We are delighted to announce that our popular Enchanted Lights event will take place on 3rd, 4th and 5th November this year.
Last year this event was very popular and spaces booked up quickly so don’t delay! Book now
Our Enchanted Lights event is a truly magical evening. We create a beautifully lit trail around the trees and grounds of the arboretum (just under 1km long). When you come you will experience:
Refreshments will be on offer all evening. Purchase marshmallows to toast on the specially designed mini fire-pits under the stars on the Old Hall Lawn and then at the end of the trail enjoy locally produced food from street food vendors around the fire-pit.
Our Safari tent bar will be open……perhaps indulge in a Baileys hot chocolate, mulled wine or locally brewed beer from Ferry Ales Brewery whilst you warm up around the log burner!
There are two slots each evening:
– 5pm – 7pm
– 7pm – 9pm
Plus, a one-way system will be in place to ensure it is an enjoyable experience for all our visitors.
This is a lovely alternative evening’s entertainment to a traditional bonfire or fireworks night and is perfect for smaller children and dog owners (well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome!).
This is an event not to be missed.
Please take advantage of this opportunity to buy your tickets early and bring your friends / family as we have sold out in previous years. For more information or to buy tickets please click here.
We had some great feedback from our Sunflowers event. We were tagged into some lovely pictures on Facebook adn Instagram. We loved this video courtesy of Ashley Moat. Sunflower Video Thank you!
Even though the event could only take place over a couple of weekends we were delighted by the number of visitors and more importantly we raised a huge amount of money. We were proud to donate £1,854 to DEC Humanitarian Appeal to help the people suffering in Ukraine. We’d like to thank each and every visitor and donor who helped to make this possible.
Not content with raising lots of money for charity, our sunflowers also starred in the Lincoln Cathedral Flower Festival. We supplied sunflowers to Woodhall Spa Flower Club who made a number of fabulous exhibits in the Cloisters of Lincoln Cathedral. The flower festival celebrated the life and works of St Hugh of Lincoln, as well as many other notable visionaries who’s “ideas and actions have shaped the world we live in and changed our lives”. The Woodhall Spa Flower Club beautifully captured the agricultural revolution in their stunning arrangements. We were proud that our sunflowers were part of this.
We’re hoping the sunflower seeds will soon be ready to harvest both to be used to crush and create sunflower oil and to be re-sown elsewhere on the farm as part of our crop rotation for our event next year…!
Our last wedding this year was held on Saturday 20th August and we heard from one of the guests who came along:
“We attended our friends’ wedding at Stourton Estates and really think its the nicest wedding we’ve ever been to. Such a beautiful natural environment.”
We now only have one date remaining for 2023 and are taking bookings for 2024 so if you’d like to hold your reception in the beautiful grounds of the estate and safari tent here please get in touch…
On Sunday the 18th September we hosted our second Artisan Market with Lincolnshire Makers. We are delighted that this event was enjoyed by so many people and that around 80 different local businesses attending as stall holders had the opportunity to share their work and talents with so many visitors.
For this event, and knowing how many visitors to anticipate following the success of the first event in June, we managed to be much better organized. We put in place better car parking arrangements, and signage as well as more food vendors. We know we can always improve things and amongst other tweaks for future events we will be looking to add more toilets!
Thank you to all the stall holders and visitors, as well as Team Stourton, who did a great job both in the lead up and on the day itself, to ensure that it was a success.
We’ve created a picture gallery of some photos kindly taken by Anthony Brian Photography on the day. Click here to have a look.
Summer drought was extremely challenging here, we spent a lot of time ensuring the herds had plenty of shade, water and most problematic of all food! We actually fed them hay during the hottest weeks when the grass died off – certainly not ideal during the summer. However, with the recent rain we are pleased the enclosures are green once again and they have some proper grass to eat before winter!
We’ve spent the last few weeks separating the herds ready for the rut, weaning the calves, giving them a copper bolus to keep them healthy and de-antlering the stags for their own safety – and ours!
We are nearly ready for Winston and Nelson to join their ladies for the rut – and they are ready!
If you live nearby you will hear the occasional roar in the months to come – it is nothing to worry about, the stags are just asserting their dominance in the herd!
The kiln has been up and running through the summer to prepare a shed full of dry timber ready to keep our customers supplied with quality kiln dried logs through the winter.
Demand has been strong this year and so we would encourage customers to get stocked up, we’ve removed the limit on the number of logs you can buy to help get prepared for the winter. At the minute stocks are good but we can’t guarantee a continual supply all the way through the winter if demand stays at current levels.
Don’t miss out! Click here to order your kiln dried logs for winter.
A fair bit of time has elapsed since the last time we published the blog, in that time we’ve been a little occupied on the farm to say the least!
Harvest kicked off in the middle of July with winter barley and didn’t really let up until we finished in the 3rd week of august. It was one of the earliest, shortest and most straightforward harvests we have known. The majority of grain was cut dry, yields were variable but we have achieved a pleasing overall average. Given the lack of rainfall, the very sandy areas of the farm performed very poorly, this was offset by the more ‘bodied’ land performing very well.
Having said we have finished harvest, we are actually still waiting for our sunflower crop to ripen. We expect to cut these on a good day some time in October.
Alongside harvest the team have been keeping up with drilling oilseed rape and cover crops, as well as cultivations ahead of our autumn sown cereals and beans. As always it has been a mammoth effort for all involved to get to this stage, massive thanks go to Ken, Dan, Dan the man, James, Mark, Archie and Ed for their efforts.
Our attention has now turned to sowing our winter crops, winter barley is largely finished, rolled and has had a pre-emergence herbicide applied. As this goes to press we are starting in earnest on our wheat. We will start on our fields which are cleaner of blackgrass before moving onto the more ‘at risk fields’ as we move into October.
While this is all going on we will be monitoring for slug activity and applying molluscicide pellets in areas where the slugs are hollowing grain or grazing emerged crop. Grass weed levels are being monitored in the oilseed rape, with a likely application of herbicide to be made to take out any cereal volunteers and blackgrass within the next couple of weeks. We are also looking to make a start to our sugar beet lifting campaign this week, hopefully the dry weather won’t have affected yields too badly here…. Time will tell.
We’ve still plenty to do but we are making good progress and have to be pleased with how things have gone and are going thus far.
We have some great ideas for more exciting things coming soon – so watch this space and our social media channels for updates…
Don’t forget your tickets to our last big event this year – Enchanted Lights 3-5th November.
Best wishes
Antony & Helen
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:
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!
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 26th 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 18th September:
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.
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.
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 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.
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 17th 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.
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!
We are now well into our wedding season at Stourton. The fantastic thing about our venue is that there are no limitations. Each and every wedding hosted at Stourton is unique to the couple, whether that’s the wedding styling, the entertainment, the catering and various camping options. This is all backed up by a team of people our end helping you to ensure that the day runs without a hitch (well, other than actually getting hitched!).
We have had some lovely feedback from a couple for whom we recently hosted their big day that we wanted to share with you.
“Thank you so much for everything you have done for us for our amazing wedding day. It was perfect with all your planning and ensuring everything ran smoothly on the day! We couldn’t of done it without you!…………… The [guests] loved the ceremony and the venue and fell in love themselves with it all.”
We hosted another wedding last weekend ( see the images in the gallery below). Amy & Dan had chosen a London bus as their preferred method of guest transport so we were busy trimming some trees around the entrances and roadways ensuring that this fantastic vehicle can fit through! Nothing is too much trouble for us here!
