Open Farm Sunday: How you can get closer to countryside life in Yorkshire this summer

“It’s our 31st year since we did that in response to the demand we had from people staying on the farm,” says Cath, who recalls that she and sister-in-law Sue had to ensure the men on the farm weren’t interrupted from getting on with the lambing everyone wanted to see.

“The lads would say don’t tell them we’re doing lambing. We’re too busy. But people were desperate to come, so keen, so the boys said they could, so long as myself and Susan would look after them, like kind of interpreters.

“Myself and Susan started in 1993. It went well and it was the lambing experiences that people wanted most of all. We’d have bales stacked so that people had a little gantry looking over the lambing shed. In the summer they’d come to watch cows milking in our small milking parlour.”

The cows went years ago when the Calverts came out of dairy farming and while the sheep experiences have grown the family is now finding that their visitor centre is reflecting the public’s increasing awareness of environmental matters.

“We are now a place where people come because they want to experience our amazing countryside and wildlife. We host various workshops and events with such as the the Tees-Swale Project and Yorkshire Dales National Park.

“We get a lot of groups including disadvantaged groups and we are a bookings only centre. That’s mainly because we’re not a big place and it is handy for our management if everyone books beforehand so that we know that we can accommodate who is due to arrive.

“We’re very busy at lambing times and through the summer, particularly during school holidays when we run a farm animal experience that allows our visitors to be up close and personal with everything from goats and alpacas to sheep and geese.

“We keep a few Swaledale sheep around the farm because most of our breeding ewes are up on the moors. We show comparison with some of the old breeds that were more popular in the past like the Masham, and Teeswater tups that we used to use in days gone by.”

Cath says the team she has at the visitor centre Interacts wherever possible with children and adults.

“Everyone loves the alpaca trekking and watching goats’ antics. Nature and wildlife from insects to small animals, trees to hedgerows, drystone walls and hay meadows are all popular with children and families.

“We have a really nice nature trail that includes a permissive path over our neighbouring landowner’s field and by the river. There are clues on the way around for families to find stuff.

“We do morning and afternoon sessions and we have wellies that visitors can borrow. We’re keen to encourage engagement. We know that we’re so lucky where we live and have so much around us. There’s such an abundance of wildlife we can share from hedgehogs to barn owls.”

Cath says that while Hazel Brow is open all year round they do make an extra special effort with Open Farm Sunday.

“Our whole team will be here that day. We’ll have our Tees-Swale guys who are always keen to engage greater interest in nature, wildlife and conservation; Emily the travelling shepherdess will be doing sheep clipping and dog running; and we have our local landowner who is quite a conservationist. I’ll be walking around with visitors introducing them to the animals.

"Hermione will be with the alpacas. We will also be getting people looking more closely at everything small from bees to worms to insects with magnifying glasses and microscopes, plus we’ll have a raft of craft activities.”

The Calverts began using the main farmhouse for visitors some years ago and they have now expanded its usage into weddings, with alpacas attending if requested.

“We’ve all migrated to converted barns and other buildings,” says Cath. “For weddings we have accommodation for up to 16 in the eight bedrooms. It’s all a matter of having lots of eggs in different baskets to make the whole place work.

The visitor centre and the farm are two separate businesses but everything interacts and has a bearing on the other.

Martin points to the camping availability in one of the fields, the lambing experience days, and an occasional drystone walling experience as being useful supplements to the farm income, but also how the farm is working with environmental schemes to make the farm work.

“We are still a traditional Swaledale hill farm with sheep and cows. We need the muck from the cows for the grass and we have a lot of moorland grazing rights, so we need the sheep. We also work hand in hand with environmental schemes through Mid-Tier on such as species rich hay meadows that unlock various options.

“We’ve seen an increase in lapwings, curlews, oystercatchers, red shank and snipe. We’re creating a better environment and better biodiversity and it helps pay the bills.

“It’s worrying that the BPS has been reduced, so we’ve looked to diversify our farming business where we can and we’re doing that a little through camping and experience days.

“We’ve been offering camping for 10 years but it took off after Covid. We can cope with up to 20, including small camper vans, but we have no hook up points, just a toilet block. I’d like to add a shower block and to convert a barn into accommodation for our experience days or holiday lets. Other streams of income are always welcome.”

The Calverts have grazing rights on commons and moors and at Hazel Brow they have 200 acres of in-bye land. They have 600 Swaledale sheep and 100 head of cattle at any one time.

“We put 200 of our ewes back to the Swaledale tup with around 300 put to the Bluefaced Leicester tup to get the North of England Mule, and we have 100 hoggs. This year has been the best lambing in terms of numbers that we’ve ever had. All our males go for meat and all the females go to breed. We keep all the Swaledale ewe lambs as flock replacements and all Mule gimmers go to farmers down south.

“Our cattle are generally Angus out of dairy herds. We quite like Angus because they are easy finishing, good grass converters and we need the manure. We finish 20 ourselves, the rest go at between 15-20 months. Those we finish go at 30 months to Dovecote Park on their Angus scheme.”

Martin farms alongside his dad Raymond and his uncle David.