Episode Details

Wendy Corr:

Well, hey there folks, welcome to The Roundup. We are a Cowboy State Daily podcast, and we focus on really interesting people here in the cowboy state.

And we have gotten so many comments and so much feedback from one particular story that reporter Renee Jean did about a medieval house that was built outside of Cheyenne, and we knew that we wanted to talk to the gentleman who built this house, who brought over the design for this house.

And so we decided that this was going to be one of our Roundup episodes. And I'm so pleased to introduce everybody to Cyning Meadowcroft. Cyning is here to share with us not just the story of the house, but the house itself. This is the magic of zoom, and this is the magic of all of this technology that we have, is that we can actually take a tour through this house. We get to meet his lovely wife, Christine, and talk about the daunting task of bringing to life an almost extinct style of building.

And so I'm going to start out by saying, hello. Cyning Meadowcroft, welcome to The Roundup. We're so glad you're here with us today.

Cyning Meadowcroft:

Thank you.

Wendy Corr:

Cyning, just really quickly start off with how you got to Wyoming. Because you were born, you're an Englishman. What brought you to Wyoming in the first place?

Cyning Meadowcroft:

Well, it's kind of odd, really. I was in New England in the mid 80s, and I was invited over by an aunt who lived in Salem, Massachusetts. And I was pretty enthralled with the enthusiasm of Americans who enjoy their history, especially in New England. And of course, I was very much interested in history too.

So I got involved very quickly in restoring and restoration of historical houses, buildings in Salem, Massachusetts, including their fences, which are very ornate. I started off in furniture making, so I was very much interested in this kind of woodwork.

And my ancestry is very much in that way too, my grandpa, My great grandpa and my great great grandpa. In fact, I have all their tools worn down as they may be, and so back in the mid 80s, something caught my eye, because property in England is just so outrageously expensive and highly restrictive to what you can do, that was then, let alone now.

And so I saw a tiny little article of land for sale in Wyoming. And yes, it might be titled under large acreage, but for $50 an acre was just insane. But, of course, that was back in the 80s, and I thought nothing more of it.

And so I went back to England and spent 10 years continuing where I left off in Salem, which is to get out of furniture, making so much, and go into restoring of buildings, houses, and whether it be a door, an addition or some fancy fence work.

And then from there, things got really bad in England regarding multiple situations, whether it be my marriage, the political situation in England, but mostly just the taxation and the restriction of what you can and cannot do over there. And so I said, If I ever came back to the US, I would choose the state, and for multiple reasons, I chose Wyoming, but something stuck out in my mind about that little ad back in the 80s, and it was just mind blowing.

So of course, I did all my research online, checking out the coasts, which were out out of the window for me, cost wise, I didn't want to live in the South because I had chronic health problems, which I didn't know at the time what they were about, but I knew it had to do with pollution being in and out London. It's very, very polluted.

In fact, the police officers in in Parliament Square can only spend two hours a day because of the fumes and in the traffic,

Wendy Corr: