Cornwall Escape to the Country

When is a harbour not a harbour?

That's not actually a joke or a puzzle,

but I will reveal the answer in just a moment.

Today's buyers, Rachel and Carl, want to swap their urban life

in London for a coastal escape.

We introduce them to the neighbours and confound their expectations.

There's a lot to take in.

I wasn't quite expecting everything like this.

-Brain is whirring.

-Wow.

-Wow.

Today I'm in Cornwall, and this is Pentewan Harbour

which, until relatively recently, was indeed a harbour.

In fact, for centuries it was a busy fishing port.

And in Victorian times, it shipped a third of the country's china clay.

But problems with silting and the rise of rival ports,

like Charlestown and Par, led to this harbour's downfall.

The last ship sailed in 1940

and the mouth of the harbour is now completely silted up.

The water-filled basin remains,

but as you can see, Pentewan Harbour is really just a village pond.

Cornwall, a peninsular in south west England, is surrounded by sea

but for the border it shares with its only neighbour, Devon.

It's defined by over 400 miles of spectacular coastline.

The dramatic granite cliffs, perfect bathing beaches and pretty

harbour towns have all made Cornwall the UK's holiday hotspot.

Tourism is now the county's main income, contributing over 1.1

billion much needed pounds to the local economy.

On the north coast, one of the popular destinations is the

town of St Ives.

And it's no surprise, with its picture-perfect winding streets,

family-friendly sandy beaches and the beautifully designed Tate art

gallery, you'd want to spend more than a weekend to take it all in.

The south side of the coast doesn't disappoint either.

Villages such as Pentewan offer staggeringly beautiful beaches,

ideal for swimming and sunbathing.

And harbour walls at villages like Mevagissey, lend themselves

perfectly for a spot of crabbing.

Or just for sitting on to enjoy the view that's remained

unchanged for decades.

Alongside that cornucopia of Cornish bounty there is more good news.

Properties here are not too expensive.

Of course if you want to live with a sea view in a period

property on the coast, then you will have to dig deep.

But if you're planning to move to this county, consider this -

an average detached house here costs £266,000.

Which is £10,000 less than the rest of the country.

And what about our discerning buyers this week?

What are they after? Well, let's meet them and find out.

Rachel and Carl have been married for 16 years.

And it was house buying that first brought them together.

We met because Rachel did my mortgage.

I guess she liked what she saw on the bank statements.

That is true.

I take getting to know my customer very seriously.

Rachel is a financial adviser, while Carl is an IT consultant.

And their current ground floor flat in Beckenham, southeast London,

has suited their busy London lifestyle.

We currently live in Beckenham, which is southeast London.

-We've lived in this exact flat for ten years.

-Yeah.

Almost ten years to the day.

We bought this area because of its good commute into London.

The area has worked well for them, but Rachel has had multiple

sclerosis for 20 years and is now finding it harder to move about.

They've decided to escape the city and move somewhere rural,

that they hope will make both of their lives a little easier.

My health used to be quite good.

We've done lots of awesome things whilst it was good.

But now it's moved into sort of more of a progressive phase.

So I'm not able to do as much as I could before

and get tired very easily.

Can't really move about as much.

So we're just looking at what our next challenge is,

and find lots of things that we can do

-rather than be reminded of the things that we can't any more.

-Exactly.

After visiting close friends in St Austell, they've decided that

Cornwall could be just what they're looking for.

We want to move to Cornwall because every time we go there it's

the kind of place you just fall in love with over and over again.

I've got this big dream of living by the seaside and him

letting me do that, which is great.

But their move means they need to find more than just a house.

They also need to start a new business.

I can't do my job in Cornwall.

Rachel doesn't want to do her job.

So we want a property that offers business potential.

So either a B&B, holiday lets, maybe a campsite.

It's a step into the unknown for both of them

but one they're relishing.

You can go anywhere you like for a wonderful cream tea which

we're known to enjoy one or two.

And it's just a really relaxed pace of life that I like.

It just looks beautiful.

You live every day, like, on a postcard which is lovely.

For our search we're concentrating on central Cornwall.

Ideally they'd like to be near their friends in St Austell.

And somewhere rural yet close

to holiday-makers for their new business.

I'm going to meet them to dig into the details of their proposed move.

-Welcome to Cornwall.

-Thank you.

And what a lovely part of the world. And it's interesting

cos you've moved from a very busy bit of London to quite a remote corner of the country.

Are you ready for that remoteness? You don't want to be in a town or a...?

Not a town. We're happy with a village,

so if there are some kind of amenities there.

A pub, or post office, or a corner shop that would be fine.

But not a large town because of Rachel's mobility.

We want a place which is less crowded.

