Home Farm

Home Farm is the biggest property in Emmerdale Village. Whoever lives at Home Farm is the richest person or family in the village. The current owner is Joseph Tate. After 12 years, a Tate is back owning the farm, seems lightning does strike twice. The house's structure dates from the 1600s. It was first seen in the series in January 1973 as Miffield Hall and was owned by the then squire George Verney whose family had been the aristocrats in Beckindale since 1588. Upon his marriage break up George went to live in exile in Cannes and the property was used as a teacher training college. George Verney died in September 1978. His nephew Gerald Verney inherited the place but he sold it to national landowning company NY Estates and the building and its land was renamed Home Farm. Trevor Thatcher and his wife moved into the property when he became estate manager. In 1979 he was taken over by Maurice Westrop. Maurice left in 1980 and

Emmie Home Farm 1979 — Home Farm in 1979.

Richard Anstey took over. Again he was another short lived manager, having been sacked in 1981. In March 1982 a new manager was appointed - Alan Turner, who was from the South on England. Since 1988 when NY Estates pulled out Home Farm has had many owners, often with dysfunctional lives such as Frank Tate, Zoe Tate, Chris Tate, Kim Tate, Tom King, Mark Wylde and Declan Macey. Lawrence White owned the estate until his 2018 death, and his family were as dysfunctional as the Tates, Wyldes, Maceys and Kings.

Biography

Backstory

Miffield Hall was built in the mid 1600s when the Verney family were the lords of the manor. It was extensively rebuilt in the 1800s which makes up much of the present structure. George Barton Verney was born at the aristocratic home in 1910 and was the last paternalistic lord of the manor. George's brother died in the war, when his son Gerald Verney was a baby, and George's sister Marjorie Verney married Ronald Proctor and bore a son Mark Proctor. In 1966 George wed much young woman Laura and she moved into the home with him. They never had any children.

For many years, Sam Pearson worked on the estate as did Seth Armstrong.

1972-1978

Emmie george and laura verney — George and Laura Verney in 1973 in the lounge.

In 1973 George and Laura Verney were residing at Home Farm, then still known as Miffield Hall. Jack Sugden had an affair with Laura as she found her marriage to George boring. Jack also tried to blacken George's name in which he got a horsewhipping by Verney for his troubles. George and Laura's marriage dissolved and in 1975 George went to live in exile in Cannes, France. That year Henry Wilks showed an interest in buying the Hall off of George Verney but pulled out. A few years later in September 1978 George Verney died and Miffield Hall was passed down to his nephew Gerald Verney.

1978-1981

In 1978 Gerald Verney was out of pocket by crippling death duties inherited from his uncle George. He was forced to sell up. In October 1978 a conglomerate called NY Estates (North Yorkshire Estates) bought Miffield Hall and renamed it Home Farm. This meant big changes for Beckindale. Ruthless boss Trevor Thatcher wa

Emmie maurice westrop — Maurice Westrop in 1980. Photo courtesy of Beckindale Bugle. http://www.beckindale.com/search?q=westrop

s appointed the manager of Home Farm and stayed with his wife Paula Thatcher in a caravan while the house was being renovated. One of his schemes was attempting to evict 70 year old Nellie Ratcliffe from her home she had rented for the past 50 years. He was unsuccessful though. He was soon dismissed for causing the death of several fish in the fish farm on the estate.

In January 1979 Maurice Westrop took over as the new Home Farm manager. He was replaced by Richard Anstey in May 1980 after Westrop was posted to an NY Estates holding in Wales. Richard was a businessman by all means but was not a bad person however he did plan a tree felling scheme. Anstey then offered Joe Sugden the post of Farm Manager in October 1980. Richard created a new area of conifer tree forest on the Home Farm Estate. In 1981 the NY Estates boss Christopher Meadows got wind of Anstey's affair with the regional managers wife Virginia Lattimore. Richard was given his marching orders by Meadows. Joe Sugden took over as temporary manager of Home Farm.

1982-1988

Emmie ep 787 — Alan Turner took over as Home Farm manager in 1982.

