Rural Hub News

Ragley Estate welcomes 1500 visitors

Ragley Estate near Alcester was teeming with 1500 visitors to #OpenFarmSunday on 8 June 2025 and the Rural Hub was delighted to be invited to host a stand in the hall. We promoted our work and ran a guess the age of the tree competition. It was great to see families learning more about farming and meeting local food producers.

The sun shines on 

Kenilworth Agricultural Show came back in style on 31 May 2025! We had a fab day meeting show visitors in the Discovery Barn, where it was good to see so many familiar faces, as well as to chat to new people who signed up to receive our e-news. We also ran a “Guess the Age of the Tree” competition which saw entrants carefully counting the rings on a slice of oak. Maya worked tirelessly all day, giving 18 massages as part of our Fit for Farming offering. 

Farmland bird data

Farmland birds are the fastest declining bird group in Britain and there is limited data on their populations here in Warwickshire. Back in February Warwickshire Wildlife Trust launched a new project; visiting local farms to carry out bird surveys and support farmers with the 

GWCT Big Farmland Bird Count. Warwickshire Wildlife Trust will be using the data collected during the surveys to better understand the current status of farmland bird populations across the county. Farmers signed up for a survey via our Sustainable Farming Group mailing. Those who took part, or sent in their data from their own bird counts, were entered into a draw to win an owl box. Here’s the winner (left) being presented with his box by Izaak Taylor from WkWT.

Successful succession 

We held our succession event on 7 April 2025, organised in conjunction with Warwickshire NFU. Jennie and Emily from Shakespeare Martineau gave informal presentations which demonstrated the complexity of inheritance tax rules for farming families. They were followed by Leamington farmer Emlyn Evans, a Rural Hub Director, who gave an insight to how his family farm has been positively tackling those succession conversations. The take-away from the event was that each farming family is unique, and everyone needs to take specialist advice on the routes available to their family when deciding on the future of their farming business.

Fields of Opportunity

Minerva Mill Innovation Centre was the location for an event on 17 March which promoted all of the funding and support available to farmers and rural businesses in and around Alcester, Bidford and Studley.   

Organised by Vicky Griffith, the Rural Enterprise Development Officer, the speakers included representatives from Minerva Mill, Linking Environment and Farming, Warwickshire Rural Hub, The Addington Fund and Wright Hassall solicitors.  Minerva Mill also organises monthly breakfast meetings and regular networking events for businesses in the area.  The Rural Hub looks forward to maintaining contact with Vicky and Minerva Mill and working with them in the future to support farmers and rural businesses in and around Alcester.  Read more here.

All the support available for Warwickshire farmers

For farmers seeking to stay at the forefront of the sustainability transformation the Low Carbon Agriculture Show was an unmissable event, with a wealth of knowledge, insights, and networking opportunities.  This year the show took place on 5 and 6 March at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire.  Read all about the show on this link.

For the first time, the Warwickshire Rural Hub and Warwickshire Wildlife Trust partnered with the show.  We jointly hosted a stand in the exhibition hall, showcasing the support to farmers offered by both of our organisations.

On Wednesday 5 March the Rural Hub ran a farmer health event from the stand – Maya was available giving her free back massages and Parish Nurses Gill and Sue were on hand for health checks and advice.  The complimentary Farming Community Network booklets “Fit for Farming” were also available to take away.

On both days Sally, Izaak and Libby from Warwickshire Wildlife Trust plus Zoe and Jane from the Rural Hub were available for conversations about the free advisory visits available to Warwickshire farmers, and the benefits of joining one of our sustainable farming groups.

It was a busy couple of days networking with existing members and making new connections.  

13,000 free trees

Fifty three farmers collected 13,000 mixed trees on Thursday 9 January 2025, which will soon be planted on farms located across the south Warwickshire area.  The trees were funded by Stratford District Council as part of the Tree Calls to Action Project, which is run in association with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and Heart of England Forest.  Warwick District Council and Wychaven District Council also funded trees for farmers in their area.

