ia play

Facebook friends will notice from my status updates that I spend far too much time “fantasy farm hunting”.  To be honest, it isn’t so much fantasy as a little premature. Mostly what I’m trying to figure out is where we should buy this future farm. There’s lots of factors involved.

High volumes of affordable small-holdings:

• Scotland, esp Dumfries and Galloway, Aberdeenshire, the Shetlands(!)
• Around Carlisle
• The Wash and the Fens (particularly anywhere that is at risk from rising sea levels)
• Wales, and Shropshire borders
• North Lincolnshire, East Yorkshire and North Yorkshire (slightly lighter volumes)

Our current work:

• London, esp King’s Cross
• Peterborough (my optional/alternative base)

Our family:

• London
• Yorkshire (Wakefield + Harrogate)
• Peterborough
• Bristol
• Aberdeenshire (never met that branch but they are farmers and apparently welcoming of black sheep)

Friends:

• London
• Cumbria
• Cambridge
• Bristol
• Peterborough

Good for woods:

• big chunks of Scotland and Wales
• Shropshire
• Cumbria
• North Yorkshire
• Norfolk

East Coast mainline looks like it may be a significant ‘spine’ for our search, with a slightly weaker pattern along the West Coast mainline. The trains only matter if we’re assuming we want to get back to London for work some of the time. If we cut the London link completely then the range opens up but, realistically, our budget drops dramatically.

This weekend’s fantasy farm hunting delights included :

The Smithy – Shropshire. Scores points for including a blacksmiths shop, some old pigsties and an acre of woods.
Foresters Cottage – Cornwall. Woodland, chicken runs and it’s a foresters cottage 🙂

Neither is particularly viable with that price-location combination. Fantasy farm hunting will continue…