Sarah’s Great Grandparents farmed at Upottery and retired to Windovers (comprising 2 cottages and 17 acres) in the 1920s. They kept a few cows, a pig and a dozen hens. The fields they farmed are denoted by a red cross on the maps hung under the stairs. After their death (they are buried at Dunkeswell Abbey) the property passed down the family to Sarah’s grand mother and then her Uncle Jack.
Jack moved to Windovers in the 1950s. In the 1970s he sold off Windover Cottage but in 2002 it came up for sale again and Sheamus and Sarah bought it. Uncle Jack, who still lived at Windover Farm Cottage, popped round to Sarah’s almost every day for a coffee until he sadly died in 2006 (aged 87).
Jack was an interesting character and after moving to Windovers in the 1950’s made virtually no improvements to the property. Subsequently there was no bathroom (just an outdoor privy) and no real kitchen - just a ‘backhouse’ with one very slow flowing cold water tap (the water was the colour of tea). His only means of heating was a sold fuel rayburn on which he boiled his water.
He had no television but enjoyed listening to one of his 2 radios (one tuned to 5 Live for sport and the other to Radio Devon for local news) or reading library books (delivered by the mobile library as he didn’t drive). After his death Sheamus and Sarah bought Windover Farm Cottage and 15 acres and restored it to the quality accommodation you see today.