A house-hunter’s guide to Somerset

It’s famed for cider, cheese and Glastonbury, but there’s much more to love about Somerset.  Alongside a popular private members’ club (Babington House) and a global gallery outfit (Hauser & Wirth), its most in-vogue country house hotel (The Newt) has helped to attract a steady stream of creative emigres.

Among those embracing the county’s way of life are internationally known designers such as Alice Temperley and Bill Amberg and landscape gardeners such as Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt, whose rewilding garden won best in show at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show (which happened to be sponsored by The Newt).

But from Frome via Bruton and Ilminster west to Chard there are plenty of entrepreneurs ‘slow living’ in and around Somerset’s quintessential market towns, where local craftsmanship runs deep.

Freelance seamstress and mother of four Leni Donaldson lives near Ilminster (where Alice Temperley has her atelier) and makes traditional childrenswear at Maggie Rose Clothing.