Railway Paddock Smallholding

05/04/2026

Ginger wondering which one of her friends laid the chocolate ones 🥚😂

30/03/2026

Lighter nights and blue skies! 😱⛅️ lovely to have a bit more daylight to do a few smallholding jobs after work 💪 (or to just enjoy some bird/chicken/tree asmr)

28/03/2026

A few snaps from March on the smallholding.

08/03/2026

Enjoying yesterdays sunshine while planting more seeds! And some of Februarys seedlings getting good and strong ☀️😎☕️🪴

01/03/2026

“Sheep job Sunday”
One of the jobs on todays list was to bring the in lamb ewes back from their winter grazing. Lambing is only a few weeks off and it feels like spring is just around the corner 🐑🌸

27/02/2026

Ginger enjoying some birdsong 🎶🐓

25/02/2026

It’s half term which means we have two (mostly 😂) willing helpers to get things ready for planting ✔️Tidied and lightly hoed a bed ✔️ laid a path ✔️ found some massive worms (who were put safely back in the soil) 🪱🌱

08/02/2026

Number one worker off to start his jobs for the day! Looking forward to more days like this with a little bit more sunshine ⛅️

02/02/2026

2026 🌱 New beginnings 🌱

We just wanted to do a little introduction about ourselves! Those in our village will have seen us around for the last 12 years but here’s a bit of background story for those who don’t know us….

We are a family of 4 in North East England. Philip has kept Shetland sheep since 2004 and we have slowly been building up our own smallholding since 2015, as well as collecting other animals of the non sheep type to add to the flock (including cows, chickens, ducks, geese and pigs) The end of 2025 saw us make one of the most exciting additions to date when we bought Railway Paddock from our neighbours Andrew and Liz 💖

This will enable us to have more for the boys to explore, space for the flock to grow and it gives us opportunity to become more self sufficient growing our own food organically and regeneratively - which we have done before but just not on this scale!

We are hoping to pop regular updates on our page now that we are a bit more settled so keep an eye out for those as we move through the seasons 🌷🌻🍂❄️

Philip, Amy, Edward and Thomas 😊
Roxi the collie and the rest of Wadley Flock
🐾🐑🐓🐖🐄🦆

21/09/2025

Just one week before we say goodbye to all this. 13 years from field to Smallholding. It's been a great adventure, hard work and learning new things every year. We will miss it!

06/04/2025

Wise words

Wisdom to live by: Food in shocking times

This week's newsletter is from Tim Lang, Emeritus Professor of Food Policy at City St George’s, University of London, and author of Just in Case, a report on Civil Food Resilience for the National Preparedness Commission.

For over two years I’ve been investigating whether the UK public is prepared for shocks to the food system. Interviewing people up and down, inside and outside the state; those with big, powerful interests and small-scale ones. You might think this is a simple matter. Either the public is or isn’t prepared. Not so. It depends on what shock comes. Experts are troubled by the potential for poly-crises – shocks coming all at once or one after another. I found little public preparedness for that.

The UK Government Resilience Framework says next to nothing about food. Surprised? Sadly, I’m not. There’s a reflex in UK culture and politics that believes we are different. That we can buy food on open markets. I say this gently. It’s time we got real. It’s a rough world out there. You might also think that you are ok. You keep some stores. Get your food from Riverford. Don’t rely on Tesco et al. Grow a bit yourself. Obey the Government Prepare website advice (prepare.campaign.gov.uk).

Now think about that at a national or regional or community scale. It suddenly becomes much more complex. You might have a few days’ worth of food but what if your neighbours don’t? What if the electricity goes down? Or your mobile with its food apps? Or there’s panic buying and shelves are empty again?

People tend to think about managing crises at an individual or family level, but crises are set to creep up slowly or become normalized when they shouldn’t be – think climate change, social divisions, food price inflation. Others go critical fast: invasions. Software attacks. Logistics and networks down. These also affect food. You might be cynical about state thinking, but shock preparedness is why we need a state. For infrastructure. Plan. Support. Leadership. Funding. That’s what’s currently lacking in food policy (see my report for its detailed recommendations).

I take heart from good things going on up and down the country, often despite the lack of funding & support. Community gardens. People auditing community assets. Towns creating food councils and food neighbourhood watches. We need more of this. Fast.

https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/news/food-in-shocking-times/

04/04/2025

The time has come for us to move on after 13 wonderful years of hard work and much joy creating this productive and biodiverse Smallholding. It was a field, now it is a working Smallholding.

UPDATE: under offer