46 WOODHOUSE FARM FEB / MAR 2018 • farmers-mart. co. uk
46 WOODHOUSE FARM FEB / MAR 2018 • farmers-mart. co. uk
Norman & Gray Ltd.
Agricultural Buildings and Groundworks
Design, manufacture, painting, supply and erection of steel framed buildings.
Competitive rates on:
Timber Roof Sheets Rainwater Goods Steel Purlins Plastic Guttering & Fittings
Gates Roller Shutter Doors Feed Barriers Steel Troughs and much more
Pleased to be associated with Woodhouse Farm
Unit 1, Malton Road Business Park, Pickering, YO18 7JW Tel- 01751 472 231 Fax- 01751 474 011 Vat Reg No: 158 585171 Email: sales @ normanandgray. co. uk Phillip Norman- 07974 827555 | David Gray- 07974 821894
Concrete Products- Mortars Ready Mixed Concrete- Screeds
» Pre-stressed concrete panels.
» 95mm, 150mm or 180mm thick.
» 1m, 1.2m or 1.5m high.
» Lengths – made to order or from stock.
» Suitable for Grain stores, stock buildings, retaining walls, compounds or bunkers.
» marked and produced with BSi quality assured ready mixed concrete.
Twenty-five years of holidays adds to farm mix
Chris Berry talks with the Wardells of Westow.
YOU simply cannot beat the view as you’ ve left the A64 that takes you downhill to a breath-taking vista of the River Derwent, the pastoral countryside and the remains of Kirkham Priory. It’ s a beautiful part of the world and where Fran Wardell and his wife Sarah farm with daughters Ellen( 20) and Lucy( 18).
Woodhouse Farm at Westow runs to 550 owned acres with a further 80 acres rented. The farming operation includes sheep, cattle and arable crops and for the past twenty-five years it has also been home to a B & B business run by Sarah, which was added to with a cottage for self catering in 2005 when they converted an old tool shed and farm store.
Sarah’ s quarter of a century in the holiday accommodation market has seen her honoured with the AA 4-star B & B and Farmhouse Breakfast award several times.
‘ I’ m originally from Leavening,’ says Sarah.‘ My dad managed pig farms and I was a secretary for a stonemason in York. When Fran and I married we lived first at Clifton Farm part of the farm enterprise here since 1971, but when we moved here in 1993 I started with B & B and looking after the farm’ s paperwork. We had three bedrooms available at one time, but it has been two for a number of years plus the cottage.’
‘ We don’ t use booking agents and have a good slice of regular trade with many visiting every year. We had a slower start on bookings last year but this time we’ re more in front. We don’ t get under way with B & B
Pre-stressed panels, Free standing“ A” walls, Interlocking Lego blocks( various sizes), concrete water troughs, concrete gate posts, Floor beams until after lambing from mid-April which then sees us through to the end of October. We get a lot of 2-3 nights and 4-5-night bookings and people staying for a week in the cottage that can sleep up to six.’
Sarah takes great pride in sourcing as many of her breakfast ingredients as she can locally. She makes her own bread and jams and the eggs come from Fran’ s mum Doreen’ s hens. Sausages and bacon come from the butcher in Norton. She gives a loaf of bread, eggs and a fruit crumble to the cottage visitors as a welcome when they arrive.
‘ I have my own breakfast quality control team here with my husband and daughters.’
On the farm the arable cropping runs to 400 acres with wheat, barley, oilseed rape and beans. Spring barley is back in the rotation and having missed getting rape in during autumn due to the land being too wet one field has been let for potatoes. The wet weather since last summer has given Fran a few headaches recently.
‘ We have been growing wheat varieties JB Diego, Dickens, Relay and Costello which did really well last year, and we got most of our wheat in for this year, but the rapeseed we were to sow is still in the shed and I stopped delivery of the six-row barley we had planned. We’ ve 100 acres to put in with Propino spring barley and spring beans for the cattle.’
‘ We lead some corn into Thompsons at Murton and get nuts back to feed the live- tel. 01262 675383- sales @ wa�smix. com
www. wa�smix. com