RATE AND RENT FREE

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 15, 8 October 1929, Page 2

RATE AND RENT FREE

LIVING ON £1 A W3EX Hundreds of English people have solved the problem of how to live rent free and rate free. Their homos ai-c houseboats moored in little creeks in the lower reaches of the Thames. Many middle-aged and elderly couples live reasonably well on £1 a week. One family of father, mot he - and live children lives on £;! 10s a week in a style that would be impossible in any town. The secret is that nearly the whole of the income can be devoted to buying food. The larder is helped, too. by a little fishing—a few yards from home. Clothes cost less than elsewhere, for on the estuary creeks it is not necessary to look so smart. ' Little fuel is needed, because it is far easier to licit a boat than a house, while driftwood is plentiful Holidays tire not necessary; whore better than their own creeks could the ostuarrdweller go? Doctor’s bills arc light, for Thames mud is admittedly healthy, and it is thoroughly scoured by the tide twice a day. The largest houseboat colony is at Loigh-on-Sea.. There is another in Bcnlleot creek, ami dozens more dotted along the Essex <aud Ko->* coasts of the estuary. The houseboats :re not the glittering affairs of white paint and geraniums to bo seen up-river, but subsiantinl erections lit; to keep oet wintry weather. Their foundation is often a lighter or a heavy fishingsmack. and some have as mini? as six