A Creative Studio

One of the draws of St Marks for us, was the studio as we immediately saw it as a creative meeting room that would be perfect for residential retreats. It has been used in the past as a classroom for Bolton School and a creative base for the previous owner’s company,...

Is it a Drawing Room, or a Parlour?

Having the luxury of two living rooms here at St Marks Stays, we were wondering what to call the second living room and had conversations about if we were frightfully posh, would it be called a drawing room or a parlour? The word Parlour comes from the French word...

Renovating to commercial constraints

It has been amazing that lots of followers online have felt encouraged to advise us on our renovations and what they would like to do with the house and unfortunately our answer has always been, ‘Arh but yes we are renovating to commercial constraints’. We love the...

Why we are putting the social back in to the dining room

Our main vision for a change in lifestyle was to create a place for people to be more social in and for our latest before and after renovation, here is how and why we went about putting the social back in to the dining room. Every memorable holiday for us has involved...

Our First Year

Although it has not been a full year since we moved to St Marks, as we take a break for Christmas, the end of 2017 seems an appropriate time to reflect on our first year. I am not going to lie, it has been a rollercoaster of a journey already and whilst you all know...