January 04..............Oh so noisy

I had only been living here for a few weeks and the noise from the neighbouring holding didn't appear to be abating. I was also being woken up at 6.00 a.m. every morning by the sound of cars arriving, voices, doors slamming, engines being started, brake reversing noises, and the reverberations within our cottage of heavy duty lorries leaving the area directly opposite our bedroom was unpleasant.

They rattled out each and every morning disturbing their dogs (three rotties) who were situated within a few meters from us in some kind of caged area, who would then obviously bark.  

Maybe it was just going to be temporary - let's hope so.    I did find this quite troubling, as we had been informed by the seller of this property and the local authority  (Carmarthen Council)  that Blaenpant was a farm where they bred horses, but so far the only sounds I was experiencing were from industrial machinery and HGVs.   If the farm was being used for breeding of horses, I was puzzled to understand why there was always such a noisy disturbance from what appeared to be generators and plant machinery.  It would seem that the council were quite wrong that Blaenpant was a farm, as there were no signs of any farming activity. The only activities I was aware of were the large numbers of horses in the fields and an obvious lorry business.   Friends were telling me this wasn't right, as surely a farm cannot be used for industrial operations, and where was the consideration for neighbours. When A. Thomas one of the partners of the haulage business, returned home in the afternoons from driving his truck, the industrial machines, (JCBs) which were kept at this farm, along with several other items of plant, came into operation.  The noise from these machines was painful to hear.  The earth shook as they moved around as they were so huge.  I couldn't see what was going on as the 'earth bank' was high and getting higher.  The sounds suggested that materials were being being cleared from the site.  The constant daily sound of rock being dragged down from the quarry and loaded onto backs of lorries was unmistakable.

The weekends were intolerable.  The JCB would start up at around 7.00.a.m. but I was awake anyway as the trucks that went out at 6.00a.m. had become my alarm clock..  This machine was in constant use the entire weekend.  When the other lorry drivers came back around lunchtime on Saturdays,  they would set about power hosing their lorries.  This would go on for the entire Saturday afternoon and into Sunday,  also very noisy and extremely upsetting to listen to.   It was no pleasure being outside.  I would try to ignore the disturbances but it was impossible. 

The  old dutch barn on their yard,  was also in constant use, from either maintenance being carried out on lorries, or being used by welders both Saturdays and Sundays from as early as 7.00a.m thru to early evening.  I kept telling myself that this couldn't go on indefinitely as it was a farm and one shouldn't be carrying out these types industrial activities without permissions on a farm!   I believed that our conveyance, which clearly stated that neither of these two properties could cause obnoxious nuisance to the other, would have protected us from such activities.

As the weeks passed I was beginning to feel very uncomfortable and worried about the goings on on the property adjacent, as this was to be our retirement home, with income and interests. This noise, if it were to continue would blight our property, its value, and it would destroy the peace we believed we were buying into.  Eddie said to give it time, it's probably only temporary, after all we've only been here for a few weeks and too early to get overly concerned.  I also wanted to remain on good terms with our neighbours.

It was now very cold and as the old Rayburn wasn't working at all it meant we had no heating.  We employed an engineer to convert the old Rayburn from solid fuel into oil.  He also installed more radiators which were essential to keep this stone cottage warm.  Now we had heat.  Fantastic!  However, we had another problem.  The septic tank didn't appear to be operating now even though on the conveyancing papers Mrs. Gifford had ticked that it was.  Looking on the positive side, spring was around the corner and things could only improve.  I had to keep telling myself that the disturbance from the neighbouring property would be resolved.


Eddie came up at the weekends, and I was desperate to remove the eyesore which was the rusty old garage doors that our seller, Anne Gifford,  had tied into the trees, supposedly put there to prevent her dogs from running onto the neighbours land.  It was difficult to say the least, as the bank was very steep and they were huge.  They were also very difficult to manoeuvre.  It took us a fair while to cut them down.  We had all but finished when our neighbour Andrew Thomas appeared and said, "so you've taken down my garage doors then".  I was surprised at his comments and explained to  him that Ann Gifford had advised us they were hers and she had put them there to safeguard her dogs.   When I asked him if he wanted them he just laughed and said 'no'.  He then enlightened us to the fact that he had put them there because he 'couldn't stand her'.  He delighted in letting us know that he wanted to punish her for complaining about him and his partner.  I really didn't want to hear that and so didn't venture into any further conversation on the subject.  We had only just moved in and in effect we were being told that not only had Ann Gifford lied to us about this eyesore, but clearly there was bad blood between her and the neighbours.

Time to ask the Planning Officer to visit to discuss our plans for the cattery and our barn conversion.....