How CHB came to be

Part Two 

Following the success of The Cowshed (and my reluctance to return to teaching full time!) we found that we actually quite liked hosting visitors. We loved helping guests explore our region and the people who stayed were so appreciative and respectful (in the main, but more on that in a future instalment!). As my waistband expanded with all the baking, I needed another physical project so we turned our attention to The Pigsty. 

When we moved in the 10,000 piglets were long gone, but the space was a double garage housing a tractor and was also where the many pheasants were hung and plucked. We were often gifted a ‘brace’ by the previous owners and I then had to brace myself to pluck, cook and eat them!

On a very tight budget we had turned it into a huge but very functional space as a playroom for the children with a ping pong table and an office for Tim who had started his own cyber security company. Quite why we thought a combination of those functions would work, I don’t know! Tim barely sat at his desk and if he did there was a constant ping-ponging next door. There were a few memorable parties and sleepovers though while it still had a chipboard floor and bare plastered walls. 

A year later I decided they could work and play elsewhere and we could create a lovely space in there for guests in 2018. Once decorated and carpeted; with its vaulted ceiling, full length windows, separate bedroom with walk in shower and sofa bed it was very popular with guests staying a little longer (The 8 double sockets in the office-turned-bedroom were a little overspeced though!)

For 6 years many of you enjoyed The Pigsty, but the summer of 2024 nearly broke me! With 3 other spaces fully booked, getting through 4 changeovers on a Friday, multiple food orders and special requests was unsustainable without lots of extra help. I didn’t want to loose the personal touch and exclusivity of a stay here, so we took the decision to close The Pigsty off, as it is the closest to our house and is now used by visiting friends and family. 

For a while it has lived up to its name and been a general dumping ground, but now it faces an exciting future as I look into using the space for workshops and day retreats. I just need to get them booked in before any of our adult children decide to move back in, so watch this space! 

Read Part 3 in July to hear all about the swimming pond…

How CHB came to be

Part One

In 2011, we lived in a semi we had fully renovated in a village 5 mins from here and were vaguely looking to take on a new project. Tim maintains he didn’t know we were, but I’m sure it was discussed!

This farm had been on the market for months apparently, but with 80 acres and therefore way out of our price bracket! We weren’t even aware of it’s existence; I must’ve driven past it hundreds of times. Then the sellers decided to split the land from the house and it suddenly popped up on our search. Unfortunately Tim was overseas at the time with work, so I came to see it alone and fell in love. 

Thankfully Tim was fully on board, and after a very tense few months of bidding, we moved in 2012 and got to work. The main house hadn’t been touched since the 1980s so we began some serious plumbing and ‘un-browning’ to create a cosy modern home. The land, pond and outbuildings were a wonderful playground for the children but we had little time, energy or funds to do much with them until 2016.

The assorted outbuildings, once home to the bull and 10,000 piglets, were now full of lawnmowers, tractors and spiders! We stripped them back to bare bones and planned to convert them into a guest suite/granny annexe and playroom/office. When Tim took voluntary redundancy we had the much needed time to complete the work ourselves (in between raising 3 patient children!)

In the spring of 2017 we decided we should see if we could get a few paying guests a month to help us have a holiday. We popped The Cowshed on booking.com and were blown away by the interest and feedback. Guests loved the home from home feel and having a big, light filled space all to themselves. The 5-star reviews were a great confidence boost. Many of those first guests returned over and over and still come now. We accepted one night stays and I did a changeover everyday, ironing a set of bedsheets every night on the landing while the children were going to sleep. We did indeed get to Italy that summer and thoroughly enjoyed a rest and change of scene!

Running a B&B had not been the grand plan all along at all. We had toyed with lots of ideas for the property (Christmas tree farm anyone? Too many bunnies!) and almost sold the land around the pond at the start. 

Having Joe Bloggs come into our home was a big deal for us, I think it’s fair to say Tim and I are introverts and really value our privacy (that is why we’d bought a house surrounded by 5 acres!). Inviting strangers onto our property was a big step into the unknown and we were both pretty scared of what could go wrong and whether we’d feel like we lived in a goldfish bowl!

Read Part 2 in June to see how it panned out…