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History

Each name reflects the former life each building once had, adding to the sense of place, tradition and history of North Farm and its neighbourhood.


Long Cart Cottage

Long Cart Cottage started life as an old Northumbrian Cart Shed with north facing stone arches, where horse drawn carts were backed in at ‘louse’ [the time when the horses were turned “loose” from their implements]. The carts were left unhitched for the next morning, and the horses were lead across the yard to the stables. At the west end of the cart shed was the tack room where the farm hands and grooms would care for the tack and brew cups of tea on the cast iron stove.

Stable d’Or

Stable d’Or cottage is named in celebration of a local racing legend, as well as the function it once performed. After the cart horses were all gone in the late 50’s and tractors had replaced them, the stables were converted to take hunters and race horses. This is where local racing legend, Le Garcon d’Or, used to live when he was not in training and also after he retired until his death. Le Garcon d’Or won 34 flat races. He was a great horse, looking more like a pony, but a very popular horse around the northern racing circuits in the 1960’s and 70’s.

Low Croft Cottage

Low Croft Cottage used to be the middle of three separate Hemmels [or byre] that held cattle in the winter downstairs, and corn for feed up the stairs. More recently, the upstairs was used to rear Christmas turkeys before the purpose built houses over the road were erected.



Granary Stone House

Granary Stone House was the heart of the farm. Next door to the middle Hemmel, upstairs, was the large granary where corn was stored and also cleaned after being harvested. The barn downstairs had a corn crusher to crush corn to be fed to the sheep and cattle, and also a hammer mill where corn was milled and blown upstairs to be stored for pig feed. The large room on the north side was where the corn pit was. Corn was tipped in here and ran down into conveyor buckets to be conveyed upstairs to the corn cleaner.


High Hemmel House

High Hemmel House was the top Hemmel, and it also used to hold cattle in the winter. There was a long passage to the north side leading to the barn where hay and corn could be carried in for feed. Part of this was also another granary which again stored corn for the winter.

 


Home Stead and Grey Croft

Home Stead and Grey Croft stand in place of the Old Piggeries and Slaughterhouse. Pigs were bred, reared and finally taken from farm gate to plate... delicious North Farm Pork !I am afraid I was uninspired to name these two cottages after such a sensitive subject so, both take their names from our fourth generation family homes. The original Homestead and Greycroft can be found locally, and although both are in village locations the names Stead and Croft ironically come from old farm buildings.

 


West Gate & Bank Top Cottages

West Gate and Bank Top stand on the site of two old Nissen Huts which were relocated to North Farm after the Second World War by R.O.Manners. The names were carefully sort due to their location, the top of the bank and near the west gate of that paddock. They also have a link to the past, West Gate and Bank Top being areas of Newcastle where our family's fourth generation originated from.

 


North Farm Apartments and Swimming Pool

North Farm Apartments and swimming pool stand on the generous footprint of an old “pole barn”. This open sided barn was probably erected in the 1950s, to house the machinery which had grown too large for the original stone farm buildings. This vintage machinery is now dwarfed by today’s modern tractors and combine harvesters, as was the old pole barn.

To the North West of North Farm you’ll see the sheer size of what is required to house machinery on a modern day working farm.
 
North Farm Apartments take their names from places that hold special childhood memories for ourselves. We hope that in the future you too can look back to your own special memories made at Mill View, Newton View, St. Cruz or St. Dolmen.

 

 

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