On his frequent trips criss-crossing Romney Marsh, antiques dealer John Ruler often used to pass a modest farm. With a couple of small barns and a meadow where hens foraged under fruit trees, bounded by a stream, it was a rare sight, even in this idyllic landscape.
During one such journey, John was excited to see the farm was up for auction: ‘I’d always had my eye on it,’ he explains. And, after a nail-biting sale, it transpired that his was