Miriam Burns has had a busy day. It is only the early afternoon and she has already milked the cows and made lunch for dozens of people – a feast that included a giant tortilla, vegetables from the garden, carrot soup, and piles of perfect (and still warm) wholemeal rolls. She did lunch single-handed today. “You do kind of get in the swing of it,” she says. Supper tends to be more of a two-person job. “You’re more likely to have to go out to the garden and dig something up.”
Burns, 61, lives at Old Hall, a vast manor house with 26 hectares (65 acres) in a Suffolk village, along with 51 others. On the day I visit, crisp and sunny and wintry, many people are out at work. “I think it’s healthy that most people have jobs, so they have a life outside,” says Burns, who works for the local NHS mental health team. Other residents are working on and around the house. Some are clearing beds in the garden, and a small group, one wearing a harness, are chain-sawing branches off a big tree by the grand front door. There are a couple of people in the post room, a few more in the laundry room.
