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Foxridge Farm
592 Fairgrounds Road
West Kingston, RI 02892
US
Tel.: 401-789-9562
Email: judesamson@aol.com

One hundred acres of solid oak forest were purchased in 1982 by Judith Clayton from Exeter potato King Gerry Albert and cleared by the Richmond family of West Kingston with two backhoe bulldozers, chainsaws, and a lot of brush fires. Barn site and house site were chosen and dug by John Richmond Sr. and John's grandson David.

In 1989 twenty-five acres of swamp land in the northeast corner, with just enough dry land along Fairgrounds Road for five house lots, were sold for the same price as the purchase of the whole farm in 1982.

The barn was purchased in 1981 for $2,000 from the Catholic Church, dismantled from Exeter across the street from the Albert Farm and reconstructed on its present location with chainsaw cutting by Larry Clarke.

The house, located outside of Ladd School on South road in Exeter, was donated by Laura Albert. The house had been first sold in 1725 but there is no record known when it was first built.

Judith and her two nieces Daria and Keely Carey dismantled the house by first peeling up the floor boards. Then they pried off all the horse hair plaster and lathe with crowbars, pushing the waste into the cellar through holes in the floor. Finally they pried off all the outside walls, leaving essentially only the post and beam frame and roof to be dismantled by men. The whole house, dismantled right down to the wooden pegs, was moved to the farm in the summer of 1982, and then fully surveyed by the renowned colonial home restorer Steve Whitehead, who with the help of Ray Clidance, Tom Timpson, David Samson, foundation stone mason Botka, and chimney mason Jimmy Gifford rebuilt the house.

In 1993, Chester Clayton, a lifetime city dweller and father of Judith, retired and took the Master Gardener's course at University of Rhode Island. He received the course from his daughter Marcia Clayton. This commenced his total contradiction along with the transformation of Foxridge Farm.

Single handedly, Chester built, planted, and maintained all the flower gardens around the house while his daughter first raised beef cattle poled Herefords to a herd of 44, along with growing corn silage and hay. They then switched to twenty-five acres of turf growing and now horse boarding all while mothering and raising three kids.

Along the way, the farm has had a saw mill to produce a lot of boards for the various buildings, 2,000 railroad ties obtained gratuitously along with 300 telephone poles from the generous Amtrak (due to the conversion to the electrified system).Over fifty acres are fenced by the railroad ties as posts and the telephones poles are in process of being installed as posts in the front, road side, south east corner field. Thousands of Norway spruce are planted all around the perimeter, a large pond is used for irrigation of the vegetable garden and a smaller pond at the northeast corner will be used for irrigation of the flower gardens.Each year Chester continues to add a new garden and motivated his daughter Judith to start an Herb garden.

We are a private home and farm. Please call ahead for more information.

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