New beginnings

Mary and Peter Robinson moved from Australia and embraced English country life, reimagining a 1980s village house so it's now a relaxed and characterful home

- WORDS VIVIENNE AYERS | PHOTOGRAPHY ANNA STATHAKI

Moving from the other side of the world and embracing British life is a huge challenge, but one that Australians Mary and Peter Robinson undertook with aplomb when they moved from Sydney to the Cotswolds to be near family. 'We have one son who is married to an English woman and they now have two children. We were separated during Covid for three years and afterwards we decided we didn't want to be apart from them again, so we packed up and left Australia,' explains Mary.

Finding somewhere to live was difficult as the retired couple didn't know the Cotswolds. 'We had a list of villages within 30 minutes of our family and we had a preference for a flat village with a shop and easy access to London,' says Mary, so they enlisted property consultant Andrew Barnes to help. The 1980s house they now live in definitely wasn't love at first sight, although it is located in a village that ticked all the boxes. 'I had my heart set on a chocolate-box cottage, which this isn't, and I rejected it straight away,' says Mary. Andrew introduced the Robinsons to Melanie Oliver of architecture and interior design studio Atelier MW, who suggested reconfiguring the house, as it had the advantages of space, good ceiling heights and no steep stairs, then giving the interior the desired cottage feel. 'I slowly came around because I could see the benefits and that the house could be turned into something lovely.'