Our Story

We often ask ourselves the question, as many of you must, how on earth did we end up here in rural France working our socks off when really we should be thinking of retirement. But then we have never been the sort of people to rest on our laurels and have always had to have a ‘project or two ‘to be getting on with.

I suppose it all began in August 1975 when we got married. I had just finished at teacher training college as a special needs teacher and Phil was working in the family building business. We had managed to scrape together with the help of family and friends, a deposit for our first house and a mortgage of £54 a month that we thought was astronomical and however would we afford that every month as well as doing up this old Victorian mid terrace wreck.

Well we did … On a wing and a prayer and kindly donated second hand furniture including my mum’s twin tub washing machine …. Those were the days.

After 3 years we sold the house and I got promotion to another special school and we moved to the Birmingham suburbs and another house /project but on a smaller scale. I think this is when we started getting the project bug, but in those days we were able to fit in work, projects and a lot of partying … oh to have some of that energy back.

We left Birmingham in 1981 when I was offered a job in a school in Cornwall. We had been holidaying there for a while and it was either there or America, the itchy feet had already started but I think we made the right decision and moved to Cornwall.

Of course this meant a new project but this time in Cornish granite, something different for Phil to tackle as well as finding work and enjoying ourselves. We loved our new life, but it was not without its problems and almost like moving to a foreign country in some respects we were making the transition from city people to country folk. I knew all along that being brought up with the Archers would come in useful one day!

It was the slower pace of life that we found difficult to adjust to and the Cornish way of doing things “d’rectly” meaning sometime never. Little did we know that this was preparing us for an even bigger life change!

By 1993 we were well established in our new way of life and about to become real country folk when we bought a very old cottage with 7 acres of land, our third Cornish house, this was our biggest project yet …total madness …a money pit, but with Phil’s vision and skill we knew it was going to be our best yet. So we worked at our day jobs and gradually got on with the cottage.

But what of the land? Well that was a project in itself, covered in brambles, a couple of old mine shafts, poor grass and a wooden barn close to collapse. Then some bright spark suggested that a couple of pigs would soon sort out 7 acres and as it happened he had two sows that we could have Ruby and Beryl ……and that was the start of our next adventure.

We started breeding from our sow called Lucy, a large middle white and a large personality to go with it. I could tell you no end of stories about her. We then introduced some pedigree Gloucester old spots and bred from them, so at any one time we would have about 30 pigs roaming the 7 acres. It took a lot of managing as well as keeping up our day jobs and renovating the cottage I’m sure there were more hours in a day then or is that old age creeping up?

I would feed the pigs before going to school, Phil would spend many hours fencing and building arcs and we felt very privileged to be able to watch piglets being born. I could often be seen on my bike down the bridle paths with a trail of young escapee pigs behind me who thought it great fun to visit the local caravan site or neighbouring farm. We became known as the pig woman of Radnor and Phil the fencer, but so many stories to tell about these wonderful creatures.

There were numerous highs and lows that happened during the next few years and it all culminated with Phil learning to make sausages and cure bacon in a prep room that we built in our garden with the help of the environmental health people and a butcher friend, Lawrence, who bred Aberdeen Angus beef…… This inevitably led to the next big project!

I don’t know where the BBC got the idea for “Jimmy’s Farm” from but we’ve been there…. written the book…. Worn the T shirt etc. etc.

In 1997 We turned Lawrence’s tractor shed into a farm shop selling free range pork and Aberdeen Angus beef and called it Angus Trotters. Phil gave up building work and learned to butcher under Lawrence’s guidance and they both ran the shop, Phil on a very minimal wage.

Because our mortgage was now considerably more than £54 a month, I continued teaching and pig rearing. But in 2000, 25 years of working with very challenging autistic children began to take its toll. The shop was just beginning to take off but not well enough to support 2 families and our feet had begun to itch again for pastures new ……we had been in Cornwall for 20 years.

Everyone thought we were mad, (well it does help) we sold our beautiful cottage, our share in the shop, I resigned and we paid off our mortgage, we were free and ready to face the next challenge.

In December 2001 we moved to France, we still don’t really know why we chose France other than watching hours of a Place in the Sun and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

And what did we do? Retire? No such luck, we renovated 3 old houses and set up a business called Sausageland 3 years ago making, you guessed it, English sausages and bacon. 4 months ago we opened a shop in Piegut Pluviers because we had outgrown our original premises.

Do we still breed our own pigs? No we leave that to Andrew and Lisa Murray at Lambaudie farm in the Haute Vienne, but in our heart of hearts we do miss our pigs! It’s hard enough work running the business without the livestock but if you come and see us at the shop we can tell you a pig tale or two.