“Ironically, the thing I liked most about living in Reading was how easy it was to get out of it. From where we were, in the north of the town, we could always pop up quickly to rural Oxfordshire. Though we loved being able to escape to the country, I didn’t ever think I’d end up living on a farm in Cornwall. I certainly didn’t think I’d end up delivering twin calves, but I am proud of having done that.
My husband Mike and I had a good social life in Reading and often walked into the town centre to go to restaurants, cinema and the theatre. But we found it could be a very transient place, with the computer companies and the business parks, and a lot of our friends would live there for a few years and then move on.
At that time, Mike, who designed paint spray machines for all the major car factories, often worked seven days a week. I was a chartered accountant, but then my company got taken over and I was offered redundancy. At the same time, a developer offered to buy our house. We were very unsure, but then our neighbours sold to them, so the garden we loved wouldn’t have been the same anyway.
If it hadn’t been for all that, I wonder if we would have had the courage to do what we really wanted to do?
Because unless life gives you that push, making a big move takes courage. Back then, you couldn’t get an instant estimate for your home online like you can now with My Home on Zoopla. Going through the experience online first would have been so useful in helping us decide when to sell. It’s something that really lends a hand in making future decisions without the need to call in estate agents if you’re just at the dreaming stage.
When we first drove past Trevorrick Farm it was a really wet day and I thought: ‘Oh, it’s miles along a country lane, I’d never want to live there.’ But a little while later I had a change of heart. We’d decided to get into holiday lettings by then and we thought we’d need at least four units to make it viable. Trevorrick had six cottages and four hectares … and it was back on the market. Then we saw it from the other side of the creek, from Padstow, and it was just amazing. By the time I got to the front doorstep I wanted to buy it.
Mike wasn’t so sure at first, but we’d still managed to buy it within two months, which is an incredibly short time, thinking back. Our son was just one year old at the time. Mike was able to continue working and commute for a few months, and I started running the B&B a week after we moved in. When our second son was born I took him round with me while I was doing the tables and talking to guests.
I think most of our guests probably have this little dream of escaping, like we did, even if they never manage it or they never think of it again. But while they’re staying with us they can have this dream of a different way of life, in the country, surrounded by small animals.
If you have a young family, an escape to the country makes an ideal environment to bring up children. But now it can be for just about anybody, with fibre broadband in so many places and working from home maybe becoming a more permanent way of life. So if you’re thinking about it, I would say just do it – and help keep local communities going.
I love my home now. Parts of the farmhouse date back to the 18th century, and from the front it’s a beautiful stone facade, but the inside isn’t as traditional.
When we first got here, Trevorrick was a farm in name only and I wanted to change that. Our first animal was a little grey goose. Then we got ducks. Then chickens. Now we have enough chickens to give all our guests fresh eggs. I got some bottle-fed lambs and started breeding them, too.
Now I feel very at home here and love being a member of the local community. I’ve taken part of the nativity in Falmouth for years now. I love rural life and am so glad we took the chance and made our home here.”
Check My Home on Zoopla and see if it’s time to sell
