Collecting servants’ bells merrily on high

Most of us will never know what it’s like to live in a country pile – the kind with a mile-long carriage drive, acres of parkland dotted with deer, and gilded rooms stuffed with Chippendale furniture

Once sentinels of the turnpike trade, toll-houses now stand as quiet monuments to a time when travel came with a price

Often reflecting the vernacular, flooring in a period home is guided by landscape and locality, but global travel and interaction over the centuries also began to influence design aspirations

Forget the standard double: country-house sleeping arrangements have undergone all sorts of intriguing (and eyebrow-raising) shifts throughout history, observes Melanie Cable-Alexander

Kitchen island or table? It’s a little distinction that makes a big difference to the appearance and function of a kitchen or utility room, finds Arabella Youens

Vintage fruit-picking ladders – stalwarts of orchards for hundreds of years – are now cherished for their rustic charm and are finding new life as stylish, functional pieces in modern homes, as Alice Roberton explains