Handcocks Farm was originally bought by Bill Hollands & his mother in the late 1950’s in a totally derelict condition. Done up by them over the following years, with the land to the opposite side of the nursery run as a pig farm. Bill had two jobs - he ran the farm & also had a managerial role in a forestry company as his 'day' job. The farm closed in 1988 & the farm land (all to the rear of the pond) was sold. Bill then retired from his forestry company job. However he couldn't sit & do nothing, so he started making deliveries for a local wholesale nursery & they paid him in plants! Bill and Daphne then started selling those plants from their drive by the pond, supplementing them by going & buying more stock. People would come & buy their plants, bringing their children with bread to feed the fish & the ducks on the pond. At that time, customers parked on the road.

In 2006 they bought the land for the current site & car park, spending around three years preparing it & erecting the polytunnels and infustructure. In all of that time, until Bill fell ill in 2016, they opened every day, with only two days annual holiday - spent at a trade show in Cheshire.

For more than 30 years, together they built a destination for keen gardeners and horticulturalists and since the opening of the existing site in 2006, they specialised in herbaceous perennials and bedding plants and offered a diverse range of plants and shrubs.