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The house of Laura Ashley

Laura Ashley would have loathed the growth of our throw-away society. Showing me around her beautiful French chateau three years before her untimely death in September 1985, she told me: "I like things that last forever." This hatred of ephemera was the canon on which she built a multi-million pound empire: from making her first screen-printed tea towels on the kitchen table in Pimlico in the 1950s, to becoming one of the world's most recognisable British brands. 
When she and her husband Bernard bought the exquisite Chateau de Remaisnil, near Lille, towards the end of the 1970s, it was a continuation of her passion for doing up old properties. It was a brief affair. When I visited in the spring of 1982, it was for sale at a guide price of £450,000, but had no takers. "I adored the place," said Laura at the time, "but the French [textiles] market is so low that we can't afford to be sentimental about it." Today, still with some fabrics and decorations that are ghostly reminders of the Welsh-born designer, it is available again at more than four times that price (€2·8 million euros, or £1·94 million), with the contents available by negotiation.

The Picardy chateau was the Ashleys' tax haven. By 1978, they had more than 70 outlets worldwide and the tax rates of the time would have made it impossible, had one of them died, for the company to be passed intact to their children, which was Laura's most cherished ideal.

In her 1990 biography Laura Ashley: A Life By Design, Anne Sebba explains the speed at which they made the move. "Given the conventional wisdom that any change in tax affairs should be put into effect before April 5th, allied to Bernard's natural impulsiveness and Laura's love of buying and doing up old houses, the haste with which the Ashleys moved out of Britain in the spring of 1978 is easily understood." They asked their company's European director to find them a house "between London and Paris". Chateau de Remaisnil was the only property that fitted the bill and the couple made an offer on the spot.

After months of building work, the chateau was ready for habitation. Laura decorated it from top to bottom, using it as a blank canvas in which to showcase her fabrics and colours.

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The move had a profound influence on her designs, which went from English and Welsh rustic to aristocratic European. Her unashamedly feminine clothing range – all homespun florals and demure Victoriana – hit its peak in the early 1980s when the look was adopted as a uniform by Sloane Rangers, among them the young Princess Diana. Laura Ashley wallpaper and curtains adorned well appointed homes across the Home Counties and tourists couldn't get enough of her style. "I identify our customer as a person who creates a family and enjoys homemaking," Laura said.

Chateau Remaisnil stayed in the family's hands until 1987, when it sold as quickly as it had been bought. By then, Laura had died, on her 60th birthday, nine days after falling down the staircase in the middle of the night at her daughter's home in the Cotswolds. The tragedy was followed by the flotation of the company; Bernard no longer needed a European base and one which was so infused with his wife's memory.

The chateau was bought by Manhattanites Adrian and Susan Doull, who turned it into a hotel and conference centre. In 2000, it was back on the market with a price tag of £1·7 million but a promising buyer fell through. In 2002, it was offered at £1·5 million.

Built in 1760 on the site of an earlier castle, today it has 12 main bedroom suites and five grand reception rooms, some with Louis XV panelling. It stands in 35 acres of parkland, approached through wrought iron gates and a double avenue of ancient lime trees. There is a walled garden, which contains a swimming pool and tennis court. An English garden, which Laura had made during her occupation, has been preserved.

Some 21 miles north of Amiens, the chateau is within easy reach of the Eurostar terminal at Lille, but its proximity to the First World War battlefields of the Somme might not be everyone's idea of the French rural dream. Current owners Charles and Terri Carroll, together with longstanding guardian Jerome Bailleux, run the property as a chambre d'hote.

The selling agent, Patricia Hawkes, has a close association with the chateau. Like the Laura Ashley brand itself, which has bounced back with huge profits in its homewares range, she says the chateau has been restored to its finery. "It's in excellent condition. When Laura did it up, it's as good as it was then," says Patricia. "Some of the curtains are Laura Ashley originals and the panelling is 18th-century Parisian quality. The Ashleys brought the place back to life."