On 18th August 2017, not wishing to tempt fate, we waited until completion had taken place before starting our journey to our new life as the proud new owner’s of Old Luckett Station.

Our journey was to be a tough eight hour drive in congested holiday traffic; Tim leading the way in a large, packed to bursting, hire van with Rico our Italian mastiff dog and our two elderly cats keeping him company on the front bench seat with me following closely behind in our packed four wheel drive with our vocal sheep ‘Francis’ Baa Baaing all the way to Cornwall in the boot of the car which was too packed to actually see him or indeed anything else on the road!

On arrival, we collected the keys from our new neighbours and we couldn’t wait to open our front door, we knew instantly that we didn’t need time to settle in or get used to living here, it was our home, where we were meant to be and our ‘happy place’ right from the very start.   

It was a surprise to later learn that the Old Station had been ’on the market’ with various estate agents for some six years before we found it!  Maybe it was waiting for us?

From the first time we viewed it, we knew that we wanted to make changes to our new home, there were many obvious and some less obvious jobs needing our attention; and if that wasn’t enough, the interior of the house was dismal and depressingly dark with lots of dark stained wood and dark, light grabbing, carpets – it needed a lick of paint at least to cheer things up if only temporarily. It was obvious that the previous owners from times past had spent an awful lot of money on the house, but the immediately previous owners had obviously let a lot of things slide, some to the point where they needed repairing or replacing urgently. The house spending six years on the market had taken its toll on the maintenance and care, it also probably led to a lot of ‘we’ll leave that to the next owner’s to deal with’ conversations…

Within a short time of moving in, our new home quickly became a ‘money pit’ greedily demanding funds for its upkeep. We were not too surprised by this, we bought our home with our eyes wide open and we could see it needed attentions and we entered into this long term view.

Over the first year of occupancy we got a good feel for what we wanted from our home and made small changes and, as time passed, we realised that we would benefit from an improved layout and agreed that some small extensions to the existing building would make better use of the living space and improve our day to day living.

In 2019 we agreed to bite the bullet and ‘get on with it’ and we engaged a lovely local architect to draw up and submit plans for us and, once Cornwall Council agreed and passed our plans, we started the task of a full renovation and extension to the front, side and back of the house.

We enclosed the porch area at the front, extended our kitchen/dining area at the side and removed the ugly conservatory and put another small room on the back, we also created a balcony from our main bedroom so that we might enjoy the view from bed (a great decision!).

Thanks to the marketing power of eBay and Facebook marketplace, ahead of the building works, we sold lots of fixtures and fittings that were out-dated and very eighties and definitely not in keeping with our plans. It’s rewarding giving a new life and home to things that you neither want nor need, avoiding being wasteful and of course getting a much needed boost to funds for our project.

The ugly wooden conservatory (pictured) was upsetting to look at let alone live with, it leaked like a sieve and was not really fit for purpose – more to the point, we wondered how anyone could have added this monstrosity onto the Old Station building in the first place!? The eighties, it seems, has much to answer for!  It simply had to go and Cornwall Council’s planning department agreed our plans on the understanding that this would be removed. Having achieved much selling success with Ebay thus far, we listed the conservatory for £50 without much hope of any interest, as it turns out, there is a buyer out there for pretty much everything and, sure enough, to our delight and amazement it not only sold for the £50 asking price, the buyers (a really lovely couple from Devon) came and cheerfully dismantled it, very carefully, over the next few weeks. They had their own plans to re-purpose it and recontruct it at their home, it was just what they’d been looking for!

We excitedly commenced our building project in February 2020 and, as life would have it, ‘covid’ hit almost simultaneously and we quickly became aware that, however astonishing the idea was at the time, the whole country was apparently heading into lockdown was at any time!!!!

Amazingly, we had the foresight to hurriedly order in the main bulk of materials needed for our building project and did so in advance of lockdown managing to receive in some of the very last deliveries from our local and national building suppliers and one of the very last deliveries (by mere hours) of concrete which was pumped straight into our hastily prepared foundations before the grip of lockdown did it’s worst and the whole country ground to an enforced halt, at least temporarily… 

I’m delighted to say that we really were the lucky ones, lockdown gave us a time of great purpose and focus and an incredible opportunity to get our building project underway with little distraction.

Our project progressed throughout lockdown with a willing team and we even benefitted from the additional support of builders who couldn’t find work elsewhere and joined our team helping the project to progress more quickly and so by late 2020 we were pretty much finished.

We have great admiration for anyone who is going through a building/renovation project, it’s not for there feint hearted!

One of our reasons for this particular post is to retain this marker in the Old Station’s life history because during our extensions and renovation we made a few key decisions and changes that many visitors to the station may not be aware of but we that we believe have changed the station’s purpose and future.

1. The road that leads down to the lower station platform (the parking area for The Waiting Room Pool) was created during the renovation, this was excavated and the buried end of the platform and bridge was then uncovered. 
2. The road that leads down to The Signal Box was also reinstated. For us, this was a hugely important job because this is the site of the old railway line and we feel should remain as part of the Old Station’s heritage.
3. Pretty much every inch of the station has been re-purposed and renovated by us, everything needed updating, upgrading or refreshing and now that we’ve finished the project, we are focused on maintaining the property and grounds ongoing. We know that we are merely custodians of the Old Station and that one day, someone else will take the baton and hopefully look after this beautiful place and maintain it’s integrity for future generations to come, it is part of the Tamar Valley’s rich history and as such deserves it’s place in it’s future too.

Finally, it’s easy to take things for granted and to forget how lucky you are to live in a place like this. Because our lives are, by choice, very busy with our three thriving businesses, sometimes you have to take a step back, take a moment and be very thankful. When we held our open day ahead of opening The Waiting Room Pool, one of the ladies who came to view the pool was really taken with the Old Station and she said to me ‘Wow! ‘Imagine living in an amazing place like this, what a fabulous place to live, I wonder who lives here?’ I’ve never forgotten that comment…

Jacqui Selwood