It’s great that the world is starting to return to a new version of normality and we can all start to enjoy a bit more freedom. As we are sure you can imagine, we are constantly reviewing what we could do, should do, might do and want to do in terms of our events calendar for the rest of the year.
As a result of lockdown and social distancing regulations we have already had to cancel our Get Active event scheduled for May, our open weekend in June, a pop up pub night at the water tower and, very sadly our event scheduled at the end of July to celebrate 25 years of Stourton Woods.
So it is with a heavy heart we are also going to have to cancel the Autumn Festival scheduled for September. Even if restrictions were lifted to allow for this size of event to occur, we want to ensure that all the visitors, suppliers, musicians, team and volunteers are safe from potential infection from Covid-19 and as you can imagine effectively managing social distancing for this scale of event is almost impossible – especially with the added risk of wet weather. Given it is only little over a month away we also do not now have the time to carry out all the detailed preparations necessary for its success.
We will continue to review our planned events as the time gets closer and will ensure you are the first to know if we are able to go ahead. In the meantime we have our thinking caps on and are trying to find more ways for more of you to safely enjoy a visit on foot to the estate this year (we are running private deer feeding safaris!). Keep your eyes peeled on social media for any further announcements.
Don’t forget that we are still offering contact and £ FREE delivery on all logs, landscaping and venison orders over £25 within 20 miles of our office postcode LN9 5PB.
As well as our landscaping products, our venison packs continue to be very popular and we hope that you are enjoying our home reared meat.
We have a very limited number of our prepared venison ready meals made locally by Nicky at Boggle Lane Foods: delicious venison hot-pot and venison meatball medley ready prepared and frozen for an easy meal for you to enjoy at home one evening! Don’t miss out on these meals prepared from fresh locally sourced ingredients with no nasty additives…
The Venison BBQ Pack is ideal for feeding a hungry family and costs from £24 (this sometimes varies depending on steak types and weights) and currently includes;
The Venison Steak Selection, for only £29, includes;
Capable of feeding a family for several days, The Family Selection Pack, for £36, includes;
Another of our favourite ways to cook our very popular venison sausages as a meal is as a tray bake with squash, potatoes and broccoli. For our version of this recipe, click here.
On Wednesday 22nd July we had the pleasure of talking to Harry from BBC Radio Lincolnshire’s breakfast show on a deer feeding tour around the estate. Throughout the show we were interviewed about the estate, the deer and the deer feeding safaris. Harry saw us feeding the deer, got a nibble from the hinds and tried to catch sight of them taking a dip in one of the swimming ponds. Starting at 7am we were pleased that it was a radio show and not TV!
If you missed the interview & would like to hear more, our starring roles and admirable deer squeak impressions are at: 1:24:55, 1:47:40, 2:24:10, 2:43:55 on this link
Along with Harry, we have had several groups already join us for a Private Deer feeding safari and everyone has thoroughly enjoyed themselves. One visitor left us a great review on our Facebook page, thank you Lexy, we’re really pleased you enjoyed yourself, you certainly managed to snap some great photos!
We went on the Deer Safari today and it was absolutely brilliant. Antony was incredibly knowledgeable and it was lovely…
Posted by Lexy Foxley-Johnson on Saturday, July 18, 2020
Due to high demand all of the private deer feeding safaris have now been booked for August. However we are pleased to announce that we are now taking bookings for weekends in September.
As the stags are also now starting to lose the velvet on their antlers it’s advisable not to get quite so close to these herds now as if they decide to rub against you – it can really hurt! However you will see the majestic stags and go into the deer enclosures from the safety of the small people trailer to see the hinds and their calves close up so an opportunity not to be missed – please book online here, if you’d like a particular date do email us to check availability prior to booking.
Since the last blog post we have started harvesting our combinable crops. We usually start with winter sown barley, and have now cut our neighbours malting crops as well as cutting around some crop trials that we have on farm. We have also harvested our oilseed rape (the less said about this the better unfortunately) and now have a short wait for earlier drilled winter wheat and spring barley crops. Other than a small stoppage for some water in an electrical plug, the combine has run smoothly so far; fingers crossed that continues as the pressure comes on!
This harvest will be a rather strange one due to the changes in cropping influenced by the horrendous weather we suffered through the autumn and winter. We ended up drilling a couple of new crops to us this spring; spring oilseed rape and spring oats. The inclusion of these as well as a large area of spring sown wheat will push the end of harvest back this year.
Final preparations for the push into long days cutting wheat and spring barley are now being made with grain store cleaning soon to be completed. Archie and Dan have made a cracking job of shoring up our farm roads, and Ken is happy to be getting on with a bit of land-work on the recently harvested oilseed rape fields.
Not that we would wish time away but I don’t think we are alone in wanting to draw a line under the harvest 2020 season. We are very much looking forward to starting with a clean sheet in readiness for the 2021 harvest season. This year has thrown up an enormous number of challenges which we have tried our hardest to overcome or manage, no doubt we will be talking about 2020 for many years to come!
And now for something a bit different..! As you may be aware Agriculture is coming under increasing pressure to reduce its carbon footprint and impact on the environment.
With this in mind and as we always need stone for track repairs and upgrades, (as well as our various building projects across the estate) July saw the arrival of a weird and wonderful machine. This machine was hired from a firm in Gainsborough (manufactured in Finland) to harvest unwanted rocks from our fields. In 2 days we managed to create a mountain of cobbles and large stones (not to mention the odd horseshoe) from a 25 acre field. This has given us some ideal building material and by taking it from the fields it means there will be less wear and tear on our machinery: a win win!
As ever we hope that you are keeping well and safe. We really hope to see you on one of our private deer feeding tours soon.
Antony & Helen
We have been very busy in the last few weeks with our landscaping product deliveries, so much so that we sold out of woodchip. Luckily we have new stock coming in imminently and we can deliver our back orders and fulfil any new orders that come in.
We have had some great feedback regarding our Garden Bark Chippings and would like to thank the customer for taking the time to leave the feedback. We are far too modest to repeat it here but if you are interested you just might be able to read all about it in our Facebook reviews.
We are also delighted to announce that our Kiln Dried Logs are back in stock & available to order online. Don’t forget, we are offering contact and £ FREE delivery within 20 miles of our office postcode on all orders over £25.
As well as landscaping products, we have also been very busy delivering our venison products across the county. Just in time for the warm weather we have stocked up on burgers, sausages and steaks for you to enjoy.
We have some great value packs for you to choose from, which are perfect for the BBQ.
The Venison BBQ Pack is ideal for feeding a hungry family and costs £24 (this sometimes varies depending on steak types and weights) and currently includes;
The Venison Steak Selection, for only £29, includes;
Like our logs and landscaping products, delivery is £ and contact FREE on all orders over £25 and within a 20 mile radius of our postcode.
Please note that, even though it falls under the £25 threshold, delivery is also free on the Venison BBQ Pack (as long as the delivery address is within 20 miles).
If you aren’t sure whether you qualify for free delivery or have any questions about any of our products please contact us.
As we write this blog, after a couple of cooler, showery weeks the sun is now beating down with temperatures in the late 20s we really do swing from one extreme to another!
We have been busy with various bits and pieces: Ken finished fabricating the new farm gate which is now with our neighbour GCS Farms for shot blasting and painting. We have been loading our harvest 2019 wheat out of storage to make way for the produce of harvest 2020. We expect to make a start in our customers winter barley crop some time in the 3rd week of July (Oli had better get the combine out and polished up pretty sharpish)!
The drier weather is actually very helpful for the major project we have going on at the moment. Timmins Engineering are doing a great job of stripping the roof from one of our grain stores to replace it. The shed in question was first built in the mid-1950s by Antony’s father and grandfather to house cattle. Part of it was converted into a grain store in the late 90’s. The roof which is being replaced certainly doesn’t owe us a lot after over 60 years of reliable service!
Ken is taking some well-deserved time off to recharge his batteries before the big push into harvest and cultivations. On his return we will be going through all of our implements to make sure they are in good condition and serviceable for the busy season ahead. The first job is to go through all of our grain trailers to ensure they are in good roadworthy condition.
