Charleston Farm House, East Sussex
Late January 2025
A wonderful walk around the house. I asked some of the people working in the house if I may take their photographs, some said yes, some said no. The PAC testers doing their job at the kitchen table were happy for me to take their photographs, and the restorer of the paintwork was also happy. Not so the women cleaning, one with a hoover and one with a small soft brush, gently brushing the grey bed head in one of the upstairs bedrooms. The people who were happy to have their photographs taken, and shared more widely, were all men.
Back in the barn the wind whips over the roof, comforting, loud, insistent and constant.
I loved going round the house. I love the rooms, I remember some of them and being in the house at a different time. I love discovering new rooms and rediscovering them and noticing different things. I love being able to go round in our own time with no regular visitors or people sitting on the chair placed in the corner of each room keeping an eye out for everyone, and on everything. The chairs, although empty of their person, keep a steadfast eye. I love the house on a working, caring for things day. There is a tender taking care of the people who once lived and worked here, and making it ready for everyone who visits. It is a strange thing being in someone's much loved home, and much loved by those who are taking care of their home. We are I muse visitors, and intruders.
