The beautiful 100 year old furniture of the office of the solicitor Mr. Manuel Berjon Barrera has been donated by the Berjón family to the Shipping museum of the town hall of Terque.
Those English clients that purchased in Almería Province before 1980 will almos for certain have used the Almería solicitor Mr. Manuel Berjón Barrera known by everyone as Manolo Berjon to handle the purchase of their Spanish property. In those days he handled almost 100% of the conveyancing in the province with the notary Mr. Ramon Alonso witnessing all the title deeds. A little later another English speaking solicitor called Pepe Caparros started handling English speaking clients in the areas of Mojacar , Vera and Cortijo Grande. During those years the German Honorary consul Mr. Joaquín Prinxen based in Aguadulce (since retired) started to do a lot of conveyancing work using the notary D. Joaquín Rodriguez to witness the deeds.
Since then many solicitors have joined the show to help handle the avalanche of English clients purchasing in this beautiful province, but the merit of being the pionear has to be for my friend Manolo Berjón. During many years he was still considered the only real expert when complex inheritance convalidations where needed for English clients.
Those of you who where lucky to have dealt with him will remember his beautiful office on the Almería Hish Street (number 57) with the incredible paintings of ships and the fantastic 100 years old counter for dispensing the tickets for ships that departed to destinations all over the world. apart from all the other 100 year old furniture that was intact from the days when his office had been the most important shipping coassignee, exporter of grapes and place to buy tickets for any ship leaving the Almería harbour.
His office had previously belonged to his grandfather and then father who where the main shipping consignees for Almeria . They where the main exporters of grapes from Almería and the place to go if you wished to buy a ticket to America or almost anywhere else in the world.
He took over the office from his family :
By the time Manolo Berjon was ready to start work the export grapes from Almería had declined with our grapes no longer being in demand.
Manolo reinvented himself . He had trained as a solicitor and spoke perfect English as his father had sent him to work at the office the family shipping business had in London.
At the same time a very brave U.K. businessman decided to build the first complex for tourists (what is now Costacabana ) and the buyers needed an English Speaking solicitor so Manolo Berjon changed the sign on the door and he started a very long and successfully career as a solicitor .
When I needed to meet Manolo for business I used to love sitting in that waiting room full of Almería history while I waited to see him .
