Barlaston Hall for The Times
From £1 house to a glamorous party pad
This 18th-century beauty with riotous decor has come a long way
It takes a woman of mettle to take on a stately home. Once owned by Wedgwood, today the family of Claire Gilchrist-Dick are the modern-day chatelaines.
First-time guests are in for a surprise when they come to visit Barlaston Hall in Staffordshire. Not by the architecture – the classical grandeur has been painstakingly restored to its 18th-century original – but by the eclectic mise-en-scène. Horses and swans: animals are a theme. How about the four-way conversation chair in the entrance hall? It is upholstered in a jazzy leopard print. The piano is a delight in shocking pink and, in the maximalist dining room, the walls and ceiling feature filigree plasterwork to rival a scene from Bridgerton. At its crest is a magnificent oil painting by artist Thomas Pickering of the Sir Thomas Mills family, who built the house in the 1700s as a weekend shooting estate.
“I love the combination of the old and new, plus having some fun things around” says Claire Gilchrist-Dick, who moved here with husband Cameron Dick and three children Bella (19), Drew (16) and Domino (11) in November 2020. The colourful kitchen is luxurious, warm, and comfortable. The salon, meanwhile, with its soaring ceilings and sunshine-yellow walls, features a stunning fireplace, a soft and fluffy Flokati and Dior pink velvet cushions. “I’m quite well known for my love of pink, any excuse,” smiles Claire. “My horse box is pink. I have a horse called Pink. The colour brings me joy.”
Hard work, grit and determination played a part in the purchase of this impressive yet unpretentious home. It's a lot to move into. It’s the kind of place that has a commercial heating system and requires a scaffolding rig and a team of people to decorate a room. The family moved from a Grade II-listed farmhouse in the Cheshire triangle, so didn’t feel too fazed by the prospect. “I absolutely love the Chatsworth Estate,” Claire explains. “We would walk around and dream of owning a historical home so when this came up, we thought we had to do it, whatever it took. It’s been a bumpy ride to get here with plenty of worry, heartache, and bridging loans but here we are.”
The legacy of Barlaston Hall spans generations. It was bought by Wedgwood in 1937, who didn’t want the hall particularly but the land that came with it to build their factory and homes for their workers – which they did. The hall was latterly used as a college for Wedgwood, but subsidence and roofing issues saw it being sold for a pound to the charity SAVE Britain’s Heritage who reroofed and underpinned the structure before it became no more. “It is very often called the one-pound house,” says Claire. In 1992, the Hall family became the new occupants and continued the restoration of many things such as removing a tree growing through the Chinese Chippendale staircase. All credit to the Hall’s, when the keys were dealt to the Gilchrist-Dick’s, the house was sound. “It’s solid,” says Claire. “Everything works, which is great for a young family – but it has all the history as well.”
As originally intended, this 10-bedroom house is made for entertaining. It may have once been a college but now it is a busy family home. Every room is lived in, and the couple are instinctive hosts, always having extra people over for Sunday roasts and Christmas is wild. So far this year, the couple have renewed their vows in the on-site deconsecrated church St Johns, as well as celebrating Claire’s 50th birthday.
It was the restoration of St John’s, that gave birth to the idea of starting the events company at Barlaston Hall. “As we were coming up to our 20-year wedding anniversary, our initial thought was to tart it up, for want of a better expression and use it for a party,” Claire explains of the church that was used as storage by the previous owners. “We set about clearing it. Dusting basically, which took many skips and weekends of hard work. It’s magical – and far too special to keep just for us.”
The company focuses on hosting intimate events within the church and three-and-a-half acres of grounds – garden parties, non-religious weddings, naming ceremonies, wellness activities, and so on for locals to enjoy – providing a stream of income to help keep the Estate going. “First and foremost, it’s our family home,” Claire is keen to point out. “We’ve got three children, six dogs, five horses, 12 chickens and a pygmy hedgehog. Nothing that we do is to be detrimental to the happiness of the people that live here. It’s got to work alongside our family life.”
The vow renewal was the ultimate pinch-me moment for Claire - a culmination of just over two years of hard work and love. “I felt so at peace and happy,” she fondly recalls walking down the aisle as a gospel choir sang A Thousand Years. “That song is now poignant. This house isn’t perfect, and it may take a thousand years to work on but it’s worth it.”
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