Celebrating Countryside Day at New Stowey Farm

CPRE Countryside Day is a celebration of everything that is good about the countryside

We celebrated our first Countryside Day in September 2024 by visiting a farm and a community woodland, both being managed for people, landscape and nature.  Within the setting of the Quantock Hills national landscape, we knew it would be a good day!

We teamed up with the Quantock Hills National Landscape team to open up New Stowey Farm to visitors for the day.  This 45 hectare County Farm has recently been passed to the Quantock Hills Team so they can manage it as a flagship of regenerative farming.

Into the woods

But before that, we started with a tour through the community woodlands managed by Stowey Green Spaces.

Roy Osborne explained how local volunteers had to remove mountains of rubbish from the area before they could begin planting trees. It was incredible to see the size of some of those trees, some of which were only planted 12 years ago but feel like established woodland now.  The group are also restoring an ancient woodland, removing decades old conifers to let the light in for the benefit of wildlife. 

A new way of farming

We then moved into New Stowey Farm. Here we learned new phrases like “mob grazing” and heard about the detailed hedgerow surveys that have been carried out across the farm. A quick bit of digging showed the soil structure on pasture land and the fine roots penetrating down into the soil. We learned how the balance between bacteria and fungi affects soil health.

It was exciting to hear how this farm, it’s stream, hedges and pastures will be managed sensitively in the years to come. We can’t wait to come back and see it all again in a few years!

Huge thanks to everyone involved who made the afternoon so special and made us all feel so welcome. We even had tea and cakes! Particular thanks to all the #volunteers who helped out.