Creating ‘Long Acre Barn wedding venue’ has been a journey that began in 1976, and it really started with Johnny’s father Steele Addison – a great conservationist, and two young men from New Zealand, planted larch trees on the farm. In 2020, some 34 years later, Johnny felled those trees, along with some oaks, marking the start of our diversification project.

Johnny’s father, Steele Addison was first and foremost a farmer and an arboriculturist. As a landowner, he planted his first trees at the age of 18 long before conservation became an issue. Then, in 1974, he began planting larch trees at Keld when it was still a tenanted farm. These trees have now become part of the Long Acre Barn journey.

Using our own timber took longer than we first anticipated. It all took extra time to fell, cut and saw the timber for the floors, staircase, bar and pergola, but it was worth the wait.

In the granary we had to lift the floorboards to make repairs and to lay new larch floorboards. Modern technology may be digital, but we loved seeing how resourceful the carpenters were ‘back in the day’. You could clearly see matching symbols on the joists of the timber that the craftsmen used to custom make the boards to fit.

It's extraordinary to think that back in the day, many barns like ours were planned out and marked up before being erected - making the build process easier. Roman numerals were usually chiselled into the wood to help match up joints - you can read more on this in the history of the barn. (link)

It took ages to get our timber cut and dried but the wood finally arrived in two loads in the late summer of 2021 so we could put the new floor down in the granary. And it was all hands on deck with some wonderful help from the A & T Development team.

The staircase from the bar to the first floor of the granary show off the rustic character of the wood, each piece uniquely displaying the grain and the bark on the timbers. It certainly adds something different when brides are looking for unusual picture backdrops and a chic, boho backdrop for their wedding.

Our own oak was used for the stairs in the main barn, cut from a 3-tonne oak tree planted in late 1700's when George III was on the throne. It was a huge tree that took a lot of felling and drying out. We have also used oak doors throughout the build – apart from the big sliding doors which are larch, and there was enough of our own oak left to use as part of the patio pergola too. It finishes off the barn beautifully and fits with the quirky, laid back ambience we want to create.

Now Long Acre Barn is completed, we’re thrilled with the finished look – rural, authentic, charming and very unique.