On 19th May we hosted a Well-being day in the Safari Tent at Stourton Wood to raise funds for two important local charities. We are absolutely delighted to tell you that we have raised a massive £3,024.53 which has been split between Lincolnshire Rural Support Network and the Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance. The audience learnt a lot more about the vital roles these charities play in our community and we are so pleased to contribute much needed funds to make a difference to their operations.
This was only possible with the generous sponsorship support from Forrester Boyd Accountants, the Woldmarsh buying group and Wilkin Chapman solicitors. Thanks to all the speakers who so kindly gave their time to share valuable information about improving mental and physical wellbeing as well as how what you eat positively impacts your day to day life. Special thanks also goes to Amy Jobe, Emma Middleton, Nicola Carr and Helen Strawson who spent a great deal of their own time organising this event. We hope that everyone who attended enjoyed their day here.
We are really enjoying hosting guests every Sunday from 10am – 4pm for our open days. Our ‘kids go free’ special offer on deer safaris, available until the end of June, is proving very popular. If you want to book a place on one of safaris please click here. They run at 11am, 2pm and at other times in between subject to demand.
As its calving season we have so many little deer calves running about. As they are still so small and mothers are still calving we don’t want to disturb them so the deer safaris won’t go into the calving enclosures, but if you walk one of the routes you may ‘spot’ one / two!
As well as deer safaris you, your family and your well behaved dogs can take in the beautiful woodland, lakes and countryside on offer here. There is a range of trails on offer to explore of differing lengths. Plus refreshments are available on the day.
Please follow signs to STOURTON WOODS on roadside or follow map/directions online here https://www.stourtonestates.co.uk/contact-us/where-to-find-us/
Or use What3Words reference: ///headsets.straws.paradise
Stourton Estates has teamed up with the Lincolnshire Makers group, a collective of over 800 local Lincolnshire creatives, artists and food producers; to bring you our first Summer Artisan Market being held at Stourton Woods, Baumber on Sunday 26th June, from 10am – 4pm!
Over 50 local businesses will showcase their wares at the event, taking place in the shelter of the Roundhouse in the woods which is surrounded by parklands of red deer and their newly born deer calves. The Roundhouse, provides shelter for the deer from the elements during the winter months.
Expect a huge range of items on offer from cakes to candles, jewellery to jams, honey to homewares, cheese to ceramics, doughnuts to dog treats, fudge to flowers at Stourton Woods on Sunday 26th June!
Local guitar duo Nigel and Teri will entertain visitors throughout the event, plus locally sourced food and culinary delights served by SEASON Street Food and The Peel Wood Fired Kitchen making delicious fresh pizzas. Picnic benches will be dotted throughout the grounds for you to soak in the atmosphere or enjoy a walk around the estate grounds!
Deer safaris will run throughout the day (which are wheelchair accessible) and kids ride free! These can be booked online in advance on our website. The event is dog friendly and entry is free, although a small car parking fee will apply – every penny of which is reinvested into the grounds maintenance.
With such an array of Lincolnshire creatives, food producers, makers and artists together in a beautiful setting this is an event not to be missed!
Following the success of last year’s mountain bike event: Mud, Sweat & Gears; Focus rides are back with their Mountain Bike Cross Country Series round 4 to Stourton Woods on Sunday 3rd July 2022.
Book your places via their online Rider HQ website. There are various categories which you can enter plus it’s open to age 7+ as long as you can ride a bike confidently off-road. Why not make a weekend of it? Camping on site is also available over the weekend…. what are you waiting for?
Click here to book your space.
As usual we will be open in Sundays in July and August. However we are bringing you something a little different to add to your day’s enjoyment…… watch this space!
Get out your tent, hook up your caravan and get yourself down to the woods the first weekend of the school holidays to chill, out, escape technology and have some family time together at our open camping weekend. This is taking place in the shelter of the arboretum so limited pitches are available – don’t miss out book now!
https://www.stourtonestates.co.uk/product/events/open-camping-weekend-22nd-24th-july-2022/
As this blog goes to press we are now in the middle of June and time is going by at an alarming rate of knots! We have now closed the gate on the winter barley and winter oilseed rape crops until any pre-harvest desiccation treatments. The final fungicide application on the winter wheat to protect against diseases of the ‘ear’ (seed bearing head) is imminent.
This growing season has again shown us some extremes. The extreme dry has made our crops move rapidly through their growth stages, to the point where their development is around 10 days ahead of where we would usually expect them to be. The recent cooler weather will have helped steady things down a little but we could still be due a slightly early start to harvest as a result. At this stage our autumn/winter sown crops do seem to have a reasonable amount of potential but there’s still plenty mother nature could do to throw a spanner in the works!!
On our spring crops our spring barley will soon receive its final fungicide application as well followed by the same on our spring oats in around 10-14 days. The sugar beet has received what I hope will be the final broadleaved weed herbicide application though we may need to tidy a few bits and pieces up. Our focus on the sugar beet will then turn to fungicide and trace element applications.
Elsewhere on the farm we are about to start re-roofing our main general storage building. The asbestos sheets have been on since the shed was built in the 1960s and have started to become porous. These will be replaced by fibre cement panels, we hope they give us as much wear as the ones they are replacing!
Next on the agenda is to get everything ready for the upcoming harvest and cultivation season. We will be going through all of the machinery to renew all wearing parts and to check they are in generally good condition. We also have all of the grain stores to get cleaned and ready to receive the new seasons crop.
We are in the thick of calving time here. The hinds are all coping very well and make for great, natural mums. They are very good at hiding the calves from prey in long nettle patches and tucked near fences so we have to work extra hard to keep an eye on which have calved and make sure that we at least glimpse their calves to perform a health check.
Ant has been back to school and has passed his annual quality assurance test in Deer Management. This course ensures that we are fully up to date and compliant with the careful and considerate management of our deer herd.
The stags are still growing their antlers – they grow so quickly at this time of year you can see the changes from day to day. Winston is still ahead of Nelson, although the younger stag is catching up quickly! We may have a new head stag this Autumn…?!
For us, April was spent busily preparing for the Activity Day, which we hosted on Saturday 30th April. It was an absolute pleasure to welcome so many people back to the estate to mark the beginning of the Lincolnshire Wolds Outdoor Festival. We were even lucky enough to enjoy the sunshine on the day! We’ve had lots of positive feedback from the event.
If you’d like to add your own opinions to the feedback we have already received then please complete the survey by following this link.
https://wh1.snapsurveys.com/s.asp?k=164941050324
All completed responses received by 30th June 2022 will have the opportunity to be entered into a free prize draw to win a Lincolnshire Food Hamper worth £100.
We’d like to thank the steering group behind the festival for choosing us to kick-off proceedings this year, and as ever, all of our team who worked their socks off to get everything ready for the event and last but by no means least all the visitors who came along.
A selection of photos taken from the day is below.
As the Outdoor Festival continues there is the opportunity to book onto several guided walks of different lengths that take in the estate and the surrounding areas. There’s even a night walk to enjoy, starting at 8.30pm. The details for the walks are below. Please book your place on them by emailing the relevant walk leader.
11th May: a 9 mile walk starting at 10am from Stourton Woods – to book email Geoff Newmarch – geoffreynewmarch1@gmail.com
11th May: a 3 mile walk starting at 8.30pm from Stourton Woods – to book email Geoff Newmarch – geoffreynewmarch1@gmail.com
18th May: a 9 mile walk starting at 10am from Stourton Woods – to book email Tony Dean – a.dean3@live.co.uk
25th May: a 9 mile walk starting at 10am from Stourton Woods, to book email Alex Russell – azze32@hotmail.com
We will host the first of two Artisan Markets on 26th June. You can come along and see a wide selection of Lincolnshire based creatives, food producers, makers and artists showcase their goods. We will host this event in and around the roundhouse in Stourton Woods.
