To celebrate its 18th birthday, Imbhams Farm hosted an open farm event over the D-Day weekend. The guest of honour was Dennis Hartwell, a former resident of the farm during the war.

Dennis, now 97, was evacuated to Haslemere before the war began. Born in 1927 in Chelsea, Dennis was one of six children. His younger twin siblings, Stan and Hester, were evacuated with him from Waterloo to Haslemere. They found the evacuation exciting because none of them had been on a train before; they spent the journey with their heads stuck out of the window, getting covered in soot.

At Haslemere station, they were loaded into an open truck with other evacuees. Dennis, under strict instructions not to separate from the twins, struggled to find a host family. But a lady finally agreed to take Dennis, with Stan and Hester going to her daughter next door.

Later they were moved to a bungalow on Imbhams Farm. The bungalow had no electricity, water or drainage and the loo was a bucket in the outhouse.

Dennis remembers clearly the day war was declared. After being hurried out of the house one morning, he and his siblings walked down the deserted High Street in Haslemere. They bumped into the Postmaster who sent them home straight away announcing that war had been declared.

Despite challenging farming conditions this year, Imbhams Farm opened its doors, showcasing British farming, connecting urban and rural communities by teaching them about food production and farming practises.