Page 14 - The Farming Years proof

FInDInG THE FARM
barns but could not ful l our agricultural needs. nevertheless, we decided to look at it.
After our visit, we decided to drive down the hill on the way to orton to look at the property from across the valley. no sooner had we stopped when a man raced down the hill on a bicycle to catch us up. I knew him; he was John Billows who apparently had just bought Home Farm which was next door to Mawsley House in Main Street. I knew John from Car Club days and he was always to the point and straightforward.
He wanted to sell Home Farm with its 21 acres of elds, farm house, farm buildings and cottages whilst he would keep the rest of the Home Farm land and the second farm house on the Har- rington Road. John had recently acquired the Volvo Truck Agency and it was a time when Swedish trucks were considered the best and they were ready sales. I think, on re ection, he had bought Home Farm and found it was affecting his cash ow for keeping up his expanding Volvo truck sales. I know he went to Moulton Agricultural College as a young man but he had no farming family background and no doubt his frustrated aim was to be a farmer.
So we looked at the property with John. It consisted of a main farm house with a kitchen, dining room, sitting room and good cellar. Upstairs there were 4 bedrooms. one large and the oth- ers really single but, clearly, it had not been lived in for several years. Beside the farm house there was a small yard of about 15ft wide followed by a cottage of 2 rooms downstairs and 2 upstairs. Through a barn on the other side of the yard was another cottage with 3 bedrooms, a kitchen and dining area and a generous sitting room and a generous garden.
In the yard there were two large stone barns and a new open front steel frame sheet clad building. Also, 2 stables in poor condition with a large loft above. The agricultural land consisted of a 2 acre
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