Further to getting our machinery ready we will be having round the table discussions with all of our colleagues here about health and safety in the workplace during such a busy and tiring time of year. It is an area which our industry really needs to work hard on improving, the first step of which is to encourage engagement all round.
In between all the time spent mowing and tidying, Antony and the team have been busy clearing the stable yard area. This area had become a bit of a ‘storage’ area for all sorts of bits and bobs, (it is tricky for farmers to throw anything away)! We have removed about 200 tonnes of rubble from the area which has been reused around the estate, filling holes and repairing tracks. We have also been levelling the area out and trimming trees in the vicinity. We can now ‘see the wood for the trees’ and it’s a super space for which we have plans, however it will take a while for these to come to fruition… We aren’t ready to spill the beans quite yet but watch this space!
Whilst we had access to the digger we have also moved another storage container into place behind the safari tent to make it easier for outside suppliers to service events within the venue.
All our events are currently still on hold but if you’d like to take the opportunity to safely visit the estate then we have a great opportunity for you.
We are offering socially distanced deer feeding tours for up to four people. You will accompany Antony on his morning deer feeding rounds and will have the opportunity to get up close and personal with the herd, understand what it takes to manage such a herd and even spot some of our lovely newborn calves. You will travel around the estate in the comfort of an open air seated mini-trailer. Our tours last approximately 1.5 hours and cost £60 for up to 4 people. The tours are available to book on Saturday and Sunday mornings and commence at 8am.
To get a flavour of what the tour has to offer, Helen has written about her own deer feeding experience here….. although you won’t be expected to be gate openers – unless you’d like to be!
To order your tickets please click here
If you want to check availability of a particular date prior to booking please email contact@stourtonestates.co.uk
We are delighted to announce the Julie will be rejoining the team following her furlough period at the beginning of July. Julie is our wedding and event co-ordinator so, once she’s back up and running, we will be able to show any interested couples what the estate has to offer for their wedding day. We can assure you that we will be adhering to strict social distancing rules during the tour.
If you would like to find out more about our weddings or to book a tour then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
This is such a magical time on the estate as our grass fields begin to fill up with the pitter patter of tiny hooves. Many of our calves have now been born, the hinds favouring the cooler weather for birth, and most are up and running, spending their time ‘pronking’ around the parkland, enjoying the warm weather in the safe proximity of mum.
Our stags, currently separated from the hinds, are starting to sprout this year’s batch of furry antlers and are very spritely, enjoying the warm weather and cool ponds.
Thankfully since our last post the weather has broken and we have seen enough rainfall to kick-start grass growth for the herd to happily graze. We will be moving the herd around to fresh pastures to ensure they have enough and to rest the already grazed areas. With the new life and extra growth we are hoping to have some more herbal lay to bale up soon and put into storage for the leaner winter months.
We hope that you are all keeping well and safe and we hope to be able to see you soon.
Helen and Antony
Since lockdown I have taken the fantastic opportunity (with a little extra time available to me on a weekend!) to learn more about our herds of red deer primarily managed by my husband Antony. Early every Saturday & Sunday morning he disappears off for about 1-2 hours maybe longer & ‘feeds the deer’ and whilst I was aware of the basics I was keen to find out just what a typical ‘deer feed’ outing is like.
Well, where to start? Certainly no two deer feeds are ever the same. At the end of March, the weather was pretty brisk first thing in the morning and even if it looks bright several layers of clothing are recommended. As my Mum used to say – if you’ve got it, you can always take a layer off if it warms up!
So the summer routine for the herds are some supplementary feed in the way of beef nuts, these are full of protein, a nice alternative to grass, and the deer love them! We fill the buckets from the silo at the farm, load them in the truck and off we go… before we even get to the first field there is just time to take in what I’ve always been told is ‘the best part of the day’ but never really appreciated. But there really is something in that! The air is fresh, the farm is normally empty, no machinery in the yard (if Oli’s spraying he’s out way earlier in the morning than this!) and it is so quiet & peaceful. Except for the bird song and, if I was better educated in birdsong I would love to tell you precisely which birds – save to say that there is simply a huge variety of sing-song going on.
Anyway back to my main role which as I have found out is chief gate opener & closer – no wonder Antony was so happy for me to ‘help’! Not every gate has a race so you need to see if the deer are close by before unlocking and opening a gate to let the feeding wagon through as they would be only too keen to join you on the other side. Generally the deer see you approaching and they know what time it is and soon we are surrounded by stags (only little ones apparently, but they look magnificent to me) the yearling boys born last season, who are very jumpy and playful with furry antler stubs just coming through. We top up their water in the trough, they are given their allotted feed and off we go!
The hinds are split into two enclosures at this time of year ready for calving towards the end of May / June time. It is always a juggling act to get them into the right place and quite a logistical challenge given the shape and nature of the old parkland estate system which is linear rather than circular so moving deer has to be planned weeks in advance. We also took the opportunity to improve the grazing sprayed off most of the nettles in the enclosures. Having done this livestock can’t be put back in that field until a week after the herbicide has been applied – time really is against us when we have 6 enclosures to manage before the middle of May! The hinds are friendly but not quite as speedy as the stags but I don’t blame them not wanting to run about as they are nearly ready to calve! This is also the opportunity for Antony to check on the herd, look for any problems and ensure they are healthy. So, we swap roles and quite quickly I’m promoted to deer feeder whilst he casts an eye over the girls. Well he didn’t tell me quite how heavy those ‘buckets’ of feed are… around 17kg apparently, my goodness this is a work-out, forget PE with Joe!! Carrying the bucket and tipping the feed across the enclosure so they don’t fight for it is no mean feat and quite often there is one who tries to get her head in the bucket rather than pick it off the ground. The ladies are slightly less magnificent but still very strong and persistent so whilst they enjoy the affection of being stroked behind the ears, I’m never totally relaxed and convinced that they won’t turn on me. Several gates and groups of deer later, (& wow we have A LOT of gates!) which are typical farm gates: they are all meant to work the same but some you have to lift, some you push, some you really need 3 hands to open and we’re on the home-ward stretch.
Don’t forget the Belties – our newest additions arrived just before lockdown, just 4 Belted Galloway cattle (hopefully more to come) looking very at home in the ‘family camping field’ this year doing a great job of keeping it grazed naturally. Well these big boys are easy to spot, just look for the white stripe, but they are normally in the same corner of the field. They have completely different personalities to the deer: they are slow, steady, plodders who don’t often run for their breakfast. We call them over and give them 4 small piles of food, they have a good temperament – you can look them in the eye and they don’t feel you are challenging them, however the terrier is nowhere near and I’m not far from a gate in case of an early exit!
It’s not just deer and cattle you see on a deer feed, there are literally hundreds of hares and as the season has progressed and we’ve been eagerly awaiting the sight of a deer calf it is very easy to mistake a hare for a calf from a distance. I’ve also spotted roe and muntjac deer around the estate and even a muntjac in a deer enclosure looking for the way they came in so they can get out again. The birdlife is prolific from greylag geese (way too many for a farmers liking as 4 geese eat the equivalent grass as 1 sheep does!), Canada geese, swans, duck, buzzards, wagtails, woodpeckers and many many more for the avid bird lover to spot and hear.
I could share many a tale about unexpected happenings on a typical (there really is no such thing!) deer feed but to be honest I really recommend you give this experience a go. Whatever the month over the summer or the weather, these animals are a sight to behold and the opportunity to come on the estate and get involved in feeding and learning more about them truly is a great experience.
Weekend Deer Feeding Experiences at Stourton Estates can be purchased on our website online here
Socially distanced feeding tours are now available from the comfort of an open air seated mini-trailer, starting at a more socially reasonable time of 8am. If you want to check availability of a particular date prior to booking please email contact@stourtonestates.co.uk
Written by Helen Strawson
We are having some great weather and we hope that you are managing to get cracking with those garden projects that have been building up since last year.
If you have kids at home and want to make their play area safer we offer a couple of different types or play accredited chip or bark. You can choose from either standard playchip or the slightly more rustic looking pine nuggets. Both chip types are available in 0.7m³ builders’ bags with prices starting from £60 and £70 respectively.
