Michael, Margaret and Stephen Haines have run Cotswold Charm Holiday Cottages under the careful eye of their mother Elsie since May 2000.

We were all born and brought up in the farmhouse at Top Farm where one member or another of the Haines family has lived and farmed since at least the beginning of the 18th Century .

The time capsule of a watercolour to the right was recently discovered when Michael was sorting out some old boxes of pre-1940 farm accounts  to send to the Country Records Office.  It is of the farmhouse and shows the bread-oven to its right, the imprinted outline of which can still can still be seen today.

The large tree to the left of the picture stands in the middle of the garden and until recently, we thought was replaced by a pair of Chinese Cedar trees by our grandfather in the early 1900s.  These were hit by lightning on a number of occasions and one had to be felled when it began to lean dangerously after some gales back in 2001.

There is a comment in one of father's very early diaries about his grandfather (George) painting a picture and hence we guess that he was probably the artist.

The picture to the left is a similar view of the house as it appeared in April 2007 with the remaining cedar tree to the right and the old horse chestnut tree and the new Barn Cottage to the left. The cart (in need of repair) belonged to Fred Badger (our grandmother's brother).

Sadly, fungi had seriously damaged the tree's roots and during this year's gales, it began to lean more dangerously with each passing storm until we were regrettably forced to fell it.  Cross sections of the trunk revealed the lightning strike on the eve of Stephen's wedding, the felling of the other tree, etc. and that it was at least 128 years old, tying in exactly with our father's comment that they were planted by his Grandmother on Wedding Day.

In 1924, William Rimmel Haines, late grandfather to the present owners, was the sitting tenant when Campden Estate was auctioned.  He astutely purchased the farm and several parcels of land amounting to 350 acres.

The family managed a hugely successful mixed farm producing cereals, vegetables and high quality fruit alongside cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry enterprises as well as a developing milk processing and retailing business right through to the mid ‘50s. 

At this time, the growing family’s apparent need for independence, allied to the commercial requirement for a specialised approach to each enterprise, led to the eventual breaking up of the large family business.

After a ten year battle, 1996 saw planning permission finally obtained to development what is now known as The Leasowes at Top Farm, sadly, our father Horace died in 1994 and never got to see the real fruit of his labours.   The subsequent proceeds of this were used to halt the deterioration of remaining buildings, re-purchase one of the barn conversions and to eventually (after another 4 year planing battle) convert the old stable/dairy office into living accommodation, thus providing the core of today’s successful holiday cottage business.

This pen and ink by drawing by Mr Fitzhugh (woodwork teacher when our parents attended The Grammar School) dates back to 1933 and shows the stable with its doorway and windows from the covered cow yard. The original thatch on the barn on the left was lost in a disasterous fire in 1929 and replaced by the tin roof.  The small sloping roof covers the pig sties on the end. The construction in the corner beyond the stable door was a sunken urn where the pig's swill was stored after it had been boiled. The farmhouse lays beyond the wooden gates.

Before the more efficient, if noisier and less romantic tractor finally took over the farmyard in 1954, we all remember the stable housing the farm’s four hard-working shire horses – Bobby, Tess, Wynne and Whinny; and the old pony called Dolly Grey who pulled the milk cart around Chipping Campden until she was almost 30 years of age.

This lovely postcard of Dolley Grey and the milk float/cart recently came to light in a local collection.  Dolly Grey was sadly put down in about 1953 at the ripe old age of 31.

The large 20 gallon churn can be seen in the float and because the dairy changed to milk bottles in 1937, Uncle Eric believs that it was taken in about 1935/6.  The Wolsley car dates to about 1934/5 and a blown up version you can see Haydon's hand milk cart in the middle of the picture.

One half of it had been converted into a farm office in 1951 and this allowed the farmhouse's sittingroom to be restored to its more normal domestic purpose.  The other half was then used to farrow pigs for a few years and subsequently to rear calves in before being upgraded to serve as the retail dairy business's Rest Room through until 1975.

Stable Cottage was originally built in about the 14th Century in the same basic style as the nearby thatched cottage in what is now known as Heavenly Corner.  Whilst its thatch was replaced by stone slates in the 1800's, today, you can enjoy its hand waxed and polished oak timbers that add to the historic atmosphere in this comfortable and desirable accommodation for up to four people.

The character of and craftsmanship in these wonderful buildings is much in evidence throughout these delightful cottages that give us two properties where our valued guests, have enjoyed at first hand, the unspoilt charm of the Cotswolds over the last four years or so.

To add the experience we aim to offer, we are firstly, delighted to link our list of self-catering cottages in the Cotswolds to a delightfully conceived and recently completed barn conversion on an historic farmstead owned by an old friend of Michael's from his Farm Institute student days back in 1961.

Farmed by the same family since 1775, Church Farm in the historic village of Poole Keynes is 5 miles southwest of Cirencester and within a 40 - 50 minute drive of both the M4 and M5 motorways. Ye Olde Stable is adjacent to the farm's Grade 2 listed 12th century vaulted-roof manor house that displays most of its originals timbers and stonework, including the font from next door St Michaels and All angels church being in its garden.

Secondly, in 2004 we obtained planning permission to build two new cottages in the farm's old Rick Yard and to convert the Old Granary and the Ewe Pen.  Barn & Rick Cottage were let from September 2005, the Old Granary was first used that Christmas and the Ewe Pen saw its first customer on the 28th June 2007.

Blockley
Bourton-on-the-Water
Burford
Chastleton
Cheltenham
Cheltenham Racecourse
Cirencester
Cleeve Hill
Donnington Brewery/Trout
Edge Hill
Evesham
GWR Toddington
Hailes Abbey
Leamington Spa
Malvern
Moreton-in-Marsh
Northleach
Oddington
Oxford
Pershore
Shakespeare’s country
Stanton
Stanway
Stow-on-the-Wold
Stratford-upon-Avon
Sudeley Castle
Tewkesbury
Warwick
Winchcombe
Woodstock
Worcester