Hillside hideaway (From Living Northeast)

Hillside hideaway

1:19pm Monday 22nd March 2010 in

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Building their own home was tricky at times for the Leatherlands, but they have ended up with the house of their dreams, they tell Bessie Robinson.

MOVING house meant a complete change of lifestyle for a County Durham couple when they swapped Georgian splendour for sensational 21st Century style. Mike and Eileen Leatherland made the leap by building in part of their old garden at 170-year-old Crawley Hall, in Weardale, County Durham.

They chose a contemporary, oak-framed style for the new house, burying half of it into the hillside at Crawleyside, above Stanhope, yet still keeping panoramic views over the spectacular North Pennines scenery.

The success of their new house, which they called Crawley Edge, proves that even the most modern of buildings can blend easily into the landscape, provided every detail is thought through.

The Leatherlands spent years planning each square inch of their project and are thrilled with the result, a spectacular country house that is a family home at heart.

By the time they moved in last year they had sold all their treasured furniture and antiques, which simply did not fit with their new style.

It must have been sad to say goodbye to their old life, but the couple were so busy organising architects and builders, they had no time for regrets.

Three years earlier, they had discussed their ideas with architect Keith Ridley who gave them the stunning designs they were looking for.

Not wanting to intrude on their old house, they kept the new building to the side of the steeply sloping site and built it over three levels to use the natural contours of the setting to full advantage.

They kept down the cost but retained the quality by using sustainable resources wherever possible and spending hours on the internet checking out suppliers all over Europe. Every detail was sifted through before they started on site – and it shows.

All the windows have magical views of Weardale.

From the outside, Crawley Edge could almost be a traditional country bungalow, but walk through the glass front door and you find an ultra-modern interior.

A spectacular glass walkway above the open plan dining area leads to a viewing area looking over the lounge The rising sun at breakfast time is framed in the halfheight kitchen window which is positioned at work-top level for dramatic effect.

Eileen says: “Sometimes people didn’t understand why we did certain things but I don’t think there is anything we regret. We love the house and everything in it. There are some finishing-off jobs to do here and there but nothing major once Mike finishes the last of the landscaping.”

Cutting-edge, yet comfortable, the house is a perfect base for the couple, who both work from home as well as running the Weardale Ski Club in their spare time.

They share space in the downstairs workshop where Mike restores antique clocks and Eileen works on her PhD in architectural glass design They eat, sleep and live on the ground floor but have put their washing machine in an upstairs dressing room and study, which leads to the front of the house and the glass bridge.

“It means we do the washing and ironing closer to where clothes are housed,” says Eileen. “It’s just one example of the many features that improve our quality of life.”

The couple’s state-of-the art multimedia network system is definitely another of the building’s life-enhancers.

“It would be the envy of most small corporations,” jokes Eileen. “It is the fact that we have pushed the boundaries of convention that has given the house its distinctive character.”

The Leatherlands used sustainable products, locally sourced where possible – although they found a sleek, round, Italian kitchen impossible to resist. Locally quarried stone and reclaimed stone and roof slates help the house merge into its natural setting.

Copper guttering will age and weather to complement the stone colours while stainless steel external railings bring a streamlined quality to the residential setting.

Heating is from a ground source pump and insulation is to the highest spec, as are the heat recovery ventilation and recoverable water systems. External surface water drains into the pond to relieve the burden on the public sewerage system. There’s no danger of leaving lights on thanks to intelligent lighting control – another of the house’s unseen, energy-saving features.

All this earned Crawley Edge the top prize in the best small housing development category at the Local Authority Building Control’s National Building Excellence Awards.

Now that it is over, the Leatherlands can look back on a three-year build that had its hairy moments but gave them exactly what they wanted – a comfortable family home.

“We are outdoor people with two dogs so we wanted a place that we could enjoy living in,” says Eileen. “The house has exceeded our expectations and there’s nothing we would change.”