When I was young I remember my parents struggling to scrape up enough money to buy the house they were renting; I think it cost around £600. It was a modest terraced house with 3 bedrooms overlooking a bus-stop on a rather shabby street: not much, perhaps, but it was theirs and they were pleased to call it their own.

Here we have the Rev. David Matthews – a pseudonym for Obadiah Demurral, perhaps – who is turning up his nose at what appears to be a rather charming 4 bedroom house – which he doesn’t have to pay for! How times have changed. From the Telegraph:

A country vicar has refused to move to a new parish because the four-bedroom home he was offered with the job was ‘not big enough’.

Rev David Matthews was all set to take up his new role as a team vicar in Suffok – only to lay eyes on the £275,000 home that came with the new posting, and declare that it was too small.

He announced that he was staying where he was, leaving a diocese scrambling around for a new team vicar and his would-be new parishioners bemused.

Rev Matthews is currently rector in the Box River parishes of five villages near Sudbury, Suffolk.

He was offered and accepted the role of team vicar with the Wilford Peninsula, based at the house 40 miles away in Hollesley. The Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich said it provided him with full details of the house that came with it, which also boasts a study, two bathrooms and a large conservatory.

But Rev Matthews said he didn’t actually see the house until just before he was due to move in, and declared it unsuitable.