WHEN Sue Edwards needs to pop out for a pint of milk, she faces a mammoth hike or a treacherous drive to the nearest shop.
The 49-year-old lives in Britain’s most remote home, with dog Jura for company and hardly any electricity, let alone loads of tech.
She holds the keys to Skiddaw House, 1,550ft up in the heart of the Lake District.
It is 3.5 miles from the nearest road and, if she must drive, it has to be by 4×4 — and only when the weather hasn’t made the land impassable.
The hostel is completely off-grid, using solar panels to generate its electricity and a nearby spring for its drinking water.
Sue, who has never heard of Love Island, has been living and running a hostel there for the past two and a half years, with just 10mb of wifi data a month.
“I’m watching the TV series 24 on DVD at the moment,” she tells me over a campfire outside.
“I don’t have enough data for Netflix.
“But it suits me.
“I love being away from technology.
“I do have WhatsApp and the ability to digitally communicate, although people will send me a little gif or video, and I’ll be like, ‘Please stop! It’s pulling at my internet’.”
Sue opens Skiddaw House as a hostel every weekend in the summer, and uses her day off each Tuesday to stock up on the week’s groceries.
While most cars aren’t able to get anywhere near the house, Sue has had her vehicle installed with “grabbers”, special tyres that can cope with mud, snow and sand.
But with a long, steep and rocky 50-minute drive down the hill to her nearest Aldi in Cockermouth, it is a full-on expedition to go out for essentials.
She says: “In the beginning, there would be times when I got home and realised I’d forgotten bin bags or something, but I’ve got the shop down to a fine art now.”
Despite her low mileage, Sue’s car has still had three punctures in almost three years — and getting help is difficult as her nearest neighbours at Dash Farm are a 25-minute drive away and mobile phone reception is patchy.
She says: “Honestly, it’s a real pain in the a**e, especially if it happens on the other side of the gates.
“There’s no signal there, so then I have to run back up here to get a signal, or run to the Dash.
“Then it’s the mechanic who looks after the generators, Dave, who’ll come and look at it.
“I’ve tried to do it myself and I can’t even get the wheel nuts off.”
Sue grew up in Lincolnshire, as the daughter of a farmer, but never wanted to follow in his footsteps.
“Ironically, I remember at 14 or 15, deciding it was too lonely a life,” she says with a laugh.
After three years as a PE teacher in Slough, Sue made her way into working in hostels, and was based at one in Portishead, Somerset, when Skiddaw House fell into her lap.
The previous wardens had a baby, and their lease was coming to an end, so they advertised on social media, and Sue responded.
She says: “I was in a place where I thought, ‘I’d love to come up the hill’.”
Her only concern was whether she would be able to manage everything on her own.
It’s taken quite a while to realise that I quite enjoy the location.
Sue Edwards
She explains: “I wasn’t worried about living on my own.
“It’s just you sometimes need to go and get a contractor.
“Can one person do it all?
“But the former couple ran it for six years together, and they both said they’d do it again on their own.
“So that was enough for me.
“I love it.
“I mean, I just love it.
“It’s a privilege.”
Skiddaw House was built around 1829 as a keeper’s lodge and grouse shooting base for George Wyndham, the third Earl of Egremont.
The building was originally divided into two dwellings — one for the gamekeeper and his family and the other for a shepherd’s family.
This joint use continued until 1957 when the Leconfield Estate was broken up and Skiddaw House, with its associated grazing lands, was sold to a local farmer.
The two resident families left, but a shepherd, Pearson Dalton, stayed on to work for the farmer.
For 12 years he lived in the house, with only his goats, cat and five dogs as company.
And, while Sue says she could not do what Pearson did, “as appealing as it sounds to live like a hermit,” she insists she never gets lonely.
She says: “It’s actually really nice.
“In the middle of the day, I usually get time off, and I can go for a jog, or if it’s a wet day, read, and then I’m back on at 5pm to open up and welcome guests.
“It’s taken quite a while to realise that I quite enjoy the location.
“I love the purpose of it, of living up here and having a remote place to live, and there are always guests.”
When the winter draws in, Sue closes the hostel, leaving the property available for private hire.
