Jake's and Joe's Story

Jake`s Story

My parents had a small cottage in The Peak District, and they sometimes went there for walking holidays. After my brother and I were born, we started to go to the cottage more. We used to pack up the car every Friday evening after school and drive for 3 hours to get to the peace and quiet of our lovely cottage. During the week my parents worked in the IT industry near London. We went to expensive private schools and we all worked long hours and travelled a long way to school or work. We hardly saw each other. We had a lot of babysitters as we were alone a lot at home.

Every Sunday evening, we used to lock up the cottage and come back home. But it started to become harder and harder to leave the cottage. On Sundays, we all hated the idea of leaving our friends from the village and the beautiful views. Last year, my dad wanted to change things in our life. He sold our big house near London and my parents gave up their busy jobs. They bought a smaller car and sold our speedboat. We moved to our cottage house and now we are two adults, three kids and a dog, all living together there. My parents started to work from home and now we don’t have babysitters.

The best change for me is that I am not in a large class in a huge school. I go to a tiny local school with my brothers. After school my mum doesn’t have to drive us around as we get on our bikes and cycle around to see friends. My life is just so different from the one in London. We feel calm and happy. We have got fewer things. Dad can’t buy us all the CDs and stuff we want but I don’t mind it. I have more time outdoors and less time for my computer. I have got less of everything but for me this looks like so much more. I am so pleased we changed our life.

Joe’s Story

I grew up on a farm in a small village in the Peak District. We had the freedom of the fields and were outdoors in all types of weather. When I grew up I started to understand that there was a big world out there and I wanted to see that world. I thought I would have more glamour and adventure in my life. After a certain time, life on the farm made me a little bored and I couldn’t wait to get away. I went to London to study and had the chance to travel around the world. In the 1990’s I became a stylist and worked in magazines in New York and other parts of America. I lived in Boston and had a hectic social life. It was a million miles from my village. It was exciting but it was also exhausting. After having two children I started to change. My mind kept going back to those fields and hills in the English countryside. I thought of the smells and sounds of that peaceful life. I wanted to have an exciting, successful life and a beautiful home and I had it all in Boston. However, there was something missing. I wanted to look out at the hills and green fields of England.

One day my dad called to say an old farmhouse in our village was up for sale and I jumped at the chance to buy it. I persuaded my husband and kids to leave behind the American lifestyle. We made a difficult decision. To me, moving back to the village was more frightening than travelling around India by myself as a student. When we got here, I saw that I wasn’t the only one. I have met old school friends who still live and work in the countryside but I meet more and more new faces. Over half of the families in our local school come from cities all over Britain. We have something in common with these people. All of us have given up expensive houses and good jobs to move our families to a smaller house in the village. They do the work they can find and they say they are glad. I definitely feel happier to be in my village and my family do too.