DAVID Marwood’s favourite spot in his beautifully converted, award-winning barn conversion in the North York Moors National Park is “Sarah’s garden room”.

It was the “must-have” on his wife’s list when the couple first decided to move to Hall Farm Barns in Carlton-in-Cleveland from nearby Busby Hall.

Sarah’s touch is everywhere in this lovely home, from the planning stages, to the fixtures and fittings, to the landscaping and even the choice of greenhouse outside.

Many of the internal finishes were chosen by Sarah as she sat in bed with her laptop suffering the effects of nine months of chemotherapy for cancer of the colon. “The distraction of the barn conversion gave her something else to focus on when she was at her worst,” says David, a 52-year-old farmer. “She would choose all the finishes for the barn, and then, when she was fit enough, we would go and look at everything she had chosen.”

Sadly, Sarah died last year, but David says she would have been very proud that the home they made together recently won a prestigious award, picking up the Best Conversion title at the North York Moors National Park Design Awards. “We had seen some work done by Summerhouse Architects and were impressed with David and Suzie’s work. Suzie is also an old friend of mine,” says David.

David and Sarah’s brief was to create a light and airy contemporary home that sat well next to the existing stone farmhouse and satisfied the requirements of the conservation officers, not always an easy task. The planners insisted on no new openings and various other conditions.

“They also said the whole building should be ‘breathable’, so all the insulation is sheep’s wool, with hemp fibre board and lime plaster painted with clay paints. It was a steep learning curve for all involved, especially the main contractor,” says David. “Sarah worked closely with the planners, listed buildings people and the architects to get the plans passed. while my role was much more on the technical side – lighting, heating from a ground source heat pump and working closely with all the contractors on a day to day basis.”

The exterior of the barn has remained much the same and the aim was tried to retain as much of the barn interior as possible, such as roof trusses, stable doors and some exposed brickwork.

“As is common in buildings of this type, the existing buildings formed a long, narrow, single storey footprint wrapped around a large open space,” says architect Suzie. “We particularly wanted to avoid a circulation pattern based on a long corridor or having to circulate from room to room."

Their solution was to link the buildings across the yard with a new building, which locates the kitchen and family room right at the heart of the house. It also creates a flexible circulation pattern which allows living spaces and bedroom spaces to be grouped together and leaves the original buildings more intact. “This addition was key to the success of the project,” says Suzie. “The new link building was key to making the circulation work which, in turn, allows everything else to fall into place.”

Both David and Sarah had experience of doing up properties, though nothing on this scale, and both are from the area. Sarah was born in the nearby village of Hutton Rudby and David grew up at Busby Hall, next door to Hall Farm, where he moved in 1989. “I ran the farm single-handed until 1997, when Sarah and I were married,” he says. “Sarah’s first job was to renovate Hall Farm into a family home. She already had several projects under her belt having renovated a cottage when she was 18, a house in Penrith, and then she oversaw the building of a new house in a village just outside Penrith.”

In 2001, the couple inherited Busby Hall, a Grade II* Georgian house, which was in a very poor state. They spent nearly two years renovating it and working closely with the listed buildings section of the North York Moors planning dept. “We ran the hall as a shooting lodge and B&B with Sarah doing all the catering, another of her many talents,” says David.

Four years ago, they decided to sell Busby estate. “We had always talked about retiring to Hall Farm, so in November of that year we moved into a static caravan in the farmyard and set about the process of applying for permission to convert the now redundant farm buildings into a new home for us.”

Now it’s complete, David spends most of his time in the large kitchen/dining/living area. “Internally, the barn is spacious rather than large due to the vaulted ceilings and has a lovely peaceful, calm feeling to it,” says David.

The honed limestone floor throughout the living spaces and the internal courtyard, which has much glass on three sides, adds to this feeling of spaciousness. “In fact, our eldest refers to the barn as ‘the spa’,” laughs David.

Sarah a lot of the fixtures and fittings locally – tiles and limestone from Lapicida, Harrogate, lighting from Brilliant Lighting in Thirsk – although the kitchen, utility room and loo were designed and built by Edinburgh company Murray and Murray.

As well as creating lovely homes, Sarah’s other passions were her four grandchildren and gardening. David has finished the garden and surrounds to her design, including the greenhouse which she had chosen.

“Sarah and I were both hugely proud of what we have achieved here and I know she would have been very proud of the award,” says David.