The Farmers Mart Apr/May 2015 - Issue 39 | Page 45

Totley Hall Farm

the triumvirate. Edwin told me
it has been many years since
there were open fields next to
the farm gate.
“Next door used to be
a business school and
polytechnic but that was
knocked down to make way
for housing and we are now
surrounded by residential
dwellings. Our nearest farmland
is about 200 yards away.
Where we are situated has
always been good for involving
the public in attractions here,
though. So in our early days
here we had bits of everything.
We had pigs, chicken and
sheep, soft fruit, potatoes and
cereals. We just tried to make
the best use of our land and
buildings. At one point we

were selling quite a bit of meat
including lamb and pork, plus
we sold eggs and soft fruit.”
Today, the farming operation
is centred on a 240-strong
flock of Poll Dorset breeding
ewes and the family is involving
the public more than ever.
Indeed, for the past 11 years
the lead up to Christmas has
been particularly hectic, as the
Pococks have embraced the
Nativity.
Edwin told me: “The reasons
for changing to what we do
today were purely economic
considerations. Our pig unit was
too small to be able to carry on
profitably; we gave up retailing
meat because of increased
hygiene rules and the costs
of them all; and although our

Beeston Castle
01829 262100

soft fruit enterprise did very
well for many years, we saw a
gradual loss of our customer
base that we felt was down to
shopping habits altering. Such
things as people not making
their own jams like they used
to was one consideration,
the other was that in order to
continue we were at the stage
where we would have had to
invest in new plantations. We
took the decision that it wasn’t
worthwhile.”
The catalyst for the Pococks’
diversification into Christmas
came about when Edwin and
Jenny took a ‘busman’s holiday’
to Devon. Intrigued by a nativity
play being run as an attraction
on a farm, they went along to
study it firsthand. They were

Chelford
01625 861122

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impressed and felt it would
work in Totley. They now just
needed some lambs born at the
right time.
“We’d always had sheep on
the farm but when we went
down the nativity route we
needed a source of early-born
lambs that could be born just
before we started the plays
and right up until we finish the
season just before Christmas,”
Edwin said. “We needed ewes
that would lamb at that time
of year and we found that the
Dorsets are the only indigenous
breed that will lamb all year
round.

‘240-strong flock
of Poll Dorset
breeding ewes’
“We bought 50 ewes from
Jim Dufosee, one of the breed’s
most respected breeders, down
in Wilt ͡