Our next Beef Collection Day Friday 7th August 2026
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Hampton Newsletter November 2014

“Hampton Beef, Purely from Pasture” “Grass fed beef is better for the you and better for the moo”

Our last Hampton Prime Beef collection day this year is on Friday 28th November and we hope it will give you a chance to get ahead with at least some of the food shopping.

Prime joints (ribs, silverside, top rump, brisket) are waiting for your order as is mouth-watering steak, prime minced beef, stewing and braising steak, even our 100%beefburgers for the adventurous barbequer, plus good supplies of Hampton Herbie Sausages and Hampton Beef Bangers. Everyone needs a bit of beef for Christmas so do order now to avoid disappointment, especially if you have a predilection for Hampton Special Steak Pies. They go like hot cakes!

And if you can’t decide exactly what’s needed do try a Hampton 10kg family bag with a bit of everything.

I’m delighted to report that Paul Young of Imbibros, local Wine and Spirit Merchants fame will be with us on the day for a very special Hampton Estate wine tasting. He always has a wonderful selection of wines, and at present Bridget and my special Friday evening number is an excellent Spanish red which goes beautifully with good rump steak. Paul also comes up trumps with speciality gins, and some pretty tasty champagne, so plenty to think about there.

We will of course have fresh coffee and cake and some sausage tasters to help the shopping decisions and it will be great to see everyone, even if you can only drop in for a couple of minutes.

We are always extolling the virtues of grass fed beef which is the basis of all our production and we have been trying to come up with a new strap line. “Hampton Beef, Purely from Pasture” is high on the list followed by “Grass fed beef is better for the you and better for the moo” both of which are undoubtedly true but that line is perhaps not so snappy. The benefits of pasture beef over other rearing methods such as grain fed are numerous and it all becomes quite foody technical, but essentially they are;

1. Lower in total fat
2. Lower in saturated fats linked with heart disease
3. Higher in total omega 3 fatty acids (good fats)
4. Higher in the minerals calcium, magnesium and potassium
5. Six more very good reasons which I will list in the next newsletter.

Those all seem a very good reason to enjoy a healthy Christmas using the best ingredients, and of course the points also apply to our delicious wild venison…do order your haunch, fillet, diced or mince.

The annual Christmas Fair is at Myrtles Courtyard on Friday 21st November and there will be loads of interesting, innovative and helpful stalls for all your shopping needs. Do spread the word as this is one of the major fundraising events for the United Parish of Seale, Sands, Puttenham and Wanborough and is a really excellent event organised by a brilliant team of executive mums who know how to do things well. It starts at 10.00am and finishes at 2pm and entrance donation is a very reasonably priced £3.

On the farming front we are “dressing” the hops, which is cutting off the dead hop bine and burning it up prior to a weedkiller application followed by a coating of good farmyard dung over the whole hop garden.

The cows are all in their winter pastures and we have weaned the calves from their mums which is always a noisy time of the year as the calves suddenly realise their supply of free milk is no longer available. For about two days they make their feelings known in a fairly vocal way.

And in the woods we have plenty of well-seasoned dry logs available for sale. We sell by the pick-up load and deliver locally. Do place your order.

As always Bridget and I really look forward to seeing everyone on Friday 28th November, here at Hampton. We open at 10.00am and with the braziers roaring and the sausages sizzling hope to see you.

Very best wishes and happy cooking.

Hampton Newsletter October 2014

am I really going on that?

FRIDAY 24th OCTOBER is only a couple of weeks away and we have lots of prime Hampton beef for sale. Bridget and I really look forward to seeing everyone for fresh coffee and cake, a chance for a chat, swop a recipe or two, eat a piping hot sausage taster and we will put your Hampton bag safely in your car. What a way to shop.

Hampton 10 kg bags will always provide your every beef need, with a mixture of steaks, joints, stewing and braising steak and mince. Or if you prefer to put in a bespoke order for that family roast rib, the celebratory sirloin joint or you simply have a mountain of mouths to feed and need loads of braising steak for the casserole please just order away and we will be delighted to supply.

Hampton Herbie sausages are aplenty as are our Beef Bangers, all delicious both hot (think Toad in the Hole or sausage pie) or cold (late summer picnic with a mug of soup ).We are culling deer when time permits and there is a good supply of venison mince in the freezer. It makes the most mouth-watering shepherd’s pie or spag bol and you use the mince in exactly the same way as beef. Just ask everyone to spot the difference.