After you’ve ordered your landscaping products why not order some delicious venison which can be delivered at the same time?
Our venison home delivery sales are going from strength to strength and we have added a couple of new mixed packs into our range for you to try.
Joining our great value BBQ pack we have;
The Venison Family Selection Pack which, for only £35 includes;
This pack is great for feeding a hungry family. There are at least 4 meals here and you can simply replace your usual beef, lamb or pork in your family favourites with any of the above.
The sirloins, rump and haunch steaks are great for a BBQ. They are easy to prepare and quick to cook for a delicious and healthy alternative to beef. The braising steak is a great alternative to beef or lamb in a slow cook recipe.
If you want some recipe inspiration please don’t hesitate to visit our recipe gallery, plus we pop a couple of recipe cards into every order.
We are offering contact and £ FREE delivery within 20 miles of our office postcode on all orders over £25.
If you aren’t sure whether you qualify for free delivery or have any questions about any of our products please contact us.
At present we obviously can’t deliver any of the events we had planned but we are still busy keeping the arboretum and surrounding areas tidy and putting improvements in place for the time when we can safely re-open.
As spring has well and truly sprung we are busy keeping vegetation under control around the estate. We are mowing rides as well as weeding and tidying the arboretum. As our events are growing in terms of visitor numbers we realise that we need to improve our access into the car park. We are planning to put better signage in place as well as creating a new one-way system into and out of the car park for our larger events.
Our team are tidying up our winter wind fallen trees and branches and making safe any dangerous trees. We are also looking at making some benches out of fallen timber which we will scatter around the estate and in the arboretum.
We have also been sprucing up the footpaths across the farm, our permissive routes have been mown and permanent routes marked where they cross arable fields. It has been great recently to see people out and about responsibly enjoying the great British countryside. We are lucky that our area has a good network of public footpaths, a map of which can be found here.
We know that lots of people have had to postpone or cancel their wedding plans for this year. If you are planning a wedding or have to re-make plans please consider our beautiful venue for your reception.
We can offer a truly unique rustic woodland wedding experience and a setting which the happy couple and their guests will never forget. We offer a great value package for 80 day time (and up to 120 night time guests).
We are taking bookings for 2021 and 2022 and are currently holding our 2020 prices. We understand at the moment that coming to look around is not possible, so you can secure your date with a deposit which we will then refund if you change your mind when you have had the chance to visit us.
If you have any questions about weddings or party hire please don’t hesitate to contact us, we’d love to talk you through what we can offer.
Well what a bizarre season we are having. If you had come to us in the middle of March and said we would be crying out for rain by the middle of April and positively praying for rain by the middle of May we would probably have thought you were mad! The 2020 harvest season will go down in history as one of the most difficult seasons for weather that we have seen.
October drilled winter wheat is now ‘splitting the boot’ (ears/heads are emerging), and all crops on farm are moving quickly through their growth stages in response to drought stress. The dry spring has meant that spring sown crops are patchy, particularly on our heavy land which baked as soon as the seed drill had been in the field. That being said, we are pleased with our sugar beet and spring oat crops which have both established well. Oli is busy spraying fungicides on spring and winter cereals as well as herbicides to control broad-leaved weeds in sugar beet and Ken has been busy in the workshop making a new gate for the farm entrance.
Away from the farm we are following government discussions on the agriculture bill and the US-UK trade deal very closely. These are interesting times in terms of agricultural trade. The most concerning element for us and a great deal of other rural businesses centers on the comparison between our high domestic production and animal welfare standards, and those practices used in countries we are negotiating trade deals with. We feel it is very important to uphold our own standards in any deal as well as ensuring that we are not undercut by imports produced to lesser standards. This brief article by the National Farmers Union and Which lays out briefly this concern.
That rounds up the farm ‘blog’ for the time being. Hopefully there will soon be some rain on the horizon, however history tells us to be careful what we wish for as far as mother nature is concerned…
Thanks to Chris Frick we have our first forage crop cut, baled and safely in storage for our deer’s winter feed. The forage is a herbal mix rich in variety and nutrients and is a firm favourite with our deer in the months where grazing is thinner on the ground.
The deer look really well at the minute; they have almost lost their winter coats and the stags’ antlers are growing back. The Yearling Hinds are playful and enjoy racing around their enclosure just for fun!
Winston’s impressive 24 point, 2019 season antlers aren’t going to waste. We are auctioning them off to help to raise much needed funds for St Swinthin’s Church, Baumber. For more information about this please checkout our facebook page.
The last few weeks have seen us preparing for the arrival of the deer calves. We have been moving deer into the right enclosures before calving, separating the expectant mothers from the rest of the herd so they can calve in peace. This is a juggling act as we have to make sure that the mothers and their young are in an area of the parkland where they will have enough grazing to last them until September as we can’t move them until the calves are strong enough to run with the rest of the herd. The dry weather we are currently enjoying means that the grass isn’t growing as much as we would like. If we need to, we will provide supplementary feed of beef nuts but we don’t want to start giving them their newly baled winter feed this early! We hope that Oli’s rain dance works!
Some of our deer calves have now arrived – have you seen some of the images on social media last week?
We hope to be able to let you know sometime soon when and if we may be able to re-open and which events will be still running this year. In the meantime please continue to keep safe.
We hope to see you soon
Antony and Helen
We are delighted to announce that our landscaping products are once again available for delivery. So whether you are in the midst of a large garden project during this lockdown period, or just want to keep those weeds at bay in your beds, then take a look at our range.
We have stocked up on our garden bark chippings which are available in 0.7m³ builders’ bags.
No doubt, if you have kids, they are enjoying the garden at the moment. If you want peace of mind whilst they are playing and to protect the area under any play equipment you have in the garden we sell play bark chippings. These are fully compliant to BSEN1177 and are produced from graded soft woods and is screened and tested to ensure it’s safe for your children to play on. This is also ideal for commercial use.
If you are looking for a more natural look for your garden beds or play areas then we also have pine nuggets, large pieces of pine bark, available for delivery.
Delivery of our landscaping products is free within a 20mile radius of LN9 5PB. Please place your order online and we will be in touch to arrange contact free delivery to your chosen address.
If you have any questions about any of our landscaping products or wish to enquire about free delivery then please don’t’ hesitate to contact us.
Last month we launched our contact-free venison delivery service. We’d like to thank those customers who have ordered so far and we hope that you have enjoyed trying something a bit different for dinner.
As well as ready meals, prime cuts, sausages, burgers and casserole cuts we are delighted to announce that we have launched a Venison BBQ Pack.
Our BBQ Pack is ideal for feeding a hungry family. The box is excellent value and includes;
Depending on the size of the steaks, the boxes range between £21 and £26.50 and qualify for free delivery within a 20 mile radius of our farm postcode. If your order does not include a BBQ Box then a minimum spend of £25 applies to qualify for free delivery.
If you’ve never cooked with venison before or want some recipe inspiration please take a look at our recipe gallery on site which is full of some of our favourite (and tried and tested) recipes.
We hope to see you with a venison delivery very soon!
We are delighted to report that some of our feed wheat will end up as hand sanitiser! We recently around 50 tonnes of feed wheat to Frontier’s Cargil plant on Trafford Park in Manchester. This plant processes wheat to produce animal feeds. One of the primary by-products of the production process is alcohol. Whilst this alcohol is usually put into the distillery market the site are diverting it into the production of much needed hand sanitiser. It’s really nice to know that in a round-about way we are doing our bit!
March and April’s fantastic weather has also meant that we have finally managed to complete our drilling program for the year, so at least we will be able to get the harvester out in summer! After an absolutely sodden winter preventing us from drilling the recent weather is, dare we say it, a little too dry and we are very quietly doing a rain dance as a little moisture would really help the seed establishment in its very early stage.
Having been turned out for Spring, the young deer are loving the sunshine and are happily spending their days roaming the parkland taking in the sights and sounds without a care in the world. No social distancing rules for them! We are also busy collecting the ‘windfall’ antlers from around the fields as the boys are all losing these thick and fast.
