August 2023 at Stourton

Pop-Up Pub Night – a great time was had!

We’d like to thank everyone who attended our pop-up pub night at the Water Tower on Sunday 27^th August. Despite some slightly dodgy weather during the day so many of you came out to support us and we stayed dry! Our happy campers were transported to the Tower in style on our tractor and trailer taxi and it was great to be able to support Kira Hodgson’s debut gig. She now has enough money to buy a new amp – keep an eye out for more local performances from her!

We managed to raise £155 for St Swithin’s Church in Baumber. We hope to raise more funds for the church by holding a series of autumn walks more on this to follow soon….

Forthcoming Events at Stourton Woods

Autumn Artisan Market – 17^th September 10am – 4pm

Sunday 17^th September sees the return of our Autumn Artisan Market.  We are delighted to host over 90 (!) local Lincolnshire creatives, artists and food producers who will be exhibiting their wares on site, in the shelter of our Roundhouse in partnership with Lincolnshire Makers, a collective of over 1600 businesses headed up by Jodie Mason.

If you like to support local and shop handmade, quality products, this is the event for you! Expect a huge range of items on offer from fused glass to fudge, macarons to melts, spices to sea glass and alcohol to art! Talented local musicians will provide a musical atmosphere – we’ve local guitar duo Nigel and Teri, and saxophonist John entertaining visitors throughout the event.

Enjoy a great variety of street food on site, including fully loaded fries from Oh La La Fries, freshly made pizza from The Roaming Dough, burgers from Gourmazin, sweet and savoury crepes from Fleurs’ Kitchen, onsite bar from Ferry Ales Brewery plus hot drinks from Jackalope Joe Coffee Co and Dancing Dungarees and delicious desserts from Barney’s Churros and ice cream from Nocona Gelato! We’ve even options for gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian and vegan diets too.

Picnic benches will be dotted throughout the grounds or please do bring your own picnic blankets along! Deer safaris will run throughout the day and are wheelchair accessible. Deer Safaris be booked online in advance via our website.

The event is dog friendly and entry is free of charge for visitors, although a small car parking fee of £5 will apply – every penny of which is reinvested into the ground’s maintenance and automatically enrols you into our raffle to win some great goodies from Stourton Estates including a Land Rover Farm Safari for Four, 2 Adult & 2 Child tickets to the Enchanted Lights event on 2nd November and a hamper full of goodies!

Take time whilst visiting to hunt for gnomes, get competitive with our lawn games, scout out items on our scavenger hunt or enjoy a woodland walk around the extensive grounds! With such a wide array of Lincolnshire creatives, food producers, makers and artists together in a beautiful setting this is an event not to be missed!

Enchanted Lights – 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th  & 5^th November 2023

We are in the process of finalising suppliers and attractions for the return of our Enchanted Lights event. It will run across FOUR nights this year on 2nd, 3rd, 4^th & 5^th November 2023 and as usual we will be running 2 time slots across each night.

Tickets will be on sale in the next couple of weeks. If you sign up to our newsletter via our website we will let you know as soon as they are available to purchase.

Grow your love with Weddings at Stourton Woods

The last wedding of 2023 was held here on Saturday 2^nd September. It’s been a great wedding season and we have been overjoyed to welcome our couples to help them to celebrate their special days.

We attended the wedding fair in Horncastle at Stanhope Hall on Sunday 3rd September. It was great to meet so many couples who wanted to find out what we can offer for weddings and special celebrations at Stourton Woods! We gave out some special seed cards with all our information on, kindly created for us by Hedera Artistry. We’d love to see the results once you have planted them.

On the Farm

Harvest…..what a slog it has been, dodging showers, not being able to ‘get going’ for days at a  time…but it’s in! It has not been an easy ride this year, but it has been a really fantastic team effort. We take our hats off to the extended AW Smith team as well as our own who worked some LONG hours to get finished. We’re now busy harrowing, mowing margins and prep for drilling next year’s crops.

Deer Diary

As summer turns to autumn we are preparing for the rut. This involves de-antlering the stags so that they don’t cause the hinds or anyone else any harm in this testosterone fueled period! We also give them all a copper bolus supplement. Deer have a high copper requirement so they are supplemented to support their bone and coat health and boost their immune systems. Once they are all supplemented we will get the boys into position and the noisiest time of the year on the estate can begin!

We hope to see you soon at either (or both) our Artisan Market and the Enchanted Lights event.

Antony & Helen