A story of success: How we helped rural worker with a home and start up new business venture.

Louise Brill at work

Louise Brill, a current Addington Fund tenant living in an affordable home, contacted us when she had to leave her previous rented accommodation in Porth, Cornwall, where she was living with her 16 year old son.

The self-employed single mum, running her own business ‘Coastline Gardening Services’, was faced with eviction when her landlord of 10 years decided to give notice on the property.

At the beginning of the 2019 school holidays, Louise only had 6 weeks to find a new and affordable home near to her son’s school.

“I couldn’t believe the situation I was in” Louise said. “I was a single mum being evicted from my home of 10 years with no back-up, barely any or little choice of anywhere else to live. It’s so expensive to rent here down in Cornwall; I didn’t know which way to turn”.

“I was so worried as I quite literally had nowhere else to go. I don’t have family close by and my son wouldn’t have wanted to move schools. I was also self-employed so taking days off to try and find somewhere else to live, I was losing money day by day and the clock was ticking as we were becoming closer to being homeless. At this point, I’d really felt like I had hit rock bottom, until one day I came across a Ruthvoes property which was owned by a farming charity called the ‘Addington Fund’.”

She continued, “I didn’t think a charity would look twice at me despite owning a rural business and working on farms doing landscaping, I simply didn’t think I was good enough to deserve help from this kind of charity but after some encouragement from my friends, I plucked up the courage to get in touch…”.

“I spoke to a lady called Sue, who was so lovely. She made me believe that I was good enough to apply for this property so I went for it. Part of the application was to naturally give details about my business and what I would use the workshop for which came with the property… Now, I know this might sound silly to some but I’m a self-employed landscaper by day and a sea glass, trinket collector by night!” Louise smiles, “so I thought to myself ‘I could use this workshop to create a jewellery shop!’.”

“I’ve been collecting sea glass from Cornish beaches for years and with my job I always find odd bits of broken china and pottery that I know would look great wrapped and sculpted in to gorgeous metals to be worn as fine jewellery. This was my chance to really take the leap and start something new to support my current job, look after my son and maybe hopefully one day become a full time jewellery maker. I find it so relaxing to do, it’s kind of my escape from the world, we all need that sometimes.”

“To say the next few weeks were utterly nail-biting is an understatement. I still wasn’t finding anywhere else that I could afford, time was flying by so quickly and I was waiting to hear from the Addington Fund to see whether I was eligible to rent Ruthvoes.”

“At this point I had boxed up all of our belongings, the council had put us on the homeless list and I was warned I could be moved out of Cornwall in to a B&B, wherever would take us. I couldn’t bear the thought of having to put my son through that but it was our reality. We had no other choice. Then Addington Fund called me five days before our moving out date to tell us we’d been accepted as Ruthvoes’ new tenants! We were over the moon and after looking around the property, we realised we’d been saved. It still makes me emotional remembering, it feels like yesterday. I just broke down in happy tears, I couldn’t believe we had an affordable home to live in.”

“We’ve been living at Ruthvoes for nearly four years now. We are very settled, happy and so grateful for Addington Fund’s help. I think about it often, if it wasn’t for them, where would I be right now? I’d hit an all-time low going through that experience, the worry of being homeless was awful. The Addington Fund couldn’t have been more helpful and couldn’t have come at a better time for me and my boy.”

“I’ve worked a lot on the workshop.” Louise says whilst showing Addington Fund staff around the shop. “When we came out of lockdown, I decided to do whatever I could to make the shop as attractive as possible. I’ve bought glass cabinets, a large carpet and filled the cabinets with fairy lights to improve the display of all the jewellery pieces I’ve made. It’s a little piece of sparkling heaven that I have put my heart and soul in to, hoping I can make even more of a living from my this.”

“The workshop is now officially a shop, it looks magical and displays my work perfectly. I would love to encourage anyone who wants hand-made, bespoke, affordable yet expensive looking, ‘made with love’ jewellery to come and see me at my workshop, and hopefully invest in a piece of art that you can wear and enjoy for a lifetime. It would mean the world to me for people to love what I do.”

“I can’t thank the Addington Fund enough for what they have done for me and my boy, I don’t know if there is anything in the world that I can do which would say ‘thank you’ enough for their help. As a gesture, I have decided to make a set of jewellery and donate it to the Addington Fund Cornwall Farm Business Awards 2023, which are being held at the Eden Project on Thursday 28th September, as a gift from me to them. I hope it makes a fantastic amount of money for the farming charity and rural communities. It’s the least I can do.”

“I will be there at the awards too so if you see me there, please do come and say hello. I would love to meet everyone who supports the Addington Fund and in turn, supports myself and my son as well”

“I am so grateful to the Addington Fund for not just giving me and my son a home when we had nothing but for believing in me and the possibilities and potential for the business. In my heart, I'm always motivated to do my best wanting to make them proud…”.

Thank you for supporting the Addington Fund and in turn, rural and farming people like Louise.

To see more of Louise’s work and jewellery pieces, visit her website on www.silverwaters.co.uk .

Find Louise on Instagram @silverwaters_cornwall

Want to donate to the Addington Fund? Click here.

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