About the Farm

Park House Farm is a small grassland farm situated within the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in North Yorkshire approx 10 miles north of Harrogate.

The farm is quite special in that it has never been treated with fertilisers or weedkillers. This has allowed the meadows to retain their diversity of plant species which have established over the last few centuries.

We know that originally the land was part of the Fountains Abbey Estate and was part of their Deer Park. During the 17th century the Estate moved the principal Deer Herd to Studley Royal, which adjoins the Abbey site, to overcome problems with poachers. In due course the area was turned into farm land, initially managed from a central Park House built we believe during the 18 century. As the farming was developed stone barns were built at various locations across the area, with the first barn on our property being built early in the 1800’s. During the 1830’s, as the land was separated into smaller farming units, further stone barns were added together with a typical four up / four down stone farmhouse. To this day several properties retain the original name Park House Farm, although the original central Park House is now derelict. During this period from the 17th century, Park House Farm has been left very much alone, such that the woodlands and our main area of parkland remain very much as they were 300 years ago.

When we purchased the property in 2004, the boundary was fenced, but there was very little internal fencing to limit the movement of cattle other than the natural woodland and mature hedging. To enable us to manage our stock efficiently we have erected 5 km of fencing to ring fence each meadow and to keep stock out of the woodlands and hedgerows. We have also built specialised cattle barns to provide healthy and spacious winter quarters for our entire herd. The first of our Pedigree Aberdeen Angus Cattle moved onto the farm during February 2005. After a year or so with a vertical learning curve and much help, we have now found our feet and confidence.

We are passionate about our growing herd and strive to do all we can to ensure their health and well being at all stages. We have registered the herd as the Nidderdale Herd of Pedigree Aberdeen Angus, with the Aberdeen Angus Society, as our Certificate of Membership 5395. The farm is now fully Quality Assured and as a result we are members of Eblex, who provide a Quality Standard for English beef and lamb. We are proud to use these quality standards which provide you with our full quality guarantee.

This year we have taken the decision to purchase a pedigree Aberdeen Angus stock bull to provide us with the huge benefits of operating a closed herd in that we have no need to import any external animals, which can raise unnecessary health risks to our entire herd. 2 year old Leo joined our herd in May 2008, with no complaints from our girls yet.