History

Home Farm Our guests always ask about Home Farm’s history.

It is still a working family farm that has been in Ian’s family for three generations, over the past 100 years.

In 1910, Ian’s great aunt Clara married Will Hart, a tenant farmer on the Hartham Estate, next to Biddestone. When the Estate was broken up, Will and Clara bought their farm and continued to work it. Clara’s nephew Paul – Ian’s father – spent a lot of time there, especially as a young boy.

Clara sadly passed away in 1966, and in her will she offered Paul first refusal to buy Home Farm – an opportunity which he took advantage of, such was his fondness for the farm.

Paul and his wife Christine together with their two children continued farming. After many happy years, Paul eventually left the estate to Ian.

Wedding 120Linda moved to Home Farm when she and Ian were married in 2004, as a farmers daughter she spent her childhood on a farm not far from Biddestone, but after gaining a degree in jewellery design she lived and worked in London for 20 years before returning to the countryside.

Linda has used her creative flair to renovate the farmhouse and transform the old outbuildings to new accommodation

Home Farm is now a beef farm, set in over 150 acres of pastureland. Soon to become organically certified, the cattle are Ruby Devon crosses – a native breed, prized for its good temperament, and ability to finish on grass, providing marbled, succulent beef.

Adjoining the farmhouse is the old malthouse. Last used in the 1920s, this is a building where grain was converted into malt by soaking it in water, allowing it to sprout and then drying it to stop further growth. The traditional malt house was largely phased out during the twentieth century in favour of more mechanised production. Linda and Ian would like to restore and preserve the malthouse in the future when time and funds permit!

Home Farm is grade II listed as well as the malthouse, there are a range of traditional Cotswold stone farm buildings including the old dairy, barn and the dovecote.