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Grand Designs

We have done two films with Grand Designs, one in 2011 and another in 2017. The films document our journey; raising our family on the hill and building our home, the ‘big house’ as we have come to call it.  We ended up doing two films partly because we were so way off finishing when Channel 4 wanted to air the first one but also because it was really good fun doing it.  On the days that the Grand Designs crew would come it was always a mix of filming of course, but also chatting, eating, drinking coffee and catching up. Kevin is a delight, a font of all knowledge and a pleasure to spend time with. But also Ann, our genius Director, filmed all the right bits and then edited what ended up being 10 years of footage to create what we’re told is a very accurate portrayal of who we are. So altogether a very successful experience!

Below is something Kevin wrote about us, I think when he had time on a train one day, which is very complimentary.

“We consume experiences these days as fast and as greedily as we consume goods. So it is a marvellous thing to discover and share the slow life that Ed and Rowena have fashioned for themselves over decades. A life of contemplation and pleasure in the everyday timeless activities of the farmstead; of satisfaction in the well-made thing crafted from what is available; of connection to the quiet and forgotten rhythms that the land, natural beauty, the seasons and the weather engender.

Thanks to Ed and Rowena’s generosity we can all learn to meditate through doing something, to slow right down and savour some of the essential, often elusive, qualities of life.

What Ed and Rowena offer is rare and authentic.”

Kevin McCloud – Grand Designs

Channel 4 ‘Grand Designs’ has followed our journey over the years as ‘Herefordshire House’. This has captured not simply the building of a house, rather the journey of us as a family building our home.

Watch Part 1 on Channel 4

Watch Part 2 on Channel 4

Grand Designs – Herefordshire Part 2