We are currently anticipating the arrival of the calving season which will begin in May so we are keeping a close eye on our hinds, ensuring that they are well fed and looking in good condition at this stage of their pregnancy. As soon as we have one we will share a photo of our first calf of the season. These are usually very well hidden in long grass to provide protection.
Finally, on a personal note we hope that you are all keeping safe, well and sane during this lockdown period. We take our hats off to all key workers and send our support to everyone who is juggling the challenges of working from home, home-schooling and everything else at the moment!
In light of event cancellations and reduced workload in some areas of the business we have had to make the tricky decision to furlough some of our team but hope to see them back in the office and around the estate very soon. With this in mind if you need to contact us please place any orders online and if you have queries please email contact@stourtonestates.co.uk and we will get back to you ASAP.
Please take care and we hope to see you as soon as possible.
Antony and Helen
On Thursday 12th March we attended the Lincolnshire Tourism Excellence awards. We were thrilled to have been chosen as finalists in two categories; Experience of the Year – for our Deer Safaris and New Tourism Business of the Year Award.
We removed our wellies and fleeces and got dressed up to go ‘out-out’ along with several members of the Stourton Team celebrating our achievement and inclusion alongside many other brilliant Lincolnshire companies.
We awaited our categories’ announcements with baited breath……. unfortunately this year we didn’t manage to scoop the big awards but we lost out to two great attractions. So we’d like to extend our congratulations to The Old Granary as winner of the New Tourism Business Award and to Cameron Huggins Blacksmith as winner of the experience category. We would also like to congratulate Play Avenue for their Small Visitor Attraction win.
We are however very proud for our efforts to have been recognised at a regional level and it makes us realise how far we have come in the last couple of years with our events and what we can offer here.
Obviously in just 2 short weeks since the awards the world has greatly changed and we are, as yet, unsure what the event calendar is going to now look like for the rest of 2020. At present all events are ‘on hold’. We do not want to place any staff members, suppliers, stall holders or visitors at risk. We will continue to evaluate government advice and will review our events accordingly. In the meantime, please stay home and stay safe.
We are still open for business when it comes to venison sales.
Whilst we are no longer accepting orders for venison for collection from our farm office we are now offering an online ordering and home delivery service to help customers through the Covid-19 crisis.
To see the full product range please click here.
A minimum of £25 order value gives you free delivery within a 20 mile radius from LN9 5PB – all our venison is frozen, so perfect to keep your freezer stocked up. Dependant upon demand your orders will be delivered on a weekly basis (Tuesday&/ Thursday) and we will be in touch to confirm this after you have placed your order (rather like we do for log orders!).
We also now have a brand new range of frozen venison ready meals in stock, subject to availability.
We have been working with Nikki from Boggle Lane Foods and together we have developed 5 delicious ready meals , under her The HedgeChef brand and these include:
We teamed up with Nikki to help people to try our delicious and healthy venison without having to cook it from scratch themselves. Nikki is passionate about lovingly creating and preparing products from fresh, locally sourced ingredients with absolutely no nasty additives or ‘mass produced awfulness’. All of her ingredients are sourced in Lincolnshire and some are even foraged from the Wolds’ abundant hedgerows and woodland.
We are also trialling a limited number of Venison Meat Boxes. These will cost £100 and delivery will be FREE (in a 20 mile radius). Each box will include a selection of joints, steaks, casserole, mince, and sausages and it’s an ideal way to stock up your freezer. If you are interested in a venison box please contact us to discuss and to place your order.
For inspiration we also have added 2 new recipes to our recipe card collection which are available to download or are free with your venison order. You can find our Venison Chilli recipe here which is the recipe we used at our Comedy Night and Christmas event for anyone who attended. Our Venison Pie recipe is great for using with our casserole and braising steaks and can be found here.
As I’m sure you understand, the health and well-being of our customers and staff is of the highest priority so we would prefer it if you could follow the below instructions for as ‘contact free’ an order and collection process as possible.
To reassure you – all of our venison is vacuum packed in a protected environment, observing the highest of hygiene standards and then frozen; so has not been directly handled.
If you have any questions about our venison please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Finally, thanks to the break in the truly dismal weather that has hampered all our efforts this winter and early spring, we are drilling! Over the next few weeks we will be drilling wheat and barley crops, as well as next year’s sugar beet crop. Some of the crops are on time as planned and some are a little later than usual. We are hoping that the good weather holds so we can be confident in producing a crop in most of our fields this year!
Further to that we are spreading fertiliser on already establishing crop which we managed to drill in early autumn.
As well as drilling we have been busily planting 1500 trees around the estate. As part of our ongoing woodland management, planting and felling are vital to maintaining a healthy and ever developing woodland habitat. We are planting a mix of native broadleaf varieties, including a mix of oak, ash and birches which will become home to a huge range of native wildlife species including beetles, slow worms, lichens and fungi as well as larger more familiar mammals like badgers and foxes as well as bird life such as cuckoos, owls, woodpeckers and bats.
Because we have had such a wet winter the land and the soil has become compacted, therefore we are working hard to aerate the land around the estate. Aeration involves using our spiked roller to perforate the soil with small holes to allow air, water and nutrients to penetrate the roots of either the grass or the crop. This helps the roots grow deeply and produce a stronger, more vigorous plant growth
With the change in the weather to actually feel like spring and the fact that the deer don’t need to abide by the social distancing rules we have now turned out last year’s calves out from their winter home in the crew yard to the fields. They were reticent to leave the shelter of the barn initially but are now busy frolicking in the deer park, delighted to be in the warm spring sunshine!
We can also report that Winston has shed his antlers! Stags shed their antlers at the end of the rutting season. This is because their testosterone levels drop and this weakens the hair and bone at the base of the antler and they simply fall off. This is not painful for them and also has the benefit of lightening his mood, so he is much less bolshie to deal with!
Whilst we realise over the next few weeks and months we will all be spending a lot more time at home than usual, we cannot class these products as essential.
So unfortunately whilst we are in ‘lockdown’ we are unable to deliver these to you as we want to follow the government’s advice and keep movements to an absolute minimum to stop the spread of this virus.
We hope to be up & running again soon.
We will keep you up to date as much as possible with estate goings-on on social media. Whilst we now know that we won’t be able to see you here anytime soon, we hope that you and your loved ones stay safe and as close to home as possible for the time being.
Antony and Helen
We are delighted to share that we have been announced as finalists in not one, but two categories at the 2020 Lincolnshire Tourism Excellence Awards!
The categories are:
We are very honoured to be recognised alongside other tourism businesses across the county and we’d like to thank the great team who work here, the other businesses we work closely with and of course you, our fabulous visitors!
The Lincolnshire Tourism Awards, created by Lincolnshire Live in partnership with Visit Lincoln and LNER are in their third year and seek to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of tourism businesses across the region and promote the strength of the business and leisure tourism offer, its venues, people, experiences and accommodation. They also serve to highlight the importance of tourism’s contribution to the regional economy – currently standing at £1.5bn.
The awards ceremony, a black tie event – takes place on 12th March so we’d better find our best frock and suit! Wish us luck – we will keep you posted!
We know that there may be a few people who in February may be newly planning for a very important day, so firstly we would like to extend our congratulations to those of you have recently got engaged.
Did you know that you can hold your wedding on the estate? Couples can host their woodland wedding blessing and reception in our beautiful and unique safari tent which is nestled within our tree lined arboretum. Not only is the venue surrounded by some majestic woodland, the safari tent has views across the lake with deer grazing in sight on our parkland. Festoon lighting throughout the tent and arboretum means that not only is the venue beautiful by day but twinkles by night! Take a look at our Wedding gallery page to see what you can achieve within our Safari Tent.
We have a fantastic wedding package available starting from just £4,500. Please click here for more information . If you have any queries about our venue hire please don’t hesitate to contact us in the office.
