We are a family who have been working in agriculture for more than 50 years, we moved to East Mellwaters Farm nearly twenty years ago and our son, Andrew who is severely disabled and confined to a wheelchair all his life asked if he could have the derelict old dairy granary to convert into four cottages to be able to welcome everybody. This was the start of Mellwaters Barn Cottages.
East Mellwaters farm is a 345 acres natural grassland commercial farm where we breed sheep, spring is of course one of the most interesting times when we have over 1500 lambs. The farm itself we believe is built on the site of a Roman settlement with the old Roman road from Bowes running through parts of the farm up the valley to Spittal and beyond to the top of Stainmore.
We are proud that East Mellwaters Farm has been in an Environmental Stewardship Scheme for nearly 30 years to help protect our natural grassland for the benefit of some of the less common species of birds and wildflowers.