Michael and I were practically without an income except for Michael working as a tractor driver on a farm and I Philippa working in a pub, washing up the dishes and taking orders of what people wanted to eat.
I seem to remember that Michael nearly had an accident with a tractor whose brakes had failed.
Marion who really became a beacon of hope for us became involved in a plan with Fev and Frank Dawson to run a field study centre in Cumbria and they offered Mike and I a place there.
We thought this an excellent idea and we had a few hundred pounds we could invest in it. So, off we went (in retrospect a bad idea)
There were two groups of schools that used us. One type ran their own courses and all we had to do was to feed and house them. W very boring. Then we decided to run our own courses. We called them Discovery and Adventure holidays. They were much more fun to organise. We would do rock climbing with them and abseiling down. We would also take the children on after-dark walks which were also fun so long as one had various landmarks to show where you had got to. I can remember owls hooting and that was quite a scary sound coming out of the darkness, so we had to reassure the children that it was nothing to fear.
I can also remember the fact that Michael and I did not fit in. We had always been used to running our own life and shows. Michael was alright with the set up because he was out with the kids all day. I can remember him telling me that when he showed the children cows and told them that was where their milk came from one of the children said, “Oh no, milk comes out of bottles” Very funny looking back on it but slightly daunting. I remember when my sister Eleanor came to visit us, she said you are not happy here it is time to go.) Michael and I decided to look for happier things to do. I remember someone saying to me “You were right to go and run your own lives again.”