Our Farm

Family Farming

Uncle Henry’s is part of a family farming mixed arable and livestock business, owned by Steve and Meryl Ward. Their three children Emma, Graham and Sam are all now also involved in the business.

The main farming enterprise is arable farming and this is looked after by Steve and Sam. We grow cereal crops (wheat and barley), oil seed rape and potatoes. We also have our own pig herd which Meryl looks after.  Emma manages the farm shop and café alongside Graham who looks after butchery and external wholesale customers. Emma, Graham and Sam are the fifth generation to live and work at the family farm.

The farm runs an integrated system where the cereal crops on the farm are used to provide feed for the pigs, the straw is used as bedding and any manure produced is returned to the land to reduce our reliance on artificial fertilisers.​ High welfare pig production and environmental stewardship are important parts of the farming business.

Our farm is part of the higher level environmental stewardship scheme which means that the business has committed to maintain existing environmental features including hedgerows, permanent pasture protecting a rare orchid species, and has created new features including floristically enhanced margins, new ponds and increased public access. Our local beekeeper Bob Mould keeps his beehives on our farm which helps our local pollination. Bob jars the honey which we then sell in the farm shop.

Throughout our farming and farm shop business, we are always looking for ways in which we can reduce our carbon footprint. We have two farm scale anaerobic digesters which combine our pig manure with maize silage (from our maize maze which is open in the summer!). The methane gas produced generates electricity for use on the farm, reducing the reliance on imported electricity. The heat produced by the plant is used to heat the whole of Uncle Henry’s!