We offer a get away from it all lifestyle holiday with hot tubs which are freshly filled for each guest, we have our own boreholes so we have a constant supply. James, who’s previous career was in the motor trade, takes care of the properties on a daily basis and can often be seen strimming, cutting grass and undertaking the endless maintenance work required to ensure the people staying in the properties have the best possible time, by keeping everything as clean, tidy and spic and span as possible.

We do everything we can to encourage wildlife and a guest recently counted 28 different species of bird whilst enjoying his morning coffee. We have red deer walk across most mornings, rabbits, hares and are lucky to have yellowhammers return every year. Several mating pairs of sparrows return each year to raise their fledglings.

Farming and the countryside is in James’s blood and Grandparents of both his parents were farmers here in Brayton and at Green Hammerton. The family farm is a completely separate entity but James keeps in touch with what is being grown on behalf of our visitors. Usually there is a mix of sugar beet, carrots, wheat, barley and maize. James’s other passion is running and cycling in the countryside, taking part in long distance events far in excess of marathons and has completed the Moors and Cleveland Way route from Helmsley to Guisborough .

Running the holiday accommodation was not James’s original plan but he cannot ever imagine retiring saying “why would I retire from something I really enjoy? Our guests are lovely people with smiles on their faces because they are relaxed. They are a pleasure to talk to and share stories and they keep coming back, so we must be doing something right”.

- James Middlebrook-