About Us

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Lower Leigh Farm was originally a Dairy Farm. Elaine and Richard Carp purchased the whole property in 2008. In 2011 they sold off the main house and moved into the stone cottage, keeping all the land. They then renovated and significantly enlarged the stone cottage, built the swimming pool and converted some of the remaining barns into self catering cottages.

The stone cottage is extremely old and research has taken it back to pre-medieval with evidence of a Mesolithic fire pit. While renovating they found a fabulous large inglenook fireplace which had been boarded up. There were numerous other finds including a C16 left shoe of a woman, this was evidently left to ward off the devil.

As well as running the The Folly Cottages, Elaine is an accomplished artist and  runs regular  art courses from her on-site studio. You may even spot some of her work hanging in the Cluedo-themed dining room in Willow Barn. You can see more of her pieces at www.elaineheseltinecarp.co.uk

Richard's passion is classic cars, of which he owns a few himself. He had some of the barns converted into garages and workshops where he has built a thriving restoration business, HC Classics. You can see the projects he and his highly skilled team have worked on at www.hcclassics.co.uk

Richard and Elaine still live on the farm today along with their two dogs, Bertie and Tiggy, their peahen and peacock, Barbara and Barry, and a small brood of free-roaming chickens.

Read our blog for more stories about Lower Leigh Farm and The Folly Cottages.