How historic Newburgh Priory's Christmas tree venture has grown beyond expectations

Finding new sources of income has long been part of countryside life and for historic Newburgh Priory, which has been in Stephen Wombwell’s family ever since Henry VIII dissolved it in 1538, one idea has gone far beyond what he anticipated when starting out with his old schoolfriend Wilf Standeven just twelve years ago.

Newburgh Christmas Trees, of which the pair are co-owners and partners, began this year’s harvest ten days ago, opens for business next weekend and is anticipated to be harvesting 35,000 of their 330,000 trees now grown across 115 acres.

“It started life as a little part of the overall business on the estate and it has now become a pretty big part,” says Stephen.

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“Years ago it used to be that Christmas trees would often be grown where you couldn’t do anything else with the land and at that time they were generally Norway Spruce. Now it’s pretty much all Nordmann Fir because it is such a well-known species of tree for producing non-drop needles, and because the growing of Christmas trees has become a much more serious business you can no longer just take bad land and put it into Christmas trees, especially if you want to be taken seriously, as we do.

Stephen Wombwell and Wilf Standeven in the Christmas Tree plantation at  Newburgh Priory near Coxwold.Stephen Wombwell and Wilf Standeven in the Christmas Tree plantation at  Newburgh Priory near Coxwold.
Stephen Wombwell and Wilf Standeven in the Christmas Tree plantation at Newburgh Priory near Coxwold.

“You have to make sensible, farming business decisions as you are taking quite good arable land out of production and are forgoing seven years of more regular arable production of say cereals or potatoes. Realistically you’re taking that land out of arable production forever because you’re going into a long-term commitment.

Stephen says that it took the first three years before he and Wilf had more fully understood their new crop.

“The idea behind growing Christmas trees was purely an extra income stream for the estate, which is otherwise highly dependent upon rental property from farm, residential and commercial rents. We were trying to diversify where the money came from, and Wilf has a fencing business among other businesses and was interested in doing the same.

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“Wilf had come up with the idea after having undertaken a fencing job next door to a Christmas tree farm and, as we realised the symbiosis of us having the land and Wilf having a labour force, we felt it could work, and so we started planting a dozen years ago.

“We thought we’d be harvesting trees quite quickly in six to seven years, but we didn’t have our proper first harvest until about 2020 and it’s only now that we’re hitting the level where we are roughly harvesting what we will aim to plant each year.

“We’ve now also gone quite heavily into the plant genetics behind Christmas trees to get the regularity and uniformity of crop we’re looking for, which produces quality trees and means they are better grown on such as leaders, bolters and are hopefully less susceptible to frost.

“What we’ve also learned is that if, like cereal crops, you continuously bang in wheat one year after another the soil suffers. It is the same with trees, so when we take out trees we then leave it for a year, free of tree growth, to put some heart back into the soil. We will plant some clovers, mustards, anything that helps with the nitrogen fixing.

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A combination of both mechanisation and hands-on work is what Stephen believes to be the key to Newburgh’s Christmas tree quality.

“Everything is now on twin-row planting,” says Stephen. “When we started, we used to plant by hand and it would take us around two to three weeks. We can now plant 35,000 trees in four days.

“It is still a very intensive crop in terms of labour and we have a team of three permanently employed in the Christmas tree farm, doing a variety of jobs from leader control, pruning to shaping, bud rubbing, and in the case of the Fraser Firs knocking off the cones. We have up to 26 on farm at harvest, a lot being local farmer’s sons, who are the best people to do it as they understand being outside in bad weather and working hard.

Stephen says that even in the time they have been growing trees the demand for size of tree has changed markedly, while the most popular tree is still the Nordmann Fir.

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“When we came into the market it was 40 per cent each for 5-foot and 6-foot trees with 20 per cent for 7-foot. It’s now just 20 per cent 5-foot and 40 per cent for both 6-foot and 7-foot.

“Nordmann Firs make up 85-90 per cent of our trees. They are beautiful and they are all nicely layered, but my personal favoured choice is the Fraser Fir which also doesn’t drop its needles, it’s a bit tighter and smells the best of any tree you’ve ever smelled. We also grow Norway Spruce and pot-grown trees of several varieties.

Selling 35,000 Christmas trees is another task and Stephen says the lion’s share are sold via wholesale.

“Our wholesale business has developed through a cooperative selling group called Infinity Christmas Trees that we set up with six other growers with sites from Darlington to Sussex and Suffolk to Herefordshire and now has about a dozen associate members with the idea being that trees shouldn’t have to travel greater distances than say 50 miles, otherwise they’re not really a green product.

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“We retail about 1,000 trees here at Newburgh where we’re open 10am-6pm weekdays and 10am-4pm weekends and where you see those magical moments of children turning up with their parents, it’s such a lovely experience and my wife Alice and Wilf’s wife Lizzie run our pop-up Christmas Shop each year – and they also set up the shop at Methley estate each year where we retail another 3,500 of our trees.

Alice, who also runs art courses at Newburgh, says this year’s Newburgh Christmas Trees Shop will be the brightest, best-stocked and prettiest it has ever been.

“Lizzie and I work together with the support of all our children and we offer every kind of sustainable Christmas gift from candles to baubles, decorations, wreaths, mugs, vases, stockings and coasters.

“We love Christmas here at Newburgh and there’s a very unique and historic side to that because Oliver Cromwell, who tried to ban Christmas, is buried here, minus his head. The irony is not lost on us.

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Stephen enjoys being a Christmas tree farmer but says that the actual farming side is more Wilf’s bag.

“Wilf lives and breathes it. I’m sure I heard him singing to the trees the other day. In many ways it is a daunting time and comes around faster every year, because like any harvest you have a very short window of opportunity, but I think we’re doing a good job and our quality is becoming well-known.

Stephen says the recent Budget news certainly hasn’t helped.

“It’s basically shot down 40 years of tax planning that we had put into place that was going to work and now doesn’t. It’s moved the goalposts, it’s fundamentally retrospective taxation.

“But Christmas is coming and we’re ready to give everyone a good time here at Newburgh as they come down and experience the magic of the Priory.

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