Charles Lutyens Visits Le Bois des Moutiers

July 1998

In July my wife and I decided to visit Le Bois des Moutiers, (and also to collect some wine for a family party). The house, built by Lutyens in 1898, was open to the public for six weeks this summer with an Arts and Crafts exhibition to commemorate its centenary. We crossed from Newhaven to Dieppe and stayed at a very comfortable hotel at Varengeville called La Terrasse, costing only £106 for two nights demi pension for two people.

We went up to the house and an immaculately dressed lady, Madame Mallet, aged 93, the daughter-in-law of Monsieur Mallet for whom the house was built, met us at the front door and invited us in. We looked at the Exhibition, had a cup of coffee and then she took us on a tour of the garden and park. The walled garden, which had been converted to grass, trees and a small pond, had wide herbaceous borders on either side, separated into bays by yew hedges. From there the end of the house looked like the bows of a ship, with funnel, bridge and wings of a bridge. From the garden the blank vertical face of the terrace was broken by yew hedges cut in the form of buttresses.

That afternoon Madame Mallet took us to a house called Les Communes built by Lutyens for Monsieur Mallet in 1908. Apparently Sir Edwin had said to Monsieur Mallet ‘I have a dream house in my head.’ Monsieur Mallet replied ‘I have the money and the site. Go ahead.’ It is in the form of a Y with arms of equal length.

Both the houses were occupied by German soldiers for four years and the grounds were mined so you can imagine the state they were in at the Liberation in 1945. From 1946 for ten years Madame Mallet lived with her husband at Les Communes and loved it. She was horrified when he said he was going to restore the big house. It has been a long and difficult task, especially after Monsieur Mallet’s death, but the future of Le Bois des Moutiers is now assured. We returned home to the cheerful sound of tinkling wine bottles.