In terms of the MS and how that's going to affect the house, I suppose

ideally you're looking for somewhere that's on one level, are you?

In an ideal world, yes, that would be our preferred option.

Because that just makes it so much easier for me to get around.

We have sort of said, look, we would consider somewhere that has one flight of stairs

because we can put a stairlift in.

Less rooms but bigger rooms is our ideal.

We're not the sort of people where, like, a really quirky,

rickety cottage, that doesn't really work for us at all.

What about the actual business side? What are you actually going to do?

Excellent question. We don't have an answer.

We're not sure, we just know that we need to earn some money

because we're packing our jobs in in London.

So we're looking at different options. Either B&B, holiday lets.

I'm quite keen on something where we can add value to the property.

So it would be nice to have a business where we can have an income.

But I'd quite like to add some capital value as well by maybe

building some store houses.

Or maybe putting a new kitchen in, if we need to do a new kitchen.

Or a downstairs bathroom for Rachel, which would be much easier.

So you're happy to do those things?

-Yeah.

-Absolutely.

-Yeah,

Well, I'm happy to get somebody in to do those things!

And we know it's unlikely we'll find everything.

But if it's got the bare bones that we can work from

and make it what we want, then, you know, that's fine, yeah.

-And the budget is 500.

-Yes, that's right.

But how much is the war chest?

We've probably got about up to 150,000 to play with

for renovations, extra developments.

And you're also in this amazingly good position.

You've sold your flat in London.

You're cash rich, you're every property vendor's dream.

-Let's hope so.

-Let's hope so.

Flexible. Well, we've got three lovely properties to show you.

I hope one of them fits the bill.

-Let's hope so.

-Excellent.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

With a healthy budget of 500,000 and £150,000

extra for work, Carl and Rachel are ideally looking for a single

storey house but would consider adapting with stairlifts.

They'd like spacious rooms and at least two bedrooms.

They're also looking for outbuildings or land to

convert for their holiday business.

And location is key.

They want to be near a potential tourist market, and less than

an hour from St Austell.

We found a trio of houses all set within rolling Cornish countryside.

But we're going to keep the prices a surprise until the end of each tour.

Our final destination is the Mystery House.

And it will be a very big surprise.

For our first property, we're heading to south east Cornwall,

to the village of St Ive.

It's just a seven minute drive from the popular market town of Liskeard.

Liskeard is an ancient town that dates back to Norman times.

And its buildings are testament to its rich past.

On the parade is Stuart House, where Charles I lodged in 1644,

when his forces were chasing the Parliamentarians.

It's now used as a community building for arts and heritage.

The Victorian guildhall, built in 1859,

also remains with its original clock tower.

Market days are still held every Monday and Thursday.

And there's an annual fair every July that was first held in 1266.

Our first house is a five minute drive from Liskeard, and lies

on the edge of the village of St Ive.

OK, so this is house number one.

It's amazing.

-It's big. It is big, yeah.

-Yeah, it's certainly big.

But you can see you've got some outbuildings out there

which are ripe for development further down the line.

But this is an interesting property because it's already got an annexe.

This door here, this is a completely separate annexe...

-Oh, OK.

-..which they already rent out.

And then you've got the actual house here which is where they live.

I think it's going to make more sense when you look inside,

cos then you get an idea of what you can do.

-OK.

-OK.

-Thanks.

This remodelled 18th century property is nearly 3,000

square feet in size.

We're starting our tour in the kitchen, in the main part of

the house, where Rachel and Carl could live.

Step in. It's quite a long kitchen.

It's not really a galley kitchen, cos it's sort of a bit wide.

No, it's nice. I mean a kitchen doesn't really need much.

The floor is lovely. Maybe just change the worktop.

-Yeah, solid wood floor.

-Just to freshen it up.

But other than that it's a very nice space.

It's functional, day one.

-Yeah, yeah it's completely usable.

-You wouldn't have to change anything.

It could be second year or third year but you wouldn't need to.

No, it's very nice.

-There's a sort of breakfast area really, dining area.

-OK.

And you've got this sort of lean-to here which, I suppose you

could think about pushing the kitchen back out to the garden.

Those are the downstairs loos, sort of wedged in at the end there.

Yeah, it's always useful.

The front of the house is certainly the sunnier part in the morning.

So come through into the sitting room.

-OK, thank you.

-This is a lovely big space.

You might want to think through the decor.

It's got a lot of furniture in.

But if you think what a sort of floor space you've got here,

it's got a lot of potential.

No, it has. It's a big room. Lovely fireplaces.

I do like those. I think it really works.

Yeah, this has been all revealed as probably the oldest part of the house.

And you expect a Cornish cottage or house to be quite cramped

and lower ceiling, but this is really high ceiling as well.

