Market Place Farm
Willow, wine
and weddings
are the new
Market Place
Chris Berry talks with Henry
Wilson in South Cave
» » FINDING NEW WAYS OF
providing income and changing
the use of his 250 acres
accordingly at South Cave and
Broomfleet in the East Riding
has kept Henry Wilson on his
toes since he took over the
running of Market Place Farm
from his father Rob in the mid-
70s.
Traditional farm sector
involvement keeping pigs,
cattle and growing cereal crops
have given way over the years
to a varied mix of willow, wine,
weddings, educational days
and crafts. Henry has never
stood still for very long and he
most certainly believes in doing
something about his future
regardless of whatever situation
he finds himself.
‘Along with all other cereal
producers I had a serious
problem in the late 20th century
when grain 63256
prices
were falling
- PaynesTurkeys
- 8TH.pdf
through the floor. At that time
1
we were growing cereals across
the whole 250 acres on land
that varies roughly equally
between steep Wold sides on
the Little Weighton/Beverley
road out of South Cave and
heavy clay land towards the
River Humber at Broomfleet.
‘We had our own farm
machinery and conducted all
the jobs ourselves. The thought
of the price having dropped by
half frightened me considerably
and I made the decision to kill
two birds with one stone in
coming out of cereals. I wanted
rid of all the high overheads we
had in machinery and wanted
to get into a crop with minimal
input. I put the hillsides into
a stewardship scheme and
put the rest of the farm at the
Broomfleet end into biomass
production with willow coppice.
I was one of the first to grow for
the Arbre 11:40:31
Energy scheme set up
16/06/2017
in the shadow of Eggborough
DAY OLD & GROWING TURKEYS
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PROUD SUPPLIERS TO HENRY WILSON AND
HIS FAMILY AT MARKET PLACE FARM
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PAYNE’S
TURKEYS
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RIVERHEAD TURKEY FARM, HOLME ROAD,
MARKET WEIGHTON, YORK, YO43 4LY
www.paynesturkeys.co.uk | Tel: 01430 872227
8 Summer 2017 www.farmers-mart.co.uk
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power station to burn biomass. I
‘We bought a second-hand
became a director and chairman sugar cane harvester from
of the group that included
Australia between us and three
farmers such as Gareth Gaunt
years later we were supplying
and Russell Toothill.
Drax power station. Three years
When Arbre Energy went
without income from willow was
bankrupt, Henry and fellow
a bit hairy but we’ve got going
directors and producer
since then and I’ve been quite
colleagues created their own
pleased we got into the crop. It
co-operative company called
never makes us an awful lot but
Regrow. It was the only time
we don’t lose money either. Our
he has invested so heavily in
supply now goes to a company
farm machinery since switching
called Igglesund, which is a
from arable 62509
to willow,
as
Henry
We supply
- HornseysLandAgent - 8TH.pdf Norwegian
1 06/06/2017 company.
11:58:21
explains:
their factory in Cumbria where
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