Holly Farm Cottages, Stoke St Gregory, Somerset self catering holiday cottages

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Holly Farm Cottages, Stoke St Gregory, Somerset Stoke St Gregory, Somerset self catering holiday cottages




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Relax in the heated, indoor swimming pool (40' by 20'), chill-out in the hot tub, enjoy a game of pool or table tennis.

Feel at home in one of our spacious, fully equipped cottages, with its own enclosed garden.

Quality is our first consideration; Our cottages have been graded as four star by the English Tourism Council.

We are here to welcome you when you arrive and on hand to help you enjoy your stay.

The farm is on the edge of the village of Stoke St. Gregory that has good pubs and restaurants. There are good roads to Somerset's county town of Taunton (7m), and the M5 motorway (6m).

Robert started the first holiday cottage conversion in 1992. The Ciderhouse was ready in time for the summer season and by the end of that year we realised that there was a demand for good quality accommodation in the countryside. He continued to convert one cottage every year until 1997, when the Linny, our disabled access cottage, was finished.

Robert & Liz live at Holly Cottage, where the farm is now based. They look after the cottages together. Robert’s mother, Joyce, still lives in the Holly Farmhouse and takes an active interest in visitors and village life. We have three children: Caroline, Michael and Richard, who are all working now.

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 cow stall, 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. 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

Tel 01823 490828

Somerset self catering

Holly Farm Cottages, Stoke St Gregory, Somerset self catering holiday cottages