Crisply baked Hampton Special Beef Pies will be available in both individual and family sizes and are packed full of Hampton beef, Hampton herbs and a good glug of good red. Do order as soon as you can to avoid massive disappointment as they will be in limited supply.

Duke our bull, who has graced these newsletters many times over the past three years has finally moved home to Cornwall. The biggest cattle truck in the UK came to pick him up ( astonishingly it takes 650 sheep in a load) and we manoeuvred said truck down the drive skimming the overhanging branches and the driver brilliantly backed it up to our loading pen. No mean feat and we were all very impressed. Duke I’m pleased to say travelled in First Class on the top deck with his own water supply and air con, above the mixture of sheep and cattle below, also heading west. We received a lovely email from his new owners saying that he had arrived safely the next day and last week their update gave us a bit more news;

Duke has to be the most laid back Sussex yet – we took his group of cows and calves in for drenching, normally a chance for bulls to shout at each other as they pass – but, no, he just found a convenient hill to watch from and waited ’til his herd came back.

We’re very pleased.”

Bridget and I are delighted that all our training has paid off!

Duke’s replacement, General, (we seem to be going down in the world) is also behaving well and is marshalling his troops impressively. The herd with their calves is still in the park taking advantage of the last late summer grass and he marches around them keeping them all in check. By the end of this month we will be weaning the older calves from their mothers and bringing the young stock back from the Hogs Back fields onto the drier sandier fields nearer the park for the winter months. Before then we need to check over all the fencing around those fields and replace wire and posts where needed.

Last month saw the usual flurry of activity around the estate at weekends, with the Rotary Pilgrims Marathon using bridleways, footpaths and Puttenham Common, followed a week later by The Hampton Sponsored Ride (500 horses this year over 40 jumps on an eight mile course) and in between we hosted a charity clay shoot for The Clockhouse at Milford. Amazingly the weather held for each event.

Do put our next beef collection day in your diary, email or phone in your order and we really look forward to seeing you at Hampton at the end of the month.

Happy cooking at all times

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hampton Newsletter September 2014

Forestry works continue, August collection day and our new bull ‘General’

Our September beef collection day will be on Friday 26th and do put the date in your diary and put your order in now. Hampton prime beef is in good supply and we have 10kg family bags available plus any cut you wish to choose in a bespoke sort of a way, or any amount of prime minced beef, stewing or braising steak if you are thinking ahead with casseroles and autumnal stews.

Our Hampton wild venison joints will again be on offer plus our Hampton Herbie sausages and beef bangers. For the hardy there are our 100% beefburgers for that last summer fling barbeque. An array of produce all ready to be ordered. For those who picked up meat at our last day in August and also went away with cucumbers and courgettes, this particular glut is now over, however I’m sure that September will see chillies in abundance.

We really look forward to your order and we will be open from 10.00am onwards on the 26th for coffee, cake, biscuits and sausage tasters plus a good bottle of red at about lunch time.

September at Hampton always means hop picking and we have already started picking, processing and drying the crop. Our first day was remarkably wet which proved a baptism of fire for this year’s hop picking team but at the end of the first week good progress has been made. The crop is yielding well and the hops themselves are a verdant green full of aroma and essential oils which will put the bitter into each pint of Hogs Back Brewery bitter, Harvey’s Best Bitter and the Black Sheep Brewery’s fine bitter. Our hops are a variety called Fuggles and if hop growers are a rare breed (less than 60 hop farms in the country) then Fuggles growers are even rarer! Picking will take us until the middle of September and finishes with some expert beer tasting on the last afternoon after which our hop pickers return to university with tales of rural life to tell.

The cows are well and enjoying the late summer grass which has sprung up after the heat of early July and the recent rains on bank holidays. All the grazing fields in the park are returning to a healthy green rather than a yellowy savannah. Our Lucerne crop continues to impress us all with a third cut having been taken and wrapped in big round bales. We are confident of a fourth cut at the end of September (compared to hay which gives us just one cut),  and we will use the Lucerne as a high protein fodder for the calves and beef animals during the winter. More naturally reared food for their diet.

Bridget and I really look forward to seeing you on Friday 26th September and do call or email your order.

