BARKIN GATE FARM

ROEBURNDALE, NR LANCASTER

THE FARM

ENVIRONMENTAL FEATURES

VISITORS

BARKIN GATE is a beef and sheep farm, located just outside Hornby with land stretching from 300 feet by the river Roeburn to 640 feet on the moor.

Malcolm and Janet Woodhouse farm in partnership with Malcolm's mum, Irene. Other family members help out at busy times of the year.

As well as running the farm Malcolm does local contracting work; fencing and hedging with his cousin David, and in the summer, doing big bailing.

HISTORY

In the 1600's Barkin was a cluster of 17 dwellings (which included a school) with families working in mining, quarrying and wood. There is a bloomery just outside the farm boundary. All the land and the houses belonged to the Monteagle family of Hornby Castle.

The farmhouse was built in 1631 and was built by the Wiseman family in 1709. Irene and Jim Woodhouse bought the farm in 1961 and the family restored it between 1986 and 1998. It is a Grade 1 listed building.

A salt road runs along the farm, parts of which are Roman. Irene has found Roman coins and a sovereign on the land.

TERRAIN

'Hilly, wet and peaty'; there are clay soils lower down; the ground is cold and subject to severe easterly winds.

SIZE OF THE FARM

The Farm is 208 acres with an extra 52 acres rented which is predominantly rough grazing, and there is access to an adjacent enclosed common of 72 acres.

LIVESTOCK & NUMBERS

Lonk

300-320 sheep; Lonk and Dalesbred; 150 Texel crosses and Mashams
In 2009 Janet bought 24 Zworbles (they look like badgers) and a tup.
Lambing begins on 5th April.
There are 25-28 cows Belgian Blue crosses and 3 Belted Galloways (one has just calved in early 2010).

GRAZING & CONSERVATION

Malcolm's dad, Jimmy, entered the farm into the Countryside Stewardship Scheme in 1996. When this ended, a third of the farm became part of the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme in May 2007.

Belted Galloways were bought in 2009 to manage the grass sward on the rough ground for the farm's excellent population of wading birds.

'The farm is naturally very wet and rushy so we do a lot of rush management. We have weed-wiped and mown the rush, baled it and used it as bedding which cuts down on the cost of buying straw. It also improves the quality of grazing available to our livestock by opening up the sward and letting the grass grow better. We receive payments for managing our fell-edge fields for wading birds and within a year of the rush management and having created some wader scrapes the numbers of nesting pairs of Lapwings on te farm has doubled fro 7 to 14 pairs!'

Barkin Gate was a regional finalist in the RSPB Nature of Farming Awards in 2009, and has been named in the top six farms for environmental schemes nationally.

Some of the land was also entered into the England Woodland Grant Scheme. ' The woodland is an excellent example of ancient woodland and is a good place to watch deer and a wealth of other wildlife like Redstarts and Pied Flycatchers. We call it 'Paradise' and it is a particularly stunning spot in spring when the woodland floor is carpeted with bluebells and the air full of birdsong.'

This year (2010) a small orchard is going to be re-established near the woodland edge.