Ramona Jones - Escape Into Cottagecore: Embrace Cosy Countryside Comfort in Your Everyday

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Granddads place somehow managed to lag behind advances in technology. When mobile phones became the norm, they wouldnt work in his village. Broadband lines were installed for many of us, but not for him. My cosiest memory is of staying in an old pine bed in the Blue bedroom as a teenager. I realised that due to the lack of signal, there was no possibility of returning my friends text messages, and I settled instead on watching the raindrops as they made patterns on the window. The ambient buzz of the house, the warm flicker of light from the lamp on the nightstand and the occasional hoot of an owl took me away from my stress and lulled me into a gentle calm. Having no choice but to observe, I learned how restorative nature, solitude and quiet could be.

Although my memories of being dropped off at Granddads house are a few decades old now, they still bring me the same sense of enchantment. Ive woven as many strands of them into my adult life as I possibly can: I still replenish lost energy with walks in nature, I search flea markets for dresses reminiscent of my grandma and I decorate my home with old books and antiques that bring me a gentle reminder to live slowly and intentionally. With these actions, I restore a sense of safety that the world can otherwise deplete me of.

In todays fast-paced times, where productivity is valued over contentment, many of us are longing for old-fashioned comforts and a safe space to explore our identities. Thats where Cottagecore comes in.

Cottagecore isnt about moving to a large estate in the country, nor is it a title thats earned from owning land. Cottagecore is an internet aesthetic, inspired by the nostalgia of rural life. It values traditions such as crafts, baking, preserving the natural world and caring for others. As Cottagecore was founded by the LGBQTIA+ community, it seeks to make a safe space where pastoral comforts can be enjoyed by all. Imagine a life where you avoid all of your stresses, relocate to a fairy-tale cabin in the woods and write your own narrative among nature. That escapism is the essence of Cottagecore taking comforting aspects of the past and tying them in with a modern existence to create a sense of magic and escape.

Cottage life has had many different meanings throughout its history. The earliest cottages of medieval England were built on the grounds of manor houses as residences for workers, who would work full time to comply with orders from the lord of the manor. These early cottages were simple dwellings, built from local materials and designed to meet only the most basic of needs. There would have been a smallholding for the owner to raise animals or grow food and medicinal herbs, but there was no scope for the fanciful decorations and colourful cottage gardens that we know today. The goal of the cottage dweller at this point was survival, so there really werent any frills attached to the lifestyle.

Life for the cottager had begun to look more promising by the sixteenth century, when Queen Elizabeth I set about improving the lives of the poor. Many comfortable timber-framed English cottages were built during her reign. It is these that come to mind when we think of idealised rural life a modestly sized detached dwelling with exposed timber beams, tall chimney stacks extending from the hearth, charming timber-framed windows, a thatched roof and a garden full of trees, shrubs and herbs. The sort of cottage we might think of as belonging to a fairy tale or bedtime story. This provided the origins for the romanticised view of cottage life.