Like Louis de Funse (French comedic actor of the 1970s), we bought my wife's ancestral seat. Granted it was sold by her great great great grandfather in the later part of the 19th century. As is typical in the United Kingdom, my wife has a title, because she was part of one of those families, but as my wife often told our children, a title doesn't pay the bills.
My wife grew up in a nice house in central Norwich, the family fortune having been squandered by various relatives over the past century and a half. There was an industrial past somewhere in the late 1930s and several members of her family emigrated to the colonies. Today she had "cousins" in Canada, Australia and the United States (whom we are visiting on an upcoming trip to San Francisco).
My wife is brilliant and did very well at school. University is not particularly expensive in the United Kingdom, but my wife's parents were poor enough for her to get a study grant. Study she did, and she became a lawyer. In fact, she became a labour lawyer with a very successful practice, mostly in the City. She was one of those lawyers who negotiated contracts for senior bankers.
We met just before graduating from university. We actually met at one of these "official" student events. I was finishing my studies at Trinity College and my girlfriend, at the time, had just dumped me. I had two tickets for what is called the May Ball and no date. A friend of a friend of a friend (yeah convoluted) suggested my future wife (she asked that I not mention her name in these blogs). She was the replacement date.
Our courtship was complicated because she was leaving for San Francisco a week after the ball to work in a British law firm. Did I say that my wife was brilliant! Anyway, we connected by sheer luck two years later in the lobby of Slaughter and May. This was the early 1990s (no internet no email no cellphone). Cutting to the chase, we married in 1994. Because of her specialty (labour law), she made Partner in 1997, and we had over the next 8 years four children (rather my wife had four children).
My wife and I worked the entire time, she would take a few weeks off during her pregnancy (I know this is unfathomable today, but these were the 1990s. The rules were stupid), we both had substantial incomes and purchased a rather grand house early after our marriage, not in the core of London but close enough that the commute was easy.
Until my health scare in late 2012, we were looking at the world as "young wealthy professionals". The UK was still within the EU, our children were healthy and doing great at school, and professionally both our jobs were interesting. We had it all. My 2012 "heart attack" changed that forcing us to consider our future lives. In 2012, our eldest son was 16 years old, and our youngest daughter was 9.
It is at the urging of my wife that we started contemplating changing our lives. Brexit was the second catalyst of our decision to modify our professions.
My wife was one of the first, to think of leaving her practice. Her view, after the June 2016 vote, was that the City would change quickly, even before Brexit we were seeing changes to compensation packages in the City (her bread and butter). The massive compensation packages for City employees were fewer and fewer. In 2015, my wife saw a 10% drop in revenues. Brexit, in her opinion, would accelerate an already present trend.
As my wife said, the big-salary City jobs were disappearing (the impact of 2008) and after "the vote" the trend accelerated. Not to say that her practice was going down the drain, but she no longer considered adding lawyers to her team (specialized in labour law). Everyone in the city could see the writing on the wall, business would continue but operations would grow elsewhere!
It was my brilliant wife who in 2017 suggested that we change our lifestyle and consider returning to Norfolk (we both grew up there). It is my wife who found the farm. She found out via her mother; that a five-time removed cousin was selling the family seat, after having re-acquired it in the late 1980s. I think they were thinking of building a farm. It is my wife who did the research it is my wife who had a professional economic analysis done of the farming in the UK. She did the heavy lifting.
Our timing was spectacular. My wife and I decided to sell our London house in 2018, as the real estate market was still very strong. In 1994 we bought our house for about half a million pounds and sold it for several million in 2019. We also sold my participation in our firm to an institutional investor who was looking to grow its fund management presence in the UK. It is my wife who was the catalyst in selling out our London assets, our timing was good, and we were able, again because of my wife, to buy the farm (in 2018) for a very reasonable price.
I want to pay homage to my wife, we have been together for nearly 30 years now. in fact, we celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary just a few months ago.
We love our lives, and buying the farm was the right decision for us and our family. I have no idea if our children will eventually want to take over the farm. Long ago, we decided that we were going to do things that made us happy and that we found fulfilling. My wife is incredibly adaptable, last week together we went bouldering for the first time. Just have to say that my wife looks good in lycra. But the reality is that the workout was excellent, we also discovered that the climbing center we used has a spectacular restaurant.
We are both looking forward to leaving the UK for two weeks of ski and sunshine. It will make a nice change.
Note: for those not of the UK, the City is the country's financial centre, although it is also a London Borough its is more of a general area (since it also includes the Docklands now).Ã
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