-Yeah.

-It feels really spacious.

Obviously the stairs are going to be a disaster for you.

Yeah, that's... my eye is drawn to that.

The stairs are... not great.

But you know, we'd have to have a think about the stairs,

what we would do to make those work better for us.

Upstairs is three bedrooms, all en suite.

-Right.

-Two good size ones, one smaller.

-And you could feasibly have those as B&B rooms.

-OK.

-So you don't actually use the upstairs at all.

-Yeah, OK.

Convert all this into your living space.

The thought... it's kind of just... brain is whirring with

lots of ideas and thoughts about what you could do.

Cos there's so much space and, you know,

lots of options which is good.

So that's your head part, I want to try and get your heart,

-cos this room I love.

-OK.

There is a second large living room that could easily be converted

into a downstairs bedroom.

-You can see your neighbours.

-Wow, what a view.

-Lovely.

-It's a fabulous view, isn't it?

-That's incredible.

I'm hoping this room's going to kind of just hypnotise you into buying the whole property.

It is beautiful. And lovely wood burner.

-I wasn't quite expecting a room like this...

-I know.

..from the outside.

-So you're looking over to Dartmoor. You can just about see it on the horizon.

-OK.

-Oh, I see, yeah.

-Yeah.

I suppose the difficult thing... This is going to be the case

for all of our properties is, like, how are you going to make this work for you in terms of a business.

I feel with the annexe and with the outbuildings,

that could possibly give us enough income without losing the upstairs.

So we could keep the upstairs to ourselves.

I know the business side is important

so next I'm going to show them the two-bed annexe, which could be

a ready made solution for their holiday plans.

Well, it's essentially got a completely self-contained unit here.

-Yeah.

-Come into the kitchen.

Here's a sort of twin room with an en-suite.

Upstairs it sort of spreads out over the width of the house.

-So you've got a double bedroom and a bathroom.

-Oh, OK.

And then a really lovely sort of day room for the guests

which has the same view as that lovely room we were just in.

-Oh, nice.

-Oh, nice.

-And what's nice about this is it's up and running.

-It's perfect as a holiday let.

-It's good.

There's also a lovely garden with a greenhouse.

And excitingly, there are further options for holiday lettings

with three outbuildings.

So here you get a good overview of the outbuildings -

particularly you've got three properties here.

This one at the end is almost ready - it's all kind of lined and sealed.

This one would require a little bit more work.

And this garage has quite a big floor space.

So you'd have three lets there, the let next to the house,

-and the house would be the private residence.

-Yeah.

That's perfect. And lots of car parking space as well.

-Yeah, I mean, yeah.

-That's really ideal, isn't it?

You wouldn't have to do all three all at once but there's potential

-Yeah.

-Definitely.

-So, how much do you think it's on the market for?

-Do you want to go first?

-OK. I'm not very good at this,

because I don't really know the market here.

But I think probably about 465.

465. I'm going to go 445.

Well, it's actually a little bit more, it's on at 475.

OK. That seems reasonable.

So why don't you walk around inside to maybe have an idea

about how you're going to configure it.

You might not want to venture up those stairs if you don't care to.

But just to get a ball park idea of what you might do with it.

-And I'll see you probably back here.

-OK, thanks, Alistair.

-Thanks.

It's a challenging one cos how are you going to configure things?

But I think there's so much potential,

particularly with these outbuildings. Long term it could be a real winner.

It's whether financially it all stacks up.

Under their maximum budget by £25,000,

this detached property with the self contained annexe

and outbuildings, offers a lot for their money.

It has large light rooms and it's under an hour's drive

from their favoured area of St Austell.

Overall, really interesting property.

The holiday lets definitely interesting.

The one that's up and running is great, because that gives us

an income straight away, which is exactly what we wanted,

and really doesn't need any work doing to it.

And the potential for the other buildings to be converted

into holiday lets, is also very interesting and very exciting for us.

As a business it works. For us, as a couple,

it probably doesn't work so much.

I'm very sort of concerned about how much adaptation we'd need to do.

-OK, did you have a good look round?

-Yes.

-We did, we did.

-Lots of thoughts?

-Lots and lots of thoughts, yeah.

Well, bracket those for the moment cos we've got another property

-to look at.

-Excellent.

-Thanks.

-Thanks.

Cornwall's dramatic coastline and stunning beaches have long attracted

artists, writers and thinkers from all over the UK.

Rachel and Carl are keen photographers, and their escape

to Cornwall is fuelled by a desire to live amongst the rural beauty

captured in some of their photos.

We've brought them to Penzance to meet ceramic tile artist

Brenda Bates, who, along with her husband

swapped city life seven years ago to run their tile business.

-Welcome to my studio.

-Thank you.

