Could there be such a thing as a contacts-book gene? If so, Isabella Blow met
her match in her husband, Detmar Blow. On the one hand, we have Isabella,
purveyor of fashion, saucer-eyed muse of society milliner Philip Treacy, the
woman who discovered designer Alexander McQueen and who put Sophie Dahl on
the catwalk. On the other, we have Detmar, an art dealer associated with the
hippest names in contemporary art, with a family estate richly linked to
England’s creative heritage.
Most weeks, the couple will be found living a suitably fashionable life in the
middle of London. However, at weekends, they usually repair to Hilles,
Detmar’s sumptuous 1,000-acre estate near Painswick in the Cotswolds. Having
spent more than a decade perfecting Hilles and its assorted properties as a
sort of living, pastoral version of Vogue by way of The New Yorker, they are
now looking for some long-term tenants to join the party. Naturally they
have to be the right kind of tenants.
If you feel you have the stomach for Isabella and Detmar’s bohemian life, read
on.
At the apex of the estate is Hilles itself. The house could almost be a gabled
Elizabethan mansion, standing high on the crest of the Cotswolds. The M4
burbles away beneath it, while its imperious views lead over to Gloucester
and the Malvern Hills on one side, and on the other to Wales and the Severn
Estuary.
Indoors, things get even grander, with vast portraits of Charles I jostling
for notice alongside tapestries copied from Raphael, oak-panelled rooms and
a 40ft William Morris carpet made by the artist himself. Of course, it’s all
wonderfully shabby chic, with several large holes in the Morris carpet and
inadvertent additions from the couple’s small black pug, which waddles
about, snorting and, occasionally, weeing.
The mansion was built in the 1920s by Detmar’s grandfather, also Detmar Blow,
in impeccable Arts and Crafts style. Here, he welcomed luminaries of the
early 20th-century art world. Blow was a friend of Ruskin and Morris, a peer
of Lutyens, knew Constance Wilde (Oscar’s wife), drank with Rodin, and had
the original Wendy from Peter Pan as a sister-in-law. The atmosphere at
Hilles was brimming with the latest in contemporary culture.
Eighty years on, it is much the same. The Blows’ weekend guests are in the
order of artists Tracey Emin and Juergen Teller, gallery owner Jay Jopling,
and designers McQueen and Treacy. “It’s the perfect entertaining house,”
agrees Detmar as we peer through Hilles’s latticed windows to take in the
astounding views of the Cotswolds. He grabs the pug and tucks him under his
arm. “That’s my grandfather. Drawn by Augustus John. Romantic-looking chap,
wasn’t he?” Romantic, and also philanthropic: having built the big house,
Grandfather Blow then went on to buy 1,000 acres of the surrounding land,
including some tumbledown farmhouses in the vicinity. Post-war England was
in the middle of an agricultural depression and needed inward investment. He
rebuilt the farmhouses and tenanted them with veterans from the first world
war, some of whom survived to the 1970s. Recently, the houses have been
lived in by Detmar and Isabella’s famous friends, such as Jasper Conran.
Now, however, they have decided to look for tenants from a wider market. “We
didn’t want to sell them,” says Detmar, “and it was getting difficult to
find people to live in them, so rather than leave them empty, we’re renting
them out.” What, to anybody? He giggles. “Well, they can’t be dull. I mean,
one of the cottages was rented to a barrister, but he had to be dispatched.
He was just too boring.”
We go to visit the properties. I’m in the car with Detmar and the pug, which
is, mercifully, only snorting all over my sleeve. We go bouncing down a lane
and arrive at Cherry Hill Cottage, a small stone building in the fold of
rolling fields. Before the dull days of the barrister tenancy, the cottage
was rented by Nicholas Shakespeare, then literary editor of The Daily
Telegraph, who apparently wrote a couple of books there. It has spectacular
views over fields that are now utilised by the local shoot. “So you’d have
to not mind about that,” says Detmar. What if a very noisy family takes the
cottage for a weekend retreat? “Don’t mind at all, as long as they aren’t
bankers, ha ha.” Cherry Hill Cottage, which has two bedrooms, an office, two
reception rooms and a large garden, is available for £900 a month.
