Meet The Gooch’s – Our latest residents at Manningtree Park
Semi-retired Teri (58) and Chris (63) Gooch have been splitting their time between their holiday home in Denia, Spain and their hometown of Manningtree in the UK.
After taking early retirement in 2015, the couple have been busy renovating their property in Denia, just off the east coast of Spain.
“We try to travel to Spain once a month, with family and social commitments depending. We are still finishing the garden after nine years of renovation, but it’s been a great project and a great way to spend our retirement. Teri stated that, “after my mum died, we both realised how short life is and we were keen to make the most of our time together”.
The couple grew up and married in Manningtree and then in 1997, moved to a new build in Brantham, a 5-minute car ride away.
After spending the best part of 9 years renovating and extending their home in Spain, the couple welcomed a new build property for their UK home base. Now that their children have all moved out of their Brantham home, Chris and Teri decided to make the move back to their hometown of Manningtree to downsize as they no longer needed their 4-bedroom family home.
Now that it is just the two of them, Teri and Chris like to make the most of their early retirement by spending time with family and helping with their parents and two grandchildren as much as possible. Downsizing meant the Gooch’s were able to sell their Brantham property which covered the majority of the cost of The Chrishall at Manningtree Park.
The couple came across City & Country’s Manningtree Park development and were on the lookout for a 2-bedroom property. Teri said: “We viewed one property before its walls had been put up, but the extremely friendly sales executive suggested a viewing of The Chrishall which was a 3-bedroom mid-terrace. We fell in love straight away.
The view was a massive selling point for us – we can see the rare-breed sheep from our window! We realised the third bedroom would give us more space to have an office area and we knew this would also help with storage – as are the struggles of downsizing!”
“We were concerned going into it that we wouldn’t have enough space once we downsized, but having viewed The Chrishall, we loved the open plan, spacious feel to it. The third bedroom certainly helped with storage! We put in an offer straight away, our first was rejected but quickly came back with a second offer which was thankfully accepted – we were ecstatic!”
During their search, Teri and Chris also viewed City & Country’s now completed St. Osyth Priory development and their Sanderling Reach development in West Mersea, which is only a 40-minute drive away from their hometown. Whilst there, the Gooch’s were “bowled over by the quality”.
“We both loved the look and feel to our new Manningtree Park home, and seeing the other developments helped to reassure us that we had made the right decision. We loved the individuality and quality finish each house had and it’s great to see the developments weren’t a repetitive layout of identical avenues like most new build sites. This gave it the open and spacious feel which we were searching for.” Teri says.
“Since moving back we have noticed a real buzz to Manningtree town. There seems to be more boutique shops opening on the high street and I think the new builds have really had a positive influence on the area.”
The Gooch’s have fallen back love with their hometown and love meeting new people. “There is a beautiful river and beautiful walks around the area like the Furze Hills. I know this town like the back of my hand and it’s so lovely coming back. We are also both very excited for the opening of the Farm Shop – I love cream teas and I’m looking forward to walking along, sitting outside and to get chatting with other residents!” says Teri. “As you get older you start to appreciate the simple things in life.”