Catherine Cooke: another perspective

Following my little piece about Catherine Cooke, I had a lovely message from Paul Dorrington.

“I read your note on Catherine Cooke”, he writes.”I also have fond memories of her. I bought her parents’ house at Upnor, Kent after it had been advertised in the Twentieth Century Society newsletter. This was the house where she lived with her parents when she was not up at University.

She was just as you describe her. The house reflects her father’s interest in all things Scandinavian and includes a small suana/summer house designed by Catherine. When we viewed the house with my five year old twin daughters I will always remember her welcoming us with the remark. “Oh, I see you have brought some little people with you”. She was not used to relating to small children. However she was extremly charming and during the process of buying the house directly from her we came to love her as she unselfconsciously regaled us with stories about the great and the good who touched her life. The villagers say she was very much her father’s daughter.

Catherine was also not adverse to putting on overalls and doing a spot of DIY. We had moved into Hammond Place and she was still helping out putting the place in order, sanding down and painting windows. This was up to ten o’ clock at night when the nieghbours, whom she knew well, came out and told her to stop using the electric sander. Other stories abound of her being out in the garden on Christmas Day putting a new felt roof on their summer house.”

That sounds like Catherine!