ARCHITECTURALLY Steep, the village on the north-eastern edge of Petersfield, may be best known for Bedales and the influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement but it also has a link to buildings of the later 20th century.

One of Steep’s most famous residents was the actor Sir Alec Guinness, who lived with his wife, Merula, for most of their 60-year marriage at Kettlebrook Meadows in Steep Marsh, a house which was designed for them by Euston Salaman, who was Merula’s brother, in 1955.

The Salaman family’s fortune had been founded in South Africa by Isaac in the early 19th century from where he began importing ostrich and other fancy feathers to supply Victorians with the fashionable accessories used to make items such as a form of scarf – boas – and hat decorations.

Merula, who was an actress, and Euston were two of seven siblings, many of whom developed careers in the arts.

Euston was one of the partners in the Petersfield architectural practice of Carter, Salaman, McIver and Upfold, which was an important business in the town from the Second World War until the late 1980s when the last remaining partner, John Upfold, retired.

As well as Kettlebrook Meadows, two other houses in Steep have connections with Euston – Mill Corner, which he designed in the early 1950s and, a decade later, Ashford Cottage.

He bought the latter house in 1985 and it was intended to be a replacement for the Guinnesses’ house because of the impact the A3 bypass might have on Kettlebrook Meadows but the couple decided to stay put and it was given to their son.

As well as residential work, the architectural practice was behind one of Petersfield’s most unusual buildings of the post-war era – Calibrated Papers’ factory in Swan Street.

It was built behind the fire station by Gardner and Company, of Whitehill, in 1960 and the following year the same builder constructed a Naafi shop at Aldershot barracks.

What was so remarkable about the buildings was their construction with multiple rhombus-shaped timber hyperbolic paraboloid roofs with special concrete and glass walls, giving an open, airy atmosphere to the workplace.

The innovative design was noted in a number of architectural journals of the time and photographs of both the interior and outside of the building can be seen in the picture archives of the Royal Institute of British Architects website at: www.architecture.com

When it was opened in March 1961, the Hampshire Telegraph and Post described it as a “factory in a garden”. A water feature was part of the landscaping for staff to enjoy.

The business was taken over by Spicer and that company, in turn, was bought by the Reed Paper Group in 1963.

The factory closed in about 1975 and the following year its builders went into liquidation and the houses which replaced it at Drum Mead were being built instead.