Lucy
This cabin is inspired by the bohemian artists, writers and thinkers, like Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville West, whose work was inspired by Sussex in the 1920s.
The art deco stained glass window in the bathroom, with its central moth, is a nod to the night hours these creatives devoted to their chosen craft. While the bedroom mural, by local artist Nathalie Frost, gives the dusky pink space a soft but powerfully feminine feel, honouring this decade of experimentation, spiritualism and universal suffrage.
We’ll leave the rest for you to discover, but be assured you’ll be very comfortable in this one-of-a-kind hideaway. The perfect place to retreat, write and let your imagination run free.
Sleeps 2
*This is a dog-friendly cabin.
What’s included:
Stargazing window
Fold up desks with a view
Double bed with fresh towels and linens
Luxury toiletries, by Wide Eye and Handmade by Juliette
A curated bookshelf
Wifi
Digital radio with Bluetooth
Hot showers
2 Rointe heaters and a heated towel rail
Flushing toilet
Mini oven with hob
Standard cooking equipment plus salt, pepper and oil
Fridge freezer
AeroPress coffee maker
Complimentary Bird & Wild coffee and Sussex Tea
Bookshelf
Recommended Reads
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Young Bloomsbury by Nino Strachey
This Dark Country: Women Artists, Still Life and Intimacy in the Early Twentieth Century by Rebecca Birrell
An extra special stay
We know time away is precious, and we want to help you make the most of it. We can provide lots of lovely extras including breakfast hampers, beautifully-wrapped books picked by our award-winning local bookseller and vases of our garden-grown flowers. We’re also very open to your requests - whether you’d like to book a massage with a local therapist or have the cabin decorated for a special occasion, we can help. Get in touch at hello@starcroftfarm.co.uk and we’ll start planning!
Who
was Lucy?
The land here was part of the Battle Abbey Estate until the 1920s when it was sold during The Great Sell Off, part of a wider decline in the countryside and move towards cities. Lucy Webster had recently taken on her inheritance and was owner of the estate, but appears under the supervision of legal guardians in the deeds.
She grew up not at the Abbey but in Powdermill House, now a hotel, and may well have stumbled onto these very fields, perhaps while out picking blackberries in the hedgerows with her younger sister and brother.
Despite the interwar years being a time of excess and enjoyment, Lucy was soon regarded by her contemporaries as overly impulsive and reckless, apparently once running down Battle High Street naked.
In her few years of freedom, she travelled far, played tennis, fell in love with inappropriate people, spent too much money, and put a lot of work into learning her occupation: how to become an estate manager.
However, it was ultimately decided she was not fit for the role, and she would spend most of her life confined to institutions. While we’ll never know the full truth of her story, we wanted to bring her name to light once more on her home turf.