Charleston and the Bloomsbury group

 It was Leonard Woolf, husband of Virginia Woolf who found Charleston farmhouse . He and Virginia were living close by.

 Virginia wrote to her sister, 'I wish you'd leave Wisset and take Charleston. Leonard went over it and says its a most delightful house....I has a charming garden with a pond, and fruit trees and vegetables, all rather run wild but you could make it lovely.'
Vanessa Bell checked it and found that it could suit her purpose of providing a refuge, not just for her and her children but also a way for Duncan Grant and David Garnett to get away with being conscientious objectors. World war I was raging on at this time. So Vanessa Bell moved into Charleston. 'Large rooms and airy' was the description at that time. Its true, I was amazed at how large the rooms were and how light and airy the house was, when I visited.