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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Kyle O'Sullivan

Inside the Radfords' 10-bed home, room sharing, kids' rent and break-in terror

It’s a very tight squeeze for Britain's biggest family to live under one roof.

Staggeringly, the Radfords somehow manage to fit 19 of their 22 kids into their 10-bedroom home in Morecambe, Lancashire.

Parents Sue and Noel bought the Victorian property, a former care home, for £240,000 back in 2004 - and the size of their family has grown considerably since then.

There are currently 19 of their kids living at home as eldest children Chris, 31, and Sophie 26 have now moved out, although they are always round for visits.

Living at home is Chloe, 25, Jack, 23, Daniel, 21, Luke, 20, Millie, 19, Katie, 18, James, 17, Ellie, 15, Aimee, 14, Josh, 13, Max, 12, Tillie, 10, Oscar, nine, Casper, eight, Hallie, five, Phoebe, four, Archie, three, Bonnie, two, and baby Heidie.

This obviously means some of the kids have to share, while others pay rent to stay in their family home.

Here is a look inside the Radfords' house.

Rooms and sleeping arrangements

The Radford family don't have much space for themselves despite living in a 10-bed house (LancLive/ WS)

Anyone who steps inside the Radfords’ home is greeted by a massive colourful storage unit full of coats and bags.

There are also rows upon rows of shoes - with mum Sue confessing there is “stuff everywhere”.

"Anyone that comes in the house who hasn't been before laughs at this shoe storage,” said Sue.

"As you can image we go through lots of them [shoes]."

There are loads of photos, certificates and medals on the walls throughout the house.

The living room has high ceilings and a giant brown leather corner sofa, which almost takes up two walls and can fit 10 kids on.

"Anyone that comes in the house who hasn't been before laughs at this shoe storage," said Sue (YouTube/The Radford Family)

The dining room has a super long table, 14 chairs and two high chairs.

While the kitchen, which has a granite-top island in the middle, has a whopping 20 cupboards and drawers to store enough food to feed all those hungry mouths.

So where does everyone sleep?

One of the girls’ bedrooms is on the first floor, featuring four single beds lined up in a row which have the initials of the person they belong to above.

Next door is a small room with a bunk bed which belongs to two of the younger boys, Josh and Max.

One of the rooms where four of the girls sleep (YouTube/The Radford Family)

Daughter Chloe has her own large bedroom while Mille and Jack also have separate rooms in the basement.

The basement is home to the laundry room with a huge 18Kg washing machine, which is most definitely needed in a house of more than 20.

Luke, Daniel and James' bedroom has bunk beds and a space to-lay video games, while Hallie and Phoebe share a bedroom with two small beds.

On the top floor is Sue and Noel's room and their large bathroom, which is often used by the kids when queues form in the second floor bathroom and downstairs toilet.

Opposite their master bedroom is another of the boys' rooms where Oscar and Casper sleep, while in the corner are two cots for the babies.

Who pays rent?

There are lots of kids to fit around the table (THE RADFORD FAMILY/YOUTUBE)

Only two of the kids have moved out of the family home, meaning some are still living there as adults.

But they don't get a completely free ride as the eldest children pay a small amount of rent to their parents.

"Us older ones do pay a little bit of board, granted it's not a lot but I am trying to save up for my own house at the moment," explained Chloe, who is the oldest of the couple's children who is still living at home.

Sue added: "We've always said if you want to buy somewhere, rent is dead money so we would rather you saved that money up and stayed at home for a bit longer.

"But me and Noel believe they should pay board, if they are earning we've always been brought up to pay board."

Lockdown garden transformation

The kids love playing outside in the garden (The Radford Family/Youtube)

Lockdown has been particular tough for the Radford clan with all those kids stuck inside.

Noel and Sue have had plenty to keep them occupied - from endless homeschooling to massive Friday night takeaways.

But they’ve managed to keep the kids entertained by turning their garden into a play-haven.

They ditched the real grass to stop the kids bringing mud into the house - replacing it with an artificial lawn that Sue can vacuum.

The kids absolutely love the water play area featuring inflatables a paddling pool and a hot tub.

They’ve even built their own pub in the garden, as well as an outdoor cinema.

