Welcoming new tenants at Home Farm Nanpantan
24/03/2022
Home Farm in Nanpantan is welcoming new tenants. Located just outside of Loughborough, the farm forms part of the historic Paget Estate.
The Farm is just shy of 270-acres and has been let by the estate owner, Joanna Herbert-Stepney, to Marie and Chris Bond.
Both Marie and Chris grew up locally and Marie, the lead tenant, has spent most of her life working on farms with her passion having started at a young age, when she spent most of her childhood helping her father on a local farm where he worked.
Home Farm is an organic mixed farm that includes Longhorn cattle, Polled Forest and Lleyn Sheep. Chris also runs a local agricultural service, including fencing, hedge laying and paddock maintenance.
Marie has some exciting plans for the farm and is currently working hard on making these happen. She is almost finished with developing her natural soap line, which will be organic and CPD certified; she is planning to sell her soap on the Home Farm website, in local businesses and at the pop-up farm shop during open days. They also plan to recommence the beekeeping courses, which have been a huge success in the past and will offer full courses for those with a passion for bees, as well as taster sessions for people wanting to give it a try.
Marie is also looking into the possibility of rearing goats for meat and milk and is looking at planting an orchard on the farm for meat birds.
Commenting Marie said: “Home Farm is such a special place and I feel extremely lucky to have been given such a great opportunity, and we feel very so grateful to have a landlord that cares so much and encourages and champions organic farming.”
There are exciting things happening at Home Farm as we speak, the Loughborough Naturalists are in the process of conducting a 3-year study of the native flora & fauna, and despite being only a few months in are making discoveries that are exciting the community.
The Club have a wealth of knowledge and experience and are conducting a number of studies at the farm, such as netting and ringing birds; moth and bug catching & wildlife walks. One exciting discovery has been Mandarin ducks, which apparently had only 30 sightings across the UK last year and have already been seen 6 times at Home Farm. They are hoping the study will help to document and raise awareness of the local wildlife, to help us understand the diverse landscape and how this is changing over time.
In addition to this, one of the outbuildings in the process of being renovated into a multi-functioning space for hire, which they hope will be popular with a wide range of activities, from crafting to corporate meetings and events.
When speaking of the farm, Joanna Herbert-Stepney said: “Home Farm is in beautiful countryside, but it's not an easy terrain to run. Maire’s doing a great job – it's organic and full of animals and life. I’m proud to have her as a tenant.”
Amy Biddell who manages the Paget Estate said: “Chris and Marie have great ideas for the future of Home Farm so it’s great to welcome such forward-thinking young organic tenants to the Paget Estate. We wish them well in their new farming venture.”
For more information you can visit their website at https://www.homefarmheritage.co.uk/