I spent thirty years inspecting the structural integrity of houses, from the flint-walled cottages in the Test Valley to the newer builds out near Salisbury, and if there is one thing I know, it is that a solid foundation is everything. The same applies to a Sunday roast. I see people these days buying those […]
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I was out by the old tithe barn last Tuesday—the one with the flintwork dating back to the mid-1800s—trying to patch a section of dry stone wall that had given up the ghost. My knee decided, quite inconveniently, that it wasn’t going to cooperate with the damp weather. It’s a funny thing; you spend your […]
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I was sitting in the back room of the Red Lion last Tuesday, listening to young Miller from down the lane lamenting his first house purchase, when it hit me just how much nonsense is floating around about the taxman. He was looking at some glossy brochure that made the whole process sound like a […]
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I remember standing in the middle of the village green back in ’94, watching a committee spend three hours debating the precise shade of bunting for the marquee, while the actual tea tent was missing a kettle and the raffle prizes were sitting in the back of a damp van. It’s a common mistake, thinking […]
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I was standing in my back garden last Tuesday, staring at a particularly stubborn patch of parched lawn near the old stone wall—which, mind you, was built around 1890—and realized I’d been doing things the hard way for years. Most people think that learning how to install a water butt is all about buying the […]
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I was standing by the old pavilion last Tuesday—the one built in 1924, though the roof tiles have been a mess since the late eighties—and I watched a group of youngsters kick a ball against a fence that’s seen better decades. It struck me then that most people think reviving a village sports club requires […]
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I was kneeling on the floor of my kitchen last Tuesday—the one with the Victorian quarry tiles laid back in the late 1890s—staring at a line of grey sludge that simply wouldn’t budge. Most people will tell you that you need a battery of expensive, chemical-heavy sprays to fix the problem, but after thirty years […]
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I was out near the old mill stream last Tuesday—the one built around 1740, if memory serves—trying to check a loose stone in a boundary wall, when the light simply vanished. It wasn’t just dark; it was that thick, heavy sort of gloom you only get when the hedgerows are overgrown and the streetlamps are […]
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I was sitting in the back of the village hall last Tuesday, listening to a young estate agent talk about “lifestyle branding” and “curated rural experiences,” and I nearly choked on my tea. They make it sound like selling a house in a village is all about staging the perfect sourdough breakfast on a reclaimed […]
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I saw a spread in the local magazine last week—all tiny, expensive little sandwiches with the crusts cut off and those fancy little jars of chutney that cost more than a decent bottle of cider. It got me thinking about how much nonsense people believe about how to make a picnic actually worthwhile. If you […]
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