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Lecturer's fight over farm takes new twist
A LEEDS University lecturer's battle to claim back her parents' will from the RSPCA has taken a new twist.
Dr Christine Gill's parents John and Joyce Gill, left their North Yorkshire farm to the RSPCA, after writing their only daughter out of their will.
But the farm has now gone on sale for over 1.25m – one week before the deadline to contest the will runs out.
Dr Gill, 57, was unaware that her parents' estate, Potto Carr Farm, was on the market until she saw it advertised in a newspaper.
"When I first heard about the sale, I dreaded telling my 10-year-old son Christopher.He burst into tears when he found out,"said Dr Gill, whose husband Andrew Baczkowski, is a lecturer in statistics at Leeds University.
Dr Gill, who cared for her parents in their old age, worked on the farm for more than 40 years. They always had a good relationship.
Her mother died a year ago aged 82 and her father in 1999, also aged 82.
Dr Gill still lives next door to the farm and went part-time to care for her parents as their health declined.
She is still considering taking the RSPCA to court, but is now prepared to negotiate. The deadline to contest the will runs out on October 15.
She said she could not understand why her parents left their 1.5 million estate, which included 200,000 of savings, to the animal charity.
Dr Gill said: "They never supported any charity; the only payment they ever made was in 1983, when they donated 20 to the parish fund. They never supported the RSPCA and my mother criticised them quite a lot after my father died.
"She described them as being 'a bunch of townies who didn't know anything about the countryside'."
Savills rural agency is administering the sale of the 287-acre site, near Potto, Northallerton, on the edge of the North York Moors.
The farmhouse contents, including antiques, family photos and even a teddy bear Dr Gill made for her mother were auctioned off at a house clearance sale on September 28.
Dr Gill said: "Absolutely everything was sold, right up to gifts that I had made for my mother and things I had inherited from their parents."
A modern grandfather clock went for 125 although her parents had paid about 3,000 for it, she said.
"My family history was sold for about 1,500. I am just so frustrated at the attitude of the RSPCA. I've tried for a year, offering to negotiate, but they just ignore me.
"Once the farm is sold, if a settlement is reached afterwards, it will be too late then for me to purchase my land back."
An RSPCA spokesperson said they were in "regular contact" with Dr Gill's solicitors and had "already suggested a way of settling the matter".
The spokesperson said: "Charity law means we are restricted in what we can do in this kind of situation.
"We certainly don't want to prolong this and we hope and expect this can be resolved without the need for legal proceedings."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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