I'd like to show you a little bit of the process of how we actually

make the tiles, and decorate them.

Every year they make over 100,000 tiles by hand and sell them online

and in their cafe. Each tile is made using Cornish clay.

What's so special about this Cornish clay?

Cornish clay, it's very, very pure and very fine.

And it's the China clay that gives it the whiteness to the actual clay.

But if you feel it, it's very, very smooth.

Yeah, you can really feel the smoothness of it.

Is that the same as they make sort of tea and coffee cups out of?

-Yes, it is. Yeah, yeah.

-Have you always used this clay?

We've always used that clay, right from the beginning,

when we first started making tiles.

It gives a very nice surface as well to decorate on to.

The basic clay tiles are fired in the kiln, pressed and then glazed.

This gives them a lovely, smooth surface,

suitable for Barbara's decoration.

She's particularly fond of using old postcard designs

that depict popular Cornish villages.

-It's St Ives, Carbis Bay, I've been there.

-That's right, yeah.

-Oh, yeah, that's lovely.

-And we've got the Lizard, the Lizard Point.

Basically, what we do with these is, we take the original postcard

-and then have them made into a digital ceramic print.

-OK.

Which then enables us to actually transfer that image on to a tile.

The first stage is to create the transfers. And to do this,

the printed out design is cut to match the size of the tile,

and then submerged in water.

-Perhaps you'd like to do that, Carl?

-OK.

And how many would you make in a day?

Depends which ones they are.

-I mean, you could probably make up to a thousand tiles a day.

-Really?

Yes, if you're really moving with it.

It depends what you're doing, really.

After a few minutes the water separates the picture

from the backing paper. Next, they have to be lifted out carefully

and placed directly onto the tile.

-Would you like to have a...?

-I'll have a go.

-See if you can have a go.

-So, you just basically grab the edge of it...

-Show my artistic skills.

-Which are usually very little.

-That's it.

There you go.

Centralise it, yeah.

They do tear quite easily, so you've got to be reasonably gentle.

That's perfect.

They use a tool called a squeegee, to smooth out all the water

from underneath the picture.

Then just sort of hold it and that's it.

Press it in one direction, that's it.

There you go. Brilliant.

And then just wipe off the excess water.

I'm concentrating so hard.

Next, the tiles are placed above a heater

to remove any remaining moisture, before being placed into the kiln,

where they are glazed to perfection.

-It's lovely.

-Which you can then tile on a wall.

Or, you know, use it as a display, decorative thing.

Yeah, it's beautiful.

So, there you are, you've made your first tile.

Oh, brilliant. Thank you, Brenda.

That's really interesting. Thank you ever so much, Brenda.

-You're very welcome. Thanks.

-Yeah, that's really, really interesting.

We've given Rachel and Carl a glimpse of what it might be like

to run a new venture in Cornwall.

So let's see if we can now find them a house

that's as pretty as a postcard.

House number two is 25 miles west of house one, in the Roche Valley,

and five miles from the nearest village of Lanivet.

Geographically the centre of Cornwall,

Lanivet is just two and a half miles from Bodmin, the former county town.

It has local amenities and a village inn.

Its Grade I parish church dates back to the 15th century,

and it regularly holds festivals and events.

An eight minute drive from Lanivet takes us to our second house,

set deep in the countryside of Roche.

-So, what are you thinking as we walk in?

-There's a lot to take in.

There's a building there, there's a building there,

there's buildings there. There's fields. What...?

-Which one belongs to who?

-Yeah, which one's the property?

Well, how would you feel if I said it all belongs to you?

Or could all belong to you if you bought it.

-The whole thing is the property.

-Wow.

-Wow.

'It is a lot to take in. The main farmhouse is Grade II listed,

'and could be a new adaptation.

'So I want to start this tour with the annexe

'because, although it's not huge, it is all on one level.

'And I wonder if it would make a good base, at least to start with.'

This is the sitting room and kitchenette.

The guy who owns it works with wood, so a lot of the beams

and the sort of, like, ornamental beams above the windows,

-the lintels, are made by him.

-OK.

-Well, it's very nice, very good quality.

-Yes.

-It's beautiful.

But it is a kitchen in your sitting room.

We're used to London flats where the kitchen

-is often in the sitting room.

-Yeah.

So, I mean, ours isn't quite like that, but a lot of flats are.

-So it's not something we are completely against.

-No.

Through here there's a very nice...

Well, bedroom, nice for a couple.

With a little en suite and doors out onto the sort of patio,

-looking on the field.

-Oh, a lovely area, it's lovely.

It's perfect for a couple on holiday. It's just ideal.

Would it be suitable for you to live in?

It could for very short term, whilst we're doing up the other property.

