CHRISTMAS AT HARPSDEN COURT
A few months ago I met Gigi Wason of Harpsden Court in our hometown of Henley-on-Thames. A dreamer reviving an ancient house, her head was dancing with ideas. In this first conversation, we spoke about old medicinal potions found in the house archive, making her own embroidered Venetian slippers, and setting up a tented village for her tulip fesival.
Swept up in the magic, and with a strong impulse to spend more time with her and at Harpsden Court, I emphatically encouraged her plans for a Christmas fair and introduced her to ODD collaborator and friend Sean A. Pritchard.
Like Sean, Gigi lives in a beguiling world of her own creation and is lured by stories and objects from history. Their creative energies met and a joyful festive plan was brewed.
At the end of November, the doors of Harpsden Court were opened to the public for a Christmas flower workshop and market. The house looked sublime, decorated all around, with crackling fires and the smell of homemade mince pies. At the back, the boot room was transformed into a florist's studio, the old stone sinks filled with narcissi, bay, eucalpytus and all manner of berried branches.
It was there we put our Christmas rocker, comfortable in the presence of other garden things. We upholstered it in the warm reds and yellows of Harpsden Court with glinting brass finials. Scattered with Gigi's velvet cushions, it was a welcoming retreat from the bustle of the Medieval kitchen with its many maids a-shopping.
Sean was wonderful, as ever, inspiring us with a talk about decorating with nature at Christmas before guiding us through our own arrangements. It was both special and fitting to hear him speak about the age-old tradition of bringing the outside in at Harpsden Court, where it is practised so devoutly by Gigi each season. Now, as it was centuries ago, her home is filled with bounties of the grounds and rich surrounding woodland of the Chilterns, assembled, hung and scattered with love, care and ingenuity.
'Every man’s house and also his parish church was decked with holme, ivie, bayes, and whatever the season of the year afforded to be green.'
Anonymous diary entry from 1444, quoted by Sean A. Pritchard in his talk
Old Rocker in Cherry Red with a sofa in Ochre by Emma Grant for ODD, finished with a custom fringe and brass finials.
Photography by Emily Marshall.
