Morrells Wood Farm
Morrells Wood Farm is a family run working beef cattle farm, which includes cows and calves, situated 1 ¼ miles from the village of Leighton in Shropshire.
The farmhouse itself dates back to the 1600’s. John and Jean Harper, both from local Shropshire farming families, purchased the farm in 1958 and farmed it together until Derek left school and joined them. It has always been a working farm but a shadow of what it is today – it even had pigs in the farm garden. In 1958 it was approximately 60 acres, but now is almost 100 acres with the purchase of additional land in 1968 and 1973. The original farm was sold off the Leighton Estate in 1929 and had numerous owners and farm bailiffs until 1958. Sadly, Derek’s father John died suddenly in 2004, then in happier times in September 2012, Derek and Sue got married.
Morrells Wood was originally a dairy farm, with laying hens, sheep and dairy cows until 2000, when the farm stopped selling milk and went into rearing beef cattle.
In 2002 the family started to convert the redundant farm buildings into self-catering holiday accommodation and welcomed their first guests to The Byre in April 2003.
Rickyard Cottage and The Byre were the first to be converted. Rickyard Cottage was previously used as calf boxes for rearing the young calves and the shower room was originally the milk room or dairy. The Byre was used to house nine cows for milking in stalls.
Originally used to store all the corn and feed for the farm animals, The Cornhouse conversion was finished in 2006. The small square ‘window’ in the living room is where the hoper from the feed silo entered into The Cornhouse.
The Dairy was the next barn to be converted in 2009. This had been the ‘modern’ dairy where the bulk tank and milking machines were kept.
The Harper’s commissioned their first two Shepherds Huts in 2012. Each is bespoke to their design specification, inspired by the traditional huts used by shepherds tending to their flocks, especially during lambing season. The first hut was the Shepherds Hut, which although is the smallest, it is actually much larger than traditional converted huts. The Shepherds Retreat received its first visitors at Christmas 2012, and the Shepherds Rest was completed in the summer of 2013. All three were made by a south Shropshire firm to the family’s specification. The Shepherds Lodge is the largest of the huts and was built on site in 2017 by Derek and Allan, a close friend and builder of Derek’s.
The huts have proved a great success, providing visitors with a memorable, cosy and spacious place to stay. They take glamping to the next level – as each has its own dedicated kitchen and shower room facilities and the luxury of a double iron framed bed!
The old cattle shed was converted during the summer of 2015 into The Barn, attaining a 4* star gold status! Luxuriously appointed whilst still retaining its rustic charm, it boasts beautiful views of some of Shropshire’s best loved hills.
At the beginning of 2016, in conjunction with the Wroxeter Hotel, Morrells Wood Farm also started hosting weddings. Our first ever wedding breakfast held at Morrells Wood Farm was on Saturday, 6th August 2016. It was a beautiful reception, and truly memorable, after a lovely wedding ceremony at St Mary’s Church, Leighton. Since then, the farm has hosted many wonderful wedding ceremonies on site, as well as fabulous wedding receptions.
This new and exciting venture into weddings has gone from strength to strength and the farm was delighted to discover that they won the Best Newcomer at the West Midland round of the National Wedding Industry Awards 2016! They subsequently won the Best Events Team in 2017 and were runners up at the National Awards in January 2017 and 2018.
The Harper family look forward to welcoming you to Morrells Wood Farm, their beautiful family home for over sixty years!
