This lovely bench is a thing of beauty on many levels – it’s a piece of art, a focal point, a meeting point, a social spot, a wayfinder, a piece of fun. The timber has weathered to a soft silver which is calming and sits well in its woodland location, and is soft and warm to the touch. It’s solidity and tactileness, and the high back gives it a reassuring and comforting presence and I find it really hard to pass it without sitting down for a while to take in the atmosphere, views, sounds and feel of the fresh air. I also find it very hard not to photograph it everytime I see it!  

A brilliant and very simple design – well done to the designer and client team with the vision. It’s at the National Trust’s Calke Abbey, Derbyshire. Our local NT site and so I got there regularly. Now there’s a good place to visit – it has almost everything that you’d expect from an old estate: parkland, woodland, lakes, sheep, cattle, deer, massive old sweet chestnut trees, walled gardens (yes, several), orangery, tunnels, ice house (we used to tell the kids that the Gruffalo lived there and one day one of the gardeners twigged what we were up to and hollered back through the air vent! The look on the kid’s faces – magic!!). 

And then there’s the huge house and stables, and associated buildings, even a carriage, brewery, and a labyrinth of cellars. Unusually the NT decided not to restore the house to its former glory and kept it in the slightly dilapidated state they acquired it in. If you’re into birds and want to study them up close, there are hundreds of taxidermy specimens here too – slightly unnerving but beautifully kept.