‘WE’RE MAKING MODERN USE OF HISTORY’

From £145 a night enough money and they were forced to get jobs. In their free time they converted the farm’s old dairy into another holiday let. Then Mrs Jewell spied another money-making opportunity: the run- down Nissen huts being used to house chickens and children’s toys.

Nissen huts were erected during the world wars and were used as temporary barracks for soldiers or for storage. “Lots of people would have looked at these huts and viewed them as rubbish,” said Mrs Jewell, whose huts had housed American soldiers serving at the nearby army base.

The first hut, Beau Tunnel, was converted in 2005 with the help of her son Thomas, after her divorce. The second hut, Chy Yar, Cornish for chicken house, was finished in 2018; they cost £45,000 to convert. The mother and son team are passionate about history and said mention of the farm could be traced back to the Domesday Book. “That’s why we do everything we can to keep it running,” she added.

Rising energy costs and repayments on Bounce Back loans taken out during the pandemic eat into takings, leaving them with a profit of between £10,000 and £15,000 a year from both huts. A weekly stay costs up to £725. They have installed corner baths, log burners and stained-glass windows and allow dogs to stay free of charge.

The market for holiday lets is very competitive and growing more so: in the 12 months to June the number available has shot up by 23pc to 297,637, according to AirDNA. “Standing out is vital,” said Mrs Jewell, who also chairs the South East Cornwall Tourism Association. “To be successful, know your target market, have a business plan and comply with all regulations.”

At sixth-form college, James Waters started to buy up old furniture and antiques to sell on. By the time he’d got to university he was buying two to three trailer loads of old cast- offs a month. After cleaning them up, he sold his hoard on eBay, building up a nest egg.

He continued his hobby after starting work as an environmental manager. Living and working on his parents’ 300acre tenant farm in Halstead, Essex, he watched his savings grow. Then a restoration project caught his eye.

His next-door neighbour had old railway carriages in his garden and he told Mr Waters and his father, Robin, that he knew of one for sale.

An 1880s Great Eastern Railway carriage captured their imagination. Mr Waters bought it in 2016 and started to restore it in April 2020, when he was furloughed. He spent £100,000 of his savings to buy it and fix it up. It was moved to High Barn Heritage, a private meadow owned by the family, and sits on tracks laid by 66-year- old Robin, a skilled metalworker.

The Carriage has modern luxuries such as air conditioning, a dishwasher and heating, but retains its original charm. There is no Wi-Fi, however. “Some people come here for that reason,” said Mr Waters.

They saved about £50,000 by doing the work themselves and the carriage has since been valued at between £ 150,000 and £ 200,000. “It’s taken blood, sweat and tears to do it,” he said, “but I’ve loved spending time working with my dad. There’s a sense of achievement in saving something that would have rotted and disappeared,” he added.

The Carriage has been booked for more than 30 weeks this year and a third of guests are train enthusiasts. Guests pay between £ 369 and £ 850 for a seven-night stay. Managing agent Sykes Holiday Cottages takes a 20pc cut of each booking.

The biggest stumbling block was not knowing how to advertise the Carriage. “We didn’t understand the market and lost money promoting it in the wrong places, so we went with an agent instead,” said Mr Waters.

They made a profit of about £9,000 last year after agents’ fees; they do the cleaning themselves. “Technically, it will be running at a loss for 15 years until we’ve recouped the £100,000,” Mr Waters added. A second holiday let, a 1940s Midland brake wagon, will be added to the tracks this summer.

‘THERE’S A SENSE OF ACHIEVEMENT IN SAVING SOMETHING THAT WOULD HAVE ROTTED’ James and Robin Waters

From £369 a week