Various tree packs were available, which allowed farmers to find the perfect species mix for their land, including hedgerow packs, fruit tree packs, and woodland packs. Staff from Trees Call to Action Project were on hand during the collection event to offer practical support for landowners including planting and aftercare advice.  And the Rural Hub was on hand to offer a warming cup of tea or coffee on an extremely cold day.

The planting of these trees on farmland will be an effective natural solution for combating climate change and restoring biodiversity. Woodlands are of real benefit to both people and nature, as well as locking up carbon.

Parish Nurse Gill 

Farmers hear about the benefits of 

Natural capital trading 

All seats were taken for our event on natural capital trading on 4 November 2024, kindly hosted by Warwickshire NFU. After an introduction to the work of our sustainable farming groups we heard about the different biodiversity net gain models. An update on the Environmental Farmers’ Groups which operate in several areas of the country followed, and Ellacotts closed the event with some advice on the tax implications associated with participating in biodiversity net gain initiatives. There were plenty of questions from the farmers in the room as they pondered on this new form of trading.

Projects, funding  

Napton on the Hill village hall was full of farmers on the afternoon of 21 October 2024, attending our Leam Catchment funding and projects event. Over 50 farmers from the area came along to hear presentations from 13 of our partner organisations which offer funding or free support to farmers, have conversations with their representatives and enjoy a buffalo topside roll funded by Severn Rivers Trust. It was great to catch up with familiar faces and welcome new members.

Mindful moments 

At our Mindful Moments and Brilliant Bats event on 14 August 2024 with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust we started by taking photos with macro lenses and really appreciating the natural world around us. After the presentation about why bats are so brilliant we then set off for our dusk walk to hear and see two species of bats. Thank you to Lucy and Anna from WkWT and Miranda and Ulli for hosting the event.  It was a great evening!

Rural Hub celebrates

Over 60 farmers and rural businesses gathered on the evening of 17 July 2024 to celebrate the 21^st anniversary of Warwickshire Rural Hub.  The anniversary event was hosted by Ragley Estate, which is a member of one of the Rural Hub’s sustainable farming groups.   The event started with a farm tour showing the estate’s commitment to environmental protection and the huge range of natural habitats which have been protected alongside the farmed land, and concluded with celebratory drinks and Napton water buffalo burgers, sponsored by Syngenta.    

Warwickshire Rural Hub Chair, Karen Ellis, raised a toast and said “Warwickshire Rural Hub has gone from strength to strength during the past 21 years and the directors and I are thrilled to celebrate this milestone anniversary in such a beautiful setting.  Henry Lucas, a Kenilworth farmer, was one of the founders of the Rural Hub and is still very much involved as a director today.   Farming and rural businesses have seen huge change, challenge and opportunities over the 21 years.  Warwickshire Rural Hub has moved with the times with its activities, but networking and knowledge sharing are still a key element of all our events.  Here’s to the next 21 years”.

Wonderful 

The summer finally arrived on 17 June 2024 when the Rural Hub visited the Warwickshire Walnut Farm in Burmington.  Twenty two members joined brothers Tom and David Tame to enjoy a tour of their orchards and hear about their journey into growing walnuts, pecans, hickories, heartnuts and cob nuts.  The brothers started their diversification project in 2013 and since 2020 a further 300 nut trees have been planted.  All of the orchards are also used for grazing sheep.   As well as supplying nuts, nut oil and beauty creams, the farm is now the largest supplier of grafted walnut trees in the UK.    After looking at the orchards and hearing about the planting trials and the work undertaken to establish the trees and harvest the nuts, we then viewed the drying and pressing machinery.  At the end of the visit we all tasted the walnuts and oils, before stocking up on purchases from the shop.  It was a fabulous visit in beautiful sunshine and one Rural Hub member commented, “Really interesting and informative and thanks to all for a great visit.  I only wish I could have stayed longer!”

Maya gives 11 free massages

We were back at Rugby Livestock Mart cafe on 10 June 2024 offering health and welfare advice to farmers during another one of our regular “Fit for Farming” events. Paula and Mary from Parish Nursing engaged with 29 farmers, taking blood pressure readings and offering general health advice. And Maya our massage therapist gave 11 free back and neck massages. We were also joined by Allyson from Farming Community Network to offer welfare support. We’re back again in the cafe on 12 August.

Agroforestry in Action 

Rural Hub members and farmers from our Sustainable Farming Groups drove a little further afield on 21 May 2024 in order to enjoy a fascinating visit to Helen Browning’s Eastbrook Farm in Wiltshire to hear about the benefits of agro-forestry.   Our host for the morning was Ben Raskin, Head of Horticulture and Forestry at the Soil Association, who funded Ben’s time with us.   Eastbrook Farm started their agro-forestry journey in 2016, motivated by a desire to become more resilient during climate change and widen the diet of their dairy herd, as well as offering them some shelter.  We firstly visited an orchard planted with apricots, almond, gooseberry and sea buckthorn trees, which are all harvested for local producers of food and drink.  We then moved on to an area planted with willow.  Ben told us that large areas of plantings had not been as successful as areas with fewer trees, and trees protected with wood chip mulch had grown much faster.   We moved on to visiting the browsing blocks, grazed woodland and a riparian shelterbelt before we viewed a parkland setting with new plantings, where Ben told us that trees didn’t thrive being on their own, preferring instead to be planted in groups.  Everyone on the visit picked up some great advice on planting and protecting new trees and the benefits of integrating trees into a farming system.  Many thanks to Ben for sparing the time to host our visit.  

Visit to Weaving Machinery

Weaving Machinery near Evesham hosted a fabulous Rural Hub members’ visit on 23 April 2024.  Simon Weaving and Harry Clark spared 2 hours to take us on a tour of their factory to watch production in action followed by a visit to the warehouse to see their state-of-the-art storage systems.   

Weaving Machinery is a family firm with traditional values which produces low disturbance seed drills and cultivators.  Simon Weaving explained how his father had started experimenting with changes to seed drills in the 1980s and over the last 40 years the family has developed the company into a supplier of new and re-furbished farming equipment to countries as far away as Brazil.  They produce all of their equipment in Evesham, use local suppliers wherever possible and are customer and staff focussed.  It was a fascinating visit!

Foot and leg health advice 

It was a busy morning at Rugby Farmers’ Mart cafe during our Fit for Farming event on 15 April 2024.   Parish Nurses Gill and Sue held some really important conversations with farmers on a wide range of health subjects, as well as conducting their usual general health checks. For the first time we invited podiatrist Sarah, and ten people whipped off their socks and boots to receive some advice on foot and leg health. We also welcomed Sam from the Nursing and Midwifery Council who came along to see how the farming community is being supported with their health.  Allyson from FCN and Caroline from RABI completed our team.  We’ll be back in the cafe on 10 June, when Massage Therapist Maya will return to give her popular neck and back massages.  

Over 125 delegates 

On 12 March 2024 over 125 farmers and representatives from rural business support organisations made their way to Warwick Crop Centre in Wellesbourne to attend the Rural Hub’s first major conference, “Preparing for the farm of the future – what could it look like?”, which was expertly kept to time by Chair, Karen Ellis.  

Following an opening address by the Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire, Tim Cox, we welcomed four headline speakers; Charlie Ireland from Ceres Rural, Jim Egan from Kings Crops, Prof Simon Pearson from Lincoln University and Antony Pearce of Dudley Peverell.    Once the presentations had concluded it was time for lunch, networking, a health check with Parish Nurse Gill, the County Insurance prize draw for a hamper of goodies and a test drive in an electric UTV brought along to the conference by Off-Road Electric.  Read all about the conference on our dedicated web page.  

13,000 trees 

Over 13,000 trees plus associated stakes, guards and ties were collected by 38 farmers from Tubbs End Farm in Butler’s Marston on 17 January 2024.  The free trees for farmers project was funded by Stratford District Council and co-ordinated by Heart of England Forest, whose staff were on hand to offer advice on tree planting and management.  The Rural Hub promoted the project to its members and was on hand on the preparation and collection days to offer support and a warming cup of tea on two very cold days.   We also recruited some further members to our South Warwickshire Sustainable Farming Group.

A big thanks goes to Hugh Forsyth for letting us use one of his barns at Tubbs End Farm for the event. 

Branded Rural Hub coffee mugs