A family farm, a restored barn and a straightforward way of doing things

The barn

Haylands Farm sits at the end of a half-mile private drive outside Graffham, surrounded by rolling pasture and woodland at the foot of the South Downs. The flint barn had stood on the farm for generations when we started work on it in 2021, with weddings in mind from the first day.

We kept the flint, the brick and the oak trusses and added what a wedding needs: safe power throughout, bespoke lighting, a changing room, and a large south-facing patio to make the most of the view. Everything else we left open, because the couples we talked to wanted a space to make their own rather than a package to fit into.

Why dry hire, and why open book

We run a farm, not a catering company, and we did not want to pretend otherwise. So the barn is true dry hire: any caterer, your own bar, no corkage. We also decided to publish our price and the price of everything you hire alongside it, including the Tents n' Events furniture and loos, so you can see the whole cost of the day before you book. We add nothing to their prices, and because we are not VAT registered there is no VAT on ours.

Who you will deal with

Archie Godman-Dorington looks after weddings: viewings, enquiries, planning and the weekend itself. Hamish looks after the business side and midweek events. On your wedding weekend, our on-site manager is around from Friday morning to Sunday morning to direct suppliers and keep things running.

We host a limited number of weddings each year, on Saturdays from April to September, so that each one gets a whole weekend and our full attention.