IT ’ S all about everyone getting a good night ’ s sleep at the 300-acre farmland at Harrison Spinks Farm in Bolton Percy . This is where Leeds-based bed manufacturers Harrison Spinks grow the sustainable , natural fillings for their mattresses . The hemp is an alternative to foam fillings and Simon Spinks , the owner of the company , bought the farm in 2009 to grow their own natural fibres .

‘ We grow 90-95 acres of hemp here ,’ says farm manager Liam McPartland . ‘ It ’ s our main crop and if there wasn ’ t the threecrop rule we would just grow as much hemp as we could across the whole 300 acres .’

‘ We have a cooperative of growers and this year we have grown 257 acres of hemp in Yorkshire . It is processed and put into the filling pads on the top of the mattresses . It ’ s a really hygenic crop that is good at wicking moisture away , it ’ s highly absorbent and that creates a great sleeping environment .’

‘ Hemp is the strongest grown natural fibre and it is on the outside of the crop . It can be 10ft tall , thick like bamboo and be flat against the floor in gales but then bounces back up again .’

‘ Hemp comes in three parts . There ’ s the fibre , which is what we want for the mattresses ; there ’ s the shiv which can be used for animal bedding or made into ‘ hempcrete for building ; and there ’ s the dust that we create briquettes from and use in our biomass boiler to heat our wedding venue .’

‘ You have to be under licence to grow it as it is part of the cannabis family . We currently have a licence for both straw and seed , but everything we do is

about straw for the mattresses . If we took it to seed we would be jeopardising our straw because when the seed heads germinate they ripen a lot later .’

‘ We spring drill all of our hemp , usually in the last week of April or first week in May . It ’ s not frost-tolerant so you have to be very careful with it . If you can get it established in spring with a nice , moist , crumbly seed bed within a week to 10 days it germinates well and droughts don ’ t bother it . We had a dry seed bed this year , drought conditions , and were worried about the crop almost throughout . In 2018 it was great . We had quite wet weather up until drilling then drought through summer and it established beautifully . We felt we would struggle to achieve 2 tonnes this year .’

‘ My ideal scenario is getting our land , which is heavy , clear of this year ’ s crop and ploughed up as early as possible so that I ’ m not chewing in the wet .’

‘ We aim to cut the hemp in the first three weeks of August . We ’ ve had it grow up to 14 and a half feet tall . At 9 ft you should be yielding 3 tonnes of straw per acre and our three-year average is around 2.5 tonnes . We cut with a multi-bar mower with three blades set at 3ft length cut intervals . It is then laid out in the field and turned with a tedder and left for 4-6 weeks for retting . The fibres are then taken away from the wood core shiv at processing here on site .’

The second main crop also used in bedding is flax . Liam usually drills it a few weeks

earlier than the hemp and it is usually cut at the end of July .

‘ We have 25 acres of flax . It ’ s a lot softer than hemp and grows to about a metre tall . We cut it with a drum mower . The flax is also towards the top of the mattress . After the hemp and flax you then usually have cotton or mohair , cashmere , silk or any number of other combinations of natural fillings . As it is hardy , we rotate the flax on the poorer land .’

The third ‘ crop ’ on the 150 acres of arable land is 30-plus acres of stewardship that includes wildflower-rich grass margins , pollen and nectar strips and fallow . The farm is currently under the HLS scheme but is due move into the Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier .

Wool is also provided for the mattresses . The farm is run as a commercial farming operation and a commercial flock of 80-90 North of England Mules and a pedigree flock of 30 Wensleydales are run on the 150 acres of grassland .

‘ Our focus is on the wool . That ’ s why my dad , Gary , who was farm manager before me , started with Wensleydales four or five years ago . They provide top quality fleeces and we have been a fully registered pedigree flock for the past two years .’

‘ It is all British wool used in Harrison Spinks mattresses purchased mostly from the British Wool Marketing Board but the Wensleydales we have here are of the highest quality . My partner Becky works on the farm too , particularly with the sheep and we have recently started showing the Wensleydales at the Great Yorkshire and at Otley . We did quite well at our first Great Yorkshire last year with a 5th and a 6th place . Prior to that

we ’ d received a 3rd at Otley . That was our first show and we were buzzing !’

‘ We are definitely increasing our Wensleydale flock but we also want to keep our quality high . We choose what we want to keep and sell a lot of gimmers . This year we ’ ve sold a lot of shearlings . We recently bought a new tup and are now running two this time . Tyson , one of the two , is one hell of a machine . We go to Skipton livestock market where the Wensleydale Sheep Society sales are held .’

Angora goats and alpacas are also part of the farming / bedding equation and Harrison Spinks encourage shop floor bed salespeople to come to Hornington Manor to see the hemp and flax and meet the livestock as everything plays its part in their natural bedding range .

Harrison Spinks Farm is based at Hornington Manor , which became a wedding venue 6-7 years ago and will soon be home to 8 new shepherd ’ s huts offering additional accommodation to the 19 ensuite bedrooms within the Grade II listed building built in 1770 . Liam ’ s dad ’ s wife Joanne runs the venue .

‘ I studied sport for two years at Selby College ,’ says Liam . ‘ At that time I didn ’ t think I was going to be a farmer but after college I began working for the Forbes-Adam family at Escrick Park Estate and then I came here . It ’ s a great place to work and we are doing great things with what we grow and produce . We ’ ve just been awarded Carbon Neutral Plus status for the work carried out on the farm . It ’ s all about sustainability and with the factory in Beeston less than 20 miles away we are keeping down our carbon footprint .’