Livestock brings in the young visitors

A family whose herd was wiped out by foot and mouth rebuilt their business into a popular tourist attraction. Chris Berry pays a visit.
Mark Hebdon with the llamas and alpacasMark Hebdon with the llamas and alpacas
Mark Hebdon with the llamas and alpacas

Mark Hebdon hasn’t milked cows for years and he certainly doesn’t miss having to get up 5am every day, but that previous farming lifestyle was the inspiration behind Monk Park Farm Visitor Centre at Bagby near Thirsk that he and his wife Sarah run today. They are looking forward to a successful Easter period starting next weekend.

Their rare breeds of cattle, sheep, pigs and goats along with llamas, alpacas, rabbits, guinea pigs, donkeys and wallabies have become a must-see for all ages since they reopened after having all their livestock culled in 2001.

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“When we had the Jersey cow herd many years ago the people who came to our caravan site, which we still have at our other farm in Balk, would come and watch at milking time. Families would stand really quietly and find it fascinating. That’s what gave my dad the idea of opening something that attracted the public.

“We opened here in May 1999 and in our first year we attracted 6,000 visitors. The following year we doubled our numbers, but then foot and mouth disease saw our stock taken out as a contiguous cull.”

It was an emotional time for Mark, who resisted attempts by the ministry to get on his farm before being threatened that he would be put behind bars, but he gradually restocked afterwards and with Sarah he has now turned Monk Park into not just a family favourite but also a popular school visit.

“One-third of our business is now made up of school parties, but we have found that we have had to put a limit on the numbers in big parties each day. We can cope with 120.”

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“We hand guinea pigs and baby chicks to everyone and we encourage the children to feed the pet lambs. If you have too many schoolchildren in the parties and they don’t all get a chance then it can work out going against you and people might not want to come back.

“I was really worried about opening up as a tourist venture initially because when you’re a farmer you are always concerned about what people will do on your land, but after just a couple of weeks of being open I loved it and I now wouldn’t want to change back to normal farming.

“We now attract 60,000 visitors a year and we keep adding to what we have as much as we can. We have a goat tower that we built last year where children can put in some feed at the top into tubes and the goats make their way to whichever platform it is going to come out.

“Ninety-nine per cent of the people who come here are lovely people but some are harder work than the animals. You can sometimes see as they get out of their cars that they are in a bad mood, but overall most are really nice to talk to.”

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Mark still keeps a flock of breeding ewes utilising the rare breeds they have of Soay, Welsh Black Mountain and Herdwick. He puts a commercial Suffolk tup onto them to provide as near to a butcher’s lamb as the breeds can manage and stock goes to Thirsk livestock market just a handful of miles away. This year he is hiring in a Highland bull and Longhorn bull to start breeding the cattle.

The emblem on the Monk Park signs and literature is a wallaby, quite a different animal for the Hambleton Hills, but there is a story behind it.

“I’d seen on TV about this person in Huntington, York who kept wallabies but they were constantly escaping so York council had said they had to be found new homes. I took a male wallaby called Max from the owner, built a stable and erected 6ft high fencing all around his paddock, then I got two female wallabies. We now have six and we’re not going to go over that because you’re then classed as a zoo.”

Monk Park is open from February right through to October.

“There is always plenty to do and we make sure we are open for half-term in February. This year we had a very good week as the weather was kind, but when it’s not then people either don’t come at all or if they do it’s just for an hour. Alternately when it is sunny people will stay all day.

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“We have five full-time staff – me, Sarah, my dad and two others in the café and on the farm; but we also have 22 part-time staff. When I know what the weather is likely to do I just pick up the phone and they come.”

Mark and Sarah have found that one of the most surprising aspects of running their business has been how little knowledge of animals some children possess.

Sarah says: “Neither Mark nor I could quite believe how many have never seen a guinea pig, a goat or a calf before coming here. You can hear children saying ‘what’s that?’ You wouldn’t think in today’s world where everyone is supposed to be more knowledgeable that children would know but they don’t, so we are educating them as well as giving them a fun experience.

“Some are scared of even feeding a pet lamb because they have never seen one before. What we’ve also noticed over the years is that once the children have been inside the indoor petting barn and they have then picked up a guinea pig or seen the goats, lambs and calves they just want to spend time in the play area. There are no cars around and it is a very safe environment.

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“We also have a mile long farm trail around the farm and Mark’s dad has planted thousands of daffodils that are just starting to come out.”

If Mark’s father John hadn’t come up with the visitor centre idea then his son’s life may have been very different. He may never have met Sarah, who comes from Denby Dale.

She was nannying in York and brought the children she was looking after to Monk Park for a day. The pair chatted and got together. They now have two sons – Tom, eight, and Jack, four.

They fought the authorities to get the house built that they now live in – Mark was told that visitor numbers had to be at 40,000 a year before building was allowed.

Their venture is now one of the most popular attractions for young families in North Yorkshire and they are looking forward to another busy season.