Finding the Farm
The Sawmill, near Blubberhouses. 10,000 derelict square feet in need of total renovation, positioned on the edge of Fewston reservoir.
I’ve always been a little obsessed with property. I grew up in a renovation, surrounded by missing floorboards and dust as my parents brought a Victorian home back to life, and my childhood holidays were spent in idyllic rural France where the tumbledown gîtes and villas always captured my imagination.
My husband Will and I purchased our first home in Otley, West Yorkshire shortly after our wedding in 2018. We bought a two bed terrace in need of a facelift, and so our own renovation journey began. What we had thought required a lick of paint spiralled into significant work, and we were thrown in the deep end with DIY, turning our hands to everything from bathroom fitting and tiling to demolition (pictures on our past projects).
We began to formulate the concept of the Farm in December 2019. Will and I were around half way through the renovation of our first home, and already had itchy feet. We knew we wanted another project, something big both physically and in terms of the work required. On a walk with my parents, who were preparing to retire the following summer, we casually discussed the idea of living closer together, and how cool it would be to find a project we could all get involved with.
We started looking for property in January 2020.
We had a very loose idea of what we were looking for, but we knew we needed something large enough to house 3 generations (us, my parents, and my Grandma), and somewhere Will and I could continue to build our business, and so we started our search.
Mearbeck House, near Settle. A 6000 square feet, grade 2 listed Georgian house, that stole our hearts!
In February 2020, we saw the first property that really captured our imagination; 10,000 square feet of derelict industrial chaos. An old Sawmill comprising of a large L shaped ex-lumber mill, two cottages, and a couple of rundown stonebuilt barns, the property had the potential to be a phenomenal home. Set in an acre of grounds, it was in the worst condition of anything we had seen. The property lacked any of heating, the roof of the mill was collapsed, the barns at the rear were completely derelict, and the walls of the Cottages literally grew with mould and mushrooms. With an unbelievably high asking price given the condition, we knew there was very little chance we could make it work. Nevertheless, we spent weeks trying to make the vision a reality. We placed an offer well below the asking price, but unsurprisingly it was rejected. Whilst we were gutted to miss out, we knew it wasn’t to be, and combined with a few other factors we had thought we might be able to overlook for the right price (the proximity to a noisy A road, and the need to live in caravans for 5 years), we went back to the drawing board.
We viewed more than 40 properties over the next few months.
The Farm, photographed shortly after completing in April 2021.
Trawling Rightmove, property auctions and and joining every Estate Agents mailing list within a 30 mile radius of the Yorkshire Dales, we struggled to find anything that compared to the Sawmill in terms of space or potential. In October 2020, we managed to get away for a few days camping, and decided we needed to focus our search. Each of us wrote a list of our vision for the dream property, spanning everything from the stone it was built with, to the listed status, proximity to roads and the acreage we would like. These lists gave us focus, and our property search became more intentional.
A few weeks later, we fell upon Mearbeck House whilst viewing properties in Settle. A 6000 square foot Georgian pile with 4 acres of land, the house had been on the market the previous year but the sale had fallen through. Although dilapidated (think shabby regency with a touch of 70s peach, and lots of leaks), the floorplan leant itself to being a grand and beautiful family home with a bit of work. It had all the hallmarks of a classic Georgian home; high ceilings, huge windows, and beautiful symmetry. The only flaw for was that it was one house, and ideally we wanted individual homes on a shared plot. This was a compromise we felt we could make work, and so we went back for a second viewing a few weeks later, and after a great conversation with the owners, placed our offer. Sadly a few weeks later it was rejected. The buyers that had pulled out previously had reoffered at the same time as us, and the owners had chosen to proceed with them in the hope of a quick sale.
I was devastated, having envisioned our whole lives in the beautiful Georgian manor.
The rear of the Farm, taken on viewing day.
But losing Mearbeck was a push to get our own houses sold. Mum and Dad put our childhood home on the market, and it sold within a few weeks. Meanwhile, we tied up the last few bits of decorating and listed our house at the end of November. We had offers before it went onto the market, and sold the house within three days. With my heart still set on Mearbeck, when Mum, Dad and Grandma suggested viewing another property that had just come to the market, I refused to go! I looked at the photos, and branded it as too small and completely infeasible, not to mention over budget. After a few weeks of crying over photos of my Georgian love, Will and I agreed to go with my parents for another viewing of the property they really liked in mid December.
We arrived at a beautiful stretch of 19th century buildings, set high in the Yorkshire dales, and the location immediately took our breath away. Standing in 4 acres of diverse grounds including a pond, paddocks and woodland, it was idyllic. The Farm itself was huge, over 6000 square feet comprised of a grand stonebuilt Farmhouse, with attached barns which had both been converted into holiday homes in the 1970s, and a couple of outbuildings too. With just 9 photographs on the Rightmove listing for a house with 36 rooms, it was safe to say the estate agents hadn’t done the property justice!
We knew it needed to be completely renovated, to go back to the stone and effectively start again (later confirmed in the survey), but after almost a year of viewing properties in far worse condition, we knew it could be done. We put in an offer a few days later, about 8% below the asking price taking into account the phenomenal amount of work required, and bringing the dream just into our stretched budget. A week later, just before Christmas, our offer was accepted.
It felt incredible to have once again found a property that got our hearts racing.
The journey to completion felt like a long one, we had a few hurdles along the way (not surprising given this all took place during a global pandemic) and we had many months of living with generous friends before we completed on the purchase in April 2021. Now well into our first year at the Farm, we have already learnt so much, and life here is everything we had hoped for.
