The journey of how we have got to where we are now ….

My grandparents took on Lower Hewletts Farm - an 80 acre hillside farm on the outskirts of Cheltenham - in 1945, straight from their honeymoon! Farming in those days used cart horses not tractors, and cows were milked by hand not machine. They had no electricity, no fridges for the milk and all the work was done manually. Nowadays farming has been intensified and everything is done on a huge scale. There is no longer a viable place for the small mixed farm where even some of the fields are inaccessible to a tractor. 
Where the small farm gains however, is that it can be environmentally managed. Using no artificial fertilisers, only a small amount of natural manure produced by its own animals, keeps the nitrate levels down thus preventing damage to the watercourses; having small numbers of stock grazing  keeps the ground in good condition allowing the natural grasses and flowers to thrive; and by letting the hedgerows grow untrimmed the wildlife can shelter and feed from them and the small woodlands. This can only be done with the help of government Stewardships.   
The other way a small farm like ours can survive is by diversification - earning the income needed from other sources rather than traditional farming. To this end the small milking shed has been converted from a redundant store shed to a short-term holiday let - https://airbnb.co.uk/h/old-dairy  . 
The animals that we keep are pets - there to maintain the land and entertain and educate our guests. It is the farm’s ability to diversify that is so important to securing not only its future for the public to enjoy, and to support the 3 generations of our family currently living here, but - vitally - to preserve the landscape, woodlands, flora and fauna for future generations to enjoy - ours and yours!
We look forward to sharing it all with you.

(The picture is of my Gramp on the farm with his dogs in the early 70’s.)