Stott Hall Farm is the only farm in the world built right in the middle of a busy motorway, with crash barriers and a fence around it to keep livestock in and out-of-control vehicles out.

The M62 motorway connecting the cities of Liverpool and Hull in Northern England is famous for having an inhabited farm right in the middle of its roadways in Calderdale.  The unique farm is one of the ten best-known sights on the UK motorway network, and there are various stories and myths about its existence, the most popular of which claim that the motorway was split because the owners, Ken and Beth Wild, refused to sell. These stories would have you believe that Stott Hall Farm is essentially a ‘nail house’ the likes of which we’ve featured several times in the past. However, the reality of this infrastructural oddity is very different.

Photo: Richard Harvey/Wikimedia Commons

According to an ITV documentary from 1983, the owners of Stott Hall Farm were never actually asked to sell their land. During construction of the m62 motorway back in the 1960s, engineers determined that, because of a geological fault on the Wild’s property, it was more practical to build the roadways around the farm, than over it, so they just allowed the owners to stay.

“A geological fault beneath the farmhouse meant it was more practical for engineers to leave it rather than blast through and destroy it,” journalist Michael Clegg confirms.

So what is it like living on a farm, in the middle of a motorway? You would think the place is a nightmare in terms of road noise and pollution, judging by the traffic around it, but those who have lived on Stott Hall Farm claim just the opposite. Because of triple-glazed windows, there is hardly any noise inside the farmhouse, apart from the occasional honking in the middle of the night, and the air is surprisingly clean.

The current owners, Jill Falkingham-Thorp, her husband Paul, and her son John William, told Manchester’s Finest that the farm has surprisingly low levels of pollution for a place located in the middle of a motorway.

The current owners say that they enjoy their peaceful life on one of the most peculiar farms in the world, but they admit that it does get lonely sometimes, as the closest friends live about half an hour’s drive away. It’s kind of strange to talk about loneliness with literally thousands of people driving by your house every day, but then again, they’re all strangers.

Interestingly, the UK is also home to a house located in the middle of a giant roundabout.