In March 1982 a new manager for Home Farm was appointed. The then secretary Pat Sugden introduced this new man to Joe Sugden. This man was Alan Turner, a man who had worked in the farm management business for some time. He and Joe Sugden got off to a good start and Turner seemed quite humble to begin with but in May 1982 he blamed Joe Sugden for an error over a crop spray on NY land which caused some cattle at Emmerdale Farm to stampede. Alan later sacked Jackie Merrick for setting fire to the Merrick's caravan. He started becoming very unpleasent by the end of 1982, treating the workers like dirt, and thinking he was the most powerful man in Beckindale.

In 1983 he stooped lower by victimising his staff and giving cowman Daniel Hawkins jobs doing heavy manual work, claiming Daniel was a General Labourer and that he was within his rights to ask anyone to do any job on Home Farm. Shop steward John Tuplin wanted to get the union involved. At the same time Rev Hinton's daughter Barbara Peters was employed as the secretary to Alan Turner, and he soon made her quite uncomfortable by standing over her as she worked, trying to win her over. Turner even blackmailed Tuplin to go along with redundances announced by head office.

In January 1984, Turner's wings were clipped when he was given a severe warning by NY Estates director Christopher Meadows. He was soon appointed a secretary, Caroline Bates. She bought out a softer side to Alan. In 1985, Alan's son Terence Turner came to stay at Home Farm. Seth Armstrong was one of the Home Farm "workers" but as Turner was always in the office, bone idle Seth took advantage of this by skiving off a lot. Seth was so lazy that he made Stan Ogden of Coronation Street look like the hardest worker ever.

In April 1986, Turner and Joe Sugden competed for the position of Regional Manager and Joe pipped Turner to the post, becoming Turner's boss. This peeved Turner. In 1986, NY Estates bought Hotten Cattle Market off Arthur Golding. In 1987, there was threats of redundancies at Home Farm. Christopher Meadows assured them there was not going to be any.

1988-1989

NY Estates decided to pull out of Beckindale and Home Farm in January 1988. Home Farm went on the market. It was in March 1988 that NY Estates finally cut all ties with Home Farm. Alan Turner and Joe Sugden went into partnership to buy the property. But they struggled to make ends meet. Turner was quite complacent at first. He lost a valuable client, Sir Charles Douglas, due to being caught drink driving and speeding while driving him along to a dinner. This put Sir Charles off and he returned to London the next day, cancelling his tour of the estate. Joe was livid at Turner. Due to marriage problems, Jock became a liability and crashed Turner's Land Rover and causes a fish farm crisis. But Turner was in no position to moralise as he lost a client when drink driving. Jock soon improved. Turner and Joe even had a woodland on the land felled to pay for the mortgage. This angered Jack Sugden, but Joe and Turner said they were having trees chopped down that were ready to go. They wanted to keep Home Farm running.

In August 1988 crooked businessman Denis Rigg took an interest in the property. He found out about Joe and Turner selling trees. Denis conned Alan Turner and Joe into selling their shares at a low price. Denis planned to demolish half of the village to make way for a quarry. He made moves on Emmerdale Farm. While arguing with Joe about an offer to sell Emmerdale Farm at a low price, Denis aggrivated a bull and was crushed to death by it, thus saving the village from the biggest battle since the proposed nuclear dump 2 years earlier.

1989-2005

In November 1989, self made millionaire and haulage company owner Frank Tate and his younger wife Kim Tate and Frank's children Chris Tate and Zoe Tate moved in after Frank bought the property for £1000'000. Frank had big plans for the Home Farm estate and planned to modernise the estate and open up a holiday village to make Beckindale a tourist area.

Long term worker Jock MacDonald stole from Home Farm and also recieved a horsewhipping from Zoe Tate after her was cruel to a horse. Frank sacked Jock MacDonald for blackmailing him after seeing him kissing another woman. Jock torched one of the stables and was arrested.

