People
The Honeys
I am always intrigued to learn how people have come to be settled where they are, so perhaps our story may be of interest to some.
We have no family connection to Cornwall but, when Glenn was coming up to retiring we knew that we wanted to move. He was leaving his partnership in an international firm of chartered surveyors, commuting daily to London, and my time was filled with our small holding farm and the life of our Hampshire village.
When we bought the farm, the land had gone wild, and the house was small. We started by fencing and reclaiming the pasture from tussock grass, ragwort and brambles with the help of a donkey and geese. We kept the donkey for six years and she foaled twice and the babies were adorable.
The land use progressed as the pasture enlarged and improved. The farm was a registered smallholding, and this gave me access to various free day courses at the local agricultural college where I learnt a lot of shepherding skills, and a bit about cattle. We were very lucky at that time as we could claim European Union subsidies on the carcasses we produced, even if we wanted some for our own freezer. There were a lot of paper forms in triplicate in those days and it is all digital on line now. We had a large organic vegetable garden and a small flock of sheep and beef cattle. The sheep were taken to a neighbour’s ram, but our beef cow had artificial insemination (AI). When she calved, I went to market to buy a second calf for her to double suckle, and I also milked her for the house until I developed tennis elbow! At various periods we also had chicken, turkeys and ducks ( Aylesbury, Muscovy and Khaki Cambell, although the latter were great roamers and the fox picked them off).
There were various sheds on the land but we built a barn, with a hayloft. I bought a huge load of second-hand timber very cheaply at a farm sale (with rather a lot of rusty nails to extract, as Glenn will testify) and we designed around them and only had to buy two joists from the timber merchants.
We ran the farm with mostly old machinery which I bought at farm auctions. We made hay and bought and baled barley straw lying on various local fields.
The farming life was not compatible with following our great love of sailing, to which we intended to devote much more time in our retirement.
Where to go? Staying in the South East did not appeal. Much too crowded and too expensive. We agreed that we wanted a small rural community, surrounded by beautiful countryside for walking, and, most importantly with our boat nearby. Cornwall went straight to the top of the list. We ought to be able to find something to fit the bill.
At the time we had three of our old parents, in Surrey and Sussex so decided that we should look at East Cornwall as we had the option to train or road back fairly quickly if needed. Falmouth area appealed but some may remember what terrible hold ups there used to be over Goss Moor in the summer.
We very nearly bought a lovely flat in Millbay, with fantastic views and a small marina berth. It seemed suitable to lock up and sail away, with no garden, and we thought we could buy our “forever home” at some future date. Then came the great storm of 1990. It caused havoc in Millbay, damaging one of the Brittainny Ferries ships, and lifting the marina pontoons up their piles and twisting them. The harbour master told Glenn that it was always subject to storm swells.
We abandoned that purchase and, as we were in the area for the week end, we got out the map and drove around exploring places on the water that might offer opportunities.
Here serendipitous fate stepped in. We followed a little winding dead-end road to a place on the river called Cargreen. At the Slipway Quay I saw a notice that a show flat was open for viewing. We went in and were shown around and then Glenn decided to try the designated garage parking (with some quite tiresome iron pillars and our car at the time had poor rear visibility and turning circle). As we drove out a young man, just coming out of the Spaniard Inn, walked across and tapped on our window and asked if we were looking to buy something in the village as he had just put his house on the market and it offered a lot more for the money than these flats? He showed us over his house, we talked it over all the way home, made him an offer which he accepted the next week end.
So that rather long story is how we ended up here, and we feel so lucky.
We moved into Landulph parish in August 1992. It has been a wonderful base from which to set off on our sailing adventures.
When not busy with Yacht Club and sailing activities, I have done a lot of walking. I joined Alrod MacLeod and friends on a week of “girls only” skiing in 1999. We got together again in 2000 and Jane McRill came as well, as a total beginner, but and did not take to the skiing. She and I decided that we would continue the annual week holiday together and do something less hazardous and started going on walking weeks.
Me, Pat Bishop, Jill Urwin and Alrod McLeod
I had joined Ramblers when we came to Cornwall as a good way to learn more of the county and meet people and our first walking holiday together was a Ramblers Group. When Jane said she had never walked in the English Lake District I told her that had to be rectified and we had a wonderful, cold but dry holiday based in Buttermere and climbed Haystacks where this photo was taken.
We did a few more group holidays before taking very many self-guided linear walking weeks around Europe with day packs, and the luggage proceeding us to the next stop. We clocked up some impressive mileages. Our last holiday was in 2023. I can hardly believe they all started so long ago.
Whilst I was away, and more particularly since we sold the boat, Glenn has revisited an interest of his childhood with model making, but elevated it to a whole new level. Glenn’s Father joined the RAF in 1924 and a project developed to make models of the aeroplanes he had piloted. There were some challenging planes without any kits to help! He also made some impressive ships and really amazing models of our two cruisers, the little Cornish Crabber “Tarantella”, and Vancouver 32 “Juliet”.
I have tried to learn the art of water colour painting. I used to dabble with oils but wanted to learn something new and have enjoyed the process.
© Margaret Honey, January 2026, All rights reserved
This article is protected by copyright - please contact editor@landulph.org.uk if you want to use it.
