The remote, ancient Welsh home of cabin-maker Rollo Dunford Wood and ceramicist Freyja Lee
Starting afresh is not always easy, but often the good things in life are not. And the fresh start that Rollo Dunford Wood and Freyja Lee are carving out for themselves and their family on the rugged easterly contours of Snowdonia has the makings of something very good indeed.
The day of my visit is exceptionally beautiful, with the slanting afternoon sun setting North Wales ablaze. At the highest points of the horizon, wisps of mist tangle the craggy caps of the mountains, while lower down, a lake shines like liquid mercury. The air smells of vegetation and wood smoke and, from behind a plume, Rollo - cabin maker, wagon restorer and all-round wonder-worker of wood and wriggly tin - appears.
He and Freyja, an artist known for her enchanting, mythically inspired slipware ceramics, decamped here from Oxfordshire with their two sons, Brody, aged six, and Sylvester, four, two years ago. 'Nobody knows how old the house really is,' Rollo says, explaining that they believe a footpath running the length of the building was once a medieval pilgrimage route, giving the place its name, which translates as 'hill of prayer'. Their first winter was wet - something of a challenge in an ancient house with no damp-proof course or central heating. The large open fire in the sitting room - certainly the oldest part of the house - never went out during that time, recalls Freyja, 'It was so cold, we kept it lit constantly.' Despite the imminent arrival of a third baby, who will be bathed in an ancient washtub warmed by a hearth below, she continues, 'Now, I'm not so fazed by the idea of winter here.'
The couple do not seem fazed by much. In the early days of their relationship, they lived off-grid on a farm in Oxfordshire, in adjacent mid-century showman's wagons with a fire pit and outdoor bath between them. Brody was born there, on the day that Rollo went for a biopsy on a tumour on his chest, which turned out to be Hodgkin's lymphoma (he is now in remission).
The pair are nothing if not resilient. The wagons were Freyja's idea: before that, Rollo had been living in a static caravan on a farm in the Cotswolds. At the time, he was working as a cabinetmaker, a trade he had been in since his early twenties and which he credits with having taught him much of what he knows about craftsmanship. It was at Rollo's caravan in 2014, over the fire, that the couple fell in love, though they had known each other for years, having grown up in the same village in Oxfordshire. On Freyja's return from a long stint riding horses in Mexico, she joined Rollo for supper and he cooked a smoky venison stew on the fire. 'We haven't looked back since,' he says.
For all their hardiness, the move to Wales was, Rollo admits, a 'huge adjustment'. His and Freyja's lives were both rooted in the Cotswolds. They were leaving behind a lot, but they were also bringing a lot with them. He laughs when I ask if he saw the relocation as a chance to clear out his vast workshop: 'Me? Chuck something away?' As well as filling outbuildings here with umpteen bits of old wagon, wood and sheets of metal, he has built himself a charming rustic workshop in corrugated tin. This currently shelters his own work-in-progress Romany caravan, but he tells me that wagon restoration is taking a back seat so that he can focus on cabins - he builds a large one a year - as well as other smaller sheds and follies. Alexandra Tolstoy and Lulu Guinness were early champions of this work.
In many ways, Rollo and Freyja are recreating the romance of their wagon life here, only now with foundations - both literal and metaphorical. The house has been in Rollo's family for 50 years, previously belonging to his grandfather, the author and journalist Tom Stacey, until his death in 2022. Rollo knew this place well, having spent free-range holidays here as a child, 'wooding and romping'. He explains, 'It's my soul place - what Werner Herzog calls your "inner landscape"?' The building itself already had much of Rollo in it, as it was filled with things that he had made and repaired for his grandfather. These include a neat box bed and timber panelling in a converted outbuilding that was once Tom's archive and which is now used by Freyja as her studio.
Tom kept the house as a retreat in which to write, away from the buzz of London when he lived there. It was also a place to store things - not least the collected efforts of Rollo's creative family, including objects by his sculptor grandmother, Caroline Stacey (née Clay), and paintings by his father, Hugh Dunford Wood. Much of this remains; there are corners of rooms entirely unaltered from Tom's time here. Since they moved in, Rollo and Freyja have done little more than add a few licks of paint (Farrow & Ball was, Freyja says, 'brilliantly helpful'), tidy up and 'put as much love into it as possible'.
There are, of course, the things Rollo and Freyja have made themselves, but somehow these do not feel any newer than the assortment of hand-me-downs that surround them. There is a timelessness to Rollo's well-loved wooden chopping boards and lamp bases, just as there is to the pair's plates, bowls and cups, adorned with Freyja's dreamy folklorish figures. Besides these, the only truly 'new' thing is the hand-block-printed wallpaper in the entrance hall - Rollo's father's own 'Whistlers Wood', available through Hamilton Weston - with its gold branches gleaming in the half-light of this cool, dark room.
For Rollo and Freyja, as for most artists, the distinction between life and work is hazy. Life itself is a creative endeavour. As such, it is only natural that, with workspaces now within shouting distance of the house, the pair are considering ways in which they could collaborate. Rollo, one of whose early apprenticeships was at Whichford Pottery, has started throwing vessels for Freyja to paint; these will be on show at Pentreath & Hall in Lamb's Conduit Street, WC1, in June.
The move has been quite the catalyst for collaboration. 'Our paths probably wouldn't have changed had we not left the Cotswolds, with Rollo in his workshop and me doing my thing,' says Freyja, who has recently started taking on larger commissions, including vast tiled murals. 'The possibilities we have here, not just to create a magical home for the boys but also to do something together, feels exciting.' They want to share it all, too, and mention the possibility of organising artists' residencies in the future. In the meantime, however, the focus is on family. 'As well as for us, this is a home for my older teenage kids from a previous relationship to come and hang out in with their friends,' Rollo explains.
It is clear this move has marked the start of something profound. Rollo says that forging a life for themselves here has been 'an existential shift for me - to spend a lot of the last 10 years of my grandfather's life up here, then to move here myself, knowing possibly I'll be carried out in a box, it's big'. It's big for Freyja, too: 'I'm not sure I've found my inner landscape yet. But it does feel like I'm putting down roots for the first time. That is an amazing thing'.
Rollo Dunford Wood: @rollodunfordwood Freyja Lee: @freyja_lee
Andrew Montgomery1/11Heading to the woods behind the house, a favourite place for family walks and bonfires.
Andrew Montgomery2/11The sign in his workshop was hand-painted by Colin Parker.
Andrew Montgomery3/11Rollo, with wagon restorer Chris Charlton and his lurcher Ralph, discussing what decoration should be added next to a newly painted wheel for a horse-drawn dray.
Andrew Montgomery4/11The couple in Freyja's studio in an outbuilding, where Rollo throws many of the vessels for her to decorate.
Andrew Montgomery5/11
Andrew Montgomery6/11A mermaid trefoil dish by Freyja, who hand paints her ceramics with folklorish figures using traditional slipware techniques.
Andrew Montgomery7/11One of Freyja's terracotta plates, on which she is creating a mermaid and clover design with was resist and slip. She will then fire it in a kiln in her pottery.
Andrew Montgomery8/11Beside one of Rollo's wriggly tin sheds, currently under construction. His son Brody holds an old cast-iron wheel, which will be repurposed as a side window.
Andrew Montgomery9/11Rollo has created a redwood frame for this shepherd's hut restoration.
Andrew Montgomery10/11Brody reads a book on the windowseat in the sitting room, where oak panelling and antique furniture are illuminated by a brass sconce.
Andrew Montgomery11/11Rollo feeding the hens.
