In Wales, a family retreat
Nantyfarddu, a Welsh farmstead, is Tim and Judith Sear’s second home now, but for years it was their first, and only, real home — the place where the British-born couple and their children retreated periodically as Mr. Sear’s career moved them around Asia in the 1960s and ’70s.
When the couple bought the place in 1965, it was a bare-bones retreat. The farmstead now has two carefully restored and modernized structures. In fact, when the couple bought the place in 1965, it was a bare-bones retreat, a touchstone for a growing family as it hopscotched from Singapore to Hong Kong to Australia and, finally, to just south of Fort Worth, Tex., where Tim and Judith Sear now live as naturalized American citizens. “It’s been a constant for more than 40 years,” said Mrs. Sear, the mother of four and grandmother of five.
Even now, all three generations return as often as possible, traveling from their homes in the United States to the town of Builth Wells, about 60 miles north of Cardiff, the Welsh capital. The farmstead now has two carefully restored and modernized structures. The original main dwelling, Mr. Sear recalled, “was a classic little house with three tiny rooms upstairs.”
Nantyfarddu came with three acres of land, a “gently
crumbling farmhouse” and two dilapidated stone barns.
Over the past 10 years, the Sears converted the remaining barn into their primary living quarters with three bedrooms, two and a half baths, a modern kitchen and spacious family areas. Then they refurbished the farmhouse as a guest cottage, with three bedrooms and one bath.
All of the barns date to at least 1810 and embody
stone construction traditional to the region.
Now the two homes accommodate all 15 of the Sears’ immediate family and have all the modern amenities: electricity, plumbing and, more recently, a telephone. Today it is virtually impossible to find even a crumbling barn for sale, let alone something so cheap, said Mr. Jones, who has spent his nearly 50-year career in Mid Wales.
“These places are disappearing,” he said. “People who live in the cities — in London, in particular — want sort of a second home, and what they’re looking for is remote locations, and Wales is known for that. Just one with a little bit of space around it, maybe an acre, would cost probably 180,000 pounds ($361,500). And that could be a barn that’s falling apart.” For the Sears, however, no amount of money could buy the peace and quiet of this rustic family retreat.