Horncastle Farm is a 200 acre farm between Wakefield and Pontefract in West Yorkshire. We are the 5th generation of our family to farm the land here at Horncastle Farm and we could not be happier to continue the legacy, developing, diversifying and enjoying our time here.
The farm was established by John Henry Wellburn who moved to Yorkshire from Lincolnshire in the early 1900’s and as a mixed enterprise cattle and arable farm. Many a year was spent alongside his son John William Wellburn ploughing these very fields by horse.
John William had one son John Kenneth, known as Ken. The picture here is Ken and his dad walking down the driveway at the farm.
As times progressed, the farm moved to a fully arable enterprise with John Kenneth Wellburn taking over the reigns. Ken was extremely proud of the farm, his efforts and the being a potato supplier to Walker’s crisps. Prior to his passing in 2014 we were all extremely proud to help him bring in his final harvest – you could certainly say technology on the combine has come on!
In 2014 we had a difficult decision to make, neither Lucy or Chad had any farming experience, other than the odd bit of help during the summer months! We jumped straight in, with a lot of help from our fantastic employee Martin (he has since retired having spent over 50 years here!) and our neighbours we are where we are today.
Since then we have grown wheat, barley and oilseed rape. Recently, with a passion for regenerative agriculture we have introduced sheep onto the farm going right back to early practices here. We now include the sheep into our cropping rotations, trying to reduce our reliance on pesticides.
In 2022 we made the decision to diversify the farm, opening up our doors for the first time. Driven by our little boys love of farming we wanted to create a fabulous environment for adults and children alike to visit and enjoy “hands on” farming experiences. We intend to build our experiences over the coming months.
The Stevens family cannot wait to welcome you x.