Finding a charming 18th-century Grade II listed former merchant’s house close to where he grew up in West Sussex was worth the wait for Simon Laver, his wife Caroline and their three young daughters
FEATURE KATE FREUD PHOTOGRAPHY ASTRID TEMPLIER STYLING MARISA DALY
Patience is a virtue and certainly proved a useful one for Simon and Caroline Laver, who today are relaxing in the garden room of the beautiful Georgian home they waited five years to find. Focusing their search on the countryside surrounding the market town of Petworth in West Sussex, there were only four houses that fitted their brief – Georgian in style, a good size and in close proximity to the town.
“I grew up in the area, and our first marital home was in nearby Midhurst, so we had a definite idea of where we wanted to be,” Simon, co-founder of executive search firm Perrett Laver, explains. “But there are very few elegant Georgian houses in this county, so we knew we would have to sit tight for a while.”
Five years of renting a property nearby ended with a fortuitous call to local estate agent Jackson Stops, which had just that day been asked to list one of the Grade II listed Georgian homes the Lavers had their eye on. The house was built around 1740 as home to a wealthy landowner (with earlier parts of the building having been a cider press, bakery and dairy), and had fallen into a state of disrepair in recent years, with only a small part of the house still in use.
Despite being the first people through the door to see the property, Simon and Caroline were ‘interviewed’ by the owner, who had lived there for 40 years, before they were allowed to buy it. “We took our young daughter, Audrey, on the first viewing, and I think having her there helped seal the deal,” says Simon. “The previous owner, who had raised her daughter there, could see the home was going to be put to good use.”
That was 10 years ago, and today the home is filled with the heart-warming hubbub of the Laver’s three daughters, Audrey, 11, Charlotte, nine, and Ottilie, seven, and their Russian Blue cat, Misty. As with any restoration of this scale, it was no mean feat to get to this point. “When we got the keys, we realised the extent of the work that lay ahead,” explains Simon. “There was a heating system that dated back to the Interwar period, where anything that could be burnt was thrown into a vast agricultural furnace in the cellar, and air vents in the
