In a desperate attempt to protect their ripening crop of nuts, they were dropping their leaves even by early August But the story wasn't about that at all. The newspaper headline caught my attention because I thought it was going to be about the beeches and other trees that suffered so appallingly over the long months of drought. As you walked in summer by the big stands of ancient beeches that are such an integral part of chalk landscapes, you could almost hear the trees panting. With autumn once again failing to provide a seasonal boost, the pattern looks set to continue until the end of the year. That would leave annual house moves at less than 1.2 million compared with around 1.6 million in the early 1980s.Who's movingA run of successful TV series and movies has allowed the actor Sean Bean to leave his double-fronted Edwardian house in Muswell Hill, north London, for a period property with a big garden a few miles out in Totteridge..

"Glorious summer leaves a SAD legacy". In the first eight months of 1995 there were just 786,000 transactions compared with 868,000 up to the end of August 1994. For what it's worth The number of people moving house has fallen this year by 10 per cent, with August producing the lowest figures since February 1993. The house has three reception rooms, six bedrooms and three bathrooms. It is for sale through John D Wood, London (0171- 493 4106), and Butler Sherborn in Burford (01993 822325) at a price of pounds 495,000.

The house sits in more than an acre of walled gardens, with an 18th-century gazebo, a swimming-pool and an orchard where peaches grow up the wall. Only the creeper on the front wall disturbs the symmetry of Sherborne House, a listed William and Mary property just a few minutes' walk from the centre of Lechlade. If they are not able to afford it in the area where they live, they will move to an area that is cheaper.". "I have three negotiators, all of whom lived within two miles of the office in Hampstead until they started families," he says. "Now one lives in Watford, one in Bushey and the other in Hampstead Garden Suburb People want a good environment for their children. He thinks couples looking to trade up will decide what kind of house they really want and move to a location where they can afford it. "We have consistently been able to make money out of housing," Mr Eve says.Neville Casingena believes the trading-up dilemma is a case of "where there's a will, there's a way".

They sold off the cottages for the same amount six years later and live in a house now worth at least pounds 250,000. A few years later they bought an old rectory in three acres for pounds 6,000 from the church.They sold the rectory for pounds 48,000 in 1978 and bought a six-bedroom house with five holiday cottages in the grounds for pounds 94,500. George and Belinda Eve, who live in Norfolk, bought their first house for pounds 2,750 in 1963. "We would both like the sort of house we were brought up in," says Patrick "It's a top priority, more important than cars or holidays. We'd rather buy the house and make everything else fit."To get that we are going to have to spend pounds 150,000 plus. The only way to get that is from me making enough money, or from our families, or from making a profit on our own flat - which I think is unlikely."His expectations are very different from those of his father, George, who is in the same profession of surveying. And they may well find their finances stretched to the limit just as they are having to drop from two incomes to one.Patrick and Sarah Eve, a newly married couple in their late twenties, acknowledge that they will have to make big sacrifices in order to have the home they want It is a big leap from their one-bedroom flat in London.