July & August 2022 at Stourton

Sunflowers for Ukraine – Sunday 24^th & Sunday 31^st July (potentially Sunday 7^th August too!)

Come and enjoy a walk through our field of sunflowers for Ukraine on a Sunday!  We have created a trail through the field approximately 1km in length for you to walk through enjoy them whilst they are in bloom and take some wonderful photos along the way.  There is also a designated ‘picking area’ of the field where you can cut your stems to take home.

There is no charge for the sunflower trail, however as Sunflowers are the National Flower for Ukraine we wanted to support the people of Ukraine and are asking that visitors make a voluntary donation directly through JustGiving to the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal – Stourton Woods Sunflower Trail.

Since we announced this event on Facebook (and given the amount of interest this generated!) to ensure this is a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone we are asking visitors to book online arrival times for the sunflower trail. Time slots are currently available from 10am – 2pm on Sunday 24th July and Sunday 31st July via our website.  Whilst there is no charge for the sunflower trail, the normal £4 parking charge is in place for all visitors to Stourton Woods.  This charge helps towards the ongoing maintenance of the estate.

Remember you are very welcome to stay all day – on these Sundays we are extending our opening time to 5pm so that all visitors have plenty of time to:

• Wander along the sunflower trail taking in the beauty of these naturally uplifting flowers.
• Bring your secateurs or scissors to snip a sunflower(s) from the designated picking area to take home
• Make a donation to help the people suffering in Ukraine using the link from this QR code to our JustGiving page, or please make a cash donation in the box at the Stourton stand in the roundhouse when you come
• Wander around the estate and take in the lakes and woodlands (there are 3 self guided routes 1km -5km in length) follow the way-marked trails starting from the woodland parking area
• Book onto a guided deer safari to see the deer calves – tickets available online or from the roundhouse
• Find the gnomes’ favourite songs on the gnome trail
• Pick up a FREE nature trail / tree spotting guide
• On Sunday 31^st July L-CAT are running off-road safaris around the estate too – more detail on this to follow!
• Take in some refreshments available on site and relax and enjoy your time here.

 L-CAT 4×4 off road rides on Sunday 31^st July

Come along and enjoy a 4×4 off road experience with the L-CAT (Lincolnshire Community Assistance Team) and help them raise much needed funds.

The vehicles will travel around 2 and 1/2 miles on private land across the estate and you will learn more about some of the challenges the team faces when they are out ‘on call’ attending to incidents.

Rides in one of 4 off-road vehicles will be available to book on the day directly with Kath from the L-CAT team charged at £3 per person or £10 for a group of 4.

Enjoy a 4×4 off-road experience at Stourton Woods on Sunday 31st July running from 10am – 4pm!

Artisan Markets!

What great support there was for local Lincolnshire makers and producers Artisan Market held in the Roundhouse!  It was super to see so many people come and enjoy the fantastic array of goods on offer at the artisan market here on Sunday 26^th June.  There was a great write up in the local press too .

Whilst it was wonderful that it was so well attended, we have received feedback from several people who didn’t have such a great experience due to such a large volume of people coming along so whilst we had no idea what to expect in terms of visitor numbers this first time around we are making the following changes to our next Artisan Market on Sunday 18^th September:

• We will be using the field as you approach the venue for car parking and employing professional car parkers to ensure people are parked efficiently (the car park machine will not be in use for this event)
• We will be employing event staff to collect CASH only on the gate for car parking. Whilst the event is free entry, we do charge £4 for parking (no matter how many people in the car and we actively encourage car sharing!) this goes towards helping us maintain the estate and keeping it in tip top condition
• Our promotion of this event, posters, social media, banners etc will be updated to ensure that visitors know about the parking charge in advance
• Disabled parking will be located in the normal parking area slightly closer to the market location
• The number of caterers / food outlets for people to get food and drink from will be significantly increased and we have a great selection of food lined up – crepes, jacket potatoes, sausage & bacon baps, loaded fries and pizza as well as the all important tea and coffee!
• There will be a slightly different set up in the roundhouse given these changes but we still hope to have music and a fantastic selection of Lincolnshire makers for you to support
• There will be more information / signage so that people can more easily find the facilities and information on site

We hope that these changes will improve the experience for everyone who comes along and dare we say get ahead with some seasonal shopping ahead of December!  We hope that people recognise we are a small and dedicated team that work extremely hard to put on high quality events here.

@Focus Rides Mountain Bike Race

This was an energetic event with around 100 keen mountain bikers racing around the course designed by Kev Smith and his team around the estate.  The weather was kind, warm and sunny but not too hot or wet and the competitors put themselves through their paces around the course.  Having tested it out on a family bike ride (not racing!) we thought it was a very keen course with plenty of interest through woodland and parkland with great challenges in places – you’re very welcome to give it a go yourself if you want to bring your bike along to one of our open days!  Well done to all of those who took part in the race.

Wedding Season!

It is so lovely to see how the safari tent and arboretum is transformed into an idyllic wedding venue by couples holding their special day here.  With a little bit of natural foliage and decoration, the beauty of our rustic and relaxed wedding venue really shines through and guests are continually taken aback by how magical wedding receptions are in the grounds.

We send our huge Congratulations to Lucy and Will as well as Garance and Ben who I know have very happy memories or their weddings here.

All weddings and receptions are totally different and unique to the couples who work alongside our Wedding Co-Ordinator Julie Pounds who has such a close attention to detail which means their day goes smoothly and as they have planned.

If you’d like to hold your reception or party here in the grounds please do get in touch and we will be happy to work with you to create your own happy memories.

 Kiln Dried Logs Coming Soon!

Kiln dried logs will be back in stock early August for delivery ready for the Autumn.  Unfortunately, like everyone else we have been massively impacted by the increase in costs of production and so unfortunately these will also be going up in price.  We do try to reduce the impact of increasing prices by using our own timber from ongoing woodland management plans here, however we do also have to buy in timber from other local woodlands to ensure we can meet our customers’ requirements and the cost of drying, delivery and labour also gives significant challenges.  Very soon we will be in a position to kiln dry and bag up our high quality split and graded mixed hardwood timber and confirm the price of our kiln dried logs for delivery.  If you would like to be notified when these are available please do email contact@stourtonestates.co.uk and we will get in touch with you directly.

 Deer Diary

We are pleased to report that calving has finished and we have over 100 healthy calves frolicking in the sunshine!  The dry weather is giving us a bit of an issue though as we don’t have very much grazing available so one herd currently has a bale of silage (in July!).   We are now busy mowing the thistles in the enclosures as these are no longer needed to protect the newborns and so they are kept a little more under control.

You may have seen that we closed the estate to visitors on Sunday 17^th July to keep the deer protected from the extreme heat weather conditions that were forecast.  Our deer are lucky to have ‘swimming ponds’ in the parks and a woodland enclosure so by moving them into these areas they have a much better chance of keeping cool.  Normally the deer are unaffected by people and actually quite interested in any activity on the estate, however in the heat they are best left to their own devices rather than running around the enclosures when they see a person!  Unfortunately this meant we took the decision to shut for the day and keep them calm and undisturbed.

On the Farm

Oli and the farming team have started harvest here at Stourton so he is a little busy at present.  We will update you with our farming news at our earliest opportunity…which will probably mean that it has rained!