A London interior designer has written a book about his experience of converting a church in north Northumberland after falling in love with the county.
Dean Armstrong Keyworth and his husband Gavin Hilton moved to Lowick during the covid pandemic, where they were converting the Church of Scotland Presbyterian church on the village green. 58-year-old Dean used his 20+ years of experience of interior design, much of which has been working on listed buildings, to respect the church's original architecture but also make it homely and welcoming.
In 2021, it was recognised by the Georgian Group with a highly commended award for the best conversion of a Georgian building. And Dean has since written a book about his experience of moving to the countryside and how different life is from the capital.
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Dean said: "Originally we bought this place as a holiday home in 2017 as we know the area, a lot of the coastline and we really fell in love with the old church. In the third year, In the third year we had it, we ended up moving here for a while full-time and liked it so much that we sold up in London and made this our permanent base."
The home has a mezzanine gallery floor with a kitchen and huge seven-metre windows. Dean said: "One of the main things we did was renovate the four stained glass windows as there happens to be a stained-glass expert (David Purvis of Condottieri Glass) in Spittal who had worked on Bamburgh Castle. He did the restoration for us, we took some of the colours and the decoration of the glass from the windows and we used the gallery, which had been the choir store on the mezzanine, which is now the kitchen diner.
"Often you see in a church conversion that the stained-glass window will be chopped in half but I really want to keep the hight of the main hall so we've still got 7-metre ceilings in the main hall and kitchen. That's upstairs and because we're on Lowick Common we've got views of the Cheviots and it's beautiful."
As well as stained-glass expert David ,the couple used local craftspeople and contractors to complete the renovation, as well as securing most of the furniture from auction houses in the region. And Dean admits he found it very different to his experience of working on the interiors of listed buildings in the capital.
He said: "It's been quite a learning curve, there's a great local builder who's since become a friend who I was calling him about twice a week and he told me I had to stop putting pressure on him. I asked him what he meant, if we were in London I'd be calling every day and his response was: "That's why I'm not a London builder!
"It's a different way of working up here because it tends to be smaller businesses and they really care about the finish and doing a good job. Though it took longer than it would have in London I'm really pleased with the end result, it's amazing."
Dean's book is as much about getting accustomed to the countryside and getting to know your neighbours, who he says have been amazing since he and Gavin moved in, as it is about converting the church. He added: "With covid and so many people moving out of London, I just thought people need to know what they're letting themselves in for.
"There's no Deliveroo up here or it's ten miles to the nearest restaurant and you really do rely on your neihgbours more. That's something I really love up here, people are so friendly and helpful.
"You get into that thing of helping each other and I think if you've always lived in a city, it's such a different way of life and it's worth noting the things that are different."
For now, Dean and Gavin are planning to keep their home to themselves. However, the church may be opened up to the wider public in the future thanks to an unusual connection in the village.
Dean finished: "One of the family from Barmoor Castle married a 1950s movie star so we were thinking of trying to do a Lowick film festival. We could show a film in the main hall of the church so we would quite like to do things like that because it's such a big space."
Dean's book The New Country is available from RIBA Books on December 1 2022. To find out more, visit the RIBA Books website.
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