A family of six have ditched London and their jobs (well, the parents have) to live off-grid in a caravan on a cliff.
Davina Foster, 36, lives in a bubble caravan in Perranporth, Cornwall, with her partner Todd and her four children; Michael, 15, Saffron, 11, Ruby, 6, and Harry, 18 months.
The family decided to move out of London back in March 2018 to get closer to nature, and have now set up their own business, Cligga Cliff Farm.
Davina said: ‘My son was nine at the time and we were starting to look at secondaries and thinking about the future and the post office in Grampound came up for sale.
‘My other half is a builder and I was a photographer and we thought we’d buy it and convert it.
‘We fell in love with the idea, put our house on the market, our offer was accepted and our house went up for sale like that.’
Five years ago, the family were living in a little house in south east London. Ruby was just born and Davina was idly scrolling through properties in Cornwall.
They ended up renting a tiny house in Perranporth, got the kids into school and bought a derelict old miners’ cottage in Redruth.
Todd worked on renovating the house while Davina, who had been a professional photographer in London, worked in Spar and the Cornish Pizza Co.
She said: ‘We had all these bills and all this pressure.
‘It was not my ambition from being a successful photographer in London to working in a supermarket.
‘And we were beginning to get burnt out by the property thing. Todd and I were used to camping – we met working at festivals – so we rented out the house in Redruth and started to look for land.’
The dream bit of land finally came up in the form of a seven and three quarter acre plot right on the heritage coast path, by the cliffs.
The sale went through and the family started working the land right away, adopting four black pigs and some chickens. At this point they had no income and were struggling to afford rent on their house in Redruth.
Eventually they had no choice but to move out of their home and on to the land, with just a horsebox, a bell tent, and a shack Todd had built out of some pallets.
They started to offer camping in the spot, which allowed them to set up Cligga Cliff Farm, a fully-fledged farm that runs a monthly plastic-free market, selling free-range pork, eggs, and vegetables.
The family now have cows and are starting their own micro-dairy, and plan to rear turkeys in time for Christmas.
‘By the end of next summer we’ll be self-sufficient,’ says Davina.
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