On a cold winter's afternoon in January 1951, a battered old lorry pulled up at the door of Barton Grange, a country manor house near Preston. Edward and Ada Topping and their son Eddie had left behind their cosy little bed and breakfast and market gardening businesses and moved to start afresh. Fifty years later, Eddie's three sons were running one of Preston's best known companies: The Barton Grange Group - an hotel, landscaping, nursery and awardwinning garden centre business. The years in between were always fascinating, sometimes turbulent and often entertaining. This is the story of the house that gave its name to the enterprise, of Edward, Ada and Eddie, and of their adventure as it unfolded.