Studley Cottage Soaps make new Seaton Delaval Hall soap
Jul 24 2010 by Tony Henderson, The Journal
SOAP maker Karen Deck rose to the challenge of creating a product specifically for the North East’s newest visitor attraction.
Karen runs Studley Cottage Soaps from her work base at Eshottheugh Farm at Felton in Northumberland.
She has crafted soaps for National Trust properties such as her Flowers of Wallington Gardens, which includes jasmine from the property near Cambo.
Another soap uses marigolds from the Gertrude Jekyll Garden opposite the trust’s Lindisfarne Castle.
Karen also has produced a soap for Bamburgh Castle based on wallflowers growing at the fortress and another includes Northumbrian heather honey.
And now she has added a soap for the National Trust’s new acquisition, Seaton Delaval Hall in Northumberland, whose key ingredient is petals from the pernille poulsen roses in the hall’s gardens under the direction of the late Lady Hastings.
Karen, who lives in Longframlington in Northumberland, has a special link with Seaton Delaval, having grown up in nearby Seghill and attended Astley High School in Seaton Delaval.
Her sister, music teacher Tracey Cadman, was also one of the singers when the hall ran medieval banquets.
For her new soap, the rose petals are dried and mixed with almond oil before being put into the soap mixture.
The soap is then made with 50% olive oil and organic coconut palm oil.
She started the business from Studley Cottage in West Thurston, near Felton, after being inspired by the property’s old cottage garden.
With a staff of two, Studley Cottage Soaps turns out a range of 18 different fragrances and an average of 200 bars a week, which sell online for £3.75 and at various other outlets.
And the Seaton Delaval Hall soap could prove to be especially poignant as Karen has decided to sell the business.
Originally an English teacher at Cramlington High School, Karen is to return to the classroom.
In September she starts work at Astley High School and is also taking a part-time MA in educational studies.
She said: “I have been running the soap business for 15 years and it is successful, but I feel it is time for a change and I am ready for a new direction.
“I have always seen myself as a teacher, and that is my first love.
“I will be looking for the right person to take over the business, which has lots of potential, and perhaps take it in a new direction.”
