Two years ago, married public servants Cyril and Debbie Cox grew tired of the continual changes within the Australian Government and cast around for a bed and breakfast business, triggering an unexpected house swap.
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They were commuting from Yass at the time, Cyril going to the Attorney General's Department, Debbie going to the CSIRO. They had built what they called their forever home at Yass in 2010.
When they wanted a change, their real estate agent speculated Mayfield House, an 1857 sandstock home at Bowning, might make a suitable B&B.
Mayfield's owner, traditional antique upholsterer David Fraigneux had spent 40 years' in the village, landing lucrative jobs with senior government figures and third and fourth-generation graziers from the region, with furniture from homesteads built in the wool boom.
Mr Fraigneux and his wife Tina had immigrated from a village in Kent, England. "In those days you had to go where you were told you could go. So when I applied to go to Yass, the Department of Immigration said I could settle in Yass, but couldn't work in Yass, because there were two upholsterers there, and I could have put them out of business," Mr Fraigneux said.
A real estate agent suggested Bowning. "We had $200, over the next 30 years we turned over $20 million. It was great, I have always loved the village," he said.
About the time the Coxs were looking for a fresh start, the Fraigneuxs were too, having told their agent they needed a modern house with high ceilings and, importantly, a view of the landmark Bowning Hill, because of their love for the village.
The Coxs' home in Yass suited them to the ground, Mr Fraigneux said. "It was meant to be. I open the bedroom windows and I can see [the hill]. It's nice."
He says it was fortuitous someone of the same ilk as himself came along, interested in the historical side of Mayfield, which he and his wife had named after another village in England.
Converting Mayfield House into a B&B would have meant substantial structural changes, so the Coxs have taken a different approach. Mayfield House has been re-named Mayfield Mews, which includes the old stables and coach house, now converted into a garden centre, gift and coffee shops for travellers from Young, Cowra and the Riverina, en route to Canberra for medical appointments and professional services.
Mr Fraigneux's old shop, originally a grain shed, is leased to an antiques dealer. Once a quiet, empty part of a forgotten village, the shops hum with chatter these days. On the weekends people go looking for a spare seat and end up on bags of fertiliser or hay.
The Coxs want to make more of Mayfield's links to Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson, who they believe stayed with his aunt Phoebe Stear, wife of Richard Stear, who built the home.
A former policeman from the Northern Territory, Mr Cox says the change to be involved in village life has been seamless, and they enjoy not having to commute. "We have all this time, we don't have to get up at 5.30 in the morning and arrive home in the dark, we are home all the time. It is fantastic."
