Our Story

We fell in love with Linnels Farm in 2011, seeing it through 'rose tinted spectacles' as a fabulous array of stunning buildings in a beautiful setting, whilst others saw the many holes in the roof and the years of hard labour ahead.

We have progressively renovated the buildings and now have a dedicated workshop and dining space for the varied calendar of ~50 courses we offer annually. 2017 saw Simon 'pretend to retire' whilst really undertaking the conversion, single-handedly, of the large barn to provide 2 contemporary holiday lets.

Our hope is that we have renovated an old and lovely farm to provide a tranquil location to learn or to come to and have a relaxing holiday. The renovation has certainly been a labour of love with ~70% of the work undertaken by ourselves; there were times when the enormity of the work did become a weight on our shoulders - it can be hard to maintain' the vision' when you have so much to do. Our love of the old buildings is real, as is the challenge of renovating them. The photographs are a reminder for us, and it's nice to look back 'down the hill you climbed'; but equally remember that the buildings original use was a farm and their new use now is quite different.

We as a family own and operate what you will see on this website; this is our life now and we hope that you will enjoy sharing it with us.
Simon, Karen & family.

Seasons

Over time we have added a few animals too - largely thanks to our son (aided and abetted by Simon!) who has loads of great ideas in this area, all of them entailing acquiring animals and shortly afterwards waving goodbye to us as he goes off on his own way; our daughter will also offer her support, usually after a few drinks and then also wave goodbye - seems a theme!

If you want fresh eggs economically then go to the shop; if you want the occasional fresh egg from loads of chickens and ducks, we have up to 20 in total (fox depending!), then share our business model: it's not about eggs, it’s about the fab sight and sounds of them. We have garrulous geese who'll will try all the tulip flowers, discarding each in turn, as they EAT EVERYTHING! For our sanity, and yours, the geese are the other side of a fence in a large field with two ponds (that Simon dug one Christmas); for many reasons we put them there, not least to reduce the use of the poop scoop. We also have four beehives in the front field, they are such important insects, the foundation of life itself - and they make very tasty honey from the tulip pollen.