The Perfect Crafts & Hobbies Experience
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HISTORY
Cottage Farm was originally built in early 1700. Three
great Oaks near the entrance were planted in 1720 when
the long barn beside the road was built. The farm was
extended to Victorian times as a dairy farm.
It became a store in about 1975 and was virtually
derelict when Mike & Linda Wise came in 1985. The
Courtyard Centre was rebuilt in stages between 1986 &
1990 and continues evolving today. The road outside was
once the main road from Poole to Wareham via the village
and turned South at our entrance.
What follows, are extracts from the book ‘So you
want to live in the country’. Written by Mike Wise
and images of how the centre somewhat comically, has
evolved over the years:
The Beginning
On that first day, we stood with our friendly architect
in the yard of the derelict dairy farm that we had
leased in Lytchett Minster village and he said
'What’s it going to be then?' That was the
first of many such questions as we poured all our hard
earned resources in. We had sold our house, car,
everything and were to do much of the work ourselves to
save money. 'We thought we would make it into a
kind of craft centre with people working in the stables
and have dances in the barn, yes, and a dear little tea
shop in the old kitchens' I waved my hands
expansively 'I think we’ll call it The Courtyard
Centre'!
The Rain on Drains
The farm was built in 1720, is listed (Grade
II) and had been unused for some years. Around in were
some quaint streams, so our ‘dear’ architect Johnathon
suggested quite corrected that we conduct a die test.
This entailed us placing a bright blue die in the toilet
bowl in the house & flushing the loo. At high speed we
followed the ‘bloo’ trail. Fifteen minutes later blue
die was flowing through the stream beside the public
path in the nearby caravan park! We had a serious
problem!
As winter drew in, we dug and laid three
thousand metres of main drains to the
nearby village, where we were to connect to the public
sewer. At about the ¾ way point, with aching arthritic
joints and the smell of clay permeated forever in our
clothes, there was a mighty storm, a flash flood and all
our pipes were strewn around the field! It was the first
of many times I wept, as we painstakingly dug out the
300 tonnes of pea gravel and began again!
How Dylan's got it's name
The drains were eventually
completed and we opened to the public with one stable
part converted and containing a few ‘strange arty
crafty’ people and the old kitchen laid up with thirteen
or so chairs and named Dylans Country Tea Shop.
The story behind the name ‘Dylans’ is that our
special nephew, Alexander, has downs Syndrome and when
he began to speak he always had great difficulty saying
Linda, it always came out as Dylan. We have been closely
associated with Alex’s growing years and he and his
school, The Montacute School, visit the Centre
regularly.
We had vowed that whatever business we started, it would
be called Dylans…..Dylans Restaurant was opened on
June 6th 1990.
Feeding the 550!
A national sports travel group asked the local tourism
office who could provide an ‘old English’ supper and
entertainment for 550 people. Yes, 550 international
sports veterans. In October! Outside! ……we proceeded to
cocoon the whole of our 22,000 sq.ft courtyard and all
the walls of our barns and stables in a giant series of
marquee roofs all joined together and with the inside
decorated to create an Olde English village scene. The
veterans came in a convoy of buses one cold dark night.
We had the whole scene heated by giant gas blowers,
lanterns flickered, they drank copious quantities of
strong English beer and consumed £3000 of wine in 23
minutes! I had taxies scouring off-licences to buy wine
in bulk. It was a good job they did drink well, as the
wind blew and the rain began.
All went well for a time, until a minute sag in one of
the roofs of the tent allowed a build-up of water. This
then accumulated and at the exact moment that an elegant
lady Australian tourist sat in her dining place,
fortunately alone, that section of the roof split apart
and several hundred gallons of cold water fell on her
head! There was a micro second of silence during which
my whole life passed before me, and then five hundred
guests cheered wildly. I waited, watching the lady’s
face intently. Suddenly she jumped up, waved her arms
and laughed hysterically. We were saved!
Renovating the Grain store
to become our Medieval function Barn
Like everyone else undertaking such a project, we
suffered the ravages of the ‘officers’. The poor
unfortunate chaps whose job it is to go around applying
the regulations. Thus it is that we have complex hygiene
arrangements, numerous very expensive fire doors and the
lovely timbered roof was covered in class 1
plasterboard. It still, however, looks the part with its
great high vaulted ceiling, enormous support timbers and
great thick brick walls. Many a bride has had a gorgeous
country wedding feast in that unusual setting!
Animals in the stables
For a while we kept our nanny goat, Emily, in one of the
stables and during one function for sixty guests she
began to give birth! We also kept guinea pigs in the
stable and on another occasion, a very elegant lady
councillor visiting us, opened the cage door to stroke
them. ‘I love the big one with the long tail’ she
exclaimed ‘its so smooth’ I quickly ushered them out
knowing that guinea pigs have no tails! A great farm rat
had chewed his way into the rear of the cage and was
sharing tea!
Two steps forward...
Life was full of surprises in the beginning. When we
decided to quickly decorate upstairs in the house to
move in, our builder, Ian, climbed into the loft space
first. We had boxes stacked downstairs waiting. 'Don’t
like the look of this' he said. A phrase we were soon to
dread hearing. 'Someone has sawn through the ceiling
joists' he chattered on. 'I’m going to lean on it and if
it stays up we can decorate' he said. Seconds later the
whole of the upstairs ceiling was downstairs and we were
ten stages back.
From tiny acorns...
As time passed we gradually worked our way around the
centre. There were times of great fear like the October
storms of 1986, when we stood helpless while our three
great Oaks planted in 1970 thrashed around threatening
to collapse on our pets corner or other buildings. At
last, the top half of one of the hundred foot giant
split asunder and crashed to the ground. Down came the
power and telephone cables, but miraculously the main
trunk fell between buildings and there was little damage
or injury.
Dylans expands
As the project neared completion, we looked at our tiny
tea shop, crammed full of mature ladies scoffing Dylans
lovely scones, cream & jam. We now had 21 chairs crammed
in on a Sunday. It was time for the final phase.
We stood looking at the last barn, the old ruined dairy.
It was so dangerous you could move the roof six inches
with your hand! As it was a listed building, we
had to save and clean thousands of antique bricks and
slates to clad the new building……within 6 months we had
a 65 seater restaurant that was the envy of all who
surveyed it.
It was often full every day and packed on Sundays, still
remaining the Dylans home baked, fresh food style.
More recent times
In 1999 the centre was bought by the current owner and a
number of major refurbishments took place.
The whole of the Courtyard was re-laid with block paving
giving easier access to all units for disabled visitors,
the toilets were re-furbished and the Car park
re-surfaced.
Over the last few years we have seen the Chipmunk colony
escape and then get re-captured, The resident ghosts
appear for a photo call during functions and the
patronage of a number of ex-Poole pottery paintresses at
our on -site pottery.
Many people have enjoyed our speciality open weekends
with over 30 Belly dancers, fantastic mountain bike
display team, dance troupe and charity stalls
The Courtyard Centre continues to be one of the very few
FREE tourist attractions in Dorset and offers a peaceful
oasis of calm in a busy world.
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| Historic Photos |
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The Courtyard Craft Centre, Huntick Rd, Lytchett
Minster, Dorset, BH16 6BA
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