With Jura in tow, Sue heads over to York, where she has her own place.
She spends her time off seeing friends for coffee, but really wants to just catch up on the Netflix shows she has not been able to see.
But on-demand TV isn’t enough to get Sue down from the hill just yet.
She adds: “I’ve got two and a half years left on my lease, and maybe at the end of that, I’ll be thinking, ‘You know what? I just want to go somewhere and get a cheesecake down the road, or have more contact.
“Maybe in ten years’ time, with a midlife crisis, I’ll let you know.
“For now, I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.”
WEST BROM’S clash with Middlesbrough was suspended for seven minutes as referee Rob Smith was taken away on a stretcher.
He received treatment while sat on the pitch as medics from both clubs tended to him.
He left via the nearest tunnel which leads not to the dressing rooms but outside the ground where the ambulances are usually on standby.
SunSport understands an ambulance was waiting for Smith to take him away.
The fourth official took over as his replacement, while a man from the stands came down to assume the role on the touchline.
THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY..
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BIG Brother hosts Will Best and AJ Odudu said producers have “raised the bar” on this series’ challenges.
Last year’s reboot on ITV proved a big hit with fans, and the trailer for the second installment promises a return to the social experiment’s roots.
TV favourite Will, 39, admitted that the tasks have “gone up a notch”, with even bigger and better trials lined-up this series.
Will told The Sun: “I’m excited about the tasks, I think the tasks this year, maybe some learning – not learning as that makes it sound like there were things that could have been better – as the tasks were phenomenal last series.
“But I’ve been speaking to a few members of the team and I think they’ve raised the bar even further this series.
“I think the tasks have been taken up a notch.”
Will and co-host AJ Odudu have also revealed which iconic task they want to return this series.
AJ said: “Big Wigs for me, I thought it was so funny the hierarchy and everyone dressed ridiculously. That was very amusing.”
While Will admitted he is hoping the tasks will create more “conflict” among the housemates.
He told us: “In previous series, I liked some of the simple ones. I liked it when they sat in boxes and they just had to sit in a box.
“The simplicity of that but it worked really well. I liked Ignore the Obvious, when they were bringing external things into the house and they had to ignore it.
“And ones that helped generate a bit of conflict, that were challenging and played with the dynamics in the house, as well as being visually amusing.”
It comes after the hosts revealed their famous pals have been begging them for places in the next series.
There’s been no shortage of applications for series two with Will claiming the figure is in the “tens of thousands”.
Both hosts admitted to having fielded requests from well-known pals but refused to divulge their names.
AJ said: “I’ve definitely had a few, but I won’t name any names.”
Will said: “There is one person, but I can’t say who. But they would be amazing.”
He said to his co-presenter: “You know this person as well AJ, I’ll tell you later.”
The programme has well and truly found its feet after the civilian reboot and its celebrity counterpart, which was won by David Potts earlier this year.
The new series’ return date has officially been revealed by ITV – and it’s just days away.
AJ and Will will host the live launch on Sunday, October 6th on ITV2 and ITVX.
It marks a change from last year’s civilian Big Brother launch, which was completely pre-recorded.
Will shared his excitement ahead of the launch, saying: “Will said: “It’s meeting the new housemates, I think the casting in the last series was so spot on.
“We had a bit of everything it was a great mix of people. We all fell in love with our own person.
“They gave us a lovely mix of drama and all got on at the right times. It was brilliant.
“Meeting the new housemates and seeing if they will be as good as the last ones and seeing what unique flavour they’re going to bring. Every series of Big Brother has such a unique feel because the nature of the show and the nature of the social experiment just means that the alchemy of those 15 or 16, it’s their interactions together.
“One of the interesting things, is as the series goes on, speaking to the casting team and senior producers to hear if the people in there are behaving as they thought they would or showing different sides to themselves.
“I can’t wait to see what mix they’ve got and also working with AJ.”
While AJ said: “It’s always exciting to be back with Will and to see the housemates and to actually get all dressed up.
“I think it’s the perfect show to watch in the lead up to Christmas. By the time it finishes we’re all excited for the festive season. There’s so much to look forward to.”
