The Farmers Mart Oct/Nov 2015 - Issue 42 | Page 28

Farm Name Beadlam Grange Farm Beadlam Grange: A great team and a great buzz! »»Ian Wilkinson headed into Ryedale to meet the Rooke family and found a hive of activity (and a very tasty lunch!) Beadlam Grange Farm and Farm shop is situated in beautiful Ryedale, North Yorkshire - two miles east of Helmsley, four miles from Ampleforth and 28 miles north of York, on the A170 to Scarborough. The traditional beauty of Beadlam hits you as you drive into the yard in which sits the delightful old farmhouse and the converted traditional barns which comprise the Farm Shop, which opened on 6 June 2007. Beadlam Grange began in 1962 when the family came from Heslington, nr York to Beadlam. It was then a traditional mixed farm and part of the Duncombe Park estate. Mark was only six years old at the time. His father, William, was a great inspiration and Mark spent a very happy childhood growing up on the farm and learning all about it. He left school at 15 without any O levels, indeed he says the only one he did get was a spirit level from the joiner’s shop - which he reckons did him far more good than any algebra! Will was certainly a man of vision as he put Mark on to the farm tenancy in 1968 to be eligible when he became 21. When Beadlam Grange was sold by the Duncombe Park Estate in 1968 it was bought by a retired farmer from Kelso in Scotland who wanted to re invest from the sale of his own farm, it also enabled Will to increase the farmed acreage from 300 to 450 Farm Livestock, Equine and Companion Animal Care 24 hour emergency service Consultations by appointment Full surgical & in-patient facilities for small animals Air-conditioned kennelling, in-house Laboratory Mobile digital X-ray including hip score X-rays Mobile Endoscope, Mobile ultrasound scanner Stephen Hudson BVSc MRCVS John Whitwell BVM&S MRCVS Wish the Rooke family continued success Tel: [phone] | Email: [email protected] www.gracelanevets.com 28 Oct/Nov 2015 www.farmers-mart.co.uk because of the new landlord purchasing another farm at Harome, just a mile away. The agreed tenancy with the new owner later proved invaluable when Marks father died whilst on holiday abroad in 1979, he was 57 and Mark was 23, it enabled Mark to carry on farming, as Will would have wanted him to succeed and go forward like he did. Mark told me: he was so thankful that dad knew Jenny for three years and thought so much about her; in fact we were going to have a surprise engagement when he and mum came back off holiday, but it never happened and we got married a year later. In 1999 Mark and Jenny got the chance to buy Beadlam Grange when their landlady passed away aged 99, they borrowed off AMC and used the then ACC (agricultural credit corporation) to act as guarantors for the loan, it meant borrowing a lot