Very best wishes

Bill and Bridget

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hampton Newsletter July 2014

Hampton Teams

Hampton celebrating our award for ‘The Best in England’ multipurpose forestry

We are going to have a mid-August beef collection day for a change and please put FRIDAY 15th AUGUST in your diary to pick up prime Hampton beef, venison, a pie or two, beef or pork sausages and a delicious cup of coffee and freshly baked slice of cake.

How about a barbeque bag with a kilo of fine steak, two packs of sausages and eight of our 100%beefburgers? Life couldn’t be simpler. Or a bespoke order of mouth-watering rib on the bone which will impress everyone and goes so well with a big salad and new potatoes (and add a couple of knobs of butter).

Huge thanks to so many of you who visited the garden here at Hampton at the end of June and beginning of July. Your wonderful generosity raised over £1000 for The Clockhouse at Milford and I know how very grateful they are. The favourite technical question which always comes up on a garden visit is ‘Who eats all the veg?’ and I’m delighted to say that with the extended family living in and around the estate we all benefit from fresh vegetables every Friday, a sort of early type of Riverford.

The second garden open day also coincided with our 4th July beef collection day. We also had ex Puttenham school families camping on the estate that evening and the Farnham and District Radio Club holding a field day just off the Hogs Back in another Hampton field. And at 3.30pm I was told that the fire brigade had just been summoned to Shoelands Farm to put out the baler which had caught fire baling the hay. A bearing had overheated, the hay was dry and very quickly we had quite a conflagaration. Two fire engines arrived and successfully put out the fire, and with rain forecast for later that evening we were delighted to see our local baling contractor arrive in the field at 6.30pm to finish the job. All hay baled, carted and stacked in the barn by 11pm that night and then the heavens opened. Jolly lucky. And I think the radio club made contact with Japan!

Last week we picked up our award for ‘The Best in England’ multipurpose forestry judged by the Royal Forestry Society which can sit with our Wigan Cup for best Fuggle Hop grown in the country at last harvest. And at this rate we won’t be able to get out of the office door.

However we do need some active, hardworking and fun student aged types for hop picking this summer. We will start in the last week of August and continue for about two and a half weeks. We need people who can commit to that period for five days per week, start time is 7.00am and finish time is 5pm. We do stop for breaks. It’s quite hard work involving a number of different jobs and requires no previous experience. Please get in touch with Kate Brown at the estate office if you would like to put a name forward.

We have grass in all directions which the cattle are loving and once the barley harvest starts on the Hogs Back we will be collecting the straw for more winter rations. Duke the bull doesn’t yet know that his days with us are numbered though I am sure his pastures new in Devon will be idyllic.

Bridget and I really look forward to seeing everyone on Friday 15th August and do put your order in as soon as possible to avoid any disappointment.

Friday 26thSeptember is the next collection day.

Happy summer cooking

Very best wishes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hampton Newsletter June 2014

Hampton Garden

Our next Hampton prime beef collection day will be on FRIDAY 4th JULY and at the moment supplies of sizzling steaks, barbequeable bangers and brilliant burgers are extremely good. Our summer barbeque bag proved so successful last year that we will have them ready to order this month. Each bag holds 1kg steak, 8x 100%beefburgers and 12 Hampton Herby sausages and the cost is £50.

We will also have our family 10kg bags of steaks, joints, mince and stewing/braising which are always popular especially as summer holidays approach. And we can supply your bespoke order for that special joint for that special occasion. A mouth-wateringly delicious sirloin or rib perhaps? The chef will once again be making Hampton special steak pies with that yummy pastry and secret beef recipe and both individual and family sizes are ready for ordering.

Do put your order in and Bridget and I will look forward to seeing you for coffee, tea, a drop or two of red, fresh cakes and biscuits and some sausage tasters.

Hampton garden is also open for you to inspect by charitable donation. We rarely open the garden, and many of you enquire, so we decided to try and supply your demand. On two occasions this year you are welcome to mooch around the walled garden, admire the herbaceous borders and wander the lawns. Refreshments will be available including Loseley ice-creams.

If you can’t make the beef collection day the garden is also open on THURSDAY26th JUNE in the afternoon from 2pm to 5pm.Do come and enjoy it and please bring your friends.

We have grabbed this glorious weather and are haymaking on the sides of the Hogs Back. Having mown the grass we turn it and whisk it around to dry it before baling it into large round bales. The grass is wonderfully long and thick and will take a lot of drying but at the moment the forecast is with us. We will feed this lovely fresh hay to the young calves in the winter having stored it in our barns to keep it dry.

