Surveying for fresh business opportunity
Aug 10 2009 by Karen Dent, The Journal
“Instead of diversification, I tell them to look at complementary uses.”
Alternative energy generation is another issue that interests Coulson and he says more and more people are asking for advice about anaerobic digestion – using farm waste to make power.
“It produces heat, it produces electricity – and you also have the digestive at the end that is a fertiliser. It’s been tried and tested in Europe, and they know it works,” he says.
“I’m not in an extreme environmentalist but I do care about the environment. I think there’s got to be a lot of give and take.
“You’ve got to think outside the box and a lot of the green people don’t do that – they think inwardly and they don’t see other people’s point of view.”
He likens this inability to see each other’s point to the Newcastle-Sunderland divide over football. Football is one of his passions and he’s firmly on the red and white side.
“I used to travel all over the country, and I actually tried to do all 92 league grounds,” he said.
“I’ve done all the South Coast ones – I actually drove to Exeter and back in a day to watch Sunderland – I went down with my father. We set off at five in the morning and got back at three the next morning.
“I would still like to go but it was such a time commitment. I think as you get older, you realise there are other things to do in life.”
As well as his father, his former boss Peter Addison, who taught him the art of auctioneering, was also a huge influence.
“I wasn’t in the same office as Peter but he asked me to go to Morpeth with him on a Saturday. He took me through my training and he gave me my first chance at auctioneering,” remembers Coulson.
“I’d just sat down and eaten Yorkshire puddings and roast beef at the farmer’s farm and suddenly Peter said: ‘Right lad, you can sell the first two rows.’
“And of course I’d had this great big dinner and my stomach was full, but I did the first two rows without any warning at all.
“But I think that was a good influence because he just put me in there and he was by my side to keep me right. It’s the only way to learn.”
Addison was the president of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers, of which Coulson is also a member, but he is probably better known for speaking on behalf of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
He’s a past chairman, secretary and treasurer for the RICS rural practice division in Northumberland and Durham Branch, past Northumberland and Durham secretary and has recently been appointed as chairman of the RICS regional board for the North East.
“When I qualified, the younger people were always encouraged to join the local branch,” he said.
“You do learn things from colleagues and networking. For example, I had a property with a pitfall underneath it, and it needed valued and I was looking for comparables.
“I asked some valuers in Cornwall how they dealt with the tin mines with pitfalls and subsidence. It does make life a lot easier when you network.”
Although he travels widely for work and pleasure, Coulson says Weardale is where his heart is. It’s where his children and two grandchildren live too.
“Living in Wolsingham – we’re only 60 miles off the Scottish border, we’re 30 minutes from Newcastle, you’ve got access to the airport, you can be in London in three hours on the train. It’s quite easy to travel to,” he says.
But he admits he and a friend used to fantasise about working as cowboys in the Wild West.
“We always dreamed about going out to America because I like horse riding and I always wanted to go and work on a ranch for a couple of years.”
He may not have fulfilled that ambition but Coulson managed to ride through some stunning scenery when he and wife Angela visited the Grand Canyon to mark his 50th birthday.
“We got a helicopter ride into the Grand Canyon and we had a champagne picnic. We were going horse riding afterwards and it was so hot we had to go in the morning so at 6 o’clock we had breakfast and we were saddled up and riding in the Red Rock Canyon,” he says.
“It was absolutely wonderful.”
I do care about the environment. I think there’s got to be a lot of give and take
When you are born on a farm, it does give you a good grounding. I think farming is similar to my job
Questionnaire
What car do you drive?
Renault Laguna.
What’s your favourite restaurant?
Signor Grilli’s Italian in Googe Street, London.
Who or what makes you laugh?
Les Dawson was my favourite comedian, and then Ronnie Barker.
What’s your favourite book?
Chris Ryan’s The One That Got Away.
What was the last album you bought?
Rejoice by Katherine Jenkins.
What’s your ideal job, other than the one you’ve got?
Working on a cattle ranch in Western America.
If you had a talking parrot, what would you teach it to say?
Ciao Bella.
What’s your greatest fear?
Snakes.
What’s the best piece of business advice you have ever received?
If in doubt, don’t do it.
And the worst?
Buy it!
What’s your poison?
Micro-brewed real ales.
What newspapers do you read, other than The Journal?
Are there any others?
How much was your first pay packet and what was it for?
£5 per week, working on the family farm.
How do you keep fit?
Played as a goalkeeper for Durham City Strollers in the over-40s league until 51, and now, swimming.
What’s your most irritating habit?
Because I am an auctioneer, I sometimes don’t stop talking.
What’s your biggest extravagance?
My wife.
Which historical or fictional character do you most identify with?
John Wayne, as I always wanted to ride on a cattle ranch in Arizona.
Which four famous people would you most like to dine with?
Katherine Jenkins, Clint Eastwood, Gaby Roslin, Jimmy Montgomery.
How would you like to be remembered?
As someone who always put my family first.
CV
1960 to 1973 Wolsingham Primary School and Wolsingham Secondary School.
1973 to 1974 S Addison & Son as assistant to partner TA Broadley.
1974 to 1977 Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, Gloucestershire. Diploma in Rural Estate Management.
1974 to 1984 S Addison & Son as assistant to partner TA Broadley (later renamed Addison Hudson).
1984 to Date Partnership with Mr Broadley and took over the Crook office, which was renamed Broadley & Coulson in 1984.
1997 Senior partner when Mr Broadley semi retired.
2001 took over Joseph Valks in Bishop Auckland.
Professional memberships:
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and Central Association of Agricultural Valuers.
