New beginnings

Since retiring, a series of happy coincidences led Amanda and John Willmott to their unique home in Devon’s beautiful South Hams

- SHARON PARSONS

After Amanda and John Willmott retired in 2015, they moved to this riverside village in Devon, having had a holiday home here for many years. ‘Previously, we owned a boutique hotel in Bath,’ says Amanda. ‘We lived in a village not far from Bath, but we’d started to wonder what we should do next.’

That was when fate took a hand. A hotelier unexpectedly came forward with an offer to purchase the hotel, neighbours declared an interest in buying their home... and a house they’d long admired in the heart of an historic Devon village was put up for sale.

‘We know the village really well, having had a holiday home here for almost 30 years,’ says Amanda. ‘We’d spent so much time here with our children, Henry and Poppy, who are now grown up, and our terrier cross, Billy. When everything fell into place, it felt it was meant to be.’