Parsons Hall Farm

Standing amongst Worcestershire’s most idyllic countryside rests one of England’s oldest historic Cruck timber frame buildings at Parsons Hall Farm It’s a short path across a charming cobbled yard to John Beavan Luxury Bespoke Furniture workshop – designer, craftsman and owner, along with wife Nicki of Treeopia treehouse retreats. 

This charming “chocolate box” black and white farm house; complete with thatched roof is over 700 years old. A cruck or crook frame is a curved timber, one of a pair, which supports the roof of a building. The long, curved, timber members lean inwards and form the ridge of the roof. These posts are then generally secured by a horizontal beam which then forms an “A” shape. Just the sort of place you would expect a renowned, traditional cabinet maker to live. 

“You know whenever John is involved that everything will be turned out to the very highest quality” Earl of March 

The adjacent timber tithe barn at Parsons Hall Farm Click here was lovingly restored using traditional tools and age old skills by John Beavan. Both the detached kitchen of the Cruck house and tithe barn date back to the Middle Ages when tithe barns were used for storing rents and tithes. Farmers were required to give one-tenth of their produce to the established Church. The tithe barn is now used as film location and events venue. 

Sympathetic, traditional restoration has been balanced to combine up-to-date and environmentally friendly facilities giving heat and hot water via a ground source heat pump and own bore hole for fresh spring water. 

Surrounded by more than thirty acres of old ley meadows now used in rearing the oldest breed of native cattle Pedigree Traditional Herefords. A good herbal pasture grass gives the cattle medicinal plants and help to keep the internal parasites and worms down too. The meadows are fertilized using only liquid seaweed fertilizer. The cattle are fed naturally; grass fed during the summer months and fed hay from the meadows during the winter months. 

The cattle are reared up to 30 months; a slow growth shows in the quality and marbling of the meat, the beef is then matured for over 21 days. There are meat packs available to purchase here 

The surrounding woods have an abundance of wildlife and wildflowers with small stone bridges crossing the brooks which meander into and out of the Medieval fishing pools. 

Two of the mature ash trees in this idyllic and peaceful habitat have now being transformed into idyllic treehouses here at Treeopia. 

“Craftsmanship names an enduring, basic human impulse, the desire to do a job well for its own sake.”  Richard Sennett, The Craftsman 

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