Period CHARM

Rebecca and Michael Newman wanted a modern townhouse, but fell in love with this rose-covered, 16th-century historic cottage in a Sussex village. They then filled the interiors with family heirlooms, classic finds and contemporary artworks

- PENNY BOTTING

The one thing Rebecca Newman knew she didn't want when she and her husband, Michael, decided to leave London, was to live in an old house. People say there's nothing quite like a period property; that it has a charm you simply can't recreate,' says Rebecca. It wasn't that I didn't believe them exactly, but top of my list of priorities was a house that needed little maintenance, on the outskirts of a large town.'

It's safe to say that a nearly 500-year-old Tudor hall house, tucked away in a small Sussex village, was the polar opposite of almost everything Rebecca had envisaged. At the time there wasn't much on the market, so we actually went to view the property pretty much just to rule it out,' she recalls. But as soon as we knocked on the four-inch-thick solid oak door, and walked over the ancient threshold, we knew it was the one for us - there was something about the atmosphere that completely drew us in.'