About us

Before I moved to the Scottish Borders, I had been homeless for nearly 33 years. Charlie welcomed me into his life and helped me finally settle down. We met when I was hitchhiking out of Selkirk. He picked me up and drove me right to the door of my emergency accommodation in Hawick. I asked if he needed a friend, and he said, "Yes." I invited him in for coffee, and later he invited me to visit his farm. For six months, we were just friends, but over time, we grew closer and found that we balanced each other's lives. I spent two years living in emergency accommodation before I was resettled in Ancrum. During that time, the only people I saw were Charlie and a friendly, housing support worker named Sam.

I started farming with Charlie in November 2022. Before that, my only experience with farming was walking along public footpaths through fields. At first, all the poo made me want to avoid farming, but after some time, it really isn’t that bad. Besides making Charlie hot meals every day and cleaning his farmhouse, I also help with his sheep whenever I can.

Charlie has lived at Woodburn Farmhouse for more than ten years. Before that, he lived at the foot of the Eildons and was a close neighbour of Lord Minto. Charlie first moved to the Scottish Borders for health reasons, leaving behind his farm and land in Aberdeenshire. He grew up on a farm in Warwickshire and has spent his whole life working as a farmer. Charlie works as a farmhand in the Scottish Borders, herding Limousin cattle. He has been doing this job for about 13 years. He often works 10 or even 12 hour shifts, but his schedule has been cut back to three days a week because of his health. He has hands shaped by hard work and goes out no matter the weather. His employers, a farming family are nice people.

Sam is a tri-coloured Border Collie sheepdog. Charlie saved him from being put down. If you notice that his eyes look unusual, we think he may have an inherited eye condition called Collie Eye Anomaly (CEA).

Charlie mainly keeps sheep as a hobby, not to make a profit, not to make a profit. He mainly breeds Teeswater sheep, but he has also added Dorset and Zwartble breeds. Woodburn Farmhouse has just one-acre paddock, so to ensure our animals have enough grazing, we lease additional grass from early April to late November.