But the risk of living in this,

while we're doing up the other property is we have no income.

And, actually, we'd probably lose any kind of goodwill

that other people have had, if they want to come back.

I think we'd probably be more inclined to leave this,

-you know, generating income.

-Yes.

-And find somewhere

for ourselves to stay till the other house was ready.

-Well, then, we should go and look at the house.

-OK.

'The main farmhouse dates back to the 17th century,

'with a later addition from the 1970s at the back.'

This is, what they call in the books,

a traditional country kitchen.

-Yeah, gosh it is.

-It is very traditional.

-Yeah.

I must admit it's not the kind of kitchen I would be looking for.

-It's not to my taste.

-Well, what are you looking for, then?

I guess something a little bit more modern.

And because this is all brickwork, you would actually have to

knock out everything to put the kind of kitchen I would want, back in.

I'm not sure the work that I'd want to do would either be allowed,

or would actually change this to the kind of style I would like.

-Well, let's continue into the sitting room.

-OK.

'I wonder if this farmhouse style living room, although impressive,

'might also not be to their taste?'

Is this the only room down here?

-This is the sum total of the ground floor, yes.

-OK.

-OK.

So no downstairs bathroom.

-No, that's...

-No that's a...

Pretty much the deal breaker I think, for me.

It's absolutely beautiful,

but I think we have to use our heads rather than our hearts.

I think the thing is, though, cos in your price range we tend to be

looking at historic cottages that have outbuildings,

that have been converted into holiday lets.

-And Cornish cottages tend to be like this.

-Yes.

-Yeah, yeah.

And that might be where we need to,

-maybe, change our requirements somehow.

-Yeah.

-I'm not sure how, but somehow.

-Yeah.

-Well don't give up yet.

-No, no, no.

'Upstairs there are three good sized bedrooms, all doubles,

'and a family bathroom.

'But sadly I think this cottage style is too impractical for them.'

I think it's absolutely charming, and I'd love to come on holiday here.

-But...

-Just not live here.

-..it doesn't work for me.

I think it'd be a great pub, though.

THEY LAUGH

'I wonder if the potential space outside could change their minds.

'There's an impressive 1.7 acres of gardens, fields,

'and even three stable blocks.'

You can see the historic part of the house here.

Obviously all the land at the back.

What do you think it's on the market for?

-You go first.

-I'll go first this time.

Difficult one cos there's a lot of land and a lot of buildings.

I'm going to go pretty close to the budget and say 495.

Oh. What about you, Rachel?

I don't know, I was going to say probably something around that figure

as well. So I'm going to say perhaps it's just over.

It's about 515?

Well, interestingly, this is actually less.

It's on the market for £427,500.

-Wow, OK.

-OK.

I mean, I can understand that it would be...

It needs a lot of money and work spent on it.

But I thought with the land,

-cos I've been in London, you expect land to be quite expensive.

-Yeah.

See, city mice never understand.

-I haven't got a clue!

-No, we don't, no.

They're really kind of like, "Oh, land!" Confusing, isn't it?

-Yes, interesting.

-That makes it more interesting.

-No, I think it's good value.

-Yeah, it's good value.

And a great project. But just unfortunately it doesn't quite...

-Our head has to rule our heart this time.

-Unfortunately.

-Yeah.

More than £72,000 under budget,

this three bedroom farmhouse property with holiday annexe

and 1.7 acres of land offers a lot of potential.

And it's just 20 minutes drive from St Austell.

First impressions are really, really good of the land

and the holiday potential.

Unfortunately for me, the house just didn't live up to everything else.

The house doesn't really work for me.

Again, the stairs are a challenge, those kind of open stairs.

And here it would be more difficult to make the change,

even though it's beautiful, I don't think it's for us.

Oh, you're feeding these extraordinary blue eyed ponies.

-Yeah, yeah.

-OK, well, it's time to go.

We've done our house searching for today. Time for a rest.

-Great. Thank you.

-OK, excellent.

-Bye, horsey.

'It's the second day of our property hunt,

'and with a good budget of £500,000,

'we're helping Rachel and Carl to leave their busy lives in London

'behind and start a new home and business in carefree Cornwall.

'Still to come, our mystery house comes as a big surprise.'

-OK, wow.

-Wasn't expecting that to the other building.

'And I'll be getting a taste of the sea.'

Yeah, it's quite delicate, isn't it?

Day two of our property search here in lovely Cornwall.

This is a complicated one. We knew it was going to be, because not only

are we looking for a new home, a new business, a new income stream,

but also we've got to take on board Rachel's mobility issues.

And yesterday it was quite striking. Although they're very flexible,

the first two houses really seemed to firm up what was non-negotiable.

