When Chris and Diana Jacobs moved to Norfolk in 1993 with their with two small children, it was a return home to Diana’s farming roots at Edgefield, some three miles equidistant from Melton Constable and the picturesque Georgian town of Holt.
They came with a clear plan. Their aim was to create a business where extended families could holiday together in the peaceful north Norfolk countryside, giving parents time to breathe and allowing children to run safe and free. To this end, they bought Wood Farm from Mrs Jacobs’s family with its ring-fenced 27 acres of land; a former dairy farm, it had recently been converted into eight holiday cottages. Today, Wood Farm is on the market once more as Diana and Chris look towards the next stage of their lives.
Since then, a few key milestones have marked the steady progress of the business to its present healthy state. They included the installation of a biomass boiler and an array of solar panels in 2014, which made Wood Farm green and energy efficient, and ensured that the cottages were warm throughout the year.
In 2020, a Tourism Support Grant was invested in marketing and online promotion and, in 2021, covid grants were used to redecorate all eight cottages.
As a result, this year will see 320 families staying for some 2,000 nights, representing 70% occupancy and a turnover of £210,000 that keeps the owners and their site manager busy all year and provides plenty of work for the local community.
Included in the sale is the couple’s comfortable five-bedroom family home, which looks out over the surrounding countryside, within easy reach of Gresham’s School at Holt and eight miles from the sublime north Norfolk coast.
Despite the inevitable ups and downs of running a business, Mr and Mrs Jacobs have clearly loved every moment of their time at Wood Farm, but with retirement looming and a few health concerns to concentrate the mind, they have decided that now is the time to sell.
David Lambert of Jackson-Stops in Burnham Market quotes a guide price of £2.85m for Wood Farm — see more pictures and details.
Guide to the Norfolk seaside
Matthew Rice takes us on a tour of favourite family haunts from the Norfolk seaside
Country Life's guide to Norfolk
We recommend heading to Norfolk, a county of unspoilt charm and natural beauty.
The best houses for sale in Norfolk
Activity looks to continue from 2012's end-of-year spree, as three excellent country houses look for buyers in this East Anglian
-
Film star, resistance fighter and civil rights activist: The life and times of Josephine Baker, 50 years on from her deathJosephine Baker was an American-born actress and dancer, who would go on to take France by storm and become one of Europe’s highest-paid performers. She also happened to be a Second World War spy.
-
Sir Edwin Lutyens and the architecture of the biggest bank in the worldSir Edwin Lutyens became the de facto architect of one of Britain's biggest financial institutions, Midland Bank — then the biggest bank in the world, and now part of the HSBC. Clive Aslet looks at how it came about through his connection with Reginald McKenna.
-
The treehouse of your dreams is for sale, and it even comes with a country houseThe only thing more impressive than the treehouse at Springfield House are the recently re-designed interiors.
-
Harts House: A home straight out of a fairytale for sale in KentWe try not to use cliché too often, but sometimes only cliché will do.
-
In search of Arcadia at Ayot Bury, the Georgian home and estate that's 30 minutes from central LondonWith 40 acres and glorious gardens, Ayot Bury might be the perfect country home for those looking for the best of both worlds.
-
The most expensive postcodes outside of London have been revealedSome are not so surprising. Some are quite surprising. Most are still quite close to London. All are costly.
-
A £1.5 million flat on the street where wig and pen once metIt doesn't get more central London than Fleet Street.
-
A spectacular coastal estate in Dorset set on its own private peninsulaThis 160-acre estate is part nature reserve and part country home, with a beautiful Arts-and-Crafts home at its heart.
-
A converted bothy on the shores of Loch Tay from which to enjoy the fresh tastes of SpringWaterfall Cottage offers four bedrooms and a garden that stretches right down to the lapping waters.
-
An idyllic home in Hampshire that's perfect for the musical mindLyewood House sits in 3.5 acres and comes with a purpose built recording studio and an outdoor heated pool.