During the day the wider estate will also be open so you can enjoy a walk, spot the deer, enjoy the woodlands, parkland and lakes as well as having the opportunity to go on a deer safari.
A small parking charge applies (this goes towards maintenance of the grounds), however entry to the venue is free.
We hope to see you here!
If you would like to exhibit at either or both of these markets, please complete the online application form here.
On 1st May we hosted our first of our Sunday open days. We were delighted with the turn out and hope that many more of you will take the opportunity to come and visit us between now and September.
We have put way markers in place indicating the various walking routes around the estate and some of our unique log benches for you to stop and take a breather ‘en route’.
We’d also like to thank GRS Signs in Louth for producing our new car park sign and map for us in double quick time and to such a high standard.
After feedback from the open Sundays we are going to make the first deer safari of the day at 11am bookable. You can do this from Sunday 8th May up to the end of June online here. There will be another safari at 2pm and further safaris in between subject to demand.
There is no entry fee as such for our Sunday open days. There is a small car park charge of £4 which goes towards the maintenance and upkeep of the estate. Dogs on leads are also more than welcome to come and enjoy a day out with you too!
Whether you are looking to refresh an existing play area in your garden or commercial play area or are creating a brand new one then look no further than our play chip.
Our play chippings are produced from graded soft roundwood and has been screened, tested and is fully compliant with British Safety Standard Ref BSEN 1177: for Impact Absorbing Playground Surfacing when used to the recommended depth. So it is ideal to lay in your play areas whether in your garden or for commercial use.
There are no additives or waste products used in the production process – simply pure roundwood logs grown and sourced from our own woodlands.
Our play chip bags contain high quality chip in 0.7 cubic metre bags so one bag covers approximately 4 square metres at the recommended depth.
The recommendation is that a depth of between 150-300mm should be used if you are intending to use this as a play surface. If you Take a look at our play chip calculator to see how much you will need for the area you wish to cover.
Delivery is free up to 20 miles from our farm in Lincolnshire. If you live further away please get in touch to discuss a delivery price.
If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss your requirements.
So much time and effort has been put into preparing for our open season with the Activity Day and Sunday open days. We have been cleaning the roundhouse area from deer so that we can provide a clean, undercover area for exhibitors. We cleaned the safari tent and set it up to show how it could look as a wedding venue. Ground preparation has involved weeding, mowing, trimming, filling in holes, re-planing the car park, installing way markers, siting benches around the walking routes and large lake, putting up festoon lighting, cordoning off unsafe areas and tree trimming! This list is still a work in progress, and much like the Forth Road Bridge, is never finished!
Our next large estate project is tackling drainage issue at the bottom of the lake and woods so that the boardwalk and/or wellies are not needed!
Since the last blog we have finished off sowing our sugar beet into largely good but dry and drying conditions. The old crop sugar beet was delivered into Newark beet factory with a day to spare, many thanks to Andrew Read and his team for their excellent service in delivering our beet again.
As has become fairly predictable over the past few years April has been an extremely dry month. This is not helpful in both spring crop establishment and also for fertiliser availability to the crops. Thankfully the majority of our spring crops were sown into a nice amount of moisture so have established well. However the dry weather has been seriously taking its toll on the development of our spring barley crop in particular. Surprisingly but rather pleasingly, our autumn sown crops have not suffered too badly thus far with a recent 5mm of rain hopefully sufficient to perk everything up and increase the availability of applied crop nutrients.
We are now entering a crucial phase for most crops as we look to protect them from any diseases and tidy up any broadleaved weed issues that have arisen. It is a particularly busy time of year for the crop sprayer, always trying to juggle timing applications according to growth stage against the challenges of the weather in order to make best use of the products we apply.
All applications of nitrogen fertiliser are now being finished off, with an application of a slow release sulphur and potash fertiliser to be made to the sugar beet. Attentions then move towards establishment of our rotational over winter bird feed plots which will be going in imminently.
Our hinds (the ladies) have been in calf since autumn and will soon be ready to give birth. Luckily, red deer, unlike sheep and cows, are very independent in this process, rarely requiring much input from us. To prepare for this exciting time of year we will be splitting them into separate enclosures so that they have some space and privacy. Deer are very adept at keeping their calves well hidden following birth so we will need to keep a keen eye on the long grass and nettle patches. As soon as we have any news for you we will share some calf photos.
It’s fair to say that we have missed having visitors to the Estate and Woods in the last couple of years. We have spent much of March planning and gearing up for a number of exciting opportunities to come and visit us again. Have a look below to see what we have on offer!
We are have been very busy gearing up for 30th April which sees the first event on the estate this year. We are very pleased to organise this Activity Day to launch the Outdoor Festival at Stourton Woods which gives a wide range of businesses the opportunity to exhibit and share their activities right here! The Lincolnshire Wolds has a full schedule of events with a whole range of activities on offer for the duration of the festival and to see more of what’s on offer and to book your place(s) please click here.
There is so much going on at our Activity Day, it’s not to be missed! There are lots of activities to try and experiences to enjoy. Here’s a brief list of what’s on offer:
With so much to get involved with we suggest you wear sensible shoes and clothing.
You are welcome to bring your own picnics but there will be some delicious refreshments on offer throughout the day too.Early birds can get a bacon and egg roll from Amy Jobe’s Lincoln Russet who will later be serving expertly cooked beef and venison burgers. Delicious sweet and savoury crepes (with gluten free and vegan options available) will also be on offer provided by Fleurs Kitchen.
To enable as many people to enjoy the event as possible a minibus will be running from Horncastle directly to Stourton Woods (and back!) at hourly intervals through the day.
There are also other walks taking place across the estate throughout May:
11th May: a 9 mile walk starting at 10am from Stourton Woods – to book email Geoff Newmarch – geoffreynewmarch1@gmail.com
11th May: a 3 mile walk starting at 8.30pm from Stourton Woods – to book email Geoff Newmarch – geoffreynewmarch1@gmail.com
18th May: a 9 mile walk starting at 10am from Stourton Woods – to book email Tony Dean – a.dean3@live.co.uk
25th May: a 9 mile walk starting at 10am from Stourton Woods, to book email Alex Russell – azze32@hotmail.com
We will be open for visitors to explore the estate at their leisure from 10am – 4pm every Sunday (May – September 2022). No need to book. Just turn up at your leisure!This is a great opportunity to walk miles of trails across the estate, bring your bike and cycle, run – or just relax and see the red deer in the normally private parkland, woodland and lakes.
Refreshments will be on offer and there are fully flushing toilet facilities within the grounds!
Deer safaris will be running throughout the day which are wheelchair accessible.
We are looking forward to welcoming you to our working family farm – well behaved dogs on leads are also very welcome.
A small car parking fee applies (every penny of which is re-invested into the grounds to maintain and keep it open for you to enjoy).
Join us in raising funds for the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance and LRSN (Lincolnshire Rural Support Network) with a day concentrating on good physical and mental health. Focus your mind on what’s important and energise your body!
Take time out of your day-to-day pressures and take part in sessions on overall wellbeing and nutrition. Learn more about the critical work LRSN do on a day to day basis, the importance of good posture & physical exercise plus how good nutrition plays such a crucial role in our lives.
