Family swap East London flat for fairytale chateau in France

It’s not just Sydneysiders fed up with pricey housing. Londoners have lived with exorbitant property prices for years.

But every so often, some of them choose to throw in the towel and start over somewhere new.

For Dick and Angela Strawbridge, “new” is a 162-year-old French chateau in the Loire Valley in the west of France. But the most remarkable thing about their move is how they funded the purchase with the sale of their small East London flat – and had funds left over.

Eighteen months ago they sold their two-bedroom flat for £400,000 ($696,000 and bought Chateau de-la-Motte Husson for £280,000 ($487,000).

With children, Arthur, 3 and Dorothy, 2, they moved into a fairytale castle with five floors and 47 rooms, and they also get an enchanted wood, Art Deco orangery, a walled garden and a moat.

The Daily Mail reports the couple moved for the lifestyle, the food and the space. “That was the priority – more space,” says Dick Strawbridge.

The couple say you would be hard pushed to get a one-bedroom flat in London for that price.

But, yes, the property did come with a few snags. Chateau de la Motte Husson had no electricity, heating or water, not to mention the general state of decay – it had stood empty for 40 years.

Showing surprising enterprise, the couple set themselves a 10-month deadline to drag their 19th-century chateau into the 21st century, tackling most of the work themselves.

And the problems were not small – a sewage system that emptied into the moat and a fly infestation, were just two of many issues Dick, 56, had to sort.

Angel Strawbridge says her DIY Prince Charming is fearless. “Dick’s the sort of person who says where there’s a will, there’s a way. The most magic moment for me… was when I could flush toilet paper down the loo. I did a happy dance.”

The couple run the chateau as a venue that specialises in special occasion events and vintage weddings.

They are not new to the limelight themselves. Angela Adoree, as she is also known, is the founder of the Vintage Patisserie and has 20 years’ hospitality experience under her belt.

And Dick is a former Lieutenant Colonel with the Royal Corps of Signals, a former television presenter and Celebrity MasterChef finalist.

This story was first published at Stuff.co.nz.