My country life: Patrick Grant

Patrick Grant began his career in textiles at Norton & Sons in London. He founded Community Clothing in 2016 with a simple vision: to make exceptional-quality garments from the best natural materials in heritage British factories. He is also an ambassador for The King’s Foundation’s Future Textiles programme, which encourages secondary-school pupils and community groups to enter the fashion industry.

Where do you live?
I have a house in the country – it might be stretching it to call it a country house – in North Yorkshire, about a mile from the village of Austwick. It’s in the middle of glorious pastureland, on the boundary between the Yorkshire Dales National Park and the Forest of Bowland National Landscape in Lancashire. 

Why did you choose this particular location?
I found this house in 2017, about a year after I bought the [Community Clothing] factory in Blackburn. It’s a slow commute, right through the forest. I was looking for an appropriately sized cottage when I came across this derelict house, and I rather foolishly bought it instead.

How would you describe the style of your home?
The original house was built in 1690: it’s Grade II listed. When I bought it, there was a giant crack down the middle. It needed to be dismantled and rebuilt from the ground up. As a designer, I’ve got strong ideas about how I want the house to look. The interior now is sympathetic to its age.

The furniture is a mixture of 17th, 18th and 20th century, with a lot of brown wood pieces, oak tables, chairs and benches. I worked with Joa Studholme from Farrow & Ball on paint colours for the walls: it’s a muted palette. 

How do your surroundings influence your work?
I think about lasting quality in everything I do for Community Clothing, and that’s reflected in the way I’ve renovated the house, from buying furniture that has already had a 300-year life to working with Craven Dunnill Jackfield to remake the missing encaustic tiles in the hallway, and Esse, a stove-maker in Barnoldswick, to restore the 1950s enamelled burners. I tried to safeguard the beautiful things that were part of the house. 

What’s the view out of your study window?
I’ve deliberately chosen a room at the back of the house for my study. All the bedrooms and the sitting room are at the front, facing south over the garden and the ha-ha, and out across rolling pastureland. There’s always wildlife doing something fascinating out there, so I spend a lot of time just gazing. My study looks out onto the barns, but I can see Ingleborough, one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks, through the naked trees.

Which are your favourite pubs, restaurants and shops in the area?
I’m lucky: since I bought the house, the scene here has changed dramatically.

Just up the lane from me is the Courtyard Dairy, a phenomenal artisan cheese shop that’s been featured on TV by Fred Sirieix and the Hairy Bikers. There’s also an extraordinary pizza restaurant, Rind, and a bakery, Ambry, in another little barn. I haven’t eaten many better loaves. Settle has a fantastic restaurant called The Nettle with a brilliant head chef-owner, Iain Graham, who celebrates local agricultural heritage. The Craven Heifer at Stainforth does fantastic gastropub food and the Parkers Arms in Newton-in-Bowland serves the most extraordinary pies. You have to starve for a day before you go. 

What are your favourite things to do in the country?
There’s great walking near me, in every direction. I can hike to the top of both Ingleborough and Pen-y-Ghent from my house. Each one is about a six-hour round trip. Malham Cove – a vast amphitheatre of limestone – and back is about seven hours. I take a picnic and enjoy time in nature. And I’ve tried to restore the garden as sympathetically as possible, encouraging in as much wildlife as I can. 

How is your social scene different in the country?
Well, there’s a lot less of it, which I’m happy about. Friends will come and stay for a few days: we play board games, we cook, we eat, we go for walks. We do the pub quiz at the Talbot Arms in Settle – our team is generally half farming, half fashion. We won not long ago, and our prize was a piece of Guinness cake and a cup of tea.

Occasionally we’ll go to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park or the Hepworth Wakefield, but mostly I feed the pigs, Hazel and Acorn, I give them a little scratch and I do a bit of gardening. It’s a much more sedate pace of life. 

What do you love most about where you live?
So many things: the space, the sounds of the wildlife, the geology and the views. My kitchen has windows on three sides, so I have a 270-degree view of the Dales and the Bowland Fells. The sunsets are amazing. I’m still busy in the garden – six or seven hours most weekend days – which I love. There’s plenty more hard work to do.