We spend a lot of time promoting the place that we call home. St Oswald’s Farm is the place we live, the place we work, the place we have chosen to bring up our daughter and the place our grown up Sons come ‘home’ to. It’s also the place we spend more or less every waking moment and the place we feel so passionately about, that we want to share it with our guests. We love them to see what we see here at St Oswald’s Farm and in the surrounding Northumberland and to enjoy what we are lucky enough to enjoy every day.
So what is it exactly that we love? It’s all very easy to say we love something, but the why we love something is a bit more personal.
Perhaps it’s just the sheer beauty of where we live, the vast views, the open countryside and the peace and tranquility that that brings. I have lived here for over 10 years and John has lived here all his life but yet we’re continually astounded by the views, John still comes into the house from being outside checking the stock with a new photograph he’s taken, frosty, dewy, misty, snowy, sunny, clear, eerie, cloudy, starry….”look at this photo”! We never tire of it!
Our everyday views!
St Oswald’s Farm not only sits in a beautiful location but a very unique one, we are right in the middle of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, our farmhouse and cottages sit on top of Hadrian’s Wall itself, one of our fields is an old battle site and a preserved hay meadow and within that field sits a church, St Oswald’s Church. Hadrian’s Wall National Trail runs along the front of our property, we are surrounded by a vast history, and it makes where we live even more special and we love that!
Although we are in the open countryside, we are only a short drive away from so much, 10 minutes from our nearest town of Hexham and in less than hour we can be in Newcastle or Durham, the North East coast, Cumbria and even be into the Scottish Borders or on the edge of the Lake District.
Maybe we love where we live because we love watching the seasons unfold, watching them develop and change. Each season brings a new pattern, a different daily routine and each season prepares for the next, whatever that may hold.
Each season can bring challenges but the seasons also remind us very much of our connection with the land, with nature and with new beginnings. Who wouldn’t love that!
Spring bursting into life 
Looking for shelter
Our Sons had, and now Isla enjoys a 217 acre playground, go-kart racing, football playing, tree climbing, camp building, mud plodging, bike track building, chicken feeding, log chopping, lamb holding sort of upbringing. They also have seen new life come into the world and seen when a life leaves. They know where food comes from and the work that goes into producing it and we think that’s important.
Our Angel of the North 
The perfect job for Isla
St Oswald’s Farm was bought by John’s Mam & Dad over 50 years ago and that brings with it a huge emotional attachment and we feel privileged to have a family legacy to carry forward. Farming is without doubt challenging in many ways, it has to be one of the most difficult, all consuming, tying, stressful, emotional, unpredictable and very often lonely ways to make a living. We have no idea what the future holds for farming and that can feel scary, but when we look around St Oswald’s Farm, at our tiny little piece of Northumberland, and take in what we have right here right now, we wouldn’t have it any other way!
If you’d like to stay in Northumberland and stay in Heavenfield Cottage
we’d love to welcome you here and you will see for yourself what we love about where we live!