Leave feeling energised and refreshed – ready to make some simple changes to your daily routine and improve your overall wellbeing!
To book your place please click here.
Dan and Guy have been busy tidying and removing cut timber from one of the woodland areas and taking it up to the farm to convert into our logs. They are currently in the kiln being dried for our last batch of logs this season. They have also finished planting the last remaining native trees around the roundhouse – we just hope the deer don’t eat them!
Our Landscaping Products have been flying out the shed. The team has been busy drying, grading and bagging our range of products ready for the spring rush.
As we write this news story, the snow is falling, however spring is/will be upon is very soon and our attention moves to sprucing up our gardens and outdoor areas for the summer. We have a large range of landscaping products available to order, with delivery to your door.
We recommend some Garden Bark Chippings. This product is so versatile. It’s great for tidying up your beds, in chicken runs and for foot path areas. Prices for a 0.7 cubic meter builders bag start at £65 with discounts available on orders of 2 or more.
Delivery is free within a 20 mile radius (by road) of our farm in Baumber, Lincolnshire. If you live outside of the free delivery area please contact us to discuss your delivery.
A fair bit has been going on since the last blog to say the least! As discussed last time, we have applied our first ‘dressing’ of nitrogen fertiliser to our winter cereal crops and two onto our winter oilseed rape crop.
The final field of sugar beet for the ‘2021 harvest’ was eventually lifted having been in the ground for a record-breaking (for this farm and not in a good way) 363 days. This is now sat on the pad awaiting delivery, let’s hope we can get it delivered to the factory before it closes next week.
Our spring drilling campaign has so far gone smoothly, with all of the barley and the vast majority of the oats now sown. We have also managed to drill a couple of smaller and slightly awkward fields of sugar beet. Mother nature has now intervened with snow of all things, which will hopefully disappear and allow us to get finished up.
Next on the agenda will be nitrogen fertiliser applications to all of the spring crops as well as the second applications to winter cereals. Our thoughts will then turn to some weed control and working out our fungicide strategy as the season progresses to keep the crops free of disease.
With the weather turning warmer this month the deer calves were released early from the warmth of the roundhouse and they can be seen frolicking in the woods enjoying their new found freedom! They’re still having a top up of silage as the grass isn’t growing quickly enough to keep them full up…
Since they moved out the team have then spent some time clearing out the roundhouse removing temporary fencing and straw and clearing it ready for the summer season here where it will double as a shelter for events days. Whilst there are still some bales in the car-park it is looking tidy and we’re seeing the first signs of buds and spring colours in the grounds on the estate.
Both main stags Wilson & Nelson have shed their antlers – a real weight off their minds quite literally – they very conveniently left them near the gateway for Antony to collect so we didn’t have to hunt too far!
Proud to Support St Barnabas Hospice
Following our Enchanted Lights event in November where we had a donation ‘Wishing Fountain’ we were absolutely delighted to present St Barnabas Hospice with a cheque for £322.56p.
St Barnabas Hospice is the leading charity in Lincolnshire providing palliative and end-of-life care to adults living with a life-limiting or terminal illness. They do incredible work and we are very proud to have supported them. Please visit their website to donate or for fundraising ideas.
Outdoor Festival Activity Day – Volunteers Needed!
If you’d like the opportunity to help out for a couple of hours or 3 at the Launch of the Outdoor Festival to be held here on 30th April please do get in touch! We are looking for people to support various aspects of the co-ordination of the day including meeting and greeting and more generally supporting festival activity providers and visitors. If you’d like to get involved an essential Site Tour and Briefing Session will be held on Wednesday 27th April from 10am – 12 midday which you will also need to attend ahead of the event on 30th April. To register your interest please email contact@stourtonestates.co.uk and we will get in touch with more details.
We’ll be open EVERY SUNDAY from May – September!
We are very excited to announce that we will be open every Sunday from May – September 2022. You can come and come and enjoy our beautiful parkland and deer park at your leisure.
Red Deer safaris will be on offer together with self-guided walks around woodlands and lakes, with plenty of space for children and dogs to explore. The open days will be supported by an ever-changing high quality local food vendor on site serving drinks and refreshments, with flushing toilets available here too!
Lovingly reared home-grown venison will be available to purchase for you to cook at home with a selection of tried-and-tested recipes for inspiration.
In order to maintain the grounds to a high standard, a small car parking charge will be in place; every penny of which will be re-invested to improve and manage the site.
No need to book – you’re free to simply turn up and enjoy what’s on offer here.
Venison – Recipe of the Month – Lasagne!
Lasagne is such a great family favourite and perfect crowd pleaser for the hungry masses! It’s great to make in advance to pop in the oven when you need it. Why not give your lasagne a new twist by using venison mince instead of beef? Venison mince is full of flavour and a healthier option as the fat levels are lower than beef or pork. The cooking process is as simple as with other minces so the swap is easy to make!
Click here for our tried, tested and family approved Venison Lasagne recipe.
Also, if you are already planning your Easter Feast and would like to make venison the centrepiece please place your order now. Our venison joints are always very popular at this time of year and we don’t want you to miss out.
To place your order simply click here. We have a good range of frozen venison in stock with more cuts available soon! Delivery is free within a 20 mile radius of the farm (by road) when you spend £25 or more.
On The Estate
Guy is very excited as we are replacing our more weathered transit with a more shiny (second-hand one!) into our delivery fleet. To make the trek to Bath to collect the new Transit van during half term week (!) more palatable for our younger members of Team Stourton we had an overnight stay and trip to the Roman Baths. If you haven’t been to Bath it’s a great place to visit!
The new van is not yet on the road as it requires some modifications. We are fitting a mini crane so larger and bulk deliveries of logs are easy to load and unload as well as getting some branding applied. We will take some photos when it’s ready for the road.
On the Farm
After an incredibly dry and mild winter, the storms of February certainly changed things a little. Thankfully we suffered minimal damage on the farm but the recent rainfall has shown up a few wet areas that may need some attention.
Our thoughts now move towards applications of nitrogen fertiliser to our winter crops as well as the sowing of our spring crops. We are currently waiting for delivery of sewage sludge for application ahead of our spring crops. This is a great source of crop nutrients as well as being a useful addition of ‘organic matter’ to our soils.
We are in unprecedented times as far as agricultural markets are concerned. As mentioned previously our fertiliser prices are sky high (directly linked to gas/energy prices). This has been accentuated by Russia’s disgraceful recent decision to invade Ukraine. Our thoughts are very much with the people of Ukraine at this time. I, for one can’t begin to comprehend what they are going through right now, it is deeply unsettling.
The Ukraine and Russia are both very important exporters of wheat and maize onto the world market. There is an estimated 15 million tonnes of wheat and 12 million tonnes of maize still to leave the black sea ports this season. As things stand this is highly unlikely to happen in the short term and has made markets incredibly nervous about tightness in global supply.
In other news we have been building a new farm chemical store/sprayer filling area in the yard. This project is coming along nicely now and will be a welcome addition to ease spraying logistics in the spring.
Deer Diary
It’s been a busy few weeks in the deer parks. All our deer have now been wormed and topped up with vital minerals in anticipation of the forthcoming calving season. May seems a long way away but it will be here before we know it!
The calves are all under cover in the new deer shed enjoying their luxury accommodation. However that said, they will be more than happy to be turned out onto the spring grass next month.
