Lawns Farm
quantity surveyor, but came
back to the farm in 2014.
Laurence wanted to be an
aircraft manager and now
builds petrol stations. Chris was
always going to be a farmer
and Anthony was set to be a
forensic scientist but now runs
the farm shop and butchery. We
decided that if he was going to
be part of the farm we needed
another enterprise.’
From forensics to cutting up
meat took time and Anthony
sought out the right education
and experience before starting
the butchery on the farm.
‘I’d cut up pigs before as
we used to sell half pig boxes
from the farm gate and I’d been
involved with preparing turkeys
and geese for Christmas orders
before so it wasn’t wholly new
territory but I went off and
worked for a local butcher to
learn the trade professionally. It
was when I came back having
gained the experience that
we built the shop. We’ve been
open for five years now and
have another butcher as well as
myself and a couple of part-time
staff for the deli. We’d like to
expand the farm shop further to
include a café and bistro in the
near future once finances allow.
Our main lines include steaks,
burgers, steak pies, pork pies
and homemade sausages. We
have all manner of dry goods
and vegetables and buy lamb
from local farmers.’
George came back three
years ago having spent five
years working in London
and eight years in Australia
following his studies at
Loughborough University.
‘I loved the life in London
in my early 20s and had a
fantastic time in Sydney and on
the Gold Coast, but I’m a farmer
at heart and dad’s knees had
packed up. The farm was and
still is struggling not through
any fault of dad or anyone else.
It’s the way farming and the
world has changed.
‘The milk price started to
crash and just when I thought
it couldn’t go even lower it did.
We went from 30p per litre to
14p. Every time the tanker left
it was taking money out of our
pockets. Fortunately we had
the shop. That’s when I realised
the system we are still in but
are now trying to move out of
doesn’t work. Liquid milk is a
commodities market and we
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