Manchester places

The film is the work of University of Salford student director Danny Lomax, who became interested in the subject, as many people do, after driving past it on the busy motorway.

Danny Lomax

"I visit family in Huddersfield and I travel across from Rochdale, so I come across the farmhouse all the time. I became fascinated about why it was there and who would live there.

"I've heard all kinds of myths about why it’s there, like the old farmer wouldn’t move and the like, and I’ve heard them for many years. So when I got the opportunity to make a documentary, I thought, that’s what I’d like to make a film on."

It might sound like a trouble-free idea, but Danny says it wasn’t that straightforward to film, especially at the beginning.

"The first thing we actually had to do was track down the farmhouse. It’s easy to see from the motorway, but there’s no road to it from there.

Paul Thorp on Stott Hall Farm

"When we found our way there, the farmer wasn’t in, so I tried to call him, but couldn’t get his number, as he’s ex-directory.

"We ended up having to go round different farmers in the area and asked them for his number. Thankfully, they had and we went from there."

Danny admits that the farmer, Paul Thorp, was "a bit dubious" about the project to begin with, mostly because he can’t see what is of interest about his farm.

"He wasn't really up for it at first, but I explained to him about what I wanted to do and then gave him some time to think about it. I phoned him the next day, as I wanted to get going on the project, and he agreed to be part of it.

The Farmhouse debunks some of the stories that persist around the farmhouse, not least the one about why it splits the carriageways so dramatically, as Danny explains.

"I wanted to find out about the farm and the farmer who lived there and I ended up finding something quite different from what I'd been told before.

"It wasn't the old farmer who wouldn't move, it was just the structure of the land and that the road had to be built that way, which left the farmhouse in the centre.

"Paul actually worked for the old farmer and he chose to take it over when the farmer passed away. If he hadn’t have done, it might have ended up as a derelict property stuck there in the middle of the motorway."

Paul brings in the sheep

For Danny though, the film wasn’t made to simply tell the truth of the property; he was just as interested in showing the stark contrast between Paul’s existence and that of the people who pass him daily.

"I wanted to show another side of the whole thing. It's a great contrast to me, Paul’s life. The modern day rushes by every day, but Paul’s doing something, sheep-farming, that is ages old and he lives a very simple life on the farm."

Danny has plans to expand the film to a make a longer feature, but for now, he’s happy to show the whole extraordinary story in around eight gentle and thoughtful minutes – and The Farmhouse does just that.