The recent storms have caused us quite a few headaches and a serious amount of additional work repairing fences which have been squashed by falling trees and branches. We are shortly to begin our parkland maintenance works – harrowing, re-seeding and leveling the pasture to ensure it is in the best condition for turn out.
We’d like to take the opportunity to welcome a new member to our office team! Tina started with us at the beginning of the year bringing with her a whole heap of experience and is making great progress in learning the ropes….there are quite a few ropes! Tina at the moment is focusing on the co-ordination of log and landscaping orders and is taking the heady task of learning which villages are within the 20 mile free delivery radius in her stride.
We know what you are thinking…. where’s Julie gone? Well, have no fear, Julie is still with us and is going to focus on co-ordinating weddings and private events, an ever growing area of our offering, which also allows her the flexibility to work from home.
We’re planning our programme of events and open days for 2022 with the aim of being open far more regularly than ever before so WATCH THIS SPACE for more details.
Our first event, and marking the launch of the Lincs Wolds Outdoor Festival, is the Outdoor Festival Activity Day on Saturday 30th April. There will be lots of activities and demonstrations on offer including:
We will let you know more information nearer the time, for now it is a date for your diary!
Whilst it’s not been extremely cold lately we are v busy with log orders. Therefore we are restricting orders to max 2 bags per customer at the moment, We would also advise early ordering as current lead time is 1 week from order to delivery.
To place your order please follow this link.
For those of you who’s new year’s resolution was to try to eat more healthily, have you thought about trying our delicious venison? Low in fat & cholesterol and high in protein & iron our wonderfully flavoured venison is reared in the tranquil surroundings of the estate and woodland.
So whether it sausages, mince, steaks or haunch joints, our full range of venison is in stock in our freezers now. We can deliver directly to your door* and delivery is FREE if you’re within a 20 mile radius by road of the farm.
To see our full range and to place your order please click here.
*£25 minimum spend required
We are really pleased to announce that we will be working with Ferry Ales Brewery, a family owned craft brewery who will be providing the bar for all our weddings and private events. Ferry Ales Brewery make such a great bar partner, offering locally made beer, lager and cider on tap with the opportunity for couples to brand their own beer as an optional extra! We’ve also found that many are looking for their guests to enjoy a cocktail and we can now offer (through FAB) a range of cocktails perfect for celebrating with! Cheers!
We’re delighted to be showing our venue to so many couples who are looking for a woodland wedding venue to hold their special day. There are still a limited number of dates available in 2022 and we are now taking bookings for 2023. If you would like to find out more about our venue and wedding hire options please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
The team have been spending January, traditionally a very quiet month, converting timber to logs. They’ve been keeping the kiln going non-stop in order to keep up with customer demand. The added benefit of excess heat from the kiln is that we divert that heat to keep the farm office warm, nothing goes to waste here. Please keep your log orders coming!
The herds are being moved around to maximise the grazing potential and are being treated and separated to get us ready for the last couple of wintery months and to make sure that everything is in place, both literally and nutritionally, before we begin calving season in late spring.
We also thought you’d appreciate a Dotty update. She is still going strong and still proving to be quite the character. She hasn’t lost her interest in us and still loves a fuss every feeding time.
Well, we’re now well through January. Thankfully the days are now drawing out at a rapid rate of knots.
As mentioned before, on the arable farm we use the winter months as time to recharge our batteries. However we still seem to have plenty going on at the moment!! As I write we are lifting a little more sugar beet, we have a lot more left in the ground than we usually would at this time of year. This is down to a combination of things but largely due to British Sugar opening later than usual and the processing factory having some enormous problems this season. It has been incredibly frustrating for growers and hauliers alike who bear the brunt of the risk involved in not being able to deliver our beet in a timely manner.
Elsewhere on the farm, we have been soil sampling to test for nutrient contents ahead of applying sewage cake. This is applied for a number of reasons but is a really useful import of ‘organic matter’ allowing us to store that carbon in our soils.
With the dry conditions we have also been applying a few ‘top up’ grass seed herbicides to our winter cereals where required, as well as on our oilseed rape crops.
We will soon be applying a sulphur and potash containing fertiliser to all of our winter crops to supply their seasons needs for those two crop nutrients before moving on to nitrogen applications in February. Nitrogen fertiliser is certainly focusing the mind this year as we are currently paying up to 3 times more than the usual cost of this incredibly important crop nutrient.
Please pop the Outdoor Festival Activity Day in your diary and we look forward to seeing you later in 2022.
Antony & Helen
On Saturday 4th December we held our winter open day. Under the new shelter of the roundhouse visitors came to choose or pick up their pre-ordered trees, purchase venison to stock up the freezer and enjoy festive refreshments from The Lunch Wagen. We also ran festive deer safaris and around 20 of the deer calves born this summer were getting acclimatized to their new surroundings in the roundhouse for our visitors to see. They generally behaved very well! Despite the slightly grotty weather we were delighted to see some friendly faces join us for an hour or two.
As ever, a huge thank you to all who attended, well done to the The Lunch Wagen keeping up with demand for hot chocolates and to our fabulous Stourton team who helped to set up and attended on the day to ensure everything ran smoothly. We look forward to holding many more open days from late spring time in the New Year. Keep your eyes peeled for news about these next year.
Christmas Trees: We have a few beautiful Nordmann Fir trees left following our open day. If you’d like to come and choose or collect your tree (which you can pre-order online) you can come to the barn at the farm yard (LN9 5BP) between 10am – 12pm on Saturday (11th) and Sunday (12th) December. We highly recommend pre-ordering to avoid disappointment or a wasted trip.
Venison: It is lovely to enjoy venison over the festive season and into the New Year, our fresh venison boxes are already SOLD OUT for December delivery and will be shipped to customers from Thursday 16th December.
If you’d prefer to ‘click and collect’ from our selection of frozen venison our veni-van will be stationed down Clays Lane at the A158 entrance on Friday 17th December 11-2 from which you can collect your order. Please place your orders online prior to coming to see us.
If you wish to place an order for frozen venison for home delivery (free within 20 miles by road of the farm postcode) our last delivery date is 22nd December and we won’t be making any further deliveries until Thursday 6th January.
Logs: Our last order date for logs is Friday 17th December with spaces already filling up fast for our last delivery date on 22nd December.
Our office and farm staff are very ready to take a well deserved break so we will be closed throughout the festive season from 23rd December – 6th January.
As we head towards Christmas on the arable farm thoughts turn towards the team having a little well-earned time off with family.
With two pretty significant storms in quick succession we have been extremely fortunate to escape any major damage. We can cope with an odd wet patch showing itself as the land reaches field capacity (full saturation point!).
Crops are generally looking well heading into the winter. Winter oilseed rape crops are a little patchier than I would like but the winter barley and winter wheats are pleasing across the board. Our winter beans have largely all emerged, and we should be seeing them all clearly in rows within the next ten day, a huge improvement on last year which saw one field emerging towards the end of January having been sown in the first week of November!!
We are hoping to lift another 10ha approximately of sugar beet before we finish for Christmas which will be stored on our ‘pad’ until delivery into the factory is possible.
I will take this opportunity to again thank every member of our team for their hard work this year.
With the dip in temperatures and threat of another storm the deer calves have been road testing the new roundhouse for their winter quarters and it looks like they are settling in nicely. The roundhouse is designed to protect them from the worst of the weather whilst maintaining a lovely calm environment within the natural shelter of the woodland. Before the calves go into the roundhouse they are given a copper bolus, wormer and a unique tag identifier before going to enjoy the new roundhouse’s facilities over the winter months.
