Barnstorming businesses
The cows and threshing machines have gone but a diverse range of businesses is breathing new life into our derelict farm buildings
Barns, milking parlours and threshing sheds are finding new life as homes for rural businesses, as Rosie Nickerson reports
With so many small farms struggling to survive, their outmoded barns and farm buildings often end up derelict and abandoned. I find it uplifting to come across any that have been repurposed as thriving barnyard businesses. In just one week, I visited a famous contemporary art gallery in an 18th-century tithe barn in Somerset and had lunch in its former cowsheds, now a trendy restaurant. Later that week, I dropped off my daughter at her drama school in a tiny Oxfordshire hamlet, its former barns and workshops no longer housing sheep and cattle but full of budding actors.
Then I popped up to Leicestershire to see the new retail park at Belvoir Castle in the former Engine Yard. Nearer to home, I collected some personalised pottery from an isolated converted milking parlour and its former cowsheds, where a kiln now operates seven days a week. I reflected on how popular and successful these barnyard businesses appear to be and how the buildings have been renovated in appealing and innovative ways.
The largest barnyard business to open in the past few years is the Engine Yard at Belvoir Castle, launched in September 2018. This is a stunning redevelopment of a derelict Victorian yard and its original workshop buildings, on a massive scale. The three-acre
The Fuel Tank building at Belvoir Castle is now a cafe, its interior styled by the Duchess of Rutland site comprises 12,000 square feet of retail space, with parking for 700 cars. It is the first retail village of its kind in the area and is the culmination of a vision the Duchess of Rutland had 18 years ago, when the buildings just below the castle first became vacant.
The Duchess tells me: “The Engine Yard was like a sleeping giant. It was mostly dormant for 70 to 100 years and it was just waiting to be ignited. There are so many things we could have done with the yard and the buildings. I like to think of it as the People’s Yard – it’s something for the
community and the vale. The Engine Yard is open seven days a week and we have tried to make it appeal to everyone. We have rented everything out to individuals with a passion, under the banner of Belvoir.”
By far the tallest building is the Engine Room, with its imposing arched windows. Historically, it housed the ‘New Steam Engine’, which used to pump water up the hill to the castle from a natural spring below. The Engine Room is now a high-end luxury shop known as The Duchess’ Gallery, selling gifts, accessories and clothing all chosen by her. Adjacent to this stand several other single-storey Victorian buildings, which were originally all workshops for the ongoing construction and maintenance of the castle. These are all now rented out as shops and the original Fuel Tank building is a cafe, its interior designed by the Duchess and run by the Belvoir estate.
Other businesses are independent and include a garden centre, beauty spa, chocolatier, coffee merchants, children’s crafts, a delicatessen and also traditional gunmaker Rowland Watson, one of the oldest in the country. Every third Sunday there is a Maker’s Market, which is wildly popular, with local artisan food producers displaying their wares, including the estate’s own beef and game.
Down in Somerset, in Bruton, Durslade Farm dates back to the 1760s and was originally designed as a model farm; however, it had stood derelict since the 1980s. The main farmhouse has unusual Gothic-style windows, most probably taken from a religious building. The attractive lofted stable block has pointed windows and doors, beneath a loft, lit by five roundel windows. These stunning buildings were designated by regional government as being ‘at risk’, with local strategic priorities set for their redevelopment.
Iwan and Manuela Wirth, owners and founders of Hauser & Wirth, which has nine contemporary art galleries worldwide, had made their home nearby and saw its potential. They purchased it in 2009 and restoration began in 2013. Piet Oudolf, a world-renowned garden designer, was commissioned to create a large garden in the gently sloping field. Luis Laplace, the Argentinian-born architect, was instructed to retain as many of its original features as possible but to adapt the buildings for the future. The Wirths also opened The Roth Bar & Grill in the former cowsheds, featuring their own locally produced meat, game and vegetables, and named after contemporary artist Dieter Roth.
Iwan Wirth tells me: “When we discovered the dilapidated buildings at Durslade, we knew we had found a special place where we could bring all of our interests together: art, architecture, landscape, conservation, garden, food, education, community and family.”
The largest building is the 18th-century threshing barn, which has been painstakingly restored and its large, wooden doors replaced with massive glass doors. It is known as the Barn Gallery and is accessed via the old cowshed. The visitor then walks through into the Pigsty Gallery and then out into a modern courtyard to enter the two newly constructed wings, the Rhoades and the Bourgeois Galleries, which offer
some 300 square metres of exhibition space. The idea is to be able to walk continuously through all the spaces, which link and flow together very neatly. Renovations took place in just one year and by July 2014, it was complete. Hauser & Wirth, Somerset, has so far welcomed more than 600,000 visitors. It employs some 80 staff, including part-time and casual workers.
