During the height of the pandemic Ben Stafford-Davies was out on his daily walk when he spotted the woman who would become his wife practicing yoga in the park.
He strolled over and their relationship began with an unpromising opening line: “Do you stretch here often?”
Luckily his now-wife, Francesca, saw the funny side and the couple, who were both living in Finsbury Park at the time, exchanged phone numbers.
And because they had both been furloughed from work — she was working for a tech sales company and he was a sports coach — they had plenty of time to spend together over the weeks that followed.
“It really expedited the dating process,” says Ben. “She went from being a stranger to my best friend in a few weeks.”
When the UK’s second national lockdown was announced the couple decided to get away.
Ben, 33, is originally from South Africa and he suggested returning to his homeland, an arduous journey thanks to quarantine rules which involved stop offs in both Italy and Namibia.
They returned to the UK in the spring of 2022, and began thinking about the future. They moved into a flat in Bow, and adopted a Spanish rescue dog, Malu.
And Ben proposed on New Year’s Eve. He and Francesca, 37, married a year later and made a vow to move out of London within a year.
“It was a case of burnout meets chaos,” says Ben. “I am a small town boy and I had made as much as I could of London. We just thought we needed a change of pace, and of scenery.”
What they really wanted to do was buy a small plot of land so they could create an off grid, sustainable, homestead, but months passed and they struggled to find a site that worked.
Then in October 2023 Francesca was flicking through Rightmove when she came across a perfect plot – almost an acre close to the coastal village of Wembury, Devon, which was already set up with a small orchard, greenhouses, and growing beds.
Within 24 hours more than a dozen buyers had viewed the land and the owner was inviting best and final offers.
Without enough time to race down and see it Ben and Francesca had to rely on gut instinct – later the same week they learned their £78,550 offer had been successful.
Back in 2018 Ben and his father had bought an investment flat in Kingsbridge which was rented out.
And just as the sale was going through the tenant announced they were leaving. With the stars aligned the couple said goodbye to London and moved to Devon at the start of 2024.
In the past year their lives have changed dramatically. Francesca has retrained as a yoga teacher, while Ben has become a life coach specialising in coaching men.
He has also founded Invested Friends (coachben.me), a men-only group to promote male friendship and combat loneliness, a concept he would like to see rolled out across the country.
Spare time is spent on the land, cultivating fruit and vegetables and working towards the dream of self-sufficiency.
They have renovated the flat, and rent it out to tourists at weekends, while they head off in their Ford Transit van.
“Our life now is chalk and cheese to how it was in London, and we are both very happy,” said Ben. “I feel like I have come home, and for Francesca it has been an awakening.”