Our new bull General has arrived and is very happily ensconced with 11 heifers in a field full of grass and seems to have a permanent grin. He’s only just two and we will keep him for the next three years. Duke, our main herd bull is performing his duties with the cows but his days at Hampton are limited and we will move him on to a new home in August. If anyone needs a magnificent pedigree Sussex bull do let me know.

To recap, beef collection day Friday 4th July, garden open Thursday 26th June and Friday 4th July, bull for sale, and prices rising a tad, a 10kg beef bag is now £118 representing great value for great beef.

Our August day is Friday 16th, followed by 26th September for those who maybe away.

Bridget and I really look forward to seeing everyone on 4th July and do put your order in to avoid disappointment.

Best wishes

 Bill and Bridget

 

Hampton Newsletter May 2014

Hampton in the Spring

FRIDAY JUNE 6th is our next beef collection day and Bridget and I really look forward to seeing everyone who is coming for tea, coffee, a glass of red, cake, biscuits, a sausage taster and oh yes, to pick up your beef, venison, pies, sausages and beefburgers. And at the moment we have plenty of everything to order.

10 kg beef bags with the usual wide range of mince, joints, steak and stewing, bespoke cuts for that special occasion ranging from eye wateringly fine rib joints to the more mundane but equally delicious slow cooking brisket joints, and anything in between. Lots of Hampton Herbie Sausages and Hampton Beef Bangers and of course our 100% beefburgers, are waiting to be ordered and we have a good supply of venison, especially those magnificent haunches.

Hampton Special Beef Pies are available in individual and family sizes and come packed with meat, herbs and gravy inspired by our latest fine red wine.

Please send over your order now, to avoid missing out, and put the 6th June in your diary.

Other important diary dates for Hampton events are;

Sunday 18th May, The Ride in the Park, cycling and scootering along the safe drives with the garden open and tea at Myrtles Courtyard. www.hamptonestate.co.uk

Tuesday 20th May,  Concert by The Vivaldi Singers at Myrtles Courtyard in aid of Woodlarks Campsite, Camping for the Disabled. www.woodlarks.org.uk tickets from melanie@feibusch.co.uk

Saturday 21st June, Summer evening concert at Myrtles Courtyard in aid of Friends of St Lawrence Church, Seale, tickets from jcbartleyseale@aol.com

Thursday 26th June Hampton garden open 2pm – 5pm.

We are also hosting the annual Woodland Woggle fun run on Sunday 11th May and Great Strides endurance walk for Cystic Fibrosis on Saturday 17th May. Both events eminently Googlable for more details and means that Myrtles Courtyard will see lots of action in the coming two months.

All the cows and their calves are enjoying good lush grass in the park and we have only four cows left to calve. We have also identified and bought a new bull who is two years old, of fine pedigree and called ‘General’. He takes up residence on 1st June.

Our new venture into a fodder crop called Lucerne seems promising and it is growing well. We hope to cut, bale and wrap it next week weather permitting. It’s extremely fast growing and we will aim for a further two to three cuts over the course of the summer (as opposed to grass silage where we would allow for one cut) and this will give us extremely palatable and nutritious winter feed to complement our hay.

Our hops are growing well at Puttenham, and on that subject we are delighted to be giving the Hogs Back Brewery a help with their hop garden project at Tongham. They are planting a new 2 acre hop garden opposite the brewery and in due course we will harvest and dry their hops for them. We already do this for Laverstoke Park Farms who bring their hops from Hampshire at the end of our own hop harvest which we process and dry.

Please put your order in for whatever cuts of beef, cuts of venison, special steak pies, sausages and beefburgers your fridge or freezer requires and roll on a sunny, warm Friday 6th June.

Very best wishes

Bill and Bridget

PS Our next beef collection day will be on FRIDAY 4th JULY when the garden will again be open.

Hampton Newsletter April 2014

A very happy Easter to all our wonderful customers and Bridget and I have no doubt that your lunch on Easter day will be cooked to perfection using only the finest naturally reared ingredients. It now looks as though Easter Monday might not be the best day to crack out the barbeque after all, but we have the whole summer ahead for Hampton Herbies and our 100% beefburgers.

