WAWNE somehow retains its sleepy village , country lane atmosphere despite the urban sprawl of Kingston upon Hull and more particularly North Bransholme having edged ever closer in the past four decades . I knew it when my local Methodist chapel members and families used to walk , cycle and drive out from Sutton upon Hull on a Sunday afternoon to enjoy a picnic and games in the front field of dairy farmer Guy Middleton in the late 1970s .

Grange Croft Farm is now the home of Guy ’ s grandson Sam and his wife Lucy who have a son Blaize ( 9 ) and daughter Scarlet ( 7 ). The dairy cows are gone , but only recently , and today the farm of just over 300 acres is down to 280 acres of arable land and a range of rare and native breed livestock that feeds Lucy ’ s relatively new enterprise – Paradise Produce – a farm shop housed in what was once the old milking parlour many moons ago .

Sam was a progressive , forward-thinking dairy farmer . I recall when he put in two Lely Astronauts for robotic milking of his herd of 120 cows , mostly black and whites with the addition of a few Brown Swiss which really suited the system . He liked their hardiness with really good

feet and legs , but the milk price plummet of five years ago saw he and Lucy pull out of dairying altogether .

It was a wrench for both of them as Guy had always had cows since coming to Wawne in 1949 and Lucy is also from a strong dairy farming and dairy cow showing background , being daughter of successful showman Gerald Carter of Fangfoss .

‘ Dad sold his cows in 2006 ,’ says Lucy . ‘ My granddad and great granddad were dairy farmers and originally from Farndale .’

Sam has now turned his attention towards a forward-thinking approach over arable cropping and soil quality . He grows wheat , barley , oilseed rape and either beans or peas as a break crop with nearly three-quarters of what was harvested being barley in 2020 , mainly for malting . More wheat was drilled in autumn , having experienced very wet conditions in autumn 2019 . Sam also has pigs on B & B for Ian Mosey .

‘ Sam is into direct drilling , low soil disturbance and cover crops ,’ says Lucy .

‘ We also entered into a new stewardship scheme last year as our

ELS scheme term had ended .’

Lucy , who is a vet by trade having studied for 5 years at Glasgow University and having worked in veterinary practices in Pickering ( Eastgate Vets ), Beeford ( Garth Veterinary Group ) and Hull ( Chestnut House ) had always wanted to run a farm shop from home in Wawne ever since she and Sam were married .

Paradise Produce was born and Lucy hasn ’ t looked back since it started .

‘ I ’ m a vet , but I ’ m a farmer through and through . I think it ’ s important to sell directly to the public if you can . Saying goodbye to the cows was hello to the opportunity to finally make the farm shop happen .’

‘ We ’ re in a nice little countryside village with Bransholme and the rest of Kingston upon Hull on our doorstep . We get a lot of

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