The Good Life
David and I have lived at Lower Lady Meadows Farm for the last seven years. It was our dream come true to find the place which had not been lived in for over three years. The two elderly sisters had been born here and lived all their life here with no water, electricity, sewage etc.
We have put the Farm in the South West Park Environmentally Sensitive Area. We have repaired dry stone walls, planted hedges and hundreds of trees, cleared ponds and ditches, rebuilt the ancient clapper bridge and left wildlife areas. This summer with the help of Defra we collected wild flower seeds from the Peak District and scattered them on one of our hay meadows.
Livestock include Tamworth pigs, Red Dexters, Wensleydales and Herdwicks as well as a large flock of pedigree Texels. We have two beehives and now sell our own honey. So what better choice for unusual poultry than Derbyshire Redcaps! Under Audrey Dawson’s wing we have learnt their peculiarities and how to show the breed, with some success.
We had no garden when we arrived, but we now have a beautiful cottage garden “Queen Bee” my best prize winning hen insists on laying in the stone trough. I have built barriers of willow, trip wires and netting to no avail. My favourite winter drink is damson gin, but I have to fight off my redcaps as they are partial to flying onto the tree and helping themselves.
In the outbuildings we have created our craft workshops, sell our crafts and sell our farm produce of eggs, honey and frozen meat. We are closed on Mondays but are open every other day. Do call in to see us. Our redcaps will meet you strutting across the courtyard.
We were thrilled to meet HRH Prince Charles earlier in the year when he presented us with the Peak District Environmental Quality Mark. One of our greatest wildlife success stories is our continued breeding of our wild barn owls in the barn alongside our workshops!
