Philippa Nolan and Roger Biles live in a former village shop where a calm interior offers respite from their busy lives running their candle-making business

Anyone with a taste for the clean, crisp scent of classic English fragrances should treat themselves to a visit to the premises of Philippa Nolan and Roger Biles's scented candle-making business in Warminster, Wiltshire. Some visitors have compared the experience of breathing in the heady scent of their True Grace range – natural fragrances such as cucumber, rose, grapefruit and blackcurrant leaves – to being in a sweet shop without the disadvantage of calories.

When the couple met in 1993, Roger was making candles from a small factory in London's East End. His interest in candles came about almost by accident; with a background in furniture design, he had previously been employed to dream up shop interiors for the Jigsaw fashion chain. After working on a project for a window display, he found himself with a job lot of candles on his hands – and also the inspiration for a new business. After six months spent travelling in India, he returned to London full of ideas for a new range of handmade church candles, which he managed to sell to Harrods, Selfridges and Liberty. Back then, the trend for luxurious candles had yet to take off and in retrospect, Roger was way ahead of his time.

Philippa, with a background in sales and marketing, agreed there was a gap in the market and they decided to move the factory to larger premises outside the capital and somewhere better suited to starting a family. They now have two children: Harriet, six, and Noah, eight months.

The couple moved first to Mere in Wiltshire, where they made candles for various established brands. But when they moved to Warminster, five years ago, they decided to develop their own luxury natural candle brand, True Grace. The move also allowed them to increase their production – they can now make 5,000 pure-wax candles in a day.

Their home, 15 miles away in Donhead St Mary, is a pretty stone cottage that was once the village shop with beautiful views over Win Green. “My concern about moving to the country was having lots of little rooms,” says Roger. Instead, the shop provided a large sitting room where original cast-iron pillars lend a semi-industrial feel. An internal wall was removed to create an open-plan dining and living area, which leads to a bright galley kitchen. Here, units have been made from Victorian desks, complete with compass-etched graffiti, salvaged from a school. The colour was inspired, somewhat incongruously, from an old Morris Minor.

Despite the gap between business and home, working together means that Roger and Philippa rarely switch off. “We're always dreaming up new plans for the future,” says Philippa. And they can't help but take their work home with them. “When friends come round for dinner, we bring loads of candles home and light up the whole house.” But, while a seamless join between their personal and professional lives can be hard work, there is no doubt that running a business in the beautiful Wiltshire countryside offers them far greater freedom and flexibility than they could ever have dreamed of in London.

True Grace, (01985) 210890; www.truegrace.co.uk.

PHOTOGRAPHS SIMON BROWN
WORDS DAISY BRIDGEWATER
OCOTBER 2006