The female carpenters evicted from rural estate after 22 years so the venue can ... trends now

Two female carpenters have told how their lives were turned upside-down overnight when they were made jobless, homeless, and penniless after being evicted from their workshop and cottage on one of the country's most picturesque and historic country estates.

Friends Melanie Davies and Chiara Bertotti ran the Carpentry Shop on the Firle Estate in East Sussex's South Downs, after Melanie helped renovate the dilapidated premises – which has been used for carpentry for five generations stretching back to the late 1800s but had fallen into disrepair – and turned it into a carpenter's workshop and heritage museum when she moved into the village 22 years ago.

The pair lived in a quaint flint workers bungalow nearby in the 250-population village which has historically attracted tourists with its traditional working practices such as farming.

However, last September they were being evicted.

The move came as the pair say they have witnessed Firle Estate increasingly pursuing commercial opportunities such as hosting weddings and events, and as a filming location, including the 2020 movie adaptation of Jane Austen's classic Emma starring Bill Nighy and Miranda Hart.

Melanie, 62, said: 'Everyone we have spoken to has been saddened beyond belief to learn about the closure of our Carpentry Shop – partly for our business, built over the years, but also that the history we have preserved was disappearing.

'It has been a real blow to all those who cared about the history. People want to see real people working, real farmers lambing.

'But they will not get it as that doesn't much exist any longer. What's been happening has affected the entire village atmosphere. 

'It's not been a gradual gentrification – more a sudden jolt. Gentrification on steroids.'

However, it is understood that the estate accused the women of unreasonable behaviour and falling behind with their rent and acted properly in terminating the tenancy following a disagreement.

It's further understood that the estate's decision to evict came after the women were said to have been involved in incidents of anti-social behaviour.

Melanie accepts there were some rent arrears - a consequence of seeing their rents rise - but insists she was in the process of paying these off when the eviction landed, saying: 'We were paying that off, and by the time we were evicted had paid half of it.'

And she added: 'What they call anti-social behaviour is what normal people do. We were 'guilty' of asking for music to be turned down at a wedding party after midnight as we were trying to sleep.

The other incident, I believe, was trying to cross the road while a rally was going on and we needed some tools and were blocked from going to the workshop. But we needed to go, and the people monitoring it gave us the go-ahead, but then we were accused of disrupting the race.

The final thing was a disagreement with a neighbour in the village who had thrown some things in a skip and Chiara pulled some things out of a skip - it was a stupid argument. None of it was what a reasonable person would describe as 'anti-social' behaviour. But we were given a black mark.'

Melanie, who's originally from Sheffield, first moved to Firle in 2001 having recently qualified as a carpenter, to take over the carpentry workshop.

While using it to make furniture for people around the area, Melanie was also asked to create a small public museum reflecting the Firle's long history, from when it was a closed village where residents worked on the Estate.

Between 2001 and the 2007 museum opening – which was attended by the villagers and included a speech by Lord Gage, 88, whose family have owned the land at Firle since acquiring it in the 15th century – Melanie and her co-workers revamped the entire premises, largely out of their own pockets, she says.

'People passing by, such as ramblers, would pop in,' the 62-year-old recalls. 'They were fascinated. The museum housed tools from four generations of woodworkers, so it was like going back 50 years, with all the old stuff lying around.

'People couldn't believe what they were seeing, since much of the history of Sussex has been destroyed over the years.'

In return the workshop was awarded a protected lease which guaranteed, says Melanie, that she only had to pay a tiny a tiny rent, that the premises had to always be used for carpentry, and she couldn't be asked to leave.

Working long hours, six days a week, Melanie always weathered tough times, including the 2008 financial crash.

Ten years ago,

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