Our beef collection day on Friday 2nd May has had to be postponed as I am sure that many will know. However we do have MINCE, STEWING STEAK, BRAISING STEAK and SHIN in the freezer for anyone who’s supplies will run dry and rather than click and collect, pop in and pick up. Do let Kate, Bridget or I know if you would like any of the above and when you would like to pop in. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays would be good but we will wait to hear.

Although it seems a long way off our next 100% all singing and dancing supersonic beef collection day will be on Friday 6th June with coffee, tea, cakes, sausage tasting, red and white wine, all the usual fun stuff.

In the meantime we are 26 calves to the good, and nine more expected imminently. The cows are loving the sunshine, the grass is growing well and the fields are really drying out nicely. We are off to look at a new bull at the end of the month. Duke, our current dad, has to be replaced after doing a fine job on the fathering front for three years, and we would like another bull from the famous Leconfield Herd if possible. This will ensure we are using the best pedigree available and that we are improving our stock all the time. Fingers crossed that I can give you a good report next month.

The hop gardens are inundated with hop trainers from Poland who are doing great work.. They are hand training the hop shoots up the strings, and in these conditions the hops are growing fast and need to have that bit of guidance.

The garden here at Hampton is full of promise and under the watchful eye of Cornelia looks stunning. Do come and have a look round as we are opening the garden to everyone on three occasions this year.

The annual Ride in the Park on Sunday 18th May will see the garden open, the drives ready for bikes, trikes, rollerblades, prams and even the odd tandem, and large amounts of tea to sustain everyone at Myrtles Courtyard. Entry is £3 per head and each year this event gets bigger and bigger. More details on our website under ‘news’.

We are also opening the garden on Thursday 26th June in the afternoon from 2pm to 5pm and again on Friday 4th July (a beef day). We hope as many as possible will enjoy the walled garden, the herbaceous borders, the views from the lawns and a cup of tea. Do put these dates in your diary if gardens are your sort of thing.

Very best wishes to all and we look forward to seeing anyone popping in and picking up whenever is convenient.

Best wishes

Bill and Bridget

Ride in The Park

Family Ride At Hampton

Sunday 18th May, 2-5pm, the Hampton Estate

A UNITED PARISH EVENT

 

You are warmly invited to a fun filled family afternoon cycling, scooting & skating around the drive ways of the Hampton Estate.

• Safe, level & car free drive ways – a great place for your kids to learn, practise or simply gain confidence!

• Cycle past the famous Hampton Cows and Calves whilst enjoying the beautiful scenery.

• Walkers & well behaved dogs on leads welcome too!

• Opportunity to walk around The Walled Garden at Hampton – a real gem full of flowers, fruit & vegetables!

• PLUS enjoy an ice cream whilst walking around The Walled Garden or a well earned cup of tea and cake/refreshments at Myrtle’s Courtyard to round off your visit – all proceeds to the United Parish.

All you have to do is bring your family’s bikes, trikes, scooters, skate boards, roller skates or simply your legs for a fun packed afternoon!

Now in its 4th year! Join hundreds of mums, dads, kids and grandparents to enjoy a wonderful afternoon out – make sure you put Sunday 18th May, 2-5pm in your diary!

Price: £3.00 per person all proceeds go to the United Parish Fund.

The ride starts and finishes by Myrtle’s Courtyard, Hampton Estate, Seale. Parking is in the field at Myrtle’s Courtyard which is reached via either Littleworth Road or Suffield lane by The Tarn Lake at Cutmill. The postcode is GU10 1JH.

 

Hampton Newsletter March 2014

 

Cow 493, waiting to calve…………..

Beef days are coming thick and fast and our next day will be on FRIDAY 28th MARCH when our Hampton Special Beef Pies will be back on the menu.

Prime Hampton stewing steak and shin is mixed with the finest onions and lashings of our freshly picked walled garden herbs plus a good dosh of good red and this makes up the filling. Handmade pastry is rolled on top and gently browns in the oven to a golden hue. Each pie is individually crafted by our expert chefs and they come in family or individual sizes. Wrapped and ready to freeze they make an ideal standby for that “Oh no, the larder is empty” moment. Our market research tells us they are loved by all ages from toddlers to great grandparents.

Of course prime beef is also available on the 28th from selective joints (don’t forget that Easter is looming large) to family bags of 10 kgs. Why not order a roasting joint of 2kgs for lunch, a kilo of steak for that special supper and two kilos of both mince (freezable lasagne) and stewing steak for the casserole you’ve been meaning to make since Christmas? Simple.

