The Farmers Mart Oct-Nov 2017 - Issue 53 | Page 56

Quarry View Farm
A great team - making it
work at Quarry View Farm
Farmers are hardy people, by and large. Ian Wilkinson recently met up
with Rob and Callay Brownbridge of Quarry View Farm at Hensall near
Goole who are certainly no exception. They have built Quarry View up
from nothing in the space of just five years, despite many setbacks.
» » ROB AND PARTNER CALLAY
make a great team: they met
in amusing circumstances after
Rob was caught speeding on
the A30 doing an outrageous
36 mph on his tractor! East
Yorkshire is clearly not a high
crime area… Somewhat put out,
Rob posted some pictures on
Facebook which Callay saw and
found very funny - to cut a long
story short Rob went to meet
her for a coffee and that was
that - he just never left.
‘Although Rob
has a very busy
contracting
business his first
love is animals
and always
has been’
Robert at the time had
built up a thriving contracting
business doing a lot of hedge
cutting, drainage, straw
moving and crop lifting with
which he is still very busy
today. He works a lot for the
drainage board –
hedge and verge
cutting from
July to Feb is
a busy time
working on
both Guy
Poskitt’s and
the Methley
estate. He also
does a lot of work
for Guy Poskitt – carrot
lifting – straw removing -
right up as far as Dumfries
– fortnightly topping of 250
acres for a local airport and
a lot of irrigation work. Rob
and Callay have one full
56 Oct/Nov 2017 www.farmers-mart.co.uk
timer Steve that works for
them, really dedicated to the
business and works well with
the close-knit team .
When Rob and Callay met
she was a registered child-
minder and initially she carried
on when they moved
to Quarry Farm to
help with cash
flow.
Quarry
Farm is very
much a work
in progress.
Five years
ago, when they
got the money
together to buy it, it
couldn’t have been in a worse
state. It had been a garden
centre which had become
derelict, a complete mess with
rubbish everywhere. Inside,
every room was in shocking
condition and required re-
decorating. The kitchen and
bathroom, for example, each
had three layers of tiles on the
walls and two on the floor.
“It’s a house full of surprises
that keep on coming!” Rob
said.
Although Rob has a very
busy contracting business
his first love is animals and
always has been right back
to when he used to look after
the livestock on his parent’s
farm. He’s dealt with black and
white cattle all his life. Virtually
straight away he started his
herd at Quarry Farm. Initially
they were rearing for other
people, they decided to stop
that and take everything
through to fat themselves,
usually buying calves at two
or three weeks old. Everything
now goes through York