They famously told the world they were homeless, yet this is the rural French property owned by controversial Salt Path couple ‘Raynor Winn’ and her husband ‘Moth’, MailOnline can reveal.
The couple – whose real names have now been revealed as Tim and Sally Walker – bought a ramshackle stone farmhouse near Bordeaux in 2007, with the intention of refurbishing it, along with its next-door neighbour, a pigeon tower already owned by Tim’s younger brother Martyn.
But these days both properties are deserted, overgrown and occupied only by those pigeons, in the tiny hamlet of Le Village du Dropt, surrounded by maize fields and vineyards in the lush valley of the Garonne river.
Meanwhile, Sally Walker, 62, is furiously defending herself and her husband against a catalogue of charges of misleading the millions of fans who bought her soul-searching blockbuster, The Salt Path, which in turn spawned two sequels and this Summer’s hit movie starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs.
Last week, The Observer claimed that far from falling victim to a bad investment as the book claimed, the reason Raynor lost her house in the Welsh countryside was that she embezzled £64,000 from her employer, the Hemmings family.
She avoided criminal charges by paying back the money in a settlement, the newspaper reported.
The report also uncovered evidence of their ownership of a house in France at the time they claimed to be homeless.
Controversial Salt Path couple ‘Raynor Winn’ and her husband ‘Moth’ bought a ramshackle stone farmhouse near Bordeaux in 2007, with the intention of refurbishing it
The Observer reported that the couple – whose real names have now been revealed as Tim and Sally Walker – still owned the property during a time when they said they were homeless
Following an investigation into their backgrounds, The Observer said that The Salt Path’s protagonists, Raynor Winn (right) and her husband, Moth Winn (left), could have misled fans
Just as disturbing was the suggestion from nine neurologists and researchers that they were sceptical that Tim could have survived for so many years with the rare and fatal neurological condition, corticobasal degeneration (CBD), which affects movement, speech and memory.
But long before their live took such wildly differing paths, this poignant photograph taken 21 years ago by one of the Walker brothers’ few neighbours in Dropt, Mme Nathalie Duparant, 74, shows them and their families at what can now be seen as a watershed moment.
It was 2004, and tile-fitter Martyn, now 63, and his 59-year-old wife Carole had already quit the rat race in Burton-on-Trent to move to Lot-et-Garonne with their six children to live a simpler life.
Tim and Sally and their own two children, on a visit to see their in-laws, camped in the grounds of the property and subsequently decided to invest in the next-door house, at the cost of a few thousand Euros, given its dilapidated state.
According to sources, the side-by-side refurbishment project was intended to be a chance for the brothers, born just over a year apart, to bond with each other and their respective families.
But things didn’t turn out that way.
While Martyn and Carole decided to invest in a rambling 16th century chateau about 40 minutes’ drive away, Tim and Sally returned to their life in Wales and barely returned to France at all.
‘It was very sad that they only came back once and camped in the ground,’ recalled Mme Duparant, speaking in the grounds of her rural house above the din of her geese, chickens and a brace of turkeys.
The Winns with Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, the stars of the recent film adaptation – it has been claimed that the couple may have made millions from the book and movie
Neighbour Mme Nathalie Duparant, 74, took a picture 21 years ago of the couple and their family refurbishing the French building
According to sources, the side-by-side refurbishment project was intended to be a chance for Tim Walker and his brother, born just over a year apart, to bond with each other and their respective families
Today, the property is deserted, overgrown and occupied by pigeons, in the tiny hamlet of Le Village du Dropt, surrounded by maize fields and vineyards in the lush valley of the Garonne river
Now, fighting our way past the 6ft high thorns, weeds and ivy surrounding the French property, it’s clear that the robust stonework dating back hundreds of years, looks sturdy enough
But the same cannot be said of the oak beams, rotting because of the completely absent roof
‘Both the pigeon tower and the house next door are potentially beautiful buildings and have stood for centuries, and it would have been lovely to see them restored to their former glory,’ she added.
‘But Sally and Tim didn’t seem to have the same enthusiasm as Martyn and Carole, and as the two properties are side by side, it’s not worth improving one if the other is still a wreck.’
Mme Duparant said she was ‘shocked’ to hear the allegations against Sally Walker and had never read the book nor seen the film.
‘I had no idea they were so famous,’ she told MailOnline. ‘I cannot believe what they are being accused of, it all seems so unlikely.’
Dropt’s only previous brush with fame was because it was also the home of the late esteemed French novelist Marguerite Duras.
Her erotic novel of forbidden love in 1920s Saigon, L’Amant (The Lover) was turned into a major film of the same name and caused a scandal in Britain and elsewhere when it was released in 1992 because of its unusually graphic portrayal of sexual violence.
The house which Sally and Tim bought for a few thousand Euros in 2007, has long been uninhabited, but would certainly have given them enough land to pitch a tent when they lost their home to the bailiffs in 2013 and began their epic 630-mile walk around the South West Coast Path, nicknamed the Salt Path.
Now, fighting our way past the 6ft high thorns, weeds and ivy surrounding the French property, it’s clear that the robust stonework dating back hundreds of years, looks sturdy enough, but the same cannot be said of the oak beams, rotting because of the completely absent roof.
