The Call of THE WILD
Look west from King Alfred’s Tower on the Stourhead Estate and you can trace the course of the River Brue as it winds its way through the Somerset countryside, parting a natural landscape of woodland, orchards and open fields. Thirty years ago it was this viewpoint, high on the edge of Cranborne Chase, that first captivated Patricia Stainton and her husband Robin Levien as they hunted for a home.
“I’d spent about nine months looking for a rural property,” explains Patricia, “and I saw places with nicer houses – but the setting was never right. We first visited Cooks Farm on the shortest day of the year. Because we were early we went up to King Alfred’s Tower on the wooded ridge and looked down across the valley to the farmhouse below. It was nestled in the bottom of the
