Rural Estates Newsletter Spring 2021 - Flipbook - Page 3
In 1994 I spent a goodly part of a gap year on my uncle’s farm in
Zimbabwe. He eventually got fed up with me disappearing every
evening to sit on a kopje and commune with the sunset, so he gave
me a job to do.
James Maxwell
He was building a new house for a farm manager and asked if I could do the wiring. “Yes”,
I said. “I can do that.” So, aged 19, with a basic knowledge of series and parallel circuits
from GCSE Physics, I spent two weeks wiring a house. I’ve been pondering that recently,
whilst advising on the Electrical Safety Standards Regulations (see News in brief).
The exercise taught me a valuable lesson: we learn most, not on the course or in the
classroom, but in practice. What I like about the articles in this Newsletter is that they
are light on law but replete with practical know-how, learnt on the job: how to deal with
a breach of a water abstraction licence (Tom Dobson), how to set up an SPV to hold a
private water supply (Katy Grylls), what to do in the face of bad PR for your business (Ed
Perkins). This is our day-to-day work for rural estates; this is what we do.
Spring. And leaving lockdown. It’s a season for some can-do spirit: time to meet that
challenge, take that opportunity, make things new. Yes, we can!
Rural Estates Newsletter
Spring 2021
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