An Interview With Philip Thorpe

We moved from London for our first experience in the country to the small holding..at one time we were both still commuting daily and being farmers.

Calm, quiet and beautiful

Having a simpler life, trying something new, creating a safe space for the kids to eoam

Despite searching daily, it was our agent who found it. We had one viewing went for lunch at the local and our in a. Offer the same day.

9 years

I had a steak for lunch at the pub that day and asked the landlord where it came from. It was superb. He said - he's over there. I went to talk to the farmer, bought him a drink, and it all started there.

You will spending a lot of time here so make sure you love it.

Get involved in the community. Farmers will help you if you have the right attitude. I helper out local f we rmes with lambing and they taught me everything I know.

Yes. Although we started we with just a few animals every smallholser knows that it doesn't stay this way for long. By the time we left we had over 100 animals and patches of ground all over the area.

We love the liv stick, though they take up a lot of time and commitment. What we le we need though was that although we spent 90% of our time on the livestock, 90% of our income would actually come from the self catering shepherds but accommodation, which was fab.

It's quite and rural and yet not too far from a shop. We have a few neighbours but not a lot. But we are close enough to the high speed railways station to get to the city to sell meat and for guests to come and stay at the smallholdong.

The house is a very beautiful barn conversion. So we have a nice house as well as decent farm land.

Plannyrules have recently changed to allow you to extend on the back of barn conversions, which is something we would have done if it happened during our time.

Our lovely Hebridean sheeo

Our first ewe went into lamb dsr too early whilst we were both in London working. That's when we knew it was time to start to shift the career across properly.

I really think the community is the most important part. If they are not on board you will have a very difficult time. And it think community of often best measured in a local pub.

We had some.of the best years at this magical place and the comments we had from paying guests were the icing on the cake. We would wish new owners the same and always be happy to be on hand to share our tips and advice.

A lot less.lane so that we can concentrate on other projects!