Labours of love

Two country houses have flourished under the stewardship of their current owners, whose efforts have turned them into perfect homes

- Penny Churchill

THE last time Grade II-listed Lord’s Wood, near Marlow, Buckinghamshire, appeared on the open market was in 1973, when an article in COUNTRY LIFE (November 15, 1973) was curiously dismissive of the architectural merits of the handsome Lutyens-style house. It was built in 1899 for the artist Mary Sargant-Florence, a prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group, whose daughter, Alix, married James Strachey, youngest brother of one of the group’s founders, Lytton Strachey.

The opening paragraph reads: ‘The house would hardly merit a second look as a piece of architecture; you can see dozens similar in the millionaires’ belt north of Regent’s Park, or in the plushier interstices between the South Coast resorts. But as the contents have been dispersed, and as the house will no doubt fade into managing-directorial anonymity, it is worth recording its history as a Bloomsbury footnote.’

Far from fading into ‘managing-directorial anonymity’, a year later a For Sale sign for Lord’s Wood caught the eye of London art dealer David Messum and his wife, Millie, who were then living in Old Beaconsfield. They bought it within a week, without commissioning a survey and apparently unaware of its Bloomsbury connection.