Completing the kitchen, bathroom and passage felt like a miraculous achievement. After this work began on the outside on the car park side. Dave stripped off the old render and exposed the killas stone beneath (a metamorphic sedimentary rock), with brick arches around the windows. It looked lovely so we had no end of people […]
How to build an empire part 6 – making plans for Lizzy
As a child I had never been shy of working; I rogued for wild oats, picked stones from fields, shovelled grain into dryers, edited the local parish magazine, and even had a paid column (parish council news) for the Cornish Times. I’d done voluntary work in a school for children with additional needs, which I […]
The Best of St Germans and the Rame Peninsula
At the mouth of the Tamar, on one side scored with beautiful beaches and quaint fishing villages, on the other deep river valleys and the rolling countryside the Rame Peninsula is a gem in the Cornish crown. Slightly off the beaten track, it offers the discerning traveller exceptional natural beauty unsullied by crowds. Like the […]
How to build an empire – part 5 – the bathroom and passage
After finishing the kitchen in early 1993, we moved on to the bathroom and passage, which at the time were in the space formerly occupied by the ladies powder room and ladies toilet cubicle. We continued to live in our boarded up bedroom. Finishing our main living area meant we had somewhere to entertain. However […]
How to stay sane in a crazy world
How do we stay sane despite the craziness that is sweeping the world? For myself I try to maintain that there’s really no point worrying about things I have no control over. If the news is bad, then I stop looking at it. In today’s connected world this is sometimes easier said than done! At […]
How to build an empire part 4 – The canopy and stoves
One of our biggest problems in the early days was how to restore the canopy. St Germans station is very unusual in that we have what is called a flying freehold over the station platform. This means that we have the right to have and maintain our canopy over railway land. This was deeply unpopular […]
Passengers – A new travel crew hit the rails
A year after we moved into St Germans station, in April 1993, a new Care in the Community act was passed. This involved the closure of many hospitals that had been the home of people with mental health illnesses. Part of the reason for closure was that there was concern that these hospitals caused the […]
How to give up the right things for lent
Although ultimately rewarding, living a green lifestyle can at times be tough. Sometimes it can be hard to give up things, even though we know we would like to. This is why at this time of year I like to try and make one change through season of lent. Lent begins this year on March […]
How to build a railway empire part 3 – Living the life
Living the life When we first moved in we had very little in the way of possessions; just two chairs, a workmate and a Baby Belling cooker, and until a kind neighbour gave us their old sofa, this was our only furniture. For a bed, we had two pallets on the floor in the room […]
How to build an empire. The story of Railholiday Part 2 – Unforeseen Challenges
The station was finally ours on the 4th of May 1992. Because we were getting married on the 18th of July and intended to move in on our wedding night, there was no time to lose in preparations. The day we completed the purchase we slept in sleeping bags on the floor of what would […]