We came to the Island at Christmas 2014. We’re from South West London and it’s probably the usual story – we’ve got two children and my daughter Evie was getting to the age where we were considering secondary schools for her. Evie is creative, our son Sam is sporty, and we wanted them to be somewhere where there would be opportunity for them to experience more and also, because creative subjects are just as important to us as academic ones, we started thinking about where that somewhere needed to be’.

An opportunity for our children to experience more

Because both Anna and her husband needed to be in reach of London for work, they began thinking about areas that would work for them both as well as for them as a family. Anna is originally from Petersfield and so knowing the South Coast brought Jonny to the Island where, as a schoolgirl she’d come to play sports matches against Island teams and had day trips as a child. ‘There are always lots of amazing properties that come up for sale and we found our house in Bonchurch which was a quite different project to anything that we’d done before which were mostly Victorian houses. It had last been unsympathetically renovated in the eighties and latterly used as a holiday house and had been adapted in a very eighties’ way: reducing ceiling heights to avoid heating costs whilst windows had been concealed. The house is built into the rock and is two storeys at the front but one at the back, when we began to take out the lower ground floor ceilings, we found that the original ceilings were actually at rear ground level and taller than we had expected giving the house far more space and light. We reconfigured the whole house and replaced all of the plumbing and electrics and it’s taken us the best part of five years to get to where we are, but we wanted to make it right, restore originality back into the house whilst adding modern touches and hopefully it’ll go on for another hundred years’.

With a degree in Interior Design from Chelsea College of Art and Design and extensive experience designing not just residential properties but also hotels and offices, the house proved an interesting challenge for Anna. ‘We’ve completed the building works in four phases, I now have an amazing team of local people that I work with.’

As well as its stunning landscape, you simply can’t beat walks with the dogs, pubs with open fires, going to the festivals and doing all of the things that we can do as a family as well as it being a place to let the kids have their freedom

The Island offers us a hugely different lifestyle as a family to the one we had – I’m originally a country girl but we’ve both always wanted to live near the beach. We’re not sailors, I guess that’s what drew us to the Bonchurch side of the Island as well as its stunning landscape, you simply can’t beat walks with the dogs, pubs with open fires, going to the festivals and doing all of the things that we can do as a family as well as it being a place to let the kids have their freedom. Our friends visit and it’s wonderful for them to have somewhere to stay. There’s an amazing food scene here, real farm to table and it’s getting better and better here on the Island all the time. Whilst we still enjoy going up to London, it’s great to have the contrast that island life can give us’.

For photographers and filmmakers Alice and Sam, the Island has become a natural extension of their business Adrift Visuals. Both freelancers, they decided to combine their skills and set their company up in September 2020.

‘We wanted to bring our work outdoors and focus on outdoor brands and events, particularly those that want to promote green, eco-friendly and planet positive products. Being by the coast, living simply and creating amazing pictures, videos and images of people having positive experiences outside was the ethos behind the company and a passion for us both’. The name of the business Adrift, came from the notion of moving around and being fluid. As filmmakers, they are constantly on the move and this is reflected in their website which uses the colours of sand, sea and sky  and imagery to promote not just themselves but also the Isle of Wight which is a big focus for both Sam, an Island native, and Alice.

There is also a strong community spirit here on the Island…we’ve been lucky to work with great brands

‘We look to work with brands and companies that have the same vision as we do – protecting the climate, environment and the oceans and that’s where we’re looking to use our skills: to build awareness of environmental issues, capture beautiful landscapes and show those landscapes to the world because we feel that people are more inspired to protect what they see, even when it’s through the small world of Instagram. Our work is our canvas, and we are both at our happiest when we’re outside, in the sea and in nature and we can see the sun rise and the sun set, and we have all of this right here on our doorstep. There is also a strong community spirit here on the Island, local businesses have been very supportive towards us and we’ve been lucky to work with great brands like Mermaid Gin and Rapanui’.

People are proud to be on the Isle of Wight and have what we have here