Memories

The following are recollections, memories, and history of El Cuarton that readers have sent me (admin@elcuarton.com).

"Just happened across your website and thought I would drop in, as one who owned an apartment in the "village" in the years 1971-1978 when I was living in London. Cuarton had only been founded a few years earlier, under the leadership of a wonderfully eccentric Englishman named Hugh Millais, whose family had a big house just down the road towards Algeciras. We spent summers and Easters there for several years; it was wonderful for our young daughters who could run wild like rabbits with all the other kids. The community, which had very few houses then, was dominated by delightfully off-beat people mainly English, but also a poly-glot mixture of other nationalities. One large house that we rented for a couple of seasons was owned by the late Nicholas Luard who wrote an excellent book about life in Andalusia, particularly Cuarton. His wife Elizabeth is still actively writing highly regarded international cook-books published in England. Another character was Michael Wigram, a very proper Englishman who fell in love with bull-fighting, divorced his wife, left England and settled in Madrid to be near the corridas. We often drove down to Tarifa -- in those days before wind-surfing it was a pretty simple undeveloped place where the constant wind actually drove people away. But it had a wonderful market. We also took great trips up the valley to Castellar de la Frontera etc. Never went to Gibraltar as the border was still closed. I now live in Nassau, Bahamas, but have fond memories of Cuarton and wonder how things are moving there."

-- Richard C (November 2006)