Farm ready to take step into the past

Mr Newlove, 31, is selling off all his modern vehicles and farming kit at Thorpe Hill Farm, Thorpe Underwood, near York, plus unwanted livestock, to raise money to turn the farm’s 111 acres into a working museum, using a combination of horse power, vintage machinery and manual labour. He is also thinking of training some cattle to work as oxen.

As explained in the Yorkshire Post Magazine two months ago, the farm, which he runs with his widowed mother, Joan, was thrown into crisis five years ago by the collapse of a pigs business for which it fattened outdoor animals on a ‘bed and breakfast’ contract.

Since then, they have been setting up a crop rotation which can be sustained without modern chemicals and selling off the last of the old livestock to clear the decks for a showcase ‘traditional’ farm.

Fencing and housing for a variety of minority breeds are nearly ready and Mr Newlove is preparing for an opening to the public at the end of July. He already has Kune Kune pigs, Pygmy Goats, Miniature Ouessant sheep and rare breed poultry breeding and has bought two Shire horses which are waiting to move in. He expects to add deer, Wensleydale sheep and Longhorn cattle in time for the first visitors.

Three sympathetic helpers, who will double as farmhands and tutors for educational visits, started work this week and Mr Newlove is looking for a farm administrator too.

Meanwhile, auctioneer Chris Clubley, from Market Weighton, will sell off the last of the past at Thorpe Hill, YO26 8AZ, from 1 pm today. Viewing from 10am.

The grand public opening of the new-look farm is scheduled for the weekend of July 30 and 31.

Steve Newlove is on 07786 731995 or [email protected]/

To see the auctioneer’s advertisement for the sale, go to http://tinyurl.com/5upaxn4 and zoom in on top left-hand corner of page 6 of last week’s Country Week. Or call 01759 304 040.