The Farmers Mart Apr-May 2018 - Issue 56 | Page 45
REDCLIFFE FARM 45
• APR/MAY 2018
bigger trade in summer when there can
be as many as 70,000 holidaymakers if
all caravan sites are full within 10 miles of
here we’ve also now increased our winter
trade. This past winter has been particularly
encouraging. In the past when we reach
the end of October and the main season is
over it can be depressing seeing everyone
pack up and go back home, but we’re now
getting a lot of all year-round trade.’
‘When the holidaymakers are here some
will come in three to six days a week. We
have a full-time team of eight including two
chefs and two butchers and we have some
great young people who live locally. They
tend to come to us at 14 and stay with us four
to five years before going on to university.’
There is a picture of Martin’s grandfather
in the coffee shop area of the café that
highlights this was once were the dairy
cows were milked.
‘That’s from 1960 and he’s pictured with
his new milk cooler. The dairy can’t have
lasted too long after that as I don’t remem-
ber it in 1970 when I was here as a child.
This was a 30-acre small mixed farm when
granddad took it on and it’s now just under
100 acres all down to grass. The rest of
the buildings that make up the farm shop,
butchery and café / coffee shop include
where beef was prepared on the farm
and you can still see the cast iron straps
with eyelets in the beams; and the granary
where all bread and cakes are now baked.
These buildings were built in 1855.’
Martin is hoping YC18 will become as suc-
cessful as the Redcliffe Pumpkin Festival, an-
other event created with the public in mind.
‘The pumpkin festival has taken off aided
by very mild and good weather for each
of our six festivals so far. We use the cattle
sheds where the children who come can
carve the pumpkins. I think some farmers
see the humour in it being known as a carv-
ing barn rather than a calving barn! Our cat-
tle now have to wait to come in until after the
pumpkin festival and fortunately the weather
being kind has not proved a problem.’
While Martin is happy with the direction the
shop and café has gone he’s pragmatic over
how it may not have worked if it hadn’t been
based at the farm having had experience of
running retail establishments previously.
‘If we’d opened a shop on a high street
then I might have thought of quitting after a
few years because you can give up a lease,
but because it’s here you feel more forced
to make it work, which is great as commit-
ment has to be there all the time. We’ve
always been here to stay and it’s coming
along nicely.’
The farming operation run by Dan includes
36,000 hens free range and colony that
arrive at point of lay at around 17 weeks and
are kept through until 70 weeks. The cattle
are largely contine ntal Charolais X with one
or two Angus bought in as stores at around
12 months and finished at 24 months. Current
stocking levels are around 45-head but since
changing back to all grassland there is the
option to increase to around 100.
‘A lot of our cattle go to Morrisons but
we’re finding we are attracting good trade
through our own butchery counter. Our
customers like what we grow and feel an
affinity with our beef because they have
seen where it comes from. We’re now
sending one or two a week to Glaves in Bro-
mpton by Sawdon to come back here.’
Pat and David Brown, Martin’s parents,
moved to Redcliffe Farm in 1970 when he
was just 3 years old. David had previously
farmed at what was then his father’s family
farm and is now Park Resorts Caravan Site
at Cayton Bay.
‘Dad says he’s retired but he’s always out
doing something like most supposedly retired
farmers. The farm is a family partnership. The
farm shop business is separate from the farm.
I’m the middle brother. Our elder brother
Jonathan works for Transport for the North.’
Martin’s wife is Caroline and they have
a son Sean currently in New Zealand and
daughter Lucy in Melbourne, Australia. Mar-
tin’s other passion is running and in April he
ran in the Rome Marathon.
71654 - Chapmans Seafoods Ltd - 8TH.pdf 1 27/04/2018 10:09:44
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