At some point, someone has attempted to build an inner structure with modern bricks inside the old stone walls but they didn’t get that far
Old beams and broken pieces of furniture are left to rot in the old French property despite initial efforts
The house which Sally and Tim bought for a few thousand Euros in 2007, has long been uninhabited, but would certainly have given them enough land to pitch a tent when they lost their home to the bailiffs in 2013
The couple intended to refurbish the property, along with its next-door neighbour, a pigeon tower already owned by Tim’s younger brother Martyn
‘Both the pigeon tower and the house next door are potentially beautiful buildings and have stood for centuries, and it would have been lovely to see them restored to their former glory,’ Mme Duparant said
At some point, someone has attempted to build an inner structure with modern bricks inside the old stone walls but they didn’t get that far. A particularly precarious-looking beam appeared to be supported only by a single steel ‘acro-prop’ and we decided to beat a hasty retreat.
The empty property now has a British next-door neighbour, chef Sean Morley, from Bristol, who grew up in both Britain and France, and is restoring his own converted barn.
‘You can see the potential of both the house and the pigeon tower,’ said Sean. ‘These buildings probably go back to the Middle Ages in some form or other, but it needs someone to spend a proper amount of money restoring all that original brickwork and the oak beams.
‘In England, someone would already have done that, but here, it’s just as likely some French farmer will knock down the lot and build something in its place.’
According to the Mayor of the nearby town of Pardaillan, Serge Cadiot, whose bailiwick includes Le Village Du Dropt, the local taxes on the house haven’t been paid ‘for years’ – an accusation which Sally Walker rejected in her statement this week.
But M. Cadiot was adamant that the taxes remained unpaid, though was unable to specify exactly how much was outstanding when MailOnline spoke to him at his home.
‘The taxes haven’t been paid for a long time, but we keep sending the letters. The place isn’t worth much, but there’s not much we can do if the owner lives abroad.
‘We did send a letter to his brother, but that came back unopened,’ he said.
‘These buildings probably go back to the Middle Ages in some form or other, but it needs someone to spend a proper amount of money restoring all that original brickwork and the oak beams,’ another neighbour said
According to the Mayor of the nearby town, the local taxes on the house haven’t been paid ‘for years’ – an accusation which Sally Walker rejected in her statement this week
Shortly after the Walkers bought their property in Dropt, according to widow Ros Hemmings, whose late estate agent husband Martin employed Sally Walker at their firm in Pwllheli, north Wales, money began to go missing from the company.
Bookkeeper Ms Walker was eventually accused of ‘embezzling’ £64,000 from the firm.
Ms Hemmings said that one day in 2008 Martin looked at the company bank balance and realised that Walker had failed to deposit a large sum of cash.
A loan was then allegedly taken out to avoid prosecution and when this was not paid their home in Wales was sold, it has been claimed.
Tim Walker has been living with an illness for 18 years with no apparent visible symptoms that medical experts claim would require round-the-clock care within 12 years.
The claims in The Observer prompted a medical charity supporting victims of the disease to cut ties with the Walkers.
Earlier this week, Sally Walker issued a long defence to the accusations contained in The Observer article which they branded ‘highly misleading’.
She posted NHS clinic letters on Instagram addressed to Timothy Walker, which she said showed that ‘he is treated for CBD/S and has been for many years’.
Old trainers and wellies were found discarded in the detritus of the ramshackle house
Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs in the film adaptation of The Salt Path, released in May, based on the Walkers’ epic 630-mile walk around the South West Coast Path
Raynor Winn at home in Cornwall – she has become a huge success since her book’s release, including releasing two more books
She wrote: ‘The last few days have been some of the hardest of my life. Heart breaking accusations that Moth has made up his illness have been made, leaving us devastated.’
In a statement on her website, she said that the article was ‘grotesquely unfair, highly misleading and seeks to systematically pick apart my life’.
She added: ‘The Salt Path is about what happened to Moth and me, after we lost our home and found ourselves homeless on the headlands of the south west.
‘It’s not about every event or moment in our lives, but rather about a capsule of time when our lives moved from a place of complete despair to a place of hope.
‘The journey held within those pages is one of salt and weather, of pain and possibility. And I can’t allow any more doubt to be cast on the validity of those memories, or the joy they have given so many.’
In The Salt Path, the couple lose their house due to a bad business investment.
But The Observer reported that the couple, lost their home after an accusation that Winn had stolen thousands of pounds from her employer.
It also said that it had spoken to medical experts who were sceptical about Moth having CBD, given his lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them.
The Winns at a gala screening of The Salt Path film in Newquay, Cornwall, earlier this year
Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs in the film adaptation of The Salt Path, released in May
Publishing house Penguin said it ‘undertook all the necessary pre-publication due diligence’, including a contract with an author warranty about factual accuracy, and a legal read.
It added: ‘Prior to the Observer enquiry, we had not received any concerns about the book’s content.’
A Hemmings family source this week told MailOnline that: ‘He [Martin Hemmings] felt he’d been ripped off by her which he was.
‘Ros is still really angry with her as she’s knows how devastated Martin was by it all.
‘He felt really let down by it all. It was a real messy situation.’
Tim Walker’s brother Martyn and his wife Carole, approached by MailOnline at their magnificent chateau not far from Dropt, declined to comment.
