Sue and Keith Warrington swapped their smallholding in Somerset for the open landscapes of Canada’s New Brunswick. Sue tells their story to Richard Webber

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could live abroad. Leaving family and friends behind was something I couldn’t contemplate, and nor did I regard myself as adventurous – how wrong I was!

We moved to Harvey, a small town in New Brunswick, in March 2007. It’s no bigger than a village in the UK. There’s a fantastic community spirit and we have everything we need.

For us, moving abroad was about finding a better quality of life. We had a smallholding in Somerset but were looking for more land, when we discovered how cheap it is in Canada. Further research made us realise that we could also get the quality of life we desired. So we decided to visit, and found ourselves falling in love with the area almost immediately.

We chose New Brunswick because we wanted to be on the Atlantic coast and, therefore, nearer to the UK. The open spaces here are amazing, which isn’t surprising because New Brunswick’s population is only 750,000, even though it’s not much smaller than England. With everything so spaced out, it means we drive more but, fortunately, fuel is cheaper – the equivalent of 50p a litre.

It’s a big step switching countries, but we didn’t want to spend the rest of our lives wondering what life may have been like. We arrived knowing that if we didn’t like it we could return, but at least we would have given it a shot. But we’ve been made to feel very welcome: the locals are friendly, respectful and always willing to help.
We found a six-bedroom house with indoor pool set in four acres of land for $200,000 Canadian. Although I can’t remember what the exchange rate was, property is about four times cheaper than in the UK. Buying and selling houses isn’t too dissimilar to the UK, but transactions can be completed very quickly – sometimes within two weeks.

We overlook a wooded valley, where it seems like someone has got a paint box and splashed colours all over the trees – it’s stunning. It wasn’t long, though, before we started missing life on a farm, so have bought a 100-year-old farmhouse and some animals, including cows, pigs, chicken and geese. It’s a 100-acre site and cost just $70,000 Canadian (£41,000), because it needs complete renovation. The farm is closer to Harvey and has four bedrooms. All the children love farming and we aim to be self-sufficient. Meanwhile, our six-bedroom house is on the market for $215,000 Canadian (£125,000)."

Read more in the March issue of Living Abroad magazine