Finally through the hedge

After a long wait we finally completed the purchase of the Smithy field today. Although this represents a milestone in our plans and life, it's just another day for the resident sheep.

After the usual legal complications and last-minute extra costs that typify our overly bureaucratic property transfer system, the Smithy field finally became ours today. At the eleventh hour it was discovered that a small strip of land we thought was on the title, turned out to be unregistered. Not a major issue you may think when dealing with over 4 acres, however it just happened to be the land that adjoined the road, and through which the field could be accessed by vehicles. Given my plans to erect a holiday lodge, this access issue could prove fundamental down the line. The owner of the land explained his family had used this strip for decades and was not aware it was not registered and was perplexed by such a suggestion. This fact also seemed to elude all the previous official plans I had been given in relation to this plot that, as far as i was aware, originated from the land registry. As the solicitor pointed out however, these plans are just “indicative” …of course they are! A radical idea maybe to get access to the “actual” plans at the start of the process, not the end, but I am sure there is apparent logic somewhere that ensures that doesn’t happen and the process remains as complicated as possible. So, a “statement of fact” later and the sale of the Smithy field was completed - albeit with further legal work (at a cost) to claim “adverse possession” of that unregistered strip!

I had been glued to my phone for days waiting for news on the completion, and locked in correspondence with the solicitor, having those strange olde English conversations that seem to specialise in circumnavigating the point and overcomplicating the bleeding obvious. I had even started to remove a section of hedging in order to create a gate into the field from the Smithy as my patience was waning. Then, the sun came out, and the call came at 3pm to say the land was ours. It was a profound moment as, on hearing the news, I passed through this new opening in the hedge for the first time and stepped onto the land in an almost symbolic gesture of newfound unity, connection and ownership. The moment was somewhat muted as I looked up to see the puzzled expressions of (the now previous owners) 6 resident sheep staring at me as they chewed cud. It dawned on me that they were the only animals that had really occupied this land for decades, and the complexities of land ownership law, the countless pages of legal dribble, the covenants, the plans, the titles, the numerous conversations in olde English, the money, the time, the stress and the effort was all completely lost on them, and I was simply a stupid human walking through a hole in the hedge. My feet firmly back down to earth, I spent the rest of the afternoon knocking up a gate to prevent them escaping.

So, we have the house, we have the land (and apparently 6 sheep), we have the unfinished holiday lets and most of all we still have the dream.