Where Time STANDS STILL

Romy and Tom Holmes hadn’t planned to stay at Bowmere Cottage in the west Cheshire village of Tarporley for 42 years. “We bought the house in 1980 and thought we would sell again at some point, but we are still here today,” says Romy with a chuckle.

The pair relocated to northern England following a spell in Barcelona, where Tom had worked for a multinational company. He needed to be within striking distance of his new Manchester office, so they set a mathematical compass on a map and found Tarporley just on the boundary of what would be a reasonable commute for him. “We’d lived in the Cotswolds before