Peaceful ESCAPE

Set on a delightful leafy cobbled lane, and decorated in uplifting colours, Alexandra Rishworth's home provides the perfect country bolthole

- BY ALISON GIBB

Alexandra Rishworth was determined to create a home for herself in the West Country, where she could escape at weekends away from her busy life in London, and easily get together with family and friends.

Her father still lives in Salisbury, Wiltshire, where she was brought up, as does her sister, who has three young children with whom Alexandra loves to spend time.

She was drawn to the charming market town of Tetbury as good friends own a deli and bottle shop at the top of The Chipping Steps. The town had just enough amenities in terms of pubs and restaurants to keep her London born and bred partner happy, but was still peaceful and offered the close community that Alexandra found she craved after time settled in central London working in the fast-paced world of finance. The whole area is also steeped in history; Tetbury was built on the site of an ancient hillfort, constructed around an Anglo-Saxon monastery that dates back to AD 681, and became an important market town for Cotswold wool and yarn in the Middle Ages.