The Cottager's Reply

I heard this song on Radio 2 today and it really resonated with me. It's a song by Chris Wood based on a poem he wrote about second homes.

It begins (with some lovely folksy guitar accompaniment):

Five hundred thousand English pounds

for this old house and a piece of ground.

You and your wife you've always planned

to settle down in Cotswold land.

Well you best come in and you best sit down

it's such a long drive from London town.

Would you like some tea now while I tell

the reasons why I will not sell.

This stone-built house that you called "nice"

was gained at far too high a price

for me to gladly sign away

what others toiled for night and day...

I urge you to visit Chris Wood on MySpace and listen to the rest. There are some lovely lines (London town's four hours for me; in your f...f...f...four by f...f...f...four you'll do it in three...) and it really sums up the frustration and sadness of people watching their homes being swallowed up by well-heeled second home owners from the big smoke.

It illustrates too the heritage of a house and its land and the fact that the toil and suffering of those who lived there before is infused into the stone that the cottage is built from. It's an education, really, for second homeowners, should they wish to listen.

I suppose I really liked it because although I'm from rural Worcestershire and now live in Wales (in a stone cottage), my ancestry is Cotswold. My great grandfather is buried in the churchyard at Winchcombe and I feel a strong pull to that area.

I have this fantasy (and it's a bit of a family joke now, especially as to get a similar 22 acre smallholding to this one would cost £1.4 million) that one day I'll be rich enough to afford "to settle down in Cotswold land" but, having heard this song, I'm feeling guilty about that now!