When the founder of Long Barn, Richard Norris, an amateur horticulturalist and lavender fanatic, planted out a quantity of lavender cuttings under plastic lemonade bottles in a field near Winchester, little did he know that this planting experiment would burgeon into what it is today. Ten years on and in addition to our mail order business, Long Barn now includes two retail premises - a home and beauty store in Alresford, and five minutes away, a magnificent green oak barn surrounded (naturally) by lavender, offering a boutique plant nursery, lavender collection and a variety of complementary wares for the home and garden, sourced from English producers. All this has grown from developing a range of natural lavender-based body care products, initially using the oil distilled from those very first plants. The accent is on a fresh, contemporary style, which has certainly won over those associating lavender solely with their grannies. The fields today are still maintained without the use of chemicals, in tune with the ethos of Long Barn: respect for the countryside and its wildlife, responsible sourcing and no artificial additives.