About the Farm

High up on the broad plateaus of the Blackdown Hills AONB, Great Garlandhayes Farm is documented back to the early C17th century with some sparse history back to the C14th. Iron ore workings, which could be Roman in origin, have created some undulating fields, with significant slag and clinker constantly coming to the surface. Known locally to be ”worth an extra overcoat” it sits at between 825 and 1000 feet above sea level and catches every breeze going. The house has a 40-foot flint lined well, originally outside the house, and now in the kitchen. It was never a grand residence or manor house, but always a working farm.

In 1995 Anne and Graham Langford changed it from a mixed dairy, sheep and pig unit to a technically advanced sheep breeding farm. The first Poll Dorsets were introduced in 2002. Newly established a Blackdown Bees project now has 7 colonies in hives across the farm. A large adjoining barn and the Victorian milking parlour have been turned into residential units, with Joss, their son, with his family, living in one and the other rented. On ground further away a C16th century lobby entry farmhouse has been restored, whilst on another plot a modern wooden cabin has replaced an old “mobile home”. Both of these are rented out. All together the farm covers 130 acres of own ground with plenty of additional winter grass on neighbours dairy silage fields.