We continue our journey around the estate. “We rented this one to Rebecca and
Flora Fraser,” says Detmar, as we bowl up to Upper Holcombe Farmhouse. Lady
Antonia’s daughters, I suppose? The very same. “When Antonia and Harold
(Pinter) came to visit, she said, ‘Oh, Harold, this is our Cottage Period,’”
says Detmar with a laugh.
Now available for £2,500 a month, this five-bedroom farmhouse with large
garden could be a marvellous family country retreat. The rooms are
substantial, again with amazing views, and there’s a big attic area that
would be perfect for children. Indeed, as Detmar explains, he himself lived
here. “Yes, I was shoved here for a couple of years.” A pre-university
experience when he was in his late teens? Not quite. “I lived here when I
was three. My father farmed me out with a nanny. My mother had three babies
in three years, but my parents were the sort who didn’t really like young
children. If my mother were to say something trashy, my father would say,
‘Another word from you, Helga, and I'll give you another baby.’”
Somewhat stunned by this information, I wander about the whitewashed rooms
with Detmar, the pug and the land agent, Richard Skeates, from Lane Fox,
Cirencester. Is the price reasonable? Skeates tells me (later) that if
tenants are willing to do a bit of refurbishment, then a discount might be
considered. And if the tenant is the Right Type, a deal might be brokered.
What is the Right Type? “Well,” says Skeates, “the whole ethos of the Hilles
estate has always been for arty people who could bring some sort of cultural
flair to Hilles. Detmar and Isabella favour such types.” There’s arty,
however, and there’s arty. Not many people have McQueen as a personal
friend, or Conran, not to mention close relations of Pinter as tenants.
Frankly, your cultural flair would need to be impeccable to stand a chance
of fitting in.
“Well, the estate is like a community, and tenants would be seen as part of
the family. Detmar and Isabella would expect to come over and have a chat or
a glass of Pimm’s. That’s the way it is.” How will you be able to tell
whether one tenant is going to be more culturally interesting than the next?
“Er, we will vet them on the phone, I think,” says Skeates. How? Questions
about what Vogue is suggesting for next season, or about who might win the
Turner Prize? Detmar hoots with laughter again and scoops up the pug under
his arm. We spin off in the car to have lunch with Isabella in a heavenly
local pub. Over whitebait and chips at the
16th-century Woolpack in Slad (where Laurie Lee was wont to drink), Isabella
is holding court, in a black and white dogtooth-check mac and a hat that
resembles a flying saucer. She reminds Detmar that Hilles has a link with
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and other Edwardian spiritualists.
“Oh, yes,” Detmar cackles, “Issy has got this all from some tarot reader down
the road.” “She is not a tarot reader,” says his spouse,
severely. “Could you please show some respect, Detmar?” Her husband thus
silenced, La Blow goes on to tell me that she has been in charge of
replanting the Hilles estate with more than 1,000 trees and has plans to
found an organic dairy on the site. “To make Blow Smoothies! Don’ t you
think that is the most brilliant idea?” Before I can think of an adequate
reply to this notion, she dives into an exquisite handbag. “Look! My
lipstick!” It is a bespoke Isabella Blow lipstick, designed by her, made by
Mac. The colour is shocking pink; the name, naturally, Blow.
Should you dare to venture yourself as a tenant, life at Hilles would
certainly never be dull. But the notion of a Blow Smoothie is surely a
misnomer; surely, what the brilliantly connected, creative and exuberant
Blow family should devise for pre-dinner drinks on their country estate is a
heady, intoxicating and potentially explosive Blow Cocktail.
For rental details on the two Cotswold cottages, call Richard Skeates at
Lane Fox, Cirencester, 01285 659 661, www.lanefox.co.uk
Blow lipstick available at Mac in Harvey Nichols from tomorrow, £11