Venison Donated to the Wragby ChEF SchemeWragby ChEF is a fantastic cause which allows children in Wragby to be able to ‘eat free’ during the school holidays. Wragby ChEF started in Easter 2018 and is run by a team of volunteers who decided that they did not want parents to worry about their children missing out on lunch during the school holidays. We decided to donate some of our venison mince to add to the menu for February Half Term and we have heard that the children absolutely loved their venison meatballs.
The team are doing a great job – over 120 children’s meals were served over February half term! If you want to find out more about Wragby Chef please follow the Wragby community page on facebook where there are regular updates.
Storms Ciara and Dennis have graced us with their considerable presence in February. Luckily there was no serious damage to report on the estate and parkland, however it has brought lots of fallen branches and boughs across the woodland. So, not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth we have taken the opportunity to book the chipper to come along in April. We will collect up all of the wind-fallen branches from across the estate and turn it into lovely woodchip. Our woodchip is very popular and has lots of uses whether it’s for landscaping your garden beds, laying a chicken run, or drying out a wet area such as a gateway or pathway. To find out more about our woodchip or to place an order please click here.
It’s been a year since the Safari Tent found its ‘forever home’ in the arboretum and it has hosted many successful open days and private events since then. We are taking the opportunity of the ‘closed season’ to make some improvements to the area surrounding the tent. We’ve soon got diggers coming in to have a bit of a general tidy up in the area and are more importantly we are creating a path between the car park and the tent. This will help us to ensure that our events, whether public or private are as accessible as possible to as many people as possible.
If you want to come along to one of our events please keep an eye out on the events pages on our website or on Facebook.
On the plus side… we got some more winter wheat in the ground! Around 250 acres of winter wheat was sown into good conditions in the first week of February. However, the subsequent storms Ciara and Dennis have not been particularly helpful, as some of the ground which was drilled is now waterlogged.
Looking for more positive news… we managed to get a little more sugar beet lifted in really good conditions. This will be delivered to Newark over the next few days before we carry out the final lift of the year to complete harvest 2019! Fingers crossed that after recent flooding in the Newark area British Sugar keep the factory open long enough for all growers to deliver their sugar beet.
In machinery news… we have made some changes this month. Our New Holland developed a significant oil leak from the transmission; the repair was due to be quite expensive so we were considering changing it. We decided on balance that because of the recent wet weather and the resultant uncertainty over the 2020 harvest that it would be best to repair it. We have also recently swapped our telehandler for a new one and to replace the two machines in quick succession was not a viable option!!
Also on the farm – the Horncastle Flood Alleviation Scheme has kicked into gear for the 10th time in around 18 months. Some digging online (on riverlevels.uk) has turned up some quite interesting figures. The highest recorded river level on the River Bain at Horncastle’s Victoria Mill is 1.20m, reached on Monday 25th June 2007 at 9:30pm. This caused some considerable flooding in the town. Following the cloudburst in mid-June last year, the river level at Victoria Mill peaked at 0.89m. A difference in river level of 30cm (granted no two flood events are quite the same) during a time of high rainfall doesn’t sound a lot on the face of it, but properties at risk of flooding by the Bain appear to have been saved by the scheme. We are very proud to be able to do our little bit for the town, although the knock on effect for us has been the loss of two crops within a 6 month period. So, we are now looking to convert the 25acre arable field upstream of the dam back into a meadow, the uses for which we are still considering so watch this space…
Our herds of Red deer seem to be coping with the wet conditions very well. As we don’t feed grains, soya or other concentrates, they have been enjoying our herbal silage made last summer.
Deer are notoriously picky eaters so our mix contains over 20 species of grasses, herbs and legumes to satisfy event the fussiest of eaters. As soon as the grass begins to grow in April, we can stop outside feeding and focus on other pressing maintenance matters…
We look forward to seeing you soon! Our 2020 diary dates can be found here!
Antony & Helen
We hope you have had a restful festive period and are all fired up for whatever 2020 has to offer.
Since we last wrote the estate has very much been in winter mode. We are spending our time carrying out essential maintenance across the estate and have been very busy planning our events for the year, especially how we are going to celebrate 25 Years of our ownership of Stourton Woods!
With that in mind we are delighted to be able to share with you our events calendar for 2020 so make sure you save the dates! More detailed information will follow for each event on our website as it becomes available. Don’t want to miss out? Then please sign up to our newsletter. You can do this at the bottom of any of the pages on our website.
Friday 6th & Saturday 7th Evenings – November Enchanted Woodland LightsAll events* except Water Tower being held in the arboretum at Stourton Woods, Baumber LN9 5NL off A158
We are so delighted that our events have become more popular and visitor numbers are increasing and with the small team here at Stourton we are about at our limit. With this in mind we have a number of roles that might be of interest to you to gain some experience, work with the team here and we can offer some attractive benefits!
We are a friendly team and we aim for every visitor to enjoy the Stourton experience so if you’d like to get involved and stuck in we would love to hear from you!
Please drop us an email with what particular area interests you and we will get in touch.
As we go to ‘print’, we finally seem to be moving into a period of more settled weather. This has allowed us to tentatively start on a little more land work. Ken was over the moon to be back on his beloved Challenger while ploughing ahead of vining peas and spring barley on a customer’s farm!
Hopefully within the next few days we will start drilling a little more winter wheat, as mentioned in previous blogs we can drill certain varieties up until the end of February. In other news we are currently assessing which fields of oilseed rape are viable to carry through until harvest. Those which aren’t will be sown with spring varieties of oilseed rape; in the past this hasn’t been the most reliable of crops, let’s hope this year proves differently! The winter oilseed rape crops which are viable will need treating to remove any grass species, as well as a number of broadleaved weeds.
In the workshop at the moment we are going through our precision drill to make sure it is fighting fit for drilling sugar beet when the time arrives. A precision drill places individual seeds at set distances apart within the row. For example our drill rows are set at 50cm apart, seeds are sown around 17.5cm apart within each row. This gives us optimum plant population to achieve the highest yields of the most uniform sugar beet roots.
Heading into spring our crops will start to respond to the increasing day length and begin to grow. We will be monitoring this and feeding the crops appropriately. Their first dose of nitrogen fertiliser may need to be a little earlier than usual as the unprecedented rainfall will have depleted field reserves. Oilseed rape will be first, shortly followed by winter barley and wheat.
We are very much looking forward to a busy few months trying our best to catch up for lost time out on the land in the Autumn; let’s hope mother nature plays ball a little more in 2020!
Whilst work on the farm is traditionally quieter at this time of year the work with the deer of course continues. We are currently giving them copper boluses which are essential nutrients to keep them healthy. They are also being wormed at the same time – as you can imagine tending individually to some 300 deer is no mean feat, ‘keep calm and carry on’ is a very useful phrase that Antony and Dan have been repeating on a daily basis recently!
With the rut completing before Christmas and the stags calming down, we are hoping to look forward to hearing the patter of little hooves in the spring-time and we will be sure that you will be the first to know…
There is so much to look forward to on the estate and in the woods for 2020 and we hope to see you in the Spring at one of our events.
Antony and Helen
Saturday 7th December marked the final event in our calendar for 2019, and after much decoration hanging, tree placing, chilli cooking, deer prepping and wine mulling 10am arrived and we flung the gates open! Not for the first time this year we were overwhelmed with the number of people who popped in to see us, whether for a dog walk and a coffee or a deer safari and chilli lunch; a few of you even left with your Christmas tree and some great gifts. We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who attended, not just the Christmas Open day but any of the events we have held this year.
We had a tricky start to the year with a couple of last minute weather related event cancellations but with some different themed events and last minute additions to the calendar we have been delighted to see so many visitors here this year. If you’ve been following our progress you will know that we made some events bigger (and hopefully better) such as AutumnFest and the Enchanted Lit Woodland Walk and tried some new things such as the Pub night at the Water Tower. Your support of these events means that we will continue to grow your favourites and try more new things in 2020 – if you have any suggestions please get in touch at contact@stourtonestates.co.uk and do keep up to date with our developments on social media!
