The Barker family came to Fairford in 1650 and were the Lords of the Manor for three hundred years. In its heyday, around 1800, the Estate and its gardens were one of the wonders of Gloucestershire. However, during the next hundred years, the fortunes of the family declined. From the early 1900s, the great house was let and, by 1945, following a period when it had been used for military purposes, it and its remaining estate had to be sold.

Ernest Cook hated the breaking up of estates, and bought it largely to prevent this.Sadly, however, the state of the big house was beyond repair — in those post-war days of rationing of building materials, when the first priority was to rebuild bombed-out Britain. The site is now occupied by Farmors School.

The Mill on the River Coln at Fairford
The Mill on the River Coln at Fairford.

View footpaths in Fairford
The Old Ox Pens, Fairford. Located near the Mill,
it marks the start of the Pitham Walk.

 

Lying on the flat arable plain of the South Cotswolds, the Estate is divided in two by the beautiful valley of the River Coln — that purest of trout streams.

The Barnsley Village Estate, the historic home of the Wykenham-Musgraves, was purchased from them in 1976. It consists of a single large dairy, a sheep and arable farm, and a scattering of the most delightful, traditional stone Cotswold cottages.

 
Winterwell Valley, Barnsley