New more environmental FR fabrics

I've read that the number of accidents involving fire in the UK has dropped to an all time low. This is good news, and higher safety standards, better care or design must all have a part to play.

Roller blinds have never offered a great fire risk, mainly because at a blind at a window is probably well away from most likely sources of combustion (like unattended electric fires), and a blind has little weight or volume of combustible fabric within it. However as standards have improved, the demand for FR treated blind fabric has grown.

This is all good except behind the scenes, many of the common compounds that go into making a fabric FR (usually halides or bromides) are not great for the environment.

The EU has been looking at these compounds, have banned some, classified others as hazardous to health, bio accumulative or toxic, and others are under EU surveillance. 

This concerns us at New House, so are happy to launch a new suite of FR fabrics. We must confess that some do contain halides, but the most interesting fabrics to us are ones that use a new Swedish break-through FR coating that's completely halide-free. Our idea is to gain experience of this new coating, and then extend it to our other fabrics. We think the environment will be better for this!

Grand colonial FR fabric in black (also comes in white and natural) :

Some of the new fabric on our shelves ;

Preparing our sample brochure :

 

How Caple and lots of old cars

New house works from How Caple Court, and it can be a sleepy old place at times. Yet because of it's beautiful setting and 900yr old church, people frequently get married here at weekends, and there's also a vintage car auction every 3 months. The last auction was on Wednesday (the next marriage this Friday I think) :

 

 

This is an American Huber built in 1911 with a 'lifetime guarantee'. Unfortunately the company closed in 1913, so I hope it's new owner isn't too disappointed when he makes his first claim.



 

 

 

 

 

I'm told the Penny Farthing was a Gentleman's bike made by The Coventry Machinist Co in 1875.

I don't know what it is about old vintage cars and beards, but all the true enthusiasts seem to have one. Maybe because many of the old cars have no heaters, so you'd freeze to death if out on the road in winter without a good warm layer of hair on your chin?

The people who buy these lovely old cars get bitten by the collectors bug, and often end up owning a number. They can't resist turning up at the How Caple auction in style, so the car park is packed with interesting old cars too.

This is an old Peugeot. On the back seat the owner thoughtfully left a copy of a French classic car mag where it featured on the front cover.

 

I think this old Jag is an XK140. My grandfather (who started New House) used to drive an XK150, and a few E-Types too. He had a love-hate relationship with them as they were always going wrong. Being an engineer he was always tinkering with them, and used to take them back to the factory for modifications where he'd enjoy chatting to the engineers and designers who built the cars.

 

 

Eating and blind-making

There's nothing like visiting a few old New House customers in beautiful parts of England to work up an appetite.

On Wednesday I was at Beaver Blinds in Torpoint and ABC Blinds in Dorset. Both have used our fabrics for years and they are careful and impressive blind makers. Ones I'd whole-heartedly recommend.

Sitting in Beaver Blinds' office next to the water, it's not unusual to see some warship sail past. While just up the river, there's the famous Brunel Tamar bridge (sadly this is not my photo)...

ABC is in the lovely town of Bridport, and on the way home I happily stopped at River Cottage's famous Canteen & Deli in Axminster. 

 

I know it's a cliché, but I couldn't stop myself taking a pic of one of the most beautiful plates of salad & humus I've ever seen...

Decorated with colourful petals and nasturtiums it was a joy to look at and wonderful to smell. I felt BAD like a destroyer-of-art, gobbling this plate down so quickly.

Today at New House's design meeting, we discussed our September Top Drawer stand and chatted freely about our many other up-and-coming projects. We also had a superb lunch of fresh flower salad, cookies and all the other good things I'd picked up from the River Cottage Deli that helped our discussion flow and sparkle... there's nothing like a plate of good food to get everyone talking!

 

 

SS Great Britain - a masterpeice of engineering

One of my godsons, James visited last week and on a rainy day we went to the historic city of Bristol to see the SS Great Britain.

New House is a design and engineering company, and the ship & museum turned out a million times more interesting than I imagined.

The Great Britain was the world's first iron ship and another of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's genius designs. He's up there with Leonardo, Newton, Edison or Darwin as one of the worlds most original thinkers. Brunel calculated that even though iron was heavier than wood, it was much stronger, so a ship could be built that weighed less, could be bigger, carry more cargo or passengers and be more durable than any wooden ship.

It's a testimony to the British manufacturers of his day that they welcomed his new ideas, backed him, and built this amazing ship. In one huge technological leap SS Great Britain superseded all other ships.

To construct the vessel, Brunel built a new dry dock in Bristol. He originally designed his ship as a paddle-steamer, but saw a famous tug-of-war between a new propeller screwed vessel SS.Archimedes and HMS Rattler (of equal horse power, but a paddle-steamer). Seeing the screwed vessel pulling the other along at 2.5 knots, Brunel re-designed the Great Brittan so his single screw design let him place the engine at the lowest part of the hull and increase the deck space, that the paddle mechanisms would have taken up. 

After her launch in 1843 everywhere the Great Britain went she was a wonder, as she was by far the largest vessel afloat.

Eventually the Great Brittan was beached in the Falklands and used as a warehouse. Made from wrought iron (a heavy but slow-rusting iron) she survived. A huge donation by Sir Paul Getty allowed for the ship to be towed across the Atlantic to the Bristol dry dock where she was first constructed, 127 years later.

She's wonderful to see today and I recommend anyone to visit :

The engine room :

First class accommodation :

The old Mr. Brunel :

The NEW Mr. Brunel (my godson James) :

     

Hot day for a cycle ride

New House is surrounded by wonderful Herefordshire countryside, and as it was hot, I thought a cycle ride round the lanes might be a good idea.

The view from Perrystone Hill and our church :

The Herefordshire countryside is always beautiful, but as a lazy cyclist who only really enjoys cycling downhill (or the flat at best), I get off the bike frequently to push it up hills that real cyclists would just laugh at. So sometimes, I wish the county was a little less undulating, but the roads and back-lanes have no traffic, so it's a joy to cycle (when going downhill).

It was the hottest day of the year, so even the horses were sheltering under an ancient oak :

I stopped at peaceful Kempley to admire their 1903 craft-movement church. It contains some great renaissance statuary, and I loved the lattice window with it's beautifully-engineered opening panes and painted wooden beams :

On the way home I passed the 'old forge', decorated with the cogs and iron the craftsman used to bash-out or repair in the place :



Am I glad New House is located deep in Herefordshire ....despite every good downhill having an uphill!