Category: Property

I remember standing in a draughty hallway in a mid-Victorian terrace near Salisbury, watching a young couple stare in horror at a crumbling lintel. They had just bought the place, only to realise that what does grade 2 listed mean wasn’t just a bit of trivia for the local history society; it was a legal […]

I remember sitting in a draughty kitchen over in Chawton back in ’98, listening to a young man in a sharp suit tell a widow her cottage was worth twenty percent more than it actually was, simply because a new development had broken ground down the lane. He looked at his spreadsheets, but he didn’t […]

I remember standing in a drafty old threshing barn near Sevenhampton back in ’94, watching a young couple marvel at the “characterful” exposed beams while I was busy noting the massive damp patch creeping up the north elevation. They saw a dream; I saw a structural nightmare that would cost them a small fortune in […]

I was standing by the old stone bridge near the bottom of High Street last Tuesday—the one built in 1842, mind you—watching a surveyor from the council squinting at a map of the meadow behind the pub. It’s a scene I’ve seen a dozen times over the years, usually followed by someone asking me, with […]

I remember standing in a damp meadow near Sevenhampton back in ’94, watching a young couple look absolutely shell-shocked because a farmer’s tractor had just rumbled through what they thought was their private, secluded garden. They had been sold a dream of total isolation, but they hadn’t looked at the old tithe maps or the […]

I remember standing in a draughty hallway in a mid-Victorian terrace near Hungerford back in ’94, watching a young couple beam at their “new” home. They’d been sold a dream, but all I could smell was that unmistakable, heavy scent of stagnant earth creeping up from behind the skirting boards. They thought a bit of […]

I remember sitting in a draughty solicitor’s office in Salisbury back in ’94, watching a young couple stare in absolute horror at a stack of conveyancing papers. They had just put a deposit down on a lovely mid-Victorian cottage near Sherborne, only to find out that a centuries-old legal quirk could potentially land them with […]

I remember standing in a muddy garden near Sevenoaks back in ’94, watching a young couple look absolutely gutted because their dream cottage had turned into a plumbing nightmare. They’d been told by a slick estate agent that the drainage was “fine,” only to find out three weeks after moving in that the system was […]

I remember standing in a drafty hallway in a converted barn near Chawton back in ’98, watching a young surveyor stare at a glossy brochure while ignoring the massive damp patch creeping up the north-facing wall. He was talking about “market trends” and “comparable assets,” but he wasn’t looking at the fact that the access […]

I remember standing in the garden of a lovely mid-century detached in Upper Slaughter back in ’98, watching a young couple look absolutely gutted because they couldn’t put up the timber pergola they’d spent months planning. They’d done everything by the book—checked the survey, looked at the floorboards, even the damp proof course—but they’d completely […]