Bush Cottage — the former home and studio of David Carlyle Platts
Tucked away within a small village in the heart of North Yorkshire, Bush Cottage was the home David created with his partner Nick, which served also as his studio and a sanctuary in his later years.
The property consists of two buildings: a traditional stone cottage and the stone barn that David and Nick painstakingly constructed by hand. These buildings formed the heart of the artist’s daily life, one for living, one for creating.
The cottage, with its solid stone walls, offers warmth, privacy and a grounding sense of place. Just across the garden stands the stone barn: a labour of love and a feat of craftsmanship.
This barn is a spacious environment large enough to work at scale. Its high ceilings and wall space afforded the space necessary for a lifetime of artistic experimentation.
Following David’s passing, both the cottage and the barn were filled to the brim with David’s artworks and objects collected over his lifetime. The process of decluttering was a lengthy and arduous task, both physically and emotionally for his friend and fellow artist, Birgitte, who understood the importance of preserving not just the buildings but David’s spirit within them.
The garden, overgrown to some, though a paradise to David himself, was restored to its best by Birgitte’s husband John, himself a keen gardener with a former career in horticulture.
Having sensitively restored the spaces, Birgitte and John’s careful work honours the character of the property and safeguards David’s legacy.