About Us

We are Amy and Richard Warrick and we were lucky enough to find this beautiful spot in the autumn of 2020. We moved from Devon, following our dream of owning our own smallholding. We have always lived rurally - we both hail originally from a rural village in South Oxfordshire where we first met. Disdow Cottage is the culmination of many years of hard work and some good fortune. Living here makes us very happy indeed.

Formerly part of Cally Estate, Disdow Cottage originally comprised of two farm workers' cottages. One belonged to Disdow Farm - just up the track from the cottage. The other one to Drumwall Farm - barely a field or two away. They were combined sometime in the 1980s and remained part of Disdow Farm until we purchased it along with the adjacent field.

All in all, Disdow Cottage sits in about nine acres. We have just under an acre of mixed woodland, some conifer and more established broadleaf trees. The field is about eight acres, with some good pasture rising along the edges. As the field drops it gets boggy, smothered in a thick blanket of rushes, before reaching a wee burn which chatters away all year round.

Livestock

Along with our three dogs (Betsy, Talbot, and Lawrence, a terrible trio of terriers), we are adding a growing collection of furry and feathered friends here at Disdow Cottage.

Tom - the Gypsy Cob

Tom has been Amy's trusted steed for over eight years now. Sadly his riding days are over - a severe case of arthritis put pay to that. Tom now acts as chief conservation grazer, fence tester, and a reluctant leader to our small flock of sheep.

The Chickens

Three chickens joined us here at Disdow Cottage in our first summer. Perpetually annoyed and spending every waking moment plotting our demise, they do provide us and our neighbours with a regular supply of glorious eggs.

The Sheep

Margot, Claude, Coco, and Edith comprise our miniature flock of Ouessant Sheep. As well as being a rare breed, Ouessant sheep are the smallest sheep in the world. But don't let that fool you. They are intelligent, cunning, and lightning fast.

We shear our flock once a year (that is a sight to behold I tell you) and Amy uses the wool in her magnificent felting creations. They are also great devourers of docks so improve our pasture no end.

The Goats

Lulu, Gilda, and Buddy make up our gang of Golden Guernsey Goats. Cheeky, mischievous, and generally gorgeous, these goats are a continual source of amusement to all who visit us.

Our aim is to put Gilda and Lulu to kid later in the year. Not only will this increase the size of our herd, but also allow us to milk them, providing us with a regular supply of goats cheese. We cannot wait.

What next?

Over the next few years we plan to add a couple of pigs and some bees to Disdow Cottage. Watch this space.

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Flora & Fauna

We are blessed with some special wildlife here at Disdow Cottage, and we have further plans to gently nudge our land to make it even more friendly to the local fauna.

a number of new trees planted in our field

Tree Planting

In addition to our own pocket of woodland, we have some mature ash, beech, and sycamore bordering our fields. But we were aware that we could do more and to that end, we planted an extra hundred trees in March 2020. Half of these trees were planted in our boggy area to try and break up the monoculture of rushes. These are a mixture of water tolerant species, mostly downy birch and willows. The other half were planted alongside our track and burn. These are all hardy native species - rowan, crab apple and wild cherry.

This planting was made possible by a generous grant from the Galloway Glens Landscape Partnership and with heapfuls of advice from the Woodland Trust.

Wildlife

The bird feeders attract a whole flock of wild birds - tits, finches, wagtails, nuthatches, sparrows, woodpeckers and a gang of unruly jackdaws. Red kites and buzzards are a regular sight soaring above Disdow Cottage, and we have also seen sparrowhawks and a merlin patrolling the field. We saw a barn owl when we first moved in but have missed them over the last year. We hope to install a nest box for owls this winter so hopefully, that encourages their return.

Disdow Cottage

Grow Your Own

We have been slowly carving out a corner of the overgrown garden to grow some veg. We started small last year but have increased the varieties this year. For the first time, we are employing a 'no dig' philosophy. Certainly cuts down on the amount of work and the initial yields are promising.

We also planted a mini orchard of eight hardy fruit trees. Apples, pears and plums are all growing well and we look forward to reaping the rewards of these in the years to come.

our Honesty Shops setup at the side of Disdow Cottage

The 'Honesty' Shop

We set up our 'Honesty' shop this year, to sell or swap our surplus produce. We are particularly keen to trade our 'swaps' with the 'swaps' from other people's gardens. We also offer a eco-friendly, zero carbon local delivery service (well me on my bike if I'm honest).

Suffice to say that we haven't given up our day jobs just yet - but there is an enormous amount of satisfaction when we see some new plants that have been left for us to try and grow.