Cannon Hall Farm is celebrating its 35th anniversary of being open to the public with a new podcast series that reveals it almost didn’t exist at all. 
The Nicholson family, who run Cannon Hall Farm, in Cawthorne, has launched the first episode in a six-episode show called The Cannon Hall Farm Podcast, to tell in detail their story of survival for their family farm, which almost went bankrupt in 1989.
Brothers Rob and Dave Nicholson, best known for appearing on TV shows like Springtime on the Farm and The Yorkshire Vet, have teamed up with the next generation of the family – son-in-law and experienced podcast producer Henry Hewitt, and son Tom Nicholson to record their memories of how the farm attraction came to be.
Rob said: “Podcasting was not something that was on mine or Dave’s radar. I think I’d listened to ten minutes of one before and Dave had been to watch one be recorded, and that was it. We have always tried to embrace new ideas and the younger generation of our family really felt this would be a brilliant avenue to have the opportunity to tell our story in more detail. We’ve done bits on TV but you don’t have long, so you can’t go deep into a subject and explore it. 
“We really wanted to share the reality of what life was like for us in 1989. When we were at school, we knew every pound we spent was a pound further away from being able to stay at Cannon Hall Farm. We knew we were losing money every year and that we had an obligation to fight, to try to stay here, to make sure that Dad and Mum’s efforts weren’t in vain.”
It was in 1986 that the banks tried to foreclose on Cannon Hall Farm, advising the family to sell up before they went bust. Rob and Dave – just teenagers at the time – worked second jobs to bring extra income to subsidise the farm, and as a family began planning on a last-ditch attempt to save the farm, by reinventing themselves as a tourism attraction. 
Cannon Hall Farm’s constant reinvestment has meant it is now seen as one of Yorkshire’s best-loved tourist attractions, having scooped many awards over the years.
The Cannon Hall Farm Podcast is a weekly series that releases every Thursday and can be listened to on all major providers. You can listen here.