It is Monday morning and Juliet Hawkins has worked another weekend. Last night, she said goodbye to a party of 29 guests celebrating the birth of Krishna in the Grade II-listed grain barn next to her family home. The weekend before, the barn had been the setting of a Tudor wedding, where 40 guests in costume ate off wooden platters with pewter spoons. Her elder daughters, Holly, 14, and Ruby Tiger, 12, sometimes help out on special occasions, while nine-year-old Daisy joins in the fun.

Since the Hawkinses converted the barn three years ago – with the help of grants from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the East of England Development Agency – into a self-catering space for up to 20 guests, there has rarely been a quiet moment in this rural patch of Suffolk.

Before opening the barn (and three b & b rooms in their own house), Juliet and her husband, Christopher, were not exactly idle. Juliet, a self-confessed tree-hugger, has spent the past 20 years as a conservation adviser to farmers. She met her husband 18 years ago, while giving a lecture on wetlands. Christopher farms the family's 500 acres and contract-farms a further 500 acres. He also has a passionate interest in local history.

It was a natural progression, therefore, to adapt their historic barn for groups of weekenders in search of a greener shade of holiday. Activity packs provide guidance, a Norman monument intrigue, and the 2002 Gold Award for Green Tourism in Suffolk reassurance that the Hawkinses are professionals in their field. “All sorts of people come to stay,” explains Juliet. “We offer gentle things, and hope people will enjoy being outdoors and feeling in touch with the land. We hope to inspire them to save it for tomorrow.”

The six-bedroom Tudor farmhouse has been in the family for five generations. It was designed to be approached from the farmyard, but the Georgians added a carriage drive and extra windows to the back of the house to give it a far grander aspect. “Because the three high-ceilinged bedrooms at the front are reserved for paying guests, we still live in the servants' quarters,” says Juliet. As a previous owner emigrated to Australia in the 1980s, taking a lot of the family furniture with her, Juliet and Christopher moved into a fairly empty house. So, Juliet says, “None of our furniture matches, and we have no heirlooms. The house is full of things we've collected over the years from junk shops, antiques markets and furniture warehouses.” Juliet is modest about the decoration, but the result of her laid-back approach is a welcoming home, packed with the trappings of an energetic family.

In furnishing the barn, however, the Hawkinses were more exacting. “We have two four-poster beds, eight singles and two truckle doubles on wheels, all hand-made to a classic Tudor design in Suffolk oak by joiner John Rowland,” explains Juliet. And while most of the guests are expected to bunk down together in the vast barn, Juliet dismisses any dormitory references. “It is utterly comfortable, and the barn is so huge there are plenty of private spaces.” With scope enough to house a re-enactment of aspects of the Civil War one weekend and a village Nativity play the next, the barn is undoubtedly flexible. “In any case,” she shrugs, “snorers can always stay in the b&b.”

For more details, call (01787) 247235, www.thehall-milden.co.uk

WORDS DAISY BRIDGEWATER
PHOTOGRAPHS SIMON BROWN
DECEMBER 2005