The following article appeared in "The Times" newspaper on 15th September, 2002.
Barbara is interviewed by Cally Law.
ACCIDENTAL HARMONY : WHY I MOVED - BARBARA DICKSON
The singer Barbara Dickson never planned to live in Lincolnshire, but now she's there to stay. We all secretly drool over the property pages, dreaming of a leisured life in a drop-dead gorgeous country house. But just as the thrills of a city life can pall, so the responsibilities of a huge home can become onerous. And what then?
Barbara Dickson, the Scottish-born singer and actress, has been there, done it, and believes she knows the answer. For 10 years the woman who had No 1 hit in 1985 with "I Know Him So Well", her duet with Elaine Paige, lived happily in Richmond in Surrey. It was there that she built up her reputation as an actress, in ITV's "Band Of Gold", and it was there that she met and married Oliver Cookson, a first assistant director in television drama - the man who shouts "action". They had three sons, Colm, 16, Gabriel, 14, and Archie, 12, and seemed set to live there happily for a very long time. Then, at the end of the 1980s, she realised she'd had enough. They were living in a four-bedroom Victorian terraced house near the Thames in East Twickenham at the time.
"I remember feeling very hemmed in," says Dickson. "I was in this tall, thin house, with little children under the age of six, and I just outgrew it. And the parking started to get to me too, and the children were always slithering around in dogs' poo. I made a sweeping plan right then that we should move right away."
That was 1988, and it took them four years to get out because of the extraordinary boom-and-slump property market at the time. For the first couple of years, when the market was red-hot, they couldn't find anything to buy, because everything was moving so quickly. Then the London market dropped off a cliff and they couldn't sell. They did not care where they lived, ruling out only Essex.
"We had no prejudice about where to move, but we didn't want to live east of London because of the drive in," says Dickson.
They started with Kent: "Prices were going up in tens of thousands as you looked at them. We nearly bought a house in Devon that was falling down, and we looked at a house in Oxfordshire that went for twice what it was on the market for. And we still had our house in London to sell."
Eventually they gave up trying to buy and concentrated on selling. "It seemed a very odd thing to do, because everyone does it the other way round," says Dickson. By now, though, the market had cooled and it took nearly a year to find a buyer. "We eventually sold very suddenly to people from America for £300,000."
It was time to focus on finding that elusive home in the country. "It was a mad scramble," she recalls. "We had three children, one of whom had to go into school immediately."
Dickson dug out her pile of property particulars. They were looking for a country house with at least five bedrooms and either a granny flat or an annexe for her mother. "I was still getting details from all over England and Ireland, but I had eliminated all the unsuitable ones," she says. "Where the house stood on its land was important to me. I didn't want the previous owner living in a bungalow where the kitchen garden had been. That really makes me angry."
They went to Hertfordshire one day, Lincolnshire another. "My husband was very prejudiced against Lincolnshire. He thought it was going to be all flat fenlands, but the Lincolnshire Wolds are hilly and verdant, and have been designated an area of outstanding natural beauty. As soon as he walked in here, he really liked it."
Dickson felt the same: "This place has everything we wanted, plus it's in rolling farmland with big skies and no people. We can't see one tungsten light or electricity pylon in any direction. The view is amazing. It's just gorgeous."
The house, too, is special - and not just because big houses don't often come on the market in this part of Lincolnshire. A Grade II-listed, five-bedroom vicarage in the village of Tathwell, near the market town of Louth, it s designed in grand gothic style by the renowned Victorian architect SS Teulon and came with 10 acres, a self-contained two-bedroom cottage and various outbuildings.
"It was terrifying at first, because we hardly knew a soul, but we soon met people through golf and the church," she says. "Louth is a friendly place, where everybody stops and talks, and it has all the shops you would ever need - a fish shop, a boot repairman and a bloke who makes his own sausages."
They spent the next 10 years restoring their home to its former glory. "It was very surburban when we moved in," says Dickson. "All beiges and pale green. We've made it into a gothic vicarage again, with rich-looking deep jewel and clotted cream colours. I think we were the right people to get this house. We have given it back its dignity."
But once again it is time to move on. The house they bought for its size is now too big. "The boys are away at school, and my husband and I rattle around on our own.
"Often there's just one of us here, because Oliver works all over. He's currently working on "Merseybeat". And I don't work locally, either - I'm doing six concerts in October, in Weymouth, Chichester, Wimbledon, Liverpool, Southampton and High Wycombe." Even the garden is too big. "We love the garden, but we don't do gardening," she says. "We have someone in to maintain it."
This time, though, they are particular about where they go. "We are looking for a house in a town," says Dickson. "I've got three boys who don't involve themselves in countryside pursuits. They are at an age when they want to take advantage of things the town has to offer. Moving is more financially efficient than buying three cars."
The plan is to buy somewhere local, preferably in Louth, where Dickson's mother has a flat.
"We don't want to move away from here because we love it so much. When we go to Sussex, I always think there must be an event on because there are so many people on the roads. It seems patronising to say from my ivory tower, but I think I would run amok if I had to live in the south-east now."
She has no regrets about Richmond or the open countryside. "We've been there and done it. If we relocate now, hopefully we won't have to do it again."
Compromise, for them, is the answer.
