The Featherbys
About us…
We are a mob of six. Freddie (18) is on a gap year. Charles (16) and Wilbur (14) are doing A Levels and GCSEs via an online school and Felicity (12) is fully home educated. Learning curves galore!
We are blessed with a large extended family. Beth’s parents and siblings are in Hertfordshire. John’s are in Herts, Yorkshire, Cornwall and Zimbabwe. And cousins galore!
When we aren’t in Cornwall, we’re usually in Seaview (Isle of Wight), where Beth’s family have had a base for about 60 years.
Below is a brief synopsis of our story so far.
Our story
We first met at The Polurrian Hotel in Cornwall, when we were 14 years old, discovering we had overlapping social circles. Cornwall was clearly in the stars…
A friendship eventually blossomed into a relationship when we turned 18; marrying at 23 and having four children in six years from 25.
With John’s parents owning a farm in the picturesque area of Lostwithiel and Fowey, our time in Cornwall remained consistent.
Moving here has always been on the cards, but the timing has never been quite right (or agreed upon!). Although we did live here briefly with John’s work in our 20s.
Part normal family dynamic
John’s career began in land and property then management consulting, impact investing and movement building in ethical business; at its heart has been a desire to revive the spirit of Britain’s great social and environmental entrepreneurs.
Beth was in yacht broking before raising the children full time once our eldest arrived, eventually qualifying as a Reformer Pilates instructor after many years as a practitioner and fitness enthusiast.
A centre of gravity for us has been our faith and church life: mostly non denominational with a lot of missional overlap. John trained as a Spiritual Director at Spiritus Theological College and Beth has always been involved in prayer groups.
Part alternative way of being
Woven through our life is also a range of alternative spaces rooted in our Christian faith.
We contribute to a global community of fellowship for senior politicians, in the spirit of trusted friendship and peace making, often for those who cannot easily break bread in public; a prayer led reconciling and rebuilding project amongst civic leaders across The Commonwealth; and a working group of British farmers and land owners exploring how to live out their faith via courageous and exceptional stewardship of land and people.
Moving to Cornwall in many ways, is a drawing together of all these threads into a single narrative.
