Which do you hate most: noisy neighbours or rising energy bills? A three-bedroom property that has just come on to the market through Carter Jonas could save you the stress of having to decide. Being sold for £495,000, Cosh House is as remote as it is self-sufficient.
In fact the house is probably the remotest of any on the market at the moment. It lies in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales national park -25 minutes’ drive from the nearestvillage of Grassington and 20 miles north of Skipton – and is only accessible by 4×4 (ditches and deep puddles caused by the ford found on the land are the reason why a typical car just isn’t going to cut it). The closest neighbours are a mile-and-a-half away on one side and 10 miles away on the other.
“We have an acre of land, but there’s easily 10,000 acres surrounding my house,” says builder Edward Pickard, 29, who owns Cosh House with his wife, Amy, also 29, who works for an interior designer.
Then there is the fact that there are no utility bills – this thanks to the £30,000 wind turbine that Pickard installed in the garden when he bought the property in 2003. It provides the couple and their two children – Heidi Rose, who is two, and 10 week-old Isabelle – with 90 per cent of the energy they need. This energy keeps the house toasty by heating the hot-water radiators and provides electricity for lighting. The other 10 per cent is provided by a back-up diesel generator, mostly used in the winter when there isn’t any wind. The diesel costs around £100 a year, and apart from that, the only other charge is council tax.
The Pickards bought the property for £100,000 when it was basically a shell: there was no electricity (the previous owners would use candles at night) and it was in a very dilapidated state. It took the couple two-and-a-half years to get planning permission and renovate the property. Not married at that point, the Pickards lived at their parents’ while the work took place. Getting the goods up the driveway was no mean feat.
The plan is to buy some land and build an ever bigger home, with another turbine, somewhere equally beautiful and eventful come winter-time. This year, in January, the Pickards were snowed in for two weeks straight, surviving on the surplus food they keep stocked for such occasions. Amy called her manager and said: “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’ll be in work for a week or two.”
Future buyers beware:you’ll need a very understanding boss.