And I heard a couple of times them saying,

"Oh, it would be quite nice if we could just build our own place."

And so the mystery house definitely gives them that option,

amongst many others, but it's big.

It's very big.

The mystery house is a 30-minute drive east of our second house,

and is found in the village of Morval, less than five miles

from the sea, and the pretty harbour town of Looe.

Positioned on both sides of the River Looe,

West Looe is joined to the east by a seven arch bridge built in 1853.

Looe has been a tourist resort for more than 200 years,

with holiday-makers drawn to the busy harbour in the east,

where they even have the chance to taste the catch of the day.

A four mile drive from the coast of Looe brings us outside

the village of Morval, to our final mystery stop.

The mystery is, what are you going to do with all of this?

-Because there's a lot to this property.

-Wow.

-OK.

Some of it which you can't actually see from here.

Essentially, all of this is ripe for development.

-Oh, you get all this.

-OK, so this is all included?

-Yes.

-OK.

-Wow.

So, basically it's a little cluster of properties.

This one is yours, and this belongs to you.

-So this part isn't a working farm any more?

-No.

Because as we came up we could just see through some little gates.

And there's... That expanse behind is part of this?

-That expanse is part of it, yes.

-And that's a big expanse as well.

-Wow. OK.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Awesome.

-So, you'll have to bear with me, cos it's quite complicated.

-OK.

-There's lots of bits and pieces.

-OK.

-But what we liked about this

is that essentially there is a part that you could move in,

-on a flat level.

-Yay!

With bathrooms and bedrooms, and a kitchen, all on one level.

-I like it already.

-Yeah.

-So, shall we go and look at that bit first?

-Yes, brilliant.

Thank you, Alistair.

The main house in this farm complex is a Grade II-listed

19th century barn, which has been beautifully converted.

On the ground floor to the left are the utility rooms.

To the centre the living areas, and to the right a family bathroom

and two bedrooms, where we're beginning our tour.

Two bedrooms here, very beautifully, very recently as well, finished.

Taking in a lot of the original beams of the agricultural buildings.

-Yeah, it's lovely, it's so light.

-Yeah.

-Very lovely and light in here.

-So that's the south facing side.

So that's where you get all the daylight.

And really nice patio doors out onto the terrace, that's lovely.

So, basically, you've got a whole suite of living quarters here.

You've got, bathroom, two bedrooms. Next door you've got the kitchen.

-Oh, wow.

-It's a bit bigger than the last one, huh?

-Yes.

-It certainly is.

-It's exactly what I had in mind for a country kitchen.

It's lovely. Really nice, square, easy to get around.

And it's proper granite surfaces, if you're interested in baking.

Yeah, I love bread making and that's perfect, a really nice, cold top.

-Dishwasher.

-Yeah, dishwasher space.

-I don't have to wash up any more!

No, you don't wash up anyway!

Lots of space. Very, very nicely laid out.

I guess my only initial concern is the floor is a little bit uneven.

-So I think we'd have to take that up.

-That's easily doable, though.

Absolutely, yeah, but that's the only thing in here that I would...

-Everything else is beautiful.

-It's absolutely lovely.

-It's really nice.

-Very, very nice. Just what we had in mind.

-Good, good.

It's all good so far.

'Next to the kitchen is a spacious reception room,

'and then right at the end is another bathroom and a boot room.

'It seems they like the downstairs,

'but now I want to show them what's above.

'And the upstairs sitting room is an impressive 33 feet long.'

-A vast room, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-It's really lovely. It's so sunny.

-Very good light. Light.

Yeah, and that second property yesterday was so dark and closed in,

-but this is just the complete opposite.

-Yeah.

-There's so much light and space.

-It's nice.

It's got a kind of the light that the first property had,

and the views. But just in a much... Even more beautiful setting, really.

Yeah, cos you've got the wonderful views sort of down in...

We're very close to Looe, which is a great, sort of, magnet for tourists.

Yeah, there's lots of holiday-makers go there, which is great

-for business.

-Through there is a guest room with an en-suite.

And this is their master bedroom. A much bigger room with that,

-another en suite.

-Wow. Lots of bathrooms and lots of space.

So there is the possibility that you use this temporarily to live in,

-while you develop this area over here.

-Yeah, behind.

Because that is a big - it's about 240 square metres...

-Gosh.

-..worth of living space.

-Square metres, OK.

-That's a...

-Two and a half times the size of our flat in London.

Yeah, instead of getting rid of our furniture we'd need a lot more.

So, there you could make an absolutely perfect designed

-to use everything you need.

-Yeah.

-Or...

you could use another source of income.

-Oh, OK.

-Interesting.

'The mystery isn't over yet.

'As well as the stables that they glimpsed on the way in,

'there's also this.'

-I love the building.