Hampton Herby Sausages will be available plus our increasingly popular Beef Bangers both of which come in handy packs of six. We still have some stocks of Wild Hampton Venison which is mouth-wateringly good meat if you have never tried. Our venison is Roe deer, possibly the most tender and flavoursome of all venison and they roam freely around the estate nibbling on young shoots, which are invariably our recently planted trees. By culling we make sure the estate herd is healthy and at a manageable level, and the meat we have to sell is of the highest order.

Earlier in the week we moved the most pregnant cows from the hilly parkland to a smaller field near Myrtles Courtyard where we can check them at least three times a day. I have my money on cow number 493 to be the first mum of 2014 but they tend to have a mind of their own and I’m sure she will outwit me. Most calvings take place at night and we let nature take its course, not wanting to get in the way. However every year we will need to give a helping hand at some point to the occasional cow and the skill is in knowing the timing of this human assistance.

Our foresters have been busy cutting chestnut coppice on Britty Hill where the view looking south is absolutely stunning. We will use much of this in our biomass boilers on the estate and also make fence posts and gateposts from it. They are also much in evidence on Lower Puttenham Common where silver birch is being thinned which we will dry and process for logs for the autumn.

And in our hop gardens in Puttenham we are spreading manure and starting to put up the strings for the young hops. With this very mild winter the young purple shoots are already in evidence.

Following that quick estate tour please don’t forget to put in your order for any of our naturally reared produce and Bridget and I really look forward to seeing you on 28th March for fresh coffee, cake and sausage tasters.

Our next beef day is on MAY 2nd, AFTER Easter, so do stock up if you can, and don’t forget the pies!

Very best wishes

 

Bill and Bridget

 

PS Our annual Ride in the Park takes place on Sunday 18th May. Walk, cycle, scoot, rollerblade the estate drives in safety, visit the garden and enjoy Sunday tea. Doors open 2pm. £3 admission for everyone.

Check our website for details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hampton Newsletter February 2014

Sunshine and last years hops…..

Our next beef collection day will be on Friday 28th February when we hope the wind and rain will have died down and we will all have dried out. Luckily you don’t need a canoe to get down the drive at Hampton as we are very free draining, but it would be terrific if you could put in your order as soon as possible so that we can have fresh coffee, cakes, tea, sausage tasters and a drop of red all ready for you.

Have you tried our 10kg Hampton Family Bag recently with lipsmackingly fine steak, joints, mince and stewing steak all ready for the attention of the chef, or the freezer? Or how about that special roast dinner needing a Hampton rib or rolled sirloin? Even better add some Hampton Herby sausages and a couple of packs of beef burgers and you are all set for the first barbeque of 2014.Whatever your order and preference do let us know what you would like and we will reserve it for you. We are also delighted to advise on any menu planning, joint choice or cooking method if any help is needed.

I am sorry to say that there won’t be any Hampton Special Steak Pies this month because we sold out of everything in January. The cold store was squeaky clean by the end of the day so no supplies left for making pies later in the month. However, if all goes according to plan, steak pies will be back on the menu for the end of March.

In the meantime the woodlands at Hampton seem to be standing up to this winter’s winds and storms reasonably well. We have lost one ancient oak in the park and another along Totford Lane, a couple of large beech trees have come down in the plantations and quite a number of large branches or limbs have come off mature trees. We will salvage as much as we can for fire wood but the clearing up operation is being hampered by very soggy ground making it impossible not to create more mess. We will just have to wait until the ground dries out.

Maintenance work in the hop garden at Puttenham continues between the showers. We are tightening the wire work and replacing hop poles, buoyed by winning the Wigan Cup for the best sample of Fuggles Hops in the UK at last week’s hop Oscars. We only grow the variety called Fuggles which are renowned for their traditional aroma qualities and are sought after by brewers of traditional ales. We also came runner up in the ‘best hop in the country’ class; all very rewarding for a crop which takes more time than most.

Bridget and I really look forward to seeing you on the 28th, the last day of the month, for a chat and some coffee, a piece of cake and a menu swop, or a glass of red and a Hampton Herby taster. Please do put in your order as soon as you can to avoid any disappointment.

Our next day will be Friday 28th March.

Very best wishes

Bill and Bridget