Mainsgill Farm Shop and Tearoom: Meet the couple behind the 'exceptionally busy' Yorkshire farm shop

“We just get our heads down,” says Andrew. “We talk with people, have a bit of a chat, help where we can, and nobody is ever beneath us. We started the farm shop to survive over 57 acres and it now keeps our whole family employed."

Andrew and Maria farmed in Lancashire until 1995 when Maria’s brother spotted an advertisement in the Farming News publication.

“We only had a few suckler cows and a pig breeding herd on a bit of land at the time,” says Andrew.

“We had been looking for a farm where we could get cattle numbers up and had been looking at council farms but because Maria and I hadn’t been to college or university they wouldn’t entertain us, which I suppose is fair looking back, but when you’re trying to get somewhere it seems rather unfair.

“We’d been everywhere looking for a farm, Worcester to Cumbria, Derbyshire to Uttoxeter and when we came to view Mainsgill, Mr & Mrs Tillett, who’ve sadly both passed away now, gave us the opportunity by selling it to us."

Andrew and Maria say that feeling when they first bought Mainsgill was something they will both never forget.

“We thought we owned the world, we were king of the castle. We’d started with nothing, and it was like, look at this.”

Even now, the with the way it has all grown they both think back fondly to that time.

“We’re so proud of what we’ve done. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we’d own 57 acres.”

Mainsgill Farm’s farming operation now runs across 1,300 acres, which includes Howden Hill Farm near Cleasby where eldest son Jack now lives.

“We bought Howden Hill Farm, six miles from Mainsgill, in 2017,” says Andrew. “It runs to 212 acres and includes grass and arable, a couple of years ago the tenancy came up for 600-plus acres adjoining it; and we recently bought 167 acres of grassland on the Reeth road by the Swale. We’ve added land as we’ve gone along.

Cattle, sheep, pigs and crops to feed the animals now make up the farm enterprise run by sons Jack and Matthew.

“We have a suckler herd of 100 cows,” says Andrew. “Male animals are sold through Darlington auction mart. We also buy-in stock and at time we can have up to 900 cattle.

“We said we’d never stick with any particular breed as that can be an issue in the shop,” says Maria. “That’s why we said we would always have heifer beef. Jack buys anything that catches his eye and we buy a neighbour’s female animals as well as topping up from regular sources.

“We calve the sucklers in March/April and take the bulls out so we’re not calving all year round. It works best that way as otherwise you’re never done watching cows calving. We’re currently expanding the suckler herd and putting up a fattening unit.”

The Henshaws have a flock of 500 breeding ewes which Andrew says is not self-sufficient.

“We top up from locals. We are mainly Texel-crosses and put Dutch Spotted to them,” says Maria. “They grow fast that way. We were in front of the Dutch Spotted revolution. We now have a flock of 50 of them for breeding crossing tups and because our lads don’t like selling anything we keep having to put more buildings up.

“We lamb in February, trying for half-term as we do Lambing Live which is another big time for us as families come to the farm shop and tearoom, go into the lambing shed and the lads who are lambing explain what’s going on. It’s interactive and everyone wants to be a part of it. It means we are educating and people are interested.

“And we are also on with new pig housing. We don’t have sows as they take too much looking after. We bring in weaners which we fatten ready for pork, bacon, gammon and sausages in the shop.”

Andrew says that Jack and Matthew who went to Myerscough and Reaseheath agricultural colleges respectively, with Matthew studying agricultural engineering, do most arable work together but that Matthew is the tractor man and the spanner man.

“Matthew likes his 250hp tractor and also does all the drilling, as well as lambing. We grow a lot of wheat and barley plus 90 acres of maize and 70 acres of beans this year as a break crop that puts nitrogen back in the soil.

"We also grow 40 acres of fodder beet, and we grow wholecrop wheat. It’s the first time we haven’t done rape but with us growing the maize and beans we can utilise that as protein, so we thought why bother putting an expensive crop in to fail, which it has done in past.”

Mainsgill Farm Shop and Tearoom has been extended several times since Andrew and Maria started over thirty years ago and Maria says it’s about to go bigger again.

“We extended it again in 2020 and we’ve a new Orangery Conservatory going up to seat a lot more. Work starts on that in September.

"We’ve increased our number of chefs, the main thing we’ve found over the years is that we now sell a lot more ready meals in the shop and that we have to be creative and expand our product range all the time.

“It's all adding value to the meat because eating habits have changed,” says Andrew. “People that bought a block of beef, pork or lamb no longer exist or are going by the wayside and for the younger generation it’s all about a quick meal, or it’s an evening out.

"They don’t want a piece of beef that’s going to be left for three days to be cut at and make sandwiches. They want a piece of lamb or a ready meal. At Christmas we still do turkeys but most now just want a crown.”

Where Andrew and Maria have been blessed is that their three children have all embraced their passion and all contribute so much.

“I had a lady come in yesterday and said ‘I love watching your videos’, says Maria. “She wasn’t meaning me, but she was meaning Mainsgill, as Rachel and Jack are both great at that sort of thing. And she said so, ‘It’s your Rachel, she’s wonderful’. That kind of thing is so humbling.

“Social media can be good and bad but for us it gets over simple things, what we’re doing on the farm and people feel they are part of it. The amount of customers that now come in looking for Jack and Rachel saying they’ve been watching them is really good.”

Andrew and Maria haven’t given up expanding either.

“We’re on with something now that is quite big,” says Andrew. “It’s another stepping stone for Mainsgill and with us now having a grandchild, Rose, we need to keep trying to expand further.”