Eco-family brings Good Life home alive

Tuesday, January 09 2007 13:26:19 by Editor

Felicity Kendal and Richard Briars made a Surbiton house their home in the 1970's sitcom The Good Life and now the Jordan family, who have moved into the actual house filmed on set, are aspiring to echo Tom and Barbara's green-living ways.

Mark and Wendy Jordan, together with their children, have re-landscaped the garden to accommodate a chicken-shed and a compost heap to help recycle all of their waste that is generated in their home.

The house, which is actually situated in Middlesex, will also have environmentally friendly additions put on it in the following months, including solar panels and a wind turbine.

"I want us to be as self-sufficient as we can. Tom and Barbara were quite eccentric but they set a good example," Mark told the Evening Standard.

"I'm going to install solar panels to heat the water and I want a wind turbine on the roof for electricity. I eventually want to have a big well in the garden to save all the rain water, so we could use it to flush the toilets or filter it for drinking."

The pair are also very into growing their own produce. Wendy commented: "We've had the vegetable patch for a few years. Mark rotated the soil and dug it all up and I planted the vegetables.

"We grow potatoes, rhubarb, cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, carrots, beans, onions and beetroot. We also grow fruit. We've got gooseberries, pears, apples, damson and sloe for sloe gin."

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