South Gloucestershire | Archive | 2005 | November | 18
From the archive, first published Friday 18th Nov 2005.
ANTIQUES dealer Graham Pendrill has put his Almondsbury mansion on the market and has big plans for what he will do with the money when he finally begins his new life as an Africa tribe member.
But the 57-year-old divorcee, whose love affair with the Masai and Kikuyu people in Kenya made headlines around the world this summer, won't be trading down to a mud hut.
Quite the opposite in fact as he intends to build a 20-bedroom "castle", complete with a 110-ft high tower, to share with his African friends.
The former Almondsbury parish councillor is currently seeking offers of around £1.1million for Tower House, his 10-bedroom Queen Anne revival home set in two acres and complete with a landmark clock tower on Gloucester Road, Almondsbury.
"I'm going to try and sell it myself on the internet and I've put up a sign," he said.
"It's a lovely home in the style and spirit of the 1860s and I'm hoping it will create a lot of interest. A Sunday national newspaper is planning to run a feature on it in its property section so that should help."
Although large, Mr Pendrill's new home in the Norak area of south west Kenya would be styled in keeping with local culture, he said.
"It will be built in local stone and will even have a thatched roof. The tower sounds rather grand but it will actually be for water pressure."
As well as building a comfortable home he is planning to buy several hundred acres of land - including a mountain or two - for a farming enterprise in which he will be joined by Masai and Kikuyu tribesmen.
"It will give them a lot more security in terms of land tenure and will mean setting up an entire new village and sinking bore holes for ground water," he said. "I have no children so when I die I shall leave it in trust for the people."
He told the Gazette he was now really looking forward to quitting the UK for a new life.
"I get a bit tired of the fussiness of life here and the way our lives are so controlled these days. It's time for a new challenge in a new place.
"Obviously there are things - and people - I will miss but there's nothing really to keep me here and with modern communications I shall be able to stay touch.
"A lot depends on the house sale but I'm now set on going and I don't intend still being in Almondsbury this time next year."
Mr Pendrill's affection for - and affinity with - Kenyan tribes started during a holiday last year when he stopped his four-wheel drive vehicle in a thunderstorm to give a lift to a bedraggled group of Masai.
They invited him to their village and later, after he acted as peace broker during a tribal skirmish, they made him an elder with his own Masai name - Siparo, meaning "brave one".
He recently wrote to the main Kenyan national newspaper apologising in case the worldwide publicity had given people the wrong idea about his character and motives.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008