Anyone driving past Sansomes Farm in Oxfordshire, would be unaware that within these converted, 18th-century farm buildings is a world-famous drama school, recently voted one of the top five in the world. Located in a tiny hamlet two miles outside Woodstock, The Oxford School of Drama has just 120 pupils, tiny compared to other top drama schools. But its alumni have had leading roles at the RSC, National Theatre, in the West End and on TV, and include Claire Foy (The Crown).
Foy remembers her time there fondly: “The Oxford School of Drama is a very special place to train. This is because of its great teaching and the personal attention each student gets.”
The development of the site happened gradually over the past 33 years. The Threshing Barn is used for acting classes and underwent some extensive work in 2016 with the reinstatement of the original roof pitch, the addition of underfloor heating, an oak floor, a second storey for a breakout space for the students and a glazed front porch. The Music Room, now used for singing and radio tutorials, was originally a
dovecote; it still has small alcoves in the walls. The Coffee Bar, used by students for lunch and breaks, was originally an openfronted cow shed complete with hayracks. The Studio Theatre – used for performances and voice classes – was built on the site of the old tractor shed and log store in 2006. Kate Ashcroft, head of marketing and development, tells me that she thinks the secret of their success is down to their rural location, which makes for real intensity as their students find themselves isolated; they can’t wander off site and there’s no Starbucks or bookshops for miles.
Principal George Peck, who chanced upon the farmyard location in 1987 after trying for a long time to find suitable premises in central Oxford, tells me: “We were very much the new kid on the block in the 1980s. It’s taken some time and a lot of hard work to climb the ladder but now we’ve reached the point where our nearest competitors are RADA, LAMDA and Guildhall. We accept just 3% of applicants and are very proud that 94% of our students over the past three years are now working as actors.”
CLASSIC BRITISH BRAND
Another barnyard business is Cornishware, purchased in 2008 by Charles and Karina Rickards. Charles tells me: “We heard that Cornishware was going under and we decided we couldn’t sit back and let this classic British brand disappear forever,” says Rickards. “It wasn’t done with huge profits in mind. We just wanted to rescue the brand.”
Cornishware has been voted among the top 50 most important worldwide designs from the 20th-century and is exhibited in The London Design Museum. The iconic blue stripe design is said to be inspired by the white crest of waves and its name derives not from its location, but from the clay pits near St Austell in Cornwall.
In 2011, Rickards, his wife and their five children moved to Alham Farm, nestled in a deep valley in rural Somerset, near Batcombe. It had been owned by the Knights of St John for more than 800 years and tenanted out for many years as a working dairy farm. This historic farmyard, with its large, 16th-century tithe barn and row of buildings, including stables and a milking parlour, is conveniently located just across the road from the Rickards’ farmhouse. They renovated the larger, modern barn first, which had fallen into disrepair, and kitted it out as a state-of-the-art pottery warehouse. They then turned their attention to refurbishing the milking parlour, complete with milking pit. This now houses an office and pottery, with a large kiln, capable of firing some 70,000 pieces per year. The roof was retiled in reclaimed Welsh slate but the original mushroom-shaped ventilation features in the roof – which were needed to circulate clean air for the cattle – were preserved and now do an excellent job of keeping the pottery well ventilated.
Cornishware opened for business at Alham Farm in 2015 and currently employs 14 to 18 people. Karina Rickards taught herself to paint the iconic stripes by hand – a very steady hand is needed – and she and her team of pottery artists hand paint some 1,500 pieces per week. The kiln works seven days a week and there are plans afoot to double production within the next 12 months. This hive of activity goes largely unnoticed as the farmyard appears to be just that, a farmyard, and signage is intentionally discreet to deter impromptu visitors from descending on the workshop, distracting the hard-working team. Although this is set to change as plans to refurbish the 16th-century tithe barn as a visitors centre and add an additional production building have just commenced.
Where once there were derelict and outdated farm buildings, these four businesses are now thriving. In each case their remote locations have proved no barrier to success. They have added a new dimension for local residents by offering retail or educational opportunities, entertainment or employment and, in some cases, they have increased visitor numbers to these rural locations dramatically.
These business have added a new dimension for local residents