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	Holly Cottage Stoke St. Gregory Taunton Somerset TA3 6HS Tel. 01823 490828 E-mail us here © R Hembrow 2003




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The History of Holly Farm

My great-great-grandfather purchased Holly Farm in the 1850s and my family have farmed here since then. My great-grandfather renovated Holly Farmhouse in 1887, facing the front with local Lias and Ham stone. The stone barns that are now our holiday cottages were built at the same time. Cider was made in the Ciderhouse for the workers and the horses were kept in what is now the lounge. About 20 cows were milked by hand throughout the rest of the buildings. My grandmother made the milk into butter and cheese in the farmhouse.

The farm started to change during WW2 when more land was ploughed to grow cash crops. In 1952 the cows were moved to a new purpose built cowstall, near Holly Cottage, to be milked by machine. In 1984, prior to the introduction of milk quotas, the cows were sold and we kept beef cattle. The old buildings were used to house young animals and general stores.

As a small farm, we realised that we would have to do something different to survive so we started growing wheat for roofing thatch. This is a traditional variety of wheat with long stalks and light ears that is cut with a binder (see picture). It is stooked in the field by hand and when dry brought into the barn. During the winter it is processed with a threshing machine. Our machine was built in 1896 and was originally driven by steam.

In 1991, with government encouragement we started our first cottage conversion. This proved very popular so we converted the remainder of the buildings; one cottage a year.

The combination of cottages and growing roofing thatch has enabled our small family farm to survive and prosper.