NOVA NEWS EDITORIAL - AUGUST 2023

Milestone

September 2023 is a significant milestone for me as it marks the 50th year of my involvement in the property industry, all in and around Newport. I started straight from school, driving to work in my dad’s Landrover and squeezing the vehicle down the carriage entrance into the parking area at the rear of the offices. There is many a business that would long for that parking facility on site now.
The range of work undertaken by the firm was considerable, so there was always something different going on in the office. Auction sales took up a lot of our time be they farm dispersal sales or residential auction sales of furniture ‘on the premises’ at houses throughout the local area. We would often be ‘lotting up’ for two or three days before the sale day. Household furniture sales were always well attended and enjoyed by a wide variety of characters.

Several of these spring to mind; my first was the retirement sale of a local farmer, Jack Paddock, in Edgmond. Another was a furniture sale at an old house in Wem when it poured with rain and all the prospective buyers crowded into a room with a suspended floor and ‘the boss’ had to ask everyone to move outside as he was concerned that we might all end up in the cellar below. The firm was instructed to undertake one of the largest farm machinery dispersal sales in the area at that time at Peatswood near Market Drayton. Buyers from all over the country attended and there was some exceptional quality machinery on offer.

As a trainee, I was regularly taken by the boss or his assistant out on jobs, be it property or Farm Tax valuations. John Butter was renowned for driving his little Simca around without the lights on ‘to save the battery’, or visiting a local relative for a coffee on our way to or from a job.

A good deal of time was spent at the photocopier copying plans from our extensive range of 1-2500 scale Ordnance Survey plans in order to prepare an outline plan of a farm which was being offered for sale.

The years spent working in this environment have given me the experience and knowledge which I now use today.
I bring with me many happy memories of work colleagues and clients through the years and lifelong friendships as a result.

by Andrew Mason
Property Consultant