Profile information
Host rating
80 %
Last replied
12 Jun 2026
Reply rate
55.0 %
Usually responds within 4 days
Feedback
13
Email verified
Host offers payment
Country info
Badges (3)
Details
Description
In London I was a freelance journalist and author. Anna and I abandoned that life in 2007 for the adventure of rescuing a very large, dilapidated historic house. We have achieved a lot, but there is always so much left to do. Building; landscaping, developing a garden. Our business is in the broad category of hospitality. Not a hotel, not a B&B, a family house with guests. Our main business is hosting groups. Workshops, occasional weddings, family or friends reunions, classical, jazz and folk concerts. Small events over a weekend for 10 people, or sometimes a wedding for a 100. We have an annual tango week and a rugby festival. So, a diverse mix of events. All while keeping it feeling small and family orientated and not losing sight of why we came here.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Art Projects
Help with Eco Projects
Light gardening
Creative DIY projects
Help around the house
Light maintenance
Interests
Team sports
Winter sports
Water sports
Adventure sports
Culture
Architecture
Cooking & food
Art & design
Books
Music
Gardening
History
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
we are a British-Polish family, and speak both languages. We are well known locally for classical music concerts - we have an excellent piano in a beautiful seventeenth century room - and our building might be the most historically important private one for many miles around. It is a lovely peaceful place.
Host offers payment in line with the minimum wage
This host offers accommodation and payment.
Help
I'm writing this in early summer 2026.
I have a project which would take five people maybe week. So I am looking for five people. Or 10. Let's say the week June 21-27. I have a large barn with a big pile of rubble in it which needs processing through the cement mixer, mixed with mud, lime, straw, old paper to make a mud floor. Klepisko in Polish, it's a traditional method, maybe called adobe if you are Mexican, but my own version of it.
If you give me five hours a day, we give you food, a place to stay, and if I succeed in getting this workforce, the chance to meet with other people and have fun. It's right next to our natural, spring fed swimming pool too, which also needs some underwater landscaping done. Swimming while placing bricks. I'd think of that as a fun activity. The water is crystal clear, filtered by plants. The trouble with clear water is, you can see my bad underwater building...
In preparation for our rugby festival in July, and 150 young artists from Berlin in August. It's a big barn - 50 metres long and needs to be a whole lot more inviting than it currently is.
So, if anyone is up for that around those dates, you're in!
We are still looking for someone who can sew. Lots of curtains or blinds to make and hang. We have a good machine and lots of fabric.
Need help with the vegetable patch too. Also we are doing our best to understand which wild plants can be eaten - most, it turns out, and we have great biodiversity in our small park, but how to cook, preserve etc. so it doesn't feel like we're eating grass...
If you have knowledge in this area, or want to learn - all knowledge is inside your mobile phones these days.
We don't really need help with our hospitality business. Most of the guests who come to stay look after themselves but when we do need help, neighbours work for us, and also we have our own young adult kids.
I wrote this earlier, maybe in 2025:
We are rescuing a very large house that dates from the Middle Ages We also have seven huge barns. We have too many projects, some are grunt work, some are creative, some are both. Like, how do we turn our granary barn into a glamping spaces? How do we build our natural swimming pool? We have a huge party barn. How can we decorate it? It already has a mud floor, but that needs extending and improving, if you want to know how to make a traditional mud floor, I can show you!
We run a pension and events, Weddings, concerts,a rugby festival. In Poland, but right on the Czech border. Me, I'm Jim, my wife, Anna, she's the boss, 6 kids, they all have opinions, and general chaos. We look after several hectares of land too, and it is all slightly too much for us. People often say, "So much potential." We want to realise it! Too many ideas, not enough time.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Polish: Fluent
Wallon: Fluent
Japanese: IntermediateThis host offers a language exchange
I'd like to refresh my Japanese. And my French. Both were fluent, but are rusty nowadays
Accommodation
Our best rooms are reserved for paying guests, especially in summer. We can set you up in a neighbouring apartment, or you can have a whole barn to yourself if you prefer that, there is space to put tents up in there.
What else ...
We are in the sticks, a small village called Piotrowice Nyskie surrounded by farms, 20 km from a town called Nysa, easily accessible from Wroclaw, 100 km by car.
Warsaw, Krakow by train or bus.
On the Czech side, about 5 km from us, there's a station. You can get there from Prague or Vienna in about 6 hours. Ideal cycling region, there's wild swimming in quarries, hiking, cycling, plenty of history, nature.
Closest station, Horni Hermanice in CZ. 5 km (long walking distance). Otmuchow is 9 km. Nysa is 20 km.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
we have broadband optical fibre internet. The mobile signal is excellent too.
Space for parking camper vans
We can provide electricity and we have showers and toilets for you too, and laundary facilities
Can possibly accept pets
Well behaved dogs, provided they do not attack our chickens and geese!
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
My animals / pets
geese, chickens
Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback (6)
She helped Anna with cleaning guest rooms. And some of our… read more
I completed a real mix of tasks..clearing a bed to plant tomatos, picking wild garlic, helping… read more
Thank you all alot!!!
She said this was her first… read more
We were very well looked after, and Jim and Ania were always keen to ensure we were comfortable.
The property is an absolute dream with so many possibilities. There is plenty of varied work to be done on a place like… read more
Photos
Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback
These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.
Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(4.8)
Communication:
(5.0)
She helped Anna with cleaning guest rooms. And some of our… read more
I completed a real mix of tasks..clearing a bed to plant tomatos, picking wild garlic, helping… read more
Thank you all alot!!!
She said this was her first… read more
We were very well looked after, and Jim and Ania were always keen to ensure we were comfortable.
The property is an absolute dream with so many possibilities. There is plenty of varied work to be done on a place like… read more
They stayed for two weeks and were really great. Miguel did a huge job for me, he cleaned out a very large barn. Veronica went through a large pile of antique prints and pictures, cleaned the frames and sorted them into… read more
It was a pleasure to spend a few weeks in the perfect middle of nowhere, where rugby players and gooses coexist. This big and amazing place in Poland, with overflowing potential is ideal for explorers with curiosity.
This family is a very beautiful host, kind, loving, interesting… read more
I can't recommend her highly enough to other Workaway hosts. She came for two weeks to help us with a busy part of our summer - The Piotrowice Nyskie International Rugby Festival. She had the job of getting a barn ready for people to sleep in and another for the big party. She was good company, cheerful, worked sooo hard, got on… read more
We needn't have worried, she was great. She stayed about a month, which is more than enough to get to know if you like someone, and we liked her.
She was willing to do anything - even messy jobs. We gave the task of filling in the cracks in the floorboards of a barn with putty… read more
