Visit to Chalkhouse Green Farm on 7th August  (Archive)

Original page here, many thanks.

Sixteen of us enjoyed a tour of this most amazing farmstead. Sarah & John Hall have lots of rare breed animals including Suffolk Punch horses. The horse in the photo with Josie is a Percheron, he was absolutely enormous. Nicky who looks after the horses, told us the history of the breeds and the horses which are kept on the farm. She keeps Deerhound dogs which she brings along to the farm each day, they are huge, but gentle giants.

Dave who helps with the other animals then gave us a tour of the farm. We saw their Berkshire pigs and piglets, which all live in a very natural (for pigs) woodland setting. They looked very happy and were so cute and friendly. We walked through the field with the British white cattle and then went back to the farmhouse where we saw all their rare breed hens etc. You can see Philippa feeding them with mulberries which she had gathered from the garden. Dave also showed us the impressive fruit and vegetable garden which was in a courtyard type setting. The gardens themselves are beautiful with a lovely swimming pool with huge lemons in pots surrounding it and an immaculate lawn tennis court. The views from the farm are stunning and we managed to find the only three hours rain free in the day for our visit.

Sarah provided us with a delicious cream tea and told us all about the charity Soundabout http://www.soundabout.org.uk which she supports and this is where the money from our garden visit will go. We were all impressed by the work they were doing and plan to have a visit to Wheatley to their training centre.  Cynthia also suggested that perhaps some of the money we raise from our quilting exhibition and sale next year could go help the charity, which seems an excellent idea.

Sarah & John have an open day once a year on a Sunday in July. Details will be on the NGS website or Yellow Book. I highly recommend it. It is a brilliant day out for all the family and the money raised goes to Soundabout.

Viv