Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2007 | Page 23
PROPERTY
land had never been registered.
Nobody realised it had to be.”
Since 1986, it has been a
legal requirement on the Isle
of Wight to register transfers
of land with the Land Registry,
and the Winters’ application
is now being processed.
They particularly appreciated
the personal attention
offered by Mr Willey, who
visited them in their home.
“Nothing is too much trouble
for him,” said Mrs Winter.
The potential disaster for the
Winters and their offspring had
they not registered the land is
all the more poignant because
the house was hand-built by
Mr Winter himself. “It was
designed by a man down the
road – we chose a chaletbungalow from a picture,”
said Mrs Winter. “We had a
professional bricklayer, Jim
was the labourer, and various
friends put in the windows. We
had to send postcards into the
Council to show what we were
doing, and inspectors kept
coming round,” she said. “I
was up till 1.30 in the morning,
digging out the footings by
Island Life - www.islandlife.tv
life
hand. I put all the concrete
down!” added Mr Winter.
The whole project took two
years. “It’s surprising what you
can do if you make up your
mind,” said Mr Winter, a forester
by trade, who, to earn the land
on which he intended to build
the house, had worked for the
farmer in the evenings when
he got home from his day-job
with the Forestry Commission.
In its heyday the piece of land
in question kept the couple
self-sufficient in vegetables.
“It’s a bit rough now, but it
was a lovely garden. We
have grown loads of stuff. I
used to grow all my sprouts.
Never had to buy stuff. We
still grow all our potatoes,”
Mr Winter says proudly.
They have three grown-up
children, and one three-yearold great granddaughter.
“We are very happy that we
found out about registration,
it would have been a concern
when it came to passing the
land on. We wanted everything
to be fair to the family.” said Mrs
Winter, who will be 80 next year.
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