Howard and Carole were married in 1968 and have 4 children and 7 grandchildren. Daniel is  married to Sarah. They have 3 children Tom, Daisy and Jed. Kezia is married to Gareth. They have a little boy Marlow and a daughter called Ettie.  Ben is married to Rachel and they have a son called Freddie and a daughter called Phoebe. Abi is a children’s nurse and is married to Noel a local GP. All our children love to use the house so much so that our daughter Kezia had her wedding there. A very special day. The French House combines our passion for France and for encouraging community. We have been involved with TFH from the beginning and have made many new friends among the families and  our neighbours in France.

Who are we?

Carol and Martin

Why did we get involved?

Tough question really. None of us ever imagined we’d be part of something like this. Whether we got involved because of Howard doing his best to strangle his rubber chicken or something less violent is hard to tell.

Pete and Shirley Kelly told us about the idea (or was it a challenge) and we were invited along to the first supper. We knew we’d know no one, which is usually enough to put me off any kind of gathering, but our Carol had known Howard and his Carole from years ago and it was a chance to catch up. Howard hasn’t changed at all apparently – yeah right!

Anyway, something about that evening was enough and we were up for it and became the first family to put down an initial deposit.

What do we like?

We like being part of something different – how many other people do you know who have something similar going on – you probably don’t.

We like being there, on our own, with family, with other TFH families and with friends.

We like being part of something that we expect to out-live us and that will pass on to future generations – it’s a fantastic legacy.

What don’t we like?

We all work full-time so we have a limited amount of time to spend at the house. We’d love to be able to go more often, particularly to help out with the work-parties but it has proved difficult for us.

We don’t like having to come home! Once we are at The French House it is a real wrench when the final day comes. Then it’s back to Calais, queue-up to board the train etc etc etc…

The McBrides are Danny, Jaine, Joel, Oliver and Harvey.

We live in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex.
We first visited The French House in February 2004 as part of Pete and Sue Lyndon’s ‘House Party’ and had a truly wonderful time. From day one Jaine and I fell in love with the idea of what the vision meant and offered. We didn’t think in a million years that we could ever be part of it. We are so glad that we have been involved for so many fun-filled years..

What appeals to us about The French House is the whole ethos of community, the sense of creativity, the wonderful location and the possibilities for hospitality that it offers.

The French House not only creates opportunities for our family and future generations to experience this and be inspired by it, but also gives us the chance to share it with others whilst having a lot of fun together.

As children all of our boys had loads of energy and loved being at The French House. They have very fond memories of spending hours building rope bridges and paddling down the river in half inflated dinghies – spotting eels, terrapin and water vole on the way! As adults they now enjoy taking groups of friends there to enjoy The French House experience.
We are looking forward to even more times of fun, friendship and memory building.

Phil and Sheelagh Clarke live in Southampton.  They have 4 Children (James married to Ruth, Rebekah married to Steve, Catherine married to Dave and Deborah who is married to Matt).  Jim and Ruth have 2 daughters, Ana and Lucy.  Bec and Steve have 2 boys, Dan and Luke, and Deb and Matt have 2 girls, Maia and Summer.  Cath and Dave have two boys, Lincoln and Avie.

Phil and Sheelagh met at university in Southampton in 1971 and have lived and worked there since. Whilst working in the local Pregnancy Counselling Centre they met the Chapmans who were involved in a similar project in Basingstoke, and through them they were introduced to the wonders of the French House.  They were delighted to have the opportunity to buy a share in 2011.  Phil and Sheelagh are now both fully retired from their careers in the NHS.

Liddiards

Heslings

Byrnes

We joined TFH in 2020 and were welcomed at the January 2021 AGM, the first in person post-pandemic.

Our connections with France are quite deep – Fiona was born and schooled near Paris, raised by British parents working in France, and Tom worked in Francophone W Africa in his 20s and has two sisters living in France. We met in Orgeval through Tom’s sister who Fiona first met at an Anglican church outside Paris where her parents were very active. Over the years we have had numerous family holidays in France. Fiona has maintained links with several friends in France and over the years has made friends with French families living in London. We all have dual nationality French / British.

Fiona is bilingual and speaks Russian, and Tom has intermediate level French. In terms of contribution to the house, both of us can paint and decorate, Fiona enjoys gardening and Tom can do basic handyman stuff.

At the end of 2022 we both retired, having lived and worked for the last 30+ years in London. Our main ‘careers’ have been with the BBC (Fiona) and with the oil industry / shipping / international trade union movement (Tom). We are both involved with our local Anglican church, Tom has qualified as a Lay Reader, Fiona has been helping with the Ukrainian influx and is a trustee of a charity called Middle East Media.  We have four children in their 20s and early 30’s, who are moving about a lot. We love the place, and so much appreciate our co-owners. Our children have all visited and it has been a place of fun, peace and reunions. The photo was taken at the house in August 2022 when we had a family reunion there with Fiona’s mother, siblings and spouses. Fiona is seated, 2nd from right, Tom standing on the left.

Cattini