Birches Farm

Important note: Please adhere to signage at the site and do not enter any of the farm buildings or private houses and gardens.

The map below shows the new area created for parking and the route of a mown path around the site for visitors to follow. We are continuing to improve the access and interpretation on the site and are planning an official 'Grand Opening' in 2018 - though visitors are welcome to visit the site now.

Birches Farm is a vestige of a rural life and a rural landscape, all but obliterated by the exigencies of our modern world. Here, laid hedges, staked with hazel poles, are rustling and bustling with wildlife; the meadows they border are thick with wildflowers and the hum of insects; cool, shallow ponds teem with life above and below the surface.

A scene far removed from the stretching hectares of today’s farmed fields, this small, 60 acre farmstead remains a patchwork of smaller fields. Birches Farm has been traditionally managed through the centuries– grazed by sheep and cattle and cut each summer for hay while centuries-old hedgerows of hawthorn, blackthorn, rowan and hazel form semi-natural field boundaries.

As the land has had very limited use of artificial pesticides, herbicides or fertilisers, a diverse mix of grasses and wild flowers now flourish across the Farm including harebells, orchids, devil’s bit scabious, betony and dyers greenweed. This diversity in turn supports a wider range of insects and all-important pollinators.

Through the generousity of many donors we purchased the site and have secured the future of this wonderful SSSI grassland. We are currently working on finalising the plans for the buildings.

• Events that are organised at the Farm are publicised well in advance on our What's On pages.

Click here to see Birches Farm on film