Me and my listed house ‘I just couldn’t face living in a little concrete bungalow in the village up the hill’


V


eteran actress and animal conservationist Daphne Neville has lived in the converted Grade II listed


stone-built mill in a steep tree- lined valley in Gloucestershire for 53 years and has every intention of staying there until she dies. Daphne, who trained at RADA in the 1950s, has also had a career as a television presenter. Since the 80s she has been a leading campaigner for otters in this country.


She has been in numerous theatre dramas, was Norah the barmaid in the Archers for a while, and in recent years had a small part in ITV’s hit 2013-17 drama ‘Broadchurch’. In November she will appear in the BBC lunchtime soap, ‘Doctors.’ Daphne talks here to Clive Fewins.


The lake from a distance


The two mills from the front


“Since my husband Martin died three-and-a half years ago I have naturally thought about moving, especially since my 80th birthday in 2017. But I just couldn’t face living in a little concrete bungalow in the village up the hill.


This is a beautiful place and I am utterly in love with the valley. I have 30 acres plus a large lake and the wildlife pond Martin and I created. I am not dead yet, so I plod on.


I have a lot of support, plus the companionship of Rudi the otter. He had been abandoned and I acquired him when he was three weeks old so he is very much a pet. He and I teach children and older people about the importance of otters to our ecology in this country. He lives in a special enclosure with a stream running through it on the hillside at the rear of the mill and I feed him every two hours with frozen reject chicks from a hatchery, and also fish.


We bought it all for £10,500 from a chap who had run out of money


88 Listed Heritage Magazine September/October 2018


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