Finally we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for continuing to support us through what has been one of the toughest of years. From all of the team here, we hope that you and your loved ones have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Antony and Helen
We’d like to thank everyone who came along to our Enchanted Lights event this year. We hoped that this event would be bigger and better than previous years and we think that, according to your feedback, we most certainly managed it. It was fantastic to see so many people in attendance and to have people back on the estate in such numbers for the first time in 18 months.
We are still awaiting the final total from the wishing fountain donations for St Barnabas Hospice and will share the total with you as soon as we know.
We couldn’t have done it without our hard working and incredibly flexible Stourton Team and volunteers who made sure that not only did everything look great but that the event ran smoothly.
The photographer, John Aron came along to the event on Thursday night and has taken some great pictures, a few of which we have made into a gallery that you can view by clicking here.
And so onwards to our next event!
We invite you to start the festive season with Christmas at Stourton. In the woods under the shelter of our new roundhouse you will be able to collect or purchase your beautiful Nordman Fir Christmas tree (5ft,6ft & 7ft) as well as frozen venison from the Veni-Van and order any kiln dried logs to see you through the Christmas period.
We will be holding festive deer safaris which you can book in advance here and a selection of hot drinks and light refreshments will be on offer from The Lunch Wagen.
It is FREE entry and we are open from 10am until 4pm on Saturday 4th December and we will be delighted to see you.
Get ahead and order your tree now for delivery or collection!
We have a beautiful selection of freshly cut Nordmann Fir trees in stock ready to deliver to you, or for you to collect from the farm by prior arrangement. They are available from the end of November.
These premium trees have the added advantage that they hold their needles throughout the festive season and beyond! Pruned and tendered throughout their growing season, they have a lovely conical shape.
The trees come in arrange of sizes between 5ft – 7ft 6 and cost between £35 – £50.
We can deliver your tree directly to your door with any log order free within 20 miles of LN9 5PB or you can come and collect your tree from the farm office, off the Caistor High Street, B1225 LN9 5PB by prior arrangement.
If you’d prefer to collect and choose your tree in person, please pre-order online and come and see us at our Christmas Open Day on Saturday 4th December – just let us know on the notes of your online order!
Click here to place your Christmas tree order online!
Whether it’s a deliciously tender venison casserole, a roasting joint, sausages or steaks venison makes a great alternative to the ‘usual’ beef, pork or lamb versions of your favourite dishes.
Make sure you place your order early to stock your fridge or freezer in time for the festive season.
The last opportunity to buy Imperial and Royal fresh venison boxes are available to order now with delivery from 16th December. These boxes, packed full of a range of venison cuts also make great Christmas gifts for foodie friends and can be delivered across the UK.
We will also have the veni-van in place for anyone wishing to collect their box order or pre-order their frozen venison, there will also be fresh venison available to purchase from the van. You can find us at the Stourton Woods entrance, (off A158 – follow Walled Garden signs) from 11am – 2pm on 17th December.
A full range of our frozen venison available to order online. If you order more than £25 worth delivery is free of charge within 20 miles (by road) of LN8 5PB.
Don’t get chilly over Christmas! Please place any log orders as early as possible so that we can ensure pre-Christmas delivery. Our logs are of a very high standard and are Woodsure™ certified to ensure a clean burn.
We offer a discount for delivery of more than one bag of logs, currently restricted to a maximum of 2 per order. Please contact us if you would like to order more than 2 bags.
Delivery is free within a 20 mile radius of our farm by road. If you live outside the 20 mile radius please contact us to discuss a delivery price.
To find out more or to order your logs please click here
Please note that we will be closed from 23rd December until 5th January and will be unable to make any log deliveries in this time.
Well…after the nightmare of the last two ‘back ends’ 2021 autumn drilling campaign has largely been completed here at Stourton Estates and conditions have largely been good.
Firstly thanks must go to everyone in the team for their efforts in getting drilled up. The busy period doesn’t really seem to have let up since the middle of July, it’s been a long pull for everyone but the team’s hard work is very much appreciated.
The majority of wheat and barley has now emerged and is looking well. We have a couple of areas where the field underdrains need some attention, once these are sorted we can get the last little bits of wheat put in and put to bed.
We are now monitoring crops for late weed emergence to assess whether or not to apply a ‘top up’ to our autumn herbicides already applied. We are also monitoring whether or not the crops require an insecticide application to control BYDV infection of the crop. Please find more information about that here.
As we go to press we are busy lifting our second tranche of sugar beet to be delivered to Newark processing factory. We were very pleased with the yield of our first lift, however the factory had had some considerable issues getting up to full processing capacity. It looks like it will be a very long season as a result of this and high yields. A lot of risk therefore on the grower with beet in the ground over winter due to risk of frost and the resultant spoilage.
Next on the agenda is to bring all of the equipment through the workshop to carry out any repairs necessary and make sure it is all in good order before the spring.
It’s been a busy and noisy time in the deer park. We are just coming to the end of the rut and hope that Nelson and Winston have done the business and that we have lots of calves appearing in late spring/early summer.
Dotty, our hand reared calf is now fully weaned, no longer needing a milk top-up at all. She is fully integrated with the herd which has had no problem accepting her back into their fold. She is naturally less wary of humans and still likes to pop over to say hello whenever we are in the field.
As we are now approaching winter and the grass growth has slowed considerably we have moved to winter feeding where the deer get a bale of hay when needed to nibble on. Later on in the season we will top up with silage.
The Roundhouse is very nearly ready for its winter residents. The floor is being concreted this week with the work being carried out by Pell Plant Hire. Once the weather turns cold we will move this year’s batch of deer calves in to ensure that they are kept warm and snugly throughout the winter months.
We hope to see you on 4th December for our Christmas Open day.
Antony & Helen
We are delighted to announce that the last open day of the year will take place on Sunday 10th October, from 10am – 4pm.
We will be offering deer safaris which we advise pre-booking here as well as lovely autumnal walks through our trails. The trees are just on the turn and some wonderful colours are emerging. Nice N Toastie will be on site throughout the say offering a range of unique and classic savoury or sweet toasties. Refreshments will also be available from the arboretum where you can also find delicious Stourton Honey and Venison (frozen) available for you to purchase and take home.
As this is our last open day of the year entry is free, donations are however welcomed at your discretion. Should you wish to make a donation then you can see Clare in the safari tent shop.
We’d also like to thank some of our recent visitors for their great feedback on our open days and deer safaris, both made directly and via facebook. It means a lot that you have taken the time to let us know what a great time you had.
Well behaved dogs on leads and their owners are more than welcome to attend.
After a hugely popular event in 2019 (& an enforced Covid break last year) we are so excited to invite you back to experience our extended enchanted woodland trail!
The trees and arboretum will be lit up with coloured lights, soft music and special illuminations creating a magical evening. LED spinning and a wishing water fountain (where every bit of loose change thrown in will be donated to St Barnabas Hospice) plus a storytelling tree ending with fire dance performances make for an immersive and entertaining evening.
Purchase marshmallows to toast on the specially designed mini fire-pits under the stars on the Old Hall Lawn and then at the end of the trail enjoy locally produced food from street food vendors around the fire-pit. Perhaps indulge in a Bailey’s hot chocolate or beer from the bar in the Safari Tent where you can warm up around the log burner!
We are operating Covid secure procedures on site with limited numbers over two time-slots (5pm – 7pm and 7pm – 9pm) each evening over 3 nights where a one-way system will be in place to keep everyone safe.
