AN award-winning farming couple from Penrith have decided to take on a ‘new adventure’ as they move to sell their much-loved Tebay farm and glamping business to someone who will love the site as much as they have.
Andrew and Emma Skidmore have owned Flakebridge Farm at Tebay for the last seven years alongside their three children, caring for Andrew’s beloved Swaledale sheep and many other animals, alongside the creation of a popular glamping business ‘The Pods by the Stream at Flakebridge Farm’ which has become award-winning in recent years.
The couple have decided that after seven happy years they now wish to take on a new adventure both exploring new careers and putting the farm on the market.
Emma said: “Andrew has been a farmer since he was 14 years old. He used to look after 100 cows from the age of 14 at his farm over in Weardale.
“He has always had a passion for Swaledales which is one of the reasons we moved over, buying the farm at Flakebridge seven years ago.
“We decided seven years ago that we wanted to do it on our own and we had always had in mind to go alongside the farm and encourage people to get hands on when they were here with farming.
“In 2021 we opened our glamping site, and we are now award-winning; we were named seventh best in the country by Pitchup.
“It’s been amazing, but we have gotten to a point in our life where we have decided: let’s have a bit of career change.”
Emma works in mental health at a hospital, with Andrew completely changing career to work for Amazon at Longtown.
She says that the farm is an ‘amazing opportunity’ for anyone who wants to 'run a working farm or diversify on the tradition farm setting'.
It’s a place which holds many happy memories for the couple, with Emma fondly remembering their six-year-old daughter lambing as a toddler and running up the side of the fell in an Elsa dress and Wellington boots.
She said: “It’s an amazing place and a fantastic place to bring up children, but we have decided we have turned the farm round which needed a lot of TLC when it first come, we have improved it, we’ve improved the ground, so we have put it on the market and decided to completely leave farming, which has come as a bit of a shock to people.
“We just want a change of pace and a change of career. We are going to miss it but we just want a bit of a break. We are ready for a new adventure.”
The farm is now on the market including the glamping pods with Vickers and Brass for £1.5million. More details can be found here.
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