Turfed out!
Pair who are ‘allergic’ to modern life facing eviction from mud hut
THEY shunned modern life two years ago to make their home in a mud hut.
But Kate and Alan Burrows did not move to Africa or a similar location where such buildings are normally to be found.
Instead they constructed their 9ft high circular hut in a tranquil valley in the heart of the English countryside. They made the move from a rented end-of-terrace townhouse because grandmother Mrs Burrows, 45, has what she calls an ‘allergy to modern life’.
She says she was left almost bedridden by exposure to domestic chemicals and electronic goods, and living in rural serenity was her only way of beating the condition.
But planners want to evict the couple. They say the hut breaches planning laws and harms the picturesque surroundings of the Tarka Valley in Devon.
North Devon Council has given Mr and Mrs Burrows until December to move out after their appeal against an enforcement order failed. Mr Burrows, 47, a former photocopier engineer, said: ‘We haven’t got a clue what we’re going to do. This has been everything to us, but they’ve told us it’s all got to go. Kate’s condition is very bad.’
Mrs Burrows, who works as a carer, claims doctors say her unorthodox lifestyle has cured her condition, known as multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) – crippling fatigue caused by acute sensitivity to the chemicals in everything from paint to freshly washed clothes.
She and her husband had been living in Taunton, Somerset, and spent more than six months building Riverside Crossing, which has been their home for 19 months.
She bought the land near Chulmleigh ten years ago using a settlement from her previous marriage.
It took six weeks for Mr and Mrs Burrows to build the wooden frame, cover it with clay and straw, line the walls with lime mortar and turf the roof. They had no construction experience, so followed instructions they found in a book on building wooden homes.
They kitted the hut out with furniture salvaged from skips, charity shops and a caravan they used to own. The living area has two sofas and a wood burner made from an old oil barrel. A small bedroom features a four-poster bed built by Mr Burrows. Oil lamps provide the light, while solar panels on the roof power the small kitchen. Outside is a compost lavatory.
Water is pumped by hand from the river and filtered for drinking.
A makeshift boiler heats water for the bath. They do not have computers and because there is no electricity Mrs Burrows has to take their mobile phones to work to recharge them.
They share their home with their dog Buffy, 16, as well as eight goats, four geese and 11 chickens.
‘I am so much healthier here’
Mrs Burrows said: ‘I don’t know what would happen to us, if we had to leave here. I didn’t realise how ill I was until we moved here and I started to recover. I am so much healthier for it. It was a collection of stuff in my system that literally poisoned me.’
North Devon Council planning officer Graham Townsend said it was ‘clearly not in the public interest to have houses and other structures springing up across the countryside without any permissions being obtained’.