Country Life
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May 10, 2021 A typical Midhurst cottage with its distinctive yellow trim as chosen by the Cowdray Estate. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
The colours that estate owners choose to paint their buildings and cottages lend them a highly distinctive feel. Eleanor Doughty finds out how and why the different shades are chosen.
If you drive through Midhurst in West Sussex, you’re likely to spot a house or two with their timbers painted neatly in saffron yellow. There has long been a tradition for estate owners to paint exterior timbers to signify ownership, but Cowdray’s yellow must surely be the most recognisable. It derives from when Liberal politician Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray inherited the Cowdray estate in the 1920s and matched his political colours to his cottages painting the roses yellow, so to speak.