Drive a couple of miles south-west of Altrincham, off the motorway and into the rolling fields of Cheshire, and you'll find something that shouldn't really exist.
Tucked behind a lane, beside meadows and forests but still only a stone's throw from the A556, is Millington Hall Farm, a 16th-century former pig farm that's now at the centre of one of the most ambitious transformations in the area.
On a tour around the farm one hot and sunny day, it's almost difficult to take in everything going on all around.
Large teepees stand ready to host immersive cooking experiences. Numerous workers toil away in the afternoon sun on an imaginatively landscaped garden. Across the farm, ambitious renovations are transforming the site, with future retail, hospitality and visitor experiences in the works, and partnerships with major brands including Thatcher's Cider and Big Green Egg.
And somewhere out in the beautiful green valley, there are plans for a candlelit dining experience beside an ancient quarry wall, where guests will be driven down in a 4x4 and handed a glass of champagne at the entrance to the forest.
This is Millington Hall Farm - and it is only just getting started.
The farm's story in its current form begins with HS2. The original 190-acre estate, part of the ancient Tatton Estate, was cut in half when one arm of the infamous high-speed rail link was routed through the land. Unable to farm a split holding viably, the site's longstanding farmer moved on. New proprietor Marty Finney - a man with a background in TV, photography and filmmaking - had spotted an opportunity.
"None of this was the way it is now," says Steve Crowe, the farm's events manager. "The character of the site has changed dramatically. Areas that were once underused have been reimagined to create the destination visitors see today." Marty, he explains, has a gift for vision. "He's one of those chaps who knows a lot of things about a lot of things. He was able to see what he wanted it to be."
What Marty wanted it to be was Wild Grill, an outdoor cooking experience unlike anything else on offer in the North. Not a class where you watch someone cook, but something immersive, hands-on and built around fire, community and the food that comes from the land around it.
From joiner to fire chef
Enter Steve. Like many tradespeople, the Timperley-born joiner saw his work dry up overnight when lockdown hit in 2020 - so he turned to something completely different: cooking. Or more specifically, barbecuing. And posting about it online.
"I've always loved food, always loved cooking, especially outdoor cooking," he says. "But it never even occurred to me that it could be something I could do for a living."
Lockdown changed that. His social media following grew, and his efforts were spotted by Marty, who needed a demo chef for Wild Grill. "He'd found that people were either really good at cooking barbecue, or really good at entertaining," Steve explains. "Not both. And he needed the two."
Steve came in on a trial basis, sub-contracting on weekends while still running his joinery business Monday to Friday. When the previous events manager left, Marty called him in and Steve assumed the worst. "I thought he was going to say, that's it, we're going in a different direction. And he just said, do you want to come on board full-time as events manager? I said, I think you've got the wrong guy. But he said they could provide all the support - they just couldn't teach what I already had."
So Steve took a leap of faith (and a pay cut), and he's now the beating heart of what Millington Hall Farm is becoming. "It's the happiest I've ever been in work," he says.
The Wild Grill experience Steve now leads has become the hottest ticket on the farm's website, with tickets selling out every time its limited dates are released. Up to 26 guests arrive, are greeted with a free bar, and spend a day that begins with breaking down a half pig - carried on a guest's shoulder to the butchery block - before cooking cuts they've prepared themselves over an open fire. Goat grilled medium-rare; sausages made from scratch; flame-cooked dishes that, for many guests, are unlike anything they've eaten before.
All the meat comes from within three miles. Pigs, goats and lambs from Fenton's Farm just up the road. Cheese is from Altrincham's Burt's Cheese, while the beer is brewed in Northwich.
The community that has grown around it surprised even those building it. A free event last autumn - the BBQ Community Cookout, open to all, with no entry fee and free food on the day - drew barbecue enthusiasts from across the country. Brands arrived in numbers, chefs and food influencers brought their smokers, and one Staffordshire butcher donated around £4,000 worth of meat, simply because they believed in what was happening.
"We swallowed the cost," Steve admits. "But it turned out to be an incredible marketing tool. Our bookings went through the roof."
Bigger than the farm
Now the vision is expanding. Former agricultural and derelict buildings across the farm are being brought back into the farm's retail, dining hall and showroom plans, while a partnership with US barbecue brand Big Green Egg will one day see Millington Hall become the North's only official Big Green Egg barbecue school.
A kitchen garden is weeks from completion, and a licensed bar is planned for Thursday through to Sunday.
The longer-term plan is to truly realise what food, fire and gathering together can be, from fine dining supper clubs to a place for partner chefs to host their own events on-site.
And the ambition is spilling out beyond the farm itself. This weekend, Steve and the Millington Hall team will launch Meat Up, a two-day live fire and barbecue festival at Ashley Showground. It's a first for the North.
"People from Manchester would travel down to these festivals," Steve says, "and then the people I'd meet there were from Manchester too. And we'd all just look at each other and wonder why there wasn't anything closer to home."
Meat Up will bring butchery demonstrations, live-fire chef showcases, a farming and agriculture stage, and live music to Cheshire on the weekend of 1-2 August.
None of this was planned - it has grown organically, one idea leading to the next.
"Every time we try something new," Steve says, "it opens up another few doors. Some things will work and some things won't. But as long as we're doing stuff that is cool, and is making people happy, and they want to come - we'll just keep doing it."
Wild Grill experiences and classes are available to book at millingtonhall.com. Meat Up Festival takes place 1-2 August at Ashley Showground – tickets available at meatupfestival.com.
