A couple who converted an old railway carriage into a plush holiday let have won a ‘monumental’ two-year battle for planning approval.
Andrea Pearman, 53, and Richard Coleman, 65, featured on Channel 4’s George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces in 2022 to showcase their transformation of a Great Western Railway coach into a rural £175 a night hotspot.
The couple had purchased the carriage for £3,000 through a friend and spent months renovating the coach into two rooms – the Penzance suite for four and the Paddington which sleeps two – without planning permission.
Eventually, the Little Downham, Camebridgeshire, holiday space was opened in 2022.
‘The carriage had only come off the track in 2021 and was in really good condition,’ Ms Pearman said.
‘We had to redesign the bathroom including moving the waste pipes and that was quite the ordeal as train floors aren’t meant to be drilled through.
‘It looks really simple like we’ve just ripped out the seats and luggage racks but we stripped it down to the bare bones.
‘We’ve had all the paint colour matched so hopefully you can’t tell what’s new and what’s original. It is still a train. Nothing got thrown away.
‘We donated all the underneath gubbins to the local heritage line to bring another carriage back to life.’
Following completion, the remarkable carriage-based let features a hot tub, air conditioning, bathroom and shower plus its own private garden area in the Cambridgeshire countryside.
The couple too made sure to restore some of the carriage’s original features such as the seats, windows, luggage racks and even the emergency stop handle.
But the creation has had to overcome hurdles to completion, including a more than two-year long planning dispute with East Cambridgeshire District Council.
The planning team had rejected an initial retrospective proposal in 2022, arguing that the renovation was ‘unsustainably located’.
However last month, Ms Pearman and Mr Coleman finally received approval from the council, who had been swayed after noticing the let’s popularity.
‘Winning the planning application was quite monumental,’ Ms Pearman added.
‘Originally they turned it down because they said there wasn’t a need for it and they don’t support development in the countryside.
‘But in the meantime, we were open and accepting guests – we could prove there was a demand.
‘I didn’t think we needed planning permission as it’s a moveable, non-permanent structure. Our main offering is that it is quiet, rural, and peaceful. People come here to unwind.’
Since the unique renovation opened in 2022, its been ‘raving’ with guests eager for a night in the static carriage.
The couple have even welcomed a former Great Western Railway employee who’s visited more than three times.
‘He used to work on this very carriage as a guard,’ Ms Pearman said.
‘We have had a lot of train drivers where their wives book it as a surprise – they visit and are blown away.
‘I didn’t realise how many people love trains so fanatically. Our guests don’t want to leave.’
Ms Pearman and Mr Coleman had first planned to convert a boat into a let on their pond but discovered they couldn’t maintain the water levels.
So, they decided to transform the train carriage, which they had transported by lorry from Great Marston, Yorkshire.