This is an alternative evening’s entertainment to a traditional bonfire or fireworks night – even well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome!
Tickets are priced at £7 per adult (over 16) and £5 per child (1-16yrs).
To find out more and to book your tickets please click here.
We invite you to start the festive season with Christmas at Stourton. In the woods under the shelter of the roundhouse you will be able to collect or purchase your beautiful Nordman Fir Christmas tree (5ft,6ft & 7ft) as well as, logs and venison to see you through the Christmas period. We will be holding festive deer safaris and a selection of refreshments will be on offer. More information will be available in due course. Please keep your eyes peeled on our website or social media.
If you’d like a beautiful Nordman Fir tree please email contact@stourtonestates.co.uk now to reserve your tree (5ft, 6ft, 7ft)
We have fully stocked the freezer for winter with delicious venison. So whether you have a special event that you want to cater for or would just like to stock up, everything is currently in stock. Plus as a special offer we are giving away a FREE pack of burgers (4) with every venison purchase over £35.
Our fresh venison boxes are also currently available to order and will be delivered to you either via the veni-van or courier from Thursday 14th October. Our venison boxes come in 2 sizes; the Imperial Box, weighing at least 6kg and priced at £125 and the Royal, weighing at least 3kg and priced at £60.0. Both include a wide range of premium quality cuts, lovingly reared on the farm.
Our frozen venison is available to order online for home delivery within a 20 mile radius of the farm. Delivery is free on orders over £25.
Our fresh venison boxes are available for delivery both locally and throughout the UK via courier delivery.
The Veni-van will be in place on Friday 15th October from 10am-4pm. If you place an order for frozen venison or fresh boxes online we can have it ready for you to collect from us too! You will find us parked up near our Stourton Woods entrance, off Clay lane (A158) in Baumber (follow the Walled Garden Baumber turning signs).
Also, keep your eyes peeled for the latest edition of the Good Taste Lincolnshire Magazine where we tell you how we produce such sustainable venison here on the estate.
Our Woodsure™ certificated kiln dried logs are now available to order for delivery direct to your door!
Our kiln dried logs, in 0.7 cubic metre builders bags, are fantastic quality, super dry & graded (to remove dust, sticks etc) before being kiln dried at the farm at Baumber. We have just received our certificate confirming our logs are ‘Ready to Burn’ accredited under the Governments’ scheme demonstrating a moisture content of under 20% – and being kiln dried ours measured 9% so they are super dry!
We offer a discount for delivery of more than one bag of logs, currently restricted to a maximum of 2 per order. Please contact us if you would like to order more than 2 bags.
Delivery is free within a 20 mile radius of our farm. If you live outside 20 mile radius please contact us to discuss a delivery price.
To find out more or to order your logs please click here
September has been a really busy month with the deer. We have been treating the herd and have given them a copper bolus ensuring that they are receiving the correct nutrition as we go into the winter months. We have separated the hinds from the stags and have de-antlered the stags. This is a quick and pain free process for them but keeps injuries to both each other and us whilst handling them to a minimum as the testosterone levels rise! Here at Stourton we have two main breeding stags, Nelson and Winston. Nelson has already moved in with his hinds for the rut and Winston is waiting eagerly. The historical layout of the deer park makes moving him around the other herds slightly challenging but we do have a plan and we hope that he will be happily ensconced with his ladies in the ‘Home’ deer park by the end of the week.
Dotty is thriving with the main herd. She has now got so big that we can no longer lift her by hand. She still happily gallops over to us for her bottle, much to the amusement and bewilderment of the rest of the calves and hinds.
There must have been something in the air at the weekend though, when we were checking the herd they were having a great time. We found hinds playing on hay bales and the yearling stags wallowing in the mud – what swamp donkeys!
We finally finished harvest on the 21st of September with the completion of our field bean harvest; a full two months after starting! The dull, damp August had a ‘double whammy’ effect of both limiting harvesting days and also slowing crop ripening. Many have referred to harvest 2021 as the driest wet harvest they have ever known…it certainly is for me!
Another knock on effect of the lack of any significant rainfall is that establishment of our oilseed rape crop has been hindered. Establishment of the crop on any land with any amount of ‘body’ has been severely hampered. The small emerging plants in these areas are suffering from both the dry and a concerted effort by a large number of cabbage stem flea beetle to try and make sure we don’t have a crop!!
The positive side of the dry is that as we have cultivated the land ahead of sowing autumn cereals, it has crumbled nicely. False seedbeds look good, and hopefully as long as we don’t get too much rain (like the last two years) our winter wheat and barley crops should go in nicely.
We haven’t yet started our autumn drilling campaign but that should be starting in earnest over the next few days. Just one last big push required from the team to get the bulk of the autumn work completed is required before being able to have a little bit of ‘downtime’ and catch up with families etc.
We hope to see you very soon at one of upcoming events!
Take Care
Antony & Helen
We are delighted to let you know that we will be selling our fresh vension from the ‘veni-van’ on Friday 3rd September from 10am-4pm. If you place an order for frozen venison online we will bag it up ready for you to collect from us too! You will find us parked up near our Stourton Woods entrance, off Clay lane (A158) in Baumber (follow the Walled Garden Baumber turning signs).
All cuts will be available along with some recipe cards for inspiration. So you can stock up your freezer or just buy something a bit different for your Sunday lunch!
To make it easier for you to get hold of our venison we are planning on doing this monthly from now until Christmas, so please keep an eye on our social media for future dates
We had the pleasure of hosting the Mud, Sweat & Gears Eastern series of the mountain bike cross county racing event at the weekend. This was the first time the Eastern series of racing has come to Lincolnshire which is a great for the area. It was a fabulous turn out with many different classes of riders racing around a 4km loop of the estate – although we’re not sure with the speed they were travelling that they had time to take in the views!
The event was supported by Focus Rides Coaching who provided coaching to those who wanted some extra help or hints and tips for improving their performance and Greenan Cycles from Horncastle had a range of bike accessories on offer. Teams and their supporters also had the option to camp for the weekend.
Graham Elliott the leading event organiser said:
“Having organised literally hundreds of cycling events it was great, albeit unusual to find a venue with such supportive and enthusiastic owners. The surroundings were picturesque and nothing seemed too much trouble. Where something wasn’t practical alternative solutions were easily found.
I would be very surprised if this wasn’t the first of many similar events at this venue. All the feedback from the riders has been uniformly positive and trust me when I say cycle racers are not backwards in saying what they think!”
With feedback like that we’re certainly hoping that we can put the event on again next year!
We are pleased to announce that we will be hosting another open day on Saturday 11th September. As per our previous open days we will be open for visitors to explore the estate at their leisure from 10am – 4pm.
This is a great opportunity to walk, cycle, run or just relax, and see the deer in the normally private parkland, woodland and lakes. Visitors can enjoy Stourton Estates for free at our open days; however there is a car parking fee of £3, payable upon entry.
We will be running deer safaris throughout the day, if you wish to book in advance you can do so here. There will also be some fun activities for children including a scavenger hunt around the estate; find all the clues and claim your prize!
Refreshments will also be available from Fleurs Kitchen in the arboretum. We will also have delicious Stourton Honey, deer antlers and frozen Venison available for you to purchase and take home.
Well behaved dogs on leads are more than welcome to join you for the day too.
We look forward to seeing you!
If you are unable to make this open day we will be hosting another on Sunday 10th October, which will be our last open day of the year.