Frank Tate opened up the holiday village in 1992 and planned to turn Beckindale into a tourist village. But he found

Emmie holiday village 1992 — Home Farm holiday village in 1992.

out that Kim Tate was having an affair with Rt Hon Neil Kincaid. He threw Kim out. In December 1992, Frank seriously assaulted Kincaid at a hunting gala. He had to be restrained by Chris and several others. Frank sunk into deep depression and was drinking a lot. In December 1993, Frank wanted to reconcile with Kim. He drove up to Kim's Stables, Home Farm and sat in his car, stewing over whether to give Kim her late Christmas present. A plane crashed on the village, and a fireball hit Kim's stables. During the night, Frank helped villagers and the emergency services. But his son Chris Tate was left paralysed after a fireball hit the Woolpack wine bar. The crash reunited Frank and Kim. They remarried in December 1994 at Ripon Cathedral.

In 1995, Frank went to war with the local Dingle family when he wanted them out. That year, he had a heart attack and his health started to fail. He then found that Kim was cheating on him again, this time with Dave Glover. Kim and Frank warred, she even pretended she had died and had Frank arrested but she was revealed to be alive and in May 1997 she watched Frank die of another heart attack, not calling the ambulance.

2005-2008

Emmie 2005 home farm explosion. — Home Farm is blown up by Zoe Tate in 2005.

In 2005 Tom King brought Home Farm, and was just about to move in before it was blown up by a departing Zoe, in revenge for him blackmailing her into selling it to him. The repair work was quicky done and the Kings moved in. They tended to do what the Tates had done, throw their weight around in the village.

2010-

In January 2010 Natasha Wylde shot dead her cheating husband Mark and buried him in the woods. In early 2010

Emmie 26 dec 2013 — The Home Farm curse strikes again when a cash strapped Declan gets handy with the petrol.

businessman Declan Macey arrived in Emmerdale and became a business associate of Natasha Wylde at Home Farm. He then bought a share in Home Farm and even asked Alan Turner for advice on how to run the place as Turner ran it years before. Natasha Wylde and her son Nathan stitched up Mark's son by Faye, Ryan Lamb for the murder of Mark and Ryan was charged but eventually set free and Natasha was sent to prison. Declan knew Nathan also tried to frame Ryan so he blackmailed Nathan into giving him Home Farm and became the owner in November 2010. He told Nathan to give his share of the money to a trust fund for brother Will.

In 2012 Declan Macey tied up some of his investments in a festival to be held there and it would net him £250'000.

In 2013 Declan lost everything due to financial worries. In December 2013 he torched the place, and in September 2014, Home Farm was reposessed. Declan killed his nephew and went on the run.

2014-2017

In October 2014, former village resident Lawrence White bought the property after it was reposessed from Declan Macey. Lawrence was a friend of Edna Birch, and had a gay affair with her husband back in 1963, in which he went to prison for, as homosexuality was illegal until 1967. Lawrence talked to his friends in the village of when the Verney family used to own the property when he was a young boy. Lawrence's daughter Chrissie White and grandson Lachlan White and Chrissie's fiance Robert Sugden moved in with Lawrence. Robert being the nephew of former manager and short time owner Joe Sugden. Robert and Chrissie later split. Lawrence had a habit of paying off victims of the villainous ways of his grandson Lachlan. Ronnie Hale was yet another male lover of Lawrence, and this confirmed that Lawrence was still interested in men even after Harold and later marrying a woman.

2018-

Lawrence findally decided to sell up and move to Australia with the family. The new owner of Home Farm was none other than Joseph Mark Tate, the grandson of Frank, and the son of Chris Tate. The Tate dynasty was back at the helm of Home Farm and Emmerdale Village. Joe proved he was another dysfunctional businessman and he had feuded with the Dingles and had wanted revenge on them for their part in his father's death in 2003.

Joe had exercise machines installed. He also planned to use Jimmy King in his revenge plan against the Kings for their part in getting rid of the Tate's from Home Farm in 2005.

Memorable info

In December 1989, the phone number for Home Farm was 623099 (episode 1413).
According to Marlon Dingle, Home Farm is located [from Emmerdale village] "half a mile up Connelton Lane" (episode 4958).
Described by Chrissie White as "the big house on the hill" (episode 7007).
In October 2016, the loction of Home Farm was "Connelton Lane". (episode 7651).