Matthew Rice is the Managing Director of Emma Bridgewater, the British pottery company founded 26 years ago by his wife Emma Bridgewater. Passionate about family life, Venice, poultry game, gardening and cooking for his friends and family, Matthew is a true English eccentric (those of you that have met him will agree) and an inspiration, preferring to be in his Oxford garden at least a couple of hours before most of us are at the breakfast table.

MATTHEW'S FAVOURITE SITES

Cotswold Chickens - It's hard to buy hens and they are hard to receive through the post. Certainly Yodel offers no poultry delivery system. However, as a chicken freak I will browse this set like a virtual fox... They offer a concise range of easy to keep commercial hybrid birds that will lay well in your garden. What could be better? And they also sell all the kit; feeders, food houses, etc. Set up a godchild as an egg farmer in Clapham, Chichester or Cannock .

The Churches Conservation Trust - This charity used to be called the Redundant Churches Trust but I suppose that sounded too sad. Now it works tirelessly, caring for over 300 churches no longer in use for regular worship. Its high standard of building conservation and careful scholarship is dolled up in a snappy website that tells you what to do and where it's happening all around the country. The directory has really good pictures of their portfolio of wonderful churches. Not much to buy but plenty to read and inspire.

The National Gardens Scheme - This is a marvellous charity (they give £3 million a year to cancer charities) whose yellow paper posters advertising open gardens near you are pinned on telegraph posts or parish notice boards throughout the country. This is a very snappy website, easy to navigate and visually exciting. There’s a good view of what's on near you each week with photos to illustrate. A visit to an NGS garden to see spring blooms, bluebells or summer loveliness is always a treat and a bargain as well as an opportunity to look beyond somebody's garden gate. Best to check for teas, too. You want to be sure of homemade cakes...

English Heritage Photo Archive - Have you moved and you know nothing about the area? Use this website as first port of call when researching your new neighbourhood. It's so easy to operate that an orang-utan could use it (they wouldn't as it doesn't cover Sumatra, but still...) and you will immediately have access to English Heritage’s vast archive of photo images covering the country. I have been using it a lot as we have just moved to a village outside Oxford. Thanks to this site I know what it was like in the 1890s. Fun, eh?

Oliver Spencer - You will have now gathered that I am not much of a shopper... but I have been to the Oliver Spencer shop in Lambs Conduit St in Bloomsbury and it has the kind of restrained and slightly austere clothes that I like, but more fashionable than my normal Oxfam purchases. My favourite shirt; soft and checked and bought by my daughter Lil comes from here. The site is good and clear and I'd like most of the clothes...

Sarah Raven - Sarah Raven is my garden oracle. I completely trust her choice on variety, and ideas about colour and style in plants. What could be better than to have a glorious technicolor website where we can all reproduce (or try to reproduce) her vibrant gardens at Perch Hill in Sussex. In the past I have ordered seeds, plugs and garden equipment from her site. My most recent orders were Chrysanthemums and today a selection of Scented Pelargonium. I can't wait for them to arrive.

16 May 2012