Epic makeover

Noel looks pretty chuffed with his outdoor bar (theradfordfamily/Instagram)

The Radfords are planning an epic makeover in the next 12 months that will completely transform their home.

In January this year, they had scaffolding erected around the property so they could replace the old windows, get a new roof and have a new room fitted.

“We’ve been waiting for years to do it, it’s like everything else in this house, you just get round to doing bits at a time," said Sue.

“It’s like the Forth bridge, once you’ve finished something there’s another job to do and another job to do.

“I really miss living in a brand new build house, but you don’t get the character that you get with these houses and I do love it.”

The couple also called in a decorator who warned they may have to have the walls re-plastered.

“We’re going to bite the bullet and take the wallpaper off and just hope and pray that all of the plaster doesn’t just come off all of the walls,” explained Sue.

However they later discovered the wall would need to be re-plastered after Noel left a gaping hole in it while trying to decorate.

Sue showed the damage on her Instagram page, saying: “This is the thing when you have an old house guys, the walls fall apart.”

Moving plans

Before their big renovation plans, there was the suggestion that the family could leave their home.

"I think a while back I did really want to move house, before we did the house up. But since doing the house up were not moving and actually we've got plans for the house, quite big plans," said Sue.

"We will be sharing them with you once the architect does his thing."

If the family ever did up sticks, they would go somewhere with some tranquility or some sun.

Noel added: "I think if we were to move house what we would really love to do is move abroad or move to the lakes."

Break-in terror

Intruders tried to get into the house last year (Channel 5 WS)

Back in July the Radfords were left shaken when intruders tried to break into their home.

Their sheepdog Lola alerted them to the attempted burglary - with two men trying to come in through the basement bedroom.

Sue said she ran down and turned the light on and saw two burglars running away, with one pushing the other into the car before driving off with the car doors still open.

She said at the time: "I said 'Thank God for Lola' as she knew something was going on."

During one of their YouTube Q&As in November, they were asked if they wanted to move because they no longer felt safe after the incident.

“This is to do with the fact that somebody was in the garden and tried the windows a couple of months ago,” said Noel.

“But since then we’ve had security cameras fitted so we feel quite safe.”

Sue added: “We have a good security system now, but before that we didn’t. There were quite a few things that had been bothering us.”

How they afford their house

Noel Radford revealed how he prepares a massive pie to feed his 22 children (Instagram)

Sue and Noel famously rely on their own bakery business and do not claim any benefits apart from Child Benefit.

When asked if the family were rich during a Q&A on their YouTube channel, Sue said: "Absolutely not, we're definitely not secret millionaires.

"To me rich would be having the big mansion, the flash cars and quite a few hundred thousand in the bank, to me that would be rich but we are not that."

They get some money through brand partnerships on social media, but their main source of income comes from their family-run pie business.

The Radford Pie company, which is located near their family home in Morecombe, Lancashire, serves fresh, healthy pies to customers across the UK.

On their website, they state: "We have owned our own lovely bakery since 1999 which is how we manage to provide for (and feed) our huge and expanding family as well as for the local people of Heysham and Morecambe.

"We have set up our on-line pie shop so we can share our very popular pies with you all. We're a real family business with both myself and Sue working at the helm along with some of our children to help us."

Family breadwinner Noel has been a baker for 25 years, working his way up from trainee to manager to owner across several bakeries.

Noel's job is to ensure the smooth running of the business and creating new pie recipes, while Sue oversees all the orders coming in and going out and acts as "chief taste tester" when she doesn’t have her hands full with the kids.

But they’re not the only members of the family involved in the business as they've roped in some of the kids.

The Radford family at home in Morecambe (LeeMcLean/SWNS)

Daughter Chloe, who has worked in the bakery shop for five years, is the next generation of artisan pie maker and makes suggestions for delicious new recipes.

While Daniel takes orders, prepares the pies for delivery and makes sure everywhere is spotless after a day of pie-making.

They company did expand to cater for online orders made from around the UK, but they were devastatingly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

22 Kids and Counting has touched on the financial troubles the family had last year as their successful pie business faced closure due to lockdown.

In December, the bakery had to temporarily close its doors when Noel contracted coronavirus , so they lost takings during that time.

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