Jobs boost as working farm at hall prepares for £3m revamp

The award-winning working farm at Cawthorne is set to be transformed over the next two years with the help of representatives from business support organisation Enterprising Barnsley.

New features will include a revamped farm shop, new children’s play facilities and improved enclosures on the farm itself to make it easier for visitors to view the animals.

Managing director of Cannon Hall Farm, Robert Nicholson, said: “We’ve been welcoming visitors here for 22 years now and this is an opportunity to put everything we’ve learned during that time into this significant new development.”

The first phase in the project will be unveiled over the Easter weekend this year, when a new children’s outdoor play area is opened.

The playground will include a “climbing forest”, a “tube maze” and a petting area, where young visitors can handle some of the farm’s small animals.

Future developments at Cannon Hall Farm are set to include an indoor play area with a high ropes course, drop slides, foam ball cannons, and a children’s restaurant.

Following this, the farm itself will be redesigned with new gravity feeding systems and enclosures to make it easier for visitors to view sheep, cattle and pigs.

The busy farm shop will also be rebuilt and extended, to incorporate new features such as a bakery and smoke house. Extensions are also planned to the gift shop, restaurant and farm entrance.

Mr Nicholson said: “We’re proud of what we’ve achieved so far and have built our reputation on offering a value for money day out with real attention to detail.

“Now we’re responding to what people are telling us they want, which includes even better play facilities incorporating an inside area that will come into its own during the winter when we’ve traditionally been quieter.

“We already employ around 120 staff and I’m confident that will eventually increase to roughly 200 and will hopefully mean we can offer more professional jobs within the range.

“Although we know there are challenges ahead, it’s a very exciting time in the history of our business.”

For hundreds of years Cannon Hall Farm was home farm to the Cannon Hall Estate. The estate was sold by the Spencer Stanhope family in 1957 when Mr Nicholson’s grandfather, Charles Nicholson, paid £7,100 for the land and buildings.

At around the same time, the hall itself was bought by Barnsley Council and converted into a museum.

Mr Nicholson’s father Roger Nicholson took over the farm when his father Charles Nicholson died and, from the 1980s, it was developed for visitors.

Roger Nicholson and his wife Cynthia are still involved in the business, along with his three sons Robert, Richard and David.

Each year 400 ewes on the farm produce 750 lambs, 30 sows produce 800 piglets and about 250 beef cattle are fattened.

That meat is then sold in the Cannon Hall Farm shop, which counts among its most popular products 20 varieties of sausage, dry cured bacon and ham, and a range of pies.

The business also has a new online shop, with orders delivered in specially-designed lined boxes, insulated and packed with ice to keep the meat chilled.

Mr Nicholson added: “We’ve really benefited from Enterprising Barnsley helping us to take a more strategic view as we go forward with our plans.”

Enterprising Barnsley has gained £2.89m of European funding, which it uses to support growing businesses in the town.