Ruling the roost

A modest farm building in Kent proved the perfect blank canvas for a joyful restoration that celebrates salvaged items and industrial antiques

- FRANCINE RAYMOND

On his frequent trips crisscrossing Romney Marsh, antiques dealer John Ruler often used to pass a modest farm. With a couple of small barns and a meadow where hens foraged under fruit trees, bounded by a stream, it was a rare sight, even in this idyllic landscape.

During one such journey, John was excited to see the farm was up for auction: 'I'd always had my eye on it,' he explains. And, after a nail-biting sale, it transpired that his was the winning bid. Planning to use the space for housing and restoring pieces for his shop, John was surprised by the richness of wildlife that inhabited the plot. I've recorded the first cuckoo every year since I've been here,' he says. 'I love the little owls at dusk, and we have all three of the woodpeckers: the green, the great spotted and the lesser spotted. As a result, he spent time slowly moving in, before finally converting the largest barn into a place where he could spend the occasional night. He did all this while being careful not to disturb the resident creatures.

A Londoner-turned-countryman, John has a lifetime's experience of buying and selling antiques. He made his way to the Kent coast in the early 2000s and nowadays specialises in industrial, garden and agricultural items, buying from farm auctions and local markets; though anything that grabs his interest finds its way onto his Instagram grid or into his antiques shop in Tenterden, Kent.