Royal memories rekindled as family revisit Lodge Farm 65 years on

King George VI, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret at Lodge Farm in 1951.

Myerscough College has occupied Lodge Farm since 1965, with the land situated just down the road from Myerscough’s main Bilsborrow campus on St Michael’s Road, which opened in 1969.

Previously, the farm was home to the Hodgkinson Family, who lived in the farmhouse, which was originally built in 1888, on the site between 1929 and 1959.

We were delighted to welcome 13 members of the Hodgkinson family back to Lodge Farm, a place that holds many memories.

A few months ago, a chance conversation revealed that many Hodgkinson family members had been born in Myerscough Lodge Farmhouse.

Therefore we were pleased to welcome the group back to Lodge, and humbled to be given a tour of the farmhouse and farm buildings by Gladys Hodgkinson.

The Hodgkinson family met Wes Johnson, Chief Executive and Principal, John Wherry, Deputy Principal and Andrea Gardner, Farms Director - making it a special day for everyone.

During the visit, Gladys revealed an amazing story about the time of a special Royal visit to Lodge Farm in April 1951, when there was a Royal Tour by the Duchy of Lancaster to the Myerscough Estate and Lodge Farmhouse would be just one very important stop for King George VI, Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother), and Princess Margaret also staying for tea and a rest break, after earlier visiting Lancaster Castle.

Although the farmhouse is not to the same eloquent arrangement as when the Hodgkinson family occupied this property, it was good to hear that not much had changed throughout the farmhouse and farm buildings.

At the back of the farm lies the old River Brock, which was where many of the Hodgkinson family son's daughters' nephews and nieces remembered spending happy times playing in the river.

Myerscough College has occupied Lodge Farm for decades. In 2005 Lee Farm and Light Ash Farm were added to the estate and it is now one of the biggest farms on the Myerscough Estate owned by the Duke of Lancaster, King Charles III.