upturned boat,’ but this only made it all the more delightful to Brita and Mick, as they loved the upturned fishing boats used as cabins on the nearby island of Lindisfarne. Next they tackled the kitchen, which is anchored by a wonderful Formica island which they retrieved from a local school that was shutting down, eventually finding leftover Formica countertops in the same discontinued shade of ice blue. An old lean-to next to the kitchen was eventually transformed into a light-filled conservatory with red and white checkerboard floors, a deeply appealing space that, like so many other parts of the house, makes for a perfect studio.