Sunny prospects as home and rural enterprise

Poplar Farm offers a unique opportunity to purchase a four-bedroom family farmhouse as well as an established business, farm buildings and land in a sought after Wolds location.
Owners Hazel and Julian Hammond have owned the property for more than twenty-seven years.

“We met the previous owners, Mr and Mrs Fox, and it was still called Foxes Farm for many years after we came to live here,” explained Hazel. “My first impression was what a lovely place to live. We are right in the heart of the Lincolnshire Wolds in this marvellous landscape. Julian came to look at some work we had been asked to spray and he came back and said: ‘I have found the house we are going to live in’. Our daughters and I came to look and we also fell in love with it.”

Poplar Farm comprises a brick and pantile constructed, four-bedroom detached farmhouse with a one-bedroom annexe, a Farm Shop, Café and Restaurant known as Sunnyside Up housed in traditional farm buildings, modern farm buildings and land extending to over ninety-four acres.

“The main reason for purchasing the property,” Hazel continued, “was we felt it was a lovely place to live coupled with great business potential. We had a spraying business at the time so it was an ideal base for Julian, who had always been a frustrated farmer. It was his big chance to indulge in his love of Lincoln Red Cattle and for me, my love of rare breed pigs.

“This is such a beautiful place with its amazing views, surrounded like a ring fence, by the land we own.”

The house was renovated and extended before the Hammonds set up home there in 1991, and in 1997 they added the single storey annexe and the garden room with underfloor heating. This is one of the family’s favourite rooms in which Julian can sit anywhere and still see his cattle, especially when they are grazing on the hillside with their shiny summer coats.

The annexe comprises the kitchen/garden room with a tiled floor, fully fitted units, granite worktops and range cooker. Also in the annexe is a dining area, lounge with wood burning stove, a bedroom and bath/shower room.

The main house includes on the ground floor an entrance hall with a door to a WC, an office, utility room (shared with the annexe), a fully fitted kitchen with oil fired AGA, family room, sitting room with open fireplace and dining room. A front lobby door leads to the garden, as do French windows in the family room. On the first floor are four further bedrooms (one en-suite) and a family bathroom. Outside in mature gardens there is an integral BBQ, greenhouse, garden shed and kitchen garden, as well as a raised seating area.

Hazel said: “We added a cattle shed and also revamped the machinery shed. Initially we had horses and used the stables but later these were converted in stages to what is now the Farm Shop. The last work was extending the shop into the barn. Sunnyside Up has been open for fifteen years as a shop, café and restaurant. We have always used local builders for all our work. We also added a powerful generator as we are prone to interruptions in our supply. The generator powers the shop, the yard and the house. Finally, the gardens have all been redesigned with easy to access, raised beds in the vegetable area.”

Sunnyside Up is a thriving going concern and sells the farms’ predigree Lincoln Red beef through the on-site butcher’s shop which includes a cold store, prep room and counters.

There are two further retail floors with tiled floors, fridges, counters and separate WCs as well as the ground floor café. Patio doors lead to a further outdoor seating area. Stairs lead to the first floor restaurant. Also on the ground floor is a well equipped commercial kitchen while outside there is a car parking area, children’s play area plus further store rooms, freezer and lorry chiller unit.

The Hammonds would be the first to admit that there are always challenges that come with owning and running any business and owning property but thankfully theirs have been small.

Poplar Farm has given them many lasting memories including raising a family and grandchildren in a lovely environment and developing the successful Farm Shop. Located in a rural setting about two miles out of Market Rasen on the road to Tealby, this is one of Lincolnshire’s most sought after locations with a strong and supportive local community who truly value what the Hammonds have done. Their customers to the Farm Shop, Café and Restaurant include many locals and visitors from much further afield.

The sale offers the opportunity for the continuation of the established business or alternative diversification (subject to planning) to other leisure or commercial activities.

Hazel added: “I will miss the community here; the wonderful customers who have become our friends and come to the shop. In the house it has to be my lovely kitchen with its garden room and views. Once the property has been sold, we may move to Norfolk for a short while and will then look for a new house to retire to.” 

The Lincoln Red cattle herd is available for purchase by separate negotiation. The Selling Agents are favoured with instructions to offer 297 acres of adjoining agricultural land in separate ownership for sale by private treaty, as a whole or in 5 lots.

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