New home is where the heart is for lonely Sarah Lancashire

AS dizzy barmaid Raquel Wolstenhulme in Coronation Street, she could only dream of owning a luxury home in the Cheshire stockbroker belt.

But Sarah Lancashire, 33, who now stars as a district nurse in the ITV series Where The Heart Is, has just paid pounds 250,000 to move into a new executive house in the upmarket village of Bowden.

Sarah sold the Lancashire house she had shared with husband Gary Hargreaves two months ago.

The couple split in November 1996...and blonde Sarah will be home alone with her two sons in the new house.

Two years after breaking up with radio producer Gary, her boys Thomas, nine, and Matthew, seven, are still the only men in her life.

She has swapped her former marital home in the industrial town of Oldham for the genteel Cheshire country life - and last week she drove with a friend to a nearby garden centre to stock up on shrubs and plants for her new garden.

Raquel's dolly bird image was nowhere to be seen as Sarah joined shoppers in a baggy blue cardigan and basketball boots.

Would-be model Raquel wouldn't have been seen dead going out like Sarah, with no make-up on and her hair unbrushed - but Sarah has confessed that one of the best things about quitting her role as Raquel is no longer having to wear her screen character's outlandish clothes.

The village where Sarah is making her new home is one of the most sought- after in the North of England and her former Coronation Street co-star Sally Whittaker (who plays Sally Webster) lives nearby. Bowden is also home to several Manchester United football stars.

Sarah fell in love with the prime corner spot on the new estate, which is on the edge of park land, after only one visit.

Two of Sarah's new neighbours said: "We have seen her driving her boys out and about but she keeps to herself.

"She doesn't play the big star. She doesn't drive a flashy car, she has a two-year-old Vauxhall Corsa and she doesn't dress like you would imagine a star to dress.

"She seems a fairly quiet person and if she wants to live a normal life she has chosen a good place because people here will respect her privacy. Sally Whittaker has a three-storey town house in the village and nobody bothers her at all."

Although Sarah has left The Street, her character Raquel has been very much in the soap's latest plot.

On screen Curly, played by Kevin Kennedy, was devastated when he received a letter from his runaway wife in Kuala Lumpur, asking him for a divorce because she had met someone else.

And Sarah hasn't ruled out a return to the soap one day, saying that the door has been left open for her to return.

Sarah's career since leaving Coronation Street has had its hits and misses.

She took the lead role opposite Casualty's Clive Mantle in the comedy Blooming Marvellous.

But it was roundly panned by the critics and she has no plans to make any more episodes.

She has fared better in Where The Heart Is alongside Pam Ferris.

But for the moment, Sarah's new home is definitely where her heart is.

Copyright 1998 MGN LTD
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