Angel Strawbridge Who Is Dick Strawbridge’s Wife? Life Career & Family
Angel Strawbridge is a British entrepreneur, author, designer and television personality best known for appearing alongside her husband, Dick Strawbridge, in Escape to the Château. Long before the television series made their French home famous, Angel had established herself through her passion for vintage style, hospitality and creative event design.
She founded The Vintage Patisserie, appeared on BBC’s Dragons’ Den, published a series of vintage-inspired books and later turned Château de la Motte-Husson into both a family home and the centre of a creative business. Angel and Dick fell in love in 2010, welcomed two children, Arthur and Dorothy, and married at their château in November 2015.
Quick Bio
| Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Angela Newman (known professionally as Angel Strawbridge / Angel Adoree) |
| Known As | Angel Strawbridge |
| Profession | Entrepreneur, designer, author & TV personality |
| Nationality | British |
| Famous For | Escape to the Château |
| Business | Founder of The Vintage Patisserie |
| Family & Personal Life | Details |
|---|---|
| Husband | Dick Strawbridge |
| Marriage | November 2015 |
| Children | Arthur Donald & Dorothy Francis |
| Home | Château de la Motte-Husson, France |
| TV Appearances | Escape to the Château, Dragons’ Den |
| Interests | Vintage design, interiors, hospitality & creative styling |
Who Is Angel Strawbridge?
Angel Strawbridge, also widely known professionally as Angel Adoree, is an entrepreneur whose public identity is strongly connected with vintage design, hospitality and interiors.
She describes herself as a vintage-loving East Londoner and is the founder of The Vintage Patisserie. Her distinctive approach blends food, entertaining, decoration, fashion and old-fashioned glamour.
Before becoming a familiar television personality, Angel developed considerable business experience. According to her professional biography, she eventually left accounting behind, trained as an image consultant and launched The Vintage Patisserie brand in 2007.
That background helps explain why her role in Escape to the Château extended well beyond simply decorating rooms. Her business experience, eye for unusual objects and interest in hospitality became important parts of the family’s wider château project.
Angel Strawbridge’s Career Before Escape to the Château
Angel’s television fame came relatively late in a career already built around vintage culture.
The Vintage Patisserie
The Vintage Patisserie became one of the most important projects in Angel Strawbridge’s early career. Built around vintage-inspired hospitality, it combined her interests in styling, food and entertaining.
Angel’s official business history says The Vintage Patisserie was founded in East London and later moved its headquarters to Château de la Motte-Husson in France. The focus subsequently shifted towards vintage weddings and distinctive celebrations at the property.
Her business attracted attention from prominent names and brands, while her growing profile eventually led her to television.
Angel Strawbridge on Dragons’ Den
In 2010, Angel appeared on the BBC business programme Dragons’ Den to present The Vintage Patisserie.
Her pitch attracted offers from Deborah Meaden and Theo Paphitis. The appearance significantly increased public awareness of Angel and her business, becoming an important stage in her transition from entrepreneur to recognisable media personality.
The Vintage Patisserie continued to expand, and in 2011 Angel opened a physical Vintage Patisserie in Hackney, East London.
Angel Strawbridge as an Author
Angel also turned her passion for vintage living into books.
Her published titles include:
- The Vintage Tea Party Book — 2011
- The Vintage Tea Party Year — 2012
- The Vintage Sweets Book — 2013
- The Vintage Tea Party Treasury — 2015
These books explored areas closely associated with Angel‘s personal brand, including entertaining, vintage styling, food and celebrations.
She has also written books with Dick. Their joint works include A Year at the Château and The Château: Forever Home, documenting elements of their French adventure and family life.
How Did Angel Strawbridge Meet Dick Strawbridge?
Angel and Dick Strawbridge met and fell in love in 2010. Their official biography describes the beginning of their relationship as a major turning point for both of them.
The couple may have appeared to come from different professional worlds. Dick had served in the British Army before establishing a television career, while Angel had developed businesses around hospitality and vintage styling.
However, their practical and creative abilities proved complementary.
Dick brought engineering, construction and problem-solving experience to their later château project, while Angel contributed interior design, event planning, hospitality and creative ideas.
Their relationship eventually became central to Escape to the Château, where audiences saw both their contrasting skills and their shared determination to build a new life in France.
Angel and Dick Strawbridge’s Wedding
Angel and Dick married in November 2015 at Château de la Motte-Husson, the property that would become inseparable from their public image.
The wedding took place while the couple were still dealing with the enormous challenge of restoring the château.
Rather than choosing a conventional venue elsewhere, they made their new French property part of the celebration.
Their marriage also marked the beginning of a new chapter in which home, family and business became closely connected.
Angel Strawbridge’s Children and Family
Angel and Dick have two children together.
Their son, Arthur Donald, was born in 2013, while their daughter, Dorothy Francis, arrived in 2014.
