Making life on the farm work out

That is what lay behind John Simpson's thinking at his farm half-way between Scarborough and Whitby, in Harwood Dale, on the edge of the North York Moors.

There are lots of people in towns yearning to be in a tranquil rural location and who are happy to pay for the privilege, and this spot is a natural draw.

John has built on its advantages by systematically enriching the biodiversity.

"What attracts people to our farm is the conservation side," says John.

"We've got walks, wildflower meadows, ponds, woodlands and we've just finished a boardwalk for our wetland and woodland area. We keep doing different things and we're one of the few places to have our own walks especially set up for the disabled."

Life was very different for the Simpsons 20 years ago. Like many other predominantly livestock-based farms in the moors and dale,s they were finding it tough to make ends meet. A feasibility study further underlined to them the fact that their traditional business model no longer worked.

"We had over 1,000 sheep and about 100 cattle. We grew about 70 acres of corn and made 4,000 bales of hay, but the figures just didn't stack up. If it was still a pure farm we simply wouldn't be here today. It got so difficult with 200 acres, and we were also renting more and more land without earning anything.

"The feasibility study that was done gave us a choice of three things.

"Either we had to put it all down to corn and get another job as well, or we had to go intensive – really intensive with beef and sheep or go into pigs. Or else diversify and do something like bed-and-breakfast accommodation.

"We are in a beautiful area here, yet tucked away from the main hubbub of traffic and noise. We're on the doorstep of a lot of attractions, both at the coast and in the countryside, but we're also off the beaten track, which people like. You can see Scarborough Castle from here. So we went down the tourism route."

John's idea was for the people who come to stay to see a real working farm, and that's the way they have kept it, along with a few quirky features such as naming all their sheep by using sheep markers and writing the names on each of the flock, but that's just a gimmick.

"We are not a play farm, it is still a working farm here. I still go to market at Malton and Ruswarp and we still carry out all of the jobs that we did before we went into accommodation, but just with less livestock.

"Today, we have around 40 fattening cattle, six Highland heifers and 250 breeding sheep. We grow hay to sell to other farms and 30-40 acres of corn for feed. But now our whole business is a combination of farming, tourism and conservation. The tourism pays for the conservation and helps the farming side."

It has enabled the Simpsons to look towards a more stable future for their family of three sons and a daughter, all in their teens and early 20s.

"It is hard work, but we have gained so many friends who are also our customers. People keep coming back year after year and we never seem to have a spare moment. We specialise in providing accommodation and nice relaxing holidays for less able people and we have four ground-level bedrooms."

The Grainary at their Keasbeck Hill Farm has won awards for its 14 bedrooms and tearoom.

Quite a lot of the land at Keasbeck Hill is now in the Higher Level Stewardship scheme, and John has developed a Whole Farm Conservation Plan. This has seen him getting involved with many other bodies such as the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG); North York Moors National Park; English Nature; the Forestry Commission; the European 5B Initiative and the Tourist Board.

In his wetland areas, there are silver birch and rowan, holly, oak and ash and there's spotted orchid, foxglove and primrose. It is also the only site within the North York Moors where you can see the rare Royal Fern. The pond area, which was created in 1990, is stocked with rudd, roach, bream, trout and carp.

There are six walks he has laid out around the farm, including one that goes to Ravenscar. The other five take up to two hours and vary from one to 2.5 miles.

"We get a lot of help from the North York Moors National Park. It is one of our biggest assets and they help us with our projects."

John talks in tourism terminology like rack rates, the percentage of time the accommodation is occupied.

"We open from March to the end of October and we're presently running at around 70 per cent occupancy.

"That's our rack rate. It was very good last year but this year has been a bit slow to start with fewer families because I think they're feeling the pinch. We are still getting a lot of regular customers and with us being on the internet, we get quite a few coming from abroad."

The combination of farming, conservation and tourism has helped John stay where he was born.

"I was born next door, and I'll probably get buried around here, too. We're all only here for a while and we do try to look after what we've got ready for whoever takes it on in the future."