The setting was the garden of a former Cotswold rectory, with a camelia bush in bud on our right, and a view of a Norman church doorway, framed by chestnut trees, on our left. The conversation with Peter Bowles — owner and founder of Original BTC — was all about rising turnovers, acquisitions, and how he saw a bright future for Britain’s lamp industry.

Certainly his manufacturing enterprise, which has its headquarters in an outhouse of his home at the Old Rectory, Church Hanborough, provides a shining example to other manufacturers.

It has 70 employees, a turnover from lighting alone of £5m (and rising), plus another £2m from connected activities such as a porcelain business in Stoke on Trent, a metalware company in Birmingham, and even a cafe in London.

Mr Bowles said: “Most of my sales are exports but I am constantly surprised at how top-quality British design is so much better recognised abroad than it is at home.

“There is a great future in British manufactured products.”

And he has put his money where his mouth is. Just over the ridge of the hill that we could see from the garden table is Freeland Industrial Estate — where Original BTC employs 35 people in six units producing lights.

When I marvelled at the laid-back atmosphere in which Mr Bowles worked, he simply remarked: “It’s more stressful than it looks”.

He added: “I bought this house from a thatcher 21 years ago and set up the head office here. It’s an ideal place. Stoke is two hours away and yet we’re not far from London either.

“And its handy for flying abroad. For instance, I’ve just been to an exhibition in Milan.”

He has one advantage in the world of lighting: he knows the trade inside out.

He has been involved in the industry since childhood, when his father started the 1960s pioneering lighting retailer Cosmo based in Berinsfield — and 13-year-old Peter helped on the stand at the Harrogate Lighting Fair.

He said: “I used to visit customers with him and write down the orders.”

All the same, perversely enough, he started his business career by importing cutlery, rather than exporting lights.

He said: “I went to France to learn French when I was 20 and persuaded a cutlery manufacturer in the Auvergne to make me his UK agent. I ended up representing seven companies.

“Then I bought a cutlery manufacturer in Sheffield and started exporting. We were handling about a million pieces of cutlery a year before the Far East took over — and I moved back into lighting 20 years ago.”

He addded: “The trick is to look ahead. Ask yourself what do you want to do in ten years’ time, and make sure you provide customers with what they want, when they want it.”

So what do people want now in the way of designer lighting? And why has he hit the market with the right product at the right time?

“They want solid quality that will last. People have money to spend, but they don’t want to spend it on something throwaway.

“My goal from the start was to design and produce lights that you are instantly at home with, that will fit easily and comfortably for many years to come.”

The result is a range of lamps, mostly made of metal, and ‘industrial’ looking in their simple solidity and functionality.

Some appear almost retro until you look more closely and see thay are altogether modern.

And then there is the completely wacky Tea Range, consisting of a collection of teacup and teapot shaped pendant and table lights inspired by 1930s crockery, first produced in BTC’s Stoke factory.

Buying that factory in Stoke some seven years ago came about almost on impulse. Mr Bowles travelled north to visit the premises to complain about some lampshade orders going astray — and ended up buying the place, and keeping on all the employees to make high quality lights, from the fine traditional bone china they had been producing for years.

He said: “I drove back with a smile on my face. But after a while it felt as though a Hoover with two nozzles had been ramed into my wallet. Now, though, the bone china is Original BTC’s lifeblood.”

Not content with that nerve-wracking acquisition, Mr Bowles last year went for another: the old-established company of Davey Lighting, founded in 1885 in London’s West India Docks.

Davey’s designs are based on 19th century marine lamps, built for saloons and cabins, that have been adapted for such prestigious locations as the Savoy Hotel — with all components made by hand by small specialist suppliers using centuries-old traditions.

And there, perhaps, is the secret of modern British manufacturing success revealed — build on our long tradition of industry and adapt it to modern use.

That is what customers appreciate abroad, where British design and attention to detail is well respected. So there you have it — a guiding light for others to follow.

And even if Mr Bowles finds it more stressful than it looks, he can always relax in the cafe he owns together with his son Charlie — also a lamp designer — in London’s Portobello Road, which uses cutlery from Mr Bowles’ first business, porcelain from his factory in Stoke on Trent, and of course, lights from Original BTC.