Sadness as farmer's 93-year family link to estate on outskirts of York to end

Andrew Wilkinson said he has a lifetime of memories on The Scoreby Estate outside York (Image: Andrew Wilkinson)

A FARMER whose family has farmed on the outskirts of York for nearly a century said the planned sale of the estate he is a tenant of means the loss of a lifetime of memories.

Andrew Wilkinson, who lives and works on The Scoreby Estate, bridging the A166 at Gate Helmsley and the A1079 near Kexby, said he must vacate the land and farmhouse by the end of January after the whole 1,676-acre holding was put on the market by agents Fisher German for £14million, as reported by The Press.

Andrew said he, his father, his uncle and grandfather farmed the land continuously since 1933, working 630 acres in total—100 acres of grassland along the River Derwent for farming cattle, and 530 acres of arable crops which have included potatoes, beetroot, carrots, and oilseed rape.

Andrew Wilkinson said he has a lifetime of memories on The Scoreby Estate outside York

(Image: Andrew Wilkinson)

His father, John, took over South Farm on the estate from Andrew's grandfather, Peter - in 1976.

And his uncle Chris took on Manor Farm - with shared boundaries - in 1965.

The two holdings were placed into a joint-tenancy agreement in the 1970s, Andrew said.

The family connection to the area also takes in Dunnington - Andrew said his great-grandfather Peter owned a woodyard on the site of the current Esso petrol station on the A1079, from where he made farm machinery out of raw materials taken in part from Scoreby woodland and carried via a small gauge railway.

Andrew took over South Farm in 2021 after his father died and bought his then 80-year-old uncle out of his share of the tenancy a year later.

This picture said to be from 1933 shows Peter Wilkinson on the back row, farthest left.

(Image: Wilkinson family)

Andrew said: "All my memories are in these fields, and my overall feeling is one of sadness.

"I remember working here with my grandfather, and my dad, before going off myself to studies at Bishop Burton College, a specialist land-based further and higher education campus near Beverley.

"I have been living and working on a one-year farm business tenancy since I bought my uncle out and have been running it for just over four years since then.

"The reality is it’s not my choice to leave, and I don't want to go.

"I've just turned 50 and it will be a difficult feeling when I have to depart."

Peter Wilkinson pictured on a straw trailer in 1967

(Image: Wilkinson family)

Mr Wilkinson’s great-grandfather secured an apprenticeship for his grandfather at Scoreby Grange in the early 1930s.

He said the land was then owned by Sir James Heron Walker and later sold to the Church Commissioners for England - which manages the Church of England's assets - in 1936 with Andrew's grandfather Peter the sitting tenant.

During the Second World War, Andrew said his grandmother's thrift and ingenuity led to the making of a well-loved heirloom.

He said: "There were reports of Stamford Bridge viaduct being targeted by the Luftwaffe and machine guns were deployed on anti-aircraft duty.

"An enemy plane crash-landed in the back of the farm in the middle of one of the fields.

"The pilot survived but the story goes that my grandmother took his silk parachute and turned it into an eiderdown for a bed."

Mr Wilkinson said he must bring to an end the family's farming of land on the estate towards the end of October.

He said: "I would like to stay here in this parish of Kexby, however, there is only one property on the market at the moment for £1.4 million which is out of reach.

A tribute to John Wilkinson's parish work was paid in 2017, close to the site of the parish council's war memorials

(Image: Wilkinson family)

"My grandfather, father and I have each been chair of Kexby and Scoreby parish council, and a plaque to commemorate my father's decades of volunteer work for it is on a layby off the A1079, close to the Scoreby Lodge entrance to the farm.

"My mother and sister live in Sutton-on-Derwent, but it is all about finding something that suits.

"I'm currently still working with the harvesting, so this couldn’t have come at a worse time."