The Farmers Mart Oct/Nov 2014 - Issue 36 | Page 30

MARTON MANOR FARM

Harvesting
holidaymakers
at Sewerby
Chris Berry talks with the
Wainds of Marton Manor Farm
Desire can be a powerful
motivator and so it has
proved for Stuart Waind
of Marton Manor Farm,
Sewerby, near Bridlington.
His grandfather Horace
became a tenant here when it
was part of the Sewerby Estate
and subsequently purchased
the 350-acre farm in the late
1930s. His father, William, ran a
50-strong dairy herd of Friesian
cows, 400 lambing ewes and
fattened beef cattle. Gradually
things changed. The milking
herd is a distant memory and
there are no sheep either.
Rearing veal calves became
a big concern when Stuart
joined his father after attending
Bishop Burton College. He also
had pigs, getting up to 120
sows before the bottom fell out
of the market.
Today Stuart and wife, Jane,
own 160 acres and farm
largely as an arable concern
across 550 acres. But it is
through diversifying by using
their geographic location

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Oct/Nov 2014 FarmersMart

and attracting holidaymakers
and daily visitors that their
agricultural heritage and future
has been preserved.
“I’ve always wanted to
succeed in farming and
whatever we’ve had to do here
to make the farm work we have
done,” says Stuart. “Being a
farmer is something that is
engrained in me but, the way
things were going in the 90s,
it just wasn’t looking rosy at all.
We realised that if we wanted
to stay here and keep farming
then we would have to try some
form of diversification.”
That’s why today Marton
Manor is much more than just
a farm. In the past decade
and a half a total of six holiday
cottages, a farm shop and
tearoom have all appeared and
are thriving. The diversification
businesses have brought them
back from the brink.
“Jane and I both came to the
conclusion that we needed
to do something because it
looked as though we may have
had to sell the farm otherwise.
Wheat prices were rubbish at
the time and clearly something
had to be done. That led to a
radical reshuffle of everything.
We converted a barn into six
holiday cottages in 1999 and
they have been a terrific help to
where we are now.”
Stuart was still not afraid to
try other forms of livestock.
Their next move was to go into
partnership with Jane’s sister

and brother-in-law.
Together the two
couples went into free-range
hens and eggs and did very
well for a while before the
increases in grain prices saw
them finally sell the business
on.
The farm shop came about
following on from the sale of
eggs, from an egg cart at the
farmhouse and selling bags of
potatoes. The Wainds had also
started their own pick-your-own
strawberries business. The
sale of the free-range hens and
eggs business, along with a
grant from Yorkshire Forward,
helped the family fund the
conversion of the old grainary
building to the magnificent farm
shop and tearoom that opened
just over four years ago.
”We received a fantastic grant
from Yorkshire Forward,“ says
Jane. ”We now employ a dozen
part-time staff. The majority of
the baking we sell is mine and
we source as much as we can
locally including asparagus,
sprouts and vegetables. We
also have our own fruit such
as strawberries, rhubarb,
raspberries and gooseberries;
pumpkins in November and
potatoes. We also stock
sausages and gammon from
our local butcher. We’re lucky
that we have been able to use
our location to our advantage.
If we were in the middle of
nowhere there’s no way we
could have done what we have

and help the farm.”
The farming operation
now sees Stuart growing
350 acres of wheat; 60 acres
each of potatoes and oilseed
rape; and 50 acres of winter/
spring barley. Wheat variety
Diego is grown at present
and Venture barley that goes
to nearby maltsters, Muntons.
Harvest usually starts at the
beginning of August and
goes through to the second
week of September. Potatoes
are harvested by local
contractor Phil Clappison of
Cowlam. Seed potatoes are
a new harvest for Wholecrop
Marketing.
”We’re on loamy land over
chalk here on the Wolds,“ says
Stuart. ”It’s pretty much free
draining and yields around 4
tonnes an acre right across the
board. I have one other man
working on the farm.”
Stuart and Jane’s son,
William, has recently returned
home to Yorkshire, having
attended boarding school in
Somerset. He has now started
studying for his NDA at Askham
Bryan College. Clearly he
is intent on following in his
father’s footsteps.
”Will fancies getting into
agricultural contracting and
already has ideas such as
baling our straw and selling it
on, whereas I presently sell it in
the field.”
Becky, Stuart and Jane’s
daughter, is responsible for

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