Many of our events up until this year had been in their infancy, whilst we try to gauge what you want us to deliver and how we best do this. Installing the Safari Tent in the arboretum has given us a great base to offer refreshments and has (weather permitting!) allowed us to grow all of our events in terms of scope and scale. We are still a small team here at Stourton. This has meant that many of our staff have had to ‘muck in’ and carry out extra tasks that strictly speaking aren’t their ‘day jobs’. Every time something extraordinary has been required of them our team members have stepped up; be it driving and commentating on our deer safaris, helping to build our bale castle, expertly making a decent cappuccino, clearly directing traffic and parking cars or creating a water fountain for our enchanted lit woodland walk… the list is endless! We cannot thank the team here enough for their dedication and enthusiasm and we hope that they all have a well deserved rest over Christmas and New Year before we start again refreshed for what’s in store in 2020.
We are now settled into our winter routine of chasing pigeons around the farm to keep them from eating our oilseed rape crops. Ken is busy in the workshop; his current project is to build a cage to keep our gas bottles safe. Next on the agenda is to make some tweaks to the vari-rate oilseed rape drill we built earlier this year.
The wheat we drilled at the end of October is largely up now but is a little patchy, anywhere there is a slight issue with soil structure or drainage it is struggling.
Planning is underway for our spring drilling program, some considerable changes have had to be made due to the lack of winter wheat we have got in. We will be growing spring oilseed rape for the first time (time will tell whether this is foolhardy). We have some spring wheat seed in store to replace some of the area of winter wheat. We also have our normal area of spring barley and sugar beet to sow.
We currently have around 40% of our 2019/20 sugar beet crop to lift. Unfortunately we are unable to get on the field with the beet harvester due to ground conditions. Needless to say we are currently praying for a dry spell though history tells us to be careful what we wish for!
That’s it from us until next year. Whilst the team here enjoy the festive period at home both the farm and office will be closed from Friday 20th December re-opening on Monday 6th January.
We hope that you have a peaceful and relaxing Christmas period and wish you a healthy and happy new year.
We hope to see you in 2020.
Helen and Antony
There’s never a dull moment at Stourton Estates! As ever, November has been an eventful month; some good and some not so good, but let’s start with the good!
We were overwhelmed with the popularity of our Enchanted Woodland Walk event. Based on last year’s demand we had extended this event to run over two nights instead of one and we still managed to sell out! We would like to thank everyone who came along to this event and we hope you had a great evening. We’d also like to thank everyone who has taken the time to post on social media about the event and those who have shared some stunning photos of the evening with us.
Visitors could take in a walk around the arboretum which was beautifully lit with coloured lights and atmospheric sound effects. This year we added a water fountain to the spectacle as well as LED and fire dancing performances by Party Workshops which certainly wowed the crowd.
We’d also like to thank those who came along to feed the masses! Farriers Rest provided some delicious toasties, Fleurs Kitchen provided crepes which were simply to die for and Curry Jacks sold some divine curries on Saturday night which certainly helped to keep everyone warm. Jumbo marshmallows were also available for visitors to toast around the specially protected fires. Our extended Stourton Estates team worked really hard making sure that the event ran smoothly.
We’d like to say the most massive thank you to Dave who provided the lighting magic. He transformed the (already pretty beautiful) arboretum into a magical wonderland. He worked so hard, especially as the rain decided to put in an appearance on Saturday morning so a full dry out, safety check and test was required before admitting our Saturday guests.
We are already planning next year’s event to make it even bigger and better – we can’t wait!
We would like to welcome you to our Christmas Open Day held, for the first time, in the woodland setting of the arboretum. There’s a lot to see and do plus there’s plenty of seasonal fayre to enjoy in the warmth of the Safari Tent!
This magica
l venue will really start to get you in the spirit of Christmas. You might like to enjoy a winter walk around the arboretum and see the red deer in the parkland from the Old Hall Lawn. Alternatively you can book onto a Christmas Deer Safari, these will be running every hour on the old army truck travelling over slightly soggy ground and through the woodland to see the resident majestic stags together with the hinds and calves around the estate.
The team in the Safari Tent will be delighted to welcome you – admire the natural decorations and enjoy the Christmas atmosphere and warm up around the roaring log burner. Along with the estates very own venison, real Christmas Trees are also available to purchase. There are also a small selection of local businesses showcasing their Christmas products and giftware:
Sew Crazy homemade fabric and felt gifts and decorations
The Crafty Den Christmas gifts and hampers
Little Flower Workshop handmade wooden items for the home
Lily Rose Cakes and Catering tasty luxury brownies, fudge, Christmas gingerbread, mince pies, flapjack and other treats
Sassy Spirit lovely accessories, scarves, jewellery and bags
Cath’s Blossoms and Blooms with Christmas wreaths and table decorations with an added decoration service on the day whilst visitors have a look around.
Have a bite to eat with home-made (mild) venison chilli on offer or a vegetable soup or treat yourself to a mulled wine or baileys hot chocolate with a mince-pie or two in this special setting.
Avoid the crowds and enjoy the natural beauty of your surroundings there’s something for everyone to enjoy at Stourton Woods.
It is FREE entry to the grounds and we will be open from 10am until 4pm on Saturday 7th December and the team will be delighted to see you – the entrance is off the A158 between Baumber & Wragby signed Stourton Estates & Walled Garden Baumber.
Our Real Nordmann Fir trees are available to order for click and collect right now on our website.
Not only are these beautiful Christmas trees but they hold onto their needles for longer too so they will continue to look beautiful throughout the festive season. The trees have been thoroughly looked after throughout their growing life, being pruned and pampered so they have a lovely conical shape.
The trees are freshly cut and in stock from Saturday 30th November. You can order your tree online and then collect your tree from the farm office off the Caistor High Street B1225 LN9 5PB (look out for the venison sign) from:
If none of the above are suitable please phone 01507 578236 and we can arrange a time for you to collect your tree. If you would like to reserve a tree and pick it up at a time to suit you please pay online and we will put one aside for you.
Unfortunately the weather has changed little since the last blog post. We managed a little more drilling during a short drier period and have now sown around 30% of our winter wheat crop on our own and on our customers’ farms. Due to the ongoing wet weather, soils are now incredibly cold resulting in crops being very slow to emerge (4-6 weeks). Some are now emerging though in any particularly wet areas the seed has ‘blown’ and rotted in the ground. Truly unprecedented times but we must make light where we can;
We’ve ‘ad a fair kelchin’ again
We’re arrad o’ all this rain
Our wheat’s all in skwad
But it can’t be that bad,
That we do nowt but complain.
Until next time…
From time to time we have to deal with some minor catastrophes on the estate and the week following our Enchanted Walk delivered a few at once.
The relentless rain that has blessed us for a few weeks now caused some flooding to our farm and parkland. As any farmer knows, this isn’t just a minor inconvenience for a couple of weeks but drastically delays seed drilling and/or plant development; and in the worse cases damage to buildings and loss of livestock. As flooding counts as a natural event then very rarely are such things covered by any type of insurance which can dramatically impact incomes and livelihoods.
Naturally occurring events are something that you need to accept will happen from time to time. More annoying is when the issue you have to deal with is man-made and utterly avoidable. Rural crime is on the rise, and has been widely reported recently in the news. Most people who live in the local villages and hamlets know someone who has been affected. We’ve had a double whammy! Not only did we have off-roaders drive all over our forage crops causing a great deal of damage but we also fell victim to arsonists.
Our bale castle, built at the end of summer to create some interest off the roadside and to help us to promote our events and products, was torched on Sunday 10th November. In reality when we began talking about the possibility of building a bale castle, it being burned down was sadly something that we were worried about. We took the calculated risk to build the castle which has delighted our estate visitors and passersby alike and has provided a very handy billboard to promote our events. We positioned the castle in such a way that if a fire were to occur it was far enough from the woodland or hedgerow to prevent the fire spreading out of control. The castle was actually in position much longer than we anticipated as the wet weather prevented us from being able to easily dismantle it without damaging the farmland on which it stood.
Sadly, on the Sunday afternoon, in broad daylight (!) the castle fell prey to arsonists. Initially two fire engines attended the scene, quickly leaving one to help manage the blaze and ensure the main road remained open and safe for vehicles. Once under control the Stourton Team worked through the night and into the next day to ensure that the fire didn’t flare back up and that the site and road were safe. Whilst the bales were completely lost, which were going to be used for winter bedding for the deer the only blessing is that thankfully no-one was hurt.