We can announce though that we will be holding out Enchanted Woodland Lights event on 4th, 5th and 6th of November. We are so excited to be able to host this event again. It’s a real favourite! Not only will you be able to enjoy a walk through the arboretum in all its lit up glory but there will also be fire dancers, a fire pit with marshmallows available to toast and refreshments. The walk will have a Covid secure one way system and numbers will be limited to ensure that social distancing is possible.
We can assure you that there are no fireworks or loud bangs at this event so it’s perfect for dogs to attend too.
Tickets will be on sale soon!
We are super busy with weddings here at Stourton. We have worked really hard to ensure that anyone who needed to reschedule has managed to and we’ve even fitted in a few extras!
We are delighted for Asha & Matthew who held their celebration earlier this month after the 3rd attempt due to COVID complications, such a lovely couple and the sun actually shone!
We are hosting a festival styled wedding on 4th September and a further celebrant service in the woods on 18th September.
We are almost fully booked for 2022 and are now taking bookings for 2023. We do limit the number of weddings we host each year so if you are looking for a flexible wedding venue set within beautiful woodland please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
We have just undergone our Woodsure accreditation. The Woodsure Certification scheme comprehensively checks woodfuel producers to ensure that they produce and supply woodfuel to the correct standard. This means you can be assured that the wood products you purchase from us have been checked and tested and that our logs are indeed a high quality product.
Logs will be available to order again very soon.
I’m not sure that I mention the weather enough when writing the farming section for the newsletter? Well, once again the weather is providing us with some very frustrating conditions for harvest. Following a very wet mid-August week the weather has dried up but the overcast and ‘mizzly’ conditions means that the crops are not drying quickly enough during the day to make good headway and keen followers of Clarkson’s farm now know that with harvest it’s all about the moisture content. A delayed harvest also delays our ability to work land and drill the crops for next year’s harvest. All in all very frustrating!
Fingers crossed for a continued dry spell and this promised ‘heat –wave’ so that we can crack on and get the crop out of the field and into the shed.
We are delighted to let you know that Dotty is now back where she belongs, with the herd. The re-introduction went very smoothly and she is settling in very nicely in her new home. She still has a bottle every morning and night, which she pronks (runs!) across the field for with great enthusiasm. She occasionally tries to follow us out of the field to ‘come home’ with us. We have to say, despite its challenges we have really enjoyed having a pet deer at home and it’s certainly been an experience but we are also absolutely thrilled that she has re-joined the herd and is back where she belongs and seems to be thriving with her friends.
The stags have now lost all the velvet on their antlers, and with the testosterone levels rocketing the noise of chinking antlers can be heard across the field where they are gently sparring with each other. The next step is to separate Winston and Nelson from the other boys and get them ready for joining the hinds for the rut. We’re hoping that as these are two very good natured animals we can do this fairly easily over the next few weeks… we’ll let you know!
We hope to see you at one of our forthcoming events or at the veni-van on Friday 3rd Sept!
Antony & Helen
We began July with our first public event of the year! Depsite an awful forecast we had such a great day on our open day and managed to escape any bad weather. It was lovely to see so many people on site enjoying themselves. The deer safaris went down very well and some even took in a trip to see Dotty.
We are holding another open day on Sunday 8th August. If you fancy visiting us and enjoying a walk around the woods and trails or just to enjoy the view and get some refreshments in our Arboretum please come along. Refreshments will be available from Fleur’s Kitchen, who makes the most delicious sweet and savoury crepes as well as serving teas and coffees. We will be running deer safaris throughout the day some of which are available to book in advance, please click here to reserve your spot, alternatively we will also be taking bookings on the day. There is a £3 parking fee payable on the gate. We look forward to seeing you then!
July also saw our second event of the year in the form of our Camping and Caravanning weekend. The weather was glorious if not a touch on the warm side! Our campers were very grateful of the dappled shade offered by the pitches in the arboretum. We sold out completely of ice creams and the home made cakes were kept cool in the fridge after the icing began to melt in the heat! We had some great feedback from some of our campers who shared pictures on facebook – it’s great to see your photos so thank you for taking the time to post those!
Some of our campers even took boxes of venison and honey home with them to enjoy on their BBQ’s at home over summer. We are currently developing some new recipes as we speak for our delicious produce and will tell you about them really soon.
If you have been inspired by the inspirational Tom Pidcock bringing home another Olympic Gold medal for Great Britain in Tokyo mountain biking, or even if you just fancy getting out your bike and having a go – our next event, to be held on Sunday 29th August is the Mud, Sweat and Gears Mountain bike racing event. There are various entry categories and the event is open to all levels of ability and age. Camping is also available on site over the weekend. For more information and to book your place please click here.
Dotty is continuing to live the high life with us, mainly in our garden. However she did join us (briefly indoors) to watch the Euro’s final, we have created her own little mud bath to help keep her cool during the hot weather we have been experiencing and she is becoming a bit of a media darling! Antony was recently interviewed by Melvyn Prior on BBC Radio Lincolnshire about her. If you missed the interview you can listen again here from approximately 32m50 into the show.
Despite being spoiled rotten Dotty is going from strength to strength and she is currently having taster days with the calves and hinds who have accepted her for a short period of time and we hope that she will make her permanent home with the herd at the end of August, although she will continue to have a bottle feed from us morning and night.
Well… we’ve made a start to harvest!! Baumber Park’s winter barley is now safely in the shed. Yields are reasonable by comparison to the last couple of years but there is a question mark over the quality for malting. It is clear there was a great deal of potential in the crop, unfortunately due to the dull June and possibly the dry conditions running through May there are some grains which haven’t ‘filled’ properly. We are waiting to hear from our merchant as to whether there are too many of these ‘screenings’ in the sample. Read more about barley requirements for malting here.
The winter barley we have grown is a variety called Craft which is used to make malt for brewing beer. If it hits the quality specification it will be delivered to Souflett’s maltings in Burton on Trent before being used in Molson Coors Beverage Company’s brewery (also in Burton) to make beers such as Carling and Doom Bar so definitely drink more Molson Coors beer as our spring barley will hopefully also be destined for Burton!!
We now face a few days wait with the combine for the oilseed rape to ripen, hopefully the thunder showers forecast don’t materialise as the pods are very prone to shattering in heavy rain/wind/hail as we found to our significant cost a few years ago.
Elsewhere on the farm the team are working hard on track maintenance, grain store cleaning and general sorting and tidying. We have recently completed a successful second cut of our grassland, with half being made into silage and the remainder being made into hay.
We are most definitely in the ‘calm before the storm’ as far as harvest work is concerned. Our cropping this season is such that the majority of it will ripen within the same 10 day period! As a result the pressure will be well and truly on from the second week in august, we are hoping for the weather at harvest to be a little kinder than last year. Wish us luck!
The second phase of the roundhouse installation is underway. We are currently installing the ring drainage system with the concrete base to follow which will allow for easy cleaning once the deer take up residence.
Our silage has been efficiently baled by Chris Frick and is now safely stored for winter feed. We have also taken a hay crop from the meadow and have 150 bales for sale if anyone interested please contact us.
The team have been hard at work preparing for our open day on Sunday 8th August. We have cleared another section of overgrown footpath around the big lake and begun work some more log benches to allow our visitors to relax and enjoy the views!
We really hope to see you at our Open day or at the Mud Sweat and Gears event!
Antony and Helen
Reared here on the farm, professionally butchered & packaged for us by local butchers and labelled here, we deliver direct to your door in our veni-van across Lincolnshire, freshly frozen venison is also available for delivery nationwide!
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