The Farm

With the farm came space, 41 acres of orchard and pasture, plus a very large shed that had once been a cider factory.

This was structured with sloping floors, open drains and small walls on which had stood large cider barrels, while overhead drive shafts and pulley wheels, that had powered the machines to crush the apples, were still suspended from low beams.

Above the beams were large water tanks, just below the ramshackle roof, that gave a little protection to the swallows nests.

Limited light from the small dust-covered windows, and the sparse electrical fittings, gave a definite Dickensian atmosphere.

No one could have predicted that this old building would one day become one of the best equipped boxing gyms in the country and be used by many professional and amateur boxers, not least Lennox Lewis, Frank Bruno and Jane Couch.