A Berkshire poultry farmer and his wife are to star in a BBC television programme which follows their successful attempt to build a new “dream home” on their farm for less than £100,000.
Andrew and Claire Cardy, owners of Riverways Farm near the village of Twyford, will feature in the BBC2 “The House That 100k Built” which airs on July 28.
Andrew and Claire created Riverways Farm itself on eight acres of land that has been in the family for several generations. They now have 5,000 hens producing one and a half million eggs a year.
These are sold direct to the public from the farm and Riverways also sells to caterers, wholesalers and other retail outlets.
Andrew is also well known as The Reindeer Man. His herd of twelve reindeers are in demand all over the country for public appearances. Not surprisingly they are particularly busy at Christmas.
“We also provide an educational service to schools. We take a couple of reindeer along to schools and discuss their care and upkeep. It’s not unusual for me to be asked whether I am Father Christmas when I arrive with them,” he said.
“We now completed the house we wanted and spent £250k establishing the farm and poultry business, but it was not easy to get to this point.
“It took us something like four years to overcome all the planning issues that arose. That part of the process was very difficult but we got there in the end. The house has an agricultural tie and very unusual planning conditions associated with the keeping of poultry.
”Our message to anyone in a similar position to us is you can be successful but you just have to keep at it. Everything takes time and money and there are many obstacles but they can be overcome.
Andrew explained how they came to be featured on the show. “I watched the first series at the end of which they invited people to contact them if they wanted to take part in a future programme.”
The producers received three hundred applicants but after a series of meetings and interviews selected just six to take part and the Cardys will appear in the second programme of the new series.
The producers were particularly keen on the fact that the farm was home to some reindeer and the whole “living the dream” feel of the enterprise.
“We are both a little bit nervous because we will not see the programme in advance, revealed Andrew. "They spent about 40 days filming us during the seven or eight months we took to build the home. Naturally there were some highs and lows during that time, so we have no idea what the final version will show.”
The concept of the programme is to offer a wide range of advice to people building a new home to help them make it even better than they planned and to save as much money as possible in the process.
As well as meeting presenter Keiron Long Andrew and his wife received a great deal of help from award-winning architect Piers Taylor.
“They made suggestions on the design, construction and material sourcing and it was a huge help to us,” said Andrew.
Claire added “We had just one chance to build a dream home for the rest of our life. We couldn’t afford to mess up and now we are absolutely thrilled with the result, which cost us just £89k.”
Now the biggest worry for both Andrew and Claire is the anxious wait to see just how they are portrayed on the programme when it goes out.
