First full summer of events since 2019 sees celebrations for Yorkshire's diversified farms

For Charlotte Wells-Thompson, who owns Bert’s Barrow in Hillam, near Selby, events diversification has been the natural progression after making the decision to close their farm shop.

She and husband Jason converted two barns into wedding and events spaces before the pandemic, with a third barn converted last year.

She said: “When we went into lockdown, I lost all my events overnight and it had been the first year the wedding diaries had been full to busting.

“In 2021, we were at a crossroads as to whether to make the shop bigger, or close the shop and get full planning permission for our third barn and for a civil licence, which is what we did.

“I don’t want all my eggs in one basket - that’s really important to me. Next year’s wedding diary is full, but we’ll still be running our pumpkin patch.

“That’s close to our farming roots. We grow them from seed - we have 30,000 this year.

“To diversify, you have to be organised and good at planning. We’ve always been a very small farm and we’ve had to find ways of making money off our nine acres.

“Social media has played a massive part for us in attracting customers.”

For Steve Fletcher, the boon in wild swimming has led him to diversify his farm into a tranquil spot for swimmers.

Swimmers pay to swim in the farm’s ponds, with hundreds descending on the farm in Deighton, near York, over the summer.

Mr Fletcher said: “Over the last six months we’ve changed it from what was a fishing lake since 1984 to a swimming lake.

“Fishing seems to be on the decline a little bit - it’s not as popular as it once was, and the wild swimming has got a lot more popular.

“People want to look after themselves and the Wim Hof series on immersion therapy has helped too. There aren’t many swimming lakes around. To diversify you need to understand what your individual farm can offer.”