Pasture House Holiday Cottages, a family history

Robert and his wife Harriet Euphemia farmed Pasture House at the start of the twentieth century. They had eleven children but sadly only six survived to adulthood.

Great-grandmother to the current generation is Ena, who was born actually in Pasture House, shown here in 1916 near her mother’s right shoulder, with two of her sisters. Ena was one of Robert and Harriet Croft’s children.

Young Ena Croft didn’t stray far to find love, she and George Dean from the neighbouring Grove Farm were married for 65 years and had two children.
This photo shows the farms in 1954. The Crofts farming at Pasture House and the Deans at Grove Farm at the top.

In those days the fold-yard, comprising of brick and tile buildings, were used to house mixed livestock. It was usual to hand milk the house cow, graze a few sheep on the nearby pasture as well as rear a few pigs to sell at the local markets. Heavy horses were used to work the arable land, and there were no such things as combines to bring the harvest in, in an era pre-mechanisation.

Ena and George Dean brought two children up at Grove Farm, in the interim Pasture House was sold by the Croft family.

John was the youngest child of Ena and George, he farmed all his life at Grove Farm but sadly died aged just 58.

John had two children, James being the youngest, he farmed with his father at Grove Farm, and in 2009 he became the tenant of the Pasture House farmland as well as buying the derelict house and buildings. 

Sarah is James’s eldest daughter, she is the fifth and current generation. She graduated from Harper Adams University in 2018, she then worked for McCain in the agriculture department for 18 months and now she farms at home with her father and is leading the holiday cottage development.