Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2007 | Page 27

INTERVIEW

his deeply terraced garden
– constructed from the stone
of the demolished Ventnor
Metropolitan hotel – it was he
who drove the digger and the
dumper. “I call on help when
it’s tricky. But I don’t like help.
“You wouldn’t believe what
I’ve done for how much. Two
half-acre gardens from scratch
for a hundred grand. You do
it slowly, over three years. If
you sat down and wrote down
what it was going to take
you wouldn’t start. But if you
put enough hours in you get
there. It’s all about time.”
You get a sense from them
that anything can be achieved.
Its not twitchy energy but a
calm sense of dynamism. Julia
has no background in either
catering or management. Before
she had her children, Amie, now
seven and Will, five – she was
a secretary/
pa – and
presumably a
Woman Friday
if ever there
was one. Now,
however, she
has a staff of
six running
the tea rooms
and brings in
a couple of
extras when
hosting the
select eight to
10 wedding
receptions per
year. Add to
that the helpful
and seemingly
weatherproof
man on the
gate and the
chatty lady
in the shop
and she’s
got all bases
covered. Bed
and breakfast

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is on offer too at present,
though they plan to curtail that
once some accommodation for
self-catering is up and running:
“You’ve inherited my ‘I can
do anything’ attitude,” Andy
says to his wife. “And you’ve
not made any mistakes during
the learning process at the
cost of anyone’s wedding,
or tax or VAT returns.”
Julia’s touch can be seen
in the little gift shop. This,
refreshingly not placed at the
end of the guided tour but
housed in the desperately
atmospheric Old Stable,
is stocked with a pleasing
selection of gifts that are
not daunting in price.
For a week in June and again
in August Arreton takes on a
bit of a carnival atmosphere,
when a historical re-enactment

group come and stay. Living
history week evolved at the
request of the group itself, but
is happily embraced by Julia
and indeed the whole family.
“Amie, being a girl and being
seven, dresses up with the
actors. In August she will be
in costume the whole time.”
Open air theatre also
happens in August. Isabelle
Savell, local am-dram
impresario, asked to resurrect
a tradition that had died
when the house was closed
to visitors. The result is
four nights of (hopefully)
balmy summer evenings, al
fresco eating and drinking,
and theatre on the lawn
For all this, Arreton is primarily
the family’s home. They’ve
even got Andy Gray-Ling’s
father (“Plain Jack Ling, “I’m

life

not posh like my son”) as tour
guide. They have become
part of the community, their
children go to Arreton St
George’s primary school, and
they like to relax, if that’s the
word, on Andy’s racing rib,
designed in Carisbrook.
The couple don’t attempt to
deny that the public are an
intrusion, but “we do cut it
down to just four months now.
You can grin and bear that.”

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