BOLD MOVE
After three years of renting, Nicola Brunton and Barry Dodsworth were desperate to banish all traces of magnolia when they bought a tired 1920s semi in Darlington. The couple had sold their home in Heighington village, County Durham, three years prior to buy the pub they’d been leasing in Darlington. Since they didn’t want to live above the business, they had rented a stone farmhouse half an hour’s drive away in Barnard Castle.
Selling the pub in 2017 gave them the funds they needed, and they continued living in their rented farmhouse for six
