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. 23