Widow, 92, wins right to evict daughter and son-in-law from shared farmhouse

A 92-year-old widow has won the right to evict her daughter and son-in-law from the farmhouse they share in a domestic row that has drawn comparisons to the comic novel Cold Comfort Farm. Eileen Cook has occupied one end of Tretawdy Farm, whilst Pauline Thomas, 60, and her husband, Wyndham, 76, have lived in the other.

However, for nearly a decade, Mrs Cook has not spoken to Mrs Thomas, her only child, and her son-in-law, an arrangement that has been likened to scenes in Stella Gibbons’ gloomy 1932 novel.

At the real life farm at Llangrove, near Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, where Mrs Cook has lived since 1959, a judge has spoken of the "real animosity" between the relatives.



Three Appeal Court judges granted Mrs Cook her wish for her relatives to leave the house. Lord Justice Lloyd said Mr and Mrs Thomas have had no right to live in the house since a notice to quit expired in late 2008.

They must leave immediately, and pay Mrs Cook’s damages for "trespass", as well as legal costs.

The judge rejected the couple's plea that Mrs Cook had made a series of binding promises to enable them to stay on the 19-acre farm, and that the property would be theirs when she died. Instead the farm will now go to a local nature charity on Mrs Cook's death.