Arthur and Dorothy have appeared with their parents during the family’s château adventures, although the property remains first and foremost their home.
Dick also has two older children, James and Charlotte, from his previous marriage.
Family life has remained an important part of the Strawbridges‘ public story. Their official château website describes the property as both a family home and an active business, with Arthur and Dorothy growing up surrounded by its grounds, renovation projects and activities.
Château de la Motte-Husson and a New Life in France
One of the defining moments in Angel Strawbridge’s life was the family’s move to France and restoration of Château de la Motte-Husson.
The imposing 19th-century property offered enormous potential but required extensive work.
The château contains roughly 45 rooms and sits within substantial grounds. Its restoration provided the central story for Escape to the Château.
For Angel, the building was an opportunity to work on a scale far greater than an ordinary interior-design project.
Her love of vintage furniture, unusual decorative pieces, wallpaper, colour and handcrafted details became visible throughout the renovation. Rooms were not simply repaired; they were given distinctive identities that reflected the family’s personality and the history of the property.
The château also became connected with weddings and special events, allowing Angel to bring her previous hospitality experience into the family’s new French life.
Escape to the Château and Television Fame
Escape to the Château transformed Angel and Dick Strawbridge into internationally recognised television personalities.
The Channel 4 series followed their efforts to restore Château de la Motte-Husson while raising their family and building businesses around the property.
The programme ultimately ran for nine series.
Its appeal came partly from the scale of the renovation but also from the contrast between Dick and Angel’s approaches. Dick frequently concentrated on engineering and practical challenges, while Angel became closely associated with the decorative and creative transformation of the château.
Their children and wider family life also gave viewers a sense that the renovation was about creating a long-term home rather than simply restoring an investment property.
The programme generated spin-offs, including Escape to the Château: DIY and Escape to the Château: Make Do & Mend.
Angel Strawbridge’s Design and Business Projects
Angel has continued developing projects beyond television.
In 2019, she launched a soft-furnishings and wallpaper collection under The Chateau brand in collaboration with Belfield Home. The designs took inspiration from the château, its grounds and objects discovered during the family’s restoration journey. She has also worked on home-fragrance products.
These projects demonstrate how Angel’s earlier interests evolved rather than disappeared after television success.
Vintage hospitality led naturally into events. Event styling expanded into interiors. The château provided inspiration for homeware, while television gave those ideas a much larger international audience.
That continuity is an important part of understanding Angel Strawbridge’s career.
What Makes Angel Strawbridge’s Style Distinctive?
Angel is particularly associated with bold vintage-inspired design rather than restrained minimalism.
Her work often draws inspiration from historic objects, floral patterns, old fabrics, decorative wallpaper and imaginative repurposing. The goal is generally not to make an old building appear completely new, but to retain character while making spaces useful for modern family life.
This approach fitted Château de la Motte-Husson particularly well. A large historic building could easily have lost some of its individuality through an overly uniform renovation. Instead, Angel and Dick developed rooms with their own stories and functions.
Her visual style is therefore more than a television trademark. It connects directly to the vintage interests and hospitality businesses she developed before moving to France.
Life After the Original Escape to the Château Series
The original Escape to the Château television journey concluded after nine series, but the Strawbridges’ relationship with the property did not end with the programme.
Château de la Motte-Husson remains their family home and part of their business activities. Their official site states that they continue to host selected events while maintaining the property’s role as a private home; outside formal event days, the château is closed to the public.
For Angel, this means the château continues to connect many strands of her career: hospitality, interiors, entertaining, writing, family life and creative entrepreneurship.
Why Is Angel Strawbridge Famous?
Angel Strawbridge is famous primarily for three interconnected parts of her career: vintage hospitality, television and the transformation of Château de la Motte-Husson.
Some audiences first encountered her through Dragons’ Den. Others discovered her books or The Vintage Patisserie. Millions more came to know her through Escape to the Château.
What makes her career interesting is that these achievements are not isolated.
The vintage interests behind her early businesses later shaped her books. Her hospitality background helped with château events. Her eye for interiors became a defining feature of the television programme, while the château itself inspired additional design products.
Conclusion
Angel Strawbridge is far more than simply Dick Strawbridge wife or co-star. She built a career in vintage hospitality and entrepreneurship before Escape to the Château, appeared on Dragons’ Den, became an author and later brought her distinctive creative style to one of television’s most recognisable renovation projects.
Together, Angel and Dick have built a life around Château de la Motte-Husson while raising their children, Arthur and Dorothy. Their French home became the setting for nine series of Escape to the Château, but for Angel it also represents the meeting point of her long-standing interests in family, vintage design, entertaining and business.
Her journey from East London entrepreneur to château owner and international television personality helps explain why Angel Strawbridge remains closely associated with imaginative interiors, vintage style and ambitious creative projects.