We would like to thank all personnel from Lincs Fire and Rescue who attended the fire and also to extend our apologies to any neighbours and road users who were inconvenienced by the fire. We’ll have to have a think about what we do next year – watch this space!
Anyway, onwards and upwards and at least there’s no sign of a plague of locusts…yet!
We are now coming to the end of the deer rut season and the stags are calming down a little hopefully having done their important business! They are not too bothered by the wet ground conditions and are loving chomping through the silage which they are fed daily – here they are eating in a lovely curve across the field.
Soon it will be time to wean the calves born this June from the hinds and bring them into the shelter of the barn for the winter. Here they will be a little more sheltered from the elements through the coldest winter months and will hopefully remain healthy whilst they put on a little more weight before the new grass arrives in the spring.
You may have seen that we have increased the opportunity for you to buy venison locally. We are very pleased to supply a couple of local restaurants – Shakesbys in Horncastle and The Blacksmith’s Arms in Skendleby so if you’d like to enjoy a meal out we can heartily recommend trying our amazing venison that has been professionally cooked!
If you live closer to Lincoln, we also supply Fosters Butchers in Lincoln with meat on a regular basis and so you can try some steaks with your normal weekly meat order from them.
In a couple of more rural villages we now supply venison to The Post & Pantry in Donington on Bain which has a Christmas food event on Sunday 1st December if you’re able to support that they would be delighted to see you. Also Tealby Village Shop has recently taken a small delivery of frozen venison for their customers to sample and it has been flying off the shelves! They are also holding small Xmas fair in Tealby Village Hall on Sat 14th Dec so do go along to that if you get the chance.
If you’re looking for a particular cut or are catering for a crowd we also have a full range of venison in stock frozen at the farm. From burgers to steaks, joints, mince and casserole we can offer you most cuts and provide advice on recipes and the best way of cooking this healthy and delicious meet.
We’re open at Top Yard Farm, LN9 5PB Monday to Friday 9am – 3pm, Saturday 30th November 10am – 1pm and then will have a selection available at our Open Day in the arboretum on Saturday 7th December from 10am – 4pm. If you’d like a particular cut or size please phone us and reserve in advance so that we can meet your needs!
With Christmas approaching we are also offering a limited number of experiences. You might like to experience the thrill of driving our ex-army truck (unimog) or feeding the red deer on a private tour. Our experiences make great gifts for someone special, a special treat for yourself… or perhaps a difficult to buy for relative?!
Our experience vouchers can be bought online and are valid throughout 2020. Terms and conditions apply, see individual products on our website for full details.
Give experiences not things, have stories to tell, not stuff to show!
We hope to see you soon, hopefully at our Christmas Event or if you come to collect a Christmas Tree or venison in the run up to Christmas.
Helen and Antony
Welcome to our October 2019 Blog post – we have been very busy in the last month since we last wrote and have some great news and events to tell you about!
We’ve hosted two very different events since we last wrote in September. On 28th September the arboretum was filled with laughter as we hosted LOL in the Woods, a great evening of comedy performances. The safari tent was full and everyone enjoyed a few drinks and some very tasty chilli whilst watching the acts perform. This was such as well received event that we already have our thinking caps on for next year!
What a lovely day we had on Sunday 20th October for our Pumpkin Sunday Funday. Thank you very much to everyone who came along to find our beautifully decorated pumpkins on our trail around the arboretum and join in the fun. Wragby Brownies and Guides had great fun and worked very hard to create some truly stunning pumpkin creations! The deer put in a magnificent performance for everyone who enjoyed the Deer Rut safari around the estate. Others had a great time enjoying learning some new circus skills and we hope you are putting your new found juggling and unicycling skills to good use.
As usual we’d like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who helped to make both events a success and thoroughly enjoyable for all who attended. Thank you to Comedy Hotspot for organising the acts for LOL in the Woods, Party Workshops for coming to provide us with the circus skills training, Wragby Brownies and Guides for creating our beautiful array of pumpkins, and last but no means least to the extended Stourton Estates team and volunteers who as always worked really hard to welcome guests and help us put on these events.
We are very excited about this year’s Enchanted Woodland Lights – our special lit trail around the arboretum.
As you walk around you can really take in the beauty of the arboretum which is being specially illuminated with multi-coloured lights, atmospheric music as well as a specially created water feature within the woodland!
Also new for this year we are introducing some fire and LED dancers plus some extra special effects so if you came along last year it will be a different and enhanced experience.
At the end of the trail you have the opportunity to enjoy the ambiance of the flickering flames around the fire pits whilst you have a hot drink or toast marshmallows on our smaller separate BBQ grills!
A greater selection of refreshments locally produced food from Farriers Rest, Fleurs Kitchen, Curry Jacks and a licensed bar will also be available with additional seating in the safari tent where you can cosy up around the log burner indoors and extend your time here.
The gates open from 5pm – 9.30pm, don’t forget to bring your torch, sensible footwear and wrap up warm!
This event is perfect for those who are seeking an alternative to a traditional fireworks display at this time of year and is perfectly suited to small children and those with additional needs. Well behaved dogs on leads are also more than welcome to enjoy the peace and beauty of this night time event.
Tickets are available to purchase online and are £7 for adults and £5 for children.
This year we are holding our Christmas event in the woodland setting of the arboretum.
You can enjoy a winter walk around our trails, go on a deer safari and enjoy a hot chocolate and mince pie in our safari tent. We’ll have the log burner stoked up for you! A selection of Christmas trees will be available as well as a wide range of tasty venison for you to take home and enjoy. ‘After Hours’ we are planning on showing a Classic Christmas film, with much debate surrounding the choice so keep your eyes peeled on social media and the event page on our website for more updates…
Entry to the day is free. We will be open from 10 am until 4pm and are looking forward to seeing you.
We can offer a truly unique rustic woodland wedding experience and a setting which the happy couple and their guests will never forget.
Couples can host their wedding blessing and reception in our beautiful and unique safari tent which is nestled within our tree lined arboretum. Not only is the venue surrounded by some majestic woodland the safari tent has views across the lake with deer grazing in sight on our parkland. Festoon lighting throughout the tent and arboretum means that not only is the venue beautiful by day but twinkles by night! Our safari tent comfortably accommodates 80-100 day time guests with room for a dance floor and many more evening guests, however for those planning a larger day, we can discuss further options to accommodate more guests if required.
As well as beautiful surroundings we want to make the day as special as possible for any couples considering us as their venue of choice. We will provide a dedicated point of contact for our couples to answer any questions they may have, to help them to plan their day and to make it personal to them.
Our woodland wedding package includes the following:
We are aiming not to restrict our couples in what they wish to have on their dream day so catering and decor choices are completely up to them, however other options that they may wish to consider include:
Please view our wedding gallery to see what can be achieved within our tent and to see views of the setting itself.
If you’d like to find out more about weddings at Stourton Estates then please visit our dedicated weddings page or don’t hesitate to contact us.
For helping us to create our gorgeous wedding images we’d like to thank:
Finishing Touches Wedding & Event Hire
Finishing Touches Wedding & Event Hire
IMAGES PROPRERTY OF DAVID HARRISON PHOTOGRAPHY.
Can someone please turn the taps off? To say that October has been a bit wet is an understatement! Like many farmers across the country we are incredibly frustrated by the current weather. The sheer volume and frequency of rainfall has meant we are unable to get on the land to drill our winter cereal crops for next year. While we still have time for winter wheat (you can sow winter wheat on easy working land through until February/March if conditions allow) the seasonal cut-off for sowing winter malting barley is fast approaching. At this time of year the land doesn’t tend to dry so well, time will tell whether we will be able to drill any winter crops our heavier land. Typically the rape that we did get in the ground earlier in the season is not fairing so well either! Immediately following drilling of the oilseed rape we entered an extended dry spell, which both harmed overall establishment and put the crop under a large amount of stress. This has meant that cabbage stem flea beetle has had a good go at the plants that did grow. On the plus side…….it’ll soon be Christmas!!!
