These days, the garden of the
Barn is not properly fenced, though it may have been at one time. There is a tumbled
stone wall along the longest side, and some slightly tired stockproof fencing at
the other boundaries. This is not really a problem to us - the occasional wandering sheep may get in, but we like our uninterrupted views. However, at the entrance to our garden and driveway,
there is a very elderly iron gate. When we first came here, it was possible to
open and close this gate. Inevitably, time and climate have taken their toll, and not
only is it no longer possible to move the gate, but the poor thing is also
falling to bits…
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| Our end-of-life gate |
Having recently spent a lot
of time (and money) restoring and re-inventing our home here, we thought a
fitting finalé to our renovations would be to replace the old gate with something special. We
searched online for a metalworking artist, and eventually commissioned James
Price from East Chiltington, near Lewes, East Sussex,
to design and make a new gate for us.
I have recently returned from
a trip south, with our new gate stowed in the back of my van. I have to say, we
are delighted with it. To most people – it is just a gate. But look closely,
and the simple beauty of the hammered curves and hot-forged rivets and tenon joints are
there to admire. There are no welds in this gate, and the hand-forged latch
mechanism is a joy to behold!
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| Waiting in the wings... |
Now, of course, the new gate and
its metal posts have to be installed… This means firstly removing the old wooden posts. The
old gate itself is very rusty, but still has enough strength to hang on pretty stubbornly.
The original wooden gate posts may have been in place 50 years or more, but
they haven’t rotted at all, and are putting up a very good fight against removal....
I may need to enlist some additional
labour to complete the job, but we’ll have our beautiful new gate in place soon. More to follow…!
