Six years ago to the day, my wife and I took possession of the farm. January 8th, 2018 (which was also a Monday) we got the keys to the farm. It would take nearly 18 months before we could resign and leave London.
We had to hire a large crew to start the process of cleaning, and upgrading the fields and preparing them to return to their original task of providing pasture and feed for our future herds. Our first two hires were our biologists and ecologists (they have other jobs on the farm but their primary roles are that). The farm buildings proper, which were about 600 meters from the great house, were in appalling condition. The first thing we did was bulldoze the entire site. It was a mixture of 1950s and 1960 buildings that gave a new meaning to "rising damp" with low ceilings and cheap construction. We replaced them with modern warehouses, properly insulated with built-in cold rooms and freezers.
For two years either or both of us would drive up to Norfolk on Thursday evening to supervise and see the progress. It took nearly a year before we could have our first animal on the farm. Building the high tunnels was expensive, several hundred thousand pounds each. The first to arrive on the farm were the milk cows in April 2019, in June the goats arrived (once their milk parlour was completed), and the first herd of meat cattle arrived in September.
The processes of obtaining bio/ecological grassland is complex, our saving grace was that most of the field had been left fallow for nearly a decade. Our problem was the quality of the soil. The first few months were slow, first nothing happened over the winter months. Architect plans and contractors were sought for the various things that had to happen on the farm and our future home.
The great house dates back to the 18th century, but virtually nothing of the interior remained. It was unhabitable because of a very leaky roof. It had been "remodelled" in the 1950s and then more or less abandoned by successive owners, who eventually moved to a cottage on the property (now being used by Jennifer, the farm manager). We had a blank slate on which to work (we only had to conserve the outside look). The house was already too large for our needs (its original plans included a ballroom). I still remember that the builder removed all 25,000 roof tiles. When we moved in at the end of 2019, only a third of the house was habitable, the rest was closed off (no electricity), and renovations were completed over the next year.
Still we finally permanently moved in on the 5th of November 2019, having both left our carrere in London. Moving away from London was a shock. In a sense, the first 18 months on the farm were very long and exhausting days. Of course, we missed all our London friends and our lives. We missed the Opera concerts, and theatre that had become part of our lives.
Our children were unaffected since they were all away at school or had begun working. In 2019, our eldest son was 22 years old and begun working in London. Our Eldest daughter was in medical school and hardly had the time to even see us. Our two youngest were still in boarding school so they spent a few weeks with us on the farm and then we often went away at friends'...it was rather standard, and their lives were mostly unaffected.
Do we still see our London friends, not really, a few still visit from time to time, but their lives are different, their lives are controlled by the heartbeat of the City and not the bucolic life we have chosen. However, we are not hermits, we still go to London for a day or two for various reasons, there are excellent hotels within walking distance of great theatre or concerts or musicals. We are not dead yet!
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