The autumn rut is in full flow! Our 2 stags are now with their ladies (the hinds) and will remain so until the middle of November. Winston is enjoying a new field away from the other stags whilst Nelson (our new chap, who really ought to be re-named Roary!) is located on the other side of the woods. Separating them in this way is essential to avoid fighting and unnecessary injuries. They still ‘roar’ to each other across the parkland, but won’t meet until things have finally calmed down at Christmas. In the meantime, Dan is getting used to his new deer feeding machine which is a welcome addition to the machinery fleet. This bale un-roller is designed to pick up, carry and unroll a bale of silage in record time with minimal hassle (for Dan at least) and we are delighted that the deer love it too.
We look forward to seeing you at one of our events soon
Antony & Helen
Wow – what a day we had on Saturday 14th September with our third Autumn Festival. We had planned more stalls and live music for this year’s event, hoping to make it bigger and better than the previous year, hoping for a few more visitors. So at 10am, with the sun shining on us (after a pretty disappointing year of cancelled events) and our fingers crossed we opened the gates and hoped for the best. And you didn’t disappoint, you arrived in your droves! So our first thank you is to everyone who came along to the day and the night time events. There was such a buzz on site and it was a genuine pleasure to see you, your families and your dogs having such a great time. The live music throughout the day and into the evening helped to create a very special atmosphere. We’d also like to thank everyone who has contacted us since, whether directly or via social media to leave some lovely reviews. It is very much appreciated.
We’d like to thank our musical performers, stall holders, food providers and demonstrators for booking to attend, many for their 3rd year, some for their first time. The event was made very special by your wonderful wares and the warm welcome you helped us to extend to our visitors. Perhaps next year we might need a couple more food stands to help to ease the demand and queuing times!
We would like to thank the First Manby Scouts for their voluntary assistance on the day with car parking and other logistics. We hope you enjoy the peace when you return for your camp-out in October & you raised some much needed funds with your walking quiz on the day!
And last, but by no means least a huge thank you to the Stourton Estates team and extended ‘family’ for all your support in the run up to the day and on the day itself. Many reviewers mentioned what a ‘warm welcome’ they received and that is down to your help and enthusiasm. So whether you were helping to build bale castles, wrangling with the layout of the stall holders or managing the ‘real’ coffee bar and logistics onto site for set up, thank you very much! We couldn’t do it without you!
So onwards with the planning of Autumn Festival 2020, we hope you enjoy this fantastic selection of professional photos captured on the day by Lisa Dales Photography!
We still have some great events planned in 2019 that we would love you to come and enjoy.
We are excited to be working with Comedy Hotspot to bring you a fantastic comedy night here in the Safari Tent in Stourton Woods. Four of the comedy circuits best UK Headliners…. all on the one bill and with a sprinkle of Comedy Hotspot magic, we turn the Safari Tent into one of the best comedy venues in Lincolnshire for the night.
Acts booked for the night are
Locally produced food and a fully licensed bar is onsite for you to make a night of it!
Gates open at 7pm leaving you plenty of time to grab something to eat and drink before the first act starts at 8pm. You need to book early, as these shows sell out fast.
Buy Your Tickets direct from Comedy Hotspot here or with cash, from Stourton Estates Farm Office at Top Yard Farm, Baumber.
Strictly over 18’s only and ticket Ts and Cs apply.
Kick off half term with our Open Day themed with pumpkins – we will also be running Deer Rut Safaris on Sunday 20th October.
As well as enjoying our Pumpkin Trail around the arboretum, you can try your hand at some circus skills, hosted by Party Workshops. You can also enjoy a fully guided tour on the Tractor & Trailer around the Stourton Estate through the woodland and into the deer enclosure to see our herd of Red Deer on one of our famous Deer Safaris.
This is a lovely experience for the whole family to enjoy the autumn colours, get up close and personal with the Red Deer before going to the aboretum to juggle or find your way along the pumpkin trail. We will also be serving light refreshments, soup, rolls, teas, coffees and home-made cakes from the safari tent.
Well behaved dogs on leads are more than welcome to peruse the Pumpkin Trail.
Entry to the estate for the day is free of charge, however the deer rut safaris are chargeable. The Deer Rut Safaris are limited in number so booking is essential; they will last just under an hour. Adults are £6 each and children over 2 are £4 each. Infants under 2 are free of charge, but must sit on knees.
Following the success of last year’s event we are extending the length of Enchanted Lit Woodland Walk and running it over two nights this year.
You can come to enjoy the natural beauty of the arboretum in the evening with some very special coloured illuminations creating an enchanted lit woodland walk to wander along. A variety of coloured lights will bring the trees to life with atmospheric sounds and music within this very special venue. New for this year we are introducing some fire and LED dancers plus some extra special effects so if you came along last year it will be a different and enhanced experience.
At the end of the trail you have the opportunity to enjoy the ambiance of the flickering flames around the fire pits whilst you have a hot drink or toast marshmallows on our smaller separate BBQ grills!
A greater selection of refreshments and a licensed bar will also be available with additional seating in the safari tent where you can cosy up around the log burner indoors and extend your time here.
The gates open from 5pm – 9.30pm, don’t forget to bring your torch!
This event is perfect for those who are seeking an alternative to a traditional fireworks display at this time of year and is perfectly suited to small children and those with additional needs. Well behaved dogs on leads are also more than welcome to enjoy the peace and beauty of this night time event.
Early bird tickets are available to purchase online for the event for the next 4 weeks (up to 20th October) at last year’s prices of £6 for adults and £4 for children. You can pay on the gate on the night however both online and gate prices will increase to £7 for adults and £5 for children after 20th October.
Are you stocked up on logs for the chilly winter months? Our kiln dried logs, all hardwood varieties, are fantastic quality, super dry & graded (to remove dust, sticks etc) before being kiln dried at the farm at Baumber.
The firewood logs are sold in builders’ bags sized at approx 0.7 cubic metres. Our logs are cut to around 10 inches/25 cm.
We offer great value bulk discounts for delivery of more than one bag of logs and delivery within a 20 mile radius of the farm is free of charge. Please click here to find out more or to place your order.
Since the last newsletter we’ve been incredibly busy with both harvest and landwork. This harvest we have worked in collaboration with a nearby farmer which has gone very well. We completed harvest here on the 5th September; the weather was frustrating at times but thanks to the hard work of our team here and our contractors we finished in good time.
While wheat harvest was progressing Ken was busy establishing next years’ Oilseed Rape crop. Unfortunately since this was sown the recent dry weather, coupled with a migration of cabbage stem flea beetle have meant the crop is really struggling to grow and establish itself. Land-work ahead of the winter wheat and barley crop is now almost complete. We will most likely be drilling the winter barley towards the end of the month, with wheat will going in during October.
We have just started our ‘final’ harvest of the year; the first of our sugar beet has just been lifted and will be delivered to the factory this week – this will continue intermittently until February/ early March.
Also planned for this month is a small amount of land drainage which will be carried out by Sheltons Drainage. While crops need a certain amount of water to grow, an excess of water can cause major soil structure and fertility issues. As such, a great deal of our land is ‘underdrained’. We lay perforated pipes at around 2.5-3.5 feet deep and cover them with gravel before pushing soil back over the top. This allows any excess water to drain away more quickly than it otherwise would, creating a better soil moisture balance for the crops in a wet time.
It’s a busy time on the estate with the deer at this time of year with de-antlering the young stags and worming the herd to ensure that they are safe and healthy over the winter months.
We also have some exciting news – a new stag who we have called Nelson! As you probably appreciate we do need to bring in new blood lines and ‘rotate’ our stag so that we don’t get any problems with inter-breeding. So our new fella has made the journey onto the estate and is currently making himself at home with the ladies – as you can see he’s quite a character, sticking his tongue out at the camera!
After de-antlering we will have some mini sets of antlers for sale and also the smaller ones which we will make into dog chews – these will be available from the farm office or at our open day on Sunday 20th October.
We look forward to seeing you soon
Helen & Antony
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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