The Farmers Mart Jun-Jul 2020 - Issue 69 | Page 34

34 HORNCASTLE FARM JUN/JUL 2020 • farmers-mart.co.uk
ARABLE FARMERS OFFER
PEACE FOR PETS AND OWNERS
WITH THE WILD WOOD
Chris Berry talks with Richard and Melanie Metcalfe of Nostell
FINDING new ways of providing an
income on a farm has brought all manner
of diversifications. Farm cafés, tearooms,
farm shops, selling women’s underwear
on the Internet, are just some of the many
and varied exploits that have brought
about success. At Nostell it is a pet
memorial woodland and crematorium
that has added to the scene in recent
times with The Wild Wood at Horncastle
Farm, home of Richard and Melanie
Metcalfe, where Richard runs Metcalfe
Farming Ltd with his brother Jonathan.
The brothers have grown their farmed
acreage to 3000 acres either owned,
tenanted or share farmed with around 2800
acres under the plough, growing around
1200 acres of winter wheat, currently favouring
milling varieties Skyfall and Zyatt; 1000
acres oilseed rape; 150 of beans; couple of
hundred acres of winter barley and the rest
made up of spring barley, growing Diablo.
At least that was the original plan,
but continuous rain since autumn last
year until the early months of 2020 have
brought about some ploughing out of
what was originally planted.
‘We call it September land,’ says
Richard. ‘If you don’t get things sorted in
September you don’t get it at all.’
The Wild Wood and crematorium that
opened a couple of months ago is Richard
and Melanie’s first diversification.
‘I’ve always wanted to diversify,’ says
Richard. ‘Farming is good and all I ever
wanted to do when I was a kid. I remember
fastening pieces of wood to my feet
to touch the pedals for the tractor when
I was 10 years old, but I’ve had ideas
for other things here like a coffee shop
overlooking the reservoirs or something
connected with the famous naturalist,
conservationist and explorer Charles
Waterton who lived nearby.’
It was Melanie who came up with the
idea for the pet memorial woodland and
crematorium.
‘I’ve always had pets,’ says Melanie.
‘When I moved here I left where my animals
were buried and I know this sounds a bit
soppy but I was quite sad I’d never be able
to go back where they were, because
somebody else now owns the property.’
‘I’ve always worked and wanted to
still work, while also being here for the
children, and while we were walking in
this area of woodland on the farm, I said
this would be a fabulous place for people
to come and visit in memory of their
pets. We could let the owners spread the
ashes here, have a memorial plaque and
it would be somewhere they could come
and visit that would always be here.’
The idea took shape as Richard and
Melanie turned what had been a fairly
redundant three-quarter acre of woodland
into a tidy, pleasant, tranquil environment
that features seating, using fallen trees with
the seats carved out of them, a circular
route of pathway around the woodland.
Already there are several plaques on tree
stumps with pets’ names and a verse.
‘It’s not a pet cemetery,’ says Melanie.
‘I didn’t want to go down that route, but it
provides visitors with a really nice, peaceful
area where they can come, reflect and
remember their pets. If I’d known this kind
of place existed, I’d have been happy to
bring mine to have their ashes scattered.
It is an area of woodland that was a real
mess, but we have transformed it into
something beautiful and we will add even
more to it this summer with an archway
entrance and make it gated.’
Richard and Melanie also offer an on-site
cremation service too, located on the farm.
‘As a teenager I worked at a veterinary
practice for a short time and when pets
had to be put to sleep they were put