At London’s newly reopened Museum of the Home, the trends of British domestic life over four centuries are chronicled in evocative detail. But, learns Ellie Fazan, finding the essence of home lies in understanding the feelings and needs that remain very similar down the generations

Ellie Fazan visits former mill town Long Eaton to meet the suppliers of sofas to the Cotswold Company and finds out how they are keeping proud local traditions of upholstery alive by producing quality handcrafted furniture