Cronkshaw Fold Farm

Wanted: someone who wants to drop kick climate change and make a bed like it's an art form

 

Cronkshaw Fold Farm is hiring a housekeeping apprentice with a difference

 

We're hiring an apprentice — a paid, sixteen month position with a nationally recognised qualification at the end — and we'd like to give it to a local person who thinks tackling climate change should be a top priority.

 

The job

 

Four glamping stays — a treehouse, a shepherd's hut, the converted old farm office, and a rather fancy B&B room with its own en suite — plus a hot tub. They will be yours to prettify and care for.

 

Guests save up for months to come and stay with us. They arrive at dusk, push open the door, and either gasp– or don't. You will be the reason they gasp. Think of every turnover as a small theatre-stage-set-build: fresh linen pulled tight, cushions placed like you meant it, light coming in right, the hot tub gleaming and ready, the whole thing waiting for someone like a held breath.

 

Do it brilliantly and people write rage reviews about how it felt. Do it brilliantly for sixteen months and you'll have an eye for detail that most people never develop.

 

We're looking for someone who:

• Gets a genuine kick out of a room looking gorgeous. Cushions plumped. Corners crisp. Not "clean enough" — we want irresistible.

• Can make a bed properly, or badly wants to learn how.

• Notices the wonky picture frame. Cares about the wonky picture frame.

• Loves interior design, styling, homemaking — the whole thing.

• Isn't precious about the smelly compost bin. Someone needs to empty it, and often that someone will be you.

 

 

But that’s not it

 

Cronkshaw Fold isn't just a place people come to stay. It's a working farm on a mission to tackle climate change.

 

• We've just won a £100,000 Innovate UK Farming Innovation grant — while you are with us we will be designing and making the grand designs of Chicken Housing systems and you get to see that happening in real time.

• We're installing a £200,000 wind turbine in the next twelve months. Yes, an actual turbine, in an actual field you'll walk past every day. Your help with the day to day running of the accommodations will free the rest of the team up to make this happen.

• We're founding farmers on Only Farmers (google it - it’s not what you think!) an online platform farmers can use to list agritourism antics from accommodation to goat yoga to beekeeping - all of which we do here.

 

Here's why this matters to you: the money guests pay to stay in those four little buildings you’ll be looking after is what funds all of it. Get the accommodation right and you're not adjacent to the climate work — you're enabling it to happen.

 

You'll also be surrounded by it. The people running these projects are the people you'll be having your lunch break with. Ask them things. They'll tell you. Most people your age learn about renewable energy and regenerative farming from a screen; you'll be learning it from the people doing it, in the field where it is actually happening day by day in front of your eyes.

 

And when your accommodations are turned over and everything's immaculate, we'll ask if you fancy lending a hand elsewhere on the farm. Not instead of your job — as well as it. From learning how to care for goats and inspecting beehives to assisting with visiting tourists and school groups coming to us to learn about farming and the countryside.

 

There's always something interesting happening, and we'd rather you were in the middle of it than sat waiting for the next guest to check in.

 

The Deal

 

• Where: Cronkshaw Fold Farm, Helmshore, Rossendale, BB4 4AQ

• Pay: £8.00/hour, the apprentice rate. You're also getting a nationally recognised funded qualification out of it.

• Hours:  31 a week, including paid off-the-job training

• Start: October 1st 2026

• Minimum age: 16

 

 

The official bit

 

Every apprenticeship needs a title, and ours is a Level 2 Hospitality Team Member (Housekeeping specialism), delivered with North Lancs Training Group.

 

It's a duller name than the job deserves, but it's a genuine, nationally recognised qualification — and it means everything above comes with structured training, an assessor in your corner, and something on your CV that future employers understand.

• Length: 16 months, finishing April 1st 2028

• You'll also learn: customer service, the business side of running guest accommodation, the basics of caring for hens, bees and goats along with Functional Skills English and Maths if you haven't already got them.

• Afterwards: Explore options to travel abroad, staying with our farm contacts around the world, or stay here with us.

 

 

How to apply: Click the button!

 

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Midnight, Friday September 11th 2026

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