The walls of our small cottage are used to a squash and a squeeze, like many old rural homes: tales of one, or two-up two-down dwellings housing families of 12 (including second-generation married couples) still circulate from living memory.
With a daughter back from university and a son having finished and moved back home temporarily (with his girlfriend) into his tiny childhood bedroom, it can be said, we are in a bind. We're far from the only ones.
Our downland village has four small developments of social or once-affordable houses, addedto each decade from the 1940s to the 1990s. Most are now privately owned and fetch big prices. Other cottages have been extended or knocked down, replaced by larger homes. There is a growing proliferation of barely occupied second homes and holiday lets, but there have been no new houses since.
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Bu hikaye BBC Countryfile Magazine dergisinin March 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
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Nicola Chester
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As arookie dog owner, Cotswolds writer James Fair was overwhelmed with advice and dire warnings about how to care for his puppy. But how many of the often-repeated truths about canines are really myths?
TOP 10 ROMANTIC RUINS
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THE COMEBACK KITE
Once virtually extinct in Britain, a magnificent bird of prey now thrives in British skies. What went so right? Nicola Chester profiles the red kite