As the days get longer, visitors wend their way down country lanes to enjoy a traditional farmhouse bed and breakfast, a stay in a self-catering cottage, or a night under the stars in a glamping pod or shepherd’s hut. They find time spent on a Cheshire farm is the perfect way to breathe in the fresh air and exhale the stresses of urban living. The start of lambing season is a particular popular time with guests who want to see the newborns being reared in the sheds and gambolling in the fields.
Sally-Ann Chesters of Millmoor Farm, near Malpas is well prepared. She puts her tups in with 400 ewes at a time to ensure the lambs are born to coincide with the spring half-term and Easter breaks. In the gardens at Yew Tree Farm.
Image: Yew Tree Farm ‘Sheep are a big favourite at lambing time as guests love to feed and hold the baby lambs. There is a vicar and his wife who visit regularly, and he finds it so calming in the lambing sheds, where he prays and enjoys watching us work with the sheep,’ says Sally-Ann. In contrast, she occasionally comes across guests in more unusual places, recalling how she rescued one young man on a stag do who she found handcuffed to the pig pen – a memorable one-off event.
Some guests are such regular visitors they have become firm friends. ‘We have the same set of guests who book every February. They are all from Essex but they first met here on the farm, and now they return together each year.
’ A friendly Yew Tree Farm resident. Image: Yew.