-Neighbours?

-No, this is not neighbours, this is you.

-Oh, OK.

-Oh, wow.

-This is a readymade, newly finished, holiday let.

-Wow.

-OK, wow.

-I wasn't expecting that after the other building.

-No.

'The current owners have just finished converting this

'smaller barn into a holiday cottage with two en suite bedrooms,

'a kitchen/diner and a downstairs shower room.

'And, as if this wasn't enough, there's also the former dairy

'and stables, which potentially could be turned into

'three self-catering holiday units.'

-So there's lots of options.

-Yeah, loads.

I'm going to let you explore that at your own leisure.

But let's just pop round the corner here to talk about land and price.

-OK.

-Oh, OK, gosh.

-So, it's about two and a half, bit over that, acres.

-Gosh.

-OK.

-So it's the biggest plot that we've shown you.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, definitely.

How much do you think it's on the market for?

Well, I'm hoping somewhere along the line you took account

of what our budget is. So, I'm going to be optimistic and say

-499,950

-Uh-huh.

-OK, I'm going to say a nice round 500,000.

-Right.

Well, in this instance, Carl wins,

because it is exactly £500,000.

-Oh, wow.

-Yeah.

-I think we both win there.

-I think we both do win.

That's a lot of property for 500,000.

-It's a lot of property for that money.

-It's a lot of property,

but is it the property that you could imagine making work for you?

-I think we could.

-Don't tell me.

-Sh.

-OK, no, we couldn't.

Go stroll and explore, because there's a lot to take in.

I haven't really whisked you round.

Put your thinking caps on. See if you can make sense of it all.

And I'll see you over by the other bit of land.

-OK, thank you.

-Cool, thanks.

Remarkably, at £500,000, this entire farm complex

is affordable for Rachel and Carl.

It has four bedrooms, a large kitchen and sitting room,

a newly renovated holiday annexe,

land for a campsite,

and is less than an hour from St Austell.

This is definitely a very strong possibility for us.

It's got everything we're asking for.

But actually we were hoping to get just one of the options

with the mystery house. So maybe just a field, or maybe just a barn.

Or maybe just an annexe for a holiday let.

But the mystery house has actually given us more than that.

So we like everything about it.

And we're just a little bit overwhelmed, I think, at the moment.

Best of all, it's also somewhere that's really accessible for me.

And we could make it even more so and design our own house

in the future to have the perfect property. It's really exciting.

-Hello.

-Hi.

-Hi.

Have you managed to get your head round the complex offering here?

We're trying to. But I think it'll take a little bit more time

-to do that.

-Yeah.

Good. Well, you've seen all the houses so let's find a space

-where you can gather your thoughts.

-OK, thank you.

-Cheers.

Fishing has always played its role in Cornwall's history and culture.

Nowadays fish are kept their freshest from the moment

they're caught, with many boats having on-board refrigeration.

But for centuries the only way of preserving a catch was in salt,

which was produced across the county.

However, in late Victorian times, huge rock salt reserves

were discovered in places like Winsford in Cheshire.

Easier and much cheaper to harvest,

it all but halted the production of salt in Cornwall.

However, in the last decade,

Cornish sea salt has had a resurgence,

and I've come to the Lizard Peninsular

to meet Philip Tanswell, a Cornish sea salt manufacturer.

Philip, this is not a bad place to work.

No, no, it's a very good place to work, fantastic.

-Is it a good place to run a salt works?

-Fantastic place.

We have lovely grade A sea water out here which is fantastic

for making sea salt.

We're in an area which is sort of famous for its history

of salt manufacturing. We have Iron Age salt works round the corner.

The prefect location for salt manufacturing.

-So, historically, how would they have done it?

-They would have fires

and they would get clay pots, heat the water off,

and they'd have salt left over.

Or they would trap water at the end of the estuary,

hope for a good season, lots of wind and sunshine, and eventually

the water would be evaporated and they'd be left with salt at the end.

And then you came along and revived it.

We waited, you know, 100 years or so and then decided that it was

long enough now to try it again. Yeah, we looked around and realised

that we could create, from the fantastic clean sea we had,

-we could create some wonderful products.

-Can we have a look around?

'Philip and his team take the fresh sea water and carefully filter it

'to get rid of the silt and sand.

'Next, they concentrate it into a saturated brine,

'which is poured into these enormous salt pans,

'and heated by overhead lamps.'

Warm, it's really warm.

It is, lovely and warm in here.

The salt really likes it hot, humans like it less hot.

So, these are the things that dry out the salt?

Yeah, so, effectively, what we're doing in here is we're replicating

sunlight over the top of the tanks. Cos the crystals,

we're after the ones which are forming on the surface of the tank,

and you can see, hopefully, these little specks which are little

sodium chloride crystals forming as little squares.

And as they grow, they grow into little pyramids.

And they stay on the surface to the point where they're too heavy,

and they drop down to the bottom.

-If you want to grab that shovel over there.

-Ah...

What we can do is, we can pull along the side of the tank.

-You can probably pull it into that corner.

-Are you letting me do it?

That's fine.

You can just lift into that gathering mass in the corner now.

-Here?

-Yeah, just shovel it off.

Gosh, there's a lot. So how long has this been stewing?

This particular one has probably been in there now

-for probably two to three hours.

-Two to three hours?

Two to three hours. And there's texture.

You get crystals in these tanks which form on the surface

and at the bottom. Because some will also form when it cools.

And of course the bottom of the tanks are cooler than the tops.

Gosh, there's a good harvest already.

Yeah, so what we're looking at here is the salt which is draining.

And the salt which we took out

is still quite moist in its texture.

So if you take the product and looked at it, it's still...

Now, the top of the tanks are drying out,

but the salt crystals are great to see, because you can see

these fantastic little pyramids, which are formed in the tanks.

'The salt is then taken to another processing plant for air drying.

'And after a final screening, it's packaged up and ready to go.'

So, the finished product is this one, which is...

-Well it's much drier, isn't it?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Can I taste it?

-Yes, no, go for it, go for it.

Oh, I'll pull your...

We'll reattach you back on that side.

Yeah, it's quite delicate, isn't it?

It doesn't knock you out like normal salt, chemical salt.

-It comes in waves.

-Very good(!) You've been practising that one.

But you have the magnesium salts in there as well,

which are quite sweet.

And that difference between the bitter and sweetness gives you

that lovely balanced profile, which is why, you know, chefs talk about

using sea salt on their food.

It's because it brings it out in such a good way.

Well, it's wonderfully Cornish and that's what we celebrate today.

Thank you very much for showing us around. Good luck with the future.

-Thank you.

-I hope it booms.

-Thank you, lovely.

It seems like the mystery house may have overloaded the circuit boards,

because there are so many options.

But now that Carl and Rachel have had a moment to digest,

let's find out what they're thinking.

-Ah, a lovely spot you've found, very nice.

-Yeah, it's lovely.

I'm guessing that house number three, the mystery house,

is the contender. Is that right?

-Definitely, yeah.

-That knocked the other two off their perch.

-Easily.

-Yeah.

-I'm not sure property two had a perch to be honest.

OK. Fair enough. So I suppose I'm interested in what happens next.

Because, you know, you've got to... When are you leaving your flat?

Probably about four weeks' time

is that we complete. So, yeah, it's soon.

So, was the mystery house enough of a contender that you're going to

kind of push ahead in some way with it?

I think we're going to make more enquiries, yeah, definitely.

We certainly need to look at the financial side of doing up

the barn, how much that will cost.

We need to see the plans in more detail to find out exactly

what's on the plans. And think about what to do with the land around it.

Cos obviously there's lots of different options there as well.

-So we just need to look at all those different options.

-Yeah.

Look at the costings for those, and then...

Yeah, it's definitely a contender.

I think there's going to be lots of checking things on the internet,

and lots of questions to the estate agents.

And looking at what holiday lets in that area go for,

so that we can be sure that we've got all our facts right.

It's definitely exactly what we were hoping for from this process.

-So...

-Exactly?

-It is.

-I think... Yeah, I would say almost exactly.

-Yeah, so well done.

THEY LAUGH

It's been interesting over the course of the week to see...

Cos when we started you were quite open about what you wanted.

And it seems that some things have come into focus. Is that true?

One of the things that has really crystallised for me

is just how important it is that we get our living accommodation right.

I suppose another good positive is that we can do it.

We definitely are on the right track, and that the budget

isn't completely unrealistic,

and Cornwall is definitely the place for us.

I hope everything goes well. It's been interesting showing you round.

You are very heartfelt, very enthusiastic. I can tell that

you both work in finance. There's a sort of steely side

of number crunching going on as well.

So, I wish you well. I hope it all happens and it happens soon.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much.

-It's been lots of fun. Thank you.

-It has.

What a brilliant house-hunt. I think it was quite a challenging one

to get everything that Carl and Rachel wanted.

But I certainly think the mystery house provides them

lots of possibilities for a home and an income stream.

And if you've been inspired by the British countryside,

then make sure you tune in next time for more Escape To The Country.

Carl and Rachel returned for a second viewing of the mystery house,

but planning permission concerns

prevented them from taking it further.

Their search continues and we wish them all the very best.

If you'd like to escape to the country in England, Wales,

Scotland or Northern Ireland, and would like our help,

please apply online at...