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
-
Six rural properties with space, charm and endless views, as seen in Country LifeWe take a look at some of the best houses to come to the market via Country Life in the past week.
-
Exploring the countryside is essential for our wellbeing, but Right to Roam is going backwardsCampaigners in England often point to Scotland as an example of how brilliantly Right to Roam works, but it's not all it's cracked up to be, says Patrick Galbraith.
-
Six rural properties with space, charm and endless views, as seen in Country Life
We take a look at some of the best houses to come to the market via Country Life in the past week.
-
380 acres and 90 bedrooms on the £25m private island being sold by one of Britain's top music producersStormzy, Rihanna and the Rolling Stones are just a part of the story at Osea Island, a dot on the map in the seas off Essex.
-
A home cinema, tasteful interiors and 65 acres of private parkland hidden in an unassuming lodge in KentNorth Lodge near Tonbridge may seem relatively simple, but there is a lot more than what meets the eye.
-
A rare opportunity to own a family home on Vanbrugh Terrace, one of London's finest streetsThis six-bedroom Victorian home sits right on the start line of the London Marathon, with easy access to Blackheath and Greenwich Park.
-
A tale of everyday life as lived on Britain's most expensive streetWinnington Road in Hampstead has an average house price of £11.9 million. But what's it really like? Lotte Brundle went to find out.
-
Damon Hill's former home in Marbella is the perfect place to slow downThe glorious Andalusian-style villa is found within the Lomas de Marbella Club and just a short walk from the beach.
-
A 327-acre estate in the heart of 'England’s Côte d’Or', with a 26,000sq ft Georgian style home at its heartStokes Hall in the Crouch Valley is an inspiring property looking for a new owner.
-
Schreiber House, 'the most significant London townhouse of the second half of the 20th century', is up for saleThe five-bedroom Modernist masterpiece sits on the edge of Hampstead Heath.
