If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that when I visited Ridge Farm during my last day in the U.K I went a little mad. As our driver pulled into the driveway of the residence, I literally couldn’t believe my eyes. We were in the midst of a farm house that had existed since the 16th century.

This wasn’t just any house, either. It was deep in the countryside of Surrey, about an hour outside of London but this place has some really unexpected history.

See, there’s a recording studio in one of the many cottages that dot the land and the likes of Queen, David Bowie, Little Richard and Black Sabbath have passed through its halls. We heard that it was the place to be in the 70s, 80s and 90s for bands looking to record their albums on state of the art analog equipment.

Upon further research, one of the “farmers” dug up photos of Freddie Mercury strolling across the front lawn in a canary yellow 3 piece suit! Oh, Freddie. I was already dying of excitement just seeing the front of the house (I couldn’t shut up — “We don’t have stuff like this in America! I can’t believe this place!!!”) but then, I had a mini freakout when we were led up the very settled (read: crooked) winding stairs to the top of the house. We’d been promised “Freddie’s Bedroom” for our night’s stay, complete with a four poster bed and peaked ceiling. Legend has it that he wrote Bohemian Rhapsody up there. And that David Bowie had slept in that same room. It was like nowhere I’d ever been — it exuded magic.

I’m getting ahead of myself, though. We had been invited to The Farm by celebrated UK wedding photographer Lisa Devlin for her intensive photography workshop dubbed, quite accurately, the Photography Farm. This time, she’d ambitiously set up a multitude of masterclasses that people had flown in from all around the world for and we’d been invited along to speak at length about our Blogcademy social media segment tailored to photographer’s needs. We met so many fantastic people during our three hour talk and spent the rest of our time exploring the grounds, eating gourmet meals whipped up by the chefs and obsessing over Freddie’s bedroom (wait, that was me).

This little adventure was the perfect way to end our time in the U.K. and unwind after two sold out Blogcademy workshops. Getting out into the world and visiting places like this is a dream come true. Seriously, it was like an idyllic storybook setting (though I can only imagine the hijinks the big name rock legends actually engaged in)!

* If you’d like to attend a future Photography Farm event, you can learn more here.
* If you’d like to book an event at Ridge Farm, you can do so here.