A couple who say they lost millions, including their mansion home in the Brecon Beacons, because of a row over planning permission have spoken out about their fight to rebuild their lives.
Chris and Geraint Thomas lost everything in a bitter planning dispute over a caravan park they built legally at their farm in Talybont-on-Usk.
After being reduced to living in a static caravan in west Wales, the family are now embarking on a new venture - The Moody Cow farm shop and bistro near Aberaeron.
Mrs Thomas said the couple even had to to sell their beds because of legal fees from their lengthy court battles.
The family ended up living in a caravan, and Mrs Thomas said she contemplated ending her own life.
She admits she had become "out of touch" living a life of luxury with top of the range cars and her own housekeeper but has changed forever after having to clean homes to put food on the table.
Now she has her pinny on again, but it's at her new venture.
"When we farmed in Brecon we had 1,000 cattle and a 28-room mansion. When we came here we ended up in a caravan," she said
The couple bought Gilestone Farm in the Brecon Beacons in 2000 and renovated the manor house and the farm.
She said: "Geraint had 5,000 pigs and then the pig industry fell apart so we turned to cattle and had 1,000 cattle there. In 2005, we applied for planning for a tent and caravan park.
"That was granted but, years out of time, a group of people complained and said they wanted a judicial review which was granted."
When their planning dispute got to the high court in 2009, the court was told the plans were "from start to finish a fabrication - a tissue of lies by the barrister representing the Usk Valley Conservation Group.
The Brecon Beacons National Park Authority agreed planning permission for 50 caravans and 50 tents but the Usk Valley Conservation Group, made up of members of the local community, asked the High Court to review the decision to grant the application and the subsequent failure of the authority to close the caravan park.
In 2010, a judge quashed the planning permission they had been granted - blaming "many errors" of the national park authority - and the Thomas say they lost everything.
Chris said: "We had borrowed an awful lot of money to built it and invest in it.
"The shower and toilet block was only built in 2009 and that cost £350,000. There was a massive investment.
"My husband's family had farmed in Brecon for 1,000 years. They helped build the cathedral and build the chuches.
"They were a good historic family. We have a son and five daughters and we thought our son would be following it on. It's heartbreaking because it was such an injustice.
"What happened at Gilestone was outrageous.
"The farm had to go on the market straight away because all our other sources of income had gone. We put everything into that caravan park.
"What happened to us, happened, and it can't unhappen."
She says she spent the next two years writing 2,000 letters to anyone she thought could help.
"You can live without money but you can't live with injustice. It keeps you awake a night".
But still, she wanted to continue to fight for Gilestone.
The couple took legal advice and were advised not to take on the national park but their legal team.
"We lost millions but it wasn't so much about compensation but justice."
So they went back to court in 2015 a bid to get £100,000 compensation against their barrister who they claimed had given them "negligent" advice.
"We came home, licked our wounds and sold 80 acres of land and we decided to start again."
The couple, who have five children, had moved into a static caravan at an Aberaeron caravan park with their three youngest children, Henry, then nine, Olivia, then four, and Hettie, then aged 16.
The farm they bought was "run down" and Chris says it was her way of starting again.
Their caravan park opened at Easter 2017, followed by the shop and bistro.
"We had planning permission for a farm shop, bistro and small caravan park we had to put all our efforts into that."
The Moody Cow opened in March 2018, and after what she admits were opening hiccups.
"I want to agricultural college, not catering college" says Chris, but they are now selling everything from snacks, food items made from beef from their own farm.
Between full and part time roles they employ 35 people.
Chris said: "What happened to us made me very sad and has humbled me. The reason I was in Gilestone isn't who I am now.
"We had a new Range Rover every Christmas, all of it. Although I was born in the Valleys I had probably lost touch with reality.
"Now at our age, I'm 53 and Geraint is 56, we have had to borrow money to do this again but you do it for your family and other peoples families as well.
"Ceredigion is the most beautiful place and a place where a lot of young people move away because there isn't the jobs. What we're doing may only be a drop in the ocean but it's something.
"Am I bitter? No I am not. In fact, I can almost say I am quite grateful because I have learned the hard way. I have learned a valuable lesson in life.
"I cannot believe the change in our lives. I thought my life wasn't worth living at one point and that's an awful thing to say but it shocked me I could feel like that.
"I started cleaning houses in Aberaeron. I would do whatever I could just to put food on the table. I used to have a housekeeper and I went to scrubbing houses and I ended up with friends sitting with me because I wanted to end my life."
The first part of the project was to build the caravan park at Bargoed Farm but to make it sustainable outside the main tourist season they have 13 private hot tubs.
"Obviously, when we were farming in Brecon we were by the A40, the main artery road but in Ceredigion, it's very undiscovered. We have got to prolong tourism by encouraging a different kind of market and what's going to encourage people to drive this way."
The question "everyone" asks is where the name is from.
It was inspired by another farm shop, the Moody Sow at Cefn Mably. She wanted something "cheeky" which got across their links to cattle - both the animals and Chris' "pets" the Highland Cows.
"When people ring and say 'Is that the Moody Cow' I say 'Yes I am' because, I can be," she laughed.
They have expansion plans, including weddings and have a space for the community.
"I want people to leave feeling like they've been at their granny's for tea.
"Everything is handmade here. We buy the ingredients but the rest is us."
Despite all that, Gilestone is still part of her thoughts.
"It was the worst time of our lives.
"It's really hard now to sleep when you're living with injustice. I can live with anything but injustice is something that's atrocious, I still feel it's there.
"As a mum of five and a Christian I have never been dishonest so for what happened to us to happen, all these years later I still think about that.
"I hope one day someone will look at all the paperwork and do something about it but at this moment in time we have got our heads down and we're working really hard and hoping we can encourage others."
