Born in Bromley, Kent in 1964, Damien headed West nearly four decades ago at the age of 19. Graduating from Medway College he secured a job with the BBC as a camera man in Bristol and relocated to take up the opportunity: the decision allowed him to build a career, working on his passion, and relocate to Somerset.
BBC Bristol was at that time responsible for much of the station’s children’s programming, as well as drama and comedy, and Damien worked on such well loved series as Vision On, Take Hart (presented by artist Tony Hart), Casualty and the iconic Only Fools and Horses.
His first home in the Bristol was a townhouse in Redland, after which he moved to an apartment in Clifton, before moving out of the city, eight miles south west, to Nailsea and a period farm house set in three quarters of an acre of land. Along the way he married and had a daughter who now lives in Bristol.
Having left the BBC as a lighting director in 1998, Damien became a professional photographer, doing events, weddings and portrait photography. For the last 20 years he has travelled the world working with a wide range of commercial and private clients, including some very well-known sports and television personalities. This has expanded into teaching photography, both online and on accompanied tours.
After more than 20 years in Nailsea, the flagstones, Aga and maintenance of a 16th Century farmhouse had begun to lose their charm and Damien decided it was time to look for a new home for him and his growing business.
His search started at the beginning of 2020, registering for online searches with agents, property portals and Google. Having been a Somerset resident for nearly all his adult life Damien had a good idea of the areas he was happy to consider, commenting “While I wanted to be within easy access of Bristol and its airport, I knew that I did not want to make the city home again. Ideally I was looking for a large village, or small town, that was close to good roads and was able to offer a reasonable range of local shops and facilities.”
“I first saw Cross Farm online, I think as an advert that cropped up in one of my many online searches: it was not even built at that point. What attracted me immediately was the overall design of the scheme and appearance of the individual properties.”
“While it was clearly modern, a plus point for me, the detailing of the external design was fitting with the broader local architecture: the pitch of the roof, the stone detailing. It all added to creating something that was subtly distinct, but not out of place.”
“The internal design and specification was also a key point for me. Where the architects might have squeezed in extra rooms, they didn’t, leaving each room feeling spacious and bright. The good quality boiler, underfloor heating and heat exchanger all added up to a quality product.”
“I registered my interest immediately and requested a site visit as soon as possible in March 2020 and must have been one of the very first potential buyers to view. I remember clearly meeting the Sales Advisor and being shown round wearing hard hats and high vis vests.”
“After having visited the site I then went to explore the centre Wedmore, which was only a few minutes walk away – another plus.”
“I was aware of Wedmore and the broader Isle of Wedmore but had not previously given it much thought or exploration time. Walking around the village and finding a wide range of local shops, I then continued to find out more about the place online.”
“My online search confirmed it all for me: great village, with everything I needed, close to fast rounds so only 35-45 minutes to Bristol or Taunton and an active social and community scene. The fact that the properties were pre-wired for fast broadband just made it even better, as much of my photography business is promoted and managed online.”
“I reserved my plot very quickly and worked with Tom and the team at Acorn to complete my purchase. The impact of Covid did cause some delays, but Tom and team kept things moving along and I moved in on 18th December 2020 – one of the first to move in.”
“The quality of build and materials is apparent and as I suspected, in consequence, the snagging list is exceptionally small.”
“The plans showed something that I expected to be quite spacious, but did not prepare me for the wonderful result: living here is like being in the most amazing boutique hotel.”
To find out more about the homes available at Cross Farm, call the team today on 01934 806196.
