Thirty acres of rare, untouched wildflower meadows were just part of the reason why land agent Julian Lambton and his wife Vanda bought their Cartmel Fell farm in 2006.

Almost immediately Julian, a former partner (and now consultant) at Carter Jonas in Kendal, and his wife set about making the 80-acre hill farm more wildlife friendly. Over the years he has negotiated with tenant farmer John Cook, who grazes 120 Swaledale ewes on the land, to create wildlife ponds on the marshy areas including one measuring 35m by 20m, put in hedges, renovated walls. “I steal corners of the land, the marginal land with little value for grazing. It gives the livestock more shelter,” he says.

The couple, helped by a series of stewardship grants, have also planted 5,000 trees, including three orchards of old English apples and damsons, by hand. Eight years ago the Lambtons decided to share the beauty of their farm with others and set about converting one of their two traditional Lakeland barns into an events venue. Now Hare Hill Barn attracts hundreds of crafters, business people on away days and others who have privately hired the space.

“For Julian’s big birthday we had a party in the barn. It wasn’t used for the farm, just storage, and we cleared it for Julian’s 60th birthday and after that we thought we should make something of it. The idea started but it took a while for us to decide what we wanted to do. I am very into craftwork so I wanted to run craft courses but we decided it needed to be much more flexible than that so it’s an adaptable place,” says Vanda.

They started building in December 2019 just as Covid hit. The barn officially opened in July 2021 with an eco-printing craft course – a year later than planned. They didn’t have a business plan but Julian says their objective was that they needed to earn a return on the money they had invested in the barn which was higher than if it had been in the bank earning interest. “At that time the rates of interest were about half a per cent so we have done much better than that,” says Julian.

They renovated the barn, creating a large picture window with views over the Winster Valley, installed heating, a woodburner, kitchen, toilets and patio area. With a South Lakeland District Council Covid Business Interruption Grant from SLDC they continued to improve the premises.

The air source heat pump they installed has proved costly with rising electricity costs so Julian is now applying for planning permission for 27 solar panels to counteract the cost – he already has permission for nine – but says they will be in a part of the farm where nobody will see them.

Vanda said their first year of business was quite tricky because of the Covid restrictions. “It was quite tricky for a year or so having to work with reduced numbers,” she says. Despite the problems one of their early exhibitions attracted  300 visitors to the rural venue on Cartmel Fell and others have been almost sell-out shows for some of the artists.

Every year Vanda runs a busy calendar of arts and crafts courses and organises three to four exhibitions from April to December. Vanda also teaches the Indian block printing and millinery courses – she has another hat hire business, Mad Hatters Cumbria, which she bought eight years ago. The barn is also offered for yoga sessions and private hire.

“We wanted to be seen to be supporting local artists… that was a driver for us to give people the opportunity to display their work,” says Julian. “People have said it’s a great exhibition space.”

They also had a wedding licence for three years but say they have let it lapse as they only had one wedding and most people who looked around wanted a larger venue. “It was an expensive mistake, we tried it,” says Vanda.

The barn is also available for private dining events and office parties. Last year Julian’s firm, Carter Jonas, held their Christmas party there. They also host business away days where firms can enjoy the space and explore the farm. The corporate away days currently  make up about 10 per cent of their barn income and they are looking to increase this side of the business.

“I think it would be good to target more business meetings where people come for the whole day and I cook them lunch. That would be a good way forward. It feels like a remote place here but it’s not and it’s easy to get to. It’s also very quiet here, we’ve got B4RN wi-fi, they can use the farm and Julian would take them on a walk if they’d like,” says Vanda.

Julian is heading towards retirement and says when he finally leaves Carter Jonas he will look at other ways to bring in more income including accessing Higher Stewardship Grants. They would also like to get schools interested in visiting and give youngsters the chance to learn about the countryside and the wildlife they have attracted.

Julian says: “It’s a lovely farm this but it dawned on me (when we bought it)  it’s pretty bare, close grazed by sheep. I felt it needed a bit more variety, to enhance the landscape and provide habitat and slow down the water flow to keep the water on the fell for as long as possible. I am fascinated and interested in the whole crisis of nature depletion and what we have done to ruin our natural environment but it is recoverable and we are just doing our bit.”

Vanda adds: “We were lucky we had 30 acres of wildflower meadows which hadn’t been disturbed and we wanted to carry on with that. We wanted to encourage hares, by planting the hedges and woods it gives them wildlife corridors.” Last year they sold their wildflower seed (on behalf of their tenant farmer) to Mark Cropper’s Ellergreen Estate at Burneside.

“We bought this as a home but we never intended to buy a farm. The justification for a farm was that it had to have an income, a rent from John and environmental payments. Well, that’s how we justified it to ourselves, we were just passionate about it! Underscoring all of our thinking here is that it’s such a lovely place we didn’t want to keep it to ourselves. I love the fact people come up here and they leave smiling whatever they have done here. It’s really important for us and you get fantastic feedback, it’s like a therapy for some people,” says Julian.