More mixed farms for sale add to strong summer activity

Strong activity on the farmland market this week includes the launch of two mixed farms in the North East of England.

See also: Retirement brings more farms to market

Gatenby Grange

Gatenby Grange at Gatenby, Northallerton, is coming to the market because the owners, Ken and Viv Harrison, are retiring from farming.

They are selling their 305-acre arable and grassland farm as a whole at a guide price of £2.7m, but also offering it in six lots.

Selling agent Robin Jessop says it is rare for a farm of this size and type to come to the open market in the North East.

Some of the land sits on the banks of the River Swale, and other fields have internal tracks. There is also just over six acres of amenity woodland.

Gatenby Grange has a range of modern and traditional farm buildings, including a grain store and former cubicle housing.

The five-bedroom period farmhouse has an adjoining three-bedroom cottage, let on an assured shorthold tenancy; both in need of some modernisation.

Second farmstead

As well as the main farmstead, the sale includes an off-lying steading, formerly Thackwray House Farm, which has a range of modern general purpose buildings.

Castle Farm

Castle Farm

Castle Farm © Robin Jessop

Robin Jessop is also launching Castle Farm, a 173-acre ring-fenced holding at Breckenbrough, Thirsk, which sits in part on the banks of the River Wiske.

The land, which is in a nitrate vulnerable zone (NVZ), is mostly grassland and arable but includes about seven acres of woodland.

The cropping land has free working loam soil and is growing potatoes and winter wheat.

Castle Farm is complemented by a good range of traditional brick built buildings with conversion potential and modern general purpose buildings.

These include a large, steel-framed grain and dryer shed with a front and side entrance, reception pit and roller shutter doors.

The traditional six-bedroom farmhouse is in need of complete refurbishment.

Castle Farm is being sold as a whole and marketed at a guide price of £2m.

The agency also expects to launch a third farm north of Northallerton later this month.

Rowan Farm relaunch

Rowan Farm

Rowan Farm © Cundalls

Also in North Yorkshire, Cundalls is relaunching Rowan Farm, at Lockton, Pickering.

The arable and grassland holding  is owned by a family who had previously farmed in Scotland and, having made the decision to return there to farm a larger mixed arable and stock unit, are selling the 95-acre farm.

Tom Watson, of Cundalls, describes Rowan Farm as a first-class modern equipped holding. It has a three-bedroom farmhouse and a very good range of buildings providing more than 2,970 sq m of floorspace.

Offers of more than £1.5m are sought for the whole, but the property is also available in three lots.

Exmoor National Park

Stags will shortly launch Great Ash Farm at Winsford in the Exmoor National Park. This has almost 257 acres which the firm describes as being in good heart.

The farm includes a good proportion of south-facing and mainly gently sloping land, although there are some steeper grazing fields. There is also 24.5 acres of rough grazing and woodland.

Great Ash Farm has a five bedroom stone house and a mix of traditional and modern buildings and is being launched with a guide price of £3.5m.

It is not within a NVZ and adjoins the South Exmoor site of special scientific interest.

The same firm also has Blackaton Manor Farm on the market, at Widecombe-In-The-Moor, which lies well inside the Dartmoor National Park.

This has 353 acres, extensive modern and traditional buildings, a bungalow and a cottage, with a £3.25m guide price.

Lifestyle farm, Inverclyde

Chapel Farm

Chapel Farm © Savills

A farm with lifestyle or equestrian potential is being launched at Kilmacolm, a conservation village in Inverclyde.

Savills is looking for offers of more than £650,000 for the 101-acre Chapel Farm, but is also marketing it in two lots.

Chapel Farm has a range of traditional outbuildings.

It formerly part of a larger, in-hand operation but in recent years the four-bedroom farmhouse has